Dangerous Conceit by Ali Lee
Chapter 45
Rafa swiped his card and entered the conference room. He saw Abby from the office door, typing on the keyboard as Maura played with some toys on the floor. He did not see Lexi anywhere.
“Where is Lexi?” he asked Angelo who sat on the sofa with Jim, Ray and Brett. Then he walked to the office to see if she was sitting on the other side of the desk with Abby and the other women.
“What do you mean?” Angelo leaned forward and folded his hands together while glancing back. “She never came in here.”
“Yes, she did. I watched her walk down the hallway myself.”
“Rafa,” Angelo stated pointedly. “She did not come in here.”
Rafa looked at him and shook his head. “Can this day go any damn worse?” He pulled out his phone and dialed. Nothing. He reached the automated voice mail after several rings. Then he dialed again. When he received no answer the second time, he marched to the office. Abby paid no attention to him as she typed.
“Where is she?” He walked past Maura and stood at the desk, getting an unconcerned glance from Abby.
“I don't know,” she said.
He was not in the mood for games and twisted the laptop around. The laptop showed the home screen. “Spill,” he demanded. He wondered why she felt the need to close out what she was working on but would have to get to that later.
“I—” Abby stuttered. Rafa waited no longer for an answer and leaned his arms against the desk.
“I’m warning you; this isn't the time. Your friend is in trouble. Do you want her to die?”
Abby closed her eyes as her words tumbled out. “Mr. Moretti called her at the restaurant and knew where we were. She must be looking for them or something.”
“Fantastic,” he said and curtly walked out. “There is someone in the hotel that shouldn't be here.” He looked at Angelo and yanked out his phone again; he immediately pulled up the tracker. “Do you know how hard it is to track someone in a hotel with thirty five floors and no starting point?”
Angelo stood and pointed at the others. “Go stand at the doors. Don't let anyone leave until I say so.”
When Rafa and Angelo entered the elevators, the signal on the phone lit red. It was close to where they stood. “Lexi's in the elevator.” Rafa turned the phone to Angelo. “She must be in the next elevator.”
Angelo punched the button and waited for their elevator to open; then he barged out and looked at the numbers on the second. “Hold that door while I see where she's going.”
The numbers on the second elevator continued to climb. From twenty to twenty-eight to thirty and all the way to the highest level of the hotel. Then the elevator paused, before the lights descended downward. Angelo jumped back in and slapped the lowest button. “She's on the roof.”
Rafa crossed his arms, breathing in sharply and picturing himself ramming his head against the metal walls. Nothing good ever happened on the roof, especially in this situation. He was sure that she would be dangling over the edge.
Suddenly the elevator stopped. “What the fuck.” Rafa glared at the guests waiting to enter and shook his head.
“You can't get on this elevator right now; take elevator A.” Angelo punched the close button again.
“God almighty, we need to invest in faster elevators.” Rafa tapped his foot at the painfully slow speed that the elevator doors closed and looked at his phone. “She's still up there…or was. There’s no damn reception now. I say one of us exits on thirty-five and the other on the roof. If you take the stairs, then we will have them blocked.”
Angelo nodded. “Let's do it.” He hit the button directly above the other but then gave Rafa a look; they acted too fast.
“What?” Rafa glared back, not wanting to know what he meant.
“They took her phone.” Angelo shook his head. “We won't find her; they're setting us up.”
Rafa thought about it for a second and resisted kicking the side of the wall. Clearly, they were screwing with his head. “We have to check anyway,” his voice sounded calm, much too rational not to concern Angelo.
When the doors opened, nobody was there. All they heard were the distant sounds of honking horns and air escaping from the rotating vents. Angelo took out his phone.
“Jim, have you had any trouble… Fine. We think someone dropped off Lexi's phone on the roof. We'll be down in a minute.”
Angelo hung up and watched Rafa follow the tracker. He found Lexi's phone but something bigger was attached—a wooden box. With mere seconds to react, Rafa spun around; Angelo did the same; but there was not enough time for either to hide within the safety of the elevator when the blast launched them both against its wall. Metal from the circular vent went sailing in all directions, lodging into the wall above where they landed.
They choked from the smoke; both crouched on the floor from either side of the elevator until the air cleared. Then Angelo assessed the damage.
“Motherfucker! I swear to god these bastards are going to die.” He kicked pieces of metal and concrete out of his way and jerked out his phone again. “Brett! I need you to put elevator B out of order and call Hector. We have damage on the roof… Don't worry about us; make the call.”
Rafa opened the door to the stairwell and glanced back at Angelo. “I’ll look at the cameras and see what they were driving.”
Angelo nodded. “Why don't you let Maura stay with my parents until this is over. The hotel isn't safe, and they know where you live.”
“Your parents…with Gloria snooping around? I don’t think so.”
Angelo threw his hands in the air as they stomped down the stairs. “Well, at least they won’t bomb my parents’ house.”
“My house is safest, and you know it. Let's see them try to bomb my place,” said Rafa.
***
Inside the conference room on the lobby floor, Rafa booted the computer and brought up the cameras. What happened to Lexi in that hallway? He backed up the footage to that moment and watched. She was there, talking to Bianca. Then he appeared and told her to go. “What is that?” A shadow stood at the end of the hallway. “Look at this,” he said to Angelo who got up and walked behind him. “Do you see that?” He pointed to a man, a man who came into focus after he escorted Bianca out of the banquet hall.
“What was Bianca doing here?” Angelo asked but kept watching the screen. He saw Lexi and a man he did not recognize enter the elevator next to the one Rafa had taken to the lobby.
“She was harassing Lexi,” Rafa answered in a tired tone, angry that the woman was there in the first place. If it had not been for her, Lexi would not be gone.
“So you made her leave the hotel?”
“Yes.” Rafa pointed at the screen, changing the subject. “That man didn't take her at gun point. It's almost like she went with him willingly.”
Angelo folded his arms and stared. “Yes, it does. Look at how casually she steps inside the car.”
“A BMW.” Rafa paused the recording and scribbled down the license plate number. “I wonder what they threatened her with.” He picked up his phone from the desk. The quickest way to get a car tracked would be with Donnie’s help.
“So how do you expect me to explain to Miguel that we kicked his sister out of my hotel? Are you trying to start a war between our families?”
“How? There is no how. She disrespected my fiancé. She also ruined hotel property. I think Miguel will understand where we’re coming from. He wouldn’t put up with that either.”
“I don’t think he’ll care about any of that, not when his sister wanted you for more than just fucking. He probably expected you to marry her. You know that?”
Rafa’s jaw tightened. He could feel the headache coming on. Sleeping with his sister and having no long-term intentions was not one of his brighter moves. “I get it. I'll deal with Miguel.”
“You'd better,” Angelo snorted. “Don’t fuck with the investments we have going with them. We aren't going to see eight percent on the dollar anywhere else.”
Rafa gave Angelo a guilty look and picked up his phone again. Before he dialed Donnie, it buzzed. He looked at the number, not recognizing it from any he ever called; then he tapped the screen. “Speak.”
As he listened to the person on the other end, he gripped the phone tighter. Angelo narrowed his eyes at the caller, expecting someone to con him out of a hell of a lot of money for Lexi. These people were all about money that they did not earn.
“Yeah, I hear you fine. Where can we drop it off? What? You expect that we can come up with that kind of money and meet you there in forty min—“ The caller cut him off, making Rafa close his eyes to hold his sanity.
“How much do they want for her?” Angelo asked.
“A million.”
“A million?” Angelo repeated.
“A million,” Rafa confirmed.
“Well, I would hate to disappoint them?” Angelo opened up a drawer on the desk and stuffed a black .45 in the seat of his pants. “Take this and let's give them what they need.” He handed Rafa another.
***
Darkness and the smell of new leather seats swallowed Lexi's senses as she rode with three men she had never met—two up front and one in back, pointing a gun at her. She wondered who sent them. Was it Moretti jilting her mother out of money? Was her mother using her degenerate hookups? Was it Pearson disregarding everyone else, interested in his own profit? Who could say, but someone was using her as collateral.
Lexi stared at the middle of the front seat, at the space in between the two men. Sweat beaded on her forehead as the anxious feelings returned to her gut. Sheer terror tingled on her arms. She could feel the effects as her body quivered. She feared reaching for the gun in her boot but even more of where the men drove.
Money or not, they would never turn her loose. It was a ploy to leave with Tomassi's money; they did not intend to trade. She was not stupid in that regard. She knew Rafa was not either. She gave them Rafa’s number in hopes to buy her some time.
Her heart beat in intervals, skipping at times and racing at others as she anticipated the exact moment when she would act. She must move with record speed or end up with a bullet hole in her chest. It would not be the first time, and they never fired to kill. It was never that easy.
The car sped down the interstate, barely slowing to exit off. A stoplight ahead would force the car to stop, except the car did not bother. Instead, the driver punched the pedal to the floor and went faster.
This was no good. Lexi needed to act now. She did not have much time before they secluded her in some torture trap for who knew how long. She immediately stretched, trying to sway the attention of the man holding the gun beside her. He did not budge; her movement did not faze him at all. His eyes stayed directly on her.
New plan. Lexi pulled her knees to her chest and twisted sideways. Before the man knew what hit him, she kicked—his face, his arms—his gun. It was her one option and only way out.
With the ruckus behind him, the driver stomped the brake, tossing both bodies in the backseat forward and knocking Lexi to the floor. It gave the man next to her a second to regain his composure. Lexi would not back down. As soon as she saw his eyes, she kicked him again from where her body was wedged. She never stopped until he toppled back down. Then she squeezed her hand underneath the weight of her legs and snatched the gun from the back of her boot. It took her no time at all to switch off the safety and fire a muffled shot. The bullet lodged in the man’s skull and stopped him mid-fight. His crumpled body fell, blood seeping from his head to the seat.
She did not blink her eyes. Lexi turned the gun to the passenger seat in front of her and pulled the trigger. At least one of the two bullets hit the man through the seat. When his dead body plunged forward, the driver's left hand slid down, searching, trying to reach for something below the seat as he kept his eyes on the road. He quickly clutched the steering wheel again when he felt the cold metal muzzle of her gun.
“Give me your phone,” she ordered.
“I don't have the phone. He does.” He gestured to the man next to him, folded in half at the dash.
“Then stop the car and get it,” she said. Lexi continued to point the gun when he braked and shifted the car in park, slowly reaching inside the man's pocket. “And don’t even think of trying anything,” she warned. Before he could hand her the phone, she yanked it from his hand, never lowering the gun in hers. “Now slowly put your hands back on the wheel.” He did as she said as she started to press a number. “If you move those hands for any reason, I will remove them from your arms. Don't think I'm playing.”
Lexi kept a watch on him as a voice came on the other end.
“Speak.”
“Rafa,” Lexi did not continue when the driver's hand darted for the floor. “What are you, an idiot?” Lexi was true to her word and shot a bullet straight in his arm. The man coughed, moaning loudly in pain.
“I told you to be still, damn it.” She then returned to the call. “I don't know where I am. We took an exit off the expressway and now we’re on this side road…um…” She looked up front. “What exit did we take?” When he said nothing, she fired again and demanded, “What exit?”
“201,” he screamed from the burning in his wrist as blood dripped from his hand to his lap.
“201,” she repeated into the phone. “The car is red and parked in the grass… Yes, I’m fine.” She looked out of the front windshield, realizing they were alone in the middle of an isolated road. “Please just hurry up. I don't want to be in this car anymore.”