Page 46 of Degrees of Control
I power down my cell just before the plane’s powerful engines roar and the pilot plummets down the runway, lifting off, bursting through the night’s twinkling sky and leaving the vast array of city lights below.
“So are you going to tell me the real reason we are flying halfway around the world?” Jenny says as Sheldon heads into the security cabin.
“You know Chase was arrested. Interpol won’t stop coming after him for the shipment last year. There’s something that we’re missing. I’m hoping Jay will know what to do to clear his name,” I say.
“I’ve already connected with his publicity team. They are working on creating a strategy for handling the media, but he’s instructed the team that they are not to comment at this point. In the meantime, we should bring Nate in. He’ll want to help Chase, too,” she says, reminding me of the journalist that writes exclusively for Prestian Corp.
“Jenny, there’s more that I need to tell you. I thought Chase was the one that had Ty beat up the night they took him to the hospital,” I say.
“He wasn’t?”
“No, you thought he did?”
“Well, I wasn’t sure, but it did cross my mind more than once. I didn’t know about all the stuff with your family and that’s the only thing that made sense,” she says.
“And, you were okay with it?”
“I wouldn’t say that, but I can’t pretend that I held it against him,” she says.
“I can understand that, Jenny. It sounds as though my uncle ordered Ty’s injuries in an attempt to throw suspicion on my dad. You know, the mafia markings the story referred to,” I explain as she lifts her eyes in question.
“Oh, now that’s making sense,” she says.
“I think we’ve exhausted everything we can do for now,” I say, skimming the internet for the latest stories.
“Anything new?”
“No, just rendition after rendition about Chase’s arrest, making him out to be this horrible person,” I say.
“I wonder why he won’t let his team respond. I just got a message from Nate that he was under the same restriction,” she says.
“I don’t know, but that’s the first thing we find out when we land. Listen to this one,” I say.
Northwestern
Chase Prestian Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges
Bruce Tyler, Freelance Journalist
Chase Prestian, CEO and Owner of Prestian Corporation has been arrested today after a year-long investigation into a drug smuggling charge. He was apprehended at the Northwestern Chicago hospital while visiting Katarina Meiler’s father, Carlos Larussio, who many have linked to an organized crime syndicate on the East Coast. Carlos sustained gunshot injuries in the same confrontation that led Chase Prestian to shoot and kill Joey Larussio. He was flown from Aruba to Chicago due to critical lodgment of the bullet in his heart muscle. He is in the intensive care unit and his family anxiously awaits his recovery.
“Well at least that one is factual, even if it doesn’t accurately paint the picture,” Jenny says as I continue reading more about the history of the Larussio family in New York City and begin developing a list of questions for Jay.
I wake as the plane is landing, realizing that I’ve fallen asleep in my seat. Jenny is reading a paperback and I scurry to turn my cell phone on.
Message:Lloyd, we just landed.
Reply:Thank you for making me aware.
I realize immediately that Lloyd is no longer with Chase by the response and try to contain my disappointment.
A black SUV is waiting as we disembark from the plane and I recognize some of the security guards that helped my mom in Florida. It seems like years ago, rather than weeks.
“Sheldon, did you arrange all of the security?” I ask, as we get into the back seat and realize that we have teams positioned in front and back of our car.
He raises his eyebrows and doesn’t have to say another word. Even from across the world, and most probably in a jail cell, Chase has the power to control everything. I sit back into the plush soft black leather of the limo’s interior and Jenny squeezes my hand from the seat next to mine.
The drive to the hospital is relatively short and the sun is just starting to come up, pink and blue swirling hues blending with the magnificent puffy white clouds in the sky. The tall majestic palm trees are lined along the roadways, swaying in the breeze on our drive to the most renowned hospital in Brazil. The facility is an impressive sky-rise of glass and white stone overlooking the turquoise backdrop of the sea.
