Page 8 of Billion-Dollar Ransom
The actress was already in full compliance mode. Cassandra Bart seemed to have made the transition from brazen hellcat to helpless victim without missing a beat. Then again, that’s what people in her profession did. Maybeshewould make the first move.
Five would have to watch her carefully.
“Look,” Tyler said, “you hit the jackpot! I am a very wealthy man. And you’re going to walk out of this room much richer than when you stepped into it, my friend.”
Five just stared at him.
“But here’s the thing,” Tyler continued. “The longer you act all tough and the more you threaten to blow our brains out, the lighter your little payday gets. So do the smart thing. Drop the gun and you can name your price. But every second you hesit—”
Crack.
Tyler Schraeder was unable to finish his speech because Five smashed the butt of the AR-15 into the rich boy’s handsome face.
“I’m sorry,” Five said. “You were saying something about hesitating? How much has the price gone down now? Did I just lose a couple of thousand there, myfriend?”
“You…” The naked producer struggled to stay on his feet. “You bwoke my fucking teef!”
“Yes, I did. Disobey me again and see what I break next.” Five unhooked the bag from his shoulder and tossed it to the floor between the producer and the starlet.
“Inside the bag are jumpsuits. They’re your sizes. Put them on.”
“What is even happening?” asked Cassandra in a pitch-perfect blend of confusion and panic. “Please, I am seriously terrified, and I need to know what this is about—”
“Now!”
Maybe it was the blood pouring from Tyler’s mouth or maybe it was the tone of the gunman’s voice, but Cassandra Bart immediately dropped to her knees and unzipped the duffel bag.
The first jumpsuit she pulled out was too long. She held it out to Tyler without looking up at him; he snatched it out of her hand while also avoiding eye contact. As if they believed that looking at each other would confirm this nightmare was real.
This greatly amused Five. Just a few moments ago they had been all about athletic sex and cheap lies. Look at them now—bleeding, naked, afraid… and totally under his command. Being rich and powerful meant nothing when you had a gun aimed at your head and you were trying to pull on a stiff prison jumpsuit without falling over.
Tyler Schraeder looked up at Five, his chin covered in blood and a flicker of defiance in his hard eyes. Oh, yeah. Time to extinguish that too.
“Tell me, Cassandra,” Five said, “will you stilllovehim even without his perfect smile?”
CHAPTER 11
Wednesday, 3:30 p.m.
THE ESCALADE KEPT pace with the fourteen-year-old girl until she finally stopped and turned to glare at the woman behind the wheel.
“Shouldn’t you be engaged in a deadly shoot-out down by the San Pedro docks or something?” the girl asked.
FBI special agent Nicole “Nicky” Gordon glared right back at the girl. “They canceled all the deadly shoot-outs for today. So I decided to give you a ride home instead.”
“That was very kind of the international drug-dealing community,” the girl replied. She remained a few feet from the Escalade.
“Come on, what are you waiting for?”
“Leave me alone, stalker!”
Nicky flinched, then cracked a wide smile. It was a silly game they’d played since… well, forever. “Will you get in already, you goofball?”
Nicky’s daughter, Kaitlin, opened the door, flung her loaded backpack into the rear seat with expert aim and gracefully spun herself into the passenger seat. She was a natural athlete, like her mother. Though in terms in height, Kaitlin favored her father. When Nicky hugged her daughter these days, she had to be careful her forehead didn’t slam into the kid’s chin.
Nicky steered the Escalade away from the Girls Academic Leadership Academy—GALA—hoping to get ahead of traffic. But who was she kidding? This was LA. There was no getting ahead of anything, not at this hour. She checked the time on her dash—3:31 p.m. If the traffic gods smiled on her, they could make it to the Santa Monica Pier by four thirty or so. Although this appeared to be an impromptuHey, I was just in the neighborhoodpickup, Nicky had been planning it for a while now. She headed west on Olympic. So far, so good.
“How do you feel about dinner at the Old Maid?” Nicky asked as if it were the most casual of questions.
