Chapter 13 - Elena’s Price
In a dimly lit private lounge inside the subterranean bar of the St. Regis, Elena sat sipping an extra-dry martini. Her manicured fingers, once adorned with diamonds purchased with Julian’s credit cards, were now bare save for a cheap gold-plated band. The designer dress she wore was two seasons old, carefully ironed to hide the slight fraying at the hem.
The leather door swung open, and a man entered, flanked by two stone-faced bodyguards.
Marcus Vance was fifty-two years old, with silver-streaked hair cut military-short, predatory gray eyes, and the broad, intimidating frame of a former heavyweight boxer poured into an eight-thousand-dollar Brioni suit. He did not smile. He simply sat down opposite Elena, waving away the approaching waiter with an imperious flick of his wrist.
"You're twenty minutes late," Elena said, attempting to muster the sultry, dismissive confidence that had once wrapped Julian around her little finger.
Vance looked at her the way an exterminator looks at a cockroach on a kitchen tile.
"You are in no position to keep time, Miss Vance. Or Miss Ross, rather. A woman who managed to destroy a fifty-million-dollar inheritance in less than twelve months does not dictate terms to me."
Elena’s face tightened, a flash of humiliation burning across her cheeks. She set her martini down with a sharp clink. "I gave you Julian. He’s already made a scene at Cole Tower. The press will run with the narrative of Claire Avery coldly discarding her bankrupt ex-husband while flaunting her billionaire lover."
"Julian is a useless drunk," Vance said bluntly, his voice deep and gravelly. "He couldn't even deliver a proper confrontation without getting thrown out like garbage by Cole’s security. That won't hurt Adrian Cole. If anything, it makes Claire look decisive and powerful."
Elena leaned forward across the mahogany table, her eyes gleaming with sharp, venomous malice. "Julian was useless because he was sentimental. I am not. I spent four years in Claire’s inner circle. I know how she designs. I know where her permits are vulnerable. And more importantly, I know what’s under the ground at Phase Two."
Vance’s cold gray eyes narrowed slightly. "Speak."
"Before Claire took her company private with Adrian, her father had surveyed that lakefront parcel thirty years ago," Elena whispered, her lips curling into a vicious sneer. "There is an unmapped historical aqueduct running directly beneath the primary foundation zone. Claire thinks she reinforced it. But she used proprietary composite pilings that haven't received state environmental clearance yet. She bypassed the standard six-month waiting period using Cole's fast-track political influence."
Vance tilted his head, calculating the legal and financial destruction in a fraction of a second. "A bypass of environmental codes on a state-partnered watershed project. If that gets leaked to the State Department of Ecology during the foreign investor summit..."
"The entire foundation would be condemned," Elena finished eagerly. "Adrian Cole would face federal fraud charges for fast-tracking unsafe permits. And Claire Avery’s precious architectural masterpiece would be bulldozed before the first floor even reaches the sky."
Vance studied Elena for a long, quiet moment. Then, reaching inside his jacket, he pulled out a slim velvet envelope and tossed it onto the table. It slid to a stop right in front of her.
Elena snatched it up and peeled open the flap. Inside was a cashier's check for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, along with a one-way first-class ticket to Geneva.
"That is your retainer," Vance said, his voice flat and devoid of warmth. "The remaining half-million will be wired to your Swiss account the moment the inspector general halts construction on Cole's site."
Elena smiled, clutching the envelope tightly against her chest. "Consider it done, Mr. Vance. Claire thinks she took everything from me. I’m going to make sure she watches her precious empire sink to the bottom of that lake."
May you like
Vance stood up, buttoning his jacket, not bothering to offer a parting word as he walked out of the lounge, leaving Elena alone in the shadows with her price.
***
