Annihilate Me (Vol. 4) (The Annihilate Me Series) (3 page)

“They
’
re from the devil.
 
Why haven
’
t you learned from me yet?
 
Why?
 
Just tell me why, Jennifer.
 
Coconuts are filled with fat.
 
Don
’
t you know that?
 
That coconut that tried to kill
you?
 
It did it out of spite.
 
Roughage, Jennifer.
 
Roughage.
 
I
’
ve
taught you that.
 
I know perfectly
well that you have plenty of greens in the gardens that were set up for all of
you.
 
I also know that lime trees
are everywhere on that island, the juice of which would be a perfectly suitable
dressing.
 
I can
’
t have you coming back to Manhattan
fat.
 
Not on my watch.
 
I need to dress that ass of yours in
couture.
 
Don
’
t make it more difficult for me than it
already is.
 
You know perfectly well
where I stand on this.”

“What
if I come back preggers?”

“
I don’
t know what that is.”

“Preggers.”

“That
’
s a foreign language to me.”

“
Pregnant
.”

Horror
laced itself across her face.
 
“You
’
re pregnant?
”

“Who
knows?
 
It
’
s not as if I have any test strips here to
help me find out.
 
Or access to
them.
 
And Alex is nothing if not
attentive lately.
 
We often do it
several times a day—”

She
held up the palm of her hand and closed her eyes.
 
“No more.
 
You know he
’
s like a son to me.
 
You know you
’
ve become my surrogate daughter.
 
That
’
s an image I can
’
t see and certainly don
’
t want to even think about.
 
Attentive, indeed.
 
God!”

I
leaned back in my chair.
 
I was
still wearing my bikini and I saw her looking at my body as I exposed it to
her.
 
“Is this fat?” I asked.

“Your
boobs are bigger.”

“That
’
s because Alex just had his way with—”

“Enough!”

“How
’
s life?” I asked.

“Horrible
without you two here.
 
I miss you
terribly, as painful as that is for me to admit.
 
That one molecule of emotion knocking
around inside of me?
 
Apparently,
Alex and you have attached yourselves to it, which means that you share it with
my two daughters.
 
It
’
s starting to weigh me down.
 
If it shows on a scale, I
’
ll have each of your asses.”

“We
miss you more than you know.”

“I
’
ll bet you do.
 
Who else has watched over your diet the
way I have?
 
Certainly not you.
 
Certainly not Lisa, since she is, after
all, a perfect size zip.
 
It
’
s killing me that I can
’
t be there to show you the pleasures of
eating ice.
 
It
’
s actually a perfectly acceptable diet plan
if done in moderation, and it also offers something of a stress relief.
 
You just crunch away your troubles.
 
Like I did today.”
 
She leaned back in her seat.
 
“So, how are you, beyond your obvious
weight gain?”

I
couldn
’
t help a smile even though
in my heart, I longed to be back in Manhattan with her.
 
But at least we had this.
 
At least we could talk face-to-face
through the satellite that connected us.
 
I loved sparring with Blackwell.
 
This wasn
’
t the
same as being in the same room with her and feeling her heat, but it was better
than not having it at all.
 
At this
point, I
’
d take what I could get.

“It
’
s beautiful here,” I said.
 

“And?”

“It
’s beautiful.
”

“That
’
s all you have to say?”

“We
need to come back home.”

“We
want you back home.”

“How
long is this going to take, Barbara?
 
It
’
s been a month.”

“I
wish I knew.
 
We all do.”

“This
could go on forever.”

“Has
Alex checked his email recently?”

“Not
that I know of.
 
We
’
ve only been inside for about twenty
minutes.
 
Why?”

“You
’
ll find out soon enough.
 
Have him read the email Tank sent him a
moment ago.
 
In the meantime, here
’
s the short version.
 
That night that you were at Peachy Van
Prout
’
s party having sex with
Alex in front of two hundred people—”

“We
were not having sex.
 
Alex was just
kissing me.”

“Call
it what you will—it still made Page Six.
 
What you already know is that Peachy
handed over her guest list to us, which the security team at Wenn has been
sifting through for weeks, along with the FBI and the police.
 
What you don
’
t know is that we just received the guest
list from Henri Dufort
’
s
birthday party, and it is telling because the three people that are in question
were at both events.
 
Two men, one
woman.”

I
sat up in my chair.
 
“Is that woman
Immaculata?”

“You
already know she
’
s
clean.”

“One
can dream.
 
I
’
d love to see her behind bars.
 
Who are these people?”

“All
in the email.
 
Short version.
 
Each is directly connected to Wenn in
ways that proved catastrophic for them, at least on a personal level.
 
When Alex checks his email, he
’
ll need to be prepared to give us his input
on what he knows about each, especially in his personal dealings with
them.
 
Because these are people that
would seek out revenge for what Alex and Wenn did to them.”

“Like
what?”

“Hostile
takeovers of their companies.
 
Revenge never dies, Jennifer.
 
Sometimes, when someone becomes as successful as Alex is, it only grows
as those who have been crushed along the way bear witness to that success.”

“I
’
ve done nothing to these people.
 
Why target me?”

“Because
you
’
re seeing Alex.
 
He once lost Diana.
 
Everyone knows what that did to
him—it brought him to his knees.
 
So, why not target you as well?
 
Why not kill the woman he loves now?
 
One of the theories being tossed around
is that someone might want to take you first so he feels what he felt when
Diana died—and then they
’
d take
him.
 
At this point, all of that is
speculation, but none of it is unrealistic, especially considering the people
involved.
 
Have him check his email.
 
And have him get back to me or to Tank
straight away.
 
OK?”

“OK.”

“You
’
re going to be all right, Jennifer.
 
So is Alex.
 
I already know how he
’
s going to react when he reads those
names.
 
And especially when he reads
how we
’
ve found ways to plausibly
connect each person to what happened to both of you when you were in New York.”

“How
is he going to react?”

Her
face became grim.
 
“You
’
ll see.”

CHAPTER THREE

When
the television monitor went dark, I decided to delay my Skype visit with
Lisa.
 
As much as I wanted to see
her and talk with her, this wasn
’
t the
time.
 
I grabbed my phone, shot her
a quick text saying that we
’
d have
to touch base tomorrow, and then I went in search of Alex, who was in the
kitchen.

“That
didn
’
t go as planned,” I said
when I entered the room.

He
was standing at the island, shirt off, shorts on, eating an orange.
 
He must have seen the look of concern on
my face, because he furrowed his brow at me.
 
“What does that mean?”

I
told him about my conversation with Blackwell.
 
He dropped the orange on the island,
wiped his hands with a towel, and we went to the office.
 
He sat in front of his computer, brought
up a browser, and logged in to his email.
 
I pulled my chair next to him, and put my arm on his shoulder while he
read the details of Tank
’
s
email.
 
When he was finished, he
looked at me.

“Do
you want to read it?”

“Not
yet.
 
I won
’
t understand it the way you do because I
likely don
’
t know the players.
 
I
’
ll
read it after you tell me your interpretation of it.”

“This
isn
’
t about my father.
 
It
’
s
about me and what I, through Wenn, did to three people.”

“Blackwell
mentioned hostile takeovers.”

“That
’
s right.”

“I’m
assuming they occurred during the past four years, after you took charge of
Wenn?”

“They
did.
 
But you need to significantly
narrow the timeframe.”

“How
significantly.”

“To
the past year.”

“Who
is involved?”

“Donald
North, Nestor Bazin, and Adrianna Bomba.”

“Start
with North.”

“North
owned North Productions, an award-winning visual effects company based out of
Los Angeles.
 
It was as
revolutionary as Pixar, only not as well known because, when North owned it, it
didn
’
t have the Disney name
behind it.
 
That said, as young as
he is—probably thirty-two at this point—North is a phenom when it
comes to software design.
 
He
developed the software necessary to compete with the likes of Pixar, and he did
compete with four major computer-animated films, all of which were nominated
for the Academy Award, two of which won the Golden Globe.
 
Not long after North took his company
public, Wenn Entertainment went after it.
 
It was a blood bath, but we won.
 
Despite the enormous sum of money he made off the deal, we still, in a
sense, stole North
’
s
baby.
 
He
’
s never forgiven me for it.”

“When
was this?”

“Nine
months ago.”

“Can
you see him doing this?”

“Absolutely.
 
You should see some of the emails I
’
ve received from him since the takeover,
which I
’
ll now hand over to Tank
and his team.
 
He has some serious
anger management issues.
 
I
’
ve run into him several times since the
takeover.
 
Nothing but rage coming
from that one, probably because he still hasn
’
t created anything on par with what Wenn
took away from him.
 
What he and so
many don’t understand is that this isn’t personal for me.
 
It’s business.
 
Though I can see why people take it
personally.
 
When you go public as
North did, you open yourself to the possibility of a takeover.
 
It
’
s
just how it is.
 
I think he was
naïve and didn’t think that it would happen so quickly to him.”