The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) (27 page)

‘Jesus,’ Harris blurted. ‘Where the hell have you been? What happened?’

Flannery raised a neatly folded white handkerchief to a swollen lip to check for bleeding. ‘Let’s just say someone didn’t want me at this little soiree.’ 

Chapter Thirty-two

The Rubicon had been crossed; Stacie knew it by Jamison’s bruising grip on her arm and by the way his breath came in angry little puffs against the back of her neck as he half escorted, half dragged her upstairs to her office. He practically shoved her through the door, shut it hard behind him and locked it. Then he offered her a smile that was tight with patience she knew he didn’t have.

‘What? Did you think your friends would rescue you? Is that why you pulled such a ridiculous stunt? What an incredible amount of confidence you have in your tree-hugging boyfriend and Thorne and his lackeys, you stupid woman. Surely you didn’t think just because you were here now instead of New York that the troops would rally, did you?

Keeping her eyes on his clenched fists, she backed slowly away from him until she felt her desk pressing comfortingly against the backs of her thighs. Then carefully, willing her hands to be steady, she felt her way along the desktop until her fingers traced the recessed grip of the middle drawer.

‘I don’t give a fuck about the Bald Hill clear-cut,’ he was saying while Stacie struggled to pull the drawer open, shielding it as much as she could with her body, hoping against hope he wouldn’t notice until she found what she was looking for. ‘I didn’t give a fuck when it happened, and I don’t give a fuck now. I’ve stood with a smile on my face while people with far more power than you’ll ever have tried to point an accusing finger at me, and you know what, Stacie, every single time I walked away unscathed.’

Slowly, cautiously, she inserted her hand into the breach and felt for it. All she needed was just to get to it. She knew exactly where it was, and all she had to do was keep him ranting until she could find it. But now it was real, everything was way more difficult than it had been in her head when she planned it. When she planned it, she hadn’t been pumped with fear and adrenaline.

‘After your little display here, darling, I’m going to take special pleasure in the clear-cutting of the forest in Valderia, down to the very last tree. In fact, I’m going to do my best to expedite a speedy deal and see that logging begins ASAP. Your boyfriend and your ex-boyfriend will have you to thank for that.’ And, just like that, he changed the subject. ‘Where’s the necklace?’

‘It’s in the safe,’ she managed, amazed that her voice sounded so calm. ‘The pearls have sentimental value, and I wanted to wear them for the closing speech.’ And then it happened: her wriggling finger touched it, practically jammed up against it, and the solid feel of it was so welcome that she wanted to weep with relief.

In a heartbeat, he was on her, his hand twisting the pearls around her neck. ‘I don’t give a damn how much sentimental value they have.’ He tightened and twisted them until they cut into her neck, until she couldn’t breathe. ‘I asked you to wear my necklace. Perhaps you didn’t understand –’ He tightened the pearls again. Bright spots of color exploded before her eyes, and she fought to stay conscious. ‘It wasn’t meant to be a request, Stacie. It was a demand, and you were to obey. Surely you remember the rules.’ Then he gave the pearls a hard yank and the necklace broke and bounced and scattered in a flurry of bright white across the desk and the floor by the window. Stacie caught her breath with a rasping cough as he slid his hand onto her throat and rested it there at the ready, twitchy and heavy. She did her best to brace herself, breathing hard, trying to get as much oxygen as she could just in case.

He laughed, then kissed her roughly and bit her lip. ‘Here’s the reason I wanted you to wear the choker, sweetheart; it’s an exquisite cover-up for bruises.’

‘You think I don’t remember?’ The venom in her voice felt almost as strangling as the necklace had been. ‘An expensive necklace isn’t nearly enough to cover the damage you leave.’ It wasn’t that she didn’t expect the slap. It was just such an insult to her body, and her body hadn’t tolerated such insults in a long time. It felt as though he’d broken her neck with the harsh snap-back of the impact, and she tasted blood where she’d bitten the inside of her mouth. She blinked hard, her eyes now watering from the sting. She straightened her shoulders and faced him.

He kissed her again, this time almost tenderly, and he very gently ran his hand over the red mark on her cheek. ‘Darling, you know you shouldn’t provoke me. Back in New York, the first time we were together, I had only Zoe to use as leverage against you, and her death left me with no other choice but to … use force. But things change, Stacie sweetheart, things change. Now you have so many friends, so many people you care about. Now I have all kinds of leverage. I’ll hardly have to lay a hand on you when Harris Walker is never more than a phone call away.’ His soft laugh was humorless and cold. He kissed her as though they were simply two lovers having a bit of pillow talk. His hand even strayed to stroke her breast. ‘I’m delighted, really. Look how badly you suffered for poor Ingrid Watson, and I barely had a chance to play with her. Then, when Hearn was stupid enough to get himself blown up in Harris Walker’s place, honestly, I don’t know what was the most moving – how you ran straight to plead for Walker’s life or how you suffered such guilt over Hearn’s misfortune.’

‘My men tell me Jamison had the place well-guarded, but nothing they can’t handle,’ Flannery said. ‘I’ve already turned off the remaining alarm sensors just in case. Harris, you and I and Daniels here –’ he nodded to one of his men, dressed in a black tux ‘– will wait upstairs at the office door. We’ll detain Jamison while you take Stacie, and no one gets hurt.’

Harris was about to say that if Jamison got hurt, he was more than OK with that, when there was a gasp and a shudder among the crowd. All eyes were riveted to the big screens. Everyone looked up just in time to see Terrance Jamison yank the string of pearls he’d been choking Stacie Emerson with until they broke.

‘Fuck,’ Flannery whispered. ‘I didn’t see that one coming. Now I understand why Stacie wanted such an elaborate security system. Turn it up,’ he shouted to Jenny, who was looking on in horror. Then he turned his attention back to Harris and the others. ‘Jamison is about to hang himself with his own rope. Turn up the volume. Now!’ he shouted at Jenny again. She did as he asked, just in time for the startled crowd to see Jamison slap Stacy brutally.

With a guttural growl, Harris exploded into action, racing for the stairs, racing to get to Stacie, racing to get her to safety.

On the sound system, everyone Jamison say, ‘I can take any of them out in a heartbeat, and you would do well to remember that. I can take any of them out just like I did Zoe.’

The spike of fear and adrenaline and unadulterated hatred for Jamison drove Harris onward. Two of Jamison’s men cut him off before he could mount the stairs. They were immediately distracted by two of Flannery’s men and the scuffle was on, but Harris didn’t have time to wait for the showdown to finish. He needed to get to Stacie now.

Looking around desperately, he headed into the small lounge, where a knot of people were huddled in horror in front of the computer monitor, listening as Jamison said, ‘It’s all about acquisitions. You’ve been to my penthouse in Manhattan. You know that I love to collect beautiful things, Stacie, and you know that I always get what I want. I wanted you for my own from the first time I saw you, all enthusiastic and full of innovative ideas for that washed-up gallery, ideas that, by God, you made work. I wanted to break you like I did Zoe. And you should have been easy, but you weren’t. And that made me want you all the more. You were smart, you were untamed, you were outrageously talented and you thought you were above it all. I rose to the challenge, and believe me, in my business there aren’t that many challenges to rise to any more. And now – well, you see for yourself I can bring down a country and place whoever I want in the seat of control. But, like most powerful men, I need entertainment. I need a diversion. Everyone does, Stacie, everyone does.’

With Terrance Jamison’s voice still mesmerizing and horrifying everyone in the gallery, Harris slipped through the patio doors outside the small lounge, which no one was guarding at the moment. He didn’t know how long that would last, since things were in chaos and getting worse. He thrust himself up onto a trellis, which was draped in a good-size wisteria, and began to climb. He caught a glimpse in his peripheral vision of several men he recognized as working for Flannery. Somewhere far off, he heard a siren wail. He hoped that help was on its way. Jesus, the woman was fucking brilliant! The amount of patience and scheming that had gone into her plan was amazing, and it would work too, if it didn’t get her killed first. He wasn’t about to let that happen.

When the trellis ran out, leaving him with a good bit of climbing yet to do before he reached the dormer she had renovated to a sunroom, he was happy he had a few basic climbing skills, skills that had served him well when photographing certain birds of prey. He raised himself onto his toes and managed to reach the window ledge above him. The window was barred, which prevented his entrance, but helped him get the grip he needed to swing himself up. From there, it was an easy reach to the guttering where he could shinny onto the roof and edge his way along to the dormer. He was glad that Flannery had managed to turn off the rest of the alarm sensors. He was sure Stacie would have had the windows on the dormer wired. What she hadn’t done was replace the antique glass windows at the front of the dormer with modern safety glass, which meant that, with any luck, Harris could break his way in and come out in the sunroom of the lounge next to Stacie’s office. When he reached the dormer, to his surprise the window was unlocked. Had she somehow known that he would come for her? He liked that thought, and it spurred him on.

‘Now, get your handbag, Stacie. We’ve got a plane to catch to New York. You lucked out this time; I’m in a forgiving mood.’ He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door, but she jerked away.

‘For how long, Terrance? Until you get bored with me and kill me like you did Zoe? I know you killed her. I’ve always known it.’

His lips curled into a snarl of a smile. ‘I suspected you knew. And really, darling, I wasn’t trying to hide it, at least not from you. You and I were probably the only two people who knew that Zoe would never commit suicide. But you know, Stacie, she was weak, and I was bored with her. It wasn’t hard to make her do it with a little … help.

She closed her eyes and felt her knees go weak. She had waited ten long years to hear his confession. Ten long years of nightmares, of anger, of second-guessing herself, of wondering what she might have done differently. It was as though he read her mind.

‘You couldn’t have saved her, darling. She came between you and me. And that I couldn’t have. So there’s nothing you could have done. There. You’re absolved. Is that what you were waiting for? Is that what you needed, Stacie, absolution? Now come on, let’s go.’

Before she could respond, before she could tell him she wasn’t going, he lunged and yanked the desk drawer open. She cried out as Jamison shoved her aside and rummaged through the drawer. ‘Is this what you were looking for, you duplicitous little bitch?’ In his hand, he held the Glock. With one eye on her, he checked the gun for ammo and laughed as though it were funniest thing ever. ‘And it’s loaded too. Tell me, were you going to use it on me? Because you know what, I don’t think you could do it.’ He waved the gun around wildly. ‘No matter how badly you hate me, I don’t think you’ve got the balls to pull the trigger.’ He laughed again. ‘That’s what separates the men from the boys, Stacie, how willing they are to do what has to be done. And I don’t think you can do it.’

Before she could take another breath, he pulled her to him, her back against his front, holding her around the waist, putting pressure on her fingers until she was sure he would break them. As she opened her mouth to cry out, he forced the gun between her lips until the end of the barrel pressed hard against the roof of her mouth. And dear God, it was her fingers, her own fingers curled around the trigger. Terror tightened around her in a suffocating squeeze. She stopped breathing, she stopped moving. If she could have, she would have willed her heart to stop beating, to hold still, as she held everything else still, forcing herself to stay calm, forcing herself to think.

His laugh burned against her ear. ‘You wanted to know how I did it. You’ve always wanted to know how I did it. Well, this is it, Stacie, this is the magic formula.’ He kissed her ear in a gesture that was beyond obscene under the circumstances. ‘Zoe’s own little hand did the work. Zoe’s fingerprints were on the gun. No one else’s. Just like yours are now.’

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The taste of metal receded and she relaxed. If she died, she died, but at least this time everyone would know, and Zoe would be vindicated. And Jamison wouldn’t hurt anyone else. And Harris – dear God, she wished that she’d told him how much she loved him. In fact, until this very second, she hadn’t even realized just how much. It would have been good with the two of them. It would have been so good.

‘Zoe was too weak to fight back,’ Jamison said against her ear. ‘Therefore it looked very real. In fact, no one even questioned except you. But then you were the one who found her, and only seconds after her heart-breaking suicide. Only seconds after, and me there with her. Just as anxious as you were to get there before our dear friend did something foolish.’ He kissed her temple, then pulled the gun out of her mouth, and Stacie fell to her knees, a sob ripping its way through her throat.

‘Come now, darling. Don’t cry. I would never end your life that way. I’ve looked forward to enjoying your company for a long time. Now be a good girl and get your handbag. The plane’s waiting.’

Downstairs, the horrified guests literally screamed at the surround-sound vision of what was going on in Stacie’s office. Flannery’s men had managed to subdue Jamison’s and the police were on their way. Flannery, along with Wade and Ellis, who wouldn’t be denied, stormed the stairs to Stacie’s office.

‘The place is a fucking fortress,’ Ellis hissed as Flannery picked the lock on the second set of fire doors.