Per Verse Vengeance Read online

  “So did you and the Doc get along wonderfully?” Nick asks.

  “Yeah, if you discount his rudeness and not-to-subtle threats on my life.”

  “He’s doesn’t like anyone intruding on his personal space.”

  “Oh, was that it?”

  Nick looks up at the water tower. “Do you still want that tour?”

  “Not today. How do you feel?”

  “Pain free.”

  “That’s great,” Nicole says with a smile.

  Nick looks out the window at Bob’s Big Boy and the Garry Marshall Theatre at Toluca Lake. “We’re passing some very famous landmarks,” he remarks.

  “Is that so? And all this time, I thought I was sitting beside the only true landmark this town had to offer.”

  “That’s sweet, Nicole, but you know better.”

  “Do I?” she asks with a touch of contempt.

  Nick reaches over and caresses her face.

  “Do that a few more times, Nicky, and I’ll have to charge you five thousand, and that doesn’t include any fireworks.”

  Nick leans back in his seat and asks, “No discounts for friends?”

  Nicole laughs as she stops at another red light. She looks at Nick and softly caresses his handsome face. “I could so easily see you as a heartthrob. Ever think of moving in front of the camera, instead of remaining behind?”

  “No!”

  “It’s not your style, is it?”

  “No, it’s not. And besides, I can’t act.” He looks out the window and continues giving directions.

  “Make a left here and a right two blocks down. I like going through the residential areas of Studio City and it’s just as quick to Coldwater Canyon.”

  A few moments later, they’re driving down the enchanted tree-lined streets that make up most of Studio City.

  “It’s different around here,” Nicole says. “So different from the pompous bullshit you find in Beverly Hills and Vegas. Is this where the not so rich live?”

  “There are plenty of very rich people that live around here. They simply don’t choose to live behind fences and tall walls; they appreciate the simple, less flamboyant architecture that you find in places like New England. Can you pull over?”

  Nicole parks alongside a beautiful two-story colonial-style home, painted white and blue, and with young children playing on the front lawn.

  “And now what?”

  “I have a proposal for you.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “You give up this payback tour that you’re on and I—”

  “I’m not on any—”

  “Don’t insult my intelligence. I know exactly what you’re up to.”

  “Well then … since you know it all, you should know that nothing is going to deter me. Nothing!”

  “I will have your baby sister in your arms in less than a week. I’ll buy you a home anywhere you like … California, New York, Vermont, Paris … anywhere. And I’ll round off the four hundred thousand you supposedly have to a million.”

  “Are you this generous with all the hard luck cases you run into, or is my case so unusual that you can’t resist trying to save me?”

  She looks away from Nick and stares at the children playing in front of the house. Nick reaches over and turns her face back toward him and looks into her misty eyes. “It’s not that your case is so unusual, but you, you Nicole are special.”

  “My God, you really have fallen hard for me. I never should have let you see me in those Daffy Duck pajamas.”

  “Don’t forget, you promised to let me see you in your Bugs Bunny pajamas.”

  “I might have to reconsider that promise. If you see me in my Bugs pajamas you might completely go to pieces.”

  “I went to pieces the first time I saw you walking across the floor at the Venetian.”

  “So have a thousand other men. The only difference is that you won’t let go and you want something from me that I am unwilling to give, at any price. I would think that of all the people I have ever known, you would understand. Elizabeth was my only family. She was without malice. We had our whole life planned out once we left Vegas, and it was going to be beautiful.”

  “I have no doubt about that, but do you really think she would approve of your current plans?”

  “I was her protector, her guardian angel.” She puts two fingers close together and remarks, “We were this close, this close.”

  “I understand, I truly do. But there are other factors, such as your sister. If something goes wrong with your plan, what becomes of her?”

  “Please, don’t do this. Please,” Nicole begs. She shakes her head and tears start to flow down her face. “Now I’m the one going to pieces.” She pulls out tissues from her purse and cleans her face. “I am sure of one thing and that is that she would approve of you. I can almost feel her tapping my shoulder and saying, Look, Nicole, you’ve found your prince charming.”

  Nick reaches over and kisses her softly on her lips. She kisses him back and they kiss passionately for a long moment as the children playing outside stop and look at them. “We’re being watched.” Nick looks over his shoulder at the children and remarks, “Sometimes walls aren’t such a bad thing.”

  She laughs as she runs her hands through his dark, wavy hair.

  “It really is a pretty little neighborhood, but I need to get back to the hotel.”

  “I guess that means no to my proposal,” Nick remarks.

  “Please, don’t be mad. We’ll always have this moment. It’s the first time I’ve kissed a man and felt real love on the other end.”

  Nicole shifts into drive and pulls away. The sun is shining brightly and its glow touches Nick’s face, yet his body, still numb from the anesthesia, shudders as though an unexpected chill has breached his psyche. Except for an occasional direction, they remain silent.

  Nicole parks the car in front of Nick’s front door. He insists that she comes in, and after a few impatient remarks and frustrated sighs, she walks into the house with him. She sits and flings her small handbag onto the dining room table and looks closely at him. “You look awfully pale. Are you not feeling well? Want me to call the quack and tell him he screwed up?”

  “I feel wonderful. Why so irritated?”

  “Because I have things to do, Nick. I didn’t break free from my bondage in Vegas to become your personal slave.”

  Nick picks up Nicole’s handbag and takes out her magnetized hotel key. He bends the plastic card multiple times and throws it down beside her. “You won’t be needing that anymore. Your room at the hotel has been vacated and I had all your possessions moved to the second-floor bedroom upstairs, overlooking the pool.”

  “What the hell?” Nicole picks up the mangled hotel key and throws it at him. “Who do you think you are?”

  Nick reaches into his pocket and takes out a piece of paper with a Las Vegas phone number scribbled on it. He hands it to her. “Look familiar? Your ex-client Bernard made the call shortly after he left the pool area. Or was that part of your plan? Get a few members of the organization down here and have a shoot-out at the hotel?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous” She crumples the piece of paper into a ball and rolls it down the table. “And you think I’m safer here, just a few blocks from the hotel?”

  “A lot safer here than if you were in your hotel room.”

  She taps her fingers against the table and remarks, “So you feel wonderful … that’s great. Why don’t we split a beer to celebrate?”

  “Are you okay?” Nick asks.

  “I will be. But for the moment, why don’t we concentrate on you?”

  Nick looks suspiciously at her, but her eyes remain on the piece of paper.

  “I’m thirsty, Nicky. Please go get the beer.”

  Nick stands up and walks toward the kitchen, glancing back at Nicole who continues to tap her fingers against the table as she looks down at the rolled-up piece of paper. He opens the refrigerator, grabs a beer, and pours it into two ch
illed glasses. Glancing around the kitchen at the large, cherry cabinets and polished marbled sink, his eyes momentarily come to rest on a bunch of little notes stuck on the refrigerator door — reminders from years ago about doctor appointments, movie premieres, travel dates, and restaurant reservations. He smiles as he walks out of the kitchen and hands Nicole a glass.

  “Thank you, kind sir.” She taps her glass against Nick’s glass. “To feeling wonderful.”

  She drinks a good amount. “Now, that tastes good and I’m not much of a beer drinker.” Nick takes a small sip from his glass and places it on the table.

  “How about a slice of cold pizza?”

  “Yeah. I’m not the type who counts calories.”

  Nicole looks over her shoulder at Nick as he walks into the kitchen. She glances at the picture of Nick’s mother and sister on the banquet table, and then slips her hand into her handbag and takes out a pill bottle. She opens it and drops a pill into Nick’s beer and softly says to herself, “There’s no other way.”

  Nick returns with the pizza and hands her a slice and asks, “Did you just say something?”

  “No! Just talking to myself. I admit it, occasionally I do carry on conversations with myself.”

  “A telltale sign that you should be working in the movie business.”

  “Are you offering me a job?”

  “Yes, an added bonus if you accept my proposal.”

  “Behind the camera, of course?”

  “That’s up to you.”

  “I could easily ruin your stellar reputation.”

  “Why don’t you let me worry about that.”

  She takes a bite of her pizza, “You know, New York style pizza is one of the few foods I like cold almost as much as hot.”

  “You sure you don’t have some Italian blood in you?”

  “I’m pretty sure. I doubt my parents even know what an Italian is. Probably think they’re some type of an Iranian.”

  Nick laughs as Nicole eats her pizza. “Is New York City really as exciting as everyone says?”

  “You’ve never been?”

  “No!” She points to the scar on the back of her neck. “Before yesterday, I’ve never been anywhere but Kentucky, the monastery, and Vegas.”

  “I imagine you would love it.”

  “Easy place to remain invisible?”

  “Yes, if you choose to be.”

  She laughs, “Like I have a choice.”

  Nick softly taps the table as he keeps his eyes glued on Nicole while she finishes her pizza. “Another slice?”

  “No, thank you.” She picks up her glass, smiles, and says, “Cheers!” They finish off the beer in their glasses.

  “I think I’m going to go take a nap … unless you don’t feel good and I can stay down here…”

  “I’ve told you, I feel wonderful.”

  Nicole stands up and walks toward the winding staircase that leads to the second floor. Nick watches her for a long, chilling moment before getting up and following her. “Nicole!”

  She turns, holding onto the banister, and looks down at him.

  “Yes.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m just tired. And besides, I have a lot to think over. That offer is starting to look better all the time. My baby sister in my arms within a week … a house anywhere I choose … and a cool million dollars?”

  “More like a cool six hundred thousand to go along with the four hundred you already have. It’s still on the table … as long as you don’t do anything violent.”

  “And the house will be in my name?”

  “And big enough … in case you want to throw a little dinner party for the neighbors.”

  “And you can get me a job in New York at one of the movie studios?”

  “Yes.”

  She turns back around and continues to walk up the staircase. “Like I said, a lot to think about.”

  Nick watches her disappear up the stairs. He suddenly runs up a few steps and stops. He sighs as he leans against the banister. “She would make a wonderful actress but she has a lot to learn.” He covers his mouth as he yawns. He shakes his head and walks back down the stairs.

  Nicole walks into her room and takes in the luxurious surroundings — a Victorian king-size canopy bed overlooking the large pool below, and a mahogany executive desk scattered with books and writing tools sitting under another window. Framed pictures of family and friends decorate the walls, and a leather couch and chairs flank the room’s grand fireplace. On the far wall, double doors lead into a separate bathroom that’s the size of many one-bedroom apartments. Nicole shakes her head and sighs. “And he left all this to go fight a war half way around the world, in Iraq, for a country that doesn’t give a shit. And now he’s hooked on a whore with a possible bounty on her head. Surely, Miss Universe and baby sister won’t be too thrilled about that.”

  She looks at a picture of Nick on the set of a movie. “And I’m hooked on him … but a fat lot of good that’ll do either of us.”

  She looks down at her luggage stacked at the base of the bed; nothing is missing. She picks up her laptop and clears a place for it on the desk, then logs in and waits. When she opens a file named “The Company,” a road map of Beverly Hills appears. Highlighted in bold letters is the house of movie mogul Evan Thomas … just a short distance from the Beverly Hills Hotel and Nick’s house. She studies the map as a devious little smile crosses her face.

  Nicole opens a piece of luggage, searches under her clothes and grabs a Maxim 9 semi-automatic handgun with a fifteen-round magazine and a built-in silencer — a hi-tech firearm that looks like something from a futuristic movie. She slips the gun into her handbag before she starts to undress.

  In only her bra and panties, she sits on a chair in front of a full-length mirror and laughs at the idea that she might have some Italian blood in her. Her body is so dark that she could easily pass for a girl from southern Italy. It never occurred to her before, but when Nick introduced her as his cousin, it was no great leap. She applies a heavy layer of white makeup and red lipstick to her face and lips, undermining her natural beauty with unnatural products and giving herself a geisha-like appearance. She had played many roles before and this was just another one … possibly her final one.

  From another bag of luggage, she takes out a pair of black leather pants and a matching top, and slides them on, quick and easy, like an Olympic gymnast. She pulls out a blond wig, takes a few moments to comb it, then lays it carefully on the bed next to a pair of black high heels. Finally she scoops her old clothes and shoes off the floor and drops them into an overnight bag, along with makeup remover. She glances at the clock on her phone and sits back down at the desk and has another look at the map to Evan Thomas’s house. She shuts the computer and glances at the phone clock again.

  She sets the black high heels and wig on top of her clothes in the overnight bag and slips out of the room barefoot. Halfway down the stairs, she stops. Could the sleeping pill mixed with the anesthesia and steroids hurt Nick? Dammit. She never thought of that. She sneaks through the house and into the movie theater — A Charlie Brown Christmas again. A shadow is slumped on a seat in the middle of room. In a second, she’s behind him and touches his shoulder. “Nick.”

  He barely opens his eyes.

  “It’s not very nice to fall asleep while watching Chuck. Actually, I think it might be a crime.”

  He smiles weakly and closes his eyes again.

  “Oh is my little Nicky tired? It’s been a long day. Sleep, sweetheart.” She kisses him on the forehead and slips out of house and into her car.

  Seven

  Evan Thomas made his fortune the old-fashioned way. He inherited it from his rich family back east. They were major players in the retail business and were often mentioned in the Fortune 500 as one of the richest families in America. He was an ungainly child and a troubled teenager, and even though he was invited five different times down to the draft board during the Vietnam War, he m
anaged not to serve a single day. His family were major donors to the Democratic Party, so why should their son serve when there were millions of men … who never paid a penny in taxes … whose lives were dispensable … who would never really be missed. In truth, it was probably best that young Evan never served because he was the type who would throw a fellow soldier in harm’s way while he hid in the bushes.

  Evan, like his father, was a sexual pervert. His mother, a former fashion model, was a closet drunk. In the twenty or so years he lived in the family mansion, he never once remembered daddy and mommy sleeping in the same room. His father often entertained young ladies in his private study and on occasion, he allowed young Evan to watch him seduce and have kinky sex with girls who were barely out of grade school. Occasionally, after daddy was finished with a certain girl … and if she was sufficiently passed out from the drugs and alcohol he fed her … he would allow young Evan to take a shot at the comatose child. Evan could never last very long at his tender age and his father would laugh at him, sipping a 36-year-old scotch, while listening to Sinatra in the background.

  Young Evan loved and idolized his father and aspired to be just like him as long as he didn’t have to follow him into the family business. After all, Evan was barely able to finish high school and if not for his father’s generous gifts to Evan’s teachers, he never would have graduated. Daddy knew it was best that Evan’s older brother and sister took over the business. Evan loved the movies and once he was safe from ever being drafted again, he moved to Hollywood. After all, where better to learn how to be a leading man and not worry about any repercussions for raping, sodomizing and drugging young ladies. Yes, it was a perfect match except for the fact that Evan had absolutely no acting ability and could never remember his lines and often during an audition, wet himself. It was truly embarrassing and young Evan swore to himself that one day he would get even with the casting agents who laughed and made jokes about him behind his back.

  In a stroke of genius, he decided to become a producer. And with thirty million dollars in the bank, people stopped laughing and began listening to everything he had to say. In a famous Hollywood restaurant, he met a young director/writer who was peddling a script about the five mafia families in New York. The script was rejected by all the major studios in town, and in another stroke of genius … or more likely luck … Evan produced the film with his own money. He put up ten million dollars and the film eventually went on to be the biggest box office smash since Gone with the Wind. It won seven academy awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director, and that ten-million-dollar investment suddenly turned into a fifty-million-dollar payday. Even Daddy was proud of his son who he honestly felt would never amount to anything, least of all a legendary Hollywood producer.