The Devil's Handshake (11 page)

On autopilot from the trauma of the
afternoon, Nara forced a smile back towards him as he took her
hand. It wasn’t lost on her that there appeared to be an aura
surrounding him as she assessed his physical attributes. Tall,
handsome black hair flecked with grey, and forcibly focused brown
eyes, her initial impression was one a man of strength and maturity
and in his late thirties.

“
He looks as though he
doesn’t miss anything,” she thought while tuning her mind into
flirting mode. “Seen and done many things!” she further added,
inwardly reasoning that you didn’t become an Oligarch in Russia by
being soft.

As he held on to her hand instead of kissing
air on her cheek, as was common in her homeland, she felt his power
in his firm but gentle grip as he continued to look into her eyes
as he introduced himself. Immediately she felt her heart jump.
Being well trained she knew that he was sexually attracted to her,
Nara flicked her long jet-black hair.

Her staged “flirt” was ruined and she had to
stop herself from the urge to throw up as Oleg took hold of her arm
painfully to motion her to sit by him. It was not lost on Thomas
that it was sort of thing you would expect an alpha male gorilla to
do so to establish his position over the females in his harem in
response to an interloper.

Watching the beautiful girl wince as he
grabbed her, Thomas sensed that it obvious she couldn’t bear Oleg’s
touch although he didn’t know why.

Awestruck by her beauty, Thomas continued to
stare at her intently.

As he did so Nara smiled at him again while
she picked up a flute of Champagne.

Having realized the increasing level of
flirtation between them both, Oleg took the opportunity to assume a
position of ownership over Nara by pawing the side of her face.

“
THOMAS, YOU LIKE MY ‘JELEP
DOVE,’ DON’T YOU?” Oleg asked over the Russian pop
music.

“
She most definitely doesn’t
like you, old boy!” Thomas thought, having caught sight of the
beautiful girl’s second wince of the night.

Pressing his ownership again over her, a move
that Thomas assumed was merely for his benefit he watched as Oleg
pawed her again only this time more firmly by grabbing the other
side of her face and pulling towards him. It was a motion made easy
because he had made her sit next to him.

“
You should have seen her
this afternoon when I was fucking her in the ass—” Suddenly with
fire in her eyes, Thomas watched in awe as the beautiful girl
smashed her champagne glass and went for Rejejow. The other girls
screamed together in chorus.

“
FUCKING PIG,” she yelled in
Russian then switching to Turkmen she screamed, “Gyrmak sen!”
meaning, “I will kill you!” she hissed quickly in succession with
such hatred and venom.

It was an effort that had also certainly
saved her life, although she didn’t know it at that time, as Oleg’s
guards appeared out of nowhere to forcibly grab her.

Nara fought them all the way as they leaned
across the table and violently pulled her out of the booth spraying
the bottles of champagne and whiskey, the flutes of the Epernay
nectar, and plates of Sushi out of the way.

“
Yuri, take this fucking
whore away, and when you have finished with her get rid of her!”
Oleg said in disgust while looking at his soaked suit.

Brushing it off as “matter of fact,” flicking
the liquid from his hand that had sprayed all over him from the
champagne flutes plus other glasses that had gone flying in all
directions, Thomas coolly and politely joined the conversation.

“
Oleg Mälikgulyýewiç, but
then what will I do for the evening?”

Surprised, Oleg smiled in return before
replying in Russian to his guest. “Well there plenty of other toys
here, Thomas. This one’s a wild horse who needs to be put
down!”

Restrained in Yuri’s arms, her “moment of
fire” over, Thomas could see the young girl by her look of fear in
her beautiful eyes, had calmed down enough to realize that she was
now moments away of being raped then murdered.

“
Yes, Oleg Mälikgulyýewiç,
but I want this one,” he insisted looking into her eyes smiling,
determined to defuse the situation by making fun of her
afore-mentioned fire, by dismissing it as trivial in an effort to
save her life.

Looking at her and seeing the same fear in
her eyes over the folly of trying to “glass” him, Oleg denied
Thomas’s request again.

“
No. Thomas, I do not want
to risk any injury to you riding wild horses in Turkmenistan; it is
a dangerous sport for the inexperienced,” he said at his attempt at
humor.

Instantly a chorus of evil laughs from his
minions echoed around the table while the drained looking Nara
stood slumped in Yuri’s arms.

“
Allah has decreed I am to
die for committing sins of the flesh by the hand of his man,” she
thought in despair to herself as she waited to be dragged
off.

“
Oleg Mälikgulyýewiç, would
you sell her to me then? For one always needs a filly to break in?”
Thomas asked again, making one final effort to save her life as he
watched the light go out in the beautiful child-woman who was being
held by his bodyguard.

This time, Oleg pondered the request as it
suddenly dawned him on that the Englishman was serious.

The fact was that the Englishman was a
powerful man and having been ordered by the President to look after
him and keep him happy, Oleg was smart enough to recognize the
opportunity his guest was offering him to regain his honor not to
mention the chance to make a deal of which he would be the main
beneficiary.

He accepted the challenge.

“
Twenty-five-thousand U.S.
dollars!” he quoted a price he thought even a man like Litchfield
would baulk at.

“
Done,” Thomas answered
without hesitation, as he reached into his jacket and promptly
pulled out a thick wad of cash then put it on the table.

Having heard the interplay between them on
the next table Mikhail motioned one of the assistants with him that
was carrying a briefcase to hand it over to him.

Opening it Mikhail, then pulled out another
collection of wads. Cash being king in the former Soviet Republic,
you always made sure that you had money for bribes on you—just in
case.

“
There you go, Boss,”
interjected Mikhail handing over the money to Thomas who promptly
parked another wad of dollar bills on top of the ones he had
already set on the table as Nara and the other girls looked on
dumbfounded.

“
That should be the
twenty-five! Please have her suitably delivered to my suite with
her passport and travel papers!” Thomas said, the deal
done.

Not wanting to lose face, but happy that he
had made a good profit of forty-five-thousand dollars that day, if
you included the money he had already taken off the beautiful Jelep
who just tried to kill him, Oleg Mälikgulyýewiç Rejejow offered his
hand to reflect the agreement: changing Nara’s and Thomas’s life
forever in the process.

“
Allah?” Nara’s mind
whirled. “Who is this man?” she asked inwardly as Yuri dragged her
off to collect her papers and things.

“
Why in the hell did I just
do that?” Thomas thought, as Oleg and he joked and toasted each
other health for the umpteenth time that evening.

The romantic in him answered, “Maybe it’s
because I am drawn to her hate and fire mixed with such suppressed
passion in her beauty?” The pragmatist in him dismissed the answer
as rubbish. “If I hadn’t she would have been raped to death and
then tossed on an Ashgabat rubbish tip like a dead dog,” he told
himself taking a sip of his whiskey. “That’s something I am most
surely not going to allow to happen to such a beautiful creature!”
he further convinced himself as he took a bite of a piece of
California sushi roll.

On arriving back at his hotel an hour later
having left Oleg to play with the remaining whores, Thomas was
informed by Mikhail with a disapproving eye that his “purchase” was
now in his suite. He looked at his friend but chose not to say
anything.

Mikhail had become a changed man ever since
he had married his young pretty redheaded wife Hanna, telling him
at every opportunity to settle down and find a nice girl almost as
if he was afraid that Thomas would burn himself out.

“
Bit expensive though for a
Jelep, Boss!” Mikhail joked despite his eyes saying otherwise using
the Turkmen word for a whore within his English
sentence.

“
I know, Mikail,” Thomas
answered with a smile at Mikhail’s attempt at humor before
continuing, “But when in Turkmenistan, one has to buy a horse!”
making reference to the passion of the Turkmen people as they
entered the lift together and rode it to his suite.

“
By the way, that prick Yuri
wanted to make sure I gave you this,” Mikhail said passing him an
envelope.

Opening it, Thomas found it contained the
girl’s “Permission to Travel” documents from the Government and a
pristine Turkman passport. Taking her passport out and flicking
through it, he saw it only had a recently issued visa for the
United Arab Emirates in it. Turning to the end page, he found her
full name.

“
That’s a bit of a mouthful
Boss!” Mikhail exclaimed, looked over his shoulder indicating his
understanding of British humor for double entendre having been with
him for so long.

“
Indeed!” Thomas replied
even though he hadn’t been listening as he had been taking in the
fact that even in a passport photo the girl was stunningly
beautiful, a feat in itself.

“
Christ, she’s only
nineteen!” he thought as her date of birth sunk in as he promptly
closed the passport and placed it back in the envelope. He resealed
it before passing it back to Mikhail.

“
You keep this but give a
copy to the Captain,” he said, referring to the skipper of his
Gulfstream G-4 as he was going to need it for the paperwork for
their return to Moscow in the morning.

“
I don’t want my wild horse
running off and getting herself killed!” he joked. “Oh and when we
get to Moscow can you sort out her visas at the British Embassy as
well, please.”

“
Sure, Boss,” answered
Mikhail without question although nonetheless somewhat surprised
that Thomas actually intended to take the young girl with them. Up
until that moment Mikhail had thought Thomas had saved the girl’s
life because he was a ‘white knight’ but by the statement he had
just given him it now appeared he was actually going to keep her.
It disappointed him, but he decided against making comment. After
all, despite their close relationship, he was the Boss.

“
Hopefully he will do the
right thing,” Mikhail thought before asking, “What should I tell
the Embassy in Moscow for her multiple re-entry visa?” knowing that
an entry visa for the UK wouldn’t be easy.

“
Tell them she is the going
to be the new Executive Director of The Libertine and as its parent
company is English, that should be enough to get her an annual
one.”

“
Will do, Boss,” answered
Mikhail. “I will get Rubin to get the paperwork sorted,” he then
said referring to the member of the team who was the bag carrier as
filling in paperwork was never Mikhail’s strong point. It reminded
him too much of his days in the Shakbat.

Arriving at their floor they walked out of
the lift then down the corridor that had the remaining members of
his personal security team posted along it, to the suite.

“
Night, Boss,” said Mikhail
once they reached the door giving yet another disapproving look
before making a mental note to have some clothes sent up for
her.

“
Goodnight, Mikhail,”
replied Thomas, unaware of what was waiting for him in his
suite.

Closing the door behind him, Thomas walked
into the presidential suite. Taking off his tailored Saville Row
blazer he then placed the garment on the long sofa and walked to
the bar, whereupon he proceeded to get a champagne flute and a
whiskey glass from the cupboard underneath and placed them on top
of the bar.

It was that point he removed his Glock and
holster. Something since that brutal night in Moscow he always
wore. Putting the safety on the pistol, he placed it on the top of
the bar.

Opening the refrigerator he found a bottle of
Moet Chandon and some “exotic” Georgian Champagne.

“
I think we give that miss,”
he said, over the thought of drinking Georgian Champagne, as he put
some ice in a whiskey glass then opened the bottle of Johnnie
Walker Black Label and poured two fingers of the whiskey over the
ice.

Guessing that he would find his guest already
in the bedroom waiting for him and hopefully under the covers he
made his way to its entrance.

The second Thomas entered the bedroom with
the drinks he immediately felt guilty for his quips in the lift
with Mikhail on the way up.

Lying on the bed, with just a blanket
covering her perfectly naked beautiful naturally bronzed skin, her
long jet black hair running down her back over the blanket covering
her, on her side, blindfolded, her hands tied behind her back, legs
also bound together in flex cuffs so she could not escape and
gagged, lay Nara.

“
Fucking Hell, Oleg!” Thomas
thought with disgust knowing that the animal had sent her to him
naked because in his eyes, she owned nothing that wasn’t his. He
also knew now why he had been getting such disapproving looks from
Mikhail. Although he couldn’t quite grasp why his friend had chosen
to leave her like that. He realized now it was Mikhail’s way of
sending him a message.