Other Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen ❯ The Deal ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11

 

Jackson peered at Lisa from over the neat stacks of papers that he was currently perusing at the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. She was sitting in one of the overstuffed, muted jungle print sofa chairs reading a history on the conquests and battles of Alexander the Great. Three weeks had passed since his return and it contained even fewer snafus than before. Either she was adjusting far better than he ever would have imagined or she was doing her best to play the part, trying to gain his trust prematurely. If this was the same Lisa he'd stolen from the plane and not some double he somehow picked up instead, then he guessed the latter was the far more logical explanation. He wondered exactly what that clever little mind was cooking up this time. He certainly hoped it was better than her last little escape attempt.

 

She looked comfortable with her legs pulled up under her, an accent pillow stuffed between her lap and her chest which she rested her book on and the cup of now cold tea sitting next to her. Even if she was planning something, he was sure it wouldn't be effective; the house was a time tested design and was one of only six styles available to members of the company prosperous and high enough up the ranks to deserve one. It had been his permanent residence for three years. He'd been one of the few field agents to get one as you usually had to attain the rank of manager before even getting a crack at one of them. The company had houses just like this, usually remote, all over the world. Some didn't like the fact that they tended to be built away from civilization with its constant comforts and entertainments but Jackson rather liked the solitude. He had always been a loner so the lifestyle suited him just fine.

 

To an outside observer, unaware of his profession, he might look like a new age businessmen that could accomplish ninety percent of his work without ever leaving the comfort of home. At least that's what it would look like if they didn't get a close up glimpse of the paperwork in front of him now. There were dossiers of thirteen possible job options, of which he was going to recommend seven of them. Three were hits related to drug cartels. Drug lords were always high payers but sometimes someone would off the client before the company was able to collect their fee. The three he'd chosen were czars of high power with more stable cartels at the moment. Four of the ones he was going to recommend against were smaller franchises that would probably be gone by the end of the week with the way they came and went. In fighting among these guys was constant and deadly but that's the price one paid when trying to get your foot in the door of the highly lucrative, highly volatile and highly illegal drug trade.

 

Two more in which he was prepared to recommend were run of the mill mafia hits, one for a Japanese outfit and the other for a Russian organization. They rarely did business like that in the states, the money was shit and the American mafia usually hired in house shooters to take care of their business. The Russians, on the other hand, were always hiring out. They didn't seem to like to shit where they ate by trying to keep themselves as removed from the actual hits and keeping their already dirty hands as clean as they could. That line of thinking made the company very happy and very rich. The final go ahead was a political assassination. Those were most often his favorite type. Usually the interested party didn't want it to look like an assassination. Hell, ten percent of the heart attacks and strokes among political figures both within established governments and outside of them were successful hits. Of those about twenty five percent of them were carried out by his company alone. They had the biggest share of that market with a hundred other conglomerate outfits like his taking up about another forty percent of the market with the rest carried out by one man shows.

 

That was one thing he never understood. Why would anyone want to do every aspect of the work themselves? So much of it was mundane and tedious that you never got the clean results the multi person operations did. Oh well, to each his own. He thought. He looked back up and caught Lisa checking on him. Her eyes had immediately fallen away and his earlier musing about what she could possibly be planning popped into his head. Hmmm.

 

The Russian diplomat job was going well, with most of the preliminary planning behind him. Now there was just a lot of waiting until the time for the job drew nearer, until then, he had time to have a little fun.

 

Lisa turned another page but was not another page smarter about Alexander. She hadn't actually been reading the book and even if she had been trying to, there was no way she would have been able to keep her focus. It seemed all she thought about was what to do next. What could she do to get more in his good graces? She'd been so careful about everything she said and did after the escape attempt. Little had come of it except that her new room had no window while Jackson fixed the other. She took deep calming breaths every morning before breakfast to help relax her because all she ever wanted to do was throw her food to the floor like she had that one night which now seemed so long ago. She did a good job of holding back her anger but sometimes it took everything she had to repress her first instincts.

 

In fact, the major revelation of her escape was that Jackson now allowed her outside her room far more often that just meals. She now spent most of the day in the living room. Reading books had immediately become both her cover for planning and her reason to not be engaged in conversation with the man she hated so thoroughly.

 

Jackson watched her openly now, having finished his work for the day and scooted back from the table with his hands now resting with his fingers interlaced behind his head. He could tell she was trying so hard to ignore him. He suddenly had a fabulous idea. If she was going to spend all of her time scheming then he would conduct a little operation of his own that should effectively break that constant concentration and planning. If she wasn't going to go along with the flow and act like a bird is supposed to, then he was no longer going to be content in letting her simply feel this false sense of security she obviously felt. He pulled himself out of his relaxed position and began collecting all of the files together into one pile, purposely leaving one open with a particular picture lying on top. With that accomplished, he stood up.

 

“Leese.” He said to gain her attention. When she looked up at him, he kept talking. “Can I trust you to stay out of trouble if I leave you alone for a few minutes?” He saw her eyes narrow but she said nothing. “Fine then, back into your windowless little room.”

 

“Wait.” She spoke up a little too eagerly. She took a deep sigh. “I'll stay out of trouble.” She mumbled.

 

He chuckled. “Good. Be back in a few.”

 

Lisa pretended to go back to reading but silently cheered. This was going to at last be her chance to do some recon of the house without his knowing. The moment he exited through the door and it closed behind him, she was on her feet and headed for the kitchen. Immediately, she set to opening cabinet doors to get a rough inventory of their contents. Kitchens were chalk full of makeshift weapons and she needed to know where they were. Jackson always prepared the meal with her in her room. Apparently he didn't trust her that much yet.

 

The moment she got to the first cabinet drawer and pulled, she realized with absolute frustration that the cabinets were equipped with what had to be the same locking system as the doors around the house. To the unknowing person, it would appear that no door in the whole house had a lock but Lisa knew full well that they all had one and she had absolutely no idea how they worked. There was just a doorknob with nothing that indicated anything else but a simple door. It now seemed that the same mechanism applied to these. She tried them, twelve in all and every one was the same way, even the one she knew the first aid kit resided in. She wanted to scream out her frustration. The counter tops were barren of anything save a sponge on the sink and a roll of paper towels secured in a built in dispenser. The rest of the house she'd had access to was the same way. Pillows and seat cushions were the only small movable objects in the rooms and she just didn't have a plan laid out yet that involved pillows in any effective way.

 

Dejectedly, she made her way back to the chair she'd been sitting in before embarking on her doomed to fail mission. On the way back she passed the table again but though she'd ignored it on the first pass when her mind was intent on making inventory, this time she noticed the files he'd left out. The open file on top grabbed her attention because of the picture that rested on top. It was a photo of what looked like a family. It seemed to be a mother and father and five children that looked like they ranged in age from two to fifteen years old. By their dress and appearance they looked a bit European but she couldn't be sure. What caught her attention was not the family in the photo but the red makers that encircled every single person in the picture except the man. Offhandedly, she scooted to picture to the side and read the short bio beneath it.

 

Job: Multiple hits

 

Purpose: Client wants to make a point. Wipe the family, defile wife

but leave the mark unharmed. Long deaths a must with visual evidence provided to client. Video preferred.'

 

Payment...

 

There was more but Lisa didn't read any further. She had place both of her hands up to her mouth and couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her.

 

“See something that interests you Leese?” Jackson said only a few feet behind her.

 

Lisa was so startled by his sudden presence that she actually let off a clipped scream of shock. She then spun around so fast that she had to catch herself on the edge of the bar to keep from falling down. She gathered her wits about her. It seemed to get easier and easier as time passed. She shuddered at the thought of becoming comfortable in this place. She hardened her gaze, not caring that Jackson was only a few feet from her.

 

“You're going to kill that family?”

 

“No.” She almost looked relieved for a moment. “It's my job to pick out the people that will though.” Her incredulity returned immediately.

 

“You can't. They're only kids! And what's a `long death', torture?” She almost admonished the killer standing in front of her.

 

“I most certainly can and most likely will.” He said matter of fact.

 

“But they're only kids.” She stared at him with a look of absolute horror.

 

“So you've already said. Now they always will be.” He said with slight air of amusement.

 

“You bastard, you can't!” She was shaking but she hadn't moved.

 

“You're repeating yourself Leese and besides, there's no reason not to.”

 

“Of course there is!”

 

“Really, like what?”

 

She stumbled briefly for words.

 

“Oh come on Leese, you're a smart girl. There's always a reason to not do something.”

 

She looked at him strangely for a moment, wondering how he was suddenly arguing her point for her.

 

“Well, spit it out.”

 

“I...” She started but her face became wracked with confusion. “What?”

 

“I just said that there's something that could keep me from ordering the go ahead on this job. Everyone has a price but the question is what do you think that price is for me?” She looked just as confused after he asked her so he decided to stop being quite so vague.

 

“What do you have that I want that could stop me?” Still the confusion reigned until suddenly a look of understanding dawned before it was quickly covered by terror. For the first time since bringing her here, he decided to act not just psychologically but physically. He pounced on her easily, something that wouldn't have been that simple during her initial stay here. Her false sense of security had slowly eroded her constant readiness to flee.

 

“Get away from me!” She half yelled, half hissed. He had her pinned against the bar as he grabbed a hold of her chin. The next words he spoke were delivered on a scant few inches from her face and Lisa could feel the hot breath of each one of his words.

 

“Come on Leese, is it really that big of a deal? I'm giving you the opportunity to save all their lives for what, a half hour of something so commonplace that probably a billion people are doing it right now?” He watched her reaction for a moment and then continued with his most violent psychological torture to date. “It's not like I want to do anything kinky Leese. Just you on your back, your legs spread nice and wide with me fucking into you until I'm done. And hell, it's been so long I doubt I'll even last all that long. Five minutes tops.”

 

“Please stop.” She was whispering now.

 

“Are you really that selfish? A few scant minutes isn't worth the lives of...” he picked up the photo, holding it up for her to see, “the lives of four, no five cute little kids and their almost assuredly devoted and caring mom?”

 

“Please.” Tears were running down her face.

 

He decided to go for broke as he used the next weapon in the arsenal. “You wanted to know what `long deaths' were Leese? Well let me enlighten you. Each kid will probably go through about an hour of knives, hammers and salt. The young ones usually bleed to death in cases like this so you don't actually have to off them using any traditional methods but the older ones can last a bit longer. The wife will take some more time but then again, it wasn't just torture for her was it.” He looked down at the paper as if to confirm this. “Yup, `defile before death'. A job like this would take about eight individuals to accomplish so that's eight fifteen minute turns each, so two hours. That's about three total hours of torture before she's forced to say goodbye to her husband. That's of course after she watched and most assuredly heard her kids scream as they were slowly being murdered”

 

“Please!”

 

“Do you want to know what this poor sap did to warrant this very bad day?” He spoke like he had on the plane, in the bathroom. It was cold but earnest in its delivery and it terrified Lisa more than she though mere words could. “He stole from his employer, about a hundred American dollars so that he could feed his rather large family. Do you think he deserved that?”

 

“Please stop.”

 

“No, I don't think you would Leese. No. Your ethical and moral principles are far too developed to think that way, isn't it? Do you think your conscience would approve if you let this family die all because you don't want me to touch you a little? So as I see it Lisa, it's all up to you; now isn't it? Do they live or do they die?” It was the first time he'd said her real name in all the time she'd been here but it didn't impress her in the least. She wasn't paying any attention to trivialities like that at the moment.

 

“But...”

 

“What Lisa?”

 

“But...”

 

“Spit it out already.”

 

“BUT SOMEONE ELSE WILL TAKE THE JOB WON'T THEY?” She shouted out in frustration.

 

He accomplished his goal with the taunting. He needed her to feel any emotions right now except fear. He was pleased that, even in the state he'd thrown her into, she still had the presence of mind to think that deeply into it. “Actually...” he trailed off as he grabbed another file from the pile, “this is the same type of dossier as the one of the family. The interesting part of it is, that this is a hit file on the very man that is trying to hire us to kill the entire family.” He let that soak in for a moment. “Seems like he's not very popular with his peers.” He paused briefly again before changing his tone yet again to that of someone sympathetic to the whole situation. “Now here's the thing Lisa. Which one do I recommend for completion, the family or this guy, a Russian mob boss? The family job pays more but...” He let the sentence hang.

 

Lisa had never known such nerve-wracking conflict in her life. What should she do? Could she...to save them? “How do I know you're not lying?”

 

“You don't. It's the risk you take at trying to do the right thing. However, I will promise you that I'll force you to watch the evidence the client wants to see if you force me to make the decision on my own Lisa.”

 

She broke down crying but he still didn't relent. He hadn't come this far to back down now. She was almost there. Stopping now would be disastrous and he didn't know what other methods he'd be able to employ if she refused. He could always rape her, the idea of committing the act didn't bother him in the least but he'd thrown given himself the challenge: get her to choose to give herself to him willingly. It didn't matter to him that the method of giving her that choice was a tad underhanded. He was confident that just a little more encouragement, a little more pressure and she'd give him exactly what he wanted. He pressed closer into her if it were possible, his body pressed against hers and his mouth by her ear. “Are you willing to make this tiny sacrifice to save them?” He whispered in a nearly seductive and entirely husky voice.

 

She didn't respond.

 

“I need to know now Lisa. I need to send them my recommendations. What am I going to tell them?”

 

She still didn't respond but her sobbing had died down to occasional tremors and a few sharp intakes of breath.

 

“Tell me now. Who dies: the kids or the Mafioso? Your choice Lisa.”

 

A long moment of silence passed where the only audible noises in the room were Lisa's surprisingly quiet sounds of extreme duress. She didn't know what to do but in the end, she made her choice.

 

He felt her nod and mumble something unintelligible. “What was that Lisa?” He really hadn't heard her but he didn't need to. Her body language said it all. She was still shaking but she was slouching, her shoulders unable to bear the weight of her invisible but all too real burden any longer. This was it. He'd done it.

 

Jackson Rippner had finally broken Lisa Reisert.

 

Angelsfalltearfully - He was actually a bit more amused by her antics in the room than he was angry. He expects he to act this way and it's one of the reasons he chose her. It's a challenge for him. I hope you liked this chapter as well!

KingSamuraiJack - What can I say, I like to break them down and then build them back up.