Chapter Seventeen
HUDSON
I HATED MYSELF FOR walking away from Gaby, but I couldn’t let her know what Nico and I had planned. I needed her to be shocked and act normally when I turned up at Vincent’s apartment. If she’d have known what I was going to do, then Vincent would have suspected something by her manner when she walked through the door. I had tried throughout the day to give her hope, to tell her not to give up so soon, but I wasn’t sure if she had really taken it in.
The reason she hadn’t seen Nico all day wasn’t just because he had been arranging our trip back to New York. He was doing that, but he was also putting everything into place for this evening.
I walked back to the car and got in. The driver drove me to Vincent’s apartment block and stopped around the corner where we couldn’t be seen. Nico had chosen this spot, as it was easy to get access to the building and was close enough for him to bring Gaby out without being seen.
We sat there for a little while waiting. I knew it would be about thirty minutes before Gaby would get home, so I was going to call Nico at around one o’clock, check that he was ready, and then make the call to Vincent. I looked at my watch and saw it was just coming up to one, then took my phone out of my pocket and dialed his number. I knew that Vincent wouldn’t hear it, even with him being so close, because he had put it on silent, but he would know I was calling. Within a couple of rings, he answered.
“I’m ready here, Hud. Rosa has already arrived home, and from what I can gather, Vincent has already started to quiz her. I’ve held myself back, but if you don’t get here soon, I’m going to murder him.”
I didn’t like what I was hearing, both that Gaby was possibly in trouble and that Nico was about to commit a murder on my brother’s home turf. I needed to try to calm the situation, and quickly.
“Just stay calm and out of the way. I am just going to make the call now. Unless you think Gaby’s life is in serious danger, stay exactly where you are.”
I hoped that, for once, he would actually take orders from me and not go all gung ho on me.
“I’m not going to make promises, Hud. But I will stay here as long as I feel she is safe.”
That was the best I could hope for from him. I ended the call without saying another word. I needed to get myself up and into that apartment. I dialed the number that Gaby had given me for Vincent. It rang a few times before an irate Vincent answered the phone.
“Hello?”
I really didn’t appreciate being snapped at, but I was guessing he probably hadn’t had much sleep, waiting for Gaby to come home, so I let it slide.
“Hi, Vincent. It’s Hudson Bryce-Stanton here.”
“What do you want?”
He really didn’t sound pleased to hear my voice, but I decided to carry on.
“I have a very lucrative business proposal for us both. Can I come meet you?”
“Now?”
This was what I was worried about. That he would try to put me off until tomorrow morning and we would miss our flight slot. I had to convince him that it was worth his while.
“I know it’s late. I have to head back home tonight, but this deal needs to be made tonight if you want to go ahead so I can get everything in place. Believe me, you will kick yourself if you don’t get involved. You’ll be making more money than those Russians you’re dealing with.”
I hoped mentioning the Russians might give him an idea of what my proposition was. I must have piqued his interest when he answered me.
“If you must.”
“I’m just around the corner, so I will be there in a few minutes.”
I ended the call, sent a text to Nico to tell him we were on, and got out of the car. I took a little time to walk around to the front of the building; I didn’t want Vincent to think I had been right outside when I called him. I went up to the door and pressed the intercom for his apartment.
“Yes?”
“Hi, Vincent. It’s Hudson.”
“Come up.”
It didn’t escape my notice how blunt he was with me. I walked into the building and to the elevator to head up to his floor. When I approached the apartment door and found it open, I carefully went inside and announced that I was here.
“Vincent?”
“In here.”
I followed his voice and found myself walking into the living room. As I walked in, I saw Gaby standing there. I could tell she had been crying, and it looked as though her neck was red. I kept my face neutral, even though inside I was seething with rage knowing that Vincent had probably caused it.
I could see the shock on Gaby’s face as she realized it was me, but luckily, Vincent didn’t. He got up from his seat, walked toward me, and placed his arm around Gaby before speaking.
“I believe you know my fiancée, Ella. You know, the woman I took from you all those years ago.”
I could see Gaby cringe at being called Ella. I wasn’t going to call her that.
“It’s lovely to see you again.”
For once, I wasn’t lying. It was lovely to see her and the fact that she was relatively unharmed.
She gave a small smile. “It’s lovely to see you too.” She turned to Vincent, who was still holding her possessively. “I am going to head to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She said her goodbyes and headed out of the room, leaving me alone with Vincent.
“Care to take a seat, Hudson?”
“Thanks.”
I followed Vincent toward the sofa and took a seat while he walked over to the cabinet in the corner of the room. As he reached it, he turned and spoke.
“Drink?”
“Bourbon, if you have any, please.”
He poured the drinks and walked back over to me, passing me the glass before taking a seat in the chair opposite me.
“So, what was so important that you had to come here in the early hours of the morning?”
I could tell he was annoyed that I was here, but I wasn’t going to let him get to me, especially as I knew that Gaby was safe and relatively unharmed. It did look as though I had gotten here just in time, though. I just decided to ignore his tone.
“Yes. Sorry it’s late, but this deal just dropped onto my lap, and I didn’t want you to miss out. I have a contact that can supply me with a new drug that is supposed to give you the same high as cocaine, but at an eighth of the price. In addition, it is in tablet form, so far easier to deal. Personally, I don’t do drugs, so I can’t say if it is worth it, but I thought it may be of interest to you. Plus, the markup on them is astronomical, so it’s well worth the small investment.”
I could see I had piqued his interest, and his demeanor immediately changed as he spoke to me.
“How much profit are we talking?”
I knew I had him hooked already.
“Well, we can buy the pills for around fifty cents each. They are selling in New York for about ten dollars a pill. I reckon we could sell them here for a little less, maybe eight dollars. So that’s around seven and a half dollars profit. I’m willing to make the initial investment for a twenty-five percent cut of the profits, meaning you would get five dollars a pill. Then I would put you in touch with the supplier and you can go it alone.”
I watched as he mentally went through everything I had said.
“How many pills would you be buying as the initial investment?”
“I was thinking around ten thousand. I can get that amount easily. Any more, and it starts to raise eyebrows. That would be an outlay of five thousand dollars for me. You sell them, give me twenty-five thousand dollars, and you keep the other fifty.”
I knew what would be coming next. It was why Nico had been missing most of the morning, trying to find something from his contacts. We needed something that would give Vincent the high he needed, but within a matter of minutes, knock him out cold for the rest of the night.
“I don’t suppose you have any I can try? I need to know what I am selling and how good it is.”
I wanted that exact reaction. I had him hook, line, and sinker.
“I do have a couple, actually. May be worth you trying one while I’m here, though. Just to be on the safe side. My contact promises me they are safe, but you just don’t know. At least if something goes wrong, I can call 911.”
I pulled a bag from my inside pocket containing the two pills. Nico had said that he would only need to take one when he left the message with Patrick, Trent’s driver, who had driven me this evening. I just hoped he was right.
“That probably would be the best idea, wouldn’t it?”
I watched as he took the bag from me, opened it, and took one of the tablets with his drink. I wasn’t sure how they would react with alcohol, but I wasn’t about to stop him. I needed him knocked out so that Nico could put the next part of the plan into action. I looked on as the drug seemed to take effect; I had to admit it was faster than I had thought it would work.
“Wow, this is fucking fantastic. If they are all like this, I’m fucking in.”
I was just about to reply to him when he literally fell asleep on the chair. I got up from my chair and checked that he was still breathing. I knew he would probably check all of the security footage from the cameras that were all over the apartment, probably to keep tabs on Gaby, so I acted like the concerned friend. I checked his pulse, tried to wake him up. When I was convinced that he was still alive and not in any distress, I walked out of the room and headed back to my car. I got in and pulled out my phone to send Nico a text.
All go.
All I had to do now was sit here and wait.