Chapter 14 ~ Alexander #3
Rose comes in with the coffee tray and sets it down on the table and leaves. I get up and grab a cup. I hold it up for Carlos, but he waves his hand no.
“So, you are ready to go?”
I pull my chair in and set my cup down. “Yeah. I’ve avoided her since Tuesday. I thought it best to just leave her as is.”
Carlos smirks. “That’s not what I asked, but good to know your heads in the game.”
“Fuck you.”
We banter back and forth for a few minutes; I get the tickets out and hand them to Carlos. My bags are packed and by the office door.
Suddenly, the door swings open, bouncing off the wall, and Sebastian is storming across the floor, face red, eyes huge and even redder.
His t-shirt is wrinkled and stained, and he has two days’ worth of growth on his scruffy face.
He has his hands full of folders and papers are sticking out all over.
One falls out and he bends over and snags it off the floor.
He comes to my desk and dumps the whole thing right in the middle.
I lift my cup quickly, so it doesn’t spill.
“What the fuck, brother? Are you okay? You look like shit.”
I hold him by the shoulders, and he shakes his head no, his eyes glass over with what I think are unshed tears.
“What the fuck man, sit down and take a deep breath, brother.”
He takes a seat; Carlos gets up and grabs him a finger full of whiskey. Sebastian downs it, coughs, and shakes his head. “Ugh!”
“You better start talking, Sebastian. I’ve seen you fucked up, but never this fucked up.”
He reaches for a folder on the desk and starts to hurriedly flip through pages.
“I found the shareholder for the last eight accounts.” He flips more paper, finally stops, and pulls one out, crumpling it in his fist.
“I stayed awake for two days. My tags worked. I received a notification and began the trace I set up on the IP address and back tracked it from the Cayman Islands. It came from a Chicago-based account, so I followed the tracer. It bounced around, but I was on it. I checked it and re-checked it. I just didn’t want it to be true. ”
His eyes water. One tear falls, and he wipes quickly and sniffs. My stomach falls, and I reach across the desk and grab the papers out of his hands. I move his folder aside and start flipping through, looking for a name. On the last page, there it is in bold black ink.
Isabella Gallo, I flip again to the next one, Isabella Gallo. My chest gets tight, and I can’t breathe. My ears are ringing with each one of the account holders’ name, Isabella Gallo.
I gather them in my hand and run to the door.
Carlos tries to stop me, and Sebastian is yelling, but I can’t hear a word they say.
I run up the stairs, taking two at a time, storming down the hall and kicking open her room.
She is sitting at the window and lets out a scream as she jumps in her seat and then stands up, her face in shock at my angry approach.
I don’t let her get a word out, I grab her by the throat and walk her till she hits the wall, my face inches from hers.
The coffee table is overturned, glass and dead flowers litter the floor as I push up on her throat so she's on her tiptoes. She’s sputtering and gripping my wrist, her nails digging in, but I don’t feel the pain.
I welcome it.
Putting my nose close to hers, I spit out. “Did you think we were that fucken dumb that we wouldn’t find out?” I bark as I shake the papers in her face. She’s trying to swallow, and I push her harder, cutting off more air.
“Everything leaves a trail, bunny and Sebastian found yours. You played a good game, you, and Daddy.” I shake her jaw and her face is turning red now. I grit my teeth as I try to get the words out. “I almost fell for you, almost. You were so close to getting me to believe the lies and you knew it.”
I squeeze her throat tighter and her eyes bug out, her lips a light shade of blue. I push off of her letting go and she falls to the floor, holding her throat. The tears are streaming down her face, and she curled on her side, shaking her head.
Squatting down, and bend over her and hold the papers in her face as I scream at her. “Do you even know what you signed?”
Isabella crawls backward on her ass to the wall and sits up, holding her neck. She tries to talk, but it’s broken and hard for me to hear over the ringing in my ears.
“T-t-trust.” She stammers, rubbing her throat and gulping in air. I hold her chin in my hand and a sadistic laugh comes out.
“Trust you? I don’t fucken think so, bunny.”
I hold the papers in her face once again. “This, little bunny, is evidence of your betrayal, not only to me, but to the organization as a whole. Fourteen million dollars’ worth of betrayal.”
Moving closer to her ear, I snarl, and every word is laced with animosity. “You and Daddy thought you could walk in here, make me believe in your innocence and fall for you, marry you, and get rid of us and take my father’s chair?”
I drop her chin and stand up. Sebastian and Carlos come running into her room. They both stop and look at her, crying on the floor, a broken mess, and then back up at me, but I don’t look at them.
She’s weak and pathetic and I regret every moment I spent trying to make her happy; the dress, the necklace, buying the sculpture. But most of all, I hate myself for falling and I hate myself for wanting that fucken smile.
Standing over her I loom down in disgust. “You thought you could get away with it; marry me, fuck me, tease me, and make me want something I never knew I wanted. Well, guess what bunny, you thought you signed to win, but the only thing you signed was your death warrant.”
I push past Sebastian, who stares at Isabella with a tear running down his cheek; Carlos follows me but says nothing. Sasha comes running down the hall and swings herself around the door, looking at Isabella crying on the floor. She moves past me to go to her. But I pull her arm back, stopping her.
I snap at Sasha as I walk out. “Leave her there, watch the door. Eyes on her at all times.”
I hear her door close behind me, and Sebastian follows sniffing a few times.
She had fooled us all; we all fell a little in love with her.
Fuck love and fuck her.