"LOOK, WHAT HAPPENED between us on that boat----it was real, okay?" Benito said to Mischa with some effort, given the gun that was now shoved into his ear. "I wasn't part of any plan. But when I left you---when I got off the yacht----I was walking down the dock and I saw it. I saw the whole thing happen." He sighed nervously, as if reliving something horrifying. "I saw them----shoot Diego and Renaud in their car."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMnAxfkn7M
She tried to steady her nerves. She had kept her hands busy, either gripping Benito's hair or steadying the gun against his ear to stop them from trembling. Her heart was hammering so violently that she had trouble hearing Benito. She didn't think this moment was ever really going to come. Now that it was, how could she best handle it?331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSPfhX3eYWo
"I----threw myself down on the dock," Benito continued. "It was just instinct to duck down. I probably made a lot of noise. Anyway, they heard me. I----I didn't know what to do. I was still processing everything and suddenly they were on the dock, pointing guns at me, and I was on my knees begging them not to kill me. I'd never been so scared in all my life."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDORUvxSYm7
She knew something about fear. She was terrified right now, and she was the one holding the gun. Sweat was dripping into her eyes and her pulse was working so feverishly that she was beginning to wonder if this was what it felt like to have a stroke.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxUavIyQfI8
"You gotta take my word for it, Mischa, I was just trying to get out of there alive. I told them who I was and that I'd give them anything----I'd give them money, I'd put them in a movie, anything at all----if they'd spare my life."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2hgKFgRw5
"And destroy four other women's lives." The bitter edge to Mischa's words made her voice unrecognizable to her.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4CfxFCEuRR
"I wasn't trying to destroy anything," he said. "I was trying to survive. I knew if I didn't go along with them, they'd kill me."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr58inYDbGa
"Who's 'they,' Benito?" she asked. "Who did this?"331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLO6suyl2JP
As the other guests watched a young Adolf Hitler struggling to peddle his paintings on the streets of Vienna, Egor Tarabasov and Godfredo Costa huddled and considered their options. "This is our chance," Godfredo whispered. "We might not get another one."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qbeCCOZzS
It was the only reason they'd come to the party tonight, to get a word with Benito before the movie premiere, to make sure that Benito was on the same page with them, to give them a few not-so-friendly reminders. But the star of the show had been mobbed from the moment he stepped out of his limousine. Getting a second alone with Benito McLaughlin at this event was harder than getting an audience with the pope.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKC42WIXFQ4
But now they had a chance. Benito had slipped out of the theater. Maybe he was off to the bathroom, or to the alley for a smoke. Maybe an interview with the press. But if he left through that door, odds were he'd return the same way. They could follow through that door and wait for the chance for their little pow-wow.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMU7XJWIUC
Egor looked over at Godfredo, whose face was illuminated by the light coming off the movie screen. This was becoming a pattern: Godfredo preferring action over deliberation, always leading with his nose, while Egor played the voice of reason, viewing the bigger picture and pointing out the consequences. Lord knows, Godfredo had almost blown everything in Monte Carlo when he called the other boyfriends to join him....but Egor made sure to fly them down in one of his jets, where he could manipulate the passenger manifest and keep their arrival clandestine.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbwyr1Qr6ks
Then again, they'd worked together well as a team. Egor might never have acted without Godfredo, who was so fierce with rage after watching the girlfriends at the nightclub, and then that orgy on the yacht.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDTzOqOJvqY
"It's now or never, amigo, no?"331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnl0PGuTAY
Egor felt his pulse surge, just as it had that night.331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8ulDFmocx
"All right 'Fredo," he said. "Let's do it."331Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1f6bSf3sj
