Hidden Agenda (Work In Progress)

Here is chapter five of Hidden Agenda.  It's a long one today!  I've really got into the story now and I couldn't stop writing it today.  I hope you enjoy it.  Please let me know what you think of it. :)

Sara


Chapter Five


London, July, 1996

Alessandro stared at Ariadne's beautiful pale features in surprise. It looked as though Paul had suffered from a wave of conscience before his death. But he was curious about one thing.

'If you are going to give it to the police, why didn't you give this tape to your boyfriend?' he asked in a calm low voice.

She frowned.

'How do you know about Richard?'

'I heard him talking to your sister Jane outside your room. He doesn't believe your story about tonight. And yet there was such eloquence in your acting ability.' He couldn't help but smile.

She gave a sigh and flicked those haunting dark chestnut eyes away from him towards the window. He followed them. He could still hear the eerie wail of sirens. The grey fog was still hanging over the rooftops and orange flames of fire did their best to stretch high above it in the distance.

'It doesn't surprise me,' she said turning her head back to look up at him. He turned back to watch her intently. Her eyes suddenly scrunching with pain. She rubbed her forehead. 'He doesn't believe anyone or anything,' there was heavy irritated sarcasm in her tone. 'His job has turned him sour. And I wouldn't trust him with something as important as the tape. I am pretty sure that as well as serial womaniser he is what is known in the trade as a bent copper. From what he tells me about his work it sounds as though a few of them in that station are. I will take it somewhere else.'

Alessandro rolled his black eyes.

'Really. I take it there is trouble in paradise?'

'There is no paradise, Alessandro. There never was with him . . .'

Alessandro thought carefully for a moment as her voice trailed off. She deserved to know that Richard and her sister were fucking each other behind her back. He would want to know and he figured it would be the same for her after their meeting tonight. She didn't seem a woman who would suffer fools. But his conscience insisted he admit that he had an ulterior motive. He wanted her and the tape. It was plain and simple. Not to mention a surprise and a bloody inconvenience. He didn't have time for seducing a beautiful woman. Get a grip. Think about the tape, just the fucking tape. He told her anyway.

'Did you know your sister and Richard are having an affair?'

Her eyes filled with water but she didn't shed any tears. Her expression told him she knew. He felt relieved.

'I thought we were talking about the tape?' she said hardening her voice.

'We are but I thought you would like to know. You deserve better than him,' he whispered gently.

'I found out tonight,' there were angry tears in her voice that she did her best to rein in. 'I met a friend for a coffee. She told me she'd seen them together at the weekend. They were partying together at a nightclub with a load of his friends. It was my one weekend off from this bloody hospital. I wanted to go out but he had to work. He couldn't get out of it. And he was with her . . .' she paused and sighed. 'I'd be angry if I had the energy. But after what's has happened I just don't care anymore. I was on my way home to confront them both when the explosion happened.'

'Shit.' Alessandro reached out and touched her arm in sympathy. 'I'm sorry,' he paused and then said more firmly, 'But I need the tape. And I am not leaving this room until I have it.'

'No. I promised Paul I would get it to the police. He said the bombs that were set off tonight were done by that environmental group, VOTE. He belonged to it.'

Alessandro frowned listening to her voice rise with heated agitation, desperate for him to see it her way. He didn't mistake the trace of fear evident in her tone about what he would do to her if she wouldn't give him the tape. He needed her to be worrying about it. To wonder how far he would go. Fear was always a persuasive tool but for the first time he felt sick that he had to make use of it on a woman. How far would he go? That was the real question. He'd never hurt a woman before and he didn't want to start. But he had little choice . . .

'Paul said that the bombs had been set off sooner than planned. They weren't supposed to go off tonight. He also said that VOTE were planning something bigger, much bigger than these bombs. I don't even want to think what that might be . . . This tape is a recorded meeting with the committee in which they organised the explosions. It's vital evidence for the police. Don't you see?' she almost begged him. 'It's about more than settling a vendetta with your grandfather.'

'Paul told you about that?'

'Not much . Just that for some reason your mafia boss and grandfather is mixed up with VOTE and funding these explosions. And he's going to help them do whatever it is that their planning next. What is he getting in return?'

Alessandro didn't want to hear anymore.

'Don't ever make the mistake of calling him my boss,' he snapped. 'You shouldn't be mixed up in this. I don't trust the police. Vadala buys police whether they are in Italy, here or anywhere and when they don't play ball they or their families are threatened or killed if they get in his way. I know he is funding VOTE,' Alessandro heard his voice rise with anger. 'Give the tape to me and I will see to it that when I bring my grandfather to his knees VOTE's whole operation will be stopped.'

'No. I can't afford to trust you. I promised I would do everything Paul asked.'

Alessandro gave a growl and stood, spying her bloodied clothes neatly folded on a chair by the window. He rifled through them. He searched her nightstand, under the bed and the rest of her room. Nothing.

'You won't find it,' he heard her say nervously behind him as he closed the wardrobe doors.

He straightened feeling his temper rise to snapping point. He turned swiftly and approached her bed once more. He caught hold of the rail behind her and leaned over her in a threatening manner. Her already pale features whitened further and she began to struggle with her injuries to sit up. He pushed her back down against the pillows with his free hand and firmly held her there. He watched her lips tremble and those beautiful chestnut eyes widen with fear.

'I'm going to ask you one more time where the tape is and if you don't answer me I am going to have to hurt you,' he told her.

She swallowed hard, twice and opened her mouth to speech. Her voice came out dry and raspy with fear. She made an effort to clear it. Alessandro felt nausea rise in his stomach once more.

'It's hidden.'

'I'm warning you, Ariadne,' Alessandro deepened his voice and moved his fingers from her shoulder across to her throat. He gently stroked her soft delicate skin and studied her lips fighting the sudden urge to kiss her. Focus. He spoke with quiet determined menace in a voice as soft as cashmere, 'You've seen what I am capable of doing back on the street with Gregorio.'

Alessandro's stomach twisted a knot again when she looked up at him with terrified eyes.

'Don't think I will be lenient with you just because you are a woman. Now where is the tape?' he demanded.

His question was met with silence. He shut his conscience down and wasted no more time, gripping her throat with sudden swiftness. She gave a strangled cry.

'Maybe it's on you. Perhaps I should search you and give you a beating you won't forget,' he growled using his free hand to tear back the bed covers in blind fury.

Tears sprang from her eyes then. She couldn't seem to help herself. She gave a sob scrunching her eyes up tight and curled up her bare bruised legs up the bed. She only wore a hospital gown and was clearly naked underneath it. It would be so easy to tear it from her and find out where she was hiding the tape. He took hold of the bottom of it in a right fist ready to rip it when she let out a sob and forced herself to look at him.

'Please, don't. It isn't on me. It's in a safe place. I gave it to someone to hide. They don't know what it is but I know it's safe. You have to believe me. Did you see that woman and the child lying in the street? The ones I said I tried to help but they died?' she sobbed. 'That was my best friend who came to tell me about Richard and Jane and the child was her six year old daughter. Everyone in that street died apart from me. Why did I survive and not them? What makes me so special?' she cried.

Alessandro felt his hard eyes soften despite his resolve to entertain her fear of him.

'I should be dead with them but I'm not,' she continued. 'I owe it to them to bring these people to justice and stop them. You can do what you want but I won't give that tape up without a fight. I will hunt you down until I get it back and bring you and your grandfather to the police on a silver platter,' she almost spat at him.

He stared at her, awed by her power and her determination not to let him have the upper hand even when he had her physically cornered.

'And as for hurting me. I don't believe you want to, Alessandro. You could have taken that tape from me any time in that hole in the street. You must have seen it in my blouse, yet you didn't. You protected me and saved my life. You aren't your grandfather. You are a decent human being. Don't destroy that. Let me do this. I promise the police will get him.'

Alessandro took in a deep breath and continued staring at her in silence. After a moment his fingers relaxed on the material of her hospital gown. He heard footsteps outside her door. Quickly, he let go of her gown and her throat. Without a word he replaced the covers around her and stood back watching her wipe her eyes as she cried with relief.

'I'm sorry.' He said it without thinking. He meant it. 'I don't want to hurt you but holding on to that tape will get you killed. And I don't want that on my conscience either,' he told her abruptly wrestling with anger at himself for nearly overstepping the mark.

'I am willing to take the risk. I have to. I owe so many people . . .'

'You owe it to yourself to stay alive,' he jumped on her frustrated by her lack of thought for her own life. 'Give it to me and I will make sure VOTE are destroyed my way.'

There were voices outside the door now. They could both hear Jane talking to a nurse.

'No. I am going to take it in to the police tomorrow myself.'

'You can't trust the police with your life. Even when you've given that tape to them Vadala is going to come after you. You won't ever be safe again. You won't make it into that police station tomorrow. They will have killed you before then. Don't do this to yourself,' he said gruffly. He didn't want to see her lying dead on the pavement with her head blown off.

'I must . . .'

'I will be here tomorrow,' he interrupted. 'They will already be on your pretty tail. I am going to take that tape from you. I've been lenient tonight but when the morning comes, if you live to see it, you won't be so lucky with me if you give me any grief. And you'll thank me for saving your life.'

'It looks like it will be a race between yourself and your grandfather to get the tape before I take it to the police. But don't be so sure either one of you will win the challenge. I know this hospital like the back of my hand now and I will outwit the two of year getting out of here,' she said with confidence.

He couldn't help but laugh. He shook his head.

'You are really something. I'm going to send a couple of my men over to keep an eye on you. I will know your every move and you won't get out of here tomorrow without giving me that tape.'

'We'll see,' she challenged curtly, recovering her composure.

He narrowed his eyes at her and was about to say more when the door to her room opened and Jane walked in. Alessandro flashed a smile when Jane gave him a confused look.

'Oh I'm sorry I didn't know anyone was in here with you, Ariadne,' she gushed blushing.

Alessandro watched her eyes travel the length of him and return a small smile of admiration. Score. Shame, but I prefer your sister. Much more class and she has the edge on you for looks and cleavage.

'This is doctor Michael Jenkins,' Ariadne covered for him. 'He is training to be a surgeon with me. He's just come to see if I am doing ok.'

'Hello, I'm Jane Balmain,' she said shaking his hand. 'Nice to meet you.'

'Likewise. Balmain. That's French?'

'Yes, French father, English mother,' Jane smiled fluttering her lashes.

'I thought you said you had rounds, Michael?' Ariadne urged with a certain amount of annoyance in her voice.

'Yes, you are right. Must go. Nice to meet you, Jane. Ariadne, I will check in on you in the morning,' Alessandro said with a smile.

'That's if I'm still here,' she smiled sweetly.

He left without another word quietly cursing her under his breath.