Hello, and Happy Monday! (Happy only because I get the chance to update! LOL! Please! Give me a little credit! Monday's generally suck! I'm not delusional!)
Oh, but our friend Vanessa appears to be, doesn't she? Well, my lovelies, you don't know the half of it!
Not yet, anyway...
Happy Reading! I hope you enjoy it! And thank you all of your support and reviews! I love 'em! Keep 'em coming! :)
I heard Pepper storm out, and the door slam behind me, promptly followed by Vanessa giggling darkly to herself. Don't go, Pep, I pleaded desperately in my mind. Please don't go. Then I sensed Vanessa walking toward me. She swiveled around beside me, and threw herself cross-ways into my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Some people find it so hard to share in other's joy, wouldn't you agree, my love?" she cooed, grinning.
I just silently shifted my hopeless gaze from out the window to her devilish eyes. The effects of the tranquilizer she'd shot me up with in the basement of the factory the day before were now fairly minimal, but it was still in the process of fully wearing off. I had a much clearer mind than I'd had several hours before, however, when we'd left that wretched room and come back here to the hotel. But now, the fog in my brain could be easily attributed to the shock and overwhelm I felt from how quickly everything had deteriorated within the last twelve hours. Let me fill you in...
XxXxXxXxXx
The night before...
Vanessa smiled knowingly at me when I'd realized her strategy- that she intended to leverage Pepper's safety against me to get whatever she'd lured me here for. "Yes, darling. Your dear, sweet little Pepper," she cooed, stroking my cheek with the backs of her fingertips, still straddling my hips. I recoiled against her touch, but she ignored me.
"If you hurt her, I swear to God, I'll..." I warned.
She chuckled. "Oh, I don't believe you're in any position to make threats, Tony," she purred. "Which is why I'm going to make a list of demands, and you're going to fulfill every last one of them! You don't think I know what that little tart means to you? You don't think I've seen the way you look at each other? All googley-eyed and forlorn? It's pathetic. Sickening, actually."
I scoffed. "What the hell are you talking about, Vanessa?" I defended. "Pepper has no interest in me. Our relationship is purely..."
"Of course, Tony. Deny, deny, deny," she countered. "But you can't hide what you truly want, love. It's impossible. You love her, don't you? And I can respect that! Honestly! Some find it a noble burden, to be in the confines of love. I find it to be weak-minded, personally. But you obviously find some nobility in it! So let me help to solidify those constraints, shall I?"
I looked at her with a trepidacious frown. "I'll do whatever you want," I said softly, surrendering. "Just promise me you won't hurt her."
Vanessa grinned with evil satisfaction, and slowly backed off of me to come to a standing position. "I thought you might see it my way," she gloated, folding her arms triumphantly.
I exhaled, and sat up, as best as I could, since my hands were still cuffed together around the cast iron pipe headboard. "Name your price. I'll pay anything," I said.
Vanessa scoffed. "Money?!" she exclaimed, cackling. "Do you honestly think I'm doing all of this because I'm after your money? Oh, darling! Don't insult me." She swiveled around and slowly, deliberately sauntered away from me, her curvy hips swaying exaggeratedly from side to side. "No. No,no,no. What I want," she said, spinning around again to face me, her eyes narrowed with razor-like determination. "Is your life. And everything in it," she hissed.
I chuckled bitterly to myself. "I already told you. You kill me, and you'll be doing me a favor, honey," I reiterated.
She shook her head. "Oh, I don't want to end your life, Tony. Rather, you'll be present for every waking moment, right by my side," she said.
I shook my head in return. "Then, I don't get it," I replied.
She huffed. "Honestly, love. I know your mind must be a little foggy, yet. But, for a genius, you're being pretty dense," she stated with a hint of annoyance. "You're going to sign over your share of Stark Industries, plus any and all of your personal assets, to me," she explained. "And if you don't," she murmured. "Your favorite little ginger secretary will be immediately done away with. Understand, now?" she said pointedly.
My nostrils flared with my temper. I glared at her. "What?" I asked, through gritted teeth.
Vanessa continued. "We will merge Matthews Energy with Stark Industries immediately, and then I will handle all new weapons contracts from that point forward. And all you'll have to do is stand by my side and look pretty."
I chuckled, and rolled my eyes. "Wow, that's some serious delusion you've got going on there, Matthews," I snarked. "And I can't believe I actually have to explain this to you? But you do realize I'm not the sole share-holder in my company, right?" I said sarcastically.
"See, there you go insulting my intelligence again," she said with a rueful smirk. "You're speaking of Mr. Obadiah Stane, are you not?"
"For starters," I said. The way it worked was, I held the largest personal share of the company, at 26%. Obadiah held 25%, which, added together, made 51%, obviously. The Board of Directors held the other 49%. Our company bi-laws stated that for any new changes in operations or protocol to take place, there had to be a unanimous consensus between Obie and I. Or if he and I couldn't agree, we'd have to go before the Board and argue our opposing cases. And however the majority voted, the outcome would dictate the success or failure of the proposed changes.
She smirked deviantly. "It's no secret that Mr. Stane is a man of enterprise and vision," she said. "And I have it on good authority that he's had an interest in the past in developing nuclear applications."
"What, like 40 years ago?!" I cried. "I don't know if you got the memo, sweet-cheeks, but there was a thing called the Cold War? It kinda made weapons-grade plutonium a real bitch to get a hold of. Obie hasn't talked about doing anything with nuclear energy since Reagan left office," I replied sardonically.
"But with my company's resources readily available to him once you hand over your Stark shares to me, what would stop him from signing on? Once you've convinced him that we're simply looking to develop new uses for nuclear energy and that Stark Industries should get involved because it's potentially very lucrative for all parties involved, of course. He's one that likes to be in the forefront of industry, is he not? And, let's face it, Tony," she argued. "If you're not expanding into other markets and diversifying your company's goods and services, you're certainly not going to flourish in the 21st Century, are you?"
I considered her words for a moment, with the knowledge that Obie had been far more aggressive about delving into other markets in the past than I had, and would most likely, in the very least, take into consideration what Vanessa would be forcing me to tell him.
But working with nuclear energy? That would be a jagged mountain for us to climb, even with trying to do something legitimate with it to keep up outward appearances. It was one mired in red tape in and of itself, let alone trying to get permission as a weapons manufacturer to work with anything radioactive. Big brother would be watching our every move. And Obie never liked being constrained by government regulations anymore than he had to be, much like myself.
But, let's say for the sake of argument, that Obie did agree to partner up with Vanessa. Her plan to secretly sell to the world's worst war-mongers would be tricky, at best, for her to accomplish undetected, by him or the government. Besides, according to Vanessa, all she had right now was some earnest money in the Cayman's and a promissory note from Kim Jong-Un. That was far from actually physically manifesting the weapons, and getting them across the North Korean borders without any trouble.
"It would take a lot of convincing on my part, and lot of strategy on yours," I said skeptically. "You get caught selling nukes to any one of the world's overlords, and we're all going down."
"Who says I'll get caught?" she purred. "As I said, you leave the new contracts to me. And we'll all be the better for it."
I gazed at her silently for several moments, knowing I was staring into the eyes of a greedy, power-hungry monster who was beyond all reason at this point. And I was completely subject to both her will and her mercy. I needed to buy myself some more time. I needed more information. And, most of all, I needed to regain contact with the outside world. "This is all fascinating, Vanessa," I replied. "But let's get back to the part about me handing everything over to you, shall we?" I asked.
Vanessa beamed with enthusiasm. "Gladly," she replied. "As I said, darling. You fulfill all of my demands, or your precious Pepper," she said. "Will meet a most untimely end. And you decide to tip her off that anything is amiss? She dies. You attempt to send her away to hide somewhere? I'll hunt her down. You fire her or she leaves for any reason at all, even under her own volition? She won't make it to the next day. I'm essentially tying you two together at the hip until we're finished and everything I want is well in hand. You see? I get what I want, and you get what you want. Must I go on? Or are you getting the picture?"
I swallowed hard. Then what happens when you've got everything you wanted?, I thought gravely. Surely, she'd eventually off the both of us in some seemingly freak accident or something, or stage our disappearance and sink our bodies to the bottom of the ocean once we no longer serve her purposes. It was clear- I'd played right into her hands, and it was looking inevitable that I'd brought on not only my own downfall,but Pepper's eventual demise, as well. This both angered and saddened me. That was the last thing I'd ever wanted to do was to put Pepper in harm's way. Only problem was, I couldn't warn her. I literally couldn't do anything at the moment, actually, being cuffed to a bed frame in the basement of Vanessa's factory. And even if I tried to fight my way out, I'd undoubtedly get another dose of whatever was in that syringe. So instead I just nodded in understanding, and clucked my tongue in thought. "So, Vanessa?" I purred. "Won't all of this appear to be rather sudden to the public? You know?Invite a lot of inquiry? Why draw this kind of attention to ourselves?" I asked.
She then began to giggle, and jiggle up and down, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet and clapping her hands happily. "Oh, yes, yes! It's time for my favorite part of plan! I thought we'd never reach this moment!" she exclaimed joyfully. She walked back over to me, and straddled my hips once again. God, how I wished at that moment that she'd stop doing that! She was absolutely revolting to me now, and to have her in this close of a proximity just made her that much more repulsive.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, and brought our faces within millimeters of each other. "Oh, Tony! Tony, Tony, Tony!" she squealed with delight. "I can't believe this is happening!"
I frowned in confusion. "Vanessa, what are you..." I started to say. But then I fell silent as she suddenly pulled a very sizable diamond ring out of her bra. It sparkled in the glaring white light from over head. I gulped. "What is that?" I asked sternly, wide eyed, flicking my eyes from the ring to her delusional expression.
"Why, darling?! It's the engagement ring you've picked out for me! Always the romantic, aren't you?" she purred.
I watched as her twisted, leering expression morphed and changed from one trying to feign genuine excitement to displaying completely unhinged mania. I shuddered at what I was witnessing, but she continued to indulge herself in the delusion of the moment. "But I must give you the opportunity to ask me, correct? I want to hear those words come from you beautiful mouth!" she cried. She shoved the ring into my hand and squeezed it tight. She then produced a small key from the other cup in her bra. Then she suddenly lunged forward, making me startle. I looked at her like she was a time-bomb ready to detonate at any moment. She just grinned at me with a shark-like smile, as she quickly unlocked the handcuffs around my wrists and removed them. "Can't have you in this state if I expect you to do this properly, now can I?" she asked.
I rubbed my raw wrists as she stood up once more and examined me, giving me a thorough once over. "You know I've never been one to stand on ceremony," she explained. "But this," she said, gesturing to the walls around us. "This just will not do! We simply must do better than a room made of cinder block and concrete if you're going to ask me to be your wife. Wouldn't you agree?"
I shook my head hopelessly. "Vanessa, please. This is insanity! I'll do whatever you want. Just..."
She gave me a curious look. "But this is what I want! And you said it yourself! The press will get entirely too suspicious! We must do it this way! It would only make sense that we become the world's newest power couple! In love, and in business together! You couldn't paint a more beautiful picture! And it was your idea, love!"
"Marriage?! Are you insane?! That was never my idea! None of this was! Vanessa," I argued, standing up and stepping close to her. I looked into eyes, pleading. "I'm not husband material, okay? Nobody's gonna believe that I've suddenly decided to settle down," I tried to reason.
"Nonsense," she replied sternly. Then she flashed another maniacal smile. "All it took was for you to find the right girl! Oh Tony!" she cooed, smirking. Then she swiftly slammed our lips together and kissed me hard. I grimaced, wanting desperately to push her away, but not knowing what would happen if I did. So I resigned myself to tolerating the feeling of being put upon, violated by this lunatic.
I didn't have much time to think about it, however, as Vanessa abruptly broke the kiss as harshly as she'd instigated it. "Boys!" she bellowed in a sing-songy voice toward the door. I winced and braced myself for another man-handling as they entered. Vanessa then wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me to her. "Ready the car for our immediate departure," she instructed. "It's back to Mr. Stark's hotel for a little wine, a little romance, and an unforgettable marriage proposal," she said, turning her gaze back to me and looking into my eyes dreamily. Then she brought my hand that held the ring to her chest. "Though I shall try to pretend it's all a surprise! Wouldn't want to ruin the moment!" she chirped, squeezing my hand in both of hers.
I felt a sharp stab in my palm from the prongs holding the large diamond, and I winced. She grimaced and opened my hand, prying the ring out of it. "Oh, sorry, darling! Did that hurt? It is rather large, isn't it?" she said, giggling mischievously. "Best I hold onto it until we get there. Wouldn't want it to get lost, now, would we?"
I just smiled weakly, my stomach in knots at the thought of what I was going to have to endure next.
