Through the Darkness, Chapter Thirty Three

CHAPTER 33

August, 2013

“So, what do you think?” Blair asked as she walked into the main bar.

“You would just give up the club?” Rama asked.

“Not totally, but the day to day running of it?  Yes, I would,” she responded.  “Look, I started this place to escape the crap in my life.  I don’t have to do that anymore.  And, well, someone pointed out to me that this is a younger person’s game.  Besides, the acts you’ve brought in, Cutter, they’re great, but they, they haven’t been my style.”

“Well, I have to say, the night you saved us all by singing, it got the most rave reviews from the clubbers than anything else.  I’d hate to lose that,” Cutter answered, a sly smile on his face.

“Well, as I’ll still be the owner, I would be gone completely.  And I’m sure I can plan a date once a month or so,” she replied. 

They were about to continue their conversation when Diego’s voice could be heard from atop the stairs.  “Sir, we’re closed until later.  You’ll have to come back then.”

She didn’t hear a response, only scuffling.  Getting a sense of déjà vu from the night of the opening, she half-expected to see Todd at the top of the stairs as she went to investigate.  When she went to see, it was the next likely suspect there.  She called to Diego to let the guy go and Victor approached her from down the stairs.  “You know, you two are getting very creepy.”

“What do you mean?” Victor asked.

“The night of the opening, Todd pulled the same stunt you just did,” she explained.  “What do you want?”

“A drink, for starters,” Victor answered, ignoring the comment about Todd.  

Blair went behind the bar and pulled out a bottle of scotch.  After it was poured into the glass, Victor took it and swirled it around the glass.  “No warnings about the hour of the day?”

“I gave up pointing stuff like that out to you a long time ago,” Blair replied.  “Why are you in my establishment at this hour?”

Victor downed the glass then looked at her.  “I’m hiding.”

“Hiding from whom?”

“Everyone,” he answered as he took the bottle and poured another glass.  “Bo wants me in for questioning, Tea wants me to give her answers, Viki wants to check up on me.”  He downed the glass again.  “I don’t want to deal with any of it.”

Blair grabbed the bottle before he could go for it again.  “Victor, you can’t do that.  They all need you.  You have a lot of the answers to all this.”

“Why do you al think I do?” he shouted.  “What if I don’t have any of the answers?”

“Victor, you are at the center of all of this.  It was your abduction that started all this,” Blair told him.

“No, it was Todd’s.  He was taken and I was sent in to play him,” Victor replied softly, getting up.

“Victor…” she called and he stopped.  “If you can’t tell any of them, do you think you can tell me?”

Victor looked around then he said, “I’ll do you one better.  I’ll tell you and Todd.”

Blair nodded and went to her phone.  The other end picked up.  “You coming in any time soon?  Or am I going to have to dock you pay?”

“I had some business at the club and Victor showed up.  You may want to come, he wants to talk to the both of us,” Blair explained.

“I’ll be there as soon as possible,” Todd answered, ending the call.  Ten minutes later, he entered the club.  Looking from Blair to Victor, he said, “You wanted to talk?”

Victor nodded.  “Anywhere private here?”  Blair led the brothers to her office.  On the way there, she told Rama and Cutter they were not to be disturbed.  They went into the office and Todd and Victor stood at opposite ends of the room, with Blair strategically between them.

“So, what do you want to tell us?  And shouldn’t you be telling this to, like Bo or someone?” Todd asked.

Victor remained quiet for a minute, then seemingly ignored Todd’s question while asking one of his own.  “What do you want to know?”

Todd looked to Blair, confused.  She shrugged her shoulders back to her husband and he turned to his brother.  “If you can, everything.”

Victor nodded.  “I was in and out for…a long time.  I’m not even sure how long.  But I remember being strapped to a chair and feeling intense pain on my wrist.  I struggled against it, but nothing happened.  And I looked down and it was there,” he explained as he looked at his wrist.  “And a voice said, ‘Now you’re one of us, brother.’  I looked up and I just remember being scared.  It was, maybe, a day later, I made my escape.  I knew I had to get out of there.”

“What led them to tattoo you?” Todd asked.

“I…I don’t even know.  I’ve tried to remember and I can’t,” he answered, his eyes wild.     

Blair could sense Victor was about to do something.  She wasn’t sure if he would explode or pass out.  “Why did you leave town?  You were ready to leave even before you went to see Todd.”

“I was in the coffee shop and I saw another man with the same tattoo.  I thought he was sent after me.  I couldn’t let him get near Tea or the kids.”

Todd took a deep breath before asking, “Why didn’t you tell me this?  I ask you, I wanted a sign that I could trust you.  You telling me this, it could have warned me.”

Victor just shook his head.  “I don’t know.  And I wanted to tell you, but I thought…I thought that you were coming after me.”  At Todd’s look, he clarified.  “I thought they sent you after me.  Remember, I still thought you had shot me.  I thought you were part of them.”

Todd gave his brother what Blair would have thought was a look of pity.  Then, he seemed to move on.  “Do you remember any of the faces of the people who were holding you?”

Victor closed his eyes.  “Besides Allison….no one.”

Todd pulled out his phone and pulled up The Banner’s app.  After a minute, he handed the phone to Victor.  “Does he look familiar?”

Victor took it and his eyes narrowed.  “There’s something about his face.  I’ve seen it before, I know that.”

“It’s Viki’s savior for The Banner.  A digital media, blogging whiz.  Got the scope of the century that got Dorian ousted from the Senate,” Todd said.

“Where she never belonged in the first place,” Victor commented.

“I know!  And who in their right mind put her on the intelligence committee?” Todd added, then was chastened by Blair’s faux pissed look.  “Anyway, after I was kidnapped, Jack heard a suspicious call he was making.  Jack’s looking into it now.”  He looked at his brother.  “You want to come and help?”  Victor looked like he gulped.  “Look, I did mean most of what I said.  We need to put the past behind us.  We need…we need to work together.”  He held out his hand.

Victor looked at it and then, without hesitation, shook it.  Todd smiled at him genuinely, and, to Blair’s surprise, Victor returned one that was just as warm.

“Well, let’s get to The Sun, see how Jack is doing,” Todd said as they left the office.

A few minutes later, Todd, Blair and Victor walked into Todd’s office.  Jack looked up and didn’t actually look that phased at all by the three coming together.

“You got anything?” Todd asked without preamble.

“I think I…might,” Jack answered as he pressed a few keys on his laptop.  Then, he said, “Yeah got something there.  That school he went to, where he met Matthew and Dani?”

“The Warwick School,” Victor answered.

“Yeah, that’s the one.  It’s pretty pricy, but not outrageously so.  I,” he looked at his parents, “checked out their alumni list and he was there.  In fact, when he graduated, the keynote speaker was Carl Peterson.”

“Who’s Carl Peterson?” Victor asked.

Blair straightened.  “He was the keynote speaker for the Man of the Year dinner.  Ah, businessman, philanthropist, I think he’s generally involved in government, military type groups.”

“You have a video of the speech?” Victor asked.

“Yeah, hold on,” he answered as he typed in a few commands.  “You also wanna see Clint’s freakout?” Jack asked slyly. 

Todd and Victor each looked at the other like they were seriously considering it before Blair said rolling her eyes, “Just bring up the speech.”

All three men had looks of disappointment on their faces as the video was playing.  As Carl began to speak, Victor’s posture went straight as a pin. 

“Victor, what is it?” Todd asked.  But his brother seemed to be in a trance.  “Victor, do you recognize him?  Damn it, tell me--” Todd said as he grabbed his brother's shoulders.  What happened next caught everyone by surprise.  Victor wrenched Todd’s hands off his body and spun Todd around, pinning his arm behind him as he was tossed against a wall.  Blair could see the pain in Todd’s face and she moved to try and pull Victor off of Todd.

But, it was all happening too quickly to stop.  Victor wasn’t having any of it.  With an almost inhuman strength, he kept Todd pinned there.  Blair tried anything to stop Victor.  Jack paused the video to try and help his father and then…Victor stopped. 

Todd collapsed to the floor, his arm in pain and he suspected with a dislocated shoulder.  Blair crouched down next to him, checking him out.  He tried to wave her off, but she went to the phone.  “You need an ambulance,” she told him.

Todd didn’t answer, just looked at Victor.  “What the hell was that?” he yelled through the pain. 

Victor seemed to shake himself out of the moment.  “What…what just happened?”

“You don’t know?” Jack asked.  He looked to his father, then back to Victor.  “I started playing the video and you went…blank.  You stood up straight, like a soldier.  When Dad tried to talk to you, you attacked him.”

Victor just stared at the three blankly.

Todd took control of the moment.  “Look, the police are going to be here with the EMTs.  The story is we got into an argument.  I’m not…I’m not pressing charges.  But you are talking to Bo…or a shrink…or both!  Deal?”

Blair looked to Victor, who looked truly spooked by what happened.   But he seemed to understand Todd.  He nodded as the emergency techs got there.