percent.”
Stone stared at him. Did the math in his head. “A controlling interest?”
“Exactly,” Tony said. “We hold thirty-nine percent, another twelve gives us fifty-one, which would indeed represent a controlling interest.”
Stone swallowed again and shook his head.
“No,” he said. “No, I won’t do that.”
“OK, then we want seventeen-point-one million dollars within the hour.”
Stone just stood there, glancing wildly left and right. The door opened behind him and the thickset man in the expensive suit came in and padded soundlessly across the carpet and stood with his arms folded, behind Tony’s left shoulder.
“The watch, please,” Tony said.
Stone glanced at his left wrist. It was a Rolex. It looked like steel, but it was platinum. He had bought it in Geneva. He unlatched it and handed it over. Tony nodded and dropped it in another drawer.
“Now take Mr. Hobie’s shirt off.”
“You can’t make me give you more stock,” Stone said.
“I think we can. Take the shirt off, OK?”
“Look, I won’t be intimidated,” Stone said, as confidently as he could.
“You’re already intimidated,” Tony said back. “Aren’t you? You’re about to make a mess in Mr. Hobie’s pants. Which would be a bad mistake, by the way, because we’d only make you clean them up.”
Stone said nothing. Just stared at a spot in the air between the two men.
“Twelve percent of the equity,” Tony said gently. “Why not? It’s not worth anything. And you’d still have forty- nine percentleft.”
“I need to speak with my lawyers,” Stone said.
“OK, go ahead.”
Stone looked around the room, desperately. “Where’s the phone?”
“There’s no phone in here,” Tony said. “Mr. Hobie doesn’t like phones.”
“So how?”
“Shout,” Tony said. “Shout real loud, and maybe your lawyers will hear you.”
“What?”
“Shout,” Tony said again. “You’re real slow, aren’t you, Mr. Stone? Put two and two together and draw a conclusion. There’s no phone in here, you can’t leave the room, you want to talk with your lawyers, so you’ll have to shout.”
Stone stared blankly into space.
“Shout, you useless piece of shit,” Tony screamed at him.
“No, I can’t,” Stone said helplessly. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Take the shirt off,” Tony screamed.
Stone shook violently. Hesitated, with his arms halfway in the air.
“Get it off, you piece of shit,” Tony screamed again.
Stone’s hands leapt up and unbuttoned it, all the way down. He tore it off and stood there holding it, shaking in his undershirt.
“Fold it neatly, please,” Tony said. “Mr. Hobie likes his things neat.”
Stone did his best. He shook it out by the collar and folded it in half, and half again. He bent and laid it square on top of the jacket on the sofa.
“Give up the twelve percent,” Tony said.
“No,” Stone said back, clenching his hands.
There was silence. Silence and darkness.
“Efficiency,” Tony said quietly. “That’s what we like here. You should have paid more attention to efficiency, Mr. Stone. Then maybe your business wouldn’t be in the toilet. So what’s the most efficient way for us to do this?”
Stone shrugged, helplessly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then I’ll explain,” Tony said. “We want you to comply. We want your signature on a piece of paper. So how do we get that?”
“You’ll never get it, you bastard,” Stone said. “I’ll go bankrupt first, damn it. Chapter eleven. You won’t get a damn thing from me. Not a thing. You’ll be in court five years, minimum.”
Tony shook his head patiently, like a grade-school teacher hearing the wrong answer for the hundredth time in a long career.
“Do whatever you want,” Stone said to him. “I won’t give you my company.”
“We could hurt you,” Tony said.
Stone’s eyes dropped through the gloom to the desktop. His tie was still lying there, right on top of the rough gouges from the hook.
“Take Mr. Hobie’s pants off,” Tony screamed.
“No, I won’t, damn it,” Stone screamed back.
The guy at Tony’s shoulder reached under his arm. There was a squeak of leather. Stone stared at him, incredulous. The guy came out with a small black handgun. He used one arm and aimed it, eye-level, straight out. He advanced around the desk toward Stone. Nearer and nearer. Stone’s eyes were wide and staring. Fixed on the gun. It was aimed at his face. He was shaking and sweating. The guy was stepping quietly, and the gun was coming closer, and Stone’s eyes were crossing, following it in. The gun came to rest with the muzzle on his forehead. The guy was pressing with it. The muzzle was hard and cold. Stone was shaking. Leaning backward against the pressure. Stumbling, trying to focus on the black blur that was the gun. He never saw the guy’s other hand balling into a fist. Never saw the blow swinging in. It smashed hard into his gut and he went down like a sack, legs folding, squirming and gasping and retching.
“Take the pants off, you piece of shit,” Tony screamed down at him.
The other guy landed a savage kick and Stone yelped and rolled around and around on his back like a turtle, gasping, gagging, wrenching at his belt. He got it loose. Scrabbled for the buttons and the zip. He tore the pants down over his legs. They snagged on his shoes and he wrenched them free and pulled them off inside out.
“Get up, Mr. Stone,” Tony said, quietly.
Stone staggered to his feet and stood, unsteadily, leaning forward, head down, panting, his hands on his knees, his stomach heaving, thin, white hairless legs coming down out of his boxers, ludicrous dark socks and shoes on his feet.
“We could hurt you,” Tony said. “You understand that now, right?”
Stone nodded and gasped. He was pressing both forearms into his gut. Heaving and gagging.
“You understand that, right?” Tony asked again.
Stone forced another nod.
“Say the words, Mr. Stone,” Tony said. “Say we could hurt you.”
“You could hurt me,” Stone gasped.
“But we won’t. That’s not how Mr. Hobie likes things to be done.”
Stone raised a hand and swiped tears from his eyes and looked up, hopefully.
“Mr. Hobie prefers to hurt the wives,” Tony said. “Efficiency, you see? It gets faster results. So at this point, you really need to be thinking about Marilyn.”
THE RENTED TAURUS was much faster than the Bravada had been. On dry June roads, there was no contest. Maybe in the snows of January or the sleet of February he would have appreciated the full-time four-wheel drive, but for a fast trip up the Hudson in June, a regular sedan had it all over a jeep, that was for damn sure. It was low and stable, it rode well, it tracked through the bends like an automobile should. And it was quiet. He had its radio locked onto a powerful city station behind him, and a woman called Wynonna Judd was asking him
