Chapter 2: 2 months ago

2 months ago

Saturday, August 14^th

It was after 7am EST and John Valentino was in a hurry to finally be home. He stepped off the bus and hustled the half block to the doorway of his apartment complex, a 50-story high-rise building. The doorman greeted him with a nod as he rushed by.

‘Fucking Nikkei.’ he grumbled to himself for having to waste so many hours just to be in tune with the Asian markets. He reached the elevator bank and pressed an up arrow to summon a car. Two other men joined him as he waited. A door slid open to his left and they all turned to board the lift. He pushed the 36^th floor and the shorter fellow of the pair pushed 40^th. John frowned because that floor was dedicated to a Hedge Fund he worked with in the past.

“You’re Mr. Valentino ain’t cha?” A thick ‘joysey’ accent asked him from behind.

“Yeah. Who wants to know?” he shrugged not bothering to look back.

“Our buddy Lenny told us about you’s. Said you’s a regular shark on the markets.”

“Lenny who?” he asked with a frown as he started to turn. He heard a loud rapid clicking sound just before his head exploded in a flash of white light and blinding pain.

“Johnny...” A man’s voice sang mockingly. “Hey! Johnny!”

He was jolted back into consciousness by the biting sting of ammonia in his nose from a smelling salt. His head was pounding, and his eyes watered from the irritant. He moaned and tried to touch his face. He couldn’t move.

“There he is.” said the same smooth lilting voice.

His eyes cleared and he found himself staring up into the hawk like angular face of a middle-aged man in a three-piece Italian suit. His black hair was greased back, and he smelled of some cheap cologne. He stood over him with the smelling salt held at arm’s length and wore a wolfish grin.

“What...” His throat was dry.

“Heya Johnny. Welcome back.”

“Who are you?” John asked as he started noticing further details of his situation. He was clearly bound with his hands tied behind his back and his feet together. He was also laying on a cold hard linoleum floor, completely naked. “What is this?” He struggled to no avail.

The man straightened and tossed the capsule away, his smile unfazed. “I am Leonard Rissole. My friends call me Lenny.” he answered. “And this,” he waved his arm, “is the first day of the rest of your life—however long that might be.”

The throbbing in his head seemed to fade as he tried to come to terms with his predicament. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Stand him up boys.” Lenny ordered and the two men from the elevator appeared from somewhere behind him and grabbed his arms, pulling him to his feet. He swayed unsteadily so they held him firmly. Glancing around he could not recognize where he was. He looked back at the slick haired fellow fearfully.

“You see Johnny, it’s like this,” he turned and began pacing back and forth in front of his naked captive. “You have been working diligently on manipulating the currency markets in the interests of ... a colleague of mine.” He stopped and grinned in his face. “And you have been doing a great job for him.” He waved a device in front of John’s face that looked like a handheld cattle prod. “And I know that you have been scraping a lot of this ‘colleagues’ capitol off the side and dumping it into a discrete little offshore account to protect his assets from ‘taxing eyes’.”

A cold sensation ran up John’s spine. ‘How? Nobody knew of his under-the-radar disbursements but himself and his employer Andre.’ Not another soul. Unless...

“I don’t know...” He began to deny everything, but Lenny moved like a snake, activating the stun gun just as he punched him in the sternum with the metal probes. A scream interrupted his statement as 50,000 volts coursed through him, causing all of his alpha motor neurons to fire at once, seizing every voluntary synapse in his body. The pain was incredible, and he blacked out momentarily.

“Do not take me for a simpleton, Mr. Valentino!” Lenny shouted in his face angrily. “My patience and goodwill are finite. And they are wearing thin.” He grabbed John’s clammy face and held his jaw firmly to stare into his eyes. “I want to know the account numbers and access codes to those offshore accounts, and I want them now. This will only become more painful for you the longer you try to screw with me.”

“Please...” he gasped as his voice returned. “You don’t understand ... No! Wait!” he cried as the probe was raised up once more.

Lenny tsked and shook his head unpleasantly. “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.” he shook a finger at him. “Ellie was right about you, you know.”

His heart sank at once. Eleanor! They must have taken her and tortured her first. His wife of just under a year, was waiting for him to get home from work to celebrate their coming anniversary. They must have captured her just after he left his office, he had spoken to her just as he was leaving.

“Eleanor?” He struggled with renewed fervor as the two thugs held him firmly. “What have you done with her?” he demanded. “I swear...”

Lenny laughed hard as if he had just heard the best joke. “What have I done?” he howled. “Jezuz ain’t you a tool?” There was more laughter behind him as he wearily turned his head from side to side.

“Hey Ellie baby! Come here and tell this putz what I been doing to you!” he called.

John turned his head towards the soft click clicking of high-heeled feet as she suddenly appeared in his vision. “Hello Johnny.” Her rich smooth voice said as she went to stand beside Lenny and pressed her body against him.

Shock, confusion, heartache. All competed for dominance in his throbbing head as he stared at them wide eyed. There was no emotion in her cornflower blue eyes as she regarded him.

Eleanor Dimercurio-Valentino stood 5’ 8” tall and radiated elegant beauty. Her hair shone like burnished bronze and was cut to shoulder length. She wore a fashionable sea foam green evening gown with 4” white leather stiletto heels and entered the room like she had just stepped off a fashion magazine cover.

“Ellie ... what?”

“Oh Johnny.” Lenny chuckled. “As smart as you are you can be a real shit-wit.” He smirked gleefully at the men holding the confused trader up. “You don’t have a freakin clue, do you?”

More laughs sounded to either side of him.

“You see this dame here, that you married.” He put his arm possessively around her waist. “This is my girl!” The two kissed in front of him, locking their lips together as they wrestled with their tongues.

Disbelief and outrage battled each other, and he felt his legs start to give out as he surrendered into the firm grasp of his handlers. How could this be?

“I bet you didn’t know that my spunk was running down her legs as she was walking down the aisle to you.” he laughed again. “I been banging Ellie here since she was old enough to sneak outta her momma’s house.”

Defeated John drooped his head and stared at the floor in misery. He closed his eyes tightly to prevent tears of frustration from leaking out.

“Ah baby.” he heard her croon. “Look you made him cry.” She giggled cruelly.

It was all one big lie. He took several ragged breaths as he came to terms with his ultimate betrayal. How had he never had the slightest clue? He looked up to find her standing right in front of him leering at him with an evil expression he had never seen on her lovely face before. She was a completely different woman than the Eleanor that he fell in love with and married. This Eleanor was darker, more confident, and utterly devoid of compassion or love.

“Tell him what he wants to know Johnny and it will go so much easier for you.” She told him flatly. She lifted his chin with a manicured fingernail. “You said you would do anything for me right, baby?” She suddenly transformed back into the woman he once knew and trusted with his life, his love ... all his deepest secrets. “Don’t you want me to be happy sweetheart.” She begged in her suggestive lilting voice.

Rage filled his heart as he glared back at her, catching her off guard for a moment before the cruel mistress returned. She sneered at him, releasing his face while her other hand reached down and grabbed him firmly around the base of his flaccid penis. Her nails dug painfully into his scrotum. She shook him playfully from side to side. “As if you could ever make a girl happy with this puny excuse for manhood!” He cried out as she dug her nails into him even harder, crushing his testicles. “Give us the accounts and codes!” she shrieked in his face.

“Hey easy easy there sweetness.” Lenny pulled her away from her husband laughing. “We save the jewels for a last resort babe.” Then he turned her to face him while he reached down and undid his trousers. “You wanna go for his manhood, let’s just show him what you get to work with.”

A gleam entered her eyes as she quickly dropped to her knees in front of him to help. She pulled his zipper down and reached inside his pants. She looked back at John and grinned wickedly as she pulled Lenny’s enormous penis out and rubbed her cheek against it. “See this baby!” she gloated. “This is a real man’s cock!” She could barely fit her hand around it while it was limp.

John watched helplessly as she opened her mouth wide and placed it over the head of Lenny’s dick, her cheeks hollowing with suction. The noises she made were foreign to him as she slurped her tongue all over the shaft and took nearly the entire length into her mouth. She had never given him head the entire time he knew her, saying it was a disgusting form of subjugation. She had no problem with him eating her out though. He looked away only to have his head wrenched back towards the two by one of his handlers.

“Ah yeah!” Lenny groaned with a grin as he grabbed her head by her hair with both hands. He began thrusting himself in and out of her mouth as she began drooling and gasping for breath. “That’s it Ellie baby. Suck that fat dick!” Once he was fully erect his shaft stood out from his pants by at least 8 inches.