Like a number of freelance operatives, Donnie Lupo lived in Sin City. Unlike most of them, he did all his work from his basement office, often not seeing the outside for days or even weeks on end.
He had five regular clients, and a couple dozen others who would come to him now and then with work. Ricky Orbits was one of the five biggies, and the one currently occupying most of his time.
Donnie had been asked to do a lot of things over the years, but auctioning off a woman was a first. Perhaps he should have been repulsed by the idea, but he’d shed his morals long ago in favor of making a good living.
When he set up the auction, he’d worried that Ricky’s reserve bid price was too high, but boy, had he been wrong. There was still time left and the bids were already inching toward nineteen million. With the ten-percent cut Ricky had promised him, Donnie was looking at nearly two million dollars. A tax-free payday like that would be all the motivation he needed to walk away from his job and become a thirty-three-year-old retiree.
The digital clock on his screen was counting down the time remaining. Fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Donnie could barely contain his excitement.
The Gated Community was located in the Summerlin section of Las Vegas. A phone call placed fifteen minutes earlier ensured the two SUVs had no problem entering.
The house in question was located on a cul-de-sac that provided its residents with gorgeous views of the western mountains. The homes were large four- and five-bedroom places, all with identical red tile roofs, tan walls, and beautifully landscaped, drought-tolerant yards. A postcard for desert suburban life.
Visual evidence suggested that only two of the five houses were occupied at that moment, but those in the SUVs knew that the owner of a third — the house at the very top of the cul-de-sac — was also home.
They parked their vehicles on the road just outside the cul-de-sac but did not get out.
When the dash clock clicked down to two minutes left in the auction, The Wolf said, “Take us in.”
Bidding stalled at nineteen-point-five million dollars for a full five minutes.
But when the clock clicked down to two and a half minutes remaining, things began to move again. The first few bids came in at fifty-thousand-dollar increments, but as the time continued to run out, both the amounts and the speed picked up.
“Nineteen seven-seventy-five,” Donnie said into his headset. “Nineteen eight…nineteen nine twenty-five…twenty million.”
“Woo-hoo!” Orbits shouted through the phone. “Told you, man!”
“Twenty-one million,” Donnie said. “Twenty-one five. Twenty-three.” He paused, staring at the screen. “Whoa! Thirty million!”
“Are you shitting me?”
The bid seemed to stop everyone. “It’s from bidder C,” Donnie said. “Wait. Thirty-one million five. From B.”
“B? I thought B was out of it.”
B hadn’t made a bid in well over ninety minutes. “Must have just been waiting.”
Something creaked in the house above him, but Donnie was so wrapped up in the excitement that his mind didn’t register it as significant.
The bids started coming in fast again. “Thirty-four. Thirty-four five. Thirty-five. Thirty-six.” He glanced at the countdown clock. Fifteen seconds left. “Thirty-six five.”
The Wolf’s team had the security system disabled and the door opened within twenty seconds.
They then split in two, half searching the ground floor and half doing the same upstairs. Though the target was not on either floor, a basement door had been discovered. As soon as the door was opened, a voice drifted up.
“…thirty-eight…thirty-eight seven hundred…dear God, forty million!”
The Wolf glanced at her watch. The auction was almost over.
She motioned her team down the stairs.
Donnie’s gaze flicked back and forth between the incoming bids and the countdown clock.
Five seconds.
“Forty-one.”
Four seconds.
“Forty-one five.”
Three seconds.
“Forty-two.”
Two seconds.
“Forty-three.”
One second.
“Forty-three five.”
Four bids came in right as the auction ended. One was for forty-four, and three at the same higher amount. Donnie had to adjust the data so he could see the entry times to the hundredth of a second.
“Well?” Orbits asked.
“Forty-seven million,” Donnie told him, hardly believing it.
“Son of a bitch! Seriously? Forty-seven?”
“Yes, indeed. Forty-seven.”
Orbits laughed. “Who’s our winner?”
“B.”
“B? Well, how about that? Please inform our winner that we await the transfer of his funds. Once that’s confirmed, we’ll pass on instructions for—”
Donnie didn’t hear the rest as the headset was ripped from his ear and a hand slapped tight against his mouth.
He started to struggle, but stopped just as fast when cold steel pressed against his cheek.
“There’s a good boy,” a female voice behind him said.
Someone twirled his chair around so that he was facing the rest of the room. There were five of them, four men and one woman. In the woman’s hand was Donnie’s headset, her palm covering the mic.
“What’s your boss’s name?” she asked.
Donnie said nothing.
She looked at the man holding the gun against Donnie’s head. “Kill him.”
“Orbits!” Donnie blurted out. “Ricky Orbits.”
“Once that’s confirmed, we’ll pass on instructions for picking up the merchandise.” Orbits paused, expecting a response. “Donnie, did you hear me?”
There was some noise over the line but no Donnie.
“Hey! You still there?”
Was that a voice?
“I think there’s something wrong with the line. Let me call you—”
“Mr. Orbits?” Not Donnie’s voice. A woman’s. “There’s been a slight change in the winning bid. The good news is that it’s in your favor. Fifty million dollars, and you give the girl to me.”
The initial moment of panic he’d felt when she came on the line all but disappeared when she mentioned the amount. Cautiously he said, “I appreciate your initiative, but I don’t know who you are. You could be screwing with me.”
“Have you ever heard of The Wolf?”
The name tickled something in the back of his mind, but it could have just been a memory of some Animal Planet show he accidentally saw.
“Sorry, I don’t know anyone called The Wolf. And I’m certainly not doing any business with you until I see the cash.”
“Of course not. That’s why I’ve created two escrow accounts, each holding twenty-five million dollars. With the help of your colleague here, I’ll send you information on the first account.”
“The terms are full price, up front,” he said.
“Half now, and half when I see the girl. That’s my terms, Mr. Orbits. They are more than fair.”
Orbits wanted to tell her where she could stuff her terms, but if she’d been able to get to Donnie, then she might be able to get to him, too. He’d much rather keep things civil.
“I let you see her, but I get the money before you take possession,” he said.
“Agreed,” she said. “When and where?”
“Nine a.m. tomorrow morning,” Orbits said. “As for the where, give me your phone number.”
“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” she said.
“You don’t have to like it. Just give me the number.”
He wrote down the number as she recited it, and then said, “Be in Minneapolis by seven a.m. local time, ready to fly. I’ll call you then with further instructions.”