Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution (6 page)

The response slightly irritated Daniel. “I don’t really care personally,” he responded intensely yet quietly. “Mob guys have a certain M-O. If I’m going to properly protect you from them, I need to know what I’m up against.

“Don’t worry, I respect all that client confidentiality bullshit and I’m not going to run off and tell anyone about who you’re dealing with. I just need to know who it is
I’m
dealing with.”

Demérs considered Daniel’s statement, his glass of scotch firmly in his right hand. Finally, he made the decision to come clean to Daniel.

“The mob is nothing compared to the guys Benze is connected to.”

With that, Demérs downed the rest of his neat scotch and slammed the empty glass down on the bar. “I’m gonna need more scotch.”

Chapter 4

Daniel awoke the next morning to faint sounds of movement coming from the kitchen. He first heard dishes clanking, and then a muffled version of Demérs’ voice, followed by Jordan’s. He then heard the front door of the apartment slam shut.

Daniel rolled over to look at the digital readout of the clock on the night stand next to his bed. It read “9:30.” He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept in so late. He imagined it was in part due to the consumption of alcohol the night before, but also to the fact that the bed he had slept in was the most comfortable he could ever remember lying in.

He sat up and put his feet on the floor before attempting to shake away the drowsiness that had carried over from his extensive slumber. He lifted his head and found himself staring at black wall, lit up only by the dim glow from the digital clock on the other side of the bed. He reached up with his right hand and found the control panel on the wall. He felt for the top button, pressing down and holding it. Suddenly the wall became progressively lighter, as it began allowing more and more diffused light to pour through.

He then stood up and turned, remembering the window on the other side of the room. He pressed another button on the control panel and the opaque window shade in front of the window began to move upward, allowing the morning light to spill through. Daniel moved around to the window and looked out at the Chicago skyline. Gordon Demérs certainly had it made.

After admiring the view from his window for a few more seconds, he heard the crash of dishes being dropped into the sink and turned to leave the room. He slid open a section of the now white, backlit wall and walked out into the main section of the loft.

The loft area of Demérs’ apartment was nicer than Daniel could have ever imagined. To the right of the spiral staircase that led up from the living room was a large, open space that Demérs had converted into a billiard room. In the center of the room sat a beautiful mahogany billiard table with red felt and real leather pockets. Above it hung an antique stain glass light that reminded Daniel of something out of an old saloon, and the table was surrounded by blood red leather furniture.

Scattered around the ceiling were strategically placed vents that were specially designed to carry cigar smoke out of the room, and on the wall opposite the staircase was a large flat-screen TV.

The room Daniel had slept in was off to the left of the staircase. It was a small, cubby-like area that had been separated from the rest of the loft by a sliding wall that reminded Daniel of the types he had seen in Asian buildings on TV. Only this wall was much heavier than the paper thin walls they used in Asia, and it was designed so that the user could control just how opaque or translucent they wished the wall to be using a special control panel.

In the room there was just enough space for a queen sized bed, a night stand, and like with all of the other rooms in Demérs’ penthouse, a large flat screen across from the bed. There was also a rather large window on the back wall that overlooked the cityscape.

Just outside the bedroom and to the right was a small guest bathroom with a sink, toilet, and a stall shower.

Daniel stepped over to the railing which overlooked the first floor of the apartment and found Jordan standing over the sink in the kitchen on the far side of the room. She wore a dark purple sports bra under a pink, rather loose fitting tank top and black yoga pants. Her auburn hair was pulled back tight into a ponytail and it appeared as if she were prepared to work out, though one never could tell with Jordan. She often wore workout clothes as a casual outfit which seemed to be the trend among a number of women these days.

Daniel then turned and started to make his way down the spiral staircase which was when Jordan first noticed him.

“How’d you sleep?” she asked him when he was halfway down the staircase.

“Amazing,” he responded.

When he got to the bottom of the staircase Daniel reached up to stretch in an effort to further wake himself up. As she placed her last dish into the dishwasher, she peered up at Daniel mid-stretch.

“I’m going to have to get on your workout program,” she commented. It was the first time she had seen him without a shirt on.

Daniel chuckled and peered down at himself, placing his hands on his chiseled physique. He often forgot just how extreme a transformation he had undergone in the last several months.

“It is an incredibly unique one, I promise you that,” he responded.

“Well I’m going to trying to get as close as I can,” Jordan said as she walked out of the kitchen area and toward the back hallway. “Feel free to make yourself some breakfast. You have free-run of the kitchen—and if you need to work out feel free to join me in the gym.”

There’s a gym too?
Daniel thought to himself. He could see why Demérs wanted this place so much.

“Where
is
Gordon?” Daniel found himself asking aloud as though Demérs had been referenced in his conversation with Jordan and not just in his head.

“He had to run to the office for a bit. You’re with me today,” she shouted back to Daniel as she continued walking down the hallway before turning right into a room halfway down.

Daniel found himself staring as she strode away from him in her yoga pants. She wasn’t quite as cut as Norma was, but Jordan still had a feminine physique that as a man Daniel found all-too appealing. He shrugged it off and headed for the refrigerator.

As Daniel cracked the first egg for his omelet, he found himself experiencing an inappropriate level of comfort than any person should while making breakfast in a stranger’s house. Had Demérs actually been there, this may not have been the case, but being in the apartment alone with Jordan had seemed to put him at ease. He hadn’t seen her in months, but Jordan had once been like family to him, and there is a level of comfort that never disappears when it comes to family.

After finishing his breakfast and putting away his dishes, Daniel made his way down the hall and to the gym to join Jordan. He walked in to find her jogging on the treadmill.

He looked around the room and found himself impressed by the personal gym located conveniently in the middle of the penthouse. It looked much like any fitness center in a hotel or living complex. There were weight machines, free weights, and cardio machines. The walls were lined with head-to-toe mirrors, and there was—of course—a large flat-screen on the front wall. Below the TV was a black marble counter, and built into the marble were compartments with glass doors. One compartment held damp towels, and the other was a mini refrigerator with a variety of flavored energy waters.

After examining the room, Daniel looked up at Jordan on the treadmill. Her eyes were fixated on the television at the front of the room and she was engaged in some sort of reality show.

Daniel’s eyes then turned to a bench press off to Jordan’s left, and he slowly made his way toward it, examining the amount of weight currently on the bar.

“Be careful with that,” Jordan told him, catching him eyeing the bar. “Gordon can push a lot of weight. You might need to take a few of those off.”

Daniel shot Jordan a glance as if insulted, and then looked back to the weights, adding them all up.

“Gordon benches three-hundred pounds?” Daniel asked Jordan, incredibly surprised that Demérs had that kind of strength. Daniel always knew the man was in shape, but he had no idea he was
that
strong.

“Uh huh,” Jordan replied, short on breathe. “He’s one strong dude.”

The fact that Demérs could push that kind of weight was a bit of a gut-shot to Daniel’s self-esteem, knowing that without his procedure he would have never dreamed of being able to bench-press more than two-hundred pounds let alone three. Not that three-hundred was anywhere near record weight, he just hadn’t expected it.

What Daniel
could
have done no longer mattered though. What mattered was what he could do
now,
and now he could rep three-hundred pounds without breaking a sweat.

He opened his neural pathways and began pumping himself up as he walked over to grab more weight.

“What are you doing?” Jordan asked in confusion as Daniel started throwing more weight onto the bar.

“Trying to get a good workout in,” Daniel replied in an overly obnoxious tone.

Daniel didn’t often bother with the bench press as Robby’s high-intensity workouts often included a variety of push-ups and other dynamic exercises that worked his upper-body out just as well, but when he did find his way to the press Daniel normally kept the weight under two-fifty as there was little reason for him to push himself any further. He preferred to stay within his natural abilities whenever he could.

Today however, Daniel felt like showing off. When he began his journey at Elite one of his primary objectives had been to become a better man than Gordon Demérs, and now was his chance to prove that he had.

“And that’s five-hundred pounds,” he stated with satisfaction when he finished placing more weight on the bar. He knew that he could do more, but figured there was no need to go all out and risk heart failure simply for the sake of showing off to an ex-girlfriend.

Besides, he had to keep it somewhat believable so as not to make Jordan suspicious.

Jordan didn’t say a word. She merely kept her eyes on Daniel, waiting to see if the man could actually accomplish the task he had set before himself.

Daniel laid down on the bench, sliding his head underneath the bar. He reached up to grip the bar with his hands about shoulder-width apart. He had considered going at it with one hand and really being a showoff, but quickly thought better of it when he realize that much tension on his wrist might cause some serious damage that even he could not prevent.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, expanding his lungs to absorb as much air as possible. He told his body to create high amounts of testosterone and adrenaline, and sent it surging through his body with freshly oxygenated blood to his muscle tissue. He opened his eyes and lifted the bar up off the rack, then brought it slowly down to his chest, commanding each one of his muscles to contract as necessary. He then began to push the bar up and bring it back down again.

The burning in his arms and chest were intense, but the act of pushing the bar up and bringing it back down again was rather easy. He had taken control of his body enough times by now that it was second nature. He quickly ran off ten reps before placing the bar back on the rack.

He hopped up off the bench and looked over at Jordan, shaking his arms out as he smiled at her.

She looked stunned. While Daniel was in excellent physical condition, like Demérs he did not appear bulky enough to be able to lift such extreme amounts of weight.

If she only knew how much I could really lift,
Daniel thought to himself.

Jordan’s demeanor quickly changed however, as she chalked Daniel’s feat up to having little idea as to how much weight was truly incredible for a strong man to lift. She knew that she could come nowhere near to lifting that much weight, but she was a woman who was more concerned with toning than building muscle.

What she did know for sure was that Daniel was stronger than Gordon, and for that she was truly impressed.

Daniel then made his way over to the pull-up bar which hung in the front-right corner of the room. He jumped up onto it and began to pull his entire body up onto it until his arms were fully extended and his thighs were pressed up against the bar. He then began to bend at the waist and bring his knees up to his chest.

This was something he had never actually attempted to do before, but it made for a fun challenge. He had to be absolutely precise with his muscle movements, feeling each one as it became engaged and telling them to extend or contract as necessary.

Once he had his upper body inverted and his legs in front of him, he began to push his legs outward, forming an L-shape with his body.

“I get it, you’re strong,” he heard Jordan say sardonically from over on the treadmill.

As he began to lift his legs higher in an attempt to do a handstand, he suddenly felt his heels make contact with the ceiling which was far too low for him to extend completely.

He heard an exasperated laugh come from Jordan and this caused him to lose focus. Suddenly he lost control and his entire body came swinging downward. His forward momentum carried him until his lower body crashed into the wall in front of him, causing Daniel to lose his grip on the bar and fall flat on his ass.