omplicating My Goddamn Retirement

 

I spent the week tying up the loose ends of my life. There weren’t many. I’d traveled light and neat. A phone call here and there and I was ready to go to Montana.

I traded in my SUV for a Dodge Ram with a trailer hitch. I’d be buying everything else I needed when I got to my spread.

I had hundreds of acres and a small cabin. It was off the grid. Petra wouldn’t be able to pop in, nor would any other of the clients I’d worked for. I looked forward to the next few years, where I’d be clearing pastures, building fences, and learning. I was excited to start. All my work for Petra, despite seeing what I had to see, was paying off.

It was perfect, the promise land.

Except…

Marilyn.

Every moment of every day, I was thinking about the tiny details of her face, hands, breasts, and lips. It was what I imagined teenage girls did. I was, what do they say, crushing. Yep. I had a crush on a hooker. This was brilliant on my part. All my careful saving and cold attention to detail and I had a crush on someone whose job it was to make you think she liked you back.

But I stuck to the plan. The truck was mine. The papers were signed. I was ready to go. I was not going to become a Marilyn junkie, destroyed by one damn thing, like my dear old mom. No, when you’re obsessed with something, you go cold turkey, either that or accept that you’re never going to be free of it.

Except…

Marilyn.

Petra’s employees didn’t have an office holiday party or a hooker vs. bodyguard softball league. We did our jobs deliberately apart from one another. None of us could bring the others down with too much information. It was smart.

But I did, over time, get to know a few of the ladies I’d protected, and had respect for some of the other bodyguards. Garrity and I were as friendly as two people working for a billionaire madam under the table could be. He was ex-military and so was I. And I did trust him with Marilyn’s life.

Even so, much like a drunk at the end of the night, with no fucking self-control, I texted him.

I shouldn’t have. It was a text that changed the plan. Why did texting have to be so goddamned easy? That text was Step One in complicating my goddamn retirement.

With that text, I had acquired the details of Marilyn’s next job. Garrity had given them to me. I’d contacted him under the pretext of concern. Not love, just professional concern, for this girl I’d started with. He understood. He had “concern” for Petra’s associates now and again. I’d actually given him hell for it. Garrity had a softer heart than I did, but tougher associates. As usual, Petra paired the right people. Now here I was, with “concern.”

I lurked, unseen, in my truck on the night, Garrity picked up Marilyn. I watched Garrity help her to the car. I irrationally looked to see if Garrity was violating her space, stealing an extra glance. He wasn’t. I was dressed identically to Garrity, both of us in Petra-approved Vegas tuxes.

I followed them to The Diamond. This hotel was three miles from The D, but a million light years away when it came to luxury.

So I’m being honest here now. I watched her get in the car and knew Step Two in complicating my goddamn retirement was inevitable. I was three cars back in the valet parking loop as Garrity helped Marilyn out of the car. Her luscious thigh peeked out of the long slit in the white dress they’d dolled her up in this time.

White dress, white hair, white skin, and red lips. She was as luscious as a vanilla ice cream cone and any man near her just the fat kids at the fair. So yeah, Step Two, I parked my car and followed them to the event.

Garrity looked behind him and saw me. He didn’t do a thing to stop me, and I saw him whisper to the doorman at the entrance to the party. He was getting me in. I knew it. And sure enough, when it was my turn, no one asked for my invite. I walked in like I belonged there, and no one had the balls enough to stop me.

I was going to hover in the shadows, not let her see me, but just be there. In case.

Step Three in the complicate my goddamn retirement fuck-uppery occurred about thirty minutes into the party.

**

I was as inconspicuous as a six-four 200-pound bald man in a tuxedo could be. That said, thugs in tuxedos are more commonplace in Vegas than anywhere else. For that, I was grateful. I stood in the shadows and skimmed the edges. I even took over for Garrity as he took a bathroom break. I stayed close to Marilyn, and she had no idea I was there.

She was the least inconspicuous thing in the place. Her shimmering white dress gave off a light of its own. Her breasts, which were probably the only real set in the place, threatened to jiggle out of the top of the gown. They left my mouth dry and had every man in the place looking her way. She smiled, giggled, and blew on dice a few times, but it was all pretty harmless.

That’s when a Maldonado brother, with Garrity, momentarily gone and me unseen, swooped in. The slick son of a bitch entered the circle of men surrounding her, buying her drinks, and the rest of the circle disappeared. They knew what was good for them. If a Maldonado wanted a woman, they’d bow out. No one was dumb enough to take that action.

 I knew all about the Maldonados now. I’d gotten a Ph.D. in Maldonado since I heard she was coming here. There were three brothers, each one more ruthless than the next and all vying to be daddy’s favorite. Daddy’s favorite would inherit The Diamond and, more importantly, a billion-dollar hotel in Dubai.

 Franco Maldonado was the baby of the family. He put his manicured and tanned fingers on Marilyn’s shoulder. I watched as they trailed up and down on her skin.

He whispered in her ear and her eyes sparkled. I wondered what he said. I strained to hear and almost blew my cover when Garrity showed up next to me.

“Here.”

“I nearly punched you in the face. This is my dance space, here’s your dance space.”

Garrity chuckled and handed me an ear piece.

“I’ve got a bug in her right earring. The one Franco is whispering in.”

“Petra will be pissed if she finds out you turned this one over to me.”

“I’ll tell her you were doing me a favor. I’ll let her know I had bad sushi. Employers never question you if you say you can’t come to work because you’ve got bloody diarrhea. It’s full proof.”

“Thanks. I’ll file that information away.”

I snatched away the receiver and slid it into my ear. Garrity stood silently next to me while I listened and caught Franco mid-lech.

 “Your tits are gorgeous. So is your ass. Barchek for once did not exaggerate. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into your hard little nipples.” He hissed this information into her ear.

“Oh, my,” was Marilyn’s response. And then, out of nowhere, the dreaded middle child Maldonado, Dominic, appeared on her other side. He didn’t say a word, but in the middle of the party, people everywhere, he pulled her toward him on the other side and stuck his tongue in her other ear.

The two brothers were effectively blocking other guests from seeing her, but I saw what I saw.

While Dominic licked her ear, Franco moved his hand lower. I am pretty sure I cracked a tooth from clenching my jaw as I watched Marilyn pinned between the brothers.

Franco slid his hand past the slit of her skirt and under it. She was held tight between them, back to the party crowd, and facing Garrity and me.  Franco’s hand traveled between her thighs.

I heard her lightly moan as both of them worked her over as discreetly as one could in a crowded, million-dollar party.

“Don’t make any noises baby. Don’t make a scene.” I watched Franco’s hand disappear in her panties. I scanned the crowd. No one was looking in their direction, and both brothers obscured what would have been quite a show.

“Hmmm. Very nice Marilyn.” Franco said to her.

“And she smells like candy. Mmm. Wait until we get you alone,” Dominic said. He held her by the shoulder and ran his cold martini glass over her breasts with his other hand.

“I also like that she doesn’t talk, just like I told her.” Franco added and the two laughed.

“We’ll see you next week, Marilyn. It will be the time of your life.” The two of them left her alone as quickly as they’d appeared. As they retreated, I realized that Garrity was restraining both of my arms.

“You can let go.”

“Your shit’s together?” Garrity asked.

“Yes. Don’t make me punch you.” I warned.

As Garrity released my arms, Marilyn walked over to the hidden spot where she’d believed Garrity to be stationed. We were behind some grotesque Roman copy pillar. Garrity stepped forward. She was still his assignment for the night.

Marilyn looked at him with wide eyes.

“So two? At once?”

“Never done that before?” Garrity asked her.

“No.”

“They’re gonna pay big. That’s the upside.” Garrity tried to reassure her.

“They are? Double?” She asked and seemed very excited by the possibility of that paycheck.

I, however, had had it. I was quiet for long enough.

 “Garrity’s done for the night,” I said stepping out of the shadow.

“I didn’t know you were here!” She looked happy to see me. But then again, she looked happy to have Franco touch her in public. This woman always looked good. Damn her.

“I will be escorting you home.” I was done pretending I wasn’t in it for the long haul with her. I’d have to smooth over Petra. She did not like impetuous decision making. She didn’t like surprise staffing changes. Rightly so. I was all surprise moves lately.

“I think I can go now, right Garrity?” She said. “They got a look and that was the plan.”

Garrity nodded. Marilyn then turned to me and smiled. She seemed grateful or happy to have me there. I was smart enough to know that I could pick what I needed it to be, right? She was fucking ecstatic that I was there. How’s that, Petra? Whatever. I didn’t care. Why or however much she wanted me there. I was there.

Her happy-to-see-me smile was the moment that I drove my speeding pick-up truck straight into Step Three of complicating my fucking retirement.

“I’ll take you home. I’m going to be your security for a while. Those Maldonados are nothing to play around with.”

The Montana ranch may have been on Mars because that’s how far away I’d placed it when I decided to stay and volunteer to become her permanent security.