* * *
“I don’t care what you have to say, Brody. We got what we wanted, but that’s not going to end there. They are going to come after us and having her might be the difference between life and death. Don’t look at me like that. I promised that I would get you out of this mess and I’m not going to go against my word. I just can’t believe that you dragged me into this right after I got out for another one of your harebrained schemes.” I had my eyes closed, but I was awake and breathing regularly.
“She’s not some dumb bitch that is going to stay with us willingly. She’s a sophisticated young woman in the prime of her life. There are obviously going to be people looking for her and how long is it going to take them to find footage of us inside that building?” I had thought about that myself and most likely the police were already going over that footage as we speak.
Cody literally slapped him upside his head. “You really do take me for fool. I already took care of the cameras and erased any sign of us. It didn’t take much to hack into their systems and it wasn’t like we were trying to take over NASA or some other government facility. All they will find is static and maybe a few witnesses that might be able to describe us. I wouldn’t worry about that, because most people have a tendency to blur the lines between fact and fiction.” He was good and the muscle of the group was Brody and it was obvious that he had no problem getting the definition on his arms and biceps.
Brody’s hair was cut short, but not the kind of stubble that Cody was wearing. They were both the same height at around 6 feet. I would say that Cody was maybe 180 pounds with a kind of lean physique that would have me crawling for the chance to supply him with my pleasurable orifices.
“I don’t like this, Cody. You’ve already called them and they have been reluctant to get back to you. Maybe this plan of yours is going to blow up in our face. They told us what we had to do and you decided to go your own way. I’m following you because you usually have a pretty good keen insight for these things.” Pretending to be asleep was a good way to get more information. I had my eyes open just enough, so that I could see them, but not attract the kind of attention that would alert them to me being awake.
Cody stopped with his hand raised in the air. He lowered it and came over to me. He hovered over top of me with his two hands on either side of my head. “I didn’t hit you that hard. You may as well open your eyes or do you insist on me doing it for you?” I fluttered my lids making it look like I’d just come too, but the smile on his face told me that he knew differently. The windbreakers were replaced with only the black pullover sweaters.
“You do know that she knows too much. We can’t afford any distractions.” I stared into his eyes. I’d never been particularly attracted to white men, but these guys really did hold their race to a different standard. Brody was muscle-bound and a freak of nature that I wanted to take the time to trace every individual muscle with my tongue. “I have to say that she looks a far cry better than seeing your face every single day when I wake up.” Brody’s gruff voice had him appearing to be menacing.
“The same goes for you. There’s no sense in trying to hide and she already knows our names from pretending to be sleeping.” I tried to move, but it was a little difficult with handcuffs wrapped around the bar of the bed. I was half expecting to be naked, but they did relieve me of my dress. The black and white ensemble of lingerie didn’t exactly leave me completely exposed.
“I’m sure that you’re wondering if we are perverts, but trust me I have a method to my madness. Taking your clothes and leaving you in this outfit not only pleases me, but keeps you from running away. This neighborhood will eat you up alive. Let’s just say there are unsavory characters that would gladly take you for a test drive.” The very idea made me cringe.
“How long do you suppose to get away with this without getting caught? Somebody is going to miss me.” He put his hand on my jaw making me look him in the eye, while his shadow Brody stood behind him with his arms to his side.
“I really don’t think that we have anything to worry about. You don’t take me for the socializing type. You may project something else to the public, but I see something a little different deep down where it matters. The only concern I have is when the other security that is on the government payroll comes to collect his unconscious buddy. That is when all hell will break loose. It will be more sedate than the actual authorities. They won’t want to make a scene and they will quietly dismantle your exhibition before coming in search of you. That being said, I would estimate maybe 24 hours before they have a full blown manhunt for you. That should be plenty of time for us to finish our business and get out of here.”
“I’m going out for takeout. Don’t even start with me. I’ll get whenever I damn well want and you’ll eat it because it’s the only thing in this place.” The obvious disrepair notwithstanding, I could hear the sound of water nearby. The dripping from the pipes and the sawdust on the floor told me more than being able to see where I was going. “Take care of her and don’t let her manipulate you, Cody.” The one thing that Cody wasn’t was a pushover. He would see though any kind of game I was playing.
When he was gone, I got this leering gaze from Cody. He made me feel like I was underneath a microscope. “I’m usually able to read most people, but you are different in some way, Tamara. You have this way of showing me something of a raw sexuality that oozes out of every pore of your body. You also have this manipulative way of speaking that keeps me off my guard.” We began to talk mostly about nothing at all and basically feeling each other out. “I can honestly say that I’ve never been with a black woman. You have this exotic quality. It’s something that I find myself very much attracted to. You’re also stronger than you give yourself credit for and you can literally stand up against just about anything.”
“I’m not going to lie and say that you don’t have a great body, but I’m not going to get caught up in some kind of nightingale syndrome. I’m not going to begin to personalize with my captors if that’s what you’re hoping for.” I wanted to believe the words that I was saying, but deep down I had already begun to see them differently. Cody was talking to me like I wasn’t underneath his thumb. “I appreciate that you haven’t hurt me. That will go a long way during the trial.” He threw his hands up and apparently I had just stuck a knife into a festering wound that had yet to heal.
He put the gun up to his forehead tapping it lightly and then putting it back down and looked at me sternly. “I’ve already been down that road and trust me I’m not going to go back. I would rather go out in a blaze of glory than to have anybody put shackles on me and take my freedom away again. I kind of curse my brother’s name daily and he really doesn’t know how to stay out of trouble. I’ve always been the one to hold him back from doing something stupid, but there are times that I’m not around that he sometimes slips through the cracks.” I had a feeling that something else was going on here. I needed to get deeper into the reason why they had done this.
“You should really start with a moment of truth and then we can build from there. What exactly did your brother Brody get into that you had to feel the need to bail him out? Don’t you think that he should learn from his own mistakes? The only way that he’s going to grow as a man is to take responsibility for his actions.” I struggled against the shackles and they were biting quite severely into my wrist. Even with a bottle of Crisco, there was no way that I was going to slide free of my bonds.
“When I was inside, he was responsible for keeping the bank from foreclosing on our family home. I squirreled away enough money that he could pay the bills and still have enough for the mortgage every month. Unfortunately, the bank had other ideas and they decided to use a very devious plot. They upped the payments to double of what they were before. They expected us to fall in line with no argument. We fought them tooth and nail with a lawyer that wasn’t worth his salt. I’m sure that he was being paid off to look the other way and to throw the case.” I was on the edge of my seat. I wanted to hear the rest of his tale.
“Is it always your position that everybody is out to get you? If what you’re saying is true, then it still doesn’t explain what you were doing at the exhibit. What does any of what the bank is doing have anything to do with that?” He was very forthcoming and I felt like we had built this connection out of mistrust and anger.
“My brother foolishly went to a loan shark for the necessary money to keep our home in our family name. I was able to smooth things out by talking to the loan shark myself on the phone. He wanted my brother and me to break into a safe deposit box. It meant going into a bank and holding it up and that was not a risk that I was willing to take. Looking into his background further, I found that the loan shark namely Jason Anderson had a supply of blood diamonds. We knew that he was using the exhibition as a front to do his dirty dealings under everyone’s noses.” Blood diamonds were very illegal and came from the backs of slaves in African mines.
“I don’t think you went against the loan shark for any humanitarian reasons.” I wanted to castrate him for getting involved, but it didn’t look like he had much of a choice. He sat down beside me with his hands on his knees and his eyes in a faraway glance. I placed my hand on his. He looked down and then at me.
He came forward with his lips very close to touching mine. I wanted him to own me and to possess me like somebody would cattle. I wanted to feel overwhelmed and in need of his form of relief that was currently showing itself with a very telltale bulge in the middle of his pants.
He pulled away and got up with his back straight and showing a sort of defiance against my obvious seduction. “I don’t think that we should. It’s going to make it more difficult when we have to let you go.” There was something more and he decided to change the subject…sort of. “I have no right to ask, but my brother is having a birthday starting at midnight tonight. There’s no way that we can go out to celebrate, but maybe there’s something that you can do.” I was curious and he really did have me willing to entertain any idea.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” I closed my hands over my chest in defense and he laughed out loud at the very idea that I would give my body to his brother on his birthday. It was kind of appalling, but exciting to think about.
“It would be a shot in the arm for him to see you dance for your supper. I’m sure that a girl like you has rhythm. I would really like to see you shake your stuff. I wouldn’t normally ask, but I was planning to take him out to a strip club for his birthday. I was even going to buy him a lap dance on me, but maybe this is better. You’re not being paid to do anything and it’s entirely up to you if you even want to consider what I have proposed.” There’s a part of me that wanted to tell him to go to hell, but there was also a bigger part that wanted to let him see my body.
“I have given this some thought. I believe that I will help you out this one time. There is one condition and it is that you have to stay in the room with us the entire time.” I found him to be enticing, but Brody had that burly man type of attitude. They were different, but I still felt like I could turn them both into a puddle of what they used to be. “I’m not suggesting that you get to touch me, but maybe if you play your cards right, I might want to do more than just dance for you.” He clapped his hands in a mocking gesture.
To me, he was a genius and taking what belonged to the loan sharks had allowed him to write his own ticket regarding paying back the principle of the loan. It was a dangerous game and one that could get us killed. Why I was even sticking myself into their plan was beyond me. I could only assume that they had gotten underneath my skin and I really didn’t see that happening.