Chapter Twenty-Nine – Molly

 

Fifteen minutes later, and I was touching up my lipstick in the car. I’d taken my little Scion, just for the added bit of desperation it might give my association, and I was seated out in front of a mansion of a house in a wealthy community just a few miles from Heidi’s place. My little Japanese import looked about as out of place here as a mallard would look among a flock of peacocks. Luke was behind me by a block, parked down at one of the intersections with his windows rolled down. He swore he could hear me from even that far, and who was I to doubt him? Especially with what I’d already seen him to be capable of.

“Okay, Molly,” I whispered to the visor mirror, “you can do this. For Heidi?”

It was nighttime already, and I stepped right into the yellow light of one of those decorative gas lamps as I climbed out of the car. On wobbly legs, as much from the heels as my nerves, I made my way up the drive to the front door of the adobe hacienda.

I knew I’d gone a little overboard on my outfit, but something told me I really did need to dress to impress with this. Especially with how short-notice everything was. If Heidi had disappeared a few days before, I’d have had a chance to maybe work on another way into the house. But, right now, this was the best option I had. Which meant I had to go all out to make sure I got the job.

Because if this didn’t work, Luke was going to have to go in there alone like he was some bad action film star. And putting him in any more harm’s way than he’d already put himself was not exactly at the top of my To Do list.

As I was stepping up onto the spacious and well-lit porch, with its pots full of professionally landscaped plants and deep red tile underfoot, the door opened. A big, husky man wearing a tieless charcoal suit stood there, a glass of scotch or sherry in one meaty hand, his heavy, unshaven jowls spilling out from his unbuttoned collar.

“Molly Long?” he asked, his voice a baritone growl as I approached, his eyes traveling up and down my body. If he liked what he saw, he made no indication one way or another.

“I am. You must be Chuck?”

He stepped back from the door without responding, and gestured for me to come inside with a beckoning hand.

“Um, sure,” I said, nodding as I stepped into the mansion. I looked up and around at the massive entry hall, looked all around at the pottery and vases stacked on pedestals, at the Spanish tile underfoot. “Nice place.”

He didn’t reply, just shut the heavy door carefully behind us, bustling past me and down a hallway. He led me a short distance to a sitting room, and ushered me within. The room was decorated with two heavy leather couches, placed right across from one another, with a rectangular coffee table made of glass between them. There weren’t any windows in the room, and the only light seemed to come from installed decorative wall sconces. A large, empty fireplace constructed of mismatched stones was lined up with the coffee table. Altogether, the whole thing seemed to reek of understated wealth.

“All right,” he said as we came to a stop next to the coffee table, gesturing with both hands. “Up.”

“Up?”

“Your hands, Ms. Long,” he said, pronouncing the word “Ms.” with a long, hard “z.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, nearly stuttering over my words.

“Ms. Long, I’m just checking to see if there’s anything we need to worry about, that’s all.”

I gave him the side-eye as I shook my head. “I’m not following.”

“I just want to check and make sure you’re not wired.”

“Why?” I asked. “I’m just here trying to get a job, Chuck.”

He smirked as he set his glass of liquor on a coaster resting on the coffee table. “Well, at least Heidi’s following the first rule of working here. Now, come on, or you’re right out the door. No time to be prudish.”

I sighed, biting my tongue. “Fine.” I lifted my hands above my head, my clutch gripped tightly in one hand.

“Thank you,” he said, before putting his hands on me. They quickly and, I might add, efficiently swept over my sides and waist. He grunted low as he dropped to one knee in front of me.

“Really?” I hissed as he reached for my thighs.

“It’s the rules, Ms. Long. That’s all.” He glanced up at me. “Believe me, I ain’t enjoying this any more than you.” As if to illustrate, he reached down and grabbed the front of his pants.

“Gross!”

He shrugged. “Even back when I could get it up, you still weren’t my type.”

I gave him a look.

“Not enough dick for my taste,” he said. “Now, may I? My knee’s fucking killing me here.”

I groaned and nodded, biting my tongue again as I spread my legs a little for him. “Go ahead.”

His soft, meaty hands ran up and down my thighs, traveling all the way up past my stockings to the sensitive skin beneath, till they nearly brushed over the edge of my panties. True to what he’d just told me, he didn’t linger any longer than he had to, and he was soon grunting loudly at he climbed back to his feet.

“Phone?” he asked, laying out his hand for me. “Need to make sure it’s not recording or on a call somewhere else. That’s all.”

I hesitated for a moment. If I were back in this secluded room, could Luke still hear me in here if something happened? Or was my handing over my phone just giving away my lifeline of last resort? These people could do anything they wanted with me if they cut me off from the outside world.

“Ms. Long, it’s just a precaution, okay?” He reached into his pocket with a giant hand, pulled out his own phone, and showed it to me to indicate it was powered off just like mine was about to be. “See? We just take our security seriously. Which, you know, should be encouraging.”

Not so seriously that they couldn’t keep Heidi from getting kidnapped. I didn’t reply. Instead, I took my phone from my bag and handed it over to him.

He popped on the screen, gave me a look when he saw that it was locked. “Come on, Ms. Long, we’re on the clock here.”

I took the phone from him, swiping my pattern to unlock the screen. “Did you just want me to turn it off?”

“May I?” he asked.

I put the phone back in his outstretched hand, and he held down the button for long enough to bring up the power down and reset options. He turned off the phone and, together, we watched it till the power had completely died away, and it was nothing but a blank screen staring back at me.

He smiled as he handed it back to me. “There you are, Ms. Long. Chuck will be with you shortly.”

Before I could respond, he’d already picked up his drink and was gone, gently closing the sitting room’s door behind him, leaving me in silence.

Not sure what exactly to do, I looked around the room for a moment, before taking a seat with my bag perched on my squeezed-together knees. Not having my phone to even check the news was almost disconcerting, and I fought the urge to either turn it on, or get up and pace the room. No, neither of those was a good option. So, instead, I practiced the basic human skill of waiting.

Several minutes later, I was rewarded with the sound of soft footsteps on the thick rug outside the door. As the door opened, I went to stand, smoothing the front of my dress as I did.

An older woman stepped through the door, her hair a stately grey, and her red blouse and black slacks of a designer cut. She was probably in her early fifties, and, from her toned physique and youthful face, she clearly took great pains to look after herself.

“Molly Long, I presume?” she asked as she came striding into the room, hand outstretched to me.

I took her soft, smooth hand in mine, felt her long fingers wrap around my hand in a firm handshake. “Ch-Ch-Chuck?”

She laughed, a full, throaty sound that seemed to echo throughout the sitting room and up into the chimney like a reverse Santa. “Yes, you’ve guessed right.” She stepped past me and sat down on the leather couch, patting the spot next to her as she crossed her legs. “Please, my dear, have a seat.”

I carefully retook my seat on the couch, and she twisted her lower body a little so her knees were pointed towards mine.

“Shocked, aren’t you?”

“Shocked?” I laughed softly. “I don’t know if that’s exactly the word I’d use.”

“At least surprised, then, that it’s a female pimp running the show?”

I nodded, smiling a little. She certainly wasn’t like any pimp I’d ever imagined in my lifetime. “A little, yes. Heidi never mentioned you were a woman.”

“Well, that’s our first rule if you work here. The other, of course, is that you stay in shape, and maintain yourself while you’re working with our agency. Which, I trust, won’t be a problem. You clearly have wonderful genetics. Have you done this work before?”

I shook my head. “No, this is my first time.”

“But, you’ve of course fucked a man before, haven’t you?”

“Excuse me?” I asked, eyes wide. It wasn’t necessarily the use of the word, or the act. It was just the context of the word leaving the mouth of this beautiful, refined woman.

“Fucked,” she repeated, her lips shaping the words like they were in love with it. Her lips spread into a weirdly sensuous smile, as if she were intentionally trying to make me uncomfortable with her words.

Which, of course, she was.

I smiled back at her. “Believe me, I’m not a stranger.”

“Good. Now, Clement says you’re friends with Heidi.”

“I am.”

“Excellent. She sent me a picture last night to let me know who her driver would be. I was as fascinated by you then as I am now. You’re quite attractive, do you know that?”

I blushed a little, looked down at my hands folded in my lap over my clutch. “Well…”

“No, it’s true! We’ll have men lining up to just be in the same room as you, promise. Provided, of course, you’re willing to do the work.”

“Oh, yes,” I said, nodding. “Of course. I’m, um, willing.”

“You mentioned on your call with Clement that you’d like to go to the party? Are you sure about that?”

I thought about Heidi’s disappearance for a moment, considering how she’d entered those doors last night and not come back out through them when she’d said she would. About how I’d woken to an empty house, with no missed calls on my phone. I considered, too, how Luke’s one surefire chance of getting in there was to pretend to be my driver. Any other way, the risks just kept adding up.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Oh, honey, there’s sure, and then there’s really sure. For this one, we need you to be the second. Normally, I wouldn’t even open up this kind of job to a new girl, just because these guys can get pretty kinky.”

“Kinky?” I asked, shifting a little uncomfortably. “Like whips and leather chains?”

“Not exactly.” She leaned forward, as if to emphasize her point. “Have you ever been with another woman before?”

I swallowed hard. No, I hadn’t. But, I’d been able to fake my way into the mansion earlier today, hadn’t I?

“Sure,” I said with a forced laugh. “Who hasn’t fooled around in college?”

She laughed. “Good, good. As long as you don’t get stage fright, you should be fine.”

“Stage fright?”

“Well, there’s group areas, and then there’s private rooms, of course. They’re paying for a party, aren’t they?”

“So, in front of other people?” I asked, for clarification, as I nodded along. “Okay.”

“Excellent,” she replied. “Like I said, normally I don’t exactly hand these out, but a couple of my girls have backed out entirely from the agency, wanted to focus on other things like family and education. Who can blame them, right?”

“Yeah, right. Who can?”

“But, because of that, I’m a little shorthanded, and need a fill-in for tonight up there. And, you seem perfect for the role. You’re more beautiful than Heidi, even.”

That last compliment nearly knocked me back in my seat. I’d always thought of myself as the uglier best friend. The one who was never going to be front and center stealing the limelight from someone like Heidi.

“Really? You think so?”

“Oh, you don’t have the brash, sexy confidence she does, but you’ve got something. Maybe it’s your innocence? All the girls get a little jaded after a little bit of time on the job, and it’ll be a nice change for the party-goers. They’ll love it. So, are you ready?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

She checked her watch, a little smile on her face. “Good, because Bobby’s ready whenever you are.”

It took a moment for her last words to set in. “Right now? Don’t I need to go home and change?”

Chuck raised a skeptical grey eyebrow as she looked me up and down. “Into what? Something less fitting?” She went to rise. “Party starts soon, and they were already complaining about how Heidi got there late last night because of our driver hiccup. Which, by the way, thank you for filling in on. But, if you want the job, you need to go. Right now.”

An image of Luke sitting out in the car flashed into my mind, a phantom memory of his hands on my body dancing across the periphery of my thoughts. If I went now, I’d be in that place all alone. I’d be alone, a sitting duck with not only the creatures looking for me, but also all those men lusting after me. Luke would have to find some other way to come help, or maybe he wouldn’t be able to help at all.

I’d be stranded. I’d be lost. I’d be just like Heidi was already.

If I didn’t go, though, who would? Luke would have to try to sneak in some other way. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t. But here was Chuck practically handing me the key to the front door.

All I had to do was take it.

“Well?” Chuck asked.

I went to stand. “Sorry about that, my mind went somewhere else entirely. Let’s go.”