Chapter 31

As she did so, the sleeve of her shirt fell part of the way down her forearm, exposing her wrist. I noticed several dark splotches on the underside, and when Phoebe caught me looking, she quickly pulled the sleeve up and gave me another weak smile. Neither of us said anything. I’d asked her repeatedly if her husband was abusing her, and she’d always denied it. I considered pulling Detective Reese into the hall so he could take a look, but before I could act, my neighbor decided to move the keep the conversation moving.

“I take it you’re not staying here tonight?” Phoebe asked.

I eyed her for a moment, and she returned my stare with a great poker face. Finally, I sighed and said, “No. I have a room at Solomon’s Palace.”

Her eyebrows arched up at that, “Fancy.”

“Second time I’ve heard that in the last hour,” I snorted. Then I glanced around to make sure there were no nosy neighbors around before continuing, “Yeah. I recently came into a lot of money. Just don’t tell anyone, if you don’t mind. I’m afraid more stuff like this might happen.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it. Your secret is safe with me.” She glanced towards my door, “Are… are you planning on moving?”

I nodded, “Yeah. Honestly, this mess seems like a sign, and I can afford a better place now.”

Phoebe’s lips compressed and she gave a stiff nod, looking a bit more upset.

“Hey,” I said as I placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked away from me. “If you need anything – anything at all – don’t hesitate to ask.”

Phoebe and I had shared an apartment building for over a year now, and while we got along well, I was a little alarmed at her reaction to the news that I was moving. She was my closest neighbor, but it wasn’t like we saw each other every day. For one thing, we didn’t have much in common. She was a stay-at-home mom who enjoyed raising her kid, a good romance novel, and a glass of wine. I never really enjoyed kids, I preferred a good TV show, and I hated wine. She was married. I was single. She was forty-one. I was twenty-eight. We didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Her husband also hated me, which had discouraged us from getting too friendly. I was surprised when I got this kind of reaction from her.

When she didn’t look at me or acknowledge what I said, I placed a thumb on her chin and physically directed her to meet my gaze. “Please.”

Part of me was a little surprised at my insistence. It was a testament to how power can quickly change a man in a matter of days. She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and nodded, doing an incredible job of holding back unshed tears. I wondered just how isolated this woman was and how lonely her life must be. I also wondered if those dark marks on her wrist had been from Jim.

Finally, she nodded.

“I need to go check on Nate,” she said. “And get your cat. Are you able to take him with you to your hotel?”

My fingers lingered on her chin for a moment longer and then I let them drop. “Yeah. I have a carrier. I’ll bring him with me. Thanks again for taking care of him.”

“No problem,” she said with a weak smile. “Good luck. I hope you find the guy who did this.”

And then she crossed over to her apartment, shutting the door behind her. I turned to head back into my apartment to see how everyone was doing inside and to get my cat carrier. I felt bad about moving and made a silent promise to myself to keep an eye on the Lucases, even if I was no longer going to live across from them.

Tuesday, 9:09 pm

“What a fucking day,” I said as I walked through the lobby of Solomon’s Palace.

I meant it too – I’d woken up to a fantastic blowjob from Bobbi and made a Faustian bargain with her, though in this instance, I felt more like Mephisto to Bobbi’s Faust. After that, I’d reserved the room for another week, displacing some honeymooning couple over the weekend, but I made sure they were taken care of on my dime. her with her own set of errands. After sending Bobbi off on her errands which included the morning-after pill, I’d gone to Marduke to meet up with Helen, who had arranged for me to interview three incredibly gorgeous women for the opportunity to be my right hand. All three of them had promised to essentially be my beck-and-call girl, one of them going so far as to blow me. Then Helen and I fucked in my office. We fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours, I visited Natalie, then met with Ashlee for coffee, paperwork, and seduction. After that, I headed back to the office with coffee for Natalie and nearly fucked her before being rudely interrupted by a call from my neighbor to inform me that someone broke into my apartment.

After retrieving Jack from Phoebe, Erin and I stayed with Detective Reese until they called it quits an hour later. We stuck around afterward to give our statements, and then we stopped at one of my favorite places to pick up some sushi before heading back to Solomon’s Palace.

“You’re not wrong,” Erin said beside me as we made our way to the main elevator.

“You know, you can go home now,” I said as the elevator doors opened.

Erin followed on my heels. “I will. I figured I could see where you’re staying first. Maybe meet the infamous Bobbi.”

I leaned against the glass wall of the elevator, watching through the transparent elevator shaft as the gamblers milled about and placed bets for five floors until we ascended into the hotel portion of the casino. “How do you know about Bobbi? Helen?”

Erin nodded and leaned back against the wall next to me. “Yes sir. She told me about pretty much everything. Knowing everything is the best way for me to help you and anticipate your needs.”

“Even the bad stuff?”

“What bad stuff?”

I shrugged, still feeling uncomfortable with the grey area that was Bobbi. “I don’t know. Rich people crimes?”

“Ah. Yeah, especially the bad stuff. Do you have anything planned that I need to know about?”

She grinned at me, and I sized her up as I thought about it. At just under six feet, I wasn’t what some would categorize as tall, but her small frame and height made me feel that much taller.

“Not really. I might have pushed things a little too far with Bobbi yesterday.”

“Are you talking about the extorting loyalty and sex from Bobbi through blackmail?”

“Well damn,” I said sheepishly. “When you put it like that-”

“I don’t know the situation with you guys,” Erin cut me off. “According to Helen, you guys have an air-tight case to lock her away for at least a decade if you needed to, so you probably don’t need to worry about it. Concerning ethics, it sounds to me like Bobbi’s a bitch and had some hard times coming, and Helen thinks that Bobbi could come around to a certain way of life if it means the security and protection you could provide, so as far as I’m concerned you’re fine. I’m not a bastion of morality though, so I probably shouldn’t be your only go-to for things like this. Now, if you’re disappearing random people and chaining them up in your dungeon completely against their will, then we might need to have an ethics conversation.”

I smiled a little at that and said, “That sounds fair.” Then I spent the remaining few moments of the elevator ride imaging Bobbi chained in a dungeon.

Finally, the doors opened and I took the lead into the large hotel suite. I heard her whistle as she followed me. “Nice digs!”

“Thanks. It’s just temporary,” I said and whirled on her. “So how does this work? What keeps you from ratting me out?”

She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head slightly to the right. “Client/attorney privilege.” The tone of her words called me stupid.

“I didn’t realize you went to law school,” I said as I turned and started looking around the suite. I hadn’t detected any signs of life in the suite and was starting to wonder if Bobbi was even here. I entered the bedroom to take a look.

“Didn’t you interview me for a job this morning?” Erin said.

“Fair enough,” I called out as I emerged from the bedroom, finding no sign of Bobbi. Erin was currently at the bar, looking through the various bottles of liquor. “I guess I got distracted by the picture you painted for me earlier,” I said as I headed for the bathroom.

“I imagine the dick-sucking you got from Bella probably gave you brain fog too?”

“So sure of your theory, Sherlock?” I asked. Bobbi wasn’t in the bathroom either.

“More like it was confirmed. Like I said, Helen gave me the full story. If I’d known how much you were worth, I’d have gotten on my knees and sucked your dick too. Nine-hundred billion? I assumed it was high nine digits.”

“Does it change anything?” I asked as I walked back into the foyer of the hotel.

“For me? Hell no. Just makes me want to keep the job all that much more.” She turned, holding a crystal tumbler with several fingers of brown liquid. “What are you looking for?”

“Bobbi,” I said as I pulled out my phone and looked for her new number in my contacts. I’d had a phone delivered to the room after I left for her use with my number already added as a contact “She was supposed to come back this evening.” I called her but got no immediate answer.

After the fourth ring, it went to the canned voicemail response that came default on a new phone number. “Hey, Bobbi-” I started to say, and then got a call waiting beep.

Bobbi was calling me back, so I switched over and said, “Hey pet.”

Erin’s eyebrows rose at my tone and choice of words, and she took a sip, hiding the rest of her reaction. I had been too tired to play games, but the moment I saw Bobbi’s name pop up on my screen, something within me snapped and I somehow found the energy to be a dick.

“What do you want?” Her tone was flat and lacked any of the malice she displayed yesterday, but it was still jarring.

Something in my chest snapped at the curt words I turned and started pacing toward the bedroom. “Where the fuck are you?” I asked. My tone was full of venom.

There was hesitation on her end. “I called a friend on the new phone, and she picked me up. We did some shopping and I got the pill like you asked. I feel a little sick, so she said I could stay with her.”

“What did you tell her about the situation?” My stomach twisted at the possible answer to that question.

“Chill the fuck out. I just told her I was in a bit of trouble and needed some help. I didn’t say anything else. She’s cool.”

“Okay,” I said, suddenly feeling very tired and not in the mood to put up with her bullshit. “But be back at work tomorrow.”

There was silence on the other end that went on for several seconds. Then she finally said, “Okay.”

She hung up before I could say anything else. I considered calling her back but decided against it. Again, it had been a long day and I just didn’t have it in me to go another round with Bobbi Nanford.

“It looks like Bobbi-”

Whatever I’d been about to say died instantly as I turned and saw what was in my doorway.