“What are you reading, babe?”
She gently closed the book and smiled. “Romance.”
His hand moved slowly over her knee and under her skirt, caressing her thigh. “That’s a good idea,” he said with a smile. He sipped his drink and swirled it in the glass, clinking the cubes against the crystal. And his hand went a little higher.
Jennifer stopped him right there. She pressed the book down, refusing his hand farther passage. The flight attendant had handled a little of everything on this job and would probably know enough to turn discreetly away, get very busy in the galley or something, but Jennifer wasn’t having that. “Behave yourself,” she told him sternly. “And try to be patient.”
Nick chuckled and removed his hand, but he leaned toward her. So she kissed him, a deep and promising kiss. She could taste the Scotch on his lips, in his mouth.
When they parted she said, “You be a good boy and you can get in the hot tub with me tonight.” But she knew she would probably be splashing around alone while Nick was preoccupied with poker.
The palm of his hand gently brushed her breast. “Yes, Mommy. Let’s see what movies we have.” He picked up the remote, turned on the overhead screen and read the directory until he found one he liked. Then he settled back on the leather sofa and shared the ottoman with Jennifer, keeping a proprietary hand on her thigh.
She went back to her book. She knew how to make her gentleman toe the line and that was imperative. It kept them interested. They could be like children sometimes, craving limits. She had very strict standards; she must be treated with respect and dignity. The minute a man made the mistake of treating her as property, she was gone.
Jennifer was a professional girlfriend. A mistress. Not a call girl or prostitute. She was an excellent girlfriend. The greater part of her subsistence came from her current gentleman, but she absolutely never asked for a thing. Never. It was always a gift, sometimes with her input, sometimes a surprise. The two diamond rings she wore were surprises, but last year Nick wanted to buy her a car and they went together to pick out her Jag.
Of course, had Nick been less than forthcoming with such gifts, she would have moved on long ago.
How does one get into a profession such as this? In Jennifer’s case, quite by accident and in all innocence. She was nineteen when her mother died and there was a little bit of money from the sale of her grandparents’ house. Just enough to get her from Ohio to Florida and pay first, last and security on a small efficiency. She longed for the sun to warm her heart, for she had found herself suddenly all alone. She had nothing and no one. She didn’t know what to do or where to turn. It seemed she had spent her entire life up to that point keeping an eye on her mother, and when she was gone, exhaustion combined with her grief. She needed a change and a little rest.
She got a job in a fine-dining restaurant in Fort Lauderdale bussing tables on her way to being trained as a waitress; she’d heard the money was good when diners dropped a few hundred on their meals and wines. When one of the slim, young hostesses was a no-show for work, the manager slipped Jennifer into a narrow black dress—the hostess uniform—and she began booking reservations, showing people to their tables and in general making nice with the patrons. She did it well, so they kept her in that job. At nineteen, she was hardly a knockout, but she had a kind of slim elegance, an aloofness, that was underscored by the fact that when she smiled she hardly ever showed her teeth because one front tooth was a little gray and she was embarrassed by it.
Within a couple of weeks she was asked out by an older man named Robert who frequented the restaurant. She shied off, declining. Why would she wish to go out to dinner with a man old enough to be her grandfather? “Because he’s richer than God,” said one of the other hostesses. “And he’s sweet as a kitten. Tell him I’m free.”
That set her to thinking. She was too alone. She had no family; not even a close girlfriend. She was barely getting by on what little money she made. Her best dress belonged to the restaurant—the little black number she wore for hostessing. And this was a nice man, well known around Fort Lauderdale. He was the least dangerous person alive and very, very chivalrous. He just happened to like young women.
She went to dinner with him in her borrowed dress and, to her absolute amazement, had a lovely time. He was kind and thoughtful and patient, and he wanted her to enjoy herself. They became friends, and so it gave him great pleasure to take her places. It was important that she dress appropriately and so they shopped, outfitting her with more clothing at greater expense than she’d ever had in her life. He didn’t think the neighborhood in which she rented her one-room studio was very safe and so he lent her the use of one of his company’s corporate apartments, rent free. He had several that were usually used by traveling executives. One more or less made no difference.
And he sent her to a cosmetic dentist. His treat. Her smile, he had said, was stunning, and she should use it often.
Eventually she even enjoyed sleeping with him, but that wasn’t really a priority for him. He spent the greater part of his energy on business, a lesser amount in the company of his lovely young mistress, and an even lesser amount with his wife. Jennifer remained his girlfriend for about two years.
Because Jennifer had never been able to trust anyone to take care of her, she was completely prepared for their relationship to be temporary. When it was over, most of the accoutrements would vanish. The apartment and leased car would have to be returned, though being rich and a gentleman, he would very likely insist she keep the clothing and jewelry. She was determined to be prepared. So while her gentleman picked up the tab, Jennifer put a little bit of money aside for a rainy day. Growing up hand to mouth had provided her with considerable restraint in spending, and discipline in saving. Jennifer was going to take care of Jennifer, and she realized she had stumbled upon a good way to do it.
The rest, as they say, was history. The first gentleman came along when she was nineteen, Nick when she was twenty-eight. There’d been a few in between. She had been very fond of Robert and sad when he moved on, and Nick had grown on her in the last couple of years, but the others had been merely business arrangements. The only requirements were that they be rich, civil and derive great pleasure from treating her well.
* * *
As Jennifer walked down the wide hall of the MGM Grand Hotel, her extra-short skirt swaying back and forth across her shapely thighs, her high-heeled boots padding softly on the rich and thick carpet, men turned and watched as she passed. Hotel guests and bellhops and maintenance men. Even here in Las Vegas where great beauty abounded, they filled their eyes with her. She walked past a little boy, grasping his mother’s hand, who turned and looked up at her. He couldn’t be more than four and was fascinated. That’s men—so visual. She looked down at him and smiled and winked.
Her shiny platinum hair bounced down her back to her waist. Her eyes, made lavender by the contacts she wore, sparkled under thick lashes, and her lips, full, pouty and glossy, enhanced by collagen, begged to be kissed. To say nothing of her breasts—right up there where they should be thanks to relentless chest presses and a small saline implant under each one, compliments of gentleman number three. If she’d had it this together ten years earlier, she might’ve tried modeling rather than this current vocation. But this look hadn’t come cheap or easy.
She and Nick had been in Las Vegas for three days and tomorrow would be their last day. He was on a real run in high-stakes poker, and every time he wanted to get back to the game he had treated her. One of the gifts was the new tennis bracelet she wore. As well, he gave her a nice crisp stack of Bens—hundred dollar bills—with instructions to entertain herself. He spent a great deal on her, and she used the money to stay fashionable and desirable, always tucking a little away for that rainy day just around the corner.
She’d had a very good time, though she hadn’t spent much of it with Nick.
She had shopped, taken in a couple of movies in the screening room, worked out in the private gym, spent some time in the spa being massaged, manicured and pedicured, and she’d caught up on her reading in the cabana by the private pool. Jennifer was tanned, but it wasn’t from the sun. She wouldn’t subject her skin to that. She was spray-tanned. Once a week she would have a facial, massage and a spray tanning that would begin to fade after four days. When she went to the pool or the beach, she lay under an umbrella or cabana. Her skin, she was proud to note, was nearly flawless.
She was with Nick every night, of course. Or make that the wee hours, after many hours of poker. At fifty-four Nick was fit and energetic, sometimes demanding, often relentless when it came to getting what he wanted. And if he wanted her at 4:00 a.m., she was compelled to oblige. Thankfully, it was only on trips such as this that she was on such a schedule. In Florida they kept separate residences and Nick rarely spent the whole night with her.
Sometimes she wondered if Nick wasn’t just a little more than she could handle. He was certainly the most virile man she’d been with. Every time she began to consider ending this affair, whether because of Nick’s demands or his wife’s instability, he’d give her something amazing, reminding her that he was worth every hour of her time. His gift to her last year had been a condo on the beach, and she was weakened by her love for it. Even with her growing savings accounts, it was way out of her league.
However, life could be lonely. Working in a business that catered to Nick, and having a flexible schedule so she could be at his beck and call didn’t make the other women in the office particularly friendly. But then, she’d always been a loner. She knew what they said about her, but she was no slut. There had only been a scant few men in her life since she was a teen, and she never dated more than one man at a time. Never.
These were the thoughts that were running through Jennifer’s mind as she made her way through the crowds of people in the hotel on her way back to the room. The MGM was putting them up in a suite that was part of a private wing known as the Mansion. Very prestigious surroundings, complete with a crew of chefs, valets and real butlers. She’d been there several times with him—he considered her good luck—and true to form, he’d been winning, which made him fun and frisky. It was very easy to get used to living in high style like this, but she didn’t take it for granted. She knew how quickly such fortunes could shift—just as she’d had rough times with her mom, she’d had a few high times. They never lasted very long, but she remembered them fondly.
When she reached their suite she quietly opened the door and was instantly taken aback by shouting.
“I don’t ask your permission for anything! I’m here for poker, and if I’d wanted you and all your bitching here, I’d have brought you!”
That was Nick. She peeked in and made eye contact with “butler” number one, Lou. Lou was a mountain of a man. He stood in the foyer, his back to the sitting room, arms crossed over his chest.
“You can’t just bring your bimbo to Vegas and toss me to the sharks in Palm Beach while you’re here screwing around. They’ll eat me alive!”
Uh-oh. That would be Mrs. Nick.
“I’m here for poker! I can screw around in Florida!”
“Everyone knows you left me at home while you brought that whore to Vegas!”
Jennifer stiffened indignantly. She took exception. At the very least, the pot was speaking of the kettle.
“Why you worrying about what everyone else thinks? You got your big house, your big rings. You don’t play second fiddle. You got your masseuse.”
“Oh, you have such a dirty mind! Maurice is gay!” And with that there was a crash. She was throwing things. It was time to give her some space.
Jennifer backed quietly out of the room, gently pulling the door closed. She went downstairs to a quiet bar, sat at a corner booth and ordered a foamy margarita. She sipped it very slowly, killing time. She’d give Nick and his spouse time to work through this tiff. If she ended up with her own room and a first-class ticket back to Fort Lauderdale, it wouldn’t be the first time. It was no big deal.
“Hey, sweetheart.” She looked up into the deep brown eyes of a rather handsome and well-dressed man. “Buy you a drink?”
“Thank you, no. I’m waiting for someone. He’ll be along soon.”
One corner of his mouth lifted in a mocking smile. “Blow him off,” he suggested.
She placed both her hands on the table, fingers splayed, roughly sixty thousand dollars’ worth of gems glittering on her fingers and wrist. “Oh, I don’t think so. I really don’t think so,” she said sweetly with her positively shattering smile. He was dismissed.
She knew better than to flirt or lead men on. For one thing, Nick wouldn’t stand for it. More than that, she’d seen plenty of women get themselves in serious trouble biting the hand that fed them. Not to mention the number she’d seen take a dive because they were stupid enough to fall hopelessly in love and believe everything they were told.
Jennifer had never been in love. At least, not since her sophomore year of high school. The combination of watching her mother suffer through frequent broken hearts and having her own trod upon by a stupid high school jock had taught her more than she wanted to know about that emotion. She thought it best to rise above it and live the good life. And her life was good.
The fight going on upstairs was upsetting, however. According to Nick, the honeymoon with Barbara was over and they’d gone their separate ways. Jennifer didn’t like conflict. She never fought. She was a pleaser. Nick was not similarly disposed; he had a bit of a temper. He was a little scary sometimes. He treated her with kid gloves, but even though she tried to tune him out, she’d heard the way he yelled at people on the phone, threatening them with dire consequences if they didn’t get something done to his satisfaction.
That was precisely why she minded her own business and tried not to listen.
She thought two hours away from the suite would be enough, so she gave it another thirty minutes. If the wife had won, she’d be intercepted by one of the guys, like Lou, and escorted discreetly to her own room or suite. If the wife had been successfully sent on her way, she would find Nick, or a note, instructing her to meet him there later. Frankly, she was betting on Nick.
She returned to the suite and quietly unlocked and opened the door, peeking into the foyer. Silence. She stepped inside and listened. Not a sound. Then she heard running water and a man’s muffled voice. She plastered that ready smile on her lips and moved toward the sitting room—and was stopped short. A battle had taken place there; a bloody battle. Furniture was tipped over, glass sparkled on the floor and there were actual splatters of blood on the white furniture and carpet.
“Just get rid of her,” she heard Nick say.
“Yeah, like where?” one of his guys asked.
“Who cares? Don’t worry about money, just do it up right. Don’t want to draw attention here. And clean up this place—I don’t want housekeeping in here asking a lot of questions.”
Immobilized by the shock of what she was hearing and seeing, Jennifer stood in the doorway, frozen. Then she saw Nick, shirtsleeves rolled up, splatters of what must have been his wife’s blood on his shirt, holding an ice pack to his eye. He walked from the bedroom to the bar. She heard the clink of ice cubes in a glass. He hadn’t seen her.
“You seen that bimbo?” Nick yelled into the other room.
“She stuck her head in the door just when Babs started pitching the crystal around the room.”
“Shit. Find her. We’re gonna have to do something about her, too.”
She stepped quietly into the coat closet just inside the foyer, out of sight but not out of earshot. She was just in time. Lou and the other “butler,” Jesse, came marching past to leave the suite. “We’re gonna need something big and easy to handle.”
“Go
lf bag, maybe.”
“Yeah. Or big suitcase on wheels. Y’know, they hold a lot.”
And they were gone.
In her entire life, as bad as it had been during some periods, she’d never imagined she’d encounter anything like this. But now, as she stood in the dark closet, a crack of light from the partially opened door streaking across her face, she knew she should have seen it coming. His temper was obvious, even if it hadn’t been turned on her. She sensed his businesses were shady, though she had no idea how. But what manner of man needs a couple of big bruisers hanging close at all times?
After a few moments she pushed the door open. She was going to flee, but she heard the shower running. Nick was fastidious. He’d want to wash up if he’d been mussed or stained with blood.
She knew she shouldn’t, but she just had to know. She passed through the chaos of the sitting room and crept toward the bedroom door. The sound of the shower gave her a sense of cover. She looked into the room and there, sprawled facedown on the bed, was Mrs. Nick. Her hand dangled lifelessly off the edge and her hair looked wet in the back. Blood?
God, he’d done it. They’d gotten into it and, whether deliberately or accidentally, in a fit of rage he’d killed her. And now Nick’s boys were going to get rid of her body. And then he was going to “do something” about her.
She heard something and craned her neck. He was singing in the shower! That’s when she knew she’d hit bottom. She had to run. She couldn’t take any chances. Any man who could sing in the shower while his wife lay dead a few feet away was no man to trifle with.
She left the suite, left the Mansion and went through the casino. She took a cab to the airport. She had no luggage. Only that little tiny Kate Spade bag, which fortunately had quite a lot of money in it. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew what not to do. She would not wait around the airport for a flight to Florida so she could be found there. She wouldn’t flee to her condo, the first place Nick would look.
But she bought a ticket to Florida on her credit card. Then she bought a pair of sunglasses and a scarf with cash. She covered her platinum hair and her lavender eyes and took another cab, this one to a suburb of Las Vegas. And there, nestled in a little neighborhood inn that did not feature gambling, she cooled her heels and waited for news of a murdered woman. There was a little strip mall and grocery store nearby, a drugstore, a coffee shop, a Goodwill store and army surplus. She only went out after dark, with her bright white-blond hair covered. She purchased a sweat suit and tennis shoes, some cotton underwear, hair dye and a ball cap. Later she picked up some men’s clothing at army surplus, hiding her luscious body in the deep folds.