by Hadley Knox
“Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“Because you’re busy.”
“I could send the calls to voicemail,” Pearl said.
“But then you would get backed up. I know you don’t like that.”
“I can put calls on hold if you need me. What happened?”
“I made Adam leave earlier. He was upset that I went to the Steel Hammer last night, and then kept getting more and more upset when I asked questions about the murder.”
“Why would he get upset?”
“He said that it was none of my business, and that since I got the phone back, I should leave it all alone.”
“That’s convenient,” Pearl said softly.
“You think he did it?”
“Who knows after all this?”
Before I could respond to her soft accusation, my personal cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and hesitated before answering it.
“Hello,” I said. My voice came across as cautious, and maybe even a little afraid.
“Lana,” the guy on the other end said.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Hey, it’s Jed from the Steel Hammer.”
“Hello, Jed.”
“I talked to Greg last night,” he said. “I hope I didn’t mess up by telling him about the whole Adam thing.”
“No, it’s okay. He and I just talked.”
“Okay, good. I don’t want to come across as a gossip or anything.”
“No, you didn’t.”
What the hell did this kid want and how did he get my number? This was almost as strange as the blackmail calls that I had received from Jeremy Towers.
“I’ve got a weird question to ask you,” he said.
“Okay, what is it?”
“Braden and I have been talking lately, and we want to work for you.”
“You want to be escorts?”
“Yes.”
“Do Adam and Lucas know about this?”
“We haven’t said anything to them yet, because we didn’t know what you would say.”
“How do you think they’ll react?”
“I’m not sure, and part of me doesn’t really care. He and I have to do what is best for us. Right now, we are saving up as much money as we can, and we think we’d do better with you.”
“This is a big deal,” I said into the phone. I think I was really trying to buy myself some time while I pondered this proposal.
“It is a lot to ask,” Jed said. “I would totally understand if you said no.”
“Are you aware of what the occupation requires?”
“I think so,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll have some stuff to learn, but we’re willing to put in the time.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Jed. My biggest hesitation is how Adam is going to react. He’s not so happy with me right now because of my little visit last night.”
“Look, Adam is a great guy. He cares for all of us in the show, and he would want what’s best for us. He fully supports any dreams that we have.”
“So you think he’d be fine if you up and left him?”
“Well, Braden and I talked about working something out where we do a few more shows at the club on Friday and Saturday nights until they can find some more replacements.”
“That would make it easier for them,” I said.
“Hopefully.”
“I need some time to think this through,” I said. “I’ve got an idea. Tomorrow is our weekly pool party slash business meeting. You two come over an hour early and talk to some of the guys. This isn’t a decision that I feel like I should make on my own.”
“Sounds good,” he said. I could hear the excitement in his voice.
“Okay, but no promises,” I said. “We’ll have to talk this through tomorrow, and then we’ll make a decision, okay?”
“Sure.”
“And do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone about this until we meet tomorrow. I don’t want to get Adam worked up for nothing if this isn’t going to work out.”
“I’ll tell Braden. We won’t say a word to anyone.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow Jed.”
I set my phone down on the couch next to me.
“More recruits?” Pearl asked.
“Possibly,” I said. “I need to call Mike and Greg and get them over here early. What do you think about it?”
“Judging by the calls I’m getting this morning, we might need their help. I’m booking the guys up fairly solid through this next week. If calls increase much more, we’ll be two weeks out soon.”
I smiled. “That’s a good thing.”
“In a way it is, but the idea is to make as much money as you can. If you’re booking out that far in advance, then you need some more supply.”
“That’s crazy that business keeps picking up,” I said. “I wonder why more and more people keep calling.”
“My opinion? I think we’re getting referrals. I’ve had a few women tell me that they heard from a friend. I’ve even had more than a few requests for a certain guy, so they’re at least familiar with some of them.”
“So word is spreading?”
“Sounds like it.”
“I hope this doesn’t backfire.”
“How could it backfire?”
“The wrong person could find out.”
“You know these women who are calling are rich and neglected. Now you know how these women act. They would never spill their business to the girls at the country club. I don’t think you have much risk of any of them ratting you out. Even if the authorities got wind of this, they would have a hard time compiling witnesses.”
“True.”
“So do you want me to call Mike?” Pearl asked. “And Greg,” she added after a few seconds of hesitation.
“I’ll take care of that,” I said. “I’ll probably get Derrick over here, too.”
“Speaking of Derrick, I’ve had two more men call the service.”
“Great, that’s going to be good for his earnings.”
“Definitely,” Pearl agreed.
“Maybe we should get Betsy over here, too. She’s slept with Jed, so her input into his performance might be helpful.”
Pearl laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“It’s great to see how much you’ve changed in the past few weeks. The Lana I always knew was afraid even to talk about sex. Now you bring it up like you would laundry or something.”
I shook my head and smiled. “We have a business to run.”
“Yes we do.”
“Let me ask you something,” I said before she could walk back into the office. “What do you want to do in the future?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, after we’re done with the Madam thing, what would you do?”
“I haven’t really thought about it. Are you planning on bailing any time soon?”
“No, not too soon, but I want to make sure that everyone has a backup plan.”
“To tell you the truth, Lana, I’m just enjoying my new job. I spent years at that insurance company, and I was miserable. Ever since coming here, I’ve just found myself loving what I do. I don’t want to get all serious and start trying to stress about my future just yet.”
“Well, you may need to start doing that at some point soon. In the next few weeks, I want everyone who is a part of the Madam business to have some sort of plan to get out. This is temporary for all of us.”
“Okay,” Pearl nodded. “Give me a few more days, and I’ll start trying to think of something.”
“So you don’t have any dreams or aspirations? If you could pick anything in the world, what would you do?”
“Anything?
“Anything.”
“I want to write a romance novel,” Pearl said.
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“I’ve never told anyone because it’s a little embarrassing. I don’t even know if I can write well.”
“Have yo
u ever tried?”
“No, but I’ve written down a bunch of ideas for characters and plots.”
“Start writing,” I said.
“Maybe one day.”
“Pearl, one day is here. Why don’t you start working on it between calls?”
“But I’m on the clock.”
“It’s not a problem. Start writing it now. Books take a while to write, so the sooner you start it, the sooner it will be finished.”
“I’ll think about it,” she sighed.
The kids finally woke up and came downstairs. I wouldn’t normally have let them sleep so late, but I had had a busy morning. It was hard to put on a good face for them, but somehow I managed.
It was drawing close to lunchtime, but I made them a big breakfast anyway. Jake laughed when I started some pancakes and said they could just call it brunch.
The rest of the day, I just walked around the house in a funky daze. I spent some time in the office helping Pearl. She was right that the business was picking up. She had very little time between each call, which left her almost no time to reply to the e-mail box. Through the afternoon, I went into the office four times to take care of the messages.
I also texted Betsy, Greg, Mike, and Derrick. All three responded promptly that they could come over early the next day. Betsy seemed little eager to participate. When I read Greg’s message, I wondered if he was surprised by Jed’s phone call. My guess was that Greg had actually given Jed my number. It confused me why Greg wouldn’t have said something when he was at the house, but then I remembered that we had other things to talk about. He probably forgot when the two of us were breathing heavy in each other’s face.
Chapter Twenty
The next day, I made sure that the kids had something do during the time period before the party started. They were almost never underfoot when we had to talk about business, but with the two new guys coming over, I didn’t want to take any chances.
Just before noon, I ran to the grocery store and purchased all of the food for the cookout and four cases of beer. I laughed as I hauled them into my cart, thinking about how I had started this business with just five guys and now I had nine. The beer purchases had definitely increased.
When I returned to the house, the kids were getting ready to leave. Jake was going to the movies with a group of his friends, and Mallory was going to the mall with some of hers. I handed them both a couple of twenties and told them to enjoy themselves. It was nice to be able to trust my children. It was ironic that they were the well-behaved ones, while their mother was out there participating in all kinds of foolishness.
Betsy and Pearl showed up first and started helping me get the food ready. I went to the linen closet and retrieved the enormous stack of towels. It seemed like each meeting required more and more towels. Not that I was complaining, because for every towel that I added to the stack, that was potentially more money going into my bank account.
We didn’t talk much about Adam, which was fine with me because I wanted to think about anything other than him at that moment. My girls knew me well, neither of them broached the subject once, and the one time that I did, they changed it quickly.
Derrick showed up first, which was rare. Greg and Mike almost always beat the other guys to the house. When he walked in, I could see a gleam in his eyes.
“Okay, I almost called you,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wasn’t sure if this was the right guy or not, but I think you may know the male client I had last night.”
“Really?”
“Does the name Reginald Leighton ring a bell?”
“Wait a minute,” I said, putting a hand up. “Are you telling me that your client last night was Reginald Leighton?”
“Yeah.” he nodded.
“That’s my boss.”
“Oh, my god,” Derrick said. “I wasn’t sure, but I thought I remembered you saying his name one time. He wouldn’t tell me his name last night, but he said that he worked for a small publishing company. I thought that it was too coincidental because I don’t know many publishing companies in town. So when he went to the bathroom, I looked in his wallet and saw his driver’s license.”
“What a bastard,” I said. “That man is married with two kids.”
“Are you kidding? He told me that he was a single guy.”
“No, he’s also a member of my parent’s country club.”
“What a jerk,” Derrick said. “Now I feel bad about it.”
“You didn’t know, and I had no idea that he was your client or I wouldn’t have agreed to this.”
Betsy laughed. “So your boss secretly plays for the other team?”
“Closet case,” Pearl said. “You should out him at work, Lana.”
“What good would that do?” I asked.
“Think about his wife,” Pearl said. “Poor woman has no idea.”
“Please,” Betsy waved her off. “You can’t tell me that a woman would be married to a man and have absolutely no idea that he was secretly gay. I’ve seen this before, and honey, there’s almost always a clue or two. A woman might be blinded by denial, but there’s a clue there somewhere for her.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” I said. “His wife deserves to know.”
“So tell her,” Pearl said.
“But that would ruin both of their lives,” I said.
“So what are you going to do?” Derrick asked.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I guess I’ll think about it. But one thing is for sure, Pearl, if he calls again, you are not to book another appointment with him. I have no problem taking care of male clients as long as Derrick is okay with it, but I have a problem with closet cases trying to use the service.”
“Woah,” I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to see Greg and Mike standing there. I hadn’t heard them come in.
“What did we walk into?” Mike asked.
I looked over at Derrick. The two of us hadn’t talked about whether or not he wanted the other guys to know about his little side deal with the male clients. I didn’t know if he wanted it to stay a secret, or if it would be okay to talk about it openly.
Derrick sighed. “Pearl got a call from a male client the other day. I agreed to take care of it for a slightly higher price.”
“Wait a minute,” Greg held up a hand. “You saw a male client?”
“Yeah,” Derrick nodded.
“Are you gay?”
“No, I’m bisexual.”
“And how much more did you charge?”
“Double,” Derrick said.
The room was tense while everyone waited on Greg’s reaction. I didn’t know if he would be upset or revolted by the fact that we had a bisexual escort working for us. I figured he was progressive, but the particular issue had never come up.
Greg took a few steps towards Derrick and held up a hand. “Alright, little man,” he said with a laugh. I was relieved to see the extended hand was for a high five.
Derrick took his hand and joined his laughter.
“That’s enterprising of you,” Greg said. “You’ll make more money than any two or three of us combined doing that.”
“It’s just going to be an occasional thing,” Derrick said.
“Whatever,” Mike said, clapping him on the back. “Nobody’s judging you here. If I could do it, then I would be right there with you.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about what we’ll think about it,” Greg said. “When I first got into this business, I was told that male clients were the fastest way to a fortune, but I personally can’t do it. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to hate on you. In fact, I’m a little jealous.”
“Thanks guys,” Derrick said. “I just didn’t want it to be weird.”
“Don’t stress over that,” Greg patted him on the shoulder. “You’re still one of the guys, even if you happen to hop into bed with a guy.” He grinned at the pool boy.
I mouthed a thank you at Greg when he cut
his eyes at me. It made me proud that my friends were progressive enough to accept that. I felt a little ashamed at having doubted Greg and Mike; they were both great guys and I should have known better than to think that this would ever be a problem for them.
But I still had the issue of Reginald’s secret to deal with. I wanted to run to his wife and report this immediately. I was certain that this was a fact that she deserved to know, but I was also certain this was something I had to handle with greater care. She deserved to know, but she also deserved a sympathetic, sensitive way to learn this information.
“So Jed and Braden will be here in a minute,” I said. “I wanted you to all sit with me when we talk to them to make sure that we want to take them on.”
“I’ve taken Jed on already,” Betsy said. “You want me to give it a go with Braden, too?”
I sighed. “No, Betsy.”
“Actually,” Greg smiled. “That might not be a bad idea.”
“Do not encourage her.”
Greg shook his head. “Seriously, you can’t send out guys who have no idea what they’re doing. That’s bad for business.”
“I sent all of you out,” I said.
“But you had sex with two of us before you did,” Greg said. He turned to Mike with a smile. “You can tell just by looking at this guy that he’s an animal in the sack, and Ray, you hired more for his physical build.”
“What about Ben?” I asked.
“You didn’t hire him for his sex appeal. The girls that book him are doing so because of their fetish for the nerdy guy.”
“He has a point,” Betsy said.
“You’re just saying that because you want to sleep with Braden.”
“Yes, I do. That boy is supposedly hung like a horse.”
“That’s true,” Greg nodded. “If that’s the case, then that will be his selling feature. How he performs will probably not matter that much.”
I threw my hands up. “So women will just hire him to see his junk? They won’t care about pleasure or anything like that?”
“Probably not,” Greg said. “The better you look physically, the less work you have to do.”
“That’s awful,” I said.
“I agree, that is awful, but it’s just a fact.”
“So what do we ask them today to make sure that it’s okay to bring them on?” I asked.