Breaking Into the Business

by Hadley Knox

  “Okay, Ray,” I said. “Go to your appointment and then come back. Grab a change of clothes or something. I will try to make sleeping arrangements available for everyone while you’re gone.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Derrick asked.

  “We should leave at least three of us here at all times,” Mike said. “Let’s go in shifts to our places and get some clothes and a gun if you have one.”

  “Will the kids be worried when all of your new business associates suddenly sleep over?” Ben asked.

  “I’ll come up with something,” I said. “I don’t want to worry them.”

  Greg looked at me gravely. “You may not have a choice.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Over the next few hours, the house was a hubbub of activity. Each of the guys took shifts going home to get their belongings.

  My first order of business was to tell the kids. I didn’t want to, but I knew there was no choice. I resolved myself to the fact that I would have to come clean.

  I was preparing to go upstairs when Greg stopped me.

  “Do you have anywhere the kids could go until this blows over?” he asked.

  “You think I should send them away?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We can protect you, but if we have to resort to extreme measures, do you really want your kids here?”

  Mike shook his head. “If someone’s watching the house, then they would see her taking the kids away and they’d know where they were. The kids could be used as leverage to get the money.”

  “True,” Greg said. “Unless we came up with a way to sneak them out.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “We don’t even know if the house is being watched.”

  “I would assume that it is,” Mike said. “The guy wants a hundred thousand dollars. That’s enough money at stake that it would be a small thing to put surveillance on a house.”

  “Where would the kids go?” Greg asked.

  “I could call my sister,” I said. “She would give me a lecture on irresponsibility, but I can handle that.”

  “We still have to figure out a way to sneak them out of here,” Greg said.

  “I have no idea how we would do that,” I admitted.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Mike said. “You talk to your sister and I’ll work on the details.”

  So I walked upstairs and knocked on Jake’s door and waited a few minutes before opening it. I poked my head in and asked him to come to Mallory’s room. Her door was down the hall a little ways and was already slightly cracked.

  I opened it slowly while knocking. “Hey, sweetie,” I said as I walked in.

  “What’s up, Mom?” she said, looking up from her cell phone.

  “I need to talk to you both,” I said.

  Jake followed me into the room.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?” he asked.

  I sat on the edge of Mallory’s bed and patted the spot next to me for Jake to sit as well.

  “Okay, now you’re freaking me out,” Mallory said.

  “Well, you should be freaked out,” I said. Taking a deep breath, I explained to them about the first few phone calls. “The other day the calls got worse because the person on the other end demanded an insane amount of money. It was more money than I have.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Jake asked.

  “Tonight got worse, because there was a car staked out in front of the house,” I said. “I don’t want you to get too scared, because a few of my employees are going to stay here with us tonight to make sure that nothing happens.”

  Mallory set her cell phone on the bed beside her and pulled her knees up to her face while wrapping her arms around her legs. I could see fear in her eyes. Jake looked surprised, but he had a brave look of defiance on his face.

  “I’ll help keep watch,” Jake said.

  “Not going to happen,” I said. “There are five guys who will watch over this house tonight. The last thing I want is for something bad to happen to one of you, so you will be confined to your rooms until tomorrow.”

  “Are we going to school?” Mallory asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “At least until I can talk to your Aunt Pam and make sure it’s okay if you stay with her for a few days.”

  Both kids groaned simultaneously.

  “I don’t want to go to Aunt Pam’s,” Jake said.

  “It will be nice for you to spend some time with your cousins.”

  “They’re okay,” Mallory said. “But Aunt Pam is not the nicest person.”

  I chuckled. “She’s always been like that. Seriously, it won’t be that long, and I promise to come to get you as soon as this all blows over.”

  “Why don’t you come with us?” Jake asked. “What if something bad happens to you?”

  “It won’t. I have the guys here to protect me. I’ll feel a lot better knowing you two are safe and out of harm’s way.”

  “So who is this guy who is demanding money?” Jake asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “So you don’t know why he assumes you owe him money?”

  “I really don’t,” I said.

  “It’s probably something to do with Dad,” Jake said softly.

  “Maybe, but how would we know? He never told me anything about our finances. It took me weeks after he left to track down all of our accounts and our money.”

  “Dad was an asshole,” Mallory said.

  “Yes, your dad was and probably still is an asshole, but we have to figure this out. This may not have anything to do with him.”

  “I don’t see why you won’t come with us,” Jake said.

  “I’ve already told you. I have to straighten this out.”

  “What did the police say?” Mallory asked.

  “I haven’t called them.”

  “Mom,” Jake said in a chastising tone. “Call them. They might be able to help.”

  “I doubt it. They would only file a report. That would just take time and might incite the stranger to do us harm. The police will only act if something is actually happening.”

  “But, Mom, he’s threatening you. Surely they can do something about that.”

  “I would rather try to handle it on my own.”

  “I don’t agree,” Jake said. “I don’t like the fact that you’re going to be here alone.”

  “I will have Greg and the guys. I’ll be safe. I promise.”

  The guys had already switched shifts before I got back downstairs. Since Greg had already claimed the first guest room, I set Derrick and Ben up in the other one downstairs. I offered to get an air mattress out of the garage for Mike. He settled for taking the couch instead. The linen closet had a wealth of blankets and pillows, and I removed some from the stockpile so that Mike and Ray could each have one of the two sofas.

  They took turns walking around the house outside, inspecting every square inch. Mike even went so far as to drive around the neighborhood for a while in hopes of getting lucky and finding the silver sedan.

  Greg and Derrick went through every room of the house to make sure that the windows were sufficiently secured. I accompanied them when they went into the kid’s rooms.

  Once all of that was seen to, I decided to call my sister. She would definitely be in bed, since she was on the same schedule that she had been on for the past fifteen years. But this was something that warranted waking her up and inviting her wrath.

  I dialed her number on my cell and had to wait about six rings before she answered.

  “Lana,” she growled sleepily into the phone.

  “Hey, Pam,” I said. “I need to talk to you.”

  “You realize it’s late, don’t you?”

  “It’s ten o’clock,” Lana said. “Even my kids aren’t in bed yet.”

  “Don’t question my routine and I won’t call attention to any of your questionable parenting habits.”

  There it was. She always had that way of presenting her thinly veiled judgments. Hell, half the time, she didn’t even both
er with a veil at all.

  “I really need a favor from you,” I said. “Can you meet me for lunch tomorrow? We really have to talk and I’d rather do this in person.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  One would have expected a sibling to be concerned, but Pam wasn’t like that. I would have gotten a more appropriate response from one of my two brothers, but if I called them, they would insist on helping in their own way. I wagered that if I called either of them, they would be over here as soon as they could.

  “I can’t get into it tonight. Can you please meet me for lunch tomorrow?”

  “I guess. Where?”

  “Let’s meet at the salad place on 15th and Main,” I suggested.

  “On another diet?”

  “I don’t need to diet.”

  “Of course, you don’t,” she said wryly. “You never diet, but even if you did, you would never admit it.”

  “Thank you for meeting me tomorrow. Also, please don’t breathe a word of this to James or Ryan. It’s probably not a good idea to tell Mom or Dad either.”

  “I won’t say anything. Now let me off the phone now so that I can go back to sleep. I’ll already have trouble waking up tomorrow morning as it is.”

  “Sorry to call you so late.”

  “Whatever,” she said.

  The line went dead. I rolled my eyes and set the phone down.

  I checked my watch and saw that it was a few minutes past ten. If everything went as it should, Ray should be getting back soon. I was anxious to see how his first client went. In spite of all the shenanigans going on lately, I still had to get my business off the ground so that I could bring in some money.

  “Was that your sister?” Greg asked as he walked in the room.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Did it go okay?”

  “She agreed to meet me for lunch tomorrow. That’s the most I can ask right now. I’ll just have to figure out a way to convince her to take the kids for a few days.”

  “I’m sure she will.”

  “Let’s hope.”

  He plopped down on the couch next to me. “So I’m thinking later tonight, after my watch shift, I can come to your room.”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “We have talked about this so much, Greg. We can’t do this, especially with the other guys in the house. They’ll think I’m playing favorites with the appointments.”

  “What about Derrick?”

  “What about him?”

  “Are you going to ask him to come into your room tonight?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “If you had to pick one of us, which one would you pick?”

  “Neither of you. Why?”

  “Because I know that you slept with him.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “For starters, when I just made the accusation, you didn’t deny it. Your first reaction was to ask me how I reasoned that out. The other reason I know you did was how he acted towards you tonight. I saw him cut his eyes at you when he mentioned sleeping with some of his pool cleaning customers.”

  “Okay, so maybe I slept with him,” I admitted. I folded my arms and stared at Greg. “Is that a problem?”

  “Not at all,” he said. “Like you’ve said, we’re only friends. Plus, I go out sleeping with other women all of the time, so how could I be upset about you sleeping with another man.”

  “So you’re not upset at all?”

  “Well, I would like to know who was better.”

  I smiled. “He was great, but you were amazing.”

  “So that means I was better?”

  “Are you competitive?”

  Greg smiled. “With every fiber of my being.”

  “I don’t want to answer this question. It makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Whatever,” he laughed.

  The front door opened and Ray strutted through. His swagger that he always had was a little more pronounced tonight. The smile on his face stretched from ear to ear.

  I stood up and motioned for him and Greg to follow me to the back patio where Mike and Derrick were. We all took a seat in our little circle, which had become, by default, our conference table.

  “How’d it go?” I asked, although I could already deduce the answer.

  “That was the most awesome night of my life,” he said, throwing one of his fists in the air.

  “So the client enjoyed it?” Greg asked.

  “Oh, she enjoyed it alright,” Ray nodded. “And so did I.”

  “That’s great when you have those cases where you are able to get enjoyment out of it,” Greg said. “But remember that they won’t all be like that.”

  “Hey, Lana,” Ray turned to me. “Do you keep client’s phone numbers on file?”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I wanted to call her again,” he said. “We really had this connection and I think there might be something there.”

  “Absolutely not,” Greg answered before I could. “Remember that the relationship between the escort and the client must remain professional at all times. Under no circumstances should that evolve into a personal relationship.”

  “Why not?” Ray asked. “What if she’s cool?”

  Greg cleared his throat and leaned forward. “There are two ways that this ends and I am firm on this. The first and most likely is that you will freak the client out by calling her. This business is a one-way street on communication. They call us and we deliver. That’s it. We don’t pick up the phone and call them back for any reason whatsoever. The other way this could end is that you find out she really is interested in you as well. The two of you start dating and then you are out of this game. There are extremely few women on planet Earth who are okay with their boyfriend or husband in this profession.”

  “But she’s cool,” Ray said. “I think we could make this work.”

  “Why are you set on this?” I asked him. “What about her makes you willing to risk this?”

  “She was really into me,” he said. “I’m not trying to be down about myself or anything, but I don’t find many women who are really into big guys like me. When I took my shirt off, she got so excited, and all during sex, she was playing with my stomach. Most of the time, women ask me to leave my shirt on or turn off the lights. This wasn’t like that.”

  “Let me break this down for you in a nice way,” Greg said. “Ray, she had a sexual fantasy and wanted to fulfill that fantasy. If she wanted to be with a big guy all of the time, then she wouldn’t have called us. That’s the thing about this profession. It’s not a dating business, so they’re not calling to find a new husband. Most of them understand that this is a finite event that occurs. If she liked it enough to want to do it again, she will call and book you again. Then she will be a regular for you. But you have to make sure that you don’t get emotionally attached to every client you meet.”

  “I see your point,” Ray shrugged. “I guess I do get attached a little too easily.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Greg said. “It happens to all of us and will probably happen to the others as well. Just get it in check early on and it will make this job much easier. Once you’ve mastered your own mind, this will be a piece of cake.”

  I watched Greg as he talked; trying to sift through his words to see how much of it he actually bought himself or adhered to. Because if I looked at my situation from his eyes, he had once thought of me as a client, and I got the feeling he had developed something more than professional feelings for me.

  However, like he said before, you can’t let the emotional crap get in the way of the business.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was well into the night before I managed to get any sleep. The guys set up an hourly rotation to protect and patrol around the house, so that the ones who were not on guard could get sleep.

  I wasn’t clear on why exactly the guys were going to such great lengths to help. I counted them as friends, and I knew they considered me a
friend as well. However, what they had agreed to take on went so much further than a standard friendship would require.

  I could only theorize why they were assisting. My best guess was that before I came along, they were just plodding along through life, and I had offered them something else. Each of the guys was either in jobs they didn’t care for or were having financial difficulties. Ben and Derrick both had educational aspirations, but those were endangered due to issues with money. My proposed arrangement would offer them to blow through those hurdles.

  My pillow was soft beneath my head, and in any other situation, sleep would have come instantly. I was so tired that my eyes began to water, and my head spun. But there was so much going on in my mind that it was hard for me to fall into slumber.

  About half an hour after I first lay down, my bedroom door opened. Greg slipped inside and I could tell from the moonlight coming through my window that he was shirtless. I could make out the definition of his chest and abs, and immediately I felt intense arousal.

  However, I couldn’t do this. My children were upstairs, and if the other men found out about this, there would definitely be problems.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered.

  “Coming to check on you.”

  “I’m fine. Now go.”

  He didn’t pay any attention to what I said. Instead, he slipped into the bed next to me and nudged up close to me. With his left hand, he gripped the side of my face and pulled me closer to him.

  Our lips met and we kissed with a forbidden passion. As he brought his body against mine, I could feel his hardness pressing up against my leg, and I fought the urge to slip my hand down his sweat pants.

  I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to muster just enough self-control to stop.

  “You have to leave,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Because, this isn’t right.”

  “You’re saying you don’t want to?”

  “No, I want to more than anything. But there are so many reasons that we can’t do this right now.”

  “Would you rather I send Derrick in here?”

  I sat up in bed while pushing him away at the same time.

  “You arrogant asshole,” I said quickly. “Next time you talk to me, check your ego at the damn door.”