‘Maybe you like it rough.’ Jack ripped the cord from his robe and closed in on her.
Kara turned towards the lift and hit the button but nothing happened.
‘It’s locked,’ Jack said but Kara kept on hitting in and willing the light above the door to shift from the ground floor and start moving upwards. She longed to hear the clunk and whir of machinery travel up through the lift shaft, signalling its rescue mission but it remained silent and the doors stayed tightly closed.
Kara backed into the corner.
‘Stop it, Jack. This is ridiculous. What would Laura say?’ She hoped that bringing his wife into the conversation might prick his conscience.
‘Laura wouldn’t believe you.’
‘I think she would and I think she’d be heartbroken that you would do such a thing.’
‘No, Laura wouldn’t believe you because she thinks I’m impotent,’ he laughed like a little boy who had just revealed a special secret.
Kara stared at him. He was joking. Her eyes lowered to his crotch, where his hard cock was jutting out through his open robe. It clearly wasn’t true but Kara didn’t want to draw attention to the one thing she’d been trying her best to ignore.
‘That’s a sick joke, Jack.’
He stopped and ran his fingers through his thinning hair and for a moment Kara saw the Jack she knew.
‘You may think me strange but I like new things – things that haven’t been touched or spoiled by others – new cars without the dings and dirty seat covers. New houses with carpets that have yet to be trodden on and cupboards that still smell as if they’ve just come off the saw, and…a virgin wife untouched by some spotty chinned teenager fumbling between her legs and pushing his dirty finger inside her.’
‘I don’t believe you.’ Kara laughed nervously but Jack just kept on talking.
‘I’ve bought almost everything that money can buy and at first it felt good to own a Scottish castle, a super yacht in Monaco, an island in the Caribbean, but the thrill was short lived. Like a drug addict you’re always looking for a bigger better high, and then I met Laura and I realised that she had something that no amount of money could buy…and it could be mine.’
‘You tricked Laura into thinking you’re impotent just so that you could own a virgin?’ Kara was revolted by his admission.
‘It wasn’t a trick. I told her before we married and she still chose to go through with it. She loves me. Is that so difficult to understand?’
‘But you don’t love her. How could you? Why would you purposely choose to abstain from sex with a person you love?’
‘You’re wrong, Kara. I do love her. I love her the way she is – young and beautiful and untouched.’
‘You’re crazy!’ Kara snorted. ‘Or have you also done a deal with the devil and bought her eternal youth?’
Jack didn’t answer.
‘You plan to trade her in for a younger, newer model, don’t you?’
‘It’s an option. Why do you find that so distasteful? You’ve been through more than one man in the time you’ve worked for me. You even bedded the husband of another woman. Do you think that’s any less immoral than anything I’ve done?’
‘I didn’t know he was married.’ Kara didn’t see why she should have to defend her honour to him but she did it all the same.
‘I thought you were new when I hired you. I was looking forward to taking your virginity but you disappointed me, Kara.’
‘So why’s it ok to take my virginity but not your wife’s?’
‘Because you don’t belong to me.’
‘I’m a disposable commodity, you mean.’
‘Don’t be so over dramatic. You should be honoured that I still want you even though I’m not partial to sloppy seconds – it’s why I didn’t want the man whore sticking his cock in you.’
‘You arranged that?’
‘Don’t look so shocked. You enjoyed it.’
‘That’s not the point. You can’t play with people’s lives like that.’ Kara was beginning to think that Jack was mad and mad men were unpredictable.
Jack seemed to sense that she was about to try and flea. He reached out and grabbed her hands, forcing her back against the wall with his body and wrapping the cord around her wrists. Kara struggled and kicked out at him but his sheer bulk took her breath away.
‘Please don’t do this, Jack.’ Kara was close to tears but she didn’t want to cry. She got the feeling that he’d just taunt her for being a weak girl if she did.
Jack looked around for somewhere to tie the other end of the cord. His gaze rested on the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and he pulled her arms above her head to fix the end of the cord around the ornate piece of furniture. The glass droplets tinkled furiously as he tied a knot.
‘Would it be so awful to have sex with me? Am I that grotesque?’ Jack circled her as he questioned her. Occasionally she’d feel his finger touching her and squirm away from it.
‘It would be rape!’ she spat back.
‘I’m not going to force myself on you. I don’t want that. You’re going to ask for it.’
He was trying to recreate the scenario from William’s tape.
‘Never!’ Kara was stubborn as an ox. Her father had always said she’d cut her nose off to spite her face and she’d found the analogy amusing as a child. Now she thought she might be forced to chew off her own arm.
‘If you’re holding out on me because of your man whore, I wouldn’t bother wasting your time. He doesn’t want you. He took money off me to stay away from you. He’s nothing but a cheap whore.’
Kara’s vision was blurred by her tears. She swallowed hard and blinked them away.
Just as Jack reached out to undo her jacket his phone rang in his pocket. He answered it and walked out on the balcony to speak. Kara watched him gesticulating with his free hand as if he was threatening someone.
Kara struggled against her restraints whilst his back was turned but she only succeeded in making the knots tighter.
When he walked back into the room Jack looked annoyed and distracted.
‘I’m going out,’ he snapped and disappeared into his bedroom.
When he came out he was wearing a pair of chinos with an elasticated waist and an oversized Hawaiian style shirt.
‘You can’t leave me here like this,’ Kara shouted after him but he was in the lift and the doors were closing.
Kara started yanking on the dressing gown cord but she was afraid to pull too hard in case the whole damn chandelier came crashing down on her head and killed her. She wondered how Jack Finnegan would explain that away but much as she would like to see him in a hole she decided she would rather get out of here alive. She tried short, sharp yanks in the hope of just dislodging the part he’d tied the cord to but it wouldn’t budge.
In the end she was swinging on it when she finally heard an almighty crack above her head and a whole panel of the ceiling hit the floor with the chandelier still attached to it.
Kara picked the knot undone and ran to the lift. She had to get out of here before Jack came back. She pressed the button and waited but nothing happened. The light display said it was still in the foyer twenty floors below. She hit the button again – harder this time and with the palm of her hand, as if that would make the lift climb faster. Nothing happened. She put her ear against the door – nothing. Jack had obviously done something to stop her from being able to call it back up to the penthouse.
She turned to the telephone instead but couldn’t think who to ring. She didn’t want to get the police involved and neither did she want to worry her parents. She had friends but none she cared to get involved in this mess. That only left William and there was no way she was ringing him for help. He’d hurt her too deeply. She thought she’d found a man she could love but he turned out to be charging her by the hour for his company. After what Jack had said he probably wouldn’t come, anyway.
Kara tried the lift one more time but it still wouldn’t budge from the ground floor.
She went to the window and leaned over the balcony. She could have shouted, although she doubted anyone would even hear her way up here, and even if they did there was no way they could get in to rescue her now that the building was locked up for the night.
Kara picked up the phone and dialled William’s number. She wasn’t normally any good at remembering numbers but his seemed to be etched on her brain – maybe it had something to do with the fact that she must have picked up and stared at his card a hundred times since they’d first met in the art gallery – she’d ripped it up into tiny pieces and shoved it down the waste disposal unit, now, though.
He wasn’t there. She left a message and then paced the floor willing him to ring back but he didn’t.
Kara scanned the room looking for inspiration and noticed the envelope containing the evidence of her sordid little tryst with William. She picked it up and tipped the contents onto the table. The disk and the USB device fell out. She took them to the kitchen, dropped them in the sink and searched through Jack’s draws until she found a steak hammer and then she attacked them with it until there was nothing left but a pile of plastic splinters.
She laughed. It was a laugh bordering on hysteria. She’d done it! She’d gotten rid of the evidence. Kara could hardly believe her luck. She scooped the remains from the sink and shoved them in the waste chute. There was no way even the techiest of people would ever be able to retrieve any evidence from that pile of junk – and now they’d have to search through the whole building’s rubbish to find it.
Kara felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders but she still searched through Jack Finnegan’s desk to see if he had salted one of the copies away for his own enjoyment. She found nothing.
Kara rang William’s number one more time. He still wasn’t home – or maybe he was just ignoring her calls. Maybe he rolled his eyes every time his phone rang and he saw her number flash up on his caller display. He probably thought she was just a desperately sad bitch.
It was gone 10 o’clock when Kara heard the whirring of the lift mechanism. She stood up and faced the sliding doors, then changed her mind and sat back down again – trying to look less scared than she actually felt. Her heart was pounding. She didn’t know which Jack Finnegan she’d be faced with when the lift doors opened – the ruthless businessman or the mad man who’d revealed himself to her earlier.
Whichever one it was it was obvious that he was in a stinking mood and the fact that she’d pulled half the ceiling down in her bid to escape didn’t improve his demeanour. Kara even feared he might hit her as he strode into the room.
‘What the fuck have you done, girl?’
‘You shouldn’t have tied me up, Jack.’ Kara stood up and faced him.
His gaze shifted from the ruined ceiling to the table he’d left the envelope on.
‘Where are they?’ He picked up the empty envelope, screwed it into a ball and threw it at her.
‘I destroyed the evidence, Jack. What did you expect me to do with it?’
‘Get out!’ he shouted. ‘And take this with you.’ He threw her mobile at her. Kara caught it and walked to the lift. She wasn’t going to hang around to find out what had brought about his sudden change of mind.
He was staring at her as if he didn’t really want to let her go. She willed the lift doors to shut before he changed his mind again and dragged her back into the room. Finally they closed and she was on her way down.
Kara held her breath, watching the numbers light up one at a time as the lift descended through the building. It seemed to take forever, and when it finally reached the ground floor she shot out of the lift door like a race horse from the starting gate and straight into Harry’s arms. She screamed and fought him off.
‘Everything alright, Miss Kavanagh?’
‘Oh my God! You nearly scared me to death, Harry.’ She’d forgotten all about the night watchman. He’d been down here all the time. She could have rung down to him and got him to release the lift hours ago.
‘Don’t worry Miss, you can count on me to keep your secret.’ He tapped the side of his nose and Kara realised that he must have thought she was Jack’s latest bit on the side.
Kara was about to deny it when she saw William waiting outside. Perhaps he’d got her message after all.
‘Ah, my boyfriend’s arrived. I’ll see you tomorrow, Harry.’
‘Oh! I thought…’
‘I know what you thought, Harry and it’s not true.’
‘Goodnight Miss…and Miss…I’m glad it’s not true. You’re too good for him.’ He raised his eyes upwards and smiled as he let her out into the street.
‘Thank you so much, Harry. You have no idea how good that makes me feel right now.’
Kara sucked in a lungful of stale London air as if it were nectar.
William crossed the street when he saw her.
‘Did he touch you? I’ll kill the bastard if he hurt you.’
‘Drop the histrionics and hold me, William.’ She wanted to be absolutely sure that the night watchman was under no illusion that she’d become Jack’s whore.
William pulled her into his arms and she wrapped her arms around his waist as if she never wanted to let go. It felt good. He felt good. She wished she didn’t have to let go.
‘There were no lights on up there. I thought I’d got the wrong place,’ he said for want of something helpful to say.
‘I shorted his electrics when I pulled the chandelier out of the ceiling.’
‘You what?’
‘He tied me to the chandelier. I pulled it out of the ceiling when he went out. I was scared he was going to rape me, William.’
‘Jesus, Kara! There’s something seriously wrong with that man.’ He stroked her hair. He wanted to make things right between them again.
‘He paid me to stay away from you,’ he said.
‘I know. Is that why you’ve been so difficult to get hold of?’
‘I came as soon as I picked up your message, and I know it’s not really any consolation after what you’ve been through, Kara, but I do know that he couldn’t have raped you.’
‘How can you possibly know that?’
He sensed a hardness in her voice that hadn’t been there when they were dining at Greens…or lunching at the Nag’s Head…or even when he had her in his bedroom. He didn’t like it. It felt as if she’d closed her heart to him.
‘Because his wife told me he’s impotent – always has been, apparently.’
‘Well, that’s a crock of bullshit.’
‘How do you know?’ William asked. He had no reason to believe that Laura would lie to him about something as obscure as this.
‘I could ask you the same question, William. Why would Laura share such an intimate detail about her sex life with…oh no! You’re fucking her, aren’t you? How could I have possibly forgotten that you charge by the hour for your company? Am I on the metre now? How much do you charge for rescuing me from a mad man?’ Kara searched her bag for her wallet and pulled out a couple of £20 notes. ‘Here, take this.’ She shoved the crumpled notes into his hand.
‘Stop it, Kara. It’s not like that.’ He put his hand on hers. He’d never felt ashamed about what he did before. He’d always been able to justify it as a means to an end. The women were all responsible adults. No one was being hurt or duped into doing something they didn’t want to do, but Kara managed to make him feel dirty and cheap. He didn’t like that.
‘How do you think I know?’ Kara spat back. ‘I’ve seen his cock and there wasn’t much wrong with its ability to function normally as far as I could see, although I admit to not studying it that closely.’
William smiled. He loved the girl’s sense of humour even when it was laced with anger.
‘But why did he tie you up? I don’t understand any of this.’
‘Long story. Too tired – and I’m not even sure I want to share it with you.’ She pulled away from him.
‘Why not?’
Because you
betrayed me, William.’
William flinched.
‘That was never my intention, Kara. Please let me explain.’
‘Do you know what that bastard did with the video you so kindly filmed for them?’
‘I have no idea who you’re talking about. I thought you’d arranged the appointment. I understood that everything we did – well almost everything – was pre-arranged by you. I got an email from you – from your office – I even verified it, Kara.’
‘You thought I’d pay to spend time with you?’ Kara spat the words at him.
She was scathing. William was hurt.
‘I thought you enjoyed it. I know I did.’ He remembered their dates with a warm smile. He thought she would, too – if only she’d allow herself to.
‘Oh, I bet you were laughing all the way to the bank. Just get me a cab, William. I want to go home.’
She sounded tired and irritable. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to discuss it. William hailed a cab and climbed in beside her.
‘You don’t have to come. You can forget getting into my knickers. That ship sailed a long time ago – It’s been wrecked. It’s been pillaged by pirates.’
‘That wasn’t my intention. I just want to make sure you get home safe, Kara.’
She shrugged her shoulders and looked straight ahead
William thought he almost preferred her shouting at him to her silent indifference.
The driver pulled away from the kerb but she didn’t speak once. He thought it was because of the driver. He thought she just didn’t want to discuss what had gone on in front of him but when they reached her house she climbed out and told him to stay put.
‘Why?’ he asked.
‘Because I don’t trust you.’ She turned and walked away.
William flinched.
‘Kara. I swear I didn’t know what was going on.’
She didn’t acknowledge him.
‘Where to?’ the driver asked. He was taking it all in his stride. He’d probably heard far worse in his time.
‘Elgin Crescent,’ William sighed.
‘Probably best to let her cool down for a while,’ the driver added as he pulled away.
William looked back but she’d already disappeared inside her house.
The Gigolo Page 10