by Nicole Fox
It was locked.
“Damn!” I exclaimed. “Joey, do you think you can pick it?”
He trudged over, squinting in the dim light. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “But it will take a few minutes.”
“We don’t have that long,” Princess cut in. “Minghelli could check this room any second!”
“I have an idea,” I said. “Princess, come here,”
She obeyed, walking over to me as I sat down on the pink cushioned couch, opposite from where Joey was working on the door. “Take your pants off,” I ordered.
“What?”
“Just do it. The trust me.”
Biting her lip, Princess complied, slipping out of her bottoms and folding them neatly on the chair beside me. She was wearing a pretty purple thong, to match the bra.
“Now dance on me,” I ordered.
“Connor, I really don’t think this is the time—”
“Do it!”
She sighed, and began flexing her hips seductively. I grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her down so that her tits were right up against me as her hair fell over her face. At the sight of her, I immediately felt a hardness growing in my pants, but I forced myself to ignore it. Princess was right about that at least. Now was not the time.
She bent and flexed, showing off her incredible thigh and ass muscles. I even caught Joey glancing over, before shaking his head and focusing again on his work. After a minute or so, I began to feel slightly silly, as if all this charade had been for nothing.
That waswhen Calvin Minghelli opened the door.
“Farrah?” he growled. “Farrah Michaels?”
His gaze went right to us—or, to be specific, to Princess’s ass. A dim look of glee twisted his features, and he gaped, open-mouthed, at that little purple thong, no thicker than a shoelace.
“Hey, man, you mind?” I grunted, doing my best to sound like a drunk and horny idiot. It wasn’t hard, really. Not with Princess moving the way she was, right above my dick.
Princess, too, wrenched her neck around to glare at him. She was careful to conceal her face in the shadows, behind her gleaming hair. “Yeah, man, what the fuck are you doing? You’re interfering with my client.”
I was proud of how harsh and standoffish she managed to make her voice sound. Just like a real working girl. It also struck me in that moment how little she sounded like a hooker when she spoke regularly.
Calvin’s eyes shifted from her ass up to her tits.
“Yeah, all right,” he murmured, groping blindly behind him for the doorknob. He left like a man under a spell, his eyes affixed the whole time to Princess’s body.
All three of us let out a gasp of relief as the door shut behind him. Princess immediately slid back into her clothes, ready to run when needed.
“Thank Christ,” Joey muttered. I heard the faint clicking of the pin inside the lock, and then, “Yes!”
The back door popped open.
“Right, everybody,” I said, leaping to my feet and leading the way towards the door. “Let’s get out of—”
Just then, the first door opened.
It was the barkeep.
“Hey, Vanna, I don’t know what you think you’re doing here but we have this room reserved for Candy tonight, and …”
He saw the three of us, and Princess’s face, clearly illuminated now that she was standing. Then his gaze shifted to the open door we were just about to go through. A look of confusion settled over his brow, followed by anger.
“Security! Security!” he cried. “People are sneaking around back here. Get them!”
In an instant, three more guys blew in through the door. I saw a flash of Calvin’s face behind them. There, too, I saw understanding and rage.
“Run!” I roared, and we were off.
That back door led to darkness, a long hallway with only the faint gleam of linoleum to guide our path. Doors lined this hallway, but any light that sneaked under them was muted pinks and purples from other VIP lounges. Dimly, I could hear the sound of people giggling and the grunting exertions of sex through the doors.
Princess slammed the door we had just come through behind us and turned the lock, buying us at least a little time. “Which way?” she demanded. Although there was adrenaline in her voice, I didn’t hear any panic. I knew I wouldn’t, by now. Princess was tough.
The trouble was, I only had about as much of an idea of where we should go as she did.
The security guards began pounding on the other side of the door.
“Right!” I cried at random, and we bolted down the hall. It was crazy, running full pelt in the darkness, but what choice did we have? Actually, as we rounded a corner and nearly brained ourselves against an opposing wall, I began to feel giddy.
“Hold on!” I hollered, seizing Princess by the hand and swinging her around another turn. Joey, too, was getting caught up in the excitement of it. I could hear him laughing behind me.
Boom!
One of the doors before us burst open, and three burly security guards burst in. We skidded to a halt and turned tail, losing ourselves deeper and deeper in the underbelly of the casino. The guards were at an advantage. They worked here and knew the labyrinth, while the public was not allowed down here. And it was enormous. Joey and I could get lost down here for hours.
We needed a plan.
“Any ideas?” I panted, twisting my way down another side hall.
“We need to get back into the casino,” Joey huffed back. “Lose ourselves in the crowd.”
“Right. So which way?”
“There!” Princess yelped. There, in the far distance, was a definite, bluish glow.
We made for it. Nobody knew what that blue light was, but we didn’t care. What choice did we have?
By the time we reached it, I felt a thrill of fear surging through me. It turned out to be a dead end, which was the first bad thing about it. The ceiling was way too high. It went from a regular hallway to a cavern at least three stories in height. White lamps glowed from metal brackets that put me, for some reason, in the mind of ships and submarines. A great mess of metal tubes and machinery were sunk into the wall, and the whole place emitted a deep, unrelenting, and menacing rumble.
And to top it off, there was only one door.
It wasn’t a regular door, either, set on ground level and leading into another room or hallway. No, this door was atop a fucking ladder, perched on a small metal platform, barely big enough for the three of us to stand on. The jumble of machinery waited beneath it, letting off a long, low roar.
“Where do you think it goes?” Joey muttered.
I opened my mouth, about to speak. I had an inkling, a suspicion of where that door might go—
“Hey, you! Freeze!”
The security guards! They had us cornered.
“Looks like it doesn’t matter,” I grunted. “Up!”
I sent Princess first, so I could catch her in case she fell. Me next, and then Joey, scrambling up the metal ladder like a trio of monkeys. The security guards reached us but held back, staying on the ground. There were three people on the platform already. Who knew how many it could hold?
A cold brass knob awaited us at the top. From here, the rumbling was even louder. It was like being on a plane in a windstorm, or beneath the deck of a ship.
I knew for certain what was on the other side of that door.
“Ready?” I said, and then, without waiting for a response, I wrenched the door open.
Roooarrrr!
I knew it! It was the sound of water, thousands upon thousands of gallons being filtered and pumped up to the top of the Casino’s incredible fountain. A waterfall tumbled down a full twenty feet into the faux mountain pool below. A plastic cliff, complete with fake trees and scruff, completed the look of an actual forest waterfall tumbling down to the earth. A cool mist touched our faces, and the smell of chlorine was strong.
The door was directly behind the flow of water. We could not be seen by any of the cr
owd mingling by the fountain below.
There was also nowhere left to go, and nowhere else for us to hide.
I heard one of the guards call from behind us, “I don’t care if it’s cramped! Get them!”
Two men started trundling up the ladder.
I glanced at Joey and nodded. He looked confused at first, and then he smiled, rolling his eyes.
Then I looked at Princess. She was grinning, and in an instant nodded back to me.
I held out my hands. Princess took one. Joey took the other.
“Ready ...” I muttered. I could hear the security guards panting as they made their way up the ladder. They were right up to the door.
“One … two … three!”
We leapt!
Whoosh!
We struck the waterfall! A white stream of bubbles and foam swept over our ears and eyes, blinding and deafening us. The water pummeled me so hard it hurt, and it took all of my concentration to keep clinging to Princess’s and Joey’s hands.
Down … down … down… .
Pa-loooshhhh!
We struck! I felt the wind knocked out of me, and the weight of the falling water pounding me deeper into the pool. I spasmed, kicking my legs to drive me not upward but to the side, away from the water’s terrible assault. I felt Joey and Princess dragging along with me and silently urged them to help out. My lungs ached. My outfit and boots hung heavy on my body. At last, we escaped the bubbling assault, and with a swift kick from the coin-laden bottom of the pool, we surfaced.
People were staring. A large crowd had gathered right on the railing to the pool, pointing and looking shocked or excited.
“Ha ha!” Princess laughed, pumping her fist in the air. Joey was gasping and wrestling the water from his eyes. I was looking for a way to escape. It wouldn’t be long before the guards backtracked and met us here. I doubted they’d jump, at least.
There! A small safety ladder, in case someone fell in. Well, they had. In a flash, I was swimming my way over, ordering Joey and Princess to follow. Still trembling with adrenaline, we pulled ourselves up the ladder and collapsed, panting and grinning, onto firm, dry, linoleum.
People gathered around us. “You okay?” a concerned woman asked.
Another, a big, burly man, scowled at us, muttering, “Stupid fucking kids.”
And then one more, some teenager, shouting, “Hey, look! There’s security!”
“Fuck.” All three of us swore in unison, leaping to our feet even as we slid around in our sopping wet outfits.
The door was less than fifty feet away. Security was opposite from it, one hundred feet away. Could we make it?
“Run!” I bellowed, seizing the pair of them in making for the door. Run … run … run … yes!
We burst through just as a fresh bus of eager gamblers arrived. They clung to the doorway, blocking security as we flitted into the building’s shadow, keeping out of sight. Our bikes weren’t far. We just had to be careful.
Trying not to laugh at the stupid guards standing lost and confused by the door, we tiptoed our way to our motorcycles. I saw one pull a walkie-talkie from his belt and shout something into it. I hadno time to ponder what he it said, for we were now blazing towards the exit of the parking lot, our rides screaming with speed.
That was when two police cars pulled up, blocking the length of the exit between two towering stone posts.
I grinned and gunned my engine even faster. You see, when I said, ‘Blocked’, I meant for regular cars. You know, what normal people drive. But it was going to take a lot more than two poorly parked police cars to block a pair of Devil’s Wings, mobile as wasps on our bikes.
Vrooommmm!
We zipped past them! I could see this stupid look on one of the cop’s faces as he tried to avoid spilling coffee all over himself.
“Whooooop!” Joey dhouted, throwing his hands into the air. I heard Princess’s cackle in delight from behind me and felt her arms clenched tightly around my waist. I smiled, the coolair whipping past my face and drying us off as we rode. As a precaution, I flipped the latch that would hide my plates and noticed Joey doing the same, just in case the cops bothered coming after us. I doubted they would. There wereno lazier cops than the ones who sat outside casinos. All the dirty work always went to the unscrupulous security guards in the casino’s employ.
We took to the highway, revved our engines up to ninety, and rode our way home in glory.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Farrah
It took about twenty minutes after we successfully escaped the casino for the adrenaline to wear off. Throughout that time, I felt fucking fantastic. I felt clever. I felt brave. I felt sexy. Obviously, everyone in the room had been looking at me. But once the adrenaline high dissipated, I began to feel something else:
I was very, very scared.
The Minghellis were still looking for me. And what was worse, that brute Calvin had been able to recognize me. I looked nothing like Honi. Either they were suspicious of Honi’s claims and were trying to look for the real Farrah Michaels, or Calvin simply hadn’t been informed. I prayed it was the latter. If the Minghellis knew that Honi had lied, then it was only a matter of time before the Devil’s Wings found out as well. And what would they do then? I was sure President Montengo wouldn’t be pleased when he found out he’d been screwing a cheap whore when he thought he’d been screwing a princess.
Irony. Yup.
Connor and Joey had heard Calvin call me Farrah. Had they noticed? And if so, would they make anything of it? Connor was smart. He was sure to suspect something by now.
That waswhen it occurred to me just how strange Connor’s behavior really was. If he really did just think me a useless whore, why was he risking his life and doing all these crazy things to keep me safe? It wasn’t because he cared. I’d be stupid to even think so. And as much as he talked about valuing Devil’s Wing property, there was no way a useless whore was worth all the effort he was putting in.
Obviously, he knew something was going on. Why else would he have bothered to protect me? He had shown quite clearly, when he fucked me after the raid on the Minghelli estate, that his own needs were his top priority.
It made me angry. It would be so easy to allow myself to think he cared. To think of all those nice things he had done for me, and the times he had protected me with his own fists and wit. It would be so easy to slip into the assumption that he was doing it for me—this person he knew as Princess but who was really Farrah Michaels. Even now, on the back of his bike, wearing his a helmet, with the masculine scent of his leather outfit and aftershave wafting over me, it would have been the simplest thing in the world to bask in it and fall a little bit in love.
No, Farrah, I told myself. You need to be strong. To him, you are nothing but property. Either you are a useless whore, or you are Farrah Michaels, a ticket to money scams. Just because he fucks you good and makes you feel sexy doesn’t mean you can give in to him.
I made a promise to myself, right on the back of that bike, not to let Connor have any more emotional control over me. I would be Princess, the useless whore. No more of this confusing in-between.
As part of this promise, I released my grip around his waist and held on only with my fingertips, with as little of me as possible touching him. It was probably dangerous to ride this way, but I didn’t care. The last thing I needed was to wrap my body around him. I wondered if he noticed this change in position, and then was annoyed with myself for caring what he thought it all.
Be strong, Farrah. Be strong.
# # #
I expected Connor to take us back to the compound, but that apparently wasn’t the plan. Instead, he and Joey rode to Connor's apartment. Their spirits were apparently still up, because as we parked in his driveway and dismounted, both of them were laughing and joking around.
“Did you see Calvin’s face when he thought he had walked in on a stripper and her client?” Joey guffawed as he put his helmet away.
“Wasn
’t as great as the lookd on all those people’s faces when we poured out of the fucking waterfall,” chuckled Connor, unlocking the door letting us inside. “You know, I’ve always wanted to do something like that. Jump in a fountain. Break that shit. You know?”
Joey apparently agreed, and told us all about it as Connor led us into the living room and told Joey and me to sit down. Then he went to his refrigerator and grabbed three beers. He tossed one to Joey, who grinned and opened it in a flash, and then made to hand one to me.