I stood back and let the guys finish the last of the boxes. We told them that we’d meet them at my house, and I helped Tina lock up and take care of the last few things before we got in my car and left.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“Good,” Tina replied with a warm smile.
I felt like she was telling the truth. She’d never been able to lie to me, not even a little white lie. But I knew deep down that this was not easy for her. Tina had always been such a strong, independent woman. Moving in together was a big step. I thought we should have done it sooner, long before getting engaged. It was the perfect way to see if you could really live with someone. After marriage, it was too late.
But Tina didn’t think that way, until I asked her to marry me. Then those little walls started to come down more and more, even if I did have to prod her on the topic every now and then.
She was such a strong, amazing woman. I wouldn’t know what to do without her.
Even after that attack this morning by that psycho Norm, she had bounced back. I never would have known anything about it, if she hadn’t said anything. I knew she had to be scared, but it didn’t seem outwardly like anything was wrong, or had happened to her enough to have me step in.
We pulled up to the front of my house, and I opened the door for the movers, before quickly giving them the rundown of what rooms were what, and what boxes should go where.
Things were going along just fine until I received a frantic phone call from Dane.
“Hello?” I answered.
“You need to get to the office.”
His voice was cold, with a bit of fear in the back of it. Dane was the most goofy, easy going guy I’d ever known. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d ever heard him scared of anything. Even when some bullies back in college were about to punch his lights out, he was still laughing and full of smart-ass jokes to egg them on.
“What’s wrong?”
“You just need to get here. I can’t explain over the phone. Something… something is wrong. Please…”
“Ok, I’m on my way.”
Tina was looking at me very concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I have to get to the office. Are you ok?”
“Of course.”
I felt stupid for asking, but I hated just bailing like this.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll let you know what’s going on when I find out.”
“Ok,” she said.
I drove to the office at breakneck speed. I was damned lucky to not get pulled over by the police.
When I got to the office, I ran inside and past the front desk. My mind was swirling around with thoughts of what could have possibly gone wrong. Every bad scenario I could think of was definitely happening. I just had to get a grip. I could handle this. No matter what… I could handle this, right?
When I stepped off the elevator and jogged down the hallway to our offices that were sitting right across from one another, I saw no one.
The office was completely empty. It was a Saturday, so I wasn’t really that concerned with that, but Dane was nowhere to be found. I’d expected to see him and maybe a few of our senior executives, or even a board member or two waiting there to tell me what was going on?
But nothing. No one. Utter silence.
“Hello?” I asked.
My voice sounded loud and echoed in the empty hallway.
“Dane? What the hell is going on?”
Suddenly darkness. Something was over my head. And I heard footsteps shuffling, grunting noises, very loud near my ear. And then, I felt arms around me. Several arms were on me.
I struggled as hard as I could, trying to fight them off, but I was no match. There were just too many of them. I was being abducted.
My legs flailed wildly as they left the ground. I was being picked up and carried. My arms were pinned to the sides of my body, and my head was covered by a bag. There was nothing but darkness, except at the bottom where I could catch glimpses of the floor and other legs as I was being carried away.
I recognized that we were stepping into the elevator.
“What the hell are you doing? This is kidnapping!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
I heard nothing. These people were not going to be bargained with. I was trapped. I was at their mercy. No matter how much I struggled to fight, I was trapped.
I had to just cooperate and hope that I could bargain with them, when we got to wherever we were going. I was a rich and powerful man. There were so many people who would have wanted to have me taken out.
And they’d gotten Dane. He was the one who called me. There was no way to fake his voice that way. Dane… they must have coerced him to call under the threat of death. And now… was he gone? Dead?
I tried not to think the worst. This type of thing was usually about money. As soon as I was able, I had to talk to them. I would just offer them what they wanted. Everyone had a price. There had to be a way out of this. I was sure I had more than enough to satisfy their greed. I just had to produce that magic number.
And I had to stay calm. Panicking was not going to get me anywhere here. These types of people only responded to calm, cold rationale.
We left the elevator and I found myself being carried across the empty lobby. What happened to our doorman, Eddie? Was he paid off? Abducted? Dead? Just in the bathroom with their impeccable timing?
This was a carefully orchestrated job. There was no doubt about that.
I was being carried out the door now very quickly. The men were running. I could count at least four sets of footprints. I wondered if more were waiting for me wherever they were taking me.
Suddenly, we stopped. I heard a door open and then I was being tossed through the air.
I landed hard on a floor. It took me a second to realize after the door behind me was slammed shut, that I was actually in the back of a van.
A few seconds later I heard the other doors opening and closing as the men got in, fired up the engine, and began to travel down the highway.
“You’ll never get away with this! We can talk money. Just let me talk to you. I’ll make it worth your while!”
My words were falling on deaf ears. I received no response. I wondered if these men were even able to hear me. For all I knew, there could have been a division between the back and the rest of the van.
I took several deep breaths and tried to think of how I could get out of here. I struggled to get up, but then I realized that my hands were tied behind my back. When had this happened? I did not have any recollection of it. But I couldn’t move my wrists. They were bound very tightly.
Please, I thought. I just had to get back home to see Tina. That was my only concern.
The van traveled for about ten minutes before I got the feeling that we were finally slowing down. Were we there? I wondered what type of place I was being taken to. My brain began to calculate all of the dangerous places I could think of that might be a bad place for me. I wasn’t aware of any docks anywhere close to my city. I didn’t readily know of any empty warehouses, though in a city that large I was sure it wasn’t that hard to find one, especially far away from earshot.
The van came to a stop. I could hear the doors opening up front, and then closing. A rumble of footsteps and shuffling of shoes and pants. Then I heard the door to the back of the van swing open, followed by a gust of air. It was cool at first.
The voice spoke again as arms grabbed me and jerked me out of the van. I tried to struggle but there was no use. I was still their prisoner and I was going to do whatever they wanted me to do. I wondered if I’d even have the chance to negotiate anything with them. Anxiety and fear rocked through my body. I was almost shivering with perspiration and fear. My stomach was churning and I thought for sure I would suffocate with the pain.
“Ok,” the voice spoke. “We are here.”
Then the world came into view as the bag was removed from my head. I was looking into Dane’s face.
He was standing there with a huge grin. The moment I realized it was him he started clapping and jumping up and down in cheer. That was when I realized the other men around him were doing the same thing.
Scott, Peter, and Edgar were all there and they were laughing their heads off. Edgar quickly went to work untying my hands. I couldn’t believe it. I was not being abducted. It was a joke. It was all a prank. What was going on? I was filled with confusion and rage. I wanted to punch them all so badly because of the hell they’d just put me through, but then I kept flipping back to their point of view and it was hysterically funny.
This was all a setup.
As a matter of fact, we were standing in front of Dane’s house. This had to be his idea. And it was brilliant.
“Welcome to your bachelor party!” Dane cheered. He slapped me hard on the back.
“Wow,” I said. I leaned forward and put my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. I felt a bit faint. This had really terrified me. I had always dreamt of being kidnapped like that. It was a recurring nightmare, and in the end of the dream I always woke up right before I was murdered. I had this nightmare probably once a week, since I was younger. Dad in the mob and all, not that unrealistic. I’d never told anyone about it, not even Tina. And now it had almost happened for real. That was the most terrifying part. I had actually fallen for it. I knew better than that. How could I be so gullible? I was angry with myself. And I was angry with my friends for proving my naiveté.
But it was over, for now. I was about to have the time of my life.
“How are we going to have a bachelor party during the day?” I asked. “This is kind of weird.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Dane said. “We’ve got it all covered. Besides it’s nighttime somewhere.”
He had a good point.
I followed my friends inside. It turned out that this was going to be a twenty-four hour type of bachelor party. I’d never heard of such a thing, but I was intrigued to say the least.
When we entered Dane’s house, we first went to the kitchen where he’d had a massive breakfast catered, complete with mimosa’s and Irish coffees. And a huge selection of various meats and pastries.
Sometime after breakfast I called up Tina and let her know what was going on. I apologized, and asked her if she needed me to come back and help her with moving in. I had no idea about all of this.
“Oh, I knew this was coming,” Tina said. “Dane filled me in days ago. Have fun.”
That little minx! I couldn’t believe that she was in on the trick, too. That was awesome. I was going to have to return the favor somehow.
“Your new wife is fantastic, by the way,” Dane said when I asked him how he got her to go along with this, and if he actually told her any of the real debauchery that was sure to lie ahead of the days’ activities.
“Well, of course I had to use some modicum of candor,” Dane explained like a college professor starting a lecture. “But she was very cool, it was even her idea to use the ruse of a work catastrophe to get you to go along with it. That was brilliant; when it comes to work, you can’t see straight, my friend.”
He was right. These two people knew me far too well. I was going to have to start doing little things to keep people around me second guessing.
“Alright, then,” I replied. “What’s next?”
I pushed myself back from the table and took a long drink to finish off my mimosa. I was already getting a bit of a buzz.
It turned out that next Dane had a big video game party planned downstairs in his home theater. There we had big party bowls of snacks such as chips with various dips, ice chests full of beer, and a variety of finger foods.
It had been so long since I had taken a day and just goofed off with utter relaxation. I almost didn’t feel like a total slacker who should have been doing work. Dane and my friends often had that kind of effect on me.
After a few hours of video games, we switched over to playing several rounds of pool. Then of course some poker. After all of these fun and utter wastes of time, it was time for the real evening to begin.
“Alright, gentleman,” Dane said. “It’s time for us to start the real party. So far, it’s just been hanging out. Now, in the four bedrooms upstairs you will each find brand new, tailor made suits for each of you. Use the showers in each room to get yourselves cleaned and shaved. Then we will reconvene in the dining room. I have ordered a catered meal. It will be splendid. Afterwards, our adult entertainment will be here.”
Adult entertainment? I knew it. Dane was going to have strippers. I expected as much; that was just his style. I doubted seriously that he had bothered to fill Tina in on any of this, but that was ok. I would have to deal with it and just try not to do anything that Tina would have totally disapproved of.
She was a smart woman and she knew Dane pretty well; I was sure she knew this was going to happen. But I wasn’t sure if women knew what really happened at bachelor parties? Typically, when there were strippers involved, for the right price these women would do extra things… things that did not fall under the heading of the term “stripper”, but something else. I just hoped Dane hadn’t wasted any money on anything extra for me. He could keep it for himself or give it to one of the others.
I went upstairs and found the room with my name marked on it. Dane had really outdone himself. Each of the bedrooms had an actual placard with our names printed up on them. A simple handwritten sign would have sufficed, but Dane never did anything halfway. This had already been a wonderful day of male bonding and surly behavior with my best friends. It reminded me of college, if any of us had been multi-millionaires.
I went into the room and found the suit hanging on the closet door. It was a nice suit that had probably cost Dane about five or six grand. The man had gone all out, hadn’t he? I had to love him.
I hopped in the shower. Dane had an array of assorted products in there with instructions that I was supposed to follow. I have never been much for primping or pampering. I’m pretty basic. I have never felt the need for outrageous accessories, but it was my party and Dane had gone through the trouble of having all these instructions typed up, so I did as he asked.
I started with a deep pore cleanser on my face, and a moisturizing lotion afterwards, I left those on while I scrubbed the rest of my body with a fancy loofa, and the all-natural body scrub. All of these products probably cost a few hundred dollars combined; it was ridiculous, and made me feel silly.
Afterwards I shaved using the boar’s hairbrush to apply the shaving cream to my little bit of stubble. Then I applied an aftershave lotion, and then a type of cologne I’d never worn before. Lastly, I put on the body spray.
Finally, I got dressed. The suit was nice, very well made and perfectly tailored. I wondered how Dane had gotten my exact measurements. Courtesy of my adoring fiancé, maybe?
When I arrived at the table, there was a feast fit for a king. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The other guys joined us shortly thereafter and they were all looking better than I’d ever seen them. We were all sharp looking wealthy men. It was a far cry from where we’d all started in college. It was amazing how much hard work could change your life.
After dinner, Dane escorted us all back downstairs to the party room. The basement bachelor pad was equipped with pool tables, foosball, shuffleboard, a full bar with two bartenders, a massive projection television that was playing porn (of course) and then we had the exotic dancers who came out from their hiding places. I had no idea when they’d arrived, but I suspected it was while we were all showering.
There were five of them, all beautiful women with large breasts. I felt instantly uneasy. Oh, I shouldn’t be here. This was weird. I wasn’t a single man; I had an amazing woman I was about to get married to.
“Buddy, this isn’t for me,” I told Dane. “I really think I should go. But it’s been a real awesome day.”
“No way,” Dane replied. “You aren’t going anywhere. This is all for you.”
“I realize you are shaky on the relationship thing,” I said. “But this is wrong.”
He laughed. “You are too uptight; you just have to relax. Have fun. Do you really think that Tina isn’t going to be doing something similar in her bachelorette party?”
I thought for a moment. “What have you heard? I wasn’t even aware she was having a bachelorette party.”
Dane laughed and slapped me on the back. “Live in the now. You can’t be that naïve. You know she’s going to do that, or already has. That’s probably why she agreed to this, to alleviate some of that guilt.”
The guy was making some sense here, but I couldn’t stand to just let this happen around me. I needed to get out of it.
“I’m sure, but I’ve got to go,” I said.
“Here,” Dane said. He handed me a drink. “At least stay and have some drinks. You don’t have to interact with the girls at all, if you don’t want to.”
I groaned and took the drink. I should have left. I knew I should have, but I was enjoying the time with my friends, which never happened much anymore. And besides, if I wasn’t really doing anything with these strippers, then I had nothing to feel bad about. At least that was my faulty logic.
And it was all well and good, at least that’s what I was telling myself. But after about seven drinks, the line between acceptable and not became a bit blurry.
I’m not sure how it happened, but suddenly I found myself alone with one of the girls. Her name was Ruby. She was a beautiful, young woman of about twenty. Tall, slender, but curvy with a great chest. I’d almost passed out drunk, and she had started to grind on me. She was completely nude, and I found it so hard to resist just letting her do her thing.
Somehow, we ended up alone when she pulled me into another room.
“So, you are the lucky fella?” She asked.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied. My words were slurring, and the room was spinning around somewhat. I felt slightly nauseous, but mostly I felt horny as could be. I wanted to be with Tina. I needed her.
But Ruby was there, and she was naked, and willing…
His Secrets Page 16