In the Service of Women

by Shayne McClendon

  By the time we’d pulled into the garage at Vivienne’s, I’d pulled myself together. She was coming out of the elevator, on her way to her Mercedes, when I climbed out of the sedan. Our eyes met and I smiled. I gave a small salute when I passed her and entered the same elevator she’d just gotten out of. I pushed the button that would carry me to the penthouse, and my street clothes, wishing all the way up that it would hurry…just hurry.

  The loft was silent when the doors opened. I went to the first floor changing room and peeled off the skin-tight clothing I’d worn for my date with Allison. I placed it in the outgoing laundry for the dry-cleaner and pulled on my jeans and jersey. When I pulled on my socks and sneakers, I realized my hair was still wet and pulled it into a quick bun at the base of my skull.

  I grabbed my backpack on the move, headed back to the elevator. Just before the doors closed, I caught sight of Decklan and Paige at the top of the stairs. Deck looked furious and Paige waved almost sadly. He started down the stairs but I shook my head once firmly and got in the elevator. My face in my hands, I tried to breathe.

  As the doors opened in the parking garage I ran to my bike a few spaces away. It wasn’t until I was pulling my helmet over my head that I noticed Vivienne’s Mercedes idling in her space, her gaze locked on mine. I pulled the helmet into position and started the bike. As I passed her, I waved.

  She waved back and put on her sunglasses. She was right behind me as I pulled into traffic. I thought she would turn, I knew she’d planned to do some shopping. Instead she stayed behind me at a safe distance. All the way to my apartment.

  When I parked the bike in my usual space, I wasn’t surprised when Vivienne pulled into the spot next to me. She turned off the vehicle and got out.

  “I know you probably need to be alone for a while, but I wasn’t happy about how you looked. I had to make sure you were alright.”

  I nodded. I honestly didn’t know what to say. I was more exhausted than I’d ever been in my life and I didn’t know how to explain that. Viv took my hand and tugged me toward my stairs. “I want you to sit and I’m going to make you a cup of that Chinese tea you like. We’ll talk for a while, then I promise to let you crash. Deal?”

  I nodded again, at a loss for words.

  She did exactly what she said she would and joined me on my sofa with warm mugs of tea in her hand. “I think you’re winding down on this way of life, Sarah. No, don’t say anything yet, let me finish. I don’t blame you. I’ve gotten complacent and lazy in tending my girls, stop shaking your head at me. It shows. When I recruited Max, I had just a few clients. She worked a couple of days a week and I never asked her to work more than that. She lasted that way for four years.”

  She took a small sip of her tea before going on, “Since you’ve come to work with me, the business has continued to grow. All of you work no less than three nights a week and we took on more through the holidays with all the demands from new clients. That isn’t reasonable.

  “Ezbeth came to me yesterday to say she’s mentally and physically exhausted. She said her relationship with Paige isn’t getting any sort of attention because both of them are focused on what their clients need. Paige came to me separately to say she needed to scale back, and I quote, ‘before I become a used up old whore with nothing left to look forward to’. That’s how you ended up with Allison and her damn ‘sexual posse’. I never should have let that happen.

  “What they don’t know, what you don’t know, is you have double their clients. Your customers are always happy with you because you’re like a chameleon, blending into any situation. You work more hours than any of them. You never complain and I’ve allowed your generosity to make me lazy about seeing what I should have seen months ago: you need a break. You’re tired and I think a little lonely.”

  She leaned toward me, “I think you need to take a vacation. If you do, and come back to tell me you’re done, I will understand. If you come back and say, ‘I’m ready to do this’ then I’ll call your clients. But I care for you, as a person more than an employee, and I can’t believe I’ve let things go on this long.”

  I hugged her very hard and whispered, “Thank you” in her ear.

  She sat with me a while and smoothed my hair from my face. When I finished my tea, she took our cups to the kitchen and rinsed them in the sink. Then she tucked me into my huge bed and kissed my cheek before letting herself out. I laid there for a long time, thinking about things. I don’t remember when I drifted off to sleep, but I know I slept for several hours. It was the first time in many years.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – The First Time Client

  March 2001

  I ended up spending a few days in Orlando with Kris, the lovely pilot. We talked and ate and slept. We visited parks during the day and went to movies together. It was so normal. I was able to talk to her about all the things going through my mind and she had a fresh perspective.

  I knew after the first day our relationship wasn’t going to be more than friendship but we enjoyed one another’s company and I needed her grounded way of thinking as a sounding board. The future didn’t seem to be that important, to tell you the truth.

  Since being with me, Kris told me she’d come out of her shell. She knew she was more than what the world saw in her. We enjoyed one another, and I taught her about her body and the pleasure she could coax from it.

  I decided I was going back to South Florida and giving Viv three months’ notice to find another girl for my clients. I’d see each of mine at least one more time, explaining to each what our time together meant to my growth as a person.

  I would also agree to be Viv’s limo driver until she could find a permanent replacement for Max. Then, I was moving away from the life, out of Florida entirely, and starting over fresh with the substantial nest egg I’d built.

  When I arrived back home a few days later, there were dozens of messages from my few friends, from the other escorts, from Viv, and a few long ones from Decklan. I made return calls and told Viv I’d see her Friday morning, I wanted to talk to her in person and she agreed with a touch of sadness.

  Conversation with Decklan was stilted and I hated that. I put on my happy voice and ended the call.

  I cleaned out my refrigerator and did some laundry. I turned on my computer for the first time in months and knocked out a couple of short stories that had a nice ring to them. I pulled up a lot of older stuff and saw it with a fresh eye. I sat there for hours. I realized then I was warming up. Getting my teeth into writing again. For a couple of days, I enjoyed my solitude and when I arrived at the penthouse Friday, I felt invigorated.

  My talk with Vivienne was wonderful. I think my decisions were what she expected, but she didn’t expect me to stay on to help until she could replace me.

  I went back to work. My clients were upset to be losing me, but most understood why I was leaving. The Dorns said they’d never find another kindred spirit for their games. Nadia cried. Brianna laughed and asked what else could I possibly be better at than sex? Tria yelled at me and then promptly offered to double my rate if I’d continue seeing just her.

  Michaela was the only one truly happy for me, as she’d been happy for Lera when she fully embraced what she was meant to do and taken the leap of faith.

  Over time, they all accepted my decision and wished me well. There were bigger bonuses those last three months than in the entire time I’d worked for Viv. Apparently, I had been appreciated.

  During my last month, Vivienne called me in a panic on a Thursday night. “Sarah, Lissa has a major ear infection and can’t work for two days. I’ve covered all her appointments for Saturday and Sunday, but have no one to cover her Friday. I hate to ask you this, but would you be willing? It’s a brand new client and I’m worried I won’t keep her if we cancel her first session, you know how that goes.”

  Matthew Dorn was at a conference in Seattle, Mona had gone with him, freeing up my Friday night this week. “Not a problem. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon;
you can give me the details then.”

  She thanked me too many times and I laughed. We discussed a few trivial things and hung up. I did some grocery shopping and ordered sushi in, finishing up yet another Koontz novel.

  The next day, I was told I’d be meeting Grace at a movie theater in Boca Raton, which I found odd. It turned out we were meeting at the café on the second floor and sneaking out the back. She had black hair pulled tightly under a baseball cap and wore sunglasses. Both of us had dressed for comfort in jeans and sneakers, at her request. When she said go, we went.

  I had a strange feeling, but figured she was one of the closet clients I had who didn’t want anyone she knew to suspect she swung both ways. I thought the cloak-and-dagger routine was kind of funny, actually.

  We drove in her Expedition for miles in every direction, finally pulling into a hotel set back from the road in Deerfield Beach of all places. I’m not a snob but it was pretty seedy. It was situated next to train tracks, for goodness’ sake.

  She parked and practically ran up the stairs to her room. I was really getting freaked out but followed her, if only to protect her from herself. Once she opened the door, she practically yanked me inside and checked the windows.

  Now I felt I had to say something. “Um, Grace, nice to meet you and all, but this is all very strange. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

  Hysterical crying was not what I expected. “I just needed a day away. You know, just one day. I’ve planned this for months. I used to date a girl in college and let me tell you, it didn’t have half the drama of my current relationship. I just wanted to remember how that felt for one day.”

  Once the floodgates opened, the poor woman purged hard. I learned she was married to a guy named Toby who trailed her everywhere and kept tabs on her every minute of every day. When I asked if he was abusive, her immediate fear told me everything I needed to know.

  “Grace, you can’t live like this. I’m happy to help you, but you have to be willing to help yourself. Why don’t I call my boss and we can drive down to meet her?” I never heard the closet door open. Something exploded against the side of my head and the world went black.

  I have no idea how long I was knocked out but the sight greeting me when I came to was not one I ever want to see again. Grace was naked on the motel bed, whimpering, “Please, Toby, I won’t ever do it again, I’m so sorry” as she was being violently sodomized by her sadistic husband.

  The man was huge. My head was spinning but I’d be damned if I was just going to lay there in a useless heap. I staggered up but Toby never heard me. He was too busy verbally assaulting his wife as he sexually assaulted her.

  “Lying bitch, buying some whore! For what? Need a little touchy feely time? Huh??? Well I’m going to have to make you hurt. So you remember how much you like it! Tell me you like it!”

  I was finally standing after what seemed like a very long time. I held a ladder backed chair in my hand, though not as firmly as I would have liked. When I brought that thing down, I’d hoped to explode his head like a melon.

  I had to settle for slicing open the back of his head and wedging one of the spindles in his shoulder. He collapsed then came for me, the chair hanging off his back. “Oh, you are going to pay for that, you little whore. I’m going to give you exactly what you deserve.”

  He hadn’t gotten fully off the bed and I planted my foot in his face. His nose collapsed and blood spurted. He grabbed a lamp from the table and threw it at me, the heavy base catching me in my ribs. I stumbled but didn’t fall and was ready for him when he made it to his feet, naked little dick swinging between his legs.

  I braced my feet, knowing I wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long. I saw Grace picking up the other lamp and crawling across the bed, dragging it beside her. He took one step, another, and I threw a punch as hard as I could from the center of my chest into his already shattered nose. He stumbled, fell on the floor, and Grace cracked him over the head with the lamp.

  I yanked the cords from the tacky drapes and hog-tied his ass in the middle of the floor. It was the last thing I remembered until I opened my eyes and saw Decklan standing over me. It was fitting for him to be there. I needed him there. I heard Viv’s soothing voice and Grace crying. The bastard on the floor had a pillow case shoved in his mouth and not much of what he was screaming made sense.

  I whispered to Decklan, “He won’t be able to breathe with that broken nose. You have to take the gag out.” I didn’t recognize my own voice.

  “Fuck, never thought of that.” He said and yanked the pillowcase out to the gasps of the battered man on the floor.

  “Give me my phone.” Vivienne came to stand over me, pushing me back to the surface of the second, undefiled bed in the room.

  “You aren’t going anywhere. Don’t move.” She said firmly.

  I waved her off, “I need to call Jake, the cop I dated a long time ago. Give me my phone.” Everyone saw the sense in that and helped me sit up enough to find his name in my contact list. After ringing three times, he answered and it sounded like he was at the gym.

  “Jake, its Sarah. Listen, I need your help…real bad. Totally off the record until you tell me what to do.” We talked for a few minutes and I managed to hit the ‘end’ button before passing out again.

  When I came to the next time, I was on a stretcher and Jake was talking to the ambulance driver. Decklan was holding my hand and smoothing my hair back from my face, whispering, “It’s going to be alright, baby. Ssh, don’t try to talk. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  “I’m an off-duty cop. Passing by, saw suspicious activity in front of one of the rooms. A woman looked like she was bleeding and wrapped in a sheet. Turns out, these women are with a private women’s advocacy group who were helping her escape an extremely violent husband. I’ve already run his sheet. Been hauled in at least a dozen times for DV and with the assault against this young woman, he’s done.”

  He turned to me, smiled grimly, and said he’d see me at the hospital to take my official statement.

  Long story short, Toby’s jealousy and paranoia were what convinced a jury to convict. He’d been tailing her for years with a transponder under her car. Mini cameras all over their palatial house on Hillsboro Mile, meant to prove her infidelity, ended up proving his ongoing abuse instead.

  We stuck with Jake’s story about meeting with Grace to help her escape. It was a good cover and would have been reality anyway, had I gotten the opportunity to help Grace.

  Testimony from friends and family who’d been threatened with further violence if they didn’t talk Grace out of pressing charges the multiple times he’d been arrested were all the jury needed in the end to convict.

  Mine and Grace’s medical records from that day were introduced. Grace had anal and vaginal tearing, multiple bruises, and too many old injuries to catalog. I’d suffered another concussion, much worse than the first, three broken ribs, a fractured pelvis, and bruising. She was released after six days, I was released after four.

  Vivienne asked Max, who’d made a special trip down, and Decklan to take shifts watching over Grace. She transferred a few million from Toby’s slush fund into a non-traceable account in the Grand Caymans, sold all the property which he’d unwisely put in her name, and had false papers created by one of Viv’s contacts. Eventually, she disappeared from the face of the Earth.

  She wired a huge sum into my bank account before she left, sent me an email thanking me for not just leaving her there. That I’d saved her life and all she could repay me with was some of the bastard’s money.

  Toby got his in the end. His nose needed a lot of plastic surgery to go back to its’ original shape but his mild concussion from the lamp didn’t convince the jury he’d been ‘attacked by multiple people trying to kidnap his wife’. By the time he made bail, Grace was long gone.

  He did his time and eventually was paroled. Toby had made a lot of threats against Grace and the rest of us during the trial, so it didn’t sur
prise me when he was carjacked on his way to a rented apartment and shot to death. Vengeance is a funny thing. Grace gave so many years of her life to that man, who beat her daily, and she waited a long time to get even.

  I’d been keeping tabs on him myself, probably better she got to him first.

  Epilogue – The Road Less Traveled

  When I was fully healed, I went back to work as a driver for the other escorts. More than fifty thousand dollars had been deposited in my bank account over the two months I spent recovering. From each of my clients, past and present, who’d heard what happened.

  Added to what I’d saved in two years, I was walking away with more money than I would have earned in ten years and enough stories to last a lifetime.

  I had already quit my job with Monica complete with tears from both of us.

  I’d agreed to work with Vivienne a little longer, giving her ample time to find another driver. The money I made as a driver wasn’t even close to what I made as an escort, but it covered my regular bills so I didn’t have to touch my ‘new life’ cash.

  Katie and I hung out those last couple of months when we weren’t working. I regained my sunny perspective about life being around her. She kept things light, knowing I had another path in mind, not wanting to detour me from it. We spent a lot of time on the beach with her dogs and I laughed more than I had in years.

  When I wasn’t with Katie, Decklan was my regular companion. He admitted my run in with Toby had freaked him out and caused him to see me as less than invincible. I was touched but told him I’d heard that ugly rumor too and he should squash it immediately.

  By mid-May, I’d trained a new driver and packed my place. I hired a few guys I used to work with to load the U-Haul. My motorcycle was the last thing I put inside before closing the doors and locking it up. I stood inside my empty apartment for a while, saying goodbye to a big chunk of my life. I’d lived there for five years and become a woman there, in many ways. I’d miss the place. I was going to miss a lot of things.