by B. M. Hardin
Well, it sounded like the truth.
So, now the issue was why was Carmen continuing to call and bother him?
She couldn’t possibly still want him…could she?
There was no telling when it came to Carmen.
But I would never know because for the moment I couldn’t say a word to her about it.
Damn!
“Okay,” I said to Silas and continued to get ready.
A few minutes later, I was out the door, heading to meet the Devil’s mistress…Carmen.
Seeing Carmen, I looked and felt as though I was her real life maid standing next to her.
I’d dressed to impress, at least I’d thought that I had, but I didn’t compare to Carmen.
She was snatched, stunning, from head to toe.
Her tight fit red dress hugged each and every one of her small curves, just right, and she had diamonds everywhere: her neck, her ears, her wrists, her shoes and even on her bra that was peeking out of the top part of her dress.
I definitely needed to go shopping.
I had more than enough money, and not to mention that Silas had even more and he didn’t mind sharing it, but I guess I was so used to hiding it and where it came from that I hardly ever splurged.
But if I was going to try to hang around Carmen, I was going to have to.
But even though she was dressed like a movie star, my hips and curves were still getting all of the attention and I could tell that it bothered her.
So I guess we were even.
We headed to the bar and I was surprised that Carmen had chosen a place that wasn’t all that classy.
I was surprised at how laid back it was.
It wasn’t a club; but there was music and a few people in their own world swaying back and forth to the beat.
Hearing Carmen order three different drinks, at one time, I assumed that she just wanted to let her hair down.
And that’s exactly what she did.
I had a few drinks but Carmen had so many that I’d lost count.
After only two hours of being there, Carmen was as drunk as a skunk and she walked around the place either making sexual advances or inappropriately touching every man in sight.
She was so drunk that she’d started to call me Nicole.
Nicole was her deceased sister and Silas’s deceased wife.
I was surprised that she was on her mind as much as she hated her, but for the rest of the night, that was what she called me and every single time I answered.
I guess in a weird way I thought that it might make her spill her guts a lot faster.
I don’t know, but my gut told me to go with the flow.
She told me, “Nicole” that she missed me and she asked me why I’d gone after her husband, instead of finding my own.
She told me how much I hurt her and that she never forgave me.
I guess these were all of the things that she’d wanted to tell her real sister but she’d never gotten the chance to.
It’s been said that a drunken man tells no tales, so I believed every word that came out of her mouth.
I allowed her to be drunk and act like a crazy person for as long as I could stand to watch her.
She was actually hilarious while she was drunk and I found myself smiling at her even when I didn’t want to.
She made jokes and held on to my arm.
She was definitely likable at the moment and it was such a shame that she couldn’t be this way while she was sober.
After a while, I led her out the door to my car.
I made sure that her car was locked and informed the valet that I was going to have to leave it and drive her home.
Once she threw up, I secured her in my car and we drove off.
I reached in her clutch to get her address from her license.
What?
Maybe I’d had a little too much to drink, so I closed my eyes for a second, opened them, and looked at her license again.
Even though she used her maiden name at work, her license still said Silas’s last name.
Huh?
And the license had been renewed only a few years ago, so obviously she’d kept his last name.
But why on earth would she do that?
If my ex-husband had married my sister, and if for some odd reason I hadn’t killed them both, there would be no way in hell that I would want any attachments or anything linking me to or reminding me of him.
Maybe she really was obsessed with him.
I shook my head and turned up the radio to try to keep myself from getting too upset and to drown out the sound of Carmen’s weird moans.
We drove for quite some time.
When I saw that her house was located in Ballantyne, it became crystal clear to me that this woman had a hell of a lot of money.
Whatever she’d made over the years for bringing women on at the hotel had to be more than most people would ever see in their life time.
I had plenty of money in just a year’s time, so I could only imagine what Carmen had stashed away.
Finally, I pulled up at a house with a gate.
The house was so big that I had to blink twice to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming.
I was in complete awe.
What in the hell did one person need with all of this house?
“Carmen, I need the code to the gate,” I asked her about three times.
She looked at me and laughed.
She made smart remarks and still called me her sister’s name but finally she gave me what I needed to know.
“1115,” she said and she appeared to have passed out.
As soon as she’d said it, one thought popped into my head.
I couldn’t help but become frustrated.
1115…was Silas’s birthday month and day.
At that moment, I was convinced that she really needed help.
It was obvious that she was still had a thing for Silas and was probably even still madly in love with him.
And not to mention her behavior at the hotel until I’d lied about our relationship.
But she was going to have to get over it because she couldn’t have him.
He chose me…damn!
So get over it already lady!
Shaking my head, I drove up the driveway in admiration.
The beauty of the house couldn’t be put into words.
I was in awe of the cars that I’d never even seen her drive.
I was even in awe of the fabulous, nothing less than perfect, landscape.
It was truly a sight to see.
As I’d always said, it just didn’t make sense to have all of this and no one to come home to every night and share it with.
To be honest, despite the fact that I’d taken the position on the thirteenth floor for money purposes, I would have been just fine with an average job, an average man and love and happiness.
Stability, security and love were all of the things that a woman ever really needed.
I would take that life on any given day rather than to be rich and lonely.
I really would.
I left Carmen in the car and ranged the doorbell.
Surely she had to have a real maid or a butler or something, but no one came to the door.
So, I headed to the car and found her clutch again.
After trying what seemed like twenty or so different keys, finally I found one that actually fit.
I was eager to get inside for some reason but I entered the house with caution, and I was immediately swept off of my feet.
I was mesmerized at first sight.
The inside of Carmen’s house was just as beautiful as the outside.
It was the house of every woman’s dreams.
Hell, it was the house of my dreams.
I just couldn’t believe that Carmen was actually living like this…but then again, yes I could.
She’d clearly been at the hotel for a long time and I was sure that she had one hell of a “salary” if that was w
hat you wanted to call it for supplying us to the clients of the thirteenth floor.
Thinking of the hotel, I took the keys out of the front door.
I glanced back at Carmen who was still passed out in my car.
She wasn’t waking up anytime soon.
This was the perfect time to find something, anything that might help the case that was being built against her, the hotel and everyone else.
I shut the front door, locked it, and placed her keys in my bra.
Now the question was, where do I start?
I walked all over the bottom half of the house.
It was decorated to perfection and it reminded me of a high priced doll house.
I was surprised that I didn’t see pictures or a shrine dedicated to Silas, but thank goodness that I didn’t.
Everything was tasteful and elegant.
Everything was an exact refection of Carmen if I must say so myself.
There were even a few pieces that had a little bitch to them; yep, Carmen had definitely designed every inch of this place.
Finally, I headed up the stairs.
I had to go into all of ten bedrooms until I finally found the one that looked to be Carmen’s.
It looked more lived in than the other’s and it had a closet full of everything that a girl could ever want.
I wanted to save the closet for last, so I headed to her dresser.
She had so many diamonds and pearls, fragrances, make-up that hadn’t even gone to stores yet, and so much more.
This woman truly had it all.
Well, except the one thing that she wanted most.
Love.
I opened one of the smaller drawers and found a single, old, wedding photo of her and Silas.
They kind of looked happy…kind of.
Okay, so I was starting to feel just a little bad for her.
I knew what it was like to love someone with everything that you had in you, only to find out that they weren’t who you thought they were.
But even if I left him, for real, he wouldn’t want her.
He’d had plenty of years to go back to her, but he hadn’t, and from how he spoke of her, I was sure that he wouldn’t.
So she was going to have to face the truth one of these days and finally accept it and move on.
Placing the photo back down, I looked through the papers that were there too, but I didn’t see anything about the hotel.
Finally, I headed back to her closet.
I tried to remain focused and not become overwhelmed but there were a few things that I wanted to steal and take home with me.
I was sure that she wouldn’t even notice that they were gone.
Nevertheless, I started to go through things, hoping to find something, but there was nothing there.
There was nothing there but clothes, furs, purses and shoes with price tags that looked like social security numbers.
It was as if everything in there was brand, spanking new.
What did she do, wear everything once and then throw it away and go buy more?
Figuring that it was time to get back to Carmen, I took one last glance at the goodies in her closet, checked to make sure that everything was in its rightful place on her dresser, just as it was before, and then I headed out of the bedroom.
I closed the door and damn near had a heart attack.
Carmen was standing there and she was completely, butt ass, naked; except for all of the diamonds.
Though she’d seen all of the ladies on the floor bare ass and all, I’d never seen her undressed.
She looked damn good for her age.
“There’s always a spare,” she said waving the key at me.
I hadn’t even thought about that.
I wondered how long she’d been standing there.
Carmen burped and the smell of alcohol harassed the hairs in my nose, almost making me nauseous.
“Am I attractive?” Carmen asked.
What?
Oh heck no, we were not going down that road!
I saw the way that she looked at me at times, and though they were questionable, I always tried to ignore them.
But she didn’t have a meat wagon hanging in between her legs, so she definitely wasn’t my type.
I didn’t answer her question so she didn’t bother to ask me again.
Instead she turned the nob to her bedroom door and went inside.
She headed straight for the huge bed that sat on a platform that you had to get to by walking up three small steps.
Carmen was mumbling something so I inched closer to hear her.
Though her words were running together, I finally figured out what it was that she was saying.
“Everybody uses somebody. All of them use me but no one wants me. They want money. They want women. I do everything that they say, but they still don’t see me. The women love that I bring them to the money. The men love that I bring them the women. The bosses love that I’m so good at what I do. But no one loves me…” Carmen said.
Huh?
What did she mean?
What or who was she talking about?
Who are they?
Who are the bosses?
After she passed out again, I closed her door, headed down the stairs, placed her keys on the hook beside the door and locked up.
Inside the car, I noticed that her clutch wasn’t there so she must’ve taken it inside with her.
I sped off in a hurry so that I could use the drive home to think.
Who was she talking about?
I’d thought that she would only want Silas to love her but obviously there were other candidates that were possibilities…but who?
I couldn’t figure it all out but I finally had something to tell the detective.
Though she hadn’t said it exactly, she’d made it clear that there was a “they” at the top of the operation; which meant probably a couple of people were in charge.
Now we just had to figure out who “they” were.
***
“I was probably terrible the other night huh?” Carmen asked.
Terrible was an understatement.
She was a hot ass mess!
But in a weird way, I liked her more while she was drunk.
She wasn’t so uptight or stuck up, even though she had been trying to give her pussycat to every man in sight, I liked how loose she was.
I was still a little disappointed that I didn’t find out as much as I wanted to, but the detective said that what little I did get out of her was the start of something.
But I knew that it wasn’t enough.
So, I had to create other opportunities, which meant that I had to spend more time with Carmen’s psychotic ass.
It might not be so bad if each time she was drunk.
Also, I was more than disturbed by the fact that Carmen was still so obsessed with Silas.
It was safe to say that even though she tried to hide it and even though she acted as though she hated him, she was still madly in love with him, for some odd reason.
I mean the fact that he’d left her for her sister, married her and had a child with her, still hadn’t been enough to make Carmen stop feeling whatever it was that she felt for him.
It was sad, and maybe even a little scary.
But the reality of it all was that she needed help and counseling and I wanted so badly to tell her a truth that she needed to hear.
But I knew that I couldn’t.
I truly did feel kind of sorry for her but at the end of the day, no one could help her; except her.
But no matter what small amount of sympathy I felt for her, she still couldn’t have Silas.
He was mine.
He was my good thing and I wasn’t going to let him go.
Hopefully she would be going away, soon, for a very long time, so I was sure that she wouldn’t be a problem in the near future.
But I hated the part where I had to keep my mouth shut about every little thing.
I listened to Carmen as I dressed in a cat woman outfit for my married client, Mr. Ben.
I definitely wanted to keep a distance from him since running into him at the restaurant, but as long as he ordered me, I didn’t have a choice but to serve him.
Carmen was still talking and I could tell that she was becoming more and more comfortable with me but if only she knew that she was making a terrible mistake.
Yes, I felt somewhat uncomfortable at times about what I was doing, but I couldn’t help that I was presented with the opportunity to have a way out.
If I didn’t do it, someone else would.
At the end of the day, we all had to pay for the choices that we’d made.
I was already paying for mine, in so many other ways, and I guess behind bars was the way that she was going to have to pay for hers.
It was the only way.
She briefly discussed services and pricing and told me that after Mr. Ben, my curves had been reserved.
She asked if we could maybe hang out again sometime soon and at the nod of my head, we went our separate ways.
I entered Room 313 with hopeful thoughts that on our next outing I would get more information out of her.
But at the crack of my whip, Mr. Ben, who was lying on the bed smiled as big as the fictional Cheshire cat.
The sooner I got started, the sooner it’ll all be over.
But surely my last day here just couldn’t come fast enough.
I was happy that the client that had reserved me for the last part of my shift hadn’t wanted to have sex at all.
He just wanted to talk.
For some reason, most of my clients loved chatting with me.
I always found it weird, personally, asking a whore for life coaching and martial advice, but hey, if it was going to keep me from sucking and everything else in between, I would talk until I was tongue tied and blue in the face.
After hours of talking, it was time for me to go and I couldn’t wait to get out of that place.
Maybe it was just me, but I always felt like something bad was going to happen; other than the whole police bringing the “house” down of course.
I arrived home to see that both of my sisters were there.
Josephine and Sonni had definitely been around a lot more lately, and I liked it.
The news of the baby’s death was just one more thing that had pushed us closer together.