“I have it and made sure he didn’t download them anywhere else.”
“Tell me why, Cora?”
“You had my daughter cut off my money. A mother needs to make a living.”
“You’ve been living off of Lily since she was nine. She didn’t stop your paycheck, like I suggested, she merely adjusted it.”
Cora leaned forward again. “So are you going to pay me for the pictures or not?”
“I get the memory chip as well?”
Cora nodded, “I get that fifty grand from you along with the promise that Lily reinstates my original salary and you can have the memory chip and I delete them permanently from my phone and laptop.” Cora brought her laptop from the empty chair next to her onto the table.
“Do we have a deal?”
“Tell me, Cora, do you blackmail people often?”
“Only ones who can give me what I want,” Cora smirked.
“Fine.” Removing the oversized purse from her body Shelby placed it on the table and passed it to Cora. “It’s all in there, Cora.”
Opening the bag the woman smiled. “Here’s your memory chip, Shelby,” she said as she passed over a small black chip. “And now the laptop.” Turning it on, Shelby watched as the pictures were deleted.
“How can I be sure you don’t have them stored anyplace else?” Shelby asked.
“You kept your word and I’ve kept mine. It’s been nice doing business with you.” Standing Cora moved toward the exit only to be stopped by a man and a woman sitting by the door.
Turning around Shelby watched as Cora was handcuffed and led from the building by the man. The female came toward Shelby and gave her a small smile. “You did very well, Ms. Bishop.”
“Thank you. Is there enough on the recording to charge Cora?”
The woman nodded, “There is.” Holding out her hand she waited until Shelby placed the memory chip in it. “Thank you.”
“Detective, are you sure that these photos won’t be made public?”
“Unless there is a trial, which I doubt, then they should remain under wraps. As soon as the case is over, I will return them to you.”
“Thank you.”
The detective nodded and grabbed Cora’s laptop before moving toward the door. “After you, Ms. Bishop. We need to retrieve the recording device.”
Shaking her head Shelby nodded, “Of course.”
* * *
Walking off stage after the curtain call, Shelby took Lily’s hand and walked with her to Lily’s dressing room. Closing the door she shut it and locked it before moving to the couch and patting her lap. “Come sit with me, baby. I have something to tell you.”
Looking into dark eyes Shelby took a deep breath. She hadn’t wanted to have this conversation until they’d reached the apartment but news of Cora’s arrest had reached the media and John had let her know that they might be confronted at the stage door after the performance.
“What’s wrong?” Lily snuggled into Shelby and relaxed.
“Do you remember the text you got from Cora? The one asking for money?”
Lily nodded, “Yeah. She never sent another one.”
“That’s because she started sending them to me,” Shelby admitted.
“Shelby what did you do? Please don’t tell me you paid her.”
“Yes and no,” Shelby shook her head.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Lily calm down please. Just let me talk and then you can yell all you want.”
Lily nodded and waited for the older woman to speak. “I answered Cora’s texts and she sent a lot more pictures that could have been put in the tabloids with various captions. I didn’t want that for you, so I decided to go to the police. Baby, I set Cora up and she was arrested just before the show tonight.”
“That’s where you went?” Lily demanded as realization hit.
“Yeah. I was wearing a recording device and got her to admit to everything. She gave me the memory chip from the camera and deleted the photos from her laptop. My phone is now in evidence as well.”
“Damn it, Shelby! Why would you do that without telling me?” Lily demanded sliding off her lover’s lap.
“I didn’t want to put you in that position and I knew she’d never leave us alone.”
“Of course not,” Lily sighed. “That’s why I was planning to use her own scheme against her. I have enough on that woman financially it would make your head spin. Why do you think I’ve been seeing the accountant so often lately?”
“You were planning to blackmail her?” Shelby asked.
Lily smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, it was the only thing I could think to do to get rid of her.”
“So let me get this right,” Shelby stood and looked down at Lily. “You were planning to blackmail Cora to get her out of our lives?”
Lily nodded, “I just told you that, Shelby. Which part did you not understand?”
“The part where you thought it would be okay to do something illegal to get rid of her instead of turning what you found over to the police.”
“Excuse me if I couldn’t have my own mother arrested. She may be a bitch, Shelby but I couldn’t do that! I can’t believe you had her arrested.”
“She brought this on herself, Lily. You know as well as I do that she never would have stopped if we’d allowed her any leeway.”
“It doesn’t mean that having her in jail gives me warm and fuzzy thoughts.” Lily turned and took a deep breath. “The press got ahold of this, didn’t they? That’s why you’re telling me now instead of at home.”
Shelby nodded. “John told me they’ve been sniffing around and didn’t want us surprised when we leave tonight.”
Taking off her costume Lily laid it on the back of her make up chair and headed to her bathroom. “I’m going to change and get cleaned up.”
“Alright, I’ll meet you back here in twenty minutes. I don’t want you going outside alone, so wait for me, okay?” Getting a nod from Lily, Shelby headed to her dressing room and made quick work of changing and getting her stage makeup off. Heading back to Lily’s dressing room she frowned when she saw that the lights were already off.
“John?” Shelby stopped the large man as he passed. “Is Lily signing autographs already?”
“Nah, I got her a town car at her request. She left about ten minutes ago.” Seeing the look on Shelby’s face he chuckled. “Don’t worry, Mama, I have your car waiting for you in the alley. Go on home. You don’t need to meet the vultures tonight.”
“Thanks John. I owe you.” Shelby smiled at the man before heading to her ride.
* * *
Tossing her shoes into the basket Shelby sighed in relief that Lily’s purple sneakers were already there. When Lily ignored her phone calls and texts Shelby began to worry but figured she’d check at home before searching the city for the petite star.
“Lily? Lily where are you?”
Receiving no answer, Shelby moved into the living area to find Lily on the couch, an open bottle of wine in front of her, with a glass half full. “What are you doing?”
“Having a drink, Shelby. What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?”
“You know the rules about drinking, Lily.”
“Yeah, well maybe if someone hadn’t had Cora arrested I wouldn’t feel the need for a damned drink,” Lily snapped.
“Don’t take that tone with me, Lily. I don’t care how old you are or how upset you are with me. You are not going to snipe at me and you are done with the wine.”
Lifting her glass, Lily moved from the chair where she was sitting, and picked up the bottle to cross the room. “The hell I am, Shelby. Though I suppose if I had put your mother into jail you’d be singing a different tune and might even have a bottle of wine open too.”
“My mother would have never tried to blackmail us, Lily!” Shelby approached her lover. “She’s been nothing but supportive of us, you know that.”
“You had her arrested, Shelby.”
“I did and I would do it again. Don’t you get it, Lily? She would never have left us alone. We would have had to defend our relationship to the press. Forget being lovers, nobody would care about that. But the age play? Can you imagine what the hell would happen if the press got ahold of that?”
“We could tell them we’re just rehearsing our roll,” Lily tried some of her anger dissipating.
“Every day?” Shelby flopped into an overstuff armchair. “You know as well as I do that it would have been almost impossible to find work again. I’ve had my career, Lily. I wasn’t about to let her rob you of yours. This way there’s no trial, nobody finds out.”
“What if it does go to trial?” Lily asked sitting on the coffee table in front of Shelby and huffing when Shelby removed the wine glass and bottle from her hands.
“Then we get prepared to defend anything that might come out. We come up with a game so we out ourselves before she can,” Shelby replied placing the bottle and glass on the end table next to the chair.
“Okay, I can live with that,” Lily agreed.
“I know you can,” Shelby agreed. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Okay, Shelby,” Lily sighed and unsuccessfully reached for the bottle of wine. “I still can’t fucking believe you had her arrested.”
“That’s enough of the language, Lily,” Shelby admonished. “It’s not attractive.”
“I’m not little right now, Shelby.”
Catching Lily’s gaze Shelby glared, “I don’t care if you’re a hundred and twenty, Lily Anne. I do not want to hear any more swearing. I don’t like it.”
“Too bad, motherfucker.”
Closing her eyes Shelby tightened her grip on Lily and mentally counted to twenty. Placing Lily on the floor she held onto the brunette’s arm and stood. Saying nothing Shelby frog marched Lily into the master bedroom. Depositing the young woman into a free corner, Shelby finally spoke. “Stay put until I tell you otherwise.”
“Fuck y—”
A hard swat to her backside caused Lily to go up on her toes. “Think very carefully before you speak, Lily,” Shelby threatened before moving into her bathroom and closing the door.
Shelby took time to brush her teeth and change into the flannel pajama bottoms and T-shirt she had in the bathroom before heading back to her bedroom. Opening the door she took a breath in, and muttered an uncharacteristic, “Fuck.”
Heading down the hallway, Shelby stopped when she heard a glass in the kitchen. Stopping short Shelby removed the bottle of wine and the bag of cookies from the table. “What are you doing, Lily?”
“What the hell does it look like, Shelby? I’m having a bag of cookies with my wine.”
“How much wine have you had to drink?”
“This is my third glass,” Lily admitted.
Removing the glass from Lily, Shelby dumped the contents into the sink, despite Lily’s protests. Rounding on Lily, Shelby crossed her arms. “In addition to being rotten for your vocal cords three glasses is more than enough to get you buzzed. Where did you get the cookies?”
“I guess we both had secret places to be before the show, Shelby.”
Taking the bag of cookies Shelby got the step stool and moved it to the refrigerator. Using the stool she was just able to reach the usually useless cupboards over the appliance. Placing the cookies inside Shelby turned and stepped off the stool before putting it back inside the pantry.
“Let’s go, Lily. You and I have to talk.”
“The way you were talking to me when you put me in the corner?” Lily demanded from her chair at the table.
“I put you in that corner to give us both time to cool down.” Shelby sat down at the table across from Lily. “I think you knew that, Lily, but you chose to leave the corner anyway.”
“I wanted another drink.” Lily shrugged. “Oh and the cookies, let’s not forget the forbidden cookies.”
“Yeah, we can’t forget the cookies,” Shelby agreed. “You do realize that you disobeyed me by coming home and not waiting for me. Not to mention drinking that wine.”
“So?”
“Do you remember when we talked at the beginning of this relationship, Lily?”
“Remember what, Shelby? We’ve talked a lot since beginning this relationship,” Lily groused.
“About the fact that big Lily might be punished as well as little Lily?” Shelby took a deep breath at Lily’s expression. “You have earned yourself a big girl punishment, Lily Anne.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Shelby?” Lily crossed her arms over her chest. “If you think I should be in any type of trouble for today then you are delusional. My mother was fucking arrested and you act as if that happens every day.”
“I know that you are under a lot of stress right now, Lily Anne. However that does not change the fact that you chose to ignore my directions and to break the rule on drinking. Not to mention the swearing.”
Making a fast decision Lily looked into Shelby’s eyes and opened her mouth. “Shit, bitch, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits,” passed her lips at a fast pace causing Shelby to groan.
“Really?” Shelby’s voice was eerily calm. “You decided to go there?”
Lily grinned and crossed her arms over her chest once more, “Yep. Would you like to hear the words again?”
“No,” Shelby leaned forward on the table. “And after tonight I guarantee that you will think twice or maybe even three times before ever using language like that again.”
Gulping Lily’s brain finally kicked in and she thought that perhaps testing Shelby as big Lily wasn’t nearly as fun as doing it as little Lily. Moving her chair back from the table slowly, Lily began to look for possible escape routes from the kitchen.
“Don’t even think about it, young lady,” Shelby admonished. “You should be counting your lucky stars that I don’t believe in washing mouths out with soap, or you would be over that sink right now with a bar of it in your mouth.”
“Seriously, you’d wash my mouth out with soap for saying, shit, bitch, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits?” Lily pressed not exactly sure what possessed her to upset Shelby further.
“I would.” Shelby stood and was around the table before Lily had a chance to react. “In fact, I would probably wash it out every night before bed for a week.”
Taking Lily by the elbow Shelby began to half-walk, half-drag her from the table. “However, since I don’t believe in that, we will handle this problem another way.”
Grabbing a wooden spoon off the crock on the counter Shelby then proceeded to finish walking them to the master bedroom. Closing the door of the bedroom Shelby never let go of Lily as she made her way to the bed. Sitting down, she placed the spoon by her left thigh and pulled Lily’s sweats and panties down without a word.
Shelby then pulled Lily over her lap and picked up the wooden spoon. “Alright then, Lily, we are going to have a spelling lesson.”
“Spelling lesson?”
“Yes, we are going to spell out every word that you said to me in the kitchen. I’ll just keep track of the letters with this spoon.”
“But,” Lily tried to move but was held in place by Shelby.
“No, I don’t believe that was one of the words on your list. Please tell me the first word on your list, Lily.”
Putting the spoon down Shelby gave Lily a dozen fast swats with her hand when silence was her only answer. Picking up the spoon again, she tapped it on Lily’s bottom. “Let’s try this again. What is the first word on your list?”
“Shit,” Lily whispered.
“Spell it for me, Lily.”
“S,” Lily hissed as the spoon came down on her backside. “H.” Another hiss came the letter and Lily began to panic. “I, and T,” Lily said quickly hoping Shelby would get confused and give her one swat. However, she didn’t, and two swats were forthcoming.
“Very good, Lily. Let’s move on to the next word,” Shelby encouraged.
Sniffling Lily began once more, “
Bitch.”
The spoon exercise was repeated until Lily was quietly crying over Shelby’s lap. They had finished the word “fuck” and Shelby had the spoon resting on Lily’s very warm bottom.
“Lily, what was the next word?” Shelby demanded again.
“But Mama, cocksucker is too long.”
“Not as long as motherfucker, Lily. And I think you’ve forgotten that Shelby is spanking you right now, not Mama.”
“Spell the word, Lily,” Shelby instructed once more.
Sniffing again Lily realized that punishments from Shelby were much worse than those from Mama. Mama never would put her through this. Hoping that she never got the bright idea to challenge Shelby so blatantly again Lily began to spell, “C…”
Lily was sobbing openly over Shelby’s lap and her backside felt like it was on fire. The final letter had been spoken in the list of swear words, and Lily had promised ad nauseam never to use them ever again if only Shelby would stop the assault on her bottom.
Lily snuggled into Shelby as Shelby’s arms wrapped around her. “It’s over now, baby,” Shelby soothed. “And I take it we won’t have to worry about swearing again for a very long time.”
“Never again, Shelby. I promise.” Lily sniffed.
“Glad to hear it.” Looking at the clock Shelby sighed. “I hate to do this but it’s late and we need to get to bed. We still need to talk tomorrow about the rest of your punishment.”
“The rest of my punishment?”
Shelby nodded, “You thought I would just let you leaving the theater and drinking go by the wayside? Not to mention the fact that you were willing to do something illegal without talking to me first.”
Lily shook her head, “I guess not but I was hoping you’d forget.”
“Sorry, baby, but there is no way I would forget that.”
Lily yawned and nodded, “I guess. Wiping her face on her shirt tail Lily spoke once more, “Shelby?”
“Yes?”
“Can Mama come back now? I really need her.”
“You bet, baby.” Shelby hugged Lily to her and then stood walking Lily into the bathroom. “Let’s get your face washed and you can wear one of my t-shirts to bed tonight. I’ll go get Albie and tuck you in before getting into bed with you.”
Broadway Baby Page 16