by Nikki Sex
"Yeah, that is an oui alright," Kurt said.
"And the collar?"
Kurt smiled, remembering her response. "She loves it."
"Tres bon, mon ami," André said. "It makes her feel safe, for she is yours as you are hers. It is for you to love and protect her. Then all is in place. You will come to me the day after tomorrow, in the morning, yes? In time to see my game?"
"We'll be there."
"Au revoir, Kurt."
27. TV Coverage
Kurt couldn’t believe it when he saw evening news.
Laura Thomas had missed her calling. The woman should have been an actress. He and Carmen cuddled together on the couch, watching Laura's exclusive, "Tell all." How did she do it? Kurt wondered.
Laura pulled no punches, and with heartfelt words, she owned her mistakes and every ill judgment. The way she spoke would make the viewers feel that Laura was a wonderful, brave and sensitive person.
No one else could have pulled it off.
Astonished, Kurt gave Carmen an incredulous look.
"I know, right?" Carmen said, shaking her head. "Honestly, Laura should be given an Oscar, although we both know that it's not an act. The woman is going to be asked to do a guest appearance in "Mad Men," next, I'll just bet."
Shaking his head, Kurt could only agree.
"You see," Laura admitted to the kind male interviewer, a man who looked half in love with her himself. "I am not a very strong person, I know that. It wasn't my idea, but I went ahead with it. I deeply regret all the trouble I've caused Kurt Nielsen and his family."
"Are you going to give the money back?"
Laura's big blue eyes got even bigger. "I tried to!" she said with sincere innocence. "You know what Kurt said? He said for me to forget about it. He has tons of money you know, but it isn’t that. Kurt said that everyone makes mistakes, and he would rather just let the matter drop."
The interview went on for some time. Then the picture changed, flashing to Kurt walking toward his car, as he was inundated with news reporters.
"Are you still mad at Laura Thomas?"
"I never blamed, Laura," he said. "I always knew it wasn't her idea. Laura doesn't have that kind of mean-spiritedness in her. The court case hurt my company, but I don’t fault anyone who had second thoughts about dealing with Nielsen Construction. Who would want to do business with a vicious bully? I am utterly against violence against women. It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you see in the media."
The newsmen and women all laughed uproariously, a little more than the joke that mocked their profession called for. The media clearly wanted to be back in New York's Most Eligible Bachelor's good graces once again.
Kurt continued walking the few steps necessary to reach his car.
"And your final statement? A tall man asked, thrusting a microphone into his face.
"I think Shakespeare said it best," Kurt said. "All's well that ends well."
The news cameras followed him to his SUV, where Burt opened the door and he got in. Carmen had been inside the car, waiting for him.
Kurt switched the TV off and Carmen laughed and jumped up onto his lap, straddling him and kissing him. "You came up pretty good yourself, Thor, you clever TV star, you." Then she frowned and looked down.
"Oh," she cooed playfully gazing at his crotch. "I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. You always come up well."
Unfortunately Kurt turned the TV off before either of them noticed how clear a picture could be seen of Carmen's face. Anyone who knew her would recognize Carmen in an instant.
~~~
The next day, Jack Huber was working at his desk, feeling extremely pleased with himself.
Thanks to that ledger, the DEA had made a huge bust on a methamphetamine lab that from the outside operated as a veterinary surgery. It would have had to hurt, that was for sure, in loss of product, equipment and workers. Not to mention cold hard cash.
Ellis was too buddy buddy with public officials, in Huber's opinion. Drug monies used to sway government officials were unfortunately common and difficult to prove. Both the bribe payer and the bribe recipient had plenty of reason to keep quiet. It was a common problem. Prosecutors obtained convictions against a thousand public officials between 1970 and 2009 – and that was just in the State of Illinois. Those convicted included 19 judges, and 4 governors.
Robert Ellis had been purchasing real estate with drug money and then reselling it, making the proceeds for the sale appear to be legitimate income. He had also under-represented the value of hundreds of properties, making up the difference to the sellers with drug money. This would take intensive man hours to prove, and Huber had his eye on bigger fish just now.
Thanks to that ledger he had a lead on a major entry point to a money laundering operation that went from L.A. to Las Vegas. Oh boy, that was going to raise some dust when they took that sucker down.
Even more importantly, he had found the name of the Mex Mafia plant that had been assigned to Robert Ellis. In a big organization like La eMe, they had a system of checks and balances, to ensure that their various soldiers were not on the take, screwing the organization.
The people working for La eMe as double agents were never known to the mark they were minding. Robert Ellis' La eMe agent was a man called Peter Gonzalez. Once the DEA busted the money laundering pipeline, Huber knew exactly how he intended to use that information to take Ellis down once and for all.
Lois Cohen walked in with a smile on her face, holding her laptop. She put the laptop down in front of his computer. Her shoulder length brown-blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail, and she reeked of cigarettes. Huber figured she must have just come back inside from having a smoke.
"I have a computer of my own, you know."
"I just saw this and wanted to show you," she said in her husky voice, hitting play.
An ethereal, angelic woman came into the picture, apologizing for pretty much everything as far as Huber could tell. Her name was Laura Thomas and it seemed that Kurt Nielsen had never raised a hand to her, and she made the whole thing up for money. The woman explained how Nielsen had always been a gentleman, and that she had been persuaded to make the complaint, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Huber began to shake his head in bemused disbelief.
Five years with the police, and ten in the DEA, he thought. One would think I would have known better. How could I have been so wrong?
But Huber knew how.
With his job it was better to be a realist, which by and large meant a pessimist. It was less complicated to believe the worst in everyone, particularly as he was usually proved correct. When had he become so cynical? There had been a time when Huber had been a romantic, believing in love and optimism and all the finer things of life.
He thought of his recent conversation with the L.A. police. Carmen Wilson had been taking the rap for her brother's crimes for years. He had even been wrong about that. Huber had to own up to the fact that he had a watched Carmen suffer for three months and had done nothing about it.
It was like one of those Paradigm shifts that Stephen Covey talked about. The guy gets on a bus with three little kids under five years old and does nothing when the toddlers run riot. Everyone in the bus hates them all until someone shouts, "Why can't you control your children?" Then the man says, "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that we have come from the hospital where their mother has just died. And I don’t know how to handle that, and they don’t know how to either."
There you are, 180 degree paradigm shift right there.
All of a sudden you realize that the man is not an idiot and you can’t do enough for those kids.
Carmen the criminal slut, as it turns out was a nice girl who did her best in a tough environment. She even got a university scholarship which the asshole Ellis had ruined for her.
Huber owed Carmen Wilson big time.
And whaddya know? Kurt Nielsen it seemed was a nice guy, too. Those two deserved each other. It almost made Huber beli
eve in love and romance, and good guys winning and bad guys getting what they deserved.
When Kurt came on the screen with his comments Huber continued to smile, right up until the end when he saw a clear view of Carmen in his car.
"Fuck," he said.
"What?"
"I bet that asshole Ellis will see that," he said. "Shit. He will know exactly where Carmen Wilson is."
~~~
"Boss," the man said, placing the lap top on his desk. "You had better see this."
Robert Ellis watched the YouTube short, and saw Carmen in the back seat of that car. It was definitely her. "Get Fixit and Toro up here," he said.
As his minion went off to do his bidding, Robert considered. Those two boys picked Carmen up last time, they could do it again. A short flight to New York followed by a long drive back to L.A. in a rental van, with a very enticing package in the back.
My favorite toy, he thought, feeling his dick harden. She has been a bad, bad girl. I am going to have to punish her.
Robert Ellis smiled, because soon, very soon, he would have his slave back.
28. André Chevalier
Dressed in his chauffeur's uniform, Burt held the car door open for Kurt and Carmen. As they walked toward the silver SUV, Robert's Ellis' two thugs were boarding a plane to fly to New York.
"Tell me where we are going again?" Carmen asked.
"André is in Saratoga Springs," Kurt said. "It's about a three hour drive from here. Tomorrow the three of us are booked to catch a flight to Las Vegas from Albany International Airport."
"Wait a minute, André doesn't live there?"
"No," Kurt said. "He lives in Las Vegas, but he has a horse in Saratoga Springs."
A horse? Carmen thought, flummoxed into speechlessness by this little nugget. She smiled and nodded to Burt, stepped into the back seat of the car, and slid over. Well, of course. André took a six hour flight from Las Vegas, apparently in order to visit his horse. Why not?
Once they had both gotten in, Kurt immediately took possession of her hand. Carmen looked at him then, and like every other time she did, she felt it like a punch to the gut. Kurt was so beautiful. Thick and loose, his long blond hair framed his face from where confident green eyes gazed at her.
"André has a second home in Saratoga Springs, and actually a few horses, I think," Kurt said in explanation. "He is an avid polo player, and there is apparently a tournament on."
"Ah," she said. Apparently she was going to see her first ever polo game - not to mention her first horse.
It was a scenic drive, and having talked enough for the last few days, she and Kurt were happy to sit together in silence. Carmen was beginning to feel that everything may turn out okay. Right now she was ignoring her issue with her psycho ex and taking one step at a time.
Kurt had told her how he had attempted to watch the recording of her time with Ellis. He hadn't gotten very far, after becoming enraged when he saw what she had gone through. Awkwardly he had also explained how disgusted with himself he had become for getting a hard on.
Carmen intimately knew these roiling emotions: Guilt, shame, and helpless fury.
Kurt was a big, confident man. It astonished her to see him brought to his knees by something that she had endured.
Mr. Perfect, Thor the 'God of Thunderous Orgasms' wasn't a God. He was human after all. Like everyone else Kurt Nielsen had doubts and guilt and baggage of his own.
It only made her love him more.
Carmen smiled, remembering her response. She had felt so sorry for Kurt. What sub wouldn’t have instantly thrown herself into the breach? To a submissive personality, it was all about her Dom and his needs and wants. Making him happy gave her the greatest pleasure of all.
André had instructed Kurt to watch that recording, so she decided to watch it with him. It had taken most of the day to do so. Had that been insane or what? Obviously! Yet together they had fast-forwarded for hours and hours, stopping at various points. Each time she had explained what had been going on, what she had been doing, thinking and feeling in order to survive.
It had been cathartic to confront her past.
It had been even more healing to face it with the man that she loved and fully trusted. Kurt was someone she could share her secrets with, while all the time knowing that he really understood. Kurt got her. He wouldn’t judge her, or hate her, or think less of her.
The thought of watching that video had been worse than actually doing so. It was a strange contrast, to view her former life of hell with the man who represented her current life of heaven.
Carmen admitted that many of the things that Robert Ellis did had aroused her. Kurt had flirted and tickled her and wanted to do those things, too. How had they been able to laugh about such a serious subject? But they had. Belly dancing, as well as her sexy strip tease was on the top of Kurt's list now.
Carmen grinned. He had been very enthusiastic.
Watching that video on her own would have made her cry. Yet by watching it with Kurt she had viewed it with different eyes.
Kurt hadn't seen her as a slutty sex slave.
He saw her strength, her courage and ingenuity.
Kurt had been entranced when watching Carmen practicing in front of a mirror, while learning to move with elegance and allure. "That explains a lot," he said.
"Oh?"
Kurt had pulled her on to his lap, where she could feel the hard press of his erection. "Why you walk and move so gracefully. You tutored yourself until it came naturally. I wondered who had trained you as a submissive, because I have never met anyone as skilled or well-taught. Now I know, you clever, amazing girl. You trained yourself."
The look of awe and adoration in his eyes had been enough to make her melt completely. The experience had brought them even closer, if that was even possible.
Eventually they drove through Saratoga Springs. It was a neat little town that was known for swanky shops, spas and horse racing. They arrived at the polo field just before half-time. Burt paid the $25 car charge, and parked along the sideline. Carmen watched as Burt got out some comfortable chairs, a packed cooler of snacks and drinks, sunglasses, three sets of binoculars and large hats for all.
Luckily the weather was perfect – cold but sunny with not a bit of wind.
Carmen knew nothing about polo. She knew nothing about horses either, except that one end was for kicking and the other for biting.
Kurt filled her in. This was the historic Whitney Field which had its first polo game in 1898. The polo season only ran until September, but this was a one off game, and André hadn't wanted to miss out.
Carmen wasn't sure that she could understand the excitement of seeing people on great big horses, bumping and jostling into each other at top speed while chasing a little white ball. She figured that this was probably some sort of crazy, risk taking male pursuit, until she saw a number of female riders.
The field was pristine green and she had to admit, the horses looked both magnificent and colorful racing along. They galloped by, fierce and fast, and honestly, just watching scared her to death. What sort of person would endanger life and limb in order to play golf on a thousand pounds of wild thundering horseflesh?
André Chevalier was apparently out there somewhere - doing just that.
At half-time Burt went off to chat to some friends, and Carmen finally met André.
André smiled when he saw them. He wore a helmet that was kind of like a baseball cap, tight white pants, black boots that went to his knees, and a yellow polo shirt. He dismounted, dropping his mount's reins over its head to the ground, patting its neck and speaking a few words in French. This was apparently an order not to move because the horse stood patiently and waited.
Could André's horse speak French? she wondered flippantly. That was certainly more than she could.
With a friendly grin and confident male animal grace, André strode toward them.
He looked fine, really fine indeed.
Oh. My. God.
Carmen thought, frozen in place. André Chevalier looks almost ordinary - except for that staggering sexual charisma he's radiating like heat from a blast furnace. Wow.
André had a flat stomach, broad shoulders and was about six feet tall. He had dark hair; dark eyes, and a pleasant face although it was pockmarked, perhaps from a bad bout of measles as a child?
"André," Kurt said holding out his arms. Carmen's mouth dropped when the two men hugged and kissed both cheeks in that French way.
"André, may I introduce you to the love of my life, Carmen Wilson?"
"The indomitable, Carmen, je suis enchanté," André said and his grin flashed white against his tan skin. He captured her fingers, lifted them and pressed his lips against her hand.
A zing of electricity flowed through her. Carmen's heart kicked as the sub in her recognized André's heady male dominance. Holy shit!
André's eyes locked to hers. They were amazing; dark, intelligent and aware. The man looked at her as if he knew her intimately. Of course he had seen her video, so she supposed that to some degree he did.
Carmen felt her face warm from that realization, as well as from the astonishing sensual heat that seemed to surround him. "Sexy" was a word that didn't even came close. Kurt had said he wanted them to have a threesome with this man. That thought made her swallow.
André's innate, self-assured authority filled her submissive senses. The exhilarating scent of healthy, sweaty male, combined with the wonderful cologne he was wearing… ¡Ay, caramba!
Kurt frowned. Carmen was aware of Kurt's frown from her peripheral vision, but she wasn't able to take her eyes off André. Instead she couldn't stop smiling at the steaming hot Frenchman, just as he was smiling at her.
"What's going on?" Kurt asked.
André released her hand and turned to him. "Your most beautiful woman is thinking transparent thoughts, mon ami," he said in a voice overflowing with sex and charm and playfulness. "She remembers that I have seen the recording of her, and she is not averse to our plans for a ménage à trois this evening."