Beautiful Regret

by MJ Nightingale

  "Well, I'll stick to Albert like glue. I'm thinking I'll ditch the van, and follow on foot if he and his friends are walking."

  "Good idea, but stay back. Don't want to spook him."

  “Gotcha. I'll wear my headset, and keep you posted.”

  "My mark is hailing a cab, I'll catch you later." So much for heading home. He just hoped he wasn't headed to another Manhattan party club. His head was pounding last night, and he even heard the beats in his head until he finally passed out.

  Twenty minutes later, Gio watched his mark get out in Times Square. Connie was headed straight for the theatre district, and Gio began to wonder if Albert had the balls to take her out in public with all the publicity now. But when he watched her slip into an alleyway between two buildings, he knew he'd been right. He wasn’t taking her to see a show, but maybe he was meeting her briefly. He decided to park and foot it too. He grabbed the hat he brought, and the lightweight black jacket and slipped them on. He wouldn't head down the alley yet. He'd wait. He spotted a coffee shop with the view of the entrance to the alley and went there instead. They had a few tables and stools on the sidewalk, and he decided he could blend in there as well as anywhere. He went up to the takeout window and ordered a cup of coffee, plain, and then perched at one of the high tables keeping a lookout.

  His cell phone rang. He answered. It was Nikko. “Albert and his group are walking to the theatre like I thought. I'm on foot, but Albert broke away from them, saying he would meet with them in twenty minutes. He had a quick errand to run. He slipped into a bodega, then when they were well out of view, he came back out. He's headed in their same direction, but he is not walking too fast. I think something's up."

  "Connie's in an alley on the corner of . . ." Gio looked up and read the sign. "7th Street and 42nd Avenue."

  "Shit, I'm two blocks away from there. He's headed that way. Can you get in there without her seeing? If he's meeting her, I don’t have the van. Shit, it would be great to hear what the hell those two have to say in alleyway."

  "Shoot, I’ll try." Gio hung up, and dumped the rest of his coffee in a tin garbage can on the way out. He crossed the street, and headed to the alley. He'd make like he was taking a piss if she spotted him, but he kept close to the wall and walked quietly.

  There were plenty of obstacles he could maneuver and hide behind. The alley was littered with garbage bins, trash, and pallets. Gio spotted Connie fifty yards ahead. She wasn’t looking his way, and he figured he was close enough. He might be able to hear them from here if Albert was meeting her. He could see her standing under a lit doorway, smoking, and scrolling through her phone. He slid behind a dumpster, but ten yards up ahead he saw a recessed doorway, with two pallets beside it. He took the risk, and stealthily went forward. Lifting the pallet silently he inched it sideways, slipped behind it. He took the other pallet and slid it so he was totally blocked from view. He sent Nikko a quick text.

  Gio: In good position. Don’t call, going on silent.

  Afterwards, Gio quickly muted the sound on his phone, turned off the brightness on the screen, and shut off the automatic flash. He was going to try to record the meeting maybe get a few pictures too. His camera was in his pocket. He fiddled with the settings and felt confident he would be able to get some kind of information

  Nikko saw the text. He was relieved his brother had made it. Albert was just taking the turn into the alley. Nikko saw the coffee shop and headed there. He wouldn't risk his brother being caught by texting or calling now. He just had to wait it out and hope for the best.

  Gio heard Connie speak. "Hey mister, got a light?" He also heard her heels clacking on the pavement getting closer to his position.

  "No, I don't. Sorry." It was Albert.

  "Excuse me," Connie said as she tried to pass by Albert. They were practically in front of Gio. Albert’s hand whipped out and he grabbed her wrist.

  "Not so fast," Albert’s voice came out husky.

  "Ouch that hurts. Let me go."

  Through the slats Gio could see her. She was directly in front, and he was confused. They were acting like they didn't know each other.

  "Not a fucking chance." He threw the girl against the wall directly opposite where Gio was holed up. Then he saw a flash of silver. Albert had a knife. Gio was about to burst from the scene and help her. When the girl laughed.

  "Albert, you really want to play this out for real."

  "Shut the fuck up, Connie. You’re ruining it. I've got only twenty minutes."

  They were role playing.

  "Sorry," she whimpered. "Mister. Please just let me go."

  “Get on your fucking knees.” He slapped her hard. "You are going to suck my cock, and like it. I'll slit your god dammed throat if you don’t."

  Connie began to cry. The force of the blow had been real enough. But Gio knew it was one of Albert’s games. He began recording them with his phone. It would be dark but there was a bit of light in the alley. He could have the sound enhanced and that could be matched.

  Connie sunk to her knees. Gio heard Albert’s zipper come down. He felt ill. Thinking of Lisa putting up with this sick bastard for all those years.

  Albert waved the knife in front of Connie's eyes. "Suck my cock you stupid cunt. And like I said, pretend you like it, or I'll cut you."

  He heard the sounds Connie was making, sounds of pleasure mixed with tears as she brought Albert to orgasm. When she finished she wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Are you going to let me go now, mister?

  "Not yet. Soon. Get over there. On that barrel."

  Connie, crying, did as she was told. Gio heard the sound of cloth tearing. Presumably the girl’s fishnet stockings after he heard Albert’s next words. "You are such a slut. No underwear. You were asking for this by walking down this alley at night."

  "Please mister, what are you going to do?" Connie feigned ignorance.

  Albert laughed evilly. “I am going to fuck you with my fist. Because sluts like you don't deserve my cock.”

  Gio heard the girl cry out, and he heard the sounds of Albert forcing his hand up inside the girl as she cried. He could see Albert’s elbow moving back and forth. He had slipped the knife in his pocket, and he held the girl’s hair in his other closed fist, as he pumped into her. The girl moaned, cried, but she did orgasm. "Please, please, stop," she cried put.

  "Come for me again, you dirty whore." Albert kept ramming her, until she cried out once more.

  When he released his hold on her hair, the girl slumped over. She was panting. Albert stepped to the side, and Gio could see all of her. She was slick and wet. He looked away. He was sick. And Albert was sick.

  He watched as Albert licked his fingers. He threw a wad of cash at the girl. Then wiped his hand off on a handkerchief.

  "Don't forget about Tuesday. It's important."

  “You sure this is okay with Master?” she asked as she scrabbled to pick up the cash.

  “Fuck him. He doesn’t run my life.” And with that, Albert walked back the way he had come. Connie didn't stay long either. She cleaned herself up a bit, straightened her long thin trench coat after ditching the fishnets. Gio waited a few more minutes after alerting Nikko to wait for him. There was no need to follow either one of them tonight any longer. But they did need to figure out what Connie meant by the Master. Another player? What the hell?

  The puzzle was getting more complicated. They needed to figure this out soon.

  And hopefully before Tuesday.

  When Gio got home, the first thing he did was check in on his son. The lights were all out, and he stood by his old room, and watched as his son slept soundly in the bed Gio had slept in as a boy. It made some of the horrible night’s images slip from his mind. The things he had seen and heard affected him greatly. He couldn’t stop imagining all that Lisa had gone through over the years.

  After assuring himself his son was out for the night, he quietly made his way upstairs to the attic. Nikko was in the shower and he was sleeping o
ver. They figured all would be quiet with Albert the rest of the night, and sleeping in the van another night, well Gio didn’t want to ask his brother for that. He’d done so for the last two nights.

  At the top of the stairs to the attic room, Gio knocked softly. He saw the strip of light from under her door, and knew she was still up. He didn’t know what possessed him to go up; he’d vowed to stay away until he could clear her name and think more clearly, but after what he had seen in the alley, he needed to assure himself she was all right.

  Lisa answered the door. She was wearing one of his t-shirts. And again, he saw the scars. Scars that Albert put on her body. He wanted to kill the man.

  Lisa saw Gio’s eyes narrow, as he gazed at her body lingering on her scars, and then finally his blue eyes met hers. “Gio?” she asked, her voice full of concern.

  He took a step into the room. She took a step back.

  “I don’t know where we are going to be, Lisa. Sorry,” he added when she averted her eyes. “But I do know I need to be in your bed tonight.” Her eyes whipped up to his face.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Nothing that is important for right now. But this is,” he said as he clasped her face palming the back of her head and pulling her towards him. He pressed his lips to hers watching her eyes, and when she opened for him, he was lost. He kept walking her backwards and when her arms slipped around his neck, he picked her up, sweeping her off her feet, and carried her over to Andreas’s bed. He laid her down gently then slowly removed his clothes as she watched him.

  When Gio made love to her that night, he took his time, crawling between her legs, he kissed each and every one of her scars trying to take them all away, and Lisa had a hard time not to cry as he worshipped her body slowly the way no man ever had done before.

  Albert entered his study in his condo. It was late, and the play he had just seen with friends had been mildly entertaining. But not as entertaining as his pre-play foreplay. Sitting next to Alan Dunkirk, a wealthy car enthusiast and his new girlfriend, and longtime friend Senator Wilson McCarthy, who was one of his best customers, the play had dragged on. But the memory of his rendezvous with Connie in the alley kept him entertained.

  He was at half-mast throughout the Broadway debut of Kinky Boots. He was able to convince his companions to go on ahead of him while he stopped in a small bodega to find some allergy medicine. That had been his excuse. It also made him using his handkerchief, the one he had wiped his hands on after fisting Connie, plausible. He lifted it to his face time and time again to inhale her scent. Fabulous. He loved the smell of pussy. It was his aphrodisiac.

  Sitting behind his desk in his well-appointed study, Albert opened the side drawer, and pulled out his clippers, and he began to clean his nails with them. Methodically, scraping out from underneath each one, he wiped the remains on the handkerchief he had laid on top of his desk.

  He cleaned each finger, then trimmed each well-manicured nail, and thought back to Connie. She was a decent distraction, but she wasn't Lisa. Beyond the hair, and height, the similarities ended. His erection began to wane.

  He'd met Connie a year ago, at a club, and became her most frequent client. The club she worked for required a privacy non-disclosure agreement, and had a hefty price tag. The Scene made fantasies come true. Using a fake name only known by members, one just sent a message requesting the fulfillment of a fantasy. If the club could make it happen, they sent you a message, and told you the time and the room number. A friend of his had opened up the club and he did enjoy frequenting it. After six months he had just hired Connie to be his; she was a slut, and got off on everything, and there were no hard limits with her. About two months ago, when his father was given the word that he had just a few months, he knew he was going to lose Lisa, and that’s when the plan to frame her for his murder had taken form. He couldn’t allow her to walk away. Ever.

  Connie was easy enough to convince to help. She just had to buy the ingredients for the bomb, and then get on tape putting the explosive under his car. He’d hired a new mechanic, and simply asked him to move the car. He didn’t even feel a bit of remorse for the man who lost his life in the explosion.

  Connie felt some remorse, but his promise of a million dollars, and the ten grand a month he was paying her kept her in line. But he’d probably kill her too. He didn’t want to leave any loose ends.

  It was shame because she was such a willing partner.

  He'd met her when he had requested sex with a red head who would be willing to be trussed up and suspended, among other things. He also wanted to be able to flog the woman. Hard. It had been one of his favorite activities with Lisa. It had been the same activity that got him in trouble all those years ago. He had gone too far trying it on Lisa. But that wasn’t his first mistake either. He had really loved her, and one other mistake years ago, one he didn’t regret had gotten him her. But back then he had been the submissive, and the man fucking him in the ass had been a house of representative member for the great old state of New York. That man had been able to escape in the raid. He hadn’t. He was tied up so to speak.

  His parents had done wonders to dispel the rumors though. It had gotten him Lisa. And, he'd always wanted her. Through the neighborhood and school events, he'd known her, though they hadn't travelled in the same circles. She had been six years younger than him, but the cheerleader with the high tits had him harder than he'd ever been. He'd gone to football games while back from college and stood by the fence just to get a glimpse of her crotch when she jumped.

  He'd imagine doing all kinds of things with her.

  He'd been introduced to sex, and the wilder side by some of his school chums. When he turned eighteen, they'd taken him to night clubs, like the one he was busted in. Beats. His first experience was with a prostitute. Then he'd partaken in an orgy the following weekend. He'd been fucked in the ass by his friend, while a girl knelt before him in black leather, blind folded, and in chains and studs and sucked his cock. He came for three minutes, and was hooked. He tried it all. Then he’d heard about Beats, a fetish night club. He had experienced it all there. But the place had been raided one too many times and had shut been shut down.

  His parents were doing incredibly well. They were old money, owning property all over Manhattan, but they had branched out into autos wanting their son to have a respectable career. They'd just opened up their fourth dealership, and his allowance gave him the leisure, while in business school, to enjoy his new lifestyle.

  The raid at Beats nearly ended it all when he was twenty seven. Paparazzi, working on a tip, had infiltrated the club to get photos of the new House of Representative member who was making a name for himself in Congress. But he escaped before the police broke into the room they were using leaving him strapped to a wall.

  He'd married Lisa afterwards, telling his parents that a quick marriage, to the woman he'd always wanted, would keep the rumors at bay. And it had worked. It had fooled them. And got him a prize he had wanted for some time.

  He'd behaved himself for a year. After Lisa gave birth to her bastard, he slowly introduced her to his lifestyle, and for a while she had complied. Of course, he knew she still loved that “Guido” from down the block. But he made sure she heard about all his conquests, not directly from him of course, but it helped push her to him.

  He could never make her come when they had been doing the things he liked. She began to fake it to get it over with, and that frustrated the hell out of him. And so, slowly he became more aggressive, and eventually she balked. Refusing to do those things anymore. She'd ranted and raved, calling him depraved, sick. Afterwards, he'd been afraid to touch her, but he couldn't resist her. She was too god dammed beautiful. He'd raped her twice. Got her tipsy, drugged her, so she wouldn't fight him. But then the bitch had taped him, and blackmailed him. She'd stay married, but she was moving out into her own place. She'd attend events, but on occasion, play the happy wife, but that was it.

  When ten years w
as up, she was walking away. Her parents’ home would be secure upon the death of both of his parents, and now his dad was at death’s door. He thought he had another year and a half, but his dad would be dead within the week. And the thought of Lisa walking away burned his soul. They didn’t understand. Any of them, what she meant to him.

  He couldn't allow it. Then when he'd gotten the request for the paternity test, he knew she'd called Gio. Well, Gio couldn't have her. He'd kill him first. And that was what Tuesday was all about.

  Sunday, Gio had everyone over. He invited both Mary’s family, and Bridget. He even invited Lisa’s parents over. He and Nikko had taken over the kitchen and they were cooking up a storm.

  They had Johnny in there as well. Gio wanted to show him the ropes in the kitchen. All the Marino men liked to cook. And from the looks of it, Johnny was enjoying himself tremendously. They had him pounding the chicken out for chicken parmesan. The kid was a natural. Gio looked on proudly as he started up the skillets he was using to fry the cutlets. They had taken the day off, after last night’s successful outing, if you wanted to call it that. They hired two men to watch both Albert and Connie, and those men were reporting in via text message every two of hours. All was quiet. For now. Albert stayed home this morning, and now was visiting with his father. Connie was still at home. They’d sent a message to Alex about the emails asking to look for someone called the Master. They planned to do more research on that, but for today it was going to be all about family.

  Mary and her family were just arriving, and they heard Lisa greeting them at the door. Johnny was happy to see his Uncle Mark, and excused himself after taking off the apron they made him wear, and washing off his hands. Gio followed.

  Mark was tall, and well built. A firefighter, and he greeted Johnny warmly, ruffling his hair, and then giving him a quick hug. Gio envied their easy camaraderie, but was glad his son had a man in his life whom he respected. He couldn’t fault that, even though he wished it was him. But their relationship was coming along. He’d spent all morning with him, taking him to the grocery store to shop for the items they needed. Had breakfast together first, played a few video games, and then the cooking. Nikko slept in, enjoying the night off and being back in his own room. He joined them in the kitchen and had Johnny in stitches half of the afternoon telling stories about when they were kids.