by I. A. Dice
Now he needed me to rise to the challenge, but it was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
CHAPTER 29
THOMAS
Weed and dicks
When I booked the hotel in Amsterdam, I settled for the one that visually appealed to me most. Distance to the strip club was irrelevant since a limo was at our disposal all night.
I had stayed in dozens of luxurious hotels all over Europe, but once we walked into Sofitel The Grand with Nick and the rest of the party, it became my favourite one. A spacious, welcoming hall featured a massive rectangle reception counter made of white marble, and above it hung the largest chandelier I ever saw; it must have been at least ten feet wide and four feet long.
The receptionist instructed three bellboys to take care of our luggage. I checked in, left my credit card details, hoping none of the guys would get drunk enough to want to Tarzan the shit out of the chandelier, and followed the party to the elevator.
“Leave your things, and we’ll meet in the lobby in twenty minutes,” I said, handing everyone a key to their rooms.
The window in mine overlooked the canal, and the room itself was almost as well equipped as my house. Above a double bed hung a long mirror, a desk stood by the opposite wall; and the bathroom had a walk-in shower large enough to fit three people.
I hung my suit in the wardrobe ready for tomorrow, as I was outvoted during the flight when it came to swapping the stag-do t-shirts for smart shirts.
A soft knock on my door came three minutes later.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do for twenty minutes?” Scorpio barged in. “Oh, you’ve got one too.” He pointed to the portrait of an old man that hung above the desk. “What’s with that? A very ugly woman is staring at the bed from her frames in my room.”
“Kiss her. She’ll be one of your five tonight.”
A pillow hit the back of my head and landed on the floor. I turned around to Scorpio with my eyebrows raised.
“Are you high already?”
“No, but I better be by the end of the night. Jane let me do whatever I want, as long as I keep my dick in my pants.”
She probably threatened to cut it off if he didn’t. Still, giving Scorpio a free pass wasn’t her brightest moment.
“How very generous and stupid of her. She should have at least warned me since I’ll be the one to carry you back to the hotel and make sure you’ve got a bucket by your bed.”
Scorpio joined me in the bathroom. “You plan on staying sober?” He took a bottle of cologne from my hand, sprayed it in front of him, and stepped forward.
“You’re supposed to spray it on your neck, not on the floor.”
“I know.” He put the cap back on and tossed the bottle in the air for me to catch. “So? Did Nadia forbid you from having fun tonight?”
“She didn’t, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get trashed. Don’t forget, I’m hosting this party. Who’ll tell you where to go next if I’m unconscious?” I put a wallet, phone and room key into my pockets, stopping by the door. “You coming?”
Scorpio rubbed his hands together. “Where are we going first?”
“Downstairs. It’s dinner time.”
His face fell, but he followed me to the elevator. Nick and the rest of the party waited in the restaurant, studying the menus. A waiter came over a few minutes later with two bottles of Cristal. He filled the glasses and took our orders. We tried to keep the noise down, but a bachelor party of eight excited guys was bound to get loud.
“Before we all get shitfaced, I would like to propose a toast.” I rose from my seat with a glass of champagne in hand. “Here’s to Nick and his beautiful bride to be. May you never regret the journey you’re about to embark on.”
“This is it, isn’t it?” he asked, clanking his glass to mine. “This time next week, I’ll be a married man.”
“Now you’re getting cold feet?”
He shook his head. “No way. I have been waiting for this for years. I couldn’t be happier.”
“That’s because you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” Josh laughed. He was the financial director at C&G, married, with two kids. “I’m kidding. Nothing changes apart from the ring on your finger. It actually gets even better.”
“Sooner or later we’ll all get there,” Scorpio cut in. “I’m next.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out under the table and couldn’t help but smile seeing a text message from Nadia.
Time to see naked firemen.
No touching. You’ve got a soldier at home.
A smiley face arrived two seconds later.
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a no-phones, no-girlfriends evening?” Ethan asked, eyeing me with disapproval.
He was pissed off with me lately. The fact that I was dating the girl he had a crush on for years might have had something to do with it.
“Who said anything about no-girlfriends? I only asked you to leave your phones behind so we wouldn’t all text them every few minutes. You didn’t expect we wouldn’t keep in touch with them, did you?”
The food arrived before Ethan found his tongue. We ate and chatted for two hours before we took advantage of the limo that waited outside.
I had heard a lot of things about Amsterdam, and unlike any other city, everything I heard was true. Last year I flew over to Paris for a weekend to see one of our pop stars perform. I expected a beautiful, romantic city filled with history, little cafés, and the best baguettes.
The postcard image was just that—a postcard. In reality, Paris was dirty, crowded, and full of terrible drivers. The traffic around the Triumphal Arch was horrendous and the street salesmen drove me nuts. The only impressive thing was the Eiffel Tower.
Amsterdam on the other hand, turned out to be everything I expected. I wouldn’t call it the most beautiful place, but it had a feel to it. The little bridges over the canal; hundreds of bikes wherever you turned your head and iconic architecture made Amsterdam my second favourite European destination. I couldn’t wait to see if the world-famous Red-Light District was as impressive as it was made out to be.
The chauffeur stopped the car and got out to open the door. “It’s my duty to forewarn you not to take any pictures while you’re wandering around the Red-Light District.”
“Why is that?” Scorpio asked, holding a camera.
“Out of respect, for example,” Ethan said.
“Yes, but it is also to avoid having your camera flung in the canal by the girls’ enforcers. Moreover, watch out for pickpockets. Streets are narrow and crowded.” The chauffeur raised his hat and took the wheel.
The first thing that caught my attention when we wandered into the closest street weren’t the almost naked girls behind the glass windows, but the smell of weed. I knew it was legal, but I didn’t expect so many people to smoke. It wasn’t just youngsters either. An elderly woman selling roses sat on a small chair, a joint in her mouth.
“How much do you think they charge for a quickie?” one of the guys asked when we turned left into a narrow passage.
It was just wide enough for one man, and the brothels were located on either side every two meters. I felt a little claustrophobic surrounded by prostitutes.
“Fifty euros,” Scorpio said, and he turned around to look at Ethan when he started laughing. “What? I googled it.”
The conversation about pricing lasted for a good ten minutes during which we walked through the never-ending labyrinth of streets. Most of the girls were young and quite pretty; some looked excited; some stood there with a bored expression. The legal age to work in a brothel was twenty-one, but I noticed a couple of girls who looked about sixteen.
After another fifteen minutes, we emerged on one of the main streets.
“Look at that!” Josh yelled running toward a shop window. “It’s a condom shop!” He pushed the door open, and the guys followed.
Scorpio kept me company while I had a smoke.
“We need to find a coff
ee shop before we leave. I’m not going back home until I try the Dutch weed,” he said.
“We’ve passed like a dozen already, and there’s another one.” I pointed to a shop on the opposite side of the street.
Scorpio’s eyes lit up. He knocked on the condom shop window. “Hurry up!” he mouthed, waving the guys over.
Nick and I were the only ones not interested in weed. We waited outside the small coffee house while the others bought their joints.
“Is that a sex museum?!” Ethan exclaimed, jogging down the street. “Come on! We’re going in.”
Who put him in charge?
“You ready for the party now?” I asked when we emerged outside forty minutes later.
Scorpio looked rather disgusted with the tour. “Tell me I didn’t just see all that! Make me forget, Thomas! Where are the strippers?” He hung himself on my shoulder, acting like the drama king he was. “I need to see boobs!”
“You almost broke your leg running in there; don’t complain now.”
“How was I supposed to know the museum of sex is two fucking floors of giant dicks?”
Nick caught up with us taking a piss of Scorpio’s pained expression.
“You’re jealous of the size? Don’t worry, mate.” He patted his shoulder. “The size doesn’t matter as long as you know how to use it.”
“Enough with the dick talk. I say we find the limo and get wasted!” One of the guys yelled.
A sensible one at last.
We turned left at the end of the street and found our limo parked on the curb by the canal. The chauffeur had some fucking skills to drive a nine-meter-long car through the narrow roads.
“Did you enjoy the walk?”
“I love Amsterdam!” Ethan yelled and burst into giggles like a sixteen-year-old cheerleader.
He never could handle his liquor, and obviously, he wasn’t any better with weed. I put my hand on his head and pushed him inside.
The queue outside the strip club went all the way around the corner of the building, but thanks to VIP passes, we walked straight in. Music played loudly and the place was packed despite my wristwatch only showing ten-thirty. A waitress that could just as well be a stripper seeing that she only wore thongs, showed us to our table. Another waitress slash stripper came over two minutes later with a tray-full of liquor. Whiskey, vodka, bourbon.
The guys helped themselves to alcohol, eyeing up the naked ass writhing around the poles. Instead of joining the stare fest, I took my phone out to check on Nadia.
Safe and sound?
I pressed send and left the phone on my lap, expecting a reply within seconds.
I waited for ten, fifteen, then twenty minutes, convincing myself that they were okay and, that she was okay and just didn’t hear the phone.
Nick started a second drink when the escort I booked for him arrived. Candy and Cookie—twins. Tall, slim, pretty and slutty twins.
We cheered when they sat on either side of Nick and whispered in his ears. He was mortified for the first few minutes, even more so when Cookie sucked on his earlobe. A reply from Nadia came when I was about to call her.
Safe and sound, baby.
I breathed a sigh of relief. She was making me crazy—paranoid, even. And jealous, so fucking jealous. Ethan cringed when he saw me with the phone, and that was enough for envy to make an entrance.
I’m pussy whipped. Nice to meet you.
As the evening progressed, Nick got creative with the tasks for his escort. They were supposed to fulfil his every wish, but they couldn’t have anticipated what they signed up for with Nick. They were prostitutes—high-class and expensive, but since they were still hookers, they must have expected a night of blowjobs, handjobs, and sex.
What they got was far from their normal day at the office.
First, Nick asked Cookie to give him a massage while Candy was supposed to fill up our drinks and fetch more ice.
Innocent, right? Better than sucking Ethan’s dick if you ask me.
It went down the hill from there. At one point I felt sorry for the twins when they danced the Macarena on the table to earn Nick’s forgiveness for failing to down six shots in a row, but then I remembered how much they charged for the night and sympathy evaporated.
The night escalated after a few drinks, and we all competed to complete the dares printed on the back of our t-shirts. Ethan won as he was the only one who dared to organise a bar-wide conga, losing his voice while teaching everyone Chelsea’s chant Ten men went to mow.
He passed out around three in the morning, and not even a bucket of ice tipped over his head woke him up. Josh and I shoved his sorry ass into the back of the limo and left him there to sleep it off. We joined him forty minutes later when half of the party could no longer stand without assistance.
The groom, who should have passed out in a pool of his own vomit, held up well, and once we arrived back at the hotel, he was more than thrilled to keep drinking. He was even more thrilled when I opened the doors to the Legendary suite, and we were greeted by half a dozen of hookers. Nick delegated Cookie to make the drinks while Candy was three floors down, putting Ethan to sleep.
It didn’t take long before the guys took advantage of the hookers. Even Josh took one over to the bathroom, when he thought we paid no attention.
“Do you want one?”
A guy whose name I hadn’t memorised asked me, motioning his chin to the two girls left.
I shook my head. “Knock yourself out.”
Scorpio sat next to me, his eyes heavy. “Have you heard from Nadia? Are the girls okay?”
“Yeah, I would like to know how my wife is,” Nick mumbled.
Two unread texts from Alexandra waited on my phone. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion when I slid my thumb across the screen. The first message was a video clip showing Nadia and Amelia dancing on a raised platform in some club. Mel jumped off the platform and for a moment, her head floated in the crowd towards Nadia. She reached out and grabbed Nadia’s ankle, and my pulse sped up like crazy when I watched my girl take a dive.
“Fuck!” I jumped to my feet.
Nick’s sleepy eyes snapped to me. “What’s wrong?”
I opened the second message and picture of a random guy with his hands resting on Nadia’s back appeared on the screen. Another guy sat by the table, watching them with a grin, which I immediately wanted to wipe off his face with brass knuckles. The glass in my hand went airborne; blood in my veins turned hot and sticky.
“Thomas!” Nick yelled to get my attention. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I seethed, my chest heaving. “Nadia fell off a platform at the club. Alex sent me a video followed by a picture of some dickhead with his hands all over her.”
I dialled Nadia’s number and pressed the phone to my ear.
No answer.
Of course. I tried again with the same result and my frustration peaked an all-time high. I tried her a few more times and sent a couple of messages in-between. Nick and Scorpio watched me clueless, not understanding why I acted like I was off my trolley.
The head of security the girls were staying at was the next one I rang. Three years of Spanish lessons paid off when I screamed my head off over the phone, ordering the security to check the girls’ Villa.
Then, I called Jane, since she was the most likely to answer.
“Thomas? Is everything all right?” she slurred.
Alright? No, it’s not fucking alright, alright?
“What’s going on? Who’s that son-of-a-bitch in the picture, where the fuck is Nadia and why isn’t she answering my calls?”
Springs cracked on her side of the line as if she sat up on the bed. “Calm down. Nadia’s here somewhere. She’s okay. I think she’s putting Mel to sleep.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“Okay, just…”
Her voice trailed off and the line fell silent. I almost sent my phone to follow the glass, but I held it together and redialled Jane’s numb
er, squeezing the stress out of my neck with a free hand.
“Sorry,” Jane muttered. “I dropped the phone. Let me just find her.”
I heard the door open, then a few rickety steps before another door opened.
“Hey, baby,” Nadia said, her voice tired, but calm.
Instead of it calming me down, it pissed me off more. She sounded sober enough not to do anything reckless.
“Where’s your phone? You promised to keep it on you!”
“We just got back. I was a little preoccupied—”
“I know! What the hell, Nadia? Who were those two assholes and why was one of them touching you?!”
“How do you…?” She hesitated. “Let me guess. Alex told you.”
“That doesn’t answer any of my questions!”
“You’re unbelievable!” Nadia yelled getting defensive. “You know she’s obsessed with you! They were with Martha and Jess. Bill is a med student; he checked if all my bones were intact after I fell off the platform. You think I wanted him to touch me? You should know better than that by now. Mel and Jane said either he checks my bones or we’re going to the hospital!” She paused to scoff.
A commotion erupted in the background. A few male voices yelled in Spanish, doors banged, and the girls shouted.
“What the hell?!” Nadia cried. “You sent the security up here?!”
“They’re looking for those two jackasses. Are they there?”
“Yes, they came back with Martha and Jess. You thought they were here for me?! Are you insane? I thought you trust me!”
I rubbed my face and let out a long, calming breath, and then collapsed back on the sofa. The anger turned to shame. She was right. I flipped off before I even found out what happened.
“You promised to take care of yourself,” I said, controlling the way my voice sounded. “Yet here I am, watching you fall off a platform, and some fuckhead touching you.”
Suicidal fuckhead if I may add.
“This is not what you promised.”
“We were dancing. I had fun like you told me to.”
When have I told her to endanger herself? Or to befriend male strangers and let them touch her?
The door opened behind me. Ethan stumbled inside, followed by Candy who tried to keep him steady.
