Who was he kidding? It was a jolt to his ego when Nigel told him that he would have an open pass to sleep with another man’s wife and get paid for it. Now that he was able to recall the entire situation clearly, he thought about how warm and tight she was. Sitting in front of him now he lost sight for a moment on how she also proved that she was crazy and admired her beauty. She definitely looked different. There were some drastic changes that she had made to her appearance, but she still exuded a sexual appeal that was hard for any man to turn down.
His body began to betray him again. He felt himself get hard. Only this time he didn’t hold back. Instead he studied the woman. The way her clothes hugged her curves. The way she crossed her legs in the chair with a hint of seduction. And it was done subconsciously. She didn’t have to try to be sexy, she just was. In fact, she was as sexy as she was crazy.
He thought about how foolish her husband had been to prey on her. One thing was certain, if he had to be tortured, Herschel would do whatever he needed to do in order to ensure that he wasn’t the only one. In the back of his mind he always knew that there may be a time that would come that he would have to flip on the man who brought him the indecent proposal. He assumed that as the years had passed and nothing came of it that he was in the clear. There was no way that he could have known that she held onto the grudge like a last breath.
Five years was a long time for anyone. Herschel had completely forgotten about that night until he woke up to his worst nightmare. The sad part was that even with all of that, his body still was aroused by the dangerous woman even with his mind telling his body that it would not be wise to respond to the visually appealing woman. It was in that moment that he realized that he had a sexual addiction and needed to get help. He felt bad for the part he had played in ruining this woman’s life all in the name of money, lies and sex.
The only problem was any thought of sex caused him to want it more, especially considering the fact that he had not been able to complete the job five years prior. Even without consent her body had been so warm and inviting; it was hard for him to pull out when Nigel interrupted them. Before he had been interrupted, for a split second between her realizing that he was not her husband and Nigel walking in on them, he could have sworn that she responded to what he was doing positively. All these years later he had held onto that which was why he believed that he had not done anything wrong. Her body told him yes even if she hadn’t. And look where that had gotten him. Tied up in his own living room.
“Thank you for telling me the truth. I’ve got some business to attend to. But first I need to decide what I’m going to do with you.” Vera kept the same tone and energy as she had that entire night. This scared the man. He just naturally assumed that once he came clean to her, he would be spared.
Struggling still to speak clearly, he forced words to form in his throat. “I…. I won’t tell anyone what happened tonight.”
“Oh, I know you won’t. I’ve never been worried about that. However, unlike my late husband, I plan to guarantee it.”
Herschel became alarmed. It wasn’t lost on him that she had just referred to Nigel as her late husband meaning deceased. His life was flashing before his eyes. He squirmed frantically to try to free himself but he was not out of the woods yet. She had tied him up well. He wasn’t going anywhere until she wanted him to.
Placing the gag back over his mouth she continued to speak. “Look, based on what you told me you had a week to find a way to get out of going through with the plans my husband put you up to. But you didn’t. You took the money, followed his wishes and set me up.”
Vera pulled a new syringe out of the bag she had brought with her. What she was about to do she didn’t need him making a single sound. He was going to pay the same way her husband would. Him giving her the information he had been so willing to provide did nothing but confirm that he was a snake and would sell her out as he had done with her husband. And perhaps in the future there would be a time when his proclivity to financial lures would allow her to use him to her benefit. However, that night, he was going to pay, painfully.
“I noticed that you are hard again. Those grey sweat pants you wore to sleep betrayed you. Let’s do something about that. But first, let’s go ahead and put you back to sleep.”
Quickly she injected the man with the second dose of sedative she had brought with her. As he drifted off into another paralysis induced slumber she cut him free of his restraints, moved him from the chair where he previously was seated, flipped him over on the couch, pulled down his pants and rammed the phallic she had shown him earlier up his rear with the precision of a surgeon. His body slightly flinched, but she knew he couldn’t fight it.
Before leaving she took her time cleaning anything that her fingerprints might have been left on. Next, she took out an instant portable camera, took pictures of his bare rear end with the dildo rammed inside while he was still gagged. Taking two pictures she laid them down around him then took a few more just in case she needed to use them for later.
Leaving the toy inside of him she placed a few pictures strategically around him and prepared to leave as she was done with him. In the morning he would wake up feeling abused with a sore ass. He would think that it was all a dream and realize that it was far from that when he saw the pictures. Finally, he would spend another five years wondering if she would be back to finish the job. What he would not do is tell a single soul about what transpired that night. She was confident that his pride wouldn’t allow that to happen.
10
Five Years Prior
The day after the debacle that was her anniversary Vera woke up in a strange place with a splitting headache. She remembered how she had made it to the hotel room. Remembered the kindness of the stranger who allowed her to stay there when her card had declined. What she wanted to forget was what landed her there in the first place causing her to cry herself to sleep.
Vera had never been a weak woman. She had only allowed her husband to believe that she was submissive. The truth was there were times when she despised the way he acted, like a child who would pout when they didn’t get their way. However, the fact that he had always been a good provider allowed her to overlook many of his shortcomings. After all, she was working her own agenda that he had known nothing about.
As she reflected back over the length of their marriage, perhaps this was for the best. She was tired of convincing herself that she was happy with him. The truth was she was happy with his money. And now that it was clear that access to it was gone, it was time for her to move on. No need to linger on the loss. She needed to take time to restructure.
The tears were derived out of frustration from the way that everything had went down. Vera had always been the one in her life to cut situations off when she was done with them. In addition to that, to be taken advantage of in her own bed, that shit hurt. She was mad at herself for not seeing it coming. It was at that moment that she decided that she would get revenge on the pianist who ruined everything for her. First, she had some personal business to attend to.
Picking up her cellular phone she placed a call to a number that she hadn’t called in almost a decade.
“It’s time for my shill.”
She spoke the words in a clear and precise voice. There was no hint of the tears she had cried the night before.
“Where are you?”
Vera gave the address to the hotel to the person on the other end of the phone. Provided her room number. Then she hung up the phone and went to the bathroom to shower.
Her nerves were beginning to clear up. At some point she knew she needed to return to her home so she could get the rest of her things. The night before she had grabbed what she could in the middle of her haste to leave. Never had she felt so defeated and humiliated in her life.
The taste of revenge was on the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t believe she had put in all that work to earn Nigel’s trust over the years only for it to be snatched away in a blink of an eye.<
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Just as she stepped out of the shower, she heard a tap at the door. Covering herself with the hotel robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door, she walked out of the bathroom to answer the door. Without looking at the person who entered behind her, she walked back over to the bed to finish drying off with her towel.
“What the hell happened?”
“The con needs to be amended. I need my shill.”
“You had one more year, one more year and the terms of your prenup would have been over and you would have been able to take him for everything. What the hell do you mean it needs to be amended?”
Vera was sick to her stomach. The truth was she had never loved her husband. She loved his money and the money she would inherit once she divorced him after the terms of their prenuptial agreement expired. Money that she felt he owed in retribution to her and her family. Their entire union had been an elaborate part of a con game she had planned almost a decade prior with the person who was now standing in her hotel room.
“You don’t think I know that? I’ll figure out a way to get back to the money. The fucker cut off my joint credit card last night. He must have done it before I even got out of the driveway because by the time I’d gotten here my card was declined.”
“Tell me you didn’t come out of this flat broke.”
“You know me better than that. I just need to get to the bank today so I can get to my safety deposit box. I have my own bank account, passports, cash, etc. To maintain the con, I couldn’t walk around with it. I’ve been stashing money from him for years. He thinks he is leaving me in shambles. That man has no idea who I really am to this day.”
“Good. I thought you were calling me to bail your ass out.”
They shared a laugh before she rushed into the man’s arms. Her twin brother Vernon stood about a half an inch taller than her. He was her true knight in shinning armor. When they were younger, they were nearly inseparable. Growing up they had just about everything they ever wanted or needed. However, after a tragic car accident caused the death of both of their parents landed them in a group home just before they were set to graduate from high school, their lives took an interesting turn. One where they leaned on each other to survive.
Faced with the possibility of being turned over to the cruel world without a penny to their name, the two made a pact that they would do what they needed to do to make it in life without feeling like charity cases. Fending for themselves had become a way of life they were all too familiar with after spending a year in the group home fighting people over bare essentials such as their food and clothes.
It had been Vernon who had come up with the idea that they would begin to con their way through life. Since they didn’t like the life they had been forced into, they would convince themselves and others that they deserved better. Vernon would prey on the women and Vera would prey on the men. Being as they were both gorgeous in their own right, often playing out various cons had proved an easy feat.
They were very good at talking themselves into situations where they could profit from. Whatever job they set themselves up to take on to perform a con they studied everything about the scenario so they could pull it off well.
There was the time that Vernon walked into a real estate firm and convinced the partners to give him a shot at selling homes. Vera had come in the following day and after spotting Vernon in the office demanded that he be the one to show her potential homes. At the time she was wooing a young bachelor who was primed to buy a new home. She convinced him to buy a multimillion dollar flat from Vernon.
He raked up the hefty commission check and two weeks later failed to return to the firm. The partners were confused. That was until they did more research to find out that the credentials he had presented were false. He never had a realtor’s license. In fact, the name he had given was false as well. By the time they realized what had happened, he had cashed the check, closed the account and put the money in his real account at a different bank. He was gone without a trace.
The sell was very real. The man who had purchased the home had no complaints other than the fact that the woman who had brought him to the firm had also left him in the middle of the night. Not before clearing out the safe in the home of cash and jewelry.
Another time Vera led a con where she convinced an art gallery that she was a sought after curator and should host one of the biggest events of the year for them. Vera had done well, bringing in renowned artists from all over the world.
The night of the showing many well to do art collectors had visited the gallery to acquire new art. This was the first time that some of the artists had been brought to the area and the collectors couldn’t wait to get their hands on some of the pieces.
In walks Vernon with a wealthy and much older benefactor on his arm. They had met at a museum a month prior and he had charmed the socks off the woman and told her about the opening night at the gallery. She had already heard some amazing news about the work that was being brought in. She was excited about a Haitian artist who used bright, bold colors and large canvases to paint surrealism.
The two siblings barely made eye contact the entire night, until it was time for his date to write a hefty check for the works she admired most. Vera collected the payments from the evening. After the closing of the gallery that night, the owner was so overwhelmed with how well the event was that they trusted her with closing out the purchases and making the deposit the next day.
This was just the moment she had been looking for. The next day Vera had made the deposit as requested. Only she took the largest check that was made out by her brother’s date and put that money into a separate account with the galleries name on it that she had opened days before with a different bank.
By the time the gallery realized they were short, Vera was long gone. The check had cleared in the other account which she then closed and met up with her brother to divide the profits. He had left his date the night after the opening. It wasn’t until she went to pick up the art she had paid for at the gallery that the owner and herself figured out they had been conned.
While authorities had been notified, the twins were long gone. They never used their real names and they always traveled with their cons. There was no way they would be caught. Facial recognition software would prove futile as they often used elaborate methods to augment their physical appearance. They simply slipped away like thieves in the night.
The con that Vera was pulling on Nigel was a bit different. For the first time her brother disagreed with it. There was so much more to lose. She would be tying her real identity to a real marriage. Augmentation of her physical appearance would not work as she would have to wait years before the big payout came, which would make it impossible to maintain a consistent look for that long that differed that of her own. And more than that, Vernon could not be involved until it was time for the long con to ensue which would mean the end of the road.
Vernon was less worried with if his sister would be able to pull this off than the fact that she would be alone. They agreed that in order for it to work they had to make Nigel feel like he was saving the day for her. She had to appear desperate and alone. They had studied him. The millionaire bachelor. Vera was convinced she could get her hands on enough money for her brother and herself to retire from conning for the rest of their lives. Money that in her mind rightfully belong to them anyway. Vernon was worried about the fact that there were emotions involved. He knew the plan, but this con was not cut and dry. Even the motive behind it was different, and while he understood, he could not say that he agreed.
At the end of the day, that was his sister. He would not hesitate to hurt anyone who dared to lay a finger on her. That coupled with the fact that he simply didn’t like Nigel made him adamant that this was not a good idea. Vera however had made up her mind. She crafted the con so well that she was adamant nothing could possibly go wrong. Her brother hoped that she was right. However, now that he was standing in her hotel room, he knew that wasn’t e
xactly the case. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong at that.
“Vera, what happened? We agreed no contact until the con was over or something has gone wrong where I needed to step in. I feel like both is happening right now. Are you ready to tell me the truth?”
Again, feeling defeated, Vera plopped on the bed and began to go over every detail of what had happened the night before. Vernon held back his anger as she got to the end of the story. Based off of what she explained he wanted to find that pianist and Nigel and kill them both. She could see the steam spewing from his eyes. He had heard enough and was ready to pop. But she kept going. Her story ended at her placing a call to him.
“How do you want to handle this?”
“Of course I’m going to get at the piano player but first the con must go on.”
“Plan B then?”
“Plan B.” She nodded her head as confirmation for the words she spoke carefully, heart growing colder and harder. This wasn’t about love. This was about coming for everything Nigel took from her.
11
Present Day
Arriving home from a long vacation in Fiji, Nigel was surprised to see a man standing on his front porch. He had never seen this man a day in his life. There must have been some mistake as to why he was on the private property. He immediately got an attitude as he pulled around the u-shaped driveway.
“Is there something I can help you with?” He jumped out of his car swiftly, leaving behind the woman who had accompanied him on the trip in the car without so much as a word. However, knowing his temperament, she knew to stay in the car until he instructed her to come out.
“Nigel Washington?”
“Who are you?” He demanded answers before he responded to any questions.
“My name is Vernon Coleman. I’m representing Vera Washington on a legal matter and wanted to take the time to meet you personally.” Vernon was careful to use his sisters last name while married to Nigel to ensure that there would be no confusion. Finally being up close and personal to the man, he had to hold back the desire to snatch him up then and there and handle him man to man, forgoing the legalities. But the con called for him to be cool.
The Confident Woman Page 5
