by Aya De León
Tyesha let out an unexpected moan.
“You like that?” he asked. It seemed to bring out the investigative journalist in him. He explored every angle until he found the one that made her moan hardest. And he stroked and stroked until she was gripping his neck and coming hard and delicious.
Then he rolled her onto her back and in a few strokes he was climaxing in an ecstatic shudder.
After he finished and removed the condom, they grinned at each other and laughed.
“I really was not expecting my night to end like this,” Tyesha said.
Drew shrugged. “As a journalist, I never know where a story will take me. I just have to be prepared for anything. For example, some journalists might quit at this point in the investigation, but I think there’s more to this story. What do you think?”
“No comment,” Tyesha said, and kissed him, pressing her body against him and feeling him respond.
* * *
In the morning, there was a haze of diffuse light from the window. It looked out onto a brick building several yards away.
She got up to pee. The bathroom had been built out of some sort of pantry. It had only a commode and no sink. The acoustics were so loud, she was sure she would wake Drew up.
But when she walked across to the kitchen sink to wash her hands, he didn’t move. She began to gather her clothes. Her bra strap was tucked under his arm. She tugged it gently and his eyes slowly opened.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said.
“Good morning,” she said. “I’ve gotta get to work.”
“Okay,” he said. “Then we’ll have to do a quick exit interview.”
She laughed.
“So, first the obvious question,” he said. “Were you pleased with the experience and would you be interested in a return visit?”
She pursed her lips and looked up as if concentrating. “I’d have to say . . . yes and yes.”
“Excellent,” he said. “Ah, it turns out that was the only question . . . Oh, wait! Here’s the last one. Will you be my date to Nashonna’s album release party?”
A slow smile spread over her face. “I’d love to.”
Chapter 15
That night, Jody went back to the mobster’s house to see Ivan. Kim and Serena were outside the perimeter in the medical van, monitoring the equipment. Tyesha was dressed as the chauffeur again, with Marisol also in the limo just outside the house.
By Jody’s request, she and Ivan were alone again in the office.
“I don’t know what kind of vodka you had the other night, but I think I blacked out,” he said.
“It’s a special brand of extreme vodka I get distilled just for me,” she said. “And it turned you into an animal. You broke the condom, and when I left here I could hardly walk, you beast. Sorry I left while you were asleep, but my father practically kidnapped me and made me come home. Daddy keeps us girls on a tight leash.”
He laughed. “A beast, huh?”
“So like we agreed, you had your way with me last night, and I’ll have my way with you tonight,” Jody said.
“Sounds good,” he said. “Have your way with me.”
“I enjoy a little role play,” she said, jiggling the communicator in her ear.
“I like it,” he said. “What’s the game?”
“Cops and robbers,” she said. “This room is perfect. So you be the robber, and I’ll be the cop.”
She walked around looking behind the paintings.
“Oh my god, a real safe!” she squealed. “Okay.” She dug in her oversized purse. “Here, put on this hoodie and ski mask.”
As he put them on, she slowly peeled off her coat, revealing a fetish cop outfit. A large badge was pinned to a navy blue, low-cut mini dress. Garter belt straps peeked out from beneath the short skirt. Thigh-high stockings disappeared into stiletto boots. She put a cap on her head.
“I can’t wait to get arrested,” he said.
“I can’t wait to lock you up,” she said, licking her lips.
“So do you just come in while I’m trying to crack the safe?” he asked, turning the dial.
“No,” she said. “That’s too simple. We need a jewel box. So you can try to bribe me.”
From her purse, she handed him an L-shaped box inside a Ziploc bag.
“So I’ll walk in and say freeze, and you walk away from the safe with the box,” she instructed. “Halfway across the room, you pull off your mask. Then you come and lay the jewels at my feet, and you beg me for mercy.”
“Are you gonna show me any?” he asked.
She smiled deviously. “Not a shred,” she said.
He grinned and lowered the ski mask.
“And . . . action!” Jody said.
He turned from the safe, put the painting back up.
“Hold it right there,” Jody said.
He turned and walked toward her.
In her ear, Tyesha’s voice crackled. “We can’t see the gun. Have him hold it up higher.”
“Stop,” Jody said. “That’s no way to present a bribe. Offer it to me like a tease. Come on, try it again.”
He tried a second time, and waved it back and forth.
“That looks ridiculous,” Tyesha said in Jody’s ear.
“You just don’t get it,” Jody said. “This is not turning me on at all.”
“Just tell me what I should do,” he said.
“You need to get into the mood,” she insisted. “You’ve stolen some jewels, and they’re priceless. You need to be smug about it. You’re gonna get away with it. You’re gonna bribe this cop and then fuck her. Jody reached under the tiny skirt of the cop outfit and pulled off the thong.
Ivan’s eyes widened, and he grinned.
“Yes!” she said. “Like that. Methodical. Cocky. You’re gonna get away with everything.”
This time, he took it slowly. He set the bag on the desk as he put the painting back in place.
“Freeze!” she said, pointing the gun at him. “Or I’ll shoot.”
“You won’t shoot me,” he said through the mask.
Slowly, he picked up the bag off the desk and walked toward her. Halfway across the floor he pulled off his mask. His face, a picture of confidence.
He walked across to where she stood and opened the jewel box, laying the sparkling necklace and earrings at her feet.
“Great work, Jody,” Tyesha said in her ear. “We got the visuals.”
“Diamonds?” she asked. “Too predictable. I think I need to interrogate you.”
She took off his clothes, pulled up a chair, and handcuffed him to it. Out of her purse, she pulled a towel and a packet of lube and started to give him a hand job.
“Where’s the rest of the loot hidden?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“You better tell me,” she said. “Or you’ll be locked up for life.”
“Are you the jailer?” he asked.
“Don’t get cute with me,” she said.
She squeezed him tighter and he moaned.
“Say ‘I take what I feel like,’” she instructed.
“I take what I feel like,” he panted.
“Louder.”
“I take what I feel like!”
“Now I’m gonna make you say uncle.”
“Uncle,” he croaked.
“Louder!”
She pumped furiously.
“Uncle! Uncle!”
As the spasm of his orgasm began to subside, she discreetly pulled the Taser from her boot. She turned it down to the lowest setting and tased him, turning it up at the end.
“Oh my god,” he said. “I’ve never come that hard.”
“Now it’s time for you to do me,” she said, unzipping her dress.
“Sure, baby,” he said. “Just let me . . . God, I can hardly move.”
“Come on,” she said. “I’m ready.”
“No, seriously,” he said. “I can’t really . . . I might need a doctor.”
“T
hat’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard,” Jody said. “You rich boys are so lazy.”
She gathered up her things, including the handcuffs. “I knew I shouldn’t slum at the kids’ table.”
She walked out, leaving him spent and liquid on the chair.
She slipped into the hallway and zipped up her dress.
“Okay,” Jody said into her communicator. “He’s incapacitated and out of view of the camera.”
“Got it,” Tyesha said.
The plan was for Tyesha and Marisol to pull out the box they had used to hack the video feed. When they had finished, Jody would stagger out, like she was blackout drunk, and nearly pass out in the front hallway. Tyesha would bang on the front door and Jody would have to be carried out by the guards. This would create the needed distraction while Marisol reconnected the live video feed.
Tyesha and Marisol had just slipped out of the limo when all three women heard Kim in their ears.
“Heads up! Looks like the uncle is back early.”
Marisol scurried back into the limo. “Jody, get out of there fast,” she said.
“His car just sped past us,” Serena said.
Jody put on her bored-rich-girl face and breezed out past security. They were watching sports and barely noticed. Tyesha, dressed as the chauffeur, came out to open the limo door.
“Serena!” Tyesha said, as she made a show of guiding Jody into the limo. “How do we get out of here?”
“Hold on,” Serena said. “I think I’ll be able to jam the gate lock. That ought to slow them down.”
“Good,” Tyesha said. “I’ll move the car to a more secure location, and we can sneak out later.”
“Plus, you still need to get the hack box,” Serena added.
Tyesha maneuvered the long car down the driveway and around a bend, out of sight of the guards, then she turned off the road and hid the car in a clump of trees.
“This is a huge fucking car,” Jody said. “Can they see us here?”
“I hope not,” Tyesha said. “Let them in, Serena. We’re as hidden as we’re gonna get.”
Tyesha, Marisol, and Jody hunkered down to wait. A moment later, a large Hummer sped past them up to the house.
“I don’t think they noticed us,” Marisol said.
The three women sat in the limo, ears straining for sounds. But once the motor of the Hummer was shut off, the whole property was quiet.
“So here’s what I think we need to do,” Tyesha said. “Serena, you can open the gate, right?”
“Sure,” she said. “But once you take out the hacker box, the system won’t let the car back out.”
“It won’t let the car out,” Tyesha said. “But what about a person on foot?”
“Once it locks, it won’t open back up,” Serena said.
“We could jam it,” Kim said. “We used to jam the gate at our high school with a trash can.”
“We don’t have a trash can,” Jody said.
“We have the limo’s spare tire,” Tyesha said. “We can do this. Jody’s the fastest runner. Can you talk her through getting the hacker box out?”
“Sure,” Serena said.
“Perfect,” Tyesha said. “She can get the hacker box while Marisol and I drive the limo out.”
“I can’t pick a lock for shit,” Jody said.
“Fine,” Tyesha said. “Jody and I can get the hacker box while Marisol drives the limo out.”
“I can’t drive,” Marisol said.
“Fucking New Yorkers,” Tyesha complained. “Jody, you drive. Marisol, you and I get the box.”
Jody moved into the front of the limo. She dropped Tyesha and Marisol on the road on the way out.
The two women crept up along the dark gravel drive. The trees on either side towered over them in dark, hulking silhouettes.
When they rounded the curve, they could see the bright windows of the mansion in the distance. There were three cars parked in front, all dark and quiet.
The walk would have taken only a few minutes at full speed, but the two women moved silently along the soft earth beside the gravel drive. It took about ten minutes. As they walked, Tyesha reached into the small tool case that hung from her waist. She pulled out two pairs of latex gloves, and they both put them on.
“But we still need to create a distraction for when the live video feed goes back online,” Marisol said.
“I don’t know if this’ll help,” Jody said, “but the guards were watching sports.”
“What sport were they watching in July?”
“Let me look it up,” Serena said.
“It wasn’t in English,” Jody said. “So it wasn’t baseball. And the World Cup is over.”
“Cricket!” Serena said. “Ukraine is playing against New Zealand.”
“Pull up the game,” Marisol said. “That’ll have to be our best distraction.”
When they approached the box, Tyesha handed Marisol the lock picks and she got to work opening it.
With one hand, Tyesha shone a tiny penlight so Marisol could work. With her other hand, she turned on the camera function of her phone so Serena could access the video remotely.
“Got it,” Serena said. “The feed is clear.”
A moment later, Marisol’s tool clicked and the box was open.
A loud cheer erupted from the guards inside the house. Marisol dropped the lock picks. Tyesha nearly dropped the toolbox.
The two women caught their breath, and Marisol held the flashlight and the phone, while Tyesha followed Serena’s directions.
“First snip the blue wires, but do it above the splice,” she instructed.
Tyesha carefully made the cut with the pair of clippers. Serena directed her to make a few more snips and they pulled the hack box free.
“Now this is the delicate part,” Serena said. “Reconnecting the real feed.”
“What are the exciting moments in cricket?” Marisol asked.
“I wish Lily was here,” Tyesha said. “She’s West Indian. She’d know.”
The two of them stood still for what seemed to be half an hour. Both of them breathed shallowly, alert for any sign that they needed to run for it.
They heard another explosion of yelling from the guard room.
“Looks like Ukraine is about to score,” Serena said. “Get ready!”
Tyesha and Marisol prepared to reconnect the feed wires.
“Now!” Serena said.
They reconnected the wires just as a whoop of triumph rang out from the house.
Marisol locked the box back up, and the two women began running down the driveway toward the entry gate.
Their descent was much louder than their climb up. The air rang with the slapping footfalls of their soft-soled shoes on the moist ground.
For a moment, that was the only sound, punctuated by the occasional distant sound of a car engine. But then they heard another sound—distant at first—the bark of a dog.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tyesha asked.
First one bark and then several.
“Dogs!” Marisol yelled into her communicator.
“Where?” Jody asked.
The two women ran faster, the rhythm of their thudding footsteps hitting double-time.
“Don’t . . . know . . .” Tyesha panted.
“We’re on it!” Kim said.
They came around the bend in the road and could see the front entrance. Off to the far right, they could also hear the distant sounds of the dogs, the deep, resonant barks of canines with thick bodies and locking jaws.
Then the medical van drove up, its headlights swinging in a wide arc to shine on the oncoming dogs. There were three of them, Rottweilers, coming at a dead run. The van turned its brightest headlights shining toward the dogs, temporarily blinding them, and they slowed a bit.
Kim ran up to the chain-link fence and began to rattle it to get the dogs’ attention. The pack turned on her and threw themselves against the fence, barking and snarling.
Mea
nwhile, Tyesha and Marisol came down toward the gate. As they had planned, the limo’s spare tire was jammed into the gate.
Just outside, Jody stood by the limo, the rear door open.
Marisol and Tyesha leaped over the tire and began trying to pull it free.
“It’s stuck!” Tyesha yelled, and Jody ran to help.
The commotion had gotten the attention of the dogs, and they turned from Kim to the three women at the gate.
The three of them tugged on the tire, but it was awkward. The force of the gate had pressed into the tire and wedged it deep.
As the dogs began running toward them, Tyesha reached into the tool belt.
“Step back!” she yelled. “I’m gonna slash it.”
The dogs were nearly to the gate.
Jody and Marisol jumped clear, and Tyesha put one arm around the tire and pulled. With the other arm, she jammed the utility knife into the tire. It burst and she fell to the ground. The gate slammed shut, and all three dogs crashed against the metal, snarling and barking.
Marisol helped Tyesha up, while Jody grabbed the deflated tire, and the three of them leaped into the limo, Tyesha and Marisol gasping for air in the backseat.
“I—fucking—hate—dogs,” Tyesha said.
“Speaking of,” Jody said. “Your phone has been blowing up with calls from Woof.”
“Like I said,” Tyesha wheezed. “I fucking. Hate. Dogs.”
* * *
The following night, Tyesha was sitting on the couch, reading over the latest press release from the strippers’ union. She had been working in her room and had noticed the orchid out in her window box. She closed the curtain, but could still feel it out there, like it was watching her. If she left it out there long enough, it would just die of natural causes.
She had just relocated to the living room when the phone rang. It was Woof. Again. She planned to ignore it, but Deza saw his name and picked it up.
“Tyesha Couvillier’s phone,” she said in a secretary voice. “Deza speaking. Yes, she’s right here.”
For the first time, Tyesha regretted not telling Deza about the breakup, but she took the phone.
“What’s up?” she asked, walking into the bedroom.
“Still trying to apologize,” he said. “Like I said in my fifteen messages. I thought about what you said, and I called my agent to see if I could get out of the Car Willis contract. I even contacted my attorney. I realize now that I was wrong, but they already announced it and started the PR machinery.”
