Innocent Milf

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

I had the private eye trapped under my knee; Samantha had already grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom and picked it up, stowing it in the hotel room's safe. I nodded approvingly at her quick thinking. Ty closed the door behind him and locked it, while Cary and Carla pulled some thin robes on to cover themselves somewhat. Cary still held the champagne bottle upside-down like a club in one hand, ready to brain the intruder if necessary.

"Jesus Christ, kid," the guy gasped in pain into the carpet. "Let me up. I'm not gonna do anything."

I slowly released pressure from him, ready to snap anything I needed to if he made a sudden move. Probably feeling my adrenaline-fueled tremors, the private eye wisely chose to move slowly towards a chair, rubbing his wrist and moving his arm in ginger, experimental circles. Now that I wasn't concerned about catching him or keeping him from shooting me or Cary, I took a moment to look him over.

Dressed in black slacks, a white dress shirt with a black tie, and a maroon vest, he looked close enough to one of the hotel staff here that he could easily have been mistaken for one of them at a distance. Luckily, Ty had hand-picked the staff to be working at this event, and had paid enough to ensure that nobody else would even be on this floor except to enter or leave the building.

It was very convenient to have a rich friend.

Before he could speak, Sami grabbed the camera on the nightstand and took several pictures of him. He winced. "Whaddya wanna do that for?"

"Evidence. You've been following us for more than a year," I said flatly, by way of opening salvo. "What were you trying to find?"

The guy raised an eyebrow. "Nice to meet you too, Mister Baker. Miss Bernham."

Cary tugged her light robe closer around her cleavage, not ready to put down her improvised weapon quite yet. "Awfully polite for a dirtbag who made our lives miserable for over a year," she snapped. "I should crack this over your skull just on principle."

"My name's Jerrod, by the way," the man continued. "And don't blame me; I just do the job. Do you get mad at the rainclouds because you forgot to bring an umbrella?"

I snorted. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. How often do you actually have to be face-to-face with the people whose lives you're paid to make worse?"

An insouciant shrug punctuated his response. "People who have nothing to be ashamed of don't have anything to hide from me. I just follow people around in their day-to-day lives and take pictures. Harmless. It's basically just journalism for an audience of one."

"Bullshit. We should get my friend Aaron in here and see how harmless he thinks it is that you sneaked around our dorm and took pictures of him screwing his girlfriend," I seethed. "If you have any teeth left afterwards, you can apologize with a lisp."

"Really, that wasn't you?" Jerrod seemed surprised. "Well, whatever. I had a bad angle."

"I'm pretty sure posing as a bellhop to invade their room and snap some dirty pictures is an invasion of privacy. And I bet the hotel would have some opinions about that as well. Prosecutable opinions, maybe." Ty lounged against the door. "Should I call security down here?"

Jerrod lifted his head a fraction of an inch defiantly. "You're not going to call the policeorsecurity. You want something."

Cary immediately picked up the phone and started dialing.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jerrod took a step in her direction and immediately ran into my arm. He shot me a dirty look, but stayed where he was. "Okay, fine. Let's talk. What do you want?"

"Leve us alone," I said. "Get rid of anything you have on us--you know it's mostly fabricated, anyway. Eric paid you to find proof that we were cheating on each other, and you made it up with tricky camera angles and half-truths."

"Prove it." He sounded so like Eric for a moment, I almost slugged him. Instead, I took a deep breath. "He sent us your reports, asshole. And your pictures."

Jerrod started. "Hewhat?" He sighed. "That idiot. Okay, so you know what I was doing. Big deal. It's what guys like me do."

Ty sniffed. "Not without a car."

"What?"

"We found your car." Ty smiled nastily. "A white '89 Chevy Cavalier, right? Bumper sticker that says 'Proud Soccer Mom.'"

Jerrod swallowed. "Notmycar."

Ty sighed with mock relief. "Man, that's good news. You won't care that I just had it towed to an impound lot, then."

"Comeon," frustration clear in his voice, Jerrod crossed his arms. "You guys must be new at this--usually I get roughed up a little first.Thenpeople start asking me questions. You're just telling me stuff I already know. And yeah, fine. It's my car. Don't do anything to it, okay?"

Ty's cellular phone rang, and he punched a button on its face. I could barely hear Sascha's voice emanating from it, tinny and distorted. Ty nodded seriously as she spoke, and then smiled. "Perfect," he answered. "I have some updates for you. We caught the guy, and his wallet says his name is Samuel Jerrod Micklesen. Would you mind doing some of your computer wizardry and finding out if he has a home page on the world wide web?"

"How the fuck did you get my--" Jerrod bit his own tongue, looking pale. "Okay, I'm getting the idea that I should just cut my losses, here. You folks clearly don't want me in your business."

Cary's grip on the bottle was white and shaking. "Is it just your business to drug women and put them in compromising situations?" Her voice only shook a little.

"Look, look," Jerrod stuttered. "I didn'tdrugyou, exactly." He glanced at Cary. "Not like anything dangerous like heroin or anything. It was just a couple of little pills to make you feel relaxed. And those two guys were personal friends. I can vouch--"

Smack!Samantha had crossed the room so fast, I barely saw her. Her punch spun Jerrod's head halfway around. "You son of a bitch!" she snarled. "You rotten piece of shit!" I was so filled with white-hot hate, all I could do was breathe to keep from ripping the asshole apart.

A few weeks ago, we had already gotten part of the story from Gina. She had owed some back-rent on her portion of the dance studio earlier in the year, and Eric had approached her with some money and an apparently earnest request to help his "good friend Cary get back in the game." Gina had bought it hook, line, and sinker. It wasn't until Cary called her back up and pretended to have concerns about having caught something from one of the guys that Gina came clean and said that it had been set up.

From there, we had returned to the bar and asked to see security footage. Cary made it clear that she was thinking of bringing legal action for being 'roofied.' Since that term was suddenly in the news all over the place, the bar owners obliged and we had found suspicious--but not conclusive evidence--that one of the two guys she had danced with had put something in one of the drinks Gina brought. We also saw the missing ten minutes of footage, showing Gina leaving within the first minute or so of leading Cary in.

We had strong suspicions, but nothing certain--until just now. Sami massaged her knuckles, still flushed with anger. Jerrod rubbed his jaw. "You guys keep pushing me, I might start pushing back," he growled. "You're lucky I don't hit women." He leered at all three of them. "Even slutty women."

I breathed out. "You just admitted to drugging my girlfriend so your two friends could rape her." I held up a hand. "And spare me your protests--if a lady doesn't know what she's agreeing to because she's not in her right mind, then it's close enough. If you feel like pushing back, I'm ready to let some of my aggression out."

Our hotel phone rang. Cary picked it up, looking livid. "Hello?" She waited for a moment. "Got it, thank you, Sash." She turned to me and Ty. "Clear Conscience Investigations," she said.

Jerrod started to make for the door. "This is bullshit. You can't terrorize me just for doing my job."

I barred his way, ready to throw him into the wall face-first. Cary sidestepped behind me to back me up, fists balled. "Make it easy for me, shithead. You think the police will believe that the guy who tried to sneak into our room with a gun disguised as an employee while we were all dressed likethisis the victim?" I was shaking, I was so angry. "We have your picture, and we're going to take out an ad in the paper showing everybody who you are. And put it online so everybody recognizes you. Your car is getting turned into a scrap heap, we're deleting your business web page, and with one phone call, your office goes up in flames." That last part was nonsense, but he didn't know that.

"Fuck." Jerrod ran his hands through his hair. "Okay, you've got me up against a wall. I'll leave you alone. For good."

Ty nodded. "Yeah, you will. Because I have a name to whisper in your ear." He leaned forward and said something so quiet none of us could hear.

Jerrod, however, turned even paler and abruptly plopped down on the floor. "Christ. Really?"

Ty nodded, his gaze steely. "Try me. I'm a spoiled rich kid who's never heard 'no.' I can buy my way out of any trouble you think you can bring. And that name will make sure you disappear to a private prison in Singapore for the rest of your natural life. If you'relucky. Got it?"

Jerrod nodded shakily. "I'll fucking kill him," he muttered after a moment. "Getting me mixed up in something like this."

"Eric?" I prodded.

He nodded again. "Yeah. Look, I'm gone. You'll never even see my shadow again. But listen, he's really got it out for you. He was asking me about 'underworld contacts.' Like in a goddamn movie. I don't know what he's planning, but it's not good. He's terrified that you know about his little adventure in Sacramento."

Cary frowned in puzzlement, but I stood up straighter. "The Asian hookers," I said. "Idoknow." I hoped I sounded convincing, because that was the entirety of my knowledge.

Jerrod sighed. "Good for you, I guess. Then you know why he's so worked up. Nobody wants to go to prison, especially notthatway. Do you know what they do to pedophiles in there?"

The word bounced around my head like a ping-pong ball.Oh my God. What had Eric done in Sacramento? And what was he willing to do to keep his horrible secret? Anxiety swirled around in my brain. I spun to Cary. "The kids--you can't ever send them back to him!"

Cary was already stepping into my arms, face contorted in worry. I was doubly glad that the kids had been left with Jennifer this weekend. For a long moment, we just held each other, trying to calm our breathing. This new information changed a lot, and we would need to take some extra steps to protect the kids from Eric, now. Probably legally-tedious and drawn-out steps.

Jerrod sat dumbly in front of us while we held each other. He sagged a little. "Fuck.Fuck."

I turned a molten glare on him. "Not so easy when you know your victims have real lives and personalities, is it?"

He ran his hands through dishwater-brown hair. "You know, Ididsort of like you guys. I even tried to help." It sounded desperate.

"Help?" Cary's voice was ice to my fiery fury.

"He wanted to hire some guys to beat the shit out of you," he looked at me. "Woodley did. But I convinced him it would be better to just push you two apart. Make it look like you had cheated." He grinned weakly. "You still have all of your teeth because of me."

I tried and failed to keep the enraged tremor from my voice. "I would rather have been beaten to a pulp. Get the fuck out of here." I turned my back on him. "And look at us--we're stronger than ever. Strong enough to survive everything you and Eric threw at us. You can't touch us."

"You sure have a lot of friends," he said as he slouched towards the door. As an afterthought, he added, "Keep the gun. In case Woodley tries somethingreallystupid. If one of you has to die, I hope it's him."

And then he was gone.

I suddenly really needed to pee. Instead, I kissed Cary. She leaned into me, breathing heavily. I looked over her head at Ty. "Dude, yousavedus. That could have gotten ugly really fast." I cocked my head. "What did you say to him?"

Ty laughed uncertainly. "The name of a guy who got a really good deal on a car from my dad. I think he's part of some Chinese organized crime outfit."

"Your dad does business with mobsters?" I asked, thunderstricken.

Ty shook his head. "Nah, not on purpose. Dad's clueless. I just watched enough spy and crime movies to be suspicious. I never really knew for certain until this guy nearly just pissed himself at the name. Now I'm pretty sure." He came over and enveloped me and Cary in a big hug. "I'm so happy to have helped you guys. I've wanted you to succeed ever since you came to my graduation party."

"Speaking of which." Carla stood up from where she had been sitting silently on the bed. "We have long-unfinished business, and this intrigue has gotten me all sorts of horny. Are you sticking around, Ty?"

Ty laughed. "Nope. This is still the birthday boy's day." He clapped me on the back. "Enjoy your night, man."

Cary pressed herself against me. "I think I need a lot of cuddling right now." She suddenly smiled up at me. "I... I know this sounds crazy. And I'm probably going to have to talk to my therapist about it for hours. But I'm relieved. I wasn't imagining things, and it wasn't all my fault!"

Samantha came up to us and touched Cary's cheek, and--very tentatively--mine. "You two," she said. "You really belong together. And you've overcome so much."

Carla stepped towards us. "Are we group-hugging? Because I could do with some of that before we get down to business. That was all pretty intense." She reached over and caressed my shoulders. I turned a quizzical gaze to Cary, who simply smiled. "How did you get that guy to come here, anyway?" Carla added.

I smiled grimly. "Cary's ex-husband had been stealing her mail. He didn't know that we knew. So I sent a fake letter to Cary about how I planned to get all drugged up and have an orgy for my 21stbirthday, but that we had to keep itsuperquiet, or she might lose custody of her kids."

"He doesn't evenwantto look after the kids," Cary grumbled. "He's too busy trying to get some poor Russian mail-order bride stuck here with him. He just wanted to take something away from me. Anyway, we knew that if we made this sound salacious enough, Eric would try to get the private eye to come take some pictures for proof."

Carla's expression was one of shock. "Wow. And I thought thatTywas the spy-geek. You guys really had this setup perfectly figured."

I frowned, still slightly perplexed. "How didyouget here, anyway? You're nearly the last person I expected to see when I walked into this room."

Carla smiled. "I went to get some artwork for my new house, and Sascha recommended this nice little gallery downtown. Imagine my surprise when I turned around a corner from looking at some sculptures and saw a painting of The One that Got Away as a Greek god on the wall!"

Cary giggled, hugging me close. "She means theStorm Godpiece. You saw part of it: I started painting the study for it just before our lovely Christmas together. And the finished piece was part of a series. I didn't mean to make it look so much like you--it just sort of happened. I hope you don't mind."

I kissed Cary's forehead and rolled my eyes.

Carla tossed her head, golden hair shining. "I bought it, of course, but then I wanted to meet the artist. They told me she was on sabbatical, but they'd contact me when she was available."

"Which was about three weeks ago," Cary added, "right after I finally went back to work. If you thinkyouwere surprised, Carla, guess howIfelt when you came strutting into my office, all glamorous and curvy and successful. Twenty-four and already perusing fine art galleries to decorate your house!"

A pretty blush crept across Carla's cheeks. "Well. Of course, it was a little bit of a surprise to find out that 'Jane' from Ty's party a few years ago was actually 'Cary' and that she was a smoking-hot cougar instead of a new college grad like me. We had coffee, and she explained everything about you two. Of course, once I knew that a threesome was on the table, I wanted in."

Cary was also blushing. "I talked it over with Samantha first. After all, the threesome was her idea to begin with. And I didn't want to distract from anything she had planned."

Samantha snorted and glanced over at me, speaking conspiratorially. "I had nearly given up the idea. But Cary was so insistent on the notion of giving you a birthday present that nobody else could that I suddenly got excited about it again. And getting to make out with youanda hot stranger? It seemed too good to be true."

I smiled tentatively. "My thoughts exactly. Are you sure you're okay with thismon amour?"

Carla grinned and murmured "Ooh, French," while Cary took me by the hand and led me to the corner. She leaned against me and started to speak quietly and privately into my ear while the other two women stepped back to give us a respectful distance. After all, emotions were running high; this had been a roller-coaster of a night.

"I want this," she whispered. "I want to give this to you. And to myself. The first night of our relationship was spent pushing limits--I want to see what's beyond those limits. You and I are going to stay together for a long time, right? I want the last time I that I'm with more than one person to have been with you and people I trust--not a pair of hired creeps who roofied me."

I stroked her hair. "Being with you is always really great. And you've been looking super hot all night. I just want to make sure that we're all doing this for the right reasons."

Cary grinned and bobbled her breasts up and down. "The 'right reasons' at the moment are that I want to get screwed silly by you and have some naughty fun. We just beat the private dick! Now I want to celebrate with some of my own."

I smirked. "Jeez. How long have you been waiting to usethatline?" I kissed her. "You're clever. Give me a minute and I'll be ready to go."

I could barely piss due to my raging erection.

When I got back out of the bathroom, the girls had already started without me. Cary was between the two other women sitting on the bed, partially reclined. They all seemed to be shyly working out who wanted to do what; Carla was kissing lightly on Cary's stomach and rolling her own robe off her shoulders. Samantha was slowly working her hands over Cary's shoulders in a sort of massage. For her part, Cary had her arms lightly curled around each of the other women's hips, drawing them to her.

I took a few steps toward them in my boxers, trying to figure out where I would fit in. Cary looked up at my approach and grinned. "Come here, love. We're just getting warmed up." She extended an inviting hand. As I took it, she pulled me close and laid my hand on her chest. "We already discussed some ground rules between us. I think we're good."

"Anything I should know?" I grinned back.

Carla spoke up, very business-like. "Use protection. No butt stuff for me tonight. No slapping or choking."

I had a brief flashback to my single intense S&M session with Sally, and shook my head vigorously. "That won't be a problem. Been there, done that. Not interested."

Samantha fiddled with the drawstring of her translucent yellow babydoll negligee. "Same for me. IguessI could do butt stuff tonight if you really wanted, but I usually need a little more time to prepare." I was still more than a little astounded to hear this lady I thought of as just Cary's friend speaking so frankly about having sex with me in a minute.