Sexual Persuasion (21 page)

“Nor am I.”
Tom waved at the monitor. Davidson slipped into the Presidential Suite, checking the hallway before he closed the door. Alex glanced at his watch. “Nothing like being half an hour early to make sure everything’s working and he’s ready.” Alex felt better that Charlotte didn’t have to spend more than an hour with the dirtbag. He hoped she’d get up to the room without any problems.

Davidson got in the shower when a knock sounded on Alex’s door. He checked the peephole.
Charlotte. She darted inside the room when he opened the door. He kissed her. “This is Charlotte Stone,” Alex said. “Tom Scruggs. He’s the genius behind the filming. Charlotte distracted Jack in the bar while I went through the lobby.”

“Good work.
Nice to meet you, Charlotte.”

“Pleasure’s mine.” She glanced at the monitor. “Well, look at that. Jack shaved his genitals. That’s a new one.”

Alex knew she meant he’d never done that for her. Something told him that Jack’s date for the night did no such thing. Jack dried himself with one of the Regent’s fluffy white towels and splashed on cologne. He primped like a teenager going out on a first date.

“Dapper guy,” Tom whispered. “Wonder who he thinks he’s going to get it on with.”

“Me,” Alex said.

Charlotte
knew, but Tom seemed genuinely surprised. He studied Alex. A smile curled his lips. “I take it you have something else planned.”

“Oh, do
I.”

Tom stifled a laugh. “Man, you are Satan himself.”

“Sometimes it takes a crook to catch one.” He glanced at Charlotte. “Or maybe the better phrase would be, fight fire with fire.”

Tom put a finger across his lips and pointed to the screen. “
Shh.”

Everyone hovered close to the monitor.

Jack opened the painting on his side of the wall and checked the equipment. “Camera working; DVD rolling. Now for the main event,” he said aloud.

Then he said something that caused Tom to look at the two people in the room.

“I told you, Charlotte. You’ll see.”

Charlotte
drew a hand to her mouth. Alex smiled. Tom shrugged and turned back to the monitor. No one spoke.

The fourth floor of the Regent housed the most expensive rooms, and the rich demanded them when they stayed there. Others had been caught in stings―a New York governor, for one. But no one would see this tape except the people involved. At least Alex hoped not. Because if they did, the whole mess would be out in the open, and
there’d be no stopping the fallout. He relied on Jack’s common sense to keep it private, although Alex silently admitted that common sense wasn’t one of Jack’s attributes. If common sense didn’t prevail, he hoped Jack had a better grip on his quality of life.

Five minutes to ten.
A rap on the door. “Showtime,” Tom said.

Jack slicked back his hair in the mirror, ran his finger across his teeth, and popped a mint into his mouth. He opened the door. A huge, tattooed muscleman shot through the opening before Jack could close it. The guy looked like a Hell’s Angel. Decked out in black leather pants, a sleeveless leather vest, studded collar, and a bandanna tied around his head, he had enough hair covering his arms and poking out of the vest to be mistaken for a bear. A bulging backpack hung from his shoulders.

“I’m Rip Cord,” he said. “Mr. Andros sent me.”

Icing on the Cake

Charlotte fell on the bed and smothered her laugh in a pillow. Tom stared at the monitor. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and plastered it across his mouth to stifle a chuckle that otherwise would be heard down the hall. “Jesus. Where the hell did you find him?”

“He’s a friend of Max’s.”

“Jack sure didn’t need to shave,” Charlotte said.

They all hovered, magnetized in front of the monitor. When Tom had control of his emotions, he said, “From what I see going on, Davidson will want to burn his DVD, and I don’t mean burn to make a copy.”

“He’s filming this?” Charlotte asked.

“Yup.
He wants to prove to you I’m gay, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to do it.”

She moved closer. Cord had opened his backpack and extracted all kinds of kinky sex toys. “Well, then. He’s getting what he deserves, isn’t he?” She zeroed in on the monitor. “Hmm, maybe this isn’t punishment after all.”

Alex checked too. “They’re talking about the toys. After Jack’s initial reticence, I think he might enjoy this. Anyway, the disk won’t be there when he goes to get it.”

Tom swiveled around. “Then he’ll know someone’s tampered with the system.”

Alex felt one side of his mouth raise in a half smile. “Exactly.”

“Woo-
hoo. Is he going to be pissed. You promised him you, and he got Sasquatch instead.” Tom reached over and fiddled under the bottom of the painting. “Double-checking I locked it.”

Alex put his arm around
Charlotte. “I really debated letting you in on this. Now you see what an evil person I am.”

“I hate to admit it,” she said, “but I like th
is part of you. What does that make me?”

“Evil.
Everyone should have a little evil in them.”

“Count me in,” Tom said.

Alex needed some luck to pull off a clean escape. Not too much to ask of a distracted man who’d survived the sexual experience of his life. “I hope you’re right. I’d hate to have to face him after what he’s going through.”

Alex took another look at the screen.

“Well, how about that? I wouldn’t worry, though. Davidson won’t press charges. Not with this video as a bargaining chip.”

Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s all about trade-offs, isn’t it, Alex?”

Alex exchanged glances with Charlotte. He liked this more adventurous side of her. Tweaking her bottom, he relished the smile she returned. “Sure is.”

The sounds coupling with the video brought a smile to Alex’s face. “Jesus, look at that. Cord’s a little rough; I could almost feel sorry for the guy.” Then he thought of what Jack had done to
Charlotte and caught her looking back at him with a frown. “Almost, but not quite.”

“It’d be a better payback if Jack wasn’t enjoying it so much,” Tom said.

“Oh, there’s more payback to come. Lots more.” Alex plopped down on the bed and closed his eyes. Charlotte and Tom kept a vigil on the monitor.

Tom took a drink of the beer he had in front of him. “I’ve never been a voyeur, but this is fascinating stuff. And you’re right. Davidson isn’t putting up much of a fight. Not that he’s a match for this guy.”

“Cord used to wrestle.”

“Jeez, I remember him. Wasn’t he the one who accidentally killed another wrestler?”

“That’s him. Max is using him in the spread for the magazine about bikers and their babes. Cord’s babe is a six-feet-five wrestler named Tiny. Should be an interesting issue.”

Charlotte laughed. “You’re serious?”

“Yup.”

Tom buried his mouth in the crook of his arm and broke up, but Alex noted he hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen. Tom listened through a headset, and his expression ranged between disbelief, amusement, and disgust. After an hour, he waved to Alex, who’d given up and was talking to
Charlotte on the bed.

“Sasquatch is getting ready to leave. He’s collecting his toys and putting them in his backpack. Damn, Cord’s making another appointment, and he’s not taking no for an answer.”

“Max said…” He shrugged at Charlotte. “We’ll, never mind what Max said.” Tom looked like he really wanted to know, but Alex asked, “What’s Davidson doing?”

“Come look. He’s spread out on the bed, panting hard, shaking his head. He looks exhausted.”

Charlotte zeroed in. “Sheesh, his dick’s flopped to the side, the size of a Vienna sausage. That is so un-Jack.”

Alex got up to look at the same time someone tapped on the door.

“That must be Jeannie.” Tom glanced through the peephole and opened the door. He yanked her inside before Cord came out of the Presidential Suite and saw her.

Jeannie Day looked like a cross between Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie. Her designer clothes fit as if they were made for her tall, elegant figure. Alex could see why Tom used her for this particular job. No one at the Regent would stop a woman who looked like her, even as she picked the lock to Davidson’s office.

“How’d it go?” Tom asked.

Jeannie looked around, settling her gaze on
Charlotte. “Piece of cake. The jerk had the combination to the safe taped under his desk drawer. Not very original. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found one inside or under a mark’s desk.”

“Jeannie Day, Alex Andros and Charlotte Stone.”

Alex extended his hand, and Jeannie latched on. “Nice to meet you, Alex.” She looked him up and down. “Very nice. You too, Charlotte,” she said with barely a glance.

“Likewise,”
Charlotte said, but she didn’t look at all pleased.

Jeannie pulled a cloth shopping bag out of a large, expensive-looking satchel and handed it to Alex. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Alex took the bag, peeked at the contents, then extracted an envelope from his inside jacket pocket. “I believe so. Good work. This is what Tom quoted me. You can count it.”

“I trust you.”

Alex didn’t look at Charlotte after that comment.

Jeannie dropped the envelope into her satchel. With her gaze fixed on Alex, her intentions were as obvious as a
Bond girl after James himself. Charlotte’s silence echoed inside the room.

“You better stay here until the coast is clear,” Tom said. “Cord is leaving. I imagine Davidson will want to rest for a while.”

Alex checked the monitor. “No, he’ll shower. Maybe even take a bath. Let’s hope he shuts off the recorder and leaves the disk for later. We’ll still have our copy, but I want him to know it’s gone.”

“Hannibal
Lecter could’ve taken lessons from you,” Tom said.

“That the mark?” Jeannie asked, zeroing in on the monitor.

Tom nodded. “He’s just had the experience of a lifetime.”

“What did he do to deserve that guy?”

Alex dug into the shopping bag and removed the folders stuffed with personal information about Davidson’s marks. CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes, obviously from an older setup, were in there too. He took the packet of photographs and flipped through them. Most were taken with a hidden camera. He recognized some of Boston’s rich and famous, along with other celebrities. Some people looked familiar but nameless. Charlotte hung over his shoulder.

“Son of a bitch,” Alex said, looking at her. She winced, grasping his arm in a death grip. Duplicates of the pictures Davidson had taken of her surfaced in the stack, as
they suspected. Alex’s blood heated to a quick boil. “Did you see these pictures?” he asked Jeannie.

She caught
Charlotte’s glare and turned away. “I didn’t have time to go through all of them. Enough to know they were what I was looking for. I assume photographing them is why he’s getting this special treatment.”

Alex scowled looking at the monitor and the exhausted man lying
faceup on the bed. “Yeah, but I’m not finished with him yet.”

“I take it this is…personal,” Jeannie said.

“Very.” The word came out more like a growl.

They watched Cord leave. Davidson strained to get off the bed, grunting as he did. He limped into the bathroom
and ran a bath, as Alex had predicted.

“Looks like he forgot the recorder altogether,” Tom said. He quickly fiddled with the lock, pulled back the painting, and snatched the disk from Davidson’s recorder. “This is what it’s all about.”

Alex nodded. “Yes, it is. Pull your stuff and close up shop.”

“You don’t want to wait until he sees the disk is gone?”

“No. I want to split now. Even though I’d like more than anything to watch his reaction when he finds out he’s been had, it’s too risky to stay. The setup could only come from this room. Can the cameras wait until tomorrow?”

“No problem
,” Tom said quickly disconnecting his video feed. “He won’t find them, and I had no problem getting into the rooms.”

“Good,” Alex said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Tom packed the recorder and monitor in a case.

“He
’ll know it was me, and he’ll figure Cord was in on it, which he wasn’t. The bruiser just wanted to play.” Alex slipped the straps of the grocery bag Jeannie had given him over his shoulder and put his arm around Charlotte. “This is the most dangerous part. Not being seen getting out of the hotel will take a stroke of luck. After Davidson sees the disk is missing, he’ll go to his office to check his safe. We want to be long gone.”

They quickly slunk into the corridor, heading for the stairs to avoid the elevators. They descended the four flights quickly.

Jeannie held something out to Alex when they got to the lobby and out onto the street. “Here’s my card. I’m a security consultant. Call me if you ever need…security.”