“That’s not very nice,” Becka laughed.
“Our ‘oh-so-complimentary’ friend is Sandi.
I’m Becka, and this is Danni and Paige.”
“Are you ladies on vacation?” asked Ramone with his beautiful accent.
Danni started seeing tangled sheets and imagined that she and the sexy Italian were rolling around in the middle of them.
“Actually, we’re here for the pool tournament,” Dannie replied.
“We come out for a week every year and combine it with vacation time.”
“Ah, leave the guys at home, huh?”
Diablo had a wicked gleam in his eyes and Sandi decided he could be fun.
“Nope.
No guys to leave,” Paige smiled.
“Any good offerings in our little town were picked over before high school was out.”
“Where are you from?” asked Arturo.
Chayton was listening to the exchange from the microphone in Arturo’s pocket and decided his boys were doing real well remembering they were not supposed to know anything about the young women, and flirting outrageously.
“Florida,” Paige and Sandi answered together.
“Flat top over there,” Brazil pointed.
With a confused expression, Paige looked up at Arturo.
Arturo smiled mischievously and Paige’s heart melted.
“Go mug the flat top, Brazil.
We’ll be right over.”
As Brazil headed away from the group, the women realized he was referring to an open table.
“Okay, now that’s just mean,” Becka said.
The group was silent for a moment, and then everyone cracked up laughing.
“Why don’t you join us?”
Diablo suggested.
“We can fill you in on all the hidden hot spots on the strip.
If you’ve been coming out here every year, you have to be getting bored with the tourist traps.”
The girls did not need to be asked twice, and almost forgot to remove their players’ cards and collect their vouchers from the poker machines as they bolted towards the table, sitting next to the handsome men they had singled out for themselves.
Diablo borrowed a chair from another table.
“Terrant might be meeting up with us in a while if he can get off work early.
He was filling in for someone, so he’s first off.”
“Can you grab another one?” Becka asked.
“We have a friend who went up to the room to get a sweater.
She should be back in a few minutes.”
Helo watched the girls follow his friends to a table and figured everything was going according to plan, so he began scanning the people leaving the elevator for the fifth girl.
When Helo saw Lindsey follow an older couple out onto the casino floor and head for the bar, his breath caught.
She still wore her tight jeans and had changed into a tan v-neck sweater with three-quarter sleeves.
Her hair was down and swinging across her hips as she unsuspectingly passed by him.
Lindsey did not see her friends at the bar and turned to search the tables.
Her eyes widened.
Holy shit.
They were sitting with four unbelievably good looking men, and Lindsey was frustrated that she missed a shot at one of the guys merely to change into a sweater.
Resolved that she would be the odd girl out again and heading back to the room early, she pasted on a smile and walked over to sit in an empty chair by Becka.
The four men at the table stood when she approached, exchanging surprised looks.
They knew Master Chayton would be pleased.
Helo gave Terrant an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
Seeing Terrant’s grin, he realized the lucky man had already figured out who the mysterious girl number five was.
He winked at Helo as he walked by, and the black man hissed, “Keep your mind on the job, slave.”
“Cool, hey Terrant, over here,” Ramone called.
Danni squirmed every time she heard his lovely accent and was trying to figure out how to get him alone.
It was one of the few times she regretted sharing a room with her teammates.
“He knocked up early, very good,” Brazil noted.
Becka looked up at him and placed her hand on his arm.
“That’s knocked off, Brazil.
He knocked off early.”
Brazil looked down at her with an embarrassed expression and said softly, “My friends, I know they think it is very funny, but my boss does not agree.
He told me I must learn English, and I say to him ‘My friends will help.’”
Becka gave Arturo a dirty look.
“Well, if you slip up, I’ll let you know, okay?
I don’t think it’s very funny to get you in trouble with your boss, either.”
Brazil smiled and leaned closer to her.
“Thank you, Becka.
I do not mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”
When Helo joined Chayton at the limo, he watched as the Master listened to the conversation at the table with intense interest.
After Brazil’s exchange with Becka, he smiled.
“Master, she’s going to be pissed off when she finds out he speaks perfect English,” Helo noted.
“Becka’s their leader, Helo, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist helping him.
She has an analytical mind and I needed a way to distract her from thinking too much about a chance meeting with perfect men, in perfect numbers.”
Chayton had planned this out months ago and had researched former boyfriends and dates the girls had been on, to determine which of his men would attract which woman…except the wild card.
Resigned to the bad news, he asked Helo, “How bad is number five?”
Helo’s smile spread across his dark face.
“Master, she is the pick of the litter.”
Chayton visibly relaxed and said, “We’d better move up front.
They should be heading out soon.”
Helo got behind the wheel with his Master in the front passenger seat.
With the tinted windows, divider between the seats, and their escorts distracting them, the women probably would not notice the second man sitting up front.
“Hey guys, ‘Blatantly Rich’ is playing at ‘Stormers’ in about thirty minutes,” Terrant said to the group.
Terrant had his wavy brown hair tied back and his piercing dark eyes almost glittered when he smiled.
Lindsey looked around the table.
“Are they any good?” she asked.
Diablo cut in enthusiastically.
“Oh man, they’re awesome.
I heard they’re cutting a CD in the fall.
They hardly ever play locally anymore.”
He turned towards Terrant.
“How’d you hear about it?”
Terrant replied with his memorized statement about the fictitious band and bar.
“Paulo stopped by just before I got off work and said they were playing off the strip for the locals in appreciation for their support.
Get this, there’s no cover charge with our union cards.”
Arturo sat forward.
“Did you see Helo?”
“I stopped to talk to him on my way in.
He’s parked at the side entrance and says he still only has the one pickup at the airport for some corporate guy at three, so we have a ride,” Terrant answered.
“Sweet.
How would you ladies like to see the strip in style?
Helo drives for a limo service.
We’ll have to head back here by one so he can make sure the car’s ready for his pickup, but ‘Stormers’ isn’t far so we can still get in a couple of hours of great music.”
Diablo had a slight pleading sound in his voice that Sandi thought was sweet.
The girls all looked expectantly at Becka while she sorted it out.
We have a ride…in a limo no less,
she thought.
The place is close to the strip and we’ll be back early.
“Sounds good to me.”
The girls let out held breaths that the plan was in place and their handsome escorts would not be deserting them.
Everyone scooted out from the table and headed to the side door of the casino in pairs, excitedly discussing the band.
Chayton glanced in the mirror as the couples approached the car, and Helo could tell by his sharp intake of breath that his Master had spotted the pretty fifth girl.
Lindsey usually tended to avoid crowded clubs, but in Vegas everything was different and she was excited.
“This is the first time I’ve ever ridden in a limo,” she admitted as she studied the shining black car.
“Good grief, they’re so long.
I couldn’t imagine trying to drive it.”
Terrant held the door for her and the couples climbed in according to Chayton’s prearranged seating assignment that would alternate his slaves with the women, so no two girls were sitting next to each other.
He watched Paige fold her long legs into the car and envisioned her in the races.
“This is so cool,” exclaimed Sandi as she studied the interior of the luxury vehicle.
“I haven’t ridden in a limo since prom.”
Paige and Danielle also had a singular experience with a prom limo, but it was not nearly as new as this one was.
As the black car moved away from the curb, Arturo and Diablo pretended to investigate the stocked bar.
Arturo ‘discovered’ some champagne, and Diablo handed out five of the first row of glasses to the girls while he poured.
The glasses on the back row were handed to the slaves.
The women’s stemware was coated with a substance that would dilute undetected in the champagne and take about three minutes to put them to sleep.
By that time, every one of them should have taken the necessary two sips and even if one of them panicked as their friends dropped off, they would only have to be subdued for a minimal amount of time before succumbing themselves.
Lindsey’s green eyes looked up at Terrant with uncertainty.
“Won’t your friend get in trouble if we drink this?”
“Nah, execs never look at their bills.
It all goes on expense accounts, so it’ll be covered.
Helo will get the glasses washed and put back before he heads to the airport,” he assured her.
“We do this all the time.”
It seemed a little like stealing, but before Lindsey’s conscience got the better of her, the rest of the group was already clinking glasses so she joined in.
The first toast was to new friends, and everyone sipped.
The second toast was to the future success of the band, and everyone sipped again.
Sandi suggested a third toast to the limo driver, and the men enthusiastically agreed at the extra insurance.
The excited women neglected to notice the vehicle had driven further off the strip towards the hills where the Masters’ Nevada estate with the airstrip was located.
Paige felt the effects first and put her hands to her temples.
“I think the bubbles went straight to my head,” she laughed nervously.
“Here, put your head down for a minute until it clears.
We downed that pretty fast if you’re not used to it.”
Arturo put his arm around her as she leaned against him.
Sandi was next and narrowed her eyes in concentration, “Man, this is weird.
Does one glass of champagne make you this fuzzy, Danni?”
Danni had plenty of experience with champagne from her two weddings and was getting alarmed as her vision began to get hazy and her mind shut down.
“Not like this, it doesn’t,” she blurted.
Becka felt her mind begin to blur and slurred, “What the hell?
What was in that stuff?” She was trying to grasp coherent thoughts of how stupid she was to ignore the convenient situations leading to this trap.
Becka was sitting next to a door and actually reached for the handle in her confusion, forgetting the car was moving at sixty miles per hour.
Helo had of course, locked the doors from the driver panel as soon as everyone had gotten in.
“Damn it, open the fucking door,” Becka screamed at the dark dividing window.
In her mind, she registered a second person sitting up front.
As Becka panicked, Lindsey’s head swayed around and her rapidly unfocusing eyes saw Paige, Danni and Sandi were passed out and leaning against their escorts.
She managed to focus briefly on Becka and watched her jerk the handle, fighting the door.
Brazil was now speaking perfect English with absolutely no accent, and ordered in a cold tone, “Knock it off, Becka.
Just sit back.”
He grabbed her wrists away from the door panel.
Lindsey’s eyes filled with confused tears and she looked up at Terrant, seeing two of him smiling down at her.
Her soft voice was almost a moan.
“Why?” she asked him.
“Because the Master wants you,” he replied softly, and tucked her head onto his chest as her eyes closed.
Fifteen minutes later, the limo pulled around to the back of the estate where the airstrip was located.
Cyrus had readied the sleek jet for take-off earlier, and as the men carried the sleeping women on board, he helped secure them to the reclining chairs in the cabin.
He whistled when Terrant brought Lindsey on board.
“That’s number five?”
Cyrus gazed at the sleeping girl.