The Interview (3 page)

“Good Evening, Mr. Jenks.” Her voice had a southern lilt
to it, with a little French thrown in for spice, and was just about
the sexiest thing I have ever heard. My bones were starting to melt.

Her skin was smooth and her hand was very strong as I shook it. I had
a little trouble letting go. I certainly would never wash my hand
again. Her eyes never left mine. The blood was leaving my head.

“Ke . . . Kelly. Call me Kelly.”
Jesus
,
did
I
just
stammer
?

“Kelly,” the angel said my name and I almost fell over.
“Alex. Pleasure to meet you.”

Oh, sweet Jesus. She had a boy’s name. This was too good to be
true. I have a girl’s name. It follows that there is nothing
hotter to me than a girl with a boy’s name. Frankie, Alex, you
get the idea.

“Alex,” I breathed. “Thanks for inviting me.”

She smiled. I could have died right then with the knowledge that my
life was complete.

“I didn't invite you. My employer wished to thank you.”

“Pardon me. I’m having trouble putting any kind of
cohesive thoughts together. What?”

Alex laughed. I was about to spontaneously orgasm while standing on
the doorstep. This was not going to be pretty and it sure as hell
wasn't going to impress her with my control. “Please don't do
that,” I said.

Her eyes widened in wonder. “Excuse me?”

“Please don't laugh. It's not helping me concentrate.”

She laughed more and my eyes started to roll back in my head. I
thought about the guy who gardens naked and it helped. Not much, but
enough. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Your
employer. Who is that exactly?”

She tilted her head towards the interior of the house and my nipples
actually got hard. Everything she did was foreplay. The woman could
pick her nose and it would turn me on. If she tried to touch me I was
going to run as fast I could in the other direction.

“Follow me.” Alex stepped aside so I could enter the
house, as if my muscles would respond to anything right now. I bore
down and got myself inside. She shut the door.

“There is one thing before we continue.”

Could it be true? All the rumors? Was the Row really where mailmen
went to die?

“Jim here is going to scan you for any transmissions.”

I looked at the gorilla. I pointed to the earbud in my ear. “It’s
just music.”

“That’s what they all say.”

Jim had a magic wand that he ran all over me. It didn’t beep or
anything so I guess I passed.

“He’s clean.”

“Told you it was just music.”

“Now,” Alex said. “Jim is going to search you.”

“Oh, thank God. I don't think I could have handled it if you
did.” I raised my arms up so Jim could do his thing. He spun
me round, slammed me against the wall and roughly examined every
square inch of my body. Better than a cold shower as far as I was
concerned. He pulled up my shirt and looked down my shorts. He
checked my ears and ran his hands through my hair. Jim was a thorough
kind of guy. And a serious buzzkill.

“That was fun,” I said when Jim released me.

“I enjoyed it,” Alex said simply. I avoided looking at
her. She dismissed the gorilla with, “Thank you, Jim.”

Jim grunted and vanished to his cage. “Thanks, Jim,” I
called after him. “You set me straight.”

Alex started to walk in front of me, I assumed so I could follow her.
“Umm,” I held up a hand to stop any such thing from
happening. “Could you kind of drive from behind? You can look
at my ass, I won't mind. I just can't look at yours.”

She licked the smile from her mouth, then gestured that I should lead
the way.

I managed to walk down the hall without creaming my shorts and
entered a large room that seemed to serve as an office based on the
desk and the shirtless kid sitting behind it.

I say kid because I'm almost forty and anything under the age of
twenty-five is a kid to me. The kid looked around that magical age to
me. He was also gorgeous in a Matthew McConaughey kind of way. His
upper body was well muscled, hairless, and tan. He had long wavy hair
that fit his well-defined features. He hadn't shaved in a few days.

I heard the door shut behind me. I looked behind me. Alex took up a
position directly in front of the door. The smile was gone. Her face
was all business as she stared at a distant point on the wall. She
was still incredibly hot, but she also looked like she could kick
Jason Statham's ass if he happened to come in the room.

The kid looked at me. I glanced around the room. Two leather couches
held three women in varying states of undress.
Frederick
’
s
lingerie barely containing voluptuous female figures. Now this is
what the Row was supposed to be! It was all true!

There were two bookshelves with books. I wandered over to one at
random. I recognized some of the titles. Best-sellers from a variety
of genres. I gave him a respect point for having every Michael
Connelly novel in hardback. Took it back because of the new age
self-help crap on the next shelf. A few framed photographs were
interspersed between books. The kid on a golf course with the former
mayor of Carmel. The kid with his arm draped around the Governor of
California. The kid with Hugh Hefner and assorted playmates. There
were no diplomas on the walls, but I figured the pictures were more
impressive anyway.

The half-naked women sat on the couches and stared at me. I could see
areolas, belly buttons, and much more. I ignored them.

I looked at the kid. Waited. He stood up. He was naked.

MY MOTHER WOULD HAVE SAID he was very well endowed. I say he was
huge. Disturbingly huge. I did my best not to stare. I failed. I mean
. . . Fuck. Where the hell was I supposed to look?

I glanced over at Alex. She reminded me of one of those British
Palace Guards who never blink, smile, or possibly breathe.

The kid extended his hand. He wanted to shake. I did not. I took a
step backwards.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said simply.

“Next time call. Simpler that way.”

“I confess,” he said as he walked around the desk. He
perched his ass on the front of the desk. There are things in life I
could just do without. The view in front of me was a fine example. “I
wanted to meet you as well.”

“Now you have.”

“Well, yes, but I haven’t really. My name is Tristan.”
He held his hand out once more. I ignored it. He gave me a few
seconds to change my mind before he lowered it once more. “This
is the part where you tell me your name.”

“Yolanda told you, or one of your gorillas, when she made the
call.”

“Yes, but she could only supply us with your name and
profession. Letter carrier, is it?”

“Is there anything else?”

“Have a seat, please.”

I scanned the room again. The couches were the only place I could
sit. “Sure.”

I sat down between two platinum blondes. Freakishly hot, except for
the blank expressions on their faces. The one on my left put her hand
on my knee. OK. The one on my right blew gently into my ear. OK.

“Comfortable?” he asked.

“Very. Great couch. Do you have to buy special clothes to house
that thing?”

He glanced down briefly as if he had forgotten it was there. Not sure
how you could forget something like that. I certainly was not going
to be able to.

“Does it make you uncomfortable?”

I shook my head and said, “Not at all. A man should be able to
walk around naked in his home. Not sure why you would do it with me
in the room. To each his own I guess.”

Tristan gestured to the women on either side of me. “Do they
make you uncomfortable?”

I glanced at the girl on my right. She had stopped blowing in my ear
and was masturbating instead. I glanced at the girl on my left. Her
hand was tracing circles on my knee. Felt nice. She smiled. I smiled
back.

“Nope. I’m good with them.”

“Would you like one of them? Or both?”

I glanced at Alex. Stone face. No expression. No emotion. She made
the three other women in the room look homely by comparison. I looked
back at Tristan and said, “No thanks.”

He waved a hand at Alex. “How about her?”

“I don’t think she’s yours to offer.”

He smiled. It was the first time I believed anything about him. The
smile was genuine. “Quite right, Mr. Jenks. Quite right. Does
that imply that you believe that the other three are mine to offer?”

“Doesn’t imply anything.”

“Would you like Jenna to stop?”

I glanced at the two girls, but I couldn’t decipher which one
was Jenna. He helped me out. “Jenna is the one with her hand on
your knee.”

“Only if she wants to. Feels great.” I turned to her and
said, “Really does. Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” replied Jenna.

“How about Kristi? Would you like her to stop?”

I glanced at Kristi. Kristi was enjoying herself. “Only if she
wants to. But, I don’t think she even knows we're here
anymore.”

Tristan laughed. Again, it sounded genuine. “You are an amusing
man, Mr. Jenks.”

“And you’re a pig, Mr. Tristan.”

“Your perception, Mr. Jenks. And what about Ashley?” He
glanced at the third woman. I took her in. Brown hair cascaded around
an oval face. She was beautiful. But it was her eyes that told me
this whole thing was bullshit. Intelligence burned in them. She was
MENSA material.

“I think Ashley is a very intelligent lady who is playing a
part right now. I notice that her lingerie is less revealing than
Jenna and Kristi’s. She looks like she’s ready for a
comfortable night of rest. Not a threesome or a foursome or a
twosome. I think she hasn’t spoken to this point because she
would make us all feel like unread, unintelligent slobs in
comparison. Ashley is being kind to us lesser mortals.”

Ashley broke out of character by allowing a small smile to grace her
lips.

Kristi was in full-blown pre-orgasm. No moans and groans but
definitely getting the job done. I took a moment to watch a master at
work.

“Wow,” I said when she was done. She was quiet, but there
was no doubt in anybody’s mind that she had just done herself
very right. “That was impressive.”

“And yet you say you don’t want them?”

“Getting bored, Tristan. Can we cut to the chase here?”

“Just trying to understand the man, Mr. Jenks.”

“There are better ways than this. Do they have a choice about
this, or is it part of the arrangement?”

“There’s always a choice, Mr. Jenks.”

“No, kid. There’s choice and then there’s the
illusion of choice. When your life is decided for you, it’s not
a choice.”

Jenna spoke, “We know what we’re doing, Kelly.”
She had a sweet voice.

“How old are you? Twenty?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Jenna, you don’t have a clue what you’re doing. No
offense meant, but twenty-two-year-old kids don’t know shit.
They think they do, but they have no idea.”

Jenna removed her hand. Damn! That had felt really good.

“See. I have a choice.”

“Point taken. Glad to see it.” I looked at Tristan. “Why
am I here?”

“I have a proposition for you.”

“And I have an answer for you. Fuck you.”

I left him sitting on the desk. Alex stared at me as I crossed the
distance between us. She didn’t prevent me from opening the
door. Which was a good thing. I think I would have lost that fight.

I left the house, climbed into the Cougar, fired her up and headed
for home. I arrived home at 9:30. Annette was asleep. I tiptoed
around the house, took a shower, then climbed into bed with
Connolly’s
The
Killing
Kind
.
I read about the honeycomb world of Parker, Louis, and Angel for a
few pages before sleep magically took me.

I WAS IN THE MIDST of making love to Alex when the dream got weird.
Alex was on top of me. At least I thought it was Alex. I could only
see the whites of her eyes and her two front teeth. You know how
dreams are, your mind kind of fills in the stuff you're not quite
sure about. Unseen hands caressed my face. Alex rocked back and
forth. A needle pierced my upper lip, and unseen hands began
stitching my mouth shut. It hurt. The pain brought me up from the
depths of sleep, and just before I came awake, Frankie whispered in
my ear, “Annette!”

Weird. I know, right?

My mouth was dry. That might have been because I was dehydrated from
walking around in the heat all day, but I was leaning towards the
duct tape that was covering my mouth. My wrists were tied together
and rested on my lap.

Huh.

My eyes adjusted to the lack of light slowly, but fast enough for me
to take note of the gun pointed at my face. I shot a glance at my
bedroom door. It was closed.

“She's fine,” a voice said. “She won't even know I
was here.”

I could take that a couple different ways, but it was good to know
that after he shot me he wouldn't repeat the process with Annette. I
nodded my head in thanks.

“You're welcome.” The gun never moved, just stared me
down with its big black hole of a barrel. I don't know anything about
guns. I couldn't tell you the difference between a .38 and a .44. I
know what a handgun is, and what a rifle is. After that, who knows.
All I can tell you is that it looked freaking gigantic and it was
slightly more intimidating than Tristan's gun. Without a doubt it
could splatter my brains all over the wall. I was definitely over
this recent trend of guys sticking their guns in my face.

“I'm going to take the tape off. Do I need to give you the
standard warnings about calling out for help?”

I shook my head.

“Excellent.” The gun didn't move while his free hand
reached out and ripped the tape off my mouth. I was fairly sure I
wouldn't need to shave in the morning.