The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

“Is that it?” She leered up at the two of them, her tongue hanging out of her mouth and flipping up and down in a lewd mimicry of going down on a girl. “You like it rough? Then you’re in luck, baby, because I’m gonna let you get as rough with me as you want.  There ain’t a thing you can think up that I won’t let you do to me.  I don’t have boundaries.  You can do anything, put it anywhere.”

Caleb ran his hand across his mouth, feeling the bile moving up his throat, and Tyler let out a strangled yell of anger before throwing Bella roughly aside.  Her head hit the back of the couch loud enough to make a sort of a hollow sound and Caleb started forward, alarmed that she might be hurt despite how deeply nasty a woman she was.  But all she did was laugh and settle back down on the couch, her legs crossed casually underneath her as if this were the most natural conversation in the world.

“Hey, Caleb, be a doll and get me that bottle over there, will ya?  The vodka?”

Feeling exasperated and very much out of his element, Caleb did as she asked, handing it over to her and shivering with distaste as she ran her fingers along his hand before accepting it.

“Thanks, sweetheart.  Sh*t, I may have had this whole thing wrong.  You’re a fine looking man.  Bet you’re smarter than Tyler, too.  Maybe I should’ve been after you all along.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Right, I forgot.  Your little Russian girl.”

“That’s right.”

“Jesus, you two are boring.”

“Then why don’t you help us?  Help us so we can get out of here and leave you alone.  I’m sure you can find something more interesting to do with your time once we’re out of your way.”

“Fine, whatever.  Help you with what?”

“Tell us where she is, Bella.  Now.”

Caleb shot Tyler a reproachful look, wishing he could just keep his mouth shut for five minutes.  Angry as he was, he wasn’t getting through to her and he wasn’t really helping.  But he was an obstinate man and he looked back at Caleb defiantly.  He was clearly not moved by the idea of letting Caleb take the lead.

“Ha!  You lost her.  Two of you and you lost her.  Well I feel real bad for you and all, but I don’t know what you think I’m gonna do about it.  You’ve made it clear I’m not really your style.”

“Cut the bullsh*t, OK?”

“Tyler!  That’s enough.”

Bella smiled at Caleb (he was sure she thought it was sweet but in all honesty it just made her look ghoulish and strange) which gave him the smallest amount of hope.  Maybe the classic good cop, bad cop would work on her.  He and Tyler could do that.  They had done it many times with a high margin of success.  He just needed that this one more time, to help him figure out what had happened to Meena, and then he would retire. 

On his life, or someone’s life that mattered just a little bit more than his, he would get out of the game and do something honest.  Geno would understand.  He would be overjoyed, probably help him find a job outside of the business if he wanted it.  Caleb would get out of the game entirely and live a quiet, content life if he could just get Meena back (if she still wanted him and god he hoped she still wanted him).

And so despite the vile nature of the woman in front of him, despite the fact that she made his skin actually crawl with disgust and dislike, he knelt down in front of her, hoping his open and subservient demeanor would put her in a charitable mood. 

“Bella, please.  We know you were at my place, OK?”

“Do you?  And how do you know that?”

“Because we could smell you, bi*ch,” Tyler interjected, a less than helpful interjection.  Awesome.  How the hell was he supposed to explain to this chick that they could smell her?  On the scale of normal things to say to a person, this comment did not even register.  He could see it in her eyes, too.  For some reason it was that comment, not the way they barged in or Tyler’s abrasive insults of even him trying to choke her out, that freaked her out.

Some part of her that was only instinct and had not been touched by all of the drugs and alcohol must have realized that this was not a normal thing to say.  She seemed upset now, but also somewhat subdued.  Then maybe Tyler’s big fu*king mouth was a good thing after all.  If she wanted to get them out of her place fast she would tell them what they wanted to know.  Whatever the consequences of them scaring her, if there turned out to be any, they could deal with later.  After they knew that Meena was safe.

“You could smell me?  I don’t understand.  That’s-that’s a weird thing to say.”

“He meant your perfume,” Caleb said in a voice he knew wasn’t even close to believable, “that’s all.  He could smell your perfume.”

“Right.  OK.”

“But the thing is, you were there, weren’t you?  You were at my apartment.”

“OK, sure.  Yeah, whatever.  I was there.”

“So did you talk to Meena?”

“Maybe.”

“Bella.  Seriously, it’s time to tell me what’s going on.  Please.”

Bella grinned again, whatever brief sojourn into the reality she had taken gone.  Her eyes looked dead, like there wasn’t a real person in there at all.  She actually looked happy, pleased with herself for the thing that she had done.  It was eerie, terrifying, really, but she looked ready to talk.  So at least there was that.

“You shouldn’t have embarrassed me in front of everyone, Tyler.  You shouldn’t have done that. See, you boys may have my father’s ear but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my own connections.  It doesn’t mean I don’t have my own kind of smarts.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Victor.  Does that name sound familiar to you at all?”

“How do you know that name?”

“I told you.  I have my own connections.  And apparently your little princess came from some bad, bad men.  The kind of men you really shouldn’t cross.”

“What does that have to do with where she is now?”

“Well, it all goes back to when she first showed up here.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t she supposed to have a friend with her?  One who never showed up?”

“OK, yes.  Get on with it.”