Hooked

rented, some not. All legal and above board.” He moved the phone toward Hansen.
    Hansen didn’t move. “Maybe, er, maybe I got the wrong impression from Cindi. She never actually said—”
    “Nice to meet you,” Benny said, cutting him off. “But not really.” Both men stood. The actor towered over him, which pissed Benny off even more. “Now get out.”
    “I wasn’t trying to put the screws on you, Mr. Cooper,” Hansen said. “What I really need is a job. You must have men come in here all the time shopping for a little bi-sexual action, or even gay. I’m versatile. Bat from both sides of the plate.”
    “I bet you are, and I’m sure you do. But you see, like I said, we don’t do those things here, and you have no proof otherwise. Only the word of your soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend. We’ll make sure of that, won’t we, Colin? Cindi deserves a hell of a lot better than this prick.”
    “Absolutely,” Colin said. “My suggestion is you should hit on your rich parents to bail you out if you’re broke.”
    “Can’t do that,” Hansen said.
    “Disowned you, have they?” Benny asked. “Bailed you out too many times? Black sheep of the family?”
    “I…I wanted to make my own way,” Hansen stuttered.
    “Yeah, right,” Colin said. “I bet.”
    Benny loved putting this twerp down in the gutter where he belonged. “And if you decide to report whatever you think it is we do here, make sure you contact the captain at the 19 th precinct. He’s a close personal friend of mine.”
    “I wouldn’t—”
    “Colin will see you out.”
    Colin opened the door and Benny heard him usher Dirk Hansen down the hall and out of the building. He sat down again. This time he popped an antacid. Damn ulcer. Colin came back in the room and shut off the tape recorder and camera.
    “Beautiful,” Benny said. “You’re a genius.”
    “Too bad he’s such a slug. I have a few friends who’d find him quite delectable, and he certainly seemed amenable.”
    Benny groaned. “Jesus, Colin.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “What made you think to check him out?”
    “I check everyone out. Last thing we need is a kink with a record beating up on one of the girls.” The men exchanged glances, and Colin let out a long sigh. “I checked out Martell, honest. Nothing I could have foreseen.”
    “You think this schmuck will talk?”
    “He’s not a good guy. My guess is there’s more in his record he doesn’t want made public. If and when Cindi, um, shows up, he’ll keep quiet.”
    “You know where she is?”
    “I didn’t ask. Better I don’t know, and Reggie didn’t say. It’s like it never happened.”
    Benny got up and patted Colin’s back. “But it did,” he said, and left the office.
    Even thinking about the glorious Tawny couldn’t resurrect the midday high that had now deflated into a late-afternoon funk. He went back to his apartment and called his driver to pick him up. He decided he didn’t feel like staying in the city. Didn’t feel like nipple clamps or garter belts or nail-studded dog collars. He planned to go home, spend the next couple of days in Eileen’s sexual custody.
    Halfway out the door, Colin caught him again.
    “I don’t know if you want to take this call.”
    “Who is it?”
    “Mario Russo.”

Chapter Thirteen
    The Green-Headed Monster

    E ileen had an instinctive sense of timing. Benny never came home in the middle of the afternoon unless he didn’t feel well or something bad happened. With those options, she squeezed into the sexiest outfit she owned, other than her naked body. That would come later. The kids were going from day camp to a pizza party, so she’d have the whole afternoon alone with her husband. The dog barked when the car pulled into the circular drive, and Eileen stole one more glance in the mirror. She pushed up her triple Ds, making sure they did everything but pop completely out of her blouse. All the silicone in the world couldn’t beat Nature in all its bountiful beauty. She plucked a pair of long beads from the box of toys in her dresser drawer and dropped them over her head. Those were for Benny.
    Eileen saw herself as a pragmatist. Benny made her life possible, and she’d never do anything to screw that up. In fact, everything she did insured life would go on as always. He liked that about her. That, and the fact she never questioned him about what he did when he wasn’t with her. Of course he didn’t know about the