Chapter 71

Prudence Parrish stood poolside with her hands clasped together behind her back, met Nick’s eyes and smiled. “First, I want to thank everyone here for all the amazing support and offers of support I’ve gotten today. It’s ... really humbling. Just a few weeks ago, I left the home I’d spent my whole life in and got on a bus without knowing for sure how far I was going or who I was going to meet when I got there. For the first time in my life, I was really, truly alone in the world. I was incredibly lucky to find a job, a place to live, and some incredible friends in just a couple of days. Whatever happens going forward, you’re all going to be in my heart forever.”

Emily leaned in to whisper in Nick’s ear. “She is really getting into this.”

Nick whispered back, “Let her enjoy the moment.”

He wasn’t sure how he’d lost control of this situation or precisely when Prudence had picked up the baton, but everyone around the pool was playing along with her internal script now. When she said that last bit, Sarah placed a fist in the center of her chest and looked misty-eyed. The girls from the Blue Rose let out a collective “awww” at her last pronouncement. Even Gianna Ferrari-Stone reclining on a lounger with her ankles crossed, sunglasses on, and a champagne glass full of mimosa held aloft looked wryly amused.

According to Zola, the strippers had started arriving around one in the morning. Prudence had gone to work and told her coworkers enough about where she’d been and what had happened that they’d figured out where Nick was staying. The first group to arrive were Rosie and Violet, the former strippers who ran the Blue Rose accompanied by Mandi, Brandi, and Candi (not their real names), a team that Nick remembered seeing dance together in some sort of confection-themed striptease. They had wanted to express to Nick their concerns that he might be taking advantage of Prudence who they viewed as a very sweet, but terribly naive girl. Initially, they’d been stopped at the gate, but they had achieved some sort of a detente with Zola and the other SSCS staff and been allowed inside.

If that had happened a little bit later, the BDA brothers might have gone home or to sleep already. The impromptu party Nick had started in order to get them to stay long enough for Penny to ask them more questions had taken on a life of its own in such a way that Penny leaving and taking away its proximate cause hadn’t been enough to kill it. By the time Zola invited Rosie, Violet, Mandi, Brandi, and Candi to help themselves to some barbecue, the party had burned down to embers, but the strippers hit it like a splash of gasoline and the BDA brothers gamely found their second wind. After all, these weren’t just strippers. Jesse’s fraternity had been to the Blue Rose often enough that these were now strippers they knew. Apparently, once you’d seen the same strippers naked a few times, it was actually more exciting to see them out in the real world with their clothes on.

Before anything could be resolved with the first group, Brown Sugar, Cane Sugar, and Spice had arrived also wanting to express their concerns about Nick’s possible mistreatment of Prudence Parrish. Seeing Cane waiting at the gate dressed in a latex bodysuit and wielding a flogger had apparently alarmed Janine enough that she sent out a coded request to SSCS and Gibraltar to send enough personnel to manage a potentially volatile situation. Normally, the New Orleans branch office could have easily handled such a request, but Jesse’s kidnapping and Nick’s offer to provide whatever help he could had left them short-handed and scrambling. For the next few hours, strippers, staffers, and security had trickled in, the latter two from as far away as Dallas and Arlington.

They’d let Nick sleep through all of it. He and Emily had sent Sarah home to her husband and gone to sleep by eleven. At nine, Zola woke them and explained that there were a dozen strippers, nine fraternity brothers, eight borrowed field agents, six security guards, and a fresh team of caterers down by the pool. She didn’t explain it like that, of course. She walked Nick through the chronology and answered the questions he raised. Right around the time she got to Cane Sugar and her flogger, he threw his hands up and let her finish. That was when she summed it all up.

Nick had rubbed his eyes and asked where Gianna had been during all this. Zola told him that not only had Gianna been there every step of the way, she’d repeatedly reassured them they didn’t need to bother Nick with this.

So, Nick had gone down to breakfast in the west dining room where he’d met Rosie and Violet, the managers of the Blue Rose. While Nick suspected some of the strippers had come less out of concern for Prudence than as an excuse to personally meet the weird billionaire who’d handed out a big stack of hundred dollar bills and left before the show really got started, the managers clearly wanted to make sure Nick wasn’t some rich creep looking to steal away Prudence in the night. Their affection for Sarah’s little sister was obvious and genuine and it had taken Nick, Zola, Sarah, and Guy to convince them that the purpose of this mission was to offer Prudence the help she chose, not to pressure her into any particular course of action.

Nick liked Rosie and Violet. He was pretty sure they hadn’t decided how they felt about him yet. He’d been honest and forthcoming with them about his intentions towards Pru, but he was pretty sure they’d picked up on something about his relationship with Sarah and Guy. Also, he hadn’t been able to categorically say he didn’t want to have sex with Prudence because honestly, he kind of hoped that at some point, he might have sex with Prudence. She reminded him too much of women he’d been attracted to in the past for him to ignore the potential of being attracted to her as well.

As such, he was as invested as anyone else in what Prudence would say next. He’d made the case for her to come to New York and stay as a guest at the Loft for a while but also promised that, whatever she chose, he’d help her out. If New York had an advantage, it was that in addition to Annie being there, he’d also promised to help Prudence, Sarah, and Anne visit each other pretty much whenever they wanted to and to welcome Prudence’s friends from New Orleans to come visit her and check up on her from time to time. He knew he was potentially overcommitting on his wedding gift to Sarah and Guy, but he was both feeling magnanimous and beginning to accept that the ability to lure beautiful women into his orbit was one of his favorite parts of being a billionaire.

After talking to Nick, Sarah, and Guy together, Prudence had spoken to Sarah and Guy privately, then just Sarah. During that discussion, Nick and Guy had sat out on the porch and talked about nothing in particular, but Nick had come away with the idea that Guy liked him even better after last night and found himself promising that he would come to Green Mountainside “some time soon” to meet some “like-minded people” Guy thought Nick could be good friends with.

After that, Nick and Prudence had taken a walk together around the perimeter of Gianna’s property. Fairly early in that conversation, Prudence had asked if Nick could ever see himself offering to buy a girl’s maidenhood. Nick had answered as honestly as he could, saying that the he didn’t put any particular value on virginity and wasn’t really comfortable with the idea of anyone who didn’t want to have sex with him doing so in return for payment. He told her that there were enough people that he genuinely liked and who seemed to genuinely like him back that he didn’t really have time to spend with people he didn’t want to be friends with even to have sex with them. Prudence had then asked if he thought they could be friends and if he thought she would make friends in New York. Nick had given a largely positive answer while admitting he couldn’t predict the future. He’d told her about life in the Loft and explained his own story.

The last question she’d asked had been how long Nick imagined her staying in the Loft. Nick said she’d be welcome to stay long enough to decide what she wanted to do next and longer if what she ended up doing next kept her there. He talked about how he’d hired Annie to work for the ACCD Fund and how she was settling in, then reminded her that Annie’s exact location was still being kept from their parents. That had led to him admitting that he hadn’t really kept tabs on Annie and her kids, but that Emily and Max would probably know more.

After talking to Nick, Prudence had taken a similar but shorter walk with Rosie and Violet, talked to several of the other strippers individually, and eventually had a short, animated talk with Rada. After that, everyone had gathered where they were now in what Nick had heard several people mention was “just like a reality TV show.” Fortunately, no one seemed to have taken that comparison as a reason to start filming.

If this were a reality TV show, the table where Nick, Emily, Zola, Sarah, Guy, Rosie, and Violet sat on one side while Prudence addressed them would definitely be the judge’s table. But in this case, it was Prudence who was judging the offers that had been put before her. Spread around both sides of the pool were the audience - strippers, frat boys, Nick’s guests, the household staff, a couple of SSCS field agents, a few caterers, and Gianna with her mimosa. They all seemed to be hanging on Prudence’s words.

As Nick had said, Prudence seemed to be enjoying the attention and had a natural sense of showmanship. She clasped her hands together. “Sarah, Guy, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you looking out for me and using Nick’s wedding present to make sure that I was okay when you probably could have asked for a car or a house or something. Green Mountainside, Montana sounds absolutely beautiful and pristine and bucolic - all things I had back in Mather County and ran away from just as soon as I could.”

That got a laugh from the whole audience and even a smile from Sarah and Guy as Prudence added, “I definitely want to come visit you guys some time and see what I’m missing, but I love living in a big, exciting city and I’d like to keep doing that for a while yet. I won’t be moving to Green Mountainside - not yet anyway.”

As Sarah gave a gesture of acquiescence, Prudence turned to her bosses. “Rosie, Violet, if instead of a deeply religious couple who believed it was their job to make as many children as they could for Jesus, I’d been raised by a couple of foul-mouthed lesbian ex-strippers, I hope they would be just like you two.”

“They’d fucking better be!” Violet called out. This elicited a lot of cheering and whooping from the strippers and got the frat boys chanting her name.

Prudence raised a hand for silence and got it eventually. “Rosie and Violet, every runaway girl should get a chance to strip for you two. I don’t think it’s possible to have more fun than I’ve had in the last few weeks without breaking the law. The first day I showed up for work at the Blue Rose, you were having a going-away party for La Nina. Rosie, do you remember what you promised her?”

Rosie grinned. “Of course. It’s the same thing I promise all the girls who leave young. I told her she would always be welcome to come back and strip again ... until her tits started to sag.” She waited for the whooping and cheering to die down, then added, “I also said that if she came back after that, we’d probably still hire her as a waitress.”

Prudence gave her a bright smile and gripped her chest gently with both hands. “I’m going to take those words to heart and hope that these hold up long enough that I get back before I have to learn how to balance a tray with a dozen drinks on it because that looks hard. But for now, Rada and I have decided to go to New York and figure out what the next chapter of our life is going to look like.”

As people cheered and booed, Emily leaned in to whisper to Nick, “Doesn’t she know Rada is an SSCS field agent?”

Nick shrugged. “She knows. I assume the two of them have something in mind.” Already, the frat boys were chanting his name and more than a couple of the strippers were joining in.

Someone yelled, “Speech!” and the chant changed from “Nick! Nick! Nick! Nick!” to “Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!”

Prudence had summoned Rada forward to join her. She now gestured, “Nick, this is your party. Do you want to say a few words?”

Nick didn’t think he had Prudence’s gift of showmanship, but he rose gamely and waited for the chanting to die down. “I’m glad to be able to help. Do any of you know who I am?”

That got a good laugh, but Nick felt like enough people knew only part of the story that it was worth telling. He said, “I am officially the luckiest bastard in the world. Back in June, I was in my room studying when my father Ed came in and said we needed to talk. I figured I was in some sort of trouble, but being who I am, I said, ‘Ed, I’ve already explained the birds and the bees to you. If you don’t get it yet, I don’t think you’re going to.’”

That got the best laugh of the day. Nick had actually said that to Ed once, but it had been when Nick was fourteen and struggling with school. That joke had been a last-ditch effort to avoid the subject because Nick was sure he was going to be told it was time to stop moping about his mother’s death four years earlier and focus on his future. Instead, Ed had told him that his grades in high school probably wouldn’t matter much in the long run, but that doing too poorly would be more work than doing reasonably well because a lot of people at his school were invested in helping the worst students do better and those people could be exhausting. Ed had gone on to point out that, if Nick had the capability to avoid being one of the worst students, he could let those people focus on students who might genuinely benefit from that sort of attention. Then he’d talked about the benefits of learning apart from those of education. He hadn’t pointed out the things Nick already knew - that if he wanted to become a veterinarian or even a park ranger, the grades he got now would matter. It was the first of Ed’s bizarre pep talks that Nick remembered clearly. As a committed socialist who knew what Nick had waiting for him, but wouldn’t tell Nick what it was or lie to him to make not telling him easier, he often wound up speaking in generalities that only made sense in hindsight.

Nick went on. “This time, Ed told me I was in for a lot of trouble, but that it wasn’t of my own making. For most of my life, I’d known that Ed wasn’t my biological father and that no one was going to tell me who my biological father was until I was eighteen. This talk was a week before my eighteenth birthday, but I was more focused on finals than who my father was. By that point, I figured that he couldn’t be much of anybody if he hadn’t made any effort to meet me. I didn’t know he was Colin Grayson-Stone or that he’d left behind an estate worth billions of dollars that I was going to inherit in a week. My first thought was to give it away as quickly as possible.”

A lot of people stared at Nick like he was insane. He let the idea hang in the air. “Ed always knew this was coming and put a lot of effort into making sure that I understood the many downsides of concentrating too much wealth in too few hands. He may have overshot the mark a bit.” After a bit of relieved laughter from the crowd, Nick went on. “He did instill in me the idea of civic responsibilities and that rich bastards like I would one day become owed it to society to pay back their good fortune as best they could. Once I understood this and also understood both the enormity of the Grayson-Stone Trust and its relatively tiny size compared to the gargantuan amounts of wealth that rely on things not getting better, I decided that I was being offered an opportunity to possibly make a difference in the world - to help people in a real and lasting way that might really change the world.”

He held his hands out like he might be trying to embrace the whole world, but then drew his hands together a little to indicate the current crowd. “I didn’t envision anything quite like this particular spectacle. But, I’ve made a lot of good friends like Sarah and Guy here and when my friends ask for my help, I’m happy to do what I can. I don’t really know Prudence yet, but I hope we’ll be friends, too. Maybe she’s not even the only new friend I’ve met today. Time will tell. But I do know that I’m going to need a lot of friends to make any real change. I’m going to be in New Orleans for a few days and I’m going to encourage Pru to invite her friends from New Orleans to come and visit her at the Loft so you can all see that I’m not some sort of sex fiend looking to steal your friend away for nefarious purposes. If any of you think you might want to help change the world or just want to tell me how you think I should be changing the world, find me, talk to me. I want to talk to all sorts of people, even...” He gestured to where the frat boys and strippers were sitting together “ ... frat boys. I don’t judge.”

After the response to that died down, he said, “I’m either going to ask the caterers to stay and provide lunch or invite them to stay and eat lunch which other caterers will bring. Zola will work out the details. Everyone who’s here now is welcome to stick around for that. Randy, let’s talk before you go. Pru and Rada, when you have a moment. The rest of you... laissez les bon temps rouler.”

As people cheered that, someone started up the music again and Nick took the opportunity to step away from the table. This seemed to be the signal for everyone else to break off and the odd little gathering to end.

As Prudence was swarmed with people wanting to talk to her, Rada slipped away from the crowd and came straight to Nick. Together they walked far enough away from the pool to talk with a modicum of privacy.

“For a moment there, I thought you were going to blow my cover with the other girls. That could have turned things ugly,” said Rada.

“I wasn’t even considering it. I was just trying to figure out if you knew Prudence was going to volunteer you to come to New York with her. I assume you were consulted?” Nick asked.

“I was. I assume you weren’t?” Rada asked.

“Not as such. I told her she would have an apartment at the Loft and that she could have people come stay with her. How long...” Nick paused. “Tell me what you have planned.”

“I’d like to come to New York with her. There’s no real reason I can’t do most of special requests from anywhere. Eighty percent of my job is over the phone or in the app. If my boss gets a stick ... if he decides to be a stickler for the rules, I have six weeks of vacation I’ve accumulated and no projects on my schedule. Pru and I aren’t done hanging out and I think she’ll transition better if I’m around.” Rada shrugged. “All subject to your approval, of course. You didn’t promise anyone anything about me.”

“I’d be delighted to have you as a guest or a working agent at the Loft. If special requests gets a stick up their ass about any of it, I will be happy to complain loudly on your behalf ... or just ask them to treat your visit as an extension of the current assignment. By all accounts you did good work here, Rada. If staying with Pru for a month or six is the reward you want for that, I’m happy to make that happen,” Nick said.

Rada frowned. “You know, six months of my time billed by special projects gets into some serious money - even for you.”

“More than a million dollars?” Nick asked.

“For long-term assignments, I’m billed out at seventy-five thousand a month,” said Rada.

“So, moderately serious money. If you’re going to be around, there is another project I might want you to do at the same time, but I have to talk to Tanvi about the practicality of it first,” said Nick.

“Not Zola?” Rada asked.

Nick shook his head, “No, only Tanvi.”

Rada seemed to be considering something, then said, “You should know, if it’s anything outward facing, I have acquired a certain reputation for arrogance among some clients.”

“Is it deserved?” Nick asked.

“Yes, I think so,” said Rada evenly.

“Arrogance doesn’t disqualify you for what I have in mind. In fact, it might even benefit from an agent with a slightly less servile attitude than SSCS is normally comfortable showing the world. Even if we don’t do this, I’ll probably find another use for an agent with a little bit of arrogance if you’re amenable,” said Nick.

Rada looked around before speaking again. “Your household is getting a reputation inside the Service, you know.”

Nick chuckled. “I can imagine it’s getting more than one, but tell me about the one you’ve heard.”

Rada said. “It was suggested to me that I might fit in there as a field agent because it’s like the Island of Misfit Toys.”

Nick frowned. “I’m not sure that’s flattering to either of us.”

“I don’t think it was meant to be insulting. But many of the agents who seem to be thriving there have some blemish on their record that might otherwise impede their advancement. My reputation meant I would never be considered as a possible factotum unless I learned to be less arrogant. That was much of why I decided to move out of routine field work and into special requests,” said Rada.

“A lot of the agents who work for me have been dinged for ISOC - Insufficient Separation of Concerns. Is that what you’re talking about?” Nick asked.

“Somewhat, but there are other things too. You know about Rosangela Ricci’s history with Threnody?” Rada asked.

“Everything that’s in her file. We talked about it as well. It ... doesn’t bother me.” Nick answered carefully.

“Most big clients have her on a never-use list because of it. They don’t like that she turned on a former client, no matter how justified it might have been,” said Rada.

“I think walking away from Threnody shows remarkable character and a good deal of bravery,” said Nick.

“Most clients want a brave field agent even less than they want an arrogant one,” Rada answered.

“I can’t really say I’m surprised to find out I’m not like most SSCS clients. Now that you explain it, I think I like having a reputation for being the Island of Misfit Toys. Would you be interested in going back to routine field work for me? I could always use a good agent,” said Nick.

“I think special requests fits me best, but thank you. You dropped some pretty big hints about this project you might want me to do once you talk to Tanvi, you know?” Rada asked.

“Did I? Maybe it was a test to see if you could tell me what it is I have in mind. Can you?” Nick asked.

“Was it a test?” Rada asked.

“I didn’t specifically mean it to be, but it will give you another chance to impress me if you like,” said Nick.

“Well, you don’t want to talk to Zola about it even if she’s here and you don’t want to talk to Tanvi about it over the phone or through any of SSCS’s official secure channels. That might mean that it’s potentially illegal, but ... no. It might benefit from somebody who thinks she’s better than other field agents, so it’s probably got something to do with investigating some internal aspect of SSCS that you’re not sure you can trust.” Rada smiled. “I’m close, aren’t I?”

Nick hadn’t expected Rada to piece that much together. He nodded. “Yeah, pretty damned close.”

“Internal audits like that are done on behalf of clients all the time. Sometimes, they’re even routed through the special requests department. Most of them are useless, but comforting,” said Rada.

“Because the client is asking the Service to investigate whether the Service is trustworthy?” Nick asked.

“Because they don’t choose an agent they know they can trust to do the investigating. If you were worried about agents’ ties with former members of the KGB, I might be a particularly bad choice. My grandfather who I am very close to was an agent for most of his life,” said Rada.

“But, you might be good if I were looking for connections to the CIA, maybe?” Nick suggested.

“If you want a bedtime story to make you feel good, any agent can do a review for you. If you are looking for real certainty, I would be good for investigating whatever sort of concerns you have about our agents, but any doubts you might have about my loyalty would ultimately poison your sense of certainty,” said Rada.

“I will take all of that under consideration and get back to you,” said Nick evenly.

“Very good. My coming to New York with Prudence won’t upset any plans you have?” Rada asked casually.

Nick wondered if she was implying that he might have ulterior motives towards Prudence, but answered honestly. “I was hoping to send you to Switzerland to join Verity Ferrari-Stone’s security detail for as long as we were on high alert regarding Jesse’s kidnapping, but I’d rather have you here with Prudence for now.”

“I ... don’t think Threnody would let you make staffing changes on one of her teams,” said Rada cautiously.

“Threnody has asked me to provide elevated security for Verity as long as this situation is ongoing. That’s my team, not hers. But, they’re drawn from a very limited pool of agents and guards - basically women with security training who can be inconspicuous on campus and are already stationed in or near Switzerland. I’d like to have someone in there that no one would have expected to be in there,” said Nick.

“I can recommend someone if you like - a field agent who is a woman and has security training and ... has a very low opinion of Threnody if that helps. She’s currently working out of Singapore, I think. Her name is Xiaoli ... something. I can get all the details once I have a pad again,” said Rada.

“You don’t have one? I thought SSCS field agents died if you took their pads away,” Nick teased.

“Not the ones that go on missions where it’s important nobody knows they’re a field agent. A stripper who carried an iPad everywhere would look a little weird,” said Rada.

“Fair point. I’m sure Zola can get you one. If this Xiaoli is who you think she is, tell Zola I want her on Verity’s security team and ... look over the list of who’s currently on that team. Find the one you think is most likely to be spying for Threnody and have Xiaoli replace her,” said Nick.

“Got it. Anything else?” Rada asked.

“Do Rosie and Violet know you work for me?” Nick asked.

“No, Giovanni does. There was a plan that he would intervene if R&V didn’t hire me, but I got in on my own,” said Rada.

“Ok.” Nick looked over to where the managers were sitting together. “They’re watching us.”

“Do you want to tell them? I don’t mind. I assume they’ll find out once any one of the girls comes up to New York and sees me working.” Rada smiled. “Of course, Prudence did mention that we could keep stripping once we got to New York if we liked. You wouldn’t have a problem with that, would you?”

Nick paused for a moment. Having a working stripper or possibly a pair of them living at the Loft seemed qualitatively different from anything he’d done so far. “She does know you’re not actually a stripper, doesn’t she?”

Rada laughed. “Why does everybody keep saying that? I’ve been taking my clothes off on stage for weeks. I gave you and Emily a couple’s dance. If that doesn’t qualify me as a stripper, I don’t know what does.”

Nick had to nod. “I was going to say you only did that to fulfill the job I hired you for, but that’s not really a disqualifier.”

“And it’s not entirely true. As the job was presented to me, I could have gone in as a waitress or a bartender or ... I don’t know, a bouncer maybe. I just ... thought I could get closer to Pru if we had the same job,” said Rada.

Nick chuckled. “You do seem to have made an impression. I read your reports as they came in, but seeing you two together is something else.”

“The reports go out to a lot of people. We’re trained not to put more in them than what is strictly germane to the operation. You can ask me for more details if you like,” said Rada.

Nick thought about what she might be getting at, realized it immediately, and almost asked, but then stopped himself. “Why do I feel like this might be a test?”

Rada glanced away. “I work for you, Nick. Testing you would be pretty arrogant of me.”

Nick laughed. “Fine, Rada. If the details aren’t germane, I don’t need to hear them. I meant what I said. I’m here to facilitate Prudence’s life, not dictate what it should be. Whatever is between the two of you is between the two of you. And for the record, I’m glad she’s coming to the Loft with someone she already feels close to. As I said, my home has many reputations and at least some of them are true. I don’t know if Prudence is going to want to dive in with both feet, dip her toe in the water, or have nothing to do with any of it, but I have limited control over how much pressure she’ll be under to join in.”

“And me? Will I be pressured to join in the fun?” Rada asked evenly.

“I can think of two or three people who would drag you into bed if you gave any indication you were interested in being dragged,” said Nick.

Rada smirked. “Well, at least I’m coming in with a friend to watch my back.”