Chapter 4

April studied the interior of the building. It was new and old at the same time – recently built but constructed in an old style – high molded ceilings, ornate murals, wall sized paintings of various turn of the century aristocrat types, resplendent in hunting garb, or ball gowns, high wood paneling on the walls, even a few stuffed animal heads. If April had ever been in an old English Gentlemen's club, at the turn of the century, she would have recognized the blueprints for the building she was in. Dark, stuffy and aching with memories the building was too young to have. She sat in the foyer, in a high-backed red leather chair, looking around at all the other leather couches scattering the room, the small side tables, the three different fire places – all lit– and various butler types wandering around refilling port glasses and looking disdainfully at her while she waited.

She'd hesitated when entering the building, since it was a standalone building, very few windows and it looked compellingly desolate. It was new and stood alone which meant that whoever owned it had money; land was at a premium in Washington DC. It was a forbidding building and she checked the address she'd been given twice before walking up past the immaculate front gardens.

Over huge oak doors was a stone carving, with a coat of arms woven in, and the words 'auctoritate sua remuneratio' engraved on it. She pulled out her iPhone and used Google Translate to convert the Latin to English. It translated as 'Authority is its own reward.' Fitting for a group called the 'Storm Clouds Gentlemen's Club'.

April had entered and given the name of her contact to the first uniformed person who had stopped to ask her business. While she was doing that, her phone pinged and the person she was there to meet texted to ask if she'd arrived yet. April replied she had and was told to wait.

So April sat down and waited, studying her surroundings. The heady musk of pipe smoke was in the air – a building you could smoke inside of in Washington, DC, was a rarity, but here people were puffing on pipes, smoking cigars and one person even had a hookah next to his chair. It was silent apart from the occasional cough or rustle of someone turning a page.

April waited for several minutes, ostensibly using her iPhone in that interesting way that modern women do, as a mirror, where they turn on the front facing camera and check their makeup in the image. In actual fact, she was taking pictures of the immediate area. Right across from her was a large wall painting, depicting a hunting scene, where a small man was being hunted by riders – both male and female – on horseback. It was an interesting image, but its position bothered her. Only someone sitting in this chair, in this foyer, would see it.

She'd already noticed that while the rooms had motion detectors, they were too high up and at the wrong angle to do the job. Motion detectors have a limited angle of view and area distance they work in and when they are up twenty feet off the ground, this particular set – designed for small house observation – would be completely ineffective. They were obviously there more for show that actual usage, which did beg the question, why? She had also noticed that all the butlers had earpieces. That, in itself, wasn't out of the ordinary – lots of restaurants give the wait staff walkie-talkies to seat people and so on. What was peculiar was that this particular model was the same military grade model that Ingrams used on occasion.

This whole building screamed "Wrong!" at her, although she couldn't pin down why beyond the things she'd already noticed.

Behind the painting there was a room. It was filled with expensive electronics and displays, like every security room always is. The painting itself was faux and one sided – some of the newest technology that made opaque textures one sided. The room had three full time security guards in it, and they were observing April as closely as possible, even to the point of running facial recognition software against her image.

One man was whispering quietly into a mike, "Yes. She's here for one of the cattle. I don't know, sir. No, she just came in and asked. Yes, we can hold her. We can hustle her into a side meeting room without the clients being aware, if that's what you want ... Yes. I'll send a couple of the Buttle Boys. Yes sir."

He nodded at another guard, who picked up a phone.

April was still looking around when a side door opened in the wood paneling and a small, elfin young woman came out. She was nervous, clutching a large bag to her chest. With her short dark hair and pixie features, the girl looked like a young Audrey Hepburn. She looked around and spied April and made a bee line for her in that slightly desperate way people do when they really want to run but understand they are being watched. She moved as fast as she could without running.

"You're Mary right? We need to go. Now," the girl said when she reached April.

April stood up and said, "Lara? Are you sure we need to rush?"

"Yes. We need to go. They won't be happy. We should go now. I'll do whatever you want, we just need to go." Lara gave April a tight smile while her eyes darted around

"I don't want to get you into trouble—" said April.

Lara grabbed April's hand hustled them to the door. Before they reached it, two butlers appeared out of nowhere. Lara stopped abruptly as she noticed them, and looked imploringly at April. April could only look puzzled, having no idea what was going on. The stares they were getting did make her palm itch and she did wonder if she was going to have to fight her way out for a second. She kept her hand on her handbag, ready to push past the false bottom and grab the taser she had stashed there. It would only take care of one of them, but it would at least be one dealt with.

The men in the security booth looked back at the man who'd just come in behind them. They were looking out at the one way images behind the large pictures, and also on the monitors. One of them was whispering into a mike, talking to the two butlers.

"Hold them, don't let them..."

"No." said the commanding presence behind them. "Let them go. I know her. We will gain more from watching. Let them leave."

The man with the mike didn't even look back, he just whispered, "Let them go. All clear."

The man in the shadows nodded and leaned forward into the light. When the light fell on him, it revealed the chiseled features of Gene Rainer.

April let out a slow breath as the two men opened the doors. Lara pulled April forward and the women left. April nodded to the men, who bowed slightly. As they got out into the sunshine, Lara winced and put her hands over her eyes.

"Are you all right?" April asked.

Lara shaded her eyes with her hand and looked at April. "Sorry, it's been a while since I've been outside. It's so bright. Is your car here?"

"Sure," replied April. "Just over here. Look, what is going on?"

"Nothing," said Lara, as she again tugged at April's hand. "I'll just feel better once we get in your car and are away."

"Did they hurt you or something?" asked April as she popped the locks on her Honda.

"Or something," Lara answered, opening the passenger door and sliding in.

April got in the other side and turned on the engine and pulled out into traffic.

"Right, we are away. Speak," she told Lara, reflecting on the events that had drawn her here.

After her unexpected threesome with the Silveranos, April had gone home and spent all night revising her profiles. She'd spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with Ingrams HQ and Desirea in particular, and they'd agreed that the best thing they could do under the circumstances was to build up the relationship between Jenny and Paul as much as possible, since there was obviously something else going on with the DNA results.

Were the kids Silverano's or not? They didn't know, they weren't going to know and so they had to deal with the situation as it was. Currently the situation was stable, but without a clear understanding of what was going on, they had to focus on the relationship and get that as stable as possible, so if the possible infidelity and questioned paternity came out, the relationship had the strongest chance of survival.

There were obviously issues with the marriage – the shouting matches on the phone were testament to that, and now she'd discovered they competing sexual drives of both Jenny and Paul, April was even more surprised that the marriage had lasted as long as it had.

April had made the diagnosis that Jenny was a bully and a social climber and that was probably had it's roots in the place they'd all come from – darkest Brooklyn. She wasn't as professionally accomplished as her husband, and as a result, she got her jollies from the demeaning of others, since that's what she saw other wives – that usually came from old money – doing. But it was all masking a deep-seated sense of inferiority that she was overcompensating for. Paul, well, he is both smarter and more emotionally stunted than Jenny. He'd realized what he had inside, looked around at the world and the way it worked, and buried it deep. He played the part of the laid back negotiator, when internally, he was anything but. He didn't face his demons or find a way to express it in society, as Jenny did, even if her way was personally less than pleasant. But at root, Jenny's expression was actually healthier for her state of mind than Paul's was. If the wheels hadn't already fallen off their marriage, it was obvious they were going to. And when they did, it would be explosive.

Given the alpha nature of both players in this relationship, what was needed was a beta player. A toy. Sexual plaything. April had already played that part, unwittingly, and witnessed the results. Neither partner would give an nch to the other, and so they both needed someone on whom they could exercise those alpha tendencies.

In many Dominant/submissive relationships, the dominant one was often a latent sub. Often they required too much trust and acceptance to let that side of them out, and in some cases, it was too tightly wound to ever come out, if it was there in the first place. In this case, both April and Desirea agreed that both Paul and Jenny were competing, and any sign of weakness in the other would be viewed as just that – weakness. Not vulnerability or acceptance, but weakness, a weakness that their own dominance would overrule. They couldn't be a submissive for each other, because that would end their game.

But that was also destroying them. They needed an outlet for those power games, and so April had decided to give them one.

What they needed was a consensual plaything. Someone willingly along for the ride, a submissive would give them what they needed, and also get what they needed, too.

April had considered looking for a male submissive, but she didn't have enough data to know if Paul would go for that. However, she did know that Jenny liked to dominate women, so a woman it was.

Given the need for a specific type of individual, needing this kind of consensual relationship, April did what anyone in North America would do in that situation. She put an ad on Craigslist.

She received several answers and spent a few days exchanging emails, trying to get a feel for the person on the other end. In the end, she settled on one, where the girl indicated she was in a situation she wanted to get out of, was looking for a new position, of live in help – 'with benefits'. She wanted to be maid / housekeeper to a couple, in all the ways you could be. She was submissive and docile and desperately in need of control, dominance and shelter. She seemed perfect, and both the pictures supplied – taken after April asked for specific poses and holding up a local newspaper – looked appropriate and the specific questions asked were answered in a way that satisfied April that this woman was for real.

They had arranged to meet the following day, where April would pick her up and take her for an 'interview'. April had smiled at that. She had a damn good idea what that meant. And it would be nice, for once, to be on the other side of that coin.

So she'd taken the day off – her first personal day in almost five weeks – and gone to pick up Lara.

Lara lowered her eyes.

"I worked in the kitchens in that place. They have a dormitory downstairs. I ... there were people there, they weren't ... nice. I know I like that sometimes, but it needs to be done in a loving situation. I need to feel like those who ... use me, they care about me. The people there ... they didn't care. But they don't want to let you go. I had get out. I had to leave. I needed someone to come get me. I wouldn't have had the courage to go otherwise." Her words tumbled out.

April looked at Lara with concern said, "Did someone hurt you? Did they abuse you?"

Lara kept her eyes down and answered in a small voice, "No, not ... like that. They just ... weren't nice. You could see it. I ... it's not what I wanted. But I had nowhere else to go. You sounded nice in the emails. I need to be around people who will ... treat me better."

April snorted. "Yes, that I quite understand. What's your story, Lara? Why don't you have anywhere to go?"

In the same quite voice, that was all one note, Lara said, "I made a mistake. I cheated on my husband. Found out some things about myself that, well, he didn't like. I don't really blame him. He threw me out, I ended up at Storm Clouds. I have very little that is mine any more – I didn't take anything with me. I didn't deserve that. I betrayed a man who loved me and trusted me and I needed the penance. I thought I could start again there, but it became clear it was a dead end. I needed the courage to leave, to have something to go to. You are still interested, right? Now you've seen me?" she added the last line in a worried tone.

"You're fine, Lara. Exactly what I was looking for. Is that everything you have?" April said nodding at the bag that Lara still clutched.

She nodded back.

"We need to do something about that. Before the interview, let's go shopping."

And they did. April took Lara first to Walmart, where they did the basics – underwear, training shoes, some clothes, new toothbrush and some makeup, some costume jewelry, and a new set of luggage to put it all in. Lara protested the whole time that she wouldn't be able to pay April back. April just smiled and said, "We'll work something out."

Next they went to a mall. They hit Victoria's Secret, Frederick's, Claire's, a beauty store, she even took her to Brookstone and bought her a modern looking vibrator.

After the shopping, they returned to April's temporary apartment. Lara entered, hesitantly. Once inside, she wandered around, touching and studying the furnishings.

"It's nice," she said. April made yet another mental note to thank the setup crew at Ingrams – the apartment looked lived in, had pictures on the walls, even some of her, taken from her old Facebook page, before it had been excised clean of all revealing pictures. There was dirt under the couch, small rips in some of the bed clothes, a layer of dirt around the tub – All the touches that said 'Someone lives here.' She hadn't seen the point in it but now, bringing someone in like this, she thanked the Gods of Preparation.

"It's ok. Now, we need to be clear. You understand that I'm the intermediary, right? That I'm not looking for me? I'll run you through your paces, but I'm looking for friends of mine. A couple. They need some home help, and a submissive at the same time? This will be an in-house situation, as housekeeper, with benefits on the side. Are you sure you are ok with that?"

April could see that Lara was still unsure, but she could also see the resignation on her face.

"I ... yes, I understand."

"Ok, but more than that, I want you to understand some other things. These people will never harm you physically, unless you indicate to them that it is something you want, ok? There will always be a safe word, and if at any time you feel that you need to get away or this is not what you want, I'm going to give you a throw-away phone with my number in it that you hide and only use to call me, ok? I am always here for you, day or night. I will always be watching and available to you if and when you need me, you understand? I know that you are moving into a an unknown situation, and that has to be scary."

April also made a mental note to look into the Storm Clouds Gentlemens' club in more detail. She needed to know what had happened that made Lara so willing to take a leap into the unknown in quite the way she had. Whatever it was, it was scary enough that she was prepared to leap out of the frying pan and into the fire, all from a Craigslist ad. That meant she must be running from something pretty awful, and April felt like she owed it to Lara to find out what. There might be other Laras there who needed help.

"Do you understand?" April continued. "I want you to be safe. Yes, I'm sure the submissive situation will be great, but we both know that a true sub's happiest when there is trust on both sides. You have no idea who these people are, and yet, here you are, willing to take a leap into the unknown. You are either very brave or very scared of what you left behind. Or both. Either way, that is over. You are safe now. I want you to understand that. If this doesn't work out, I will find another place for you. Do you understand, Lara? You're safe here."

April was making her voice and timbre as slow and low as she could go, trying to get through the darting eyes that indicated Lara's mental state of worry, resignation and fear at that moment. Hearing that last sentence, Lara turned her gaze to April and she physically saw Lara That was step one. Trust would take time, both for her and for the Silveranos, but if they gave it a chance, this might actually work.

Lara nodded and gave her first genuine smile. April realized how pretty her elfin face was when she did that, and couldn't help smiling back.

"I understand, Miss Mary. Thank you for helping me out. I honestly don't know what I'd have done if ... I just ... thank you. I feel better already. I just need ... to be wanted and useful and worth something. Isn't it strange that I feel useful and worth something when people are treating me as though I am not?"

Lara turned and walked into the kitchen, dropping that last sentence over her shoulder. April thought about it, and said, "Well, yes and no. It's a bit ironic, but it's the dichotomy of Submission and Dominance. Both sides need the other, but in very different ways. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it, honestly. You know what you are, just relax and accept it. But don't ever not have respect for yourself.

"You are worthy and helpful and useful, and just because you get off on people humiliating you doesn't mean you aren't. It just means you have ... particular tastes. It doesn't mean anything else, other than that. Respect for yourself is something completely different, and I think you've already got some of that, or you wouldn't have left that last situation."

Lara, now behind the kitchen counter and looking at the coffee maker, smiled at April over the counter. "You are nice. And smart. I think I'm going to like this."

April nodded and said, in as cold a voice as possible, "Ok, nice time over. Get in the bedroom, do the makeup, and I want you in the Fredericks stuff, with the heels. Get moving. I don't like to be kept waiting. I said move it, bitch."

Lara almost jumped out of her skin, but then lowered her eyes and said, "Of course, Mistress." And she ran into the open bedroom door, dragging her new suitcase behind her.

April sighed. She didn't enjoy this. She could do it, but it wasn't where she got her jollies. She knew her friend Megan enjoyed this, but April found that she didn't have the same kind of sadistic imagination that you needed to have to be a really successful dominant.

But that wasn't possible here, so this was necessary.

Fifteen minutes later, Lara opened the bedroom door and came out, eyes down. She walked over to April and curtseyed.

April had gotten herself a beer and was sitting at the kitchen table checking her phone. She looked Lara over, critically.

Lara wore a stereotypical French maid's outfit – all satin and black, with a white apron. She had made herself up in an almost whoreish way – too much rouge, eye shadow and lipstick. To April's surprise, Lara made it work, whereas most women looked like they have on a disguise, or are trying to hide something when they were made up like that April started to wonder if she might have hit the jackpot here.

Along with the maid's outfit, Lara wore stockings and garters, and four-inch spiked heels. The skirt barely covered her stocking tops – if she bent over, anyone could see them.

She had on a chain choker with the word 'Bitch' picked out in rhinestones, and matching earrings.

"Hmm. Passable I guess. Wait, is that a run in that stocking?"

Lara looked down and moved her legs, looking at them. "Er ... I can't see one, Mistress."

"Don't contradict me, bitch. On your hands and knees. Crawl to me. Slowly. Make eye contact. I want to see how sorry you are."

April tried not to laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation felt, but she understood the need to keep the atmosphere tense. She had to see how Lara would react for real to ensure she was what Paul and Jenny needed.

Lara immediately got on her hands and knees and crawled towards April, keeping eye contact and having a wicked smile on her face. She was clearly getting off on all this She arrived at April's feet and looked up at April. "I'm so sorry, Mistress, please forgive me," she murmured.

April pursed her lips and picked up the paddle from the table in front her of her She spread her legs, pulled up her skirt – and Lara saw she was not wearing panties – and said, "Here's the deal, slut. I want to come. And you are going to make me. Twice. You have thirty minutes. If I don't come twice, you get the paddle on your ass. You understand me? Thirty minutes. Starting now."

With that April turned off her iPhone, put it down on the table, and holding the paddle with the other hand and leaning back and gesturing for Lara to get started.

Lara was lucky. April was extremely turned on and had been all day. She got her first orgasm within the first five minutes. The next, well, she was feeling naughty, like she needed to be punished. The woman sitting in front her made her feel safe and that feeling made her act out even more. She knew this woman wouldn't hurt her any more than she was comfortable with, so she deliberately failed in making her cum, and then, well, she'd take what was coming to her. She was wet with anticipation already.

For a change, April was running out of doors. She couldn't make her calls to the office in the apartment with Lara around. She'd been pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed running in the open air, having to dodge around obstacles and people – at how much she had to look at her feet as she ran, unlike when you run on a treadmill.

After running three miles, she stopped, found a bench to sit on, pulled out her phone and called Ingrams HQ. She waited till she was connected to the ops room and started out with the all clear call sign.

"It's a beautiful day in the city," she said, first thing.

"It certainly is," replied a voice with a Scottish burr to it.

"Dermot! How nice to hear your voice," said April, delighted.

"I happened to be in the neighborhood. Thought I'd take the call. How goes it, April?"

"Well, I have the sub we needed. That's all taken care of."

"I spoke with Desirea about it. She seems to second your approach here. The marriage needs a supplement and she thinks this is it. At least in the short term."

"Yeah, I don't honestly know what else to do. This will at least get them talking about shared experiences and the girl needed a place to go. Actually, while we are on that subject, Dermot, what do you know about the Storm Clouds Gentlemen's club? That's where she came from and she's told me a few disturbing things about it."

"Yes, I've no doubt. It's part gentleman's club, based on some concept of what such a club was back at the turn of the nineteenth century, and part S&M club. Lots of the members there are active doms or subs. They do a sideline in couples that are into that. It's very private, very quiet and only appeals to the top one-percenters as clients. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised at her coming from an environment like that. Are you very sure that she's up for this? We are messing with her life. What's her name again? Lara?"

"Yes, I think so. From what she's told me, she needed to get out and this will be a far better environment for her. Interfacing with their kids, stable household, and she has the deferential personality that they need to assert dominance over."

"Ok, well, if you are sure."

"I'm going to introduce them tomorrow, at dinner. Now, what have we got on the DNA testing? Anything on the biogenetics guy in Palo Alto?"

"Yeah, that. Ok. So we got the guy at MIT to look over Brad Tomlinson's work. Best he can tell, he is working on DNA manipulation, but it's more for cloning purposes. From what I can understand – and I'm very much the layman here – he's looking for some way to detect and repair busted DNA that occurs during cloning. It's got some technical name that I can't remember.

"Anyway, when pressed, our researcher basically said that what Tomlinson is doing is not remolding DNA so it would pass a test when it shouldn't, but the research is analogous to that. It's possible it could be redirected along those lines, but that's not what the research is about. The example I was given that if you were doing research to make rocket engines, while those engines are directly pointed at getting a man into space, the research could be used to make missile engines too. They aren't the same – there are different requirements and payloads and weights and boring stuff like that, but the two are analogous."

April digested this and then cut to the chase. "So what does that mean? Have these DNA tests been modified or what?"

Dermot sighed and said, "Honestly, April, I don't know. It's possible that the test results were modified in some way. If they were, we don't know how. And there's a prevailing feeling here that it doesn't really matter."

April nodded, even though Dermot couldn't see her. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Looking at the bigger picture, the big fear here seems to have been avoided. How, I don't know. But he's still good for negotiations and while we've discovered other cracks, I think the plan in place should deal with those, at least in the short term, and also put them in a place where longer term there is communication and a stable place to start conversations."

"Our thinking exactly. Desirea almost used the same words," replied Dermot.

"So, I hook up Lara and get the hell out of dodge?" asked April,.

"Yeah. I don't think you can just walk out. I spoke to Mercer earlier today and he said you'll need to give a week's notice. That should be it, though."

"Fine. I can do that today. I can't say I'm happy though, Dermot. I wish we understood what was going on with the DNA samples. Were they contaminated or messed with or what?"

"I wish it was clearer too, April, but also understand – you've done a great job. Your analysis has been spot on, everyone here is in total agreement with your decisions and your improvisation has been first rate. You've done the overall task we were hired for. Paul Silverano will be in a stable place to finish negotiations, you've uncovered issues within his marriage and you've put a plan into place to cope. There's not much else that can really be expected of you. Close down the operation and come back and have a rest, ok?"

April could see the smile through the phone line. "Will do, Chief. I'll check in again tomorrow."

"Speak to you then, April. Have a good evening."

April put down the phone and spent the next five minutes watching people walk around, engaging in all the mundane things that people do while living their lives, and reflected on her choice of career.

After watching a family walk past, a little boy on his father's shoulders and the mother chasing after a little girl intent on feeding the ducks at the park's lake, she got up, set up her running app and started jogging back to the temporary apartment.

April and Lara were fashionably late to dinner. April had fussed over Lara's outfit, and Lara had been letting her. The past few days had been interesting, April considered. In the four days that Lara had been residing in April's temporary apartment, she had proven her worth as a housekeeper. The apartment was spotless and April had been extremely thankful that it had been so well prepared. Lara had even tried her hand at cooking – April realized how nice it was to come home to a place that was full of cooking smells, when she wasn't doing the cooking.