Chapter 6

He wasn’t aware that Grover was watching him through the partially closed wooden louvered blinds that obscured the office ... or that there was a smile of satisfaction on Grover’s face when he saw that Pete was early. Had he been right on time, or slightly late, Grover would have considered Pete indifferent to his request for a meeting. Had Pete been ten minutes early as Clay had suggested Grover would have known that Pete had taken it quite seriously. As it was, being an hour early, Grover realized that Pete not only took the meeting seriously but was also intimidated by him as well, just the way Grover liked his underlings to be.

Sensing that he would be a hard sell Grover was glad that he was uncomfortable in his presence. He had already laid the groundwork in Santa Monica to complicate the issue in such a way that would help ease Santori’s decision-making process. Clay Burnett was no longer healthy. Grover knew he would have to depend upon someone else to keep his daughters satisfied—at least sexually, fill the role of a confidant as well as chief brownnose. Plus, Pete Santori had the kind of instincts that could help the future of Texas Affiliates.

Grover McClintock was more than early for his meeting with Santori; it was 4:30 am when he walked into the lobby of River Ranch, the Flagship store of McClintock Suites Hotel. But McClintock was a habitual multi-tasker and rarely wasted time on just one job. When the Chairman of the Board walks into one of the corporation’s facilities it is usually a major event but, in this McClintock Suites, the lynchpin of his success, it had even more significance. It was here as a young wildcatter where Grover won River Ranch in a card game. In the old days, River Ranch was the most notorious bordello in this part of Texas. It was here where Grover met, fell in love with, and impregnated Marney Ladd, a prostitute he elevated to the position of Madam. She later bore his son Thornton Brockmeyer and his daughter Dotty McCord.

As his corporation grew Grover was known to make snap raids in any of the gems of his crown. But at “the Ranch,” as everybody still referred to it, he could wreak a special kind of havoc whenever he chose a moment’s notice to be there. His visit was no surprise to the Night Manager, Ransom Jewell. Jewell was a rising star in the McClintock Suites organization; Grover chose him to manage River Ranch, the diamond in the crown of the organization. Jewell had been on the shortlist of candidates to be Clay’s understudy with Dotty and Silk until Jewell confronted a problem head-on before Grover gave his blessing. He was having an affair with Dotty in the hotel without “the Man’s” permission. When Grover found learned about the situation it was something he wouldn’t tolerate> He demoted Jewell on the spot. It was Clay who blew the whistle on Jewell when saw him leave the Texas Two Step with Dotty that night. He called Grover who with his passkey let himself into the room and found them both naked with Dotty’s head bobbing on Jewell’s erect and well-exposed cock. It wasn’t that he objected to the young man’s involvement with Dotty—Grover had accepted that possibility when he put him on the list—it was the sneaky way he went about it that pissed him off. Rather than having the good sense to ask for his approval, which Grover was likely to grant, Jewell did it behind Grover’s back and had to be punished. Once he served his punishment (a couple of years in his present position) he would be reestablished as manager of the Ranch. But having lost Grover’s complete trust Dotty and Silk would be off-limits to him and he would never rise above the level of a hotel manager in the McClintock chain.

From the time Dotty was a young teen Grover enjoyed an incestuous relationship with her. When the product of that relationship—Silk—became of an “appropriate” age he folded her into the same kind of relationship as he had with her mother, often having threesomes with both. Since Dotty’s mother and Silk’s grandmother, Marney Ladd, had been such a highly sought-after prostitute Grover suspected that Dotty and Silk might exhibit the same sexual tendencies as Marney. Since he had been able to completely satisfy Marney and had become such an aphrodisiac to her she encouraged him to satisfy her child and granddaughter as well.