Chapter 2

Maxine Gaye – Monday, July 13th, 2015

The elevator opened on the parking level. One of the things I loved, I hated, about my job was that there was very little drama. Dalton West rarefied its talent. Those who wouldn’t work and focus on work left before they were let go. Our family was tight and few people fucked up. Then there was Lewis Cooke. I loved Lewis. My first time in court was at his table. He was the firm’s bulldog. There were some cases no one else could win that he pulled out of left field, but more often there were cases no one else could even hope to bring home scraps from. That was Lewis’s job to keep things profitable. I had been run ragged all week. We had needed Lewis for twelve days and us paralegals, secretaries and assistants were drowning in the swamp of sadness.

“Maxi!” He shouted at me and I smiled. He was looking smooth and neat. His fair brown hair slicked back and his tie on straight. It was only 8 am after all. I gave him forty minutes. I gave him the dazzling whites. He waved me over to a car that rivaled my own p.o.s. A bevy of impossibly beautiful women scurried around him.

“Lewie!” That we both agreed we hated the pet names, made us use them more, “These the angels to take you away after Mrs Camberley tears you open?”

“Hardly, I just brought back a quarter of million dollars to the firm,” He laughed. Two of the girls, the younger ones, were lifting document boxes from the trunk. The elder one, closer to Lewis’s age was holding a leather satchel over her shoulder, “I’m pretty sure Mrs Camberley will be ecstatic to see me.”

“I hope you’re right,” I smiled. The women stayed quiet. “Hi, I’m Maxine.”

“Hi. April,” Said the black girl. She looked like a college student. New intern? She looked to have the nerves of a first day on the job kind of girl. The other girl at the trunk, “Bryn, Nice to meet you, Maxine!” was closer to my thirty and had legs upon legs. “Nadine.” The milf declared. They were all striking women in new skirt suits. April wore a deep wine red and I envied her. Bryn was wearing something a bit flirtier, white and blue. Nadine was severe in charcoal. Her auburn hair was twisted up into a power bun. She looked fierce. There was a power in these women, a power offset by the chokers they all wore. I would’ve sworn that Bryn’s was actually a dog collar. Napoleon wore its duplicate.

“You’re letting your hair grow out?” Lewis was closer to me than I had expected. He lifted my hair in a friendly gesture I could not attribute to the Lewis I knew.

“Oh, yeah, I missed it,” I brushed my hair back towards my shoulders. I don’t know why, but I was feeling put off. It must have had something to do with these new girls, “Don’t you like it?”

“I think your hair is lovely,” Bryn claimed, “It makes you look young.”

“Thank you,” I couldn’t match her smile but I had to try. Lewis seemed pleased. I had never thought of him as a dog. There was enough of that at the office, harmless though Tim and George Jr. were. Did Lewis just have to hide it better? He was neither Dalton nor West. He seemed to work harder and smarter for it.

“It’s pretty,” Lewis announced, “It’s just a chore when it’s long.”

I laughed at what didn’t sound like sarcasm. Maybe I wasn’t used to Lewis joking? Was anyone? I started rolling over old conversations in my head. It could have been that we’d been swimming in jokes at our expense behind that mad professor look. Maybe Lewis was considerably more lighthearted than any of us knew? I laughed again. I laughed easy, I didn’t want it to sound forced.

“Nadine, if you’ll do the honors,” He stepped away from me and squeezed Bryn’s shoulder as he walked behind her. The brunette should have been a model for that smile.

“What honors?” I followed him. He closed the trunk as Nadine squatted down to root through her satchel. Lewis called me over to him.

“I wanted to ask you about the Collins case,” He prodded.

“Down here? I figured you needed some serious muscle,” I flexed my arms and April smiled wanly.

“I’ll put your body to work soon enough,” He chuckled and not work appropriately. Well, one off color joke in eight years wasn’t the worst thing. That’s when Nadine’s hands swept up my hair.

“What the hell!” I twisted to see Nadine holding a leather collar. Lewis’s hands slapped on my arms and held me tightly.

“Finish Nadine.” I guess I froze. Should I have screamed? How do you react when the situation makes no sense. I didn’t think until the collar tightened around my throat. I had grabbed and pulled Nadine’s sleeve tearing the stitching at her shoulder.

“Quiet now,” Lewis whispered and let me go.

“What?” I stage whispered.

“Good, I knew you’d be smarter than April,” He grinned happily, “Let’s get you out of those wet panties.”

Irene West – Monday, July 13th, 2015 Lewis Cooke cut through the office with Maxine and two other young women. The smart thing to do would have been to duck my head and let the the crucifixion happen in its own time. I put down my coffee. I was a third year associate. Despite my enviable name at Dalton West, I had to work my ass off. I wasn’t going to see the sun for a few more months. Then, if I was lucky, I’d be shadowing Faraday or Cooke until I was fast tracked to junior partner. I backed out of my computer to the login prompt and followed Lewis to sate my curiosity.

“Bryn, close the door,” His voice carried into the bullpen I hurried up to come face to face with the white stranger accompanying him.

“Hi,” I didn’t wince when I caught the door with the toe of my stiletto.

“Hello,” She said warily.

“You guys look like--”

“Bryn!”

“There’s a young woman here,” She panicked a little. Faraday would’ve been better. It wouldn’t be my call.

“Yeah, who?” He grumbled.

“Tell him it’s Irene,” My voice carried into his office. He strode over, separated Bryn from the door and ushered me in. His office was small, probably the smallest in the firm. The black girl was sitting on his desk. Bryn was shadowing his house plant. Maxine looked wild eyed. I jumped when he shut the door with a slam.

“April, something in leather I think,” He said and slapped his hand on the small of my back. It wasn’t a slap but it connected way too strongly to be friendly, “Irene, are you spoken for?”

“Free as a bird,” I chirped. The black girl was digging through a canvas shoulder bag. She quivered. Why was everyone so nervous of Lewis? It was infectious.

“Lewis?” Maxine prodded as I was walked around his desk for some reason.

“I don’t know if you’ve spoken to my Aunt yet, but...” When I was nervous the West name was a bigger part of my persona. Why was I nervous?

“In a moment,” He snorted. “We’re taking over the Ishmael Rawlins debacle and I’ll need your help.”

“Happy to,” I lied. I wouldn’t have pushed for Cooke this morning if Faraday had been attached to the good client.

“Excellent, shut up for just a moment,” He grabbed my pony tail and swung it aside. I turned my head to question this. The black girl shuffled over his desk kneeing the keyboard over the side. In her hand was a thick black strap.

“Um, I don’t think--”

“Once you’re fitted, I’ll bring you in,” He promised me in a way that reminded I was to shut up.

“Fitted?” I didn’t shut up. Technically, he could tell me what to do or to say. I was bad at those instructions, “Let go of my hair.”

That’s when I noticed how tight his grip was. I reached out with both hands to push back April. She grabbed one of my wrists and passed off the strap to Maxine.

“Master?” She murmured.

“Master!” I shrilled. April grabbed my other wrist. I almost got my lungs filled. I almost screamed. Maxine was like a ninja.

“Shut up, Irene,” He told me again and I did. That’s when I panicked. He had to catch me.

“Jesus Christ!” Lewis hefted me around and dropped my butt on the lip of his desk, “This collaring shit is a chore.”

“You’ve been lucky,” Bryn agreed. Lewis sneered at her, “You have to tell them what they are to cement your control.”

“Yes,” he picked up my chin with one strong hand, “You’re a beautiful woman Irene.”

“Thank you,” I replied, unhappy with a compliment that normally would’ve floated me until lunch. Even coming from Lewis.

“Maxine is more attractive, as is Bryn,” He continued chilling the air around me, “But you won’t let me down, will you?”

“Let you down?” I looked into his dark eyes. I looked away from his darker smile. He reached up and pulled the elastic from my hair. His fingers shaking out the impossible to manage waves onto my shoulders.

“No, you’re too much of a perfectionist for that,” He began unbuttoning my blouse. A quick flick of his eyes and the other girls were stripping quickly. I looked out the window behind him. We were only on the second floor. The blinds were open. There were people walking around the city. None of them looked up, any of them could.

“Lewis--”

“Master.”

“Um, I--

“Master.”

“Master,” I dropped my head and let him roll my blouse off of my shoulders, I was wearing a boring beige bra. He tutted over it. Bryn and Maxine were both wearing gorgeous black numbers. Both girls had substantially more to display. I breathed, “Why me?”

“Beauty, brains, competence,” He suggested as he unzipped my pants and tugged them down over my hips, “None of that honestly. Mostly spite.”

“OK,” What was I to say to that?

“You’ll dress better for me in the future.”

“Of course I will,” I reached up and unhooked my bra, “I’ll get rid of this ugly underwear right away.”

“I do appreciate initiative,” He laughed.

“I give great head,” I resigned myself.

“I’ve been spoiled,” He grinned, “But you will be up to task in a matter of days.”

I was squatting down, shivering. He grabbed my hair and pulled me to my feet. Maxine and Bryn approached from both sides, stripped totally. I reached for my panties.

“Maxine you may as well get dressed. Take Bryn to the file room. She has a list to catalog.”

“Um,” She was white-faced, her hands were running over Lewis, her dark nipples were stiff and hard.

“I’ll have you when I have time,” He waved her off. Bryn was already half dressed, my face was tugged towards Lewis, “You don’t whore yourself up with makeup. I like that.”