Chapter 1: Monday, August 2, 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

“I haven’t gotten to the best part yet,” Ellen said excitedly. “You’re not going to believe what happened the day before we flew back.”

Leanne and Kara already knew about it, of course. They had been reading it from Ellen since she and Jake had gotten off the plane the day before.

“Jake made friends with a guy at the American Embassy and got us an invitation to a diplomatic reception at the Élysée Palace.”

“What’s that?” Julie asked.

“It’s the residence of the president of France,” Jake said.

“Like the White House?”

“Uh-huh,” Ellen said.

“Oh, my God!” Julie said, turning on Jake. “Did you get to meet him? The president of France, I mean. Isn’t he the guy married to that model?”

“Yes, we did, and yes, he is,” Jake said. “We got to meet them both at the reception.”

“Jake, you didn’t cause an incident, did you?” Boris asked.

Jake laughed. “Not me, Boris. The only incident was caused by Ellen.”

Ellen blushed. “I didn’t do anything, Jake.”

“Don’t try to make on like you are all innocent.” Jake turned to Boris. “She was guilty of being Ellen Fielding in a sexy dress. She wore one of the dresses she bought while we were there. I’m surprised the interior minister didn’t declare her a hazard to public safety. She caused an accident while we were walking to the reception.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Ellen said.

“It was exactly like that,” Jake said.

I read the minds of the drivers, he sent to everyone but Alice. The guy in the Saab was watching Ellen walking down the sidewalk and didn’t see the Peugeot when he pulled out into traffic. Bam!

“And that was just the one I noticed,” Jake said. “There could have been others.”

“Who cares about car crashes,” Nina said. “I want to hear about Ellen and the president of France.”

“Okay. We get to the palace,” Jake said, “and we’re working our way through the reception line with the American ambassador when we get to the president and his wife.”

“What’s he like?” Nina asked.

“The ambassador? He was a really nice guy,” Jake said. “He was somebody in Hollywood before becoming the ambassador. He kept us amused by telling us stories about making the Muppet movies.”

“No, Jake,” Nina said. “Not him, the president.”

“Him? He wasn’t nearly as much fun, although it was funny seeing him with Ellen. She towered over him. You could tell that he was smitten with her.”

“His wife is taller than him, too,” Ellen said. “And he was just being polite.”

“Polite enough that it pissed off his wife,” Jake said.

“What did she do?” Alice asked.

“She started barking at him in French and then stomped off.”

“What did she say to him?” Nina asked.

“My college French is a little rusty,” Ellen said.

“It was something about sniffing and female dogs,” Jake said.

“You don’t speak French,” Julie said.

It’s worse than that even, Jake sent. I couldn’t even follow their thoughts because they think in French.

“True, but I asked several witnesses afterward,” he said aloud, “including Ellen whose French is not as rusty as she claims.”

“That must have made for a tense reception,” Nina said.

“The president and his wife kept their distance the rest of the evening,” Jake said, “which was a good thing because he kept dogging Ellen.”

Kate turned to Ellen. “Did you have a language problem with him?”

“His accent is a little strong, but his English is better than my French,” Ellen said.

“The president speaks okay English,” Jake said. “His wife’s English is very good.”

“And just how did you find out how good her English is?” Julie asked.

“I talked to her. She came up to me after a while. She wanted to find out about Ellen.”

“She really was jealous, huh?” Nina asked.

“Actually, not that much,” Jake said. “She wasn’t that concerned about him chasing Ellen. She was just pissed off about him doing it so openly.”

“She told you that?” Alice asked.

Jake smiled ruefully. “I’ve always been able to get people to open up to me.”

“Including 40-something first ladies?” she asked.

“What can I say?” he said with a smile. “I inspire trust.”

Alice peered at him intently. “So she told you she doesn’t mind that her husband is chasing another woman? What did she tell you about her own preferences?”

“She never came out and said it outright, but I got the impression that she regards sex as a tool of statecraft.”

“Did she invite you back to her workshop to look in her toolbox?” Julie asked.

“Sorry to disappoint, but no.”

You don’t fool me, Jake, Nina thought, knowing that Jake would hear it. You’re leaving out all sorts of interesting details. Like how did you just happen to make friends with someone from the embassy and wheedle an invitation to see the president of France? I, for one, am dying to hear the entire story.

You’ll just have to wait until later, Jake sent. Some things can’t be said in front of guests.

Stupid guests, Nina said.

Alice is a sweet girl, and she is our guest, Jake sent. Don’t be rude.

“So what was she like,” Alice asked, “the first lady?”

“She really was something,” Jake said. “Easy to talk to. Beautiful. She loves the prestige that she gets from being married to the president. And she especially loves the way it puts her on the top of the heap of Paris society.”

“But she’s not very politic if she’s talking about her marriage with 14 year-olds,” Alice said.

“I haven’t met the woman who wouldn’t talk freely to Jake,” Leanne said.

Alice looked at Jake searchingly. “He doesn’t seem like your typical 14 year-old. Does he?”

“You didn’t know?” Julie asked. “He’s actually a 42-year-old man with a glandular problem that keeps him from aging normally.”

Alice laughed.

Jake couldn’t help but notice how that did nice things to her breasts. She had arrived in a light, sleeveless sweater and a skirt. Her hair was tied in a ponytail. It made her look younger. She was enjoying the camaraderie of the table, but she was also very alert. She wanted to understand why these people who seemed so lively and friendly were the way they were.

“So what happened with you and the president?” Carol said to Ellen.

“We talked about stuff we had in common,” Ellen said. “He used to be a commercial lawyer. We talked about the prospects of several French companies to increase their exports to the US.”

“He didn’t ask you if you were single?” Leanne asked.

“Or what you thought about French men?” Kara asked.

“Or what you were doing later that night?” Leanne asked.

“Or if you’d like to have a nightcap with him after the reception?” Jake asked.

Ellen gave them a dirty look. “He was a gentleman. He knew that I was there with my son.”

“Alice, did you notice how she didn’t answer our questions?” Kara said.

“What’s there to talk about?” Ellen said. “We talked, had a few drinks, and then Jake and I called it a night. We went back to our hotel.”

“Those might be the highlights,” Kara said, “but I think you’re leaving out the good stuff.”

“There really is nothing more to report,” Jake said. “Well, except for those 15 minutes when Ellen and the president disappeared from the reception room.”

“Jake! You know that nothing happened!”

“Did I say that anything did?”

“What did happen?” Julie asked.

“Fifteen minutes alone with a sexy, powerful man? You can get a lot done if you put your mind to it,” Nina said.

“You and the president of France?” Alice said.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Ellen said. “Nothing happened.”

“Then what was it like?” Nina asked.

“I can’t go blabbing about the head of state of a powerful country.”

“Then there is something to blab about,” Julie said.

“No. He just got me a drink, and then he kissed me.”

“Kissed you?” Nina asked. “Like a sweet peck on the cheek to thank you for choosing France as your vacation destination? Or was it a real kiss, like he wanted to ditch his wife and take you back to his apartments?”

Ellen shifted in her seat. Jake smiled. The memory of the encounter was still vivid for her. She had found the president charming and being with him exciting. Remembering it was causing her to become aroused.

“There are times when you can’t kiss and tell,” Ellen said. “I’ve said as much as I can.”

“I guess some women just have to have their secrets,” Jake said.

Julie snorted.

“Ellen, I think your restraint is admirable,” Jake said. “Still, it would help explain things if you show everyone how you were dressed that night.”

“You want me to put on that dress?”

“Yes, you’re about finished eating.”

“Yes, Jake,” she said meekly, got up from the table, and walked out of the room.

Alice watched Ellen leave with her mouth open. Then she shut it, but she was burning to ask why Ellen was so amenable to Jake.

Even though this was Alice’s second meal with them, he was still learning how she responded around his women, and how they reacted to her. He was pleased that none of his women seemed to regard her as a threat.

Alice knew about his relationship with Leanne, but she was still unsure of how he was involved with the other women. It was obvious to her that all of them, except for the beautiful-but-surly Kate, were fond of him, even if she could not get a sense of exactly what their relationships were. Jake suppressed a smile as Alice sighed inwardly and opined that money seemed to make people eccentric.

Ask him about the Romanian girl, Ellen sent from her bedroom.

The women all turned to stare at him. Alice started at the apparently-coordinated motion and looked around uncertainly.

“So, what about you and the Romanian?” Nina asked Jake.

“What Romanian?” Alice asked.

“The daughter of the ambassador from Romania,” he said. “There really is nothing to say. I met her and talked a little, but she was out of my league.”

Leanne frowned. “There’s no one out of your league. Why do you say that?”

Jake smiled ruefully. “She would disagree. She certainly made sure that I knew it. Europeans really are different from us. She is the daughter of a high official of the government of Romania. My mom is working class. She is 17 and the three years between us made a big difference to her. She is also very pretty. Me, I was just a mongrel visiting from abroad.”

Leanne radiated affront. “So what makes her so great?”

“If she had bothered to answer your question at all, she would have said that it’s because she comes from a better family than me. But she would have wondered why you would show your ignorance by asking.”

“So what happened?”

“Nothing, really. We were introduced by one of the cultural attachés from the American embassy. She gave me the several minutes that propriety demanded, and then she found someone else to talk to and cut me loose. At least until the first lady took me aside to talk. Then she suddenly became more interested.”

“And?” Nina asked.

“And then it was time to go. Ellen and I left. End of story.”

“So, did you see the Louvre?” Alice asked.

“We spent a couple of mornings there,” Jake said.

“How was the nightlife?” Nina asked.

“I’m afraid that my age put a damper on that. We did see the finish of the Tour de France from our hotel room. Aside from that we mostly focused on touristy places.”

Ellen reappeared. She had shed the conservative suit she had worn to work and donned a blue gown. It was form-fitting around the hips and bust and had a plunging neckline. The waist was pleated and drawn tight around her from just below her breasts down to her hips. Her narrow waist accentuated her large breasts and drew attention to them and her trim hips. Boris stared down at his plate, trying to ignore the effect that Ellen had on him.

The women in the family oohed when they saw her. She was commanded to twirl, walk the length of the room, turn around, and then come back.

Ellen glanced at Boris and then frowned at Jake.

“You’re just what we need at work, Ellen,” Alice said.

Julie tittered. Leanne looked affronted. Alice realized what she had just said.

“No, not like that. I, uh, we don’t just ... Jake, tell them about the escorts.”

Alice’s comment had shocked Jake, too, until he read her intentions and recalled what he had been told by Diana.

“I don’t know much about them, Alice,” he said. “Diana told me that we provide escorts. She didn’t mean prostitutes. It’s purely social. The clients are told not to expect sex. I remember that it’s hard to staff that part of the business.”

“We provide dates for men and a few women, too,” Alice said. “Obviously anyone good enough for the president of France would thrill the local men. Ellen probably wouldn’t be in it for the money, but our escorts find that the job itself is actually very enjoyable. Many of the clients are great company and often they take their escorts to interesting events. There are lots of society functions. Many times they take the escort to social or business meetings at the best restaurants in the city.”

“That’s an interesting idea,” Ellen said. “I seldom date. Maybe this would be a way to get a man to actually ask me out.”

Boris stared stonily at his plate.

“We’ve got a Democratic Party fundraiser Friday,” Alice said, “and several men have called looking for dates, but we don’t have enough. We’ve had to turn them away. It would be a chance to hobnob with the state’s political elite and hear the President of the United States speak, although I can’t promise, Ellen, that he’ll try to spirit you away like the President of France did.”

“Let me think about it, Alice. Perhaps, I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

“It would be so great if you could, and I know just the man to match you with. Handsome, politically powerful, and a genuinely nice guy.”

Jake felt Boris surge with jealousy.

“I’m going to change my clothes now,” Ellen said, glancing at Jake for permission. “I’m overdressed.”

When Jake was silent, she stood and left the room.

Alice looked over at Leanne.

“You know, Leanne, you’d be great, too.”

“Me? I’m way too old for that.”

“You’re very attractive and there are a lot of men who don’t want a 20-year-old girl on their arm. They think it makes them look vain, or desperate. They prefer women who are not so young that the age difference calls attention to itself. Your age would be a big selling point. They would also love the fact that you are so refined and dignified. I think you would do very well.”

Leanne looked over at Jake, her eyebrows raised in silent question.

Do you feel that, Mom? Kara sent. He’s jealous of you with another man. Given the way he’s manipulating Boris, it goes to show that there is some justice in the universe.

Maybe it hadn’t been such a smart idea to turn his women into mind readers, Jake thought.

I wouldn’t stop your mom from seeing other men, Jake sent. You both know that. I’ve said it lots of times.

Leanne stood and walked the length of the table to Jake. She stroked his cheek and smiled at him.

I know that, Jake. Still, it means the world to me that it makes you jealous. And that you’d let me do it anyway makes it even better.

She kissed Jake tenderly on the lips.

“I wouldn’t be interested if the man expected me to have sex with him,” she said to Alice.

“The men are made aware that sex is not a part of the service,” Alice said, “but I will make it especially clear to your date that he is expected to behave like a gentleman.”

“Then sign me up,” Leanne said.

“Mom!” Julie said.

Jake felt himself go numb. He had told all of his women several times that they could see other men, and now it was going to happen. But Leanne? His Leanne? He had never thought for a second that she would be the one.

Kara laughed heartily from her place three seats down the table from Jake, who was at the head. Jake glared at her. Why was she taunting him? Surely she must see how this was hard for him.

“Oh, dear,” Kara said, suddenly sobering up.

Master, stop it, Ellen sent from her bedroom. Quit being so possessive.

Leanne knelt beside him and looked up at his face. Jake scanned her. Ellen was right. His jealousy was affecting his judgment. Leanne and Ellen saw the escort service as a way to increase Jake’s access to powerful people in the community.

I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, Jake, Kara sent. It’s just so odd for you to be the one thrown off balance. Please, forgive me.

No, I’m the one who should be sorry. If you see humor in it, Kara, you do. It’s not my place to stifle that. I’m not showing very good leadership, am I?

Leanne smiled at him and then kissed him again.

Maybe not, but I love the cause, Jacob. You can get jealous over me anytime you want.

If you and Ellen think this is worthwhile, Jake sent, then you go ahead with it. What about you, Kara?

Alice didn’t ask me. Besides, that’s not my role. I manage your household and will raise your children. I’ll leave the espionage to these two Mata Haris.

Ellen returned, dressed in shorts and a tank top with spaghetti straps, looking less elegant but just as sexy as she had in the blue dress.

“I’ve decided, Alice,” she said as she sat down in her seat. “I’ll escort your man to his fundraiser.”

“Wonderful. I’ll meet with you on Friday before your date. We’ll fill out the personnel forms then. Bring a couple of your favorite outfits and your makeup. We’ve got a consultant on call who will have you looking your best when the client arrives.” Alice turned to Leanne. “I’ll run through the list of men who have requested an escort for this weekend, Leanne, and find one that will work out well for you. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Jake stood. “Annabelle, that was a great dinner. Thank you.” He walked to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Now that the senior women of the family have been farmed out, I’m going to ask Alice to join me in the living room to talk business. Would you bring us something to drink? A Coke for me.”

“Coffee for me,” Alice said as she stood.

“Leanne, would you join us?”

“Yes, Jake,” she said. “Annabelle, would you bring me a cup of coffee, too?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jake led Alice and Leanne to the sitting room and took a seat.

“Has the place fallen down while I was gone?” Jake asked Alice when their drinks had arrived.

“It’s mostly been business as usual, Jake,” Alice said. “No security problems. Revenues have been in line with what’s normal for the season. Labor costs are meeting expectations. Food cost is the only area where we are above targets.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that yet,” Jake said. “Let’s give the new chef another month to wow the customers and then we’ll ask him to come up with ways to bring his costs back in line.”

“July’s books will be ready for inspection a week from today. Our most pressing problem is the need for more in-call talent and more escorts.”

“Have you had to turn away any customers?”

“Escort customers, yes, but we always have to do that. If Ellen and Leanne could work one day a week, that would help some. It would be better if we had another six or eight escorts. We haven’t had to turn away any in-call business, yet, but we don’t have as much flexibility as we’d like for scheduling. It’s bad for morale when we can’t accommodate requests for days off. Also, we sometimes have to tell clients that we can’t book them at their preferred time.”

Alice reached into her purse and pulled out two envelopes, both addressed to Jake. He opened one. It was Calvin’s weekly security report, dated two weeks earlier. The other was the report for the subsequent week. A customer had tried to bully a girl. The security staff had intervened before she could be hurt. Michelle, the prostitute Jake had caught using drugs the prior month, seemed to be walking the straight and narrow. She had been giving a urine sample at a nearby lab before every shift as Jake had required as a condition for her to return to work.

“Anything else?”

“A big storm last week took off some shingles. The roof is leaking over rooms six and seven. The insurance adjuster will be by tomorrow morning to look it over.”

“How old is the building?” Leanne asked.

“I’m not sure. Probably seven years,” Jake said. “That’s how long Diana and Chef Andre have been there. Why?”

“A roof should last longer than that. Check if the builder’s warranty is still in effect.”

Alice pulled a small notebook and a pen from her purse and made a note.

“I’ll check up on it tomorrow,” she said. “You should come by and make an appearance, Jake. It will remind everybody to whom they are accountable.”

Jake nodded. “I’ll try to get by later this week. At the moment I’m catching up on other responsibilities.”

Alice pulled another envelope from her purse. Jake opened it and found a check in his name from her for a hundred dollars.

“That’s a relief,” he said. “For a while, I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay my rent this month.”

Alice slapped his arm.

“You’re rich. You don’t need my measly hundred dollars.”

“Given the way these women spend money, I need every penny I can scrape together.”

Leanne slapped his other arm. “That’s not true. We don’t spend much money. In fact, what we spend is usually our own money. You’ve made sure that we have enough.”

Jake stood. “Now that we’re done here, let’s go back and visit with the others,” he said and led them out of the living room.

“So, Jake is a generous guy?” Alice asked Leanne as they followed him.

“Actually, he doesn’t give us any money, at least not directly. He pays rent, utilities, and groceries and the like, but he hasn’t given anyone any money so far as I know. He just arranges things so that we are all taken care of.”

Jake walked into the kitchen where the teenagers were helping the servants with the dishes. He sat at the table between Ellen and Nina.

“How does that work?” Alice asked.

“His favorite tactic seems to be getting lawyers to give us money,” Leanne said.

Leanne, my love, you’re taking the conversation in a risky direction.

“He gets lawyers to give you money?” Alice asked Leanne. “How does that work? It usually goes in the other direction.”

“Remember that trouble with Tommy Cox a month ago?”

“I don’t know if we should get into this,” Jake said.

“I think we should,” Alice said. “I remember when it was in the news. I got very interested after I saw Jake and Boris planning to attack Cox’s ranch.”

“That’s not what we were doing,” Jake said. “I explained it to you at the time.”

“And then afterward, he sends me this brief note saying he’s okay, but he doesn’t say anything else about what happened.”

“Jake, shame on you, leaving her hanging like that,” Kara said from the counter where she was rinsing a serving dish. “I bet he didn’t tell you how two days before that, Cox attacked us to get to Nina.”

“You’re kidding. What happened?”

Careful, big mouths. Don’t tell her more than she needs to know.

“Some of Cox’s goons tracked us to where we were hiding,” Kara said. “Jake and Boris drove the attackers off. Fortunately none of us were hurt. Afterward Jake made Cox pay everyone who was there $25,000 as compensation.”

“Jake, why didn’t you tell me?” Alice said.

“What was there for me to say? Boris took charge. He kept us safe. What Cox did was very illegal, so he had to shell out afterward to keep us from going to the police. Everyone who was there got the same payout in the settlement. We owe Boris and the lawyers our thanks.”

Boris grunted. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“Come on, Jake,” Leanne said. “You can’t just pretend you had no part in it. I don’t remember Boris going into the woods by himself after those goons.”

“Let’s get back to Cox. What happened after that?” Alice asked. “He hasn’t been arrested, and no one’s heard from him in over a month.”

“Cox may be missing, but his money and his lawyers are still around,” Jake said. “He’s having to take care of the bad things that he did.”

“Nina, too?”

“Yep. I should be getting a settlement that will take care of my medical bills and give me enough cash that I won’t ever go hungry.”

Alice glanced at Nina for a second and then looked at Jake suspiciously.

“What aren’t you telling me, Jake? I had two semesters of business law last year. I know something about how attorneys do things. I know that lawyers can’t give away a client’s money without authorization. Even if the police can’t find Cox, his lawyers have been in contact with him.”

She’s a smart one, master, Ellen sent.

“Who can say?” Jake said. “Just so long as he takes care of his responsibilities.”

Alice frowned at him. “A month ago, you were doing everything you could think of to protect Nina. Now you aren’t the slightest bit concerned. If he’s still on the loose, how do you know that Nina is safe?”

“Don’t you think that too much has happened? If there are any additional incidents people will assume that he is the cause. Besides, his reputation is already trashed. He’ll never win another election. There’s nothing left to protect. The best he can hope for is to settle with Nina and the parents of the other girl and move on with his life. To say nothing of the fact that he doesn’t want to do anything to bring himself to the attention of the police.”

“Jake, I read the papers. I may be a business major but I follow politics. I know that Cox’s enemies in the legislature would never dismiss him like that. He’s vindictive as hell. They wouldn’t be feeling comfortable that he wasn’t coming after them. I don’t see how you and Nina can feel safe. Unless you know something that you’re not telling me.”

“Yeah, Jake, what aren’t you telling her?” Julie asked from the kitchen counter where she was loading the dishwasher.

“He’s not dead,” Alice said. “If he were it would have been in the news. Besides his estate would be frozen. The lawyers wouldn’t be allowed to settle with Nina and the rest of you. But there must be some way that you are keeping him from messing with you, or else you all wouldn’t be so carefree.”

She’s getting warmer, master.

Alice tapped her fingers on the tabletop. “You were probably the last person to see him on that first Saturday in July. There have been no news accounts about him since then. That’s when his mother disappeared, too.” She looked at Jake sharply. “You’re not holding his mother hostage, are you?”

Kara laughed. “That would account for the facts. At least the ones that you know about, Alice. I bet you didn’t know that Mrs. Cox tried to kill Jake. Make him show you the scar.”

“Kara, you’re not helping,” Jake said. “And she doesn’t need any help.”

“Her guesses have been very shrewd so far, haven’t they,” Kara said.

“What scar is she talking about?” Alice asked Jake.

“I’ll show you,” Kara said.

She walked over to the table and pulled Jake’s shirttail from his slacks, exposing the scar on his back below his left kidney. It was healing well but still looked livid.

“My God, Jake, what happened to you?”

“What Kara said. Mrs. Cox didn’t like the message so she went after the messenger.”

“You weren’t the messenger. Before you went you told me that you had to talk to Cox yourself because no one else could do it. You had leverage, but you had to use it yourself, you said. What did you do? Did you threaten Cox somehow? Or blackmail him? As I think about it, that sounds more likely than you kidnapping his mother.”

“Okay, I’m really not enjoying this game anymore,” Jake said. He looked around. “I can’t say anything else.”

“You mean you’ve run out of half-truths,” Leanne said.

He caught a thought from Leanne and glared at Ellen, Leanne, and Kara in turn.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, and for some reason, you three aren’t helping.”

“We have your best interests at heart, my love,” Kara said.

Julie giggled. “I love it when they do this to him,” she whispered to Kate, loud enough for everybody to hear.

“What are they doing?” Kate asked, not bothering to whisper.