Bad Luck Black Money (24 page)

"Sure," Boss said as he shook her small hand. "Uhm, what about Sarge, Duke Winterfield?"

"Sarge?" pondered the Duke aloud. "Oh, the mustached man who currently heads up things? He seems competent enough, but he's no Karen Sculley.

He can keep on top of things until Karen arrives across the pond in six to eight months time. She's currently running an operation for me.

Normally, we provide the maximum level of security for all our members. But your little gang of ex-soldiers seems to be doing a fine job without our intervention.

It took my detail over an hour to secure your bodyguards. They had to gas the whole, damn block to get them all.... We have never had to gas a whole block before. That speaks volumes about their skill set.

You are responsible for the safety of Esmerelda, Ruby, Emerald, and yourself. We're currently taking care of Diamond's security, covertly. I want you to double your current security force. You also need to hire unmanned aviation specialists because you're getting fighter drones. If someone wants to hurt you, make them pay for it in blood."

"I'll get on it as soon as I can, sir," answered Boss while looking at Karen. "And may I ask, why I'm in need of Sculley's services?"

"Because I say so," responded the Duke. "Think of her as a present from me to you."

Turning toward Karen, the Duke said, "Go over the proper way to handle a semi-automatic pistol with him. Pay special attention to clearing jams. Also, show him a few moves. I don't want him going down like a bitch."

"Yes, sir," Karen replied.

Boss yelled out, "Thank, you, Duke Winterfield," as the Duke walked away.

The two of them were left standing there. They looked each other over.

"Haven't you ever heard the phrase, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'?" Karen asked.

"I think you're more the size of a gift pony than a gift horse," retorted Boss. "Isn't that right?"

"It's well within my authority to bend you over my knee and give you a good spanking," Karen said flirtingly. "You wouldn't like that, or would you?"

"If I were bent over your knees, my elbows and knees would be touching the floor."

"Want to bet?" asked Karen.

Chapter 34

Esmerelda sat on the right-hand side of the Duchess of Winterfield. A select, few, female NWO members joined them at the head table. Lesser women members sat at the tables nearest them. Further away at slightly less fancy tables, sat the wives of members.

It delighted Esmerelda to be sitting at the cool table, a treat, which she had never experienced in high school. She noticed that her flatware was gold, while the wives of members, who sat at far away tables, were stuck with mere silver.

Servants, who were dressed in the traditional garb of seventeenth century France, served the daintiest pastries imaginable with exquisite grace and poured tea into eggshell thin, porcelain cups. Performers in colorful tights juggled balls and swung from a nearby trapeze. Everything was designed to delight the female senses, and Esmerelda was thoroughly delighted.

Tablemates of Esmerelda gossiped about which members were doing what to whom. Then they would take a break to brag about their children's accomplishments or those of their husbands, before returning to the juicy gossip.

It was all very entertaining to Esmerelda. But she didn't feel the need to compete with any of the women surrounding her. The fact that her entire family had individual memberships did all of the bragging for her. Like the Duchess, she listened politely while others did most of the talking.

A couple of hours passed and the Duchess of Winterfield leaned over to Esmerelda and whispered, "Are you getting bored, dear?"

"No, ma'am, I'm fine."

"Well, did you know that we have other activities, which we can avail ourselves of? Feel free to have a change of scenery. I've been told that you like to ride horses. We have horses and a riding area on one of the lower floors. I don't remember which, but someone will show you."

"Thank, you, Duchess Winterfield. I think I'll take you up on your kind offer. I haven't gone riding in years."

"You should be able to find a horse to your liking. I believe we have all breeds. And of course, our horses will be the very best of the best."

"I'm more excited than a good, little girl on Christmas Eve," Esmerelda said.

The Duchess nodded at her personal maid, who was standing nearby, and the girl hurried over.

"See that Esmerelda finds her way to the stables."

"Yes, Duchess."

"Oh, I didn't know I was leaving now," Esmerelda said, rising to her feet. With a slight bow she added, "by your permission, Duchess."

Outside of the tearoom, a rickshaw waited to carry Esmerelda and the Duchess's maid wherever they wanted to go. The rickshaw was essential, especially, when wearing a layered, frilly dress.

As a tall, shirtless man, who had well defined chest muscles pulled the rickshaw, Esmerelda let her mind wander back to her childhood, when she first fell in love with horses. All little girls want a pony, and Esmerelda had the good fortune to belong to a family that owned several horses.

Rhonda (Esmerelda's mother) had inherited a farm in California's wine valley. She was an absentee landlord for the most part. The couple, who ran the farm, paid her enough in rent to cover the taxes on the place, but not much more. As a show of their appreciation, they stabled Rhonda's horses for free.

Esmerelda could remember the day, like it was yesterday, when she got her first pony. It was on the occasion of her eighth birthday. The whole family had driven down to the old farm. She was in the car, looking out the window, when she saw a solid white pony with a big, red bow draped across its shoulders.

Looking back on it now, Esmerelda realized that, that was the happiest day of her life. The birth of her children was special, as was her wedding day. But nothing in her life had ever brought the amount of sheer joy into her heart as had, getting that pony for her birthday. She named her, Sprinkles.

The young Esmerelda enjoyed Sprinkles every time she got the chance to go to the farm. She wanted to take care of the pony, all by herself. She liked to give the pony its daily bucket of oats and would make sure the pony had enough hay to nibble on. Brushing its coat and occasionally washing the pony with a bucket of soapy water was especially fun. And she would give Sprinkles carrots and sugar cubes as often as she could get away with it.

Time marched on and eventually Esmerelda outgrew Sprinkles. Her father and mother were impressed with the way their youngest daughter had handled the responsibility of caring for the pony. So, they decided to buy Esmerelda a palomino filly named Biscuit.

Ponies are fun, but they have their limitations. Full-grown horses are another matter. A horse expands your range from around the farm to trails, which can go on for miles. Esmerelda, who was teetering on adolescence, embraced her newfound freedom. She would saddle-up Biscuit in the morning and ride until nightfall.

On one such day, Esmerelda had to go back to the farm early because Biscuit had a small rock lodged in her hoof. She needed a metal file to pry it loose, so she walked back to the farm leading her horse by its harness like a dog on a leash. As she walked through a wooded area behind the barn, she heard a commotion and decided to investigate.

She tied Biscuit to a branch of a tree and proceeded on by herself. As Esmerelda was about to walk out into a small meadow behind the stables, she stopped and watched what the farm couple was doing.

They had placed a mare in heat within a small, circular pen and were about to introduce a black stallion into that same pen. With high priced horses, breeding is usually done through artificial insemination. It's an unsavory process with the stud mounting a dummy, where the semen is collected, and eventually deposited inside of the mare by a veterinarian.

Artificial insemination can be expensive. Lots of things can go wrong when horses copulate, so precautions have to be taken. An excited stallion can injure a mare, and likewise, a mare could neuter a stud. However the horses on Rhonda's farm weren't that expensive. So, it was going to be a case of some good, old-fashioned, horse sex.

Being a highly intelligent child, Esmerelda had read all about horses. She knew the mechanics of sex. But knowing something from a book and witnessing it with your own two eyes are totally different experiences.

As the stallion became more and more aroused, its penis grew longer and larger. A horse's penis is measured in feet not inches. To Esmerelda, it appeared as if the stud horse had five legs.

After overcoming the mare's initial resistance, the stud mounted her. His thrusting began long before penetration, which seemed to add to the nastiness of it all. Actual copulation didn't take that long, and after it was over with, both horses seemed to act as if nothing had happened.

But something had happened to Esmerelda. Her childhood innocence had been ripped from her. The image of that giant, horse penis was burned into her brain. She felt disgusted, dirty, and a little disturbed.

Back at school, Esmerelda was bored out of her mind. She attended one of the best public schools in California, thanks to her parents' ritzy address. However, the most advanced classes available to her were far too simple for her advanced intelligence.

Her professor parents believed it was best that she socialize with children her own age. They cited several papers, which theorized damage was done to the psyche of children who were allowed to skip grades. During school, Esmerelda would watch the clock or read textbooks, which were far beyond anything her teachers' could comprehend.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Esmerelda wasn't the most popular girl in high school. A good day was a day when she wasn't openly made fun of by the other students. And those days were rare.

Boys ignored her or worse. She was eighteen years old and was still waiting for her first kiss. Then one day as she was staring out the widow, looking at squirrel hunting for acorns under an oak tree, the answer came to her. She would just pay for sex. Guys did it all the time; why shouldn't she?

Tony Corwin was rumored to have a monster in his white jockey briefs. At least, that's what Esmerelda overheard from yakking girls in the restroom. An eleventh grade blonde dressed in a cheerleader outfit was telling her friends how Tony showed her his thingy and freaked her out. By her own account, it was as long as a ruler and as thick as her wrist.

Esmerelda stole Tony's permanent record from a locked drawer, in a safe-room protected by a time-delay combination lock and under constant video surveillance. It would have taken a professional thief months to figure out a way to steal the record, but it took her a week. When Esmerelda set her mind on doing something, it usually got done.

It took another week of studying Corwin's routines before she found an ideal time to talk to him alone. Under current law, she would fit the definition of a stalker. But there he was, mowing the grass in front of his house with his shirt off.

As Tony was pushing a lawnmower across his front yard, Esmerelda jumped out in front of him. Scaring the crap out of him.

"Are you crazy?" screamed Tony. "I could have cut your foot off!"

"Judging by the speed you were walking and the lack of incline in the yard, I don't think so," Esmerelda said.

"What do you want?"

"I want to go up to your room with you, and then I want you to fuck me like a convict who's been in prison for the last ten years."

"... You're crazy, bitch. Get off my lawn."

"Are you sure about that? Because, I've got a one hundred dollar bill with your name on it," Esmerelda said, as she waved the bill in front of his face.

"No foolin'? You're gonna pay me to do it?"

"Yeah, and you don't even have to shower first. I want you hot and sweaty."

"OK," said Tony grabbing at the money, but then Esmerelda yanked it away.

"Not so fast, sex first then you get the money."

"OK, I can do that," Tony announced, as he started for the house. "My parents won't be home for..."

"Another hour and a half," interrupted Esmerelda. "I know. And I want two pops. You're young. Two pops or no deal."

Turning around to look at Esmerelda, Tony said, "I don't think you can handle two pops. You're gonna beg for mercy before I even get one away."

"We'll see," Esmerelda said, dragging her hand across Corwin's sweaty chest. "We'll see."

The sex was everything Esmerelda had ever dreamed it could be... and more. She couldn't tell where the pain ended and pleasure began or if they were one and the same. Tony Corwin was a wild beast with a salami that stretched a Magnum XXL condom to its limits. And to top it all off, she got three rides for the price of two.

People talk and assholes brag. Within a week the whole student body knew about Esmerelda's booty buying'. Several guys offered their services for a price, but none were able to make measurement. They were sent away with a polite excuse and twenty dollars cash in hand.

The rumors swirling around the school didn't bother Esmerelda in the least. She was invisible before the incident and infamous afterwards. It was nice to have some attention even if it was in a venomous form spat from the lips of catty, teenage girls.

By the time she had graduated from high school, Esmerelda had indirectly paid for Tony Corwin's first new car and his first year's college tuition. She was always pestering her parents for money so that she could run, give it to Tony, and get what she needed.

The thought that Esmerelda might be addicted to drugs crossed her educator parents' minds, but they could never find any evidence to support their theory. She was addicted, but not to drugs. It was the meat monster that had her in its power. Later on, Esmerelda would realize that Tony had been a bargain, at even twice the price.