Jimmy's Game (Ruthless) (11 page)

Knocking on the bedroom door he waited for her to say, “Come in.” Hearing the fear in her voice, he knew she was afraid of him as he entered.
Standing in the doorway looking down on her as she sat on the bed, he realised just how vulnerable she was. In a calm voice he said, “You’ve spoken to Nick haven’t you?” Immediately she shook her head. “Don’t fucking lie to me Maria, Gladys told me.” “Please Jimmy it doesn’t make any difference; I’ve got to go back.” “You haven’t got to do anything, he doesn’t fucking own you!” For the first time she raised her voice slightly as she replied, “Yes he does! You know it and I know it, everybody knows it that’s just the way it is!” “Your wrong Maria I can’t and I won’t accept that, you said you had the means to put an end to all this and as far as I’m concerned nothing’s changed!” Hysterically she sobbed as she screamed, “Everything changed when he called me; you just don’t understand!” “You’re fucking right I don’t understand, so explain it to me!” “Just leave it Jimmy, please I’m begging you.” He wasn’t about to give up on her so he continued to shout until she finally broke down completely. Sobbing and shaking uncontrollably she blurted out, “If I don’t go back he’s going to kill someone, I’ve got to return to him by Friday!” Holding her tight he kept repeating that he was sorry for shouting at her, but he had to know what Nick had said. She tried to tell him, but no matter how he much he tried to comfort her she couldn’t stop crying and shaking. In a last ditched effort to calm her down, he gently pushed her onto the bed then leaning over her kissed her on the mouth. Moving hesitantly at first, because he didn’t want to scare her, then more passionately when she reciprocated. For a moment she seemed to calm down as she began to melt into him. Other than their brief kiss in the kitchen, it was the first time in her life she had felt a tender kiss. Because she seemed willing, he gently probed her mouth with his tongue, when she reciprocated, he could feel his body responding. Never before could he remember a time when he had felt such overwhelming desire for a woman and he’d certainly had his fair share over the years, but she was different her innocence and vulnerability attracted him. He wanted to show her what real lovemaking was, not as she had known with Nick who had simply used her body anyway he wanted. As they kissed he wanted to fondle her and kiss her all over, but he knew the time wasn’t right, the Doc had said that she needed time to heal.

Like him she felt confused as feelings she’d never experienced began flooding through her. Surprising herself she gently ran her hand up his back under his shirt, her heart was pounding. This was new territory to her, but she wanted to feel him, she touched him as he undid the buttons on her blouse, slowly exposing her firm perfect breasts; still tender from Nick’s attack, a large bite mark was still visible beneath the bruising. Gently he fondled her, kissing her breasts, her nipples standing erect as if beckoning him to continue
. Taking her nipple into his mouth, he gently flicked and sucked it. Her body was pulsing with anticipation. Slowly he made his way back up to her mouth, kissing her passionately, breathing heavily; their hot pulsing bodies wanting more. Kissing her neck a quiet whispering voice said, “I want you so fucking bad, but we must wait until you’re well.” Bringing her mouth round to meet his as if to silence him; she fumbled to undo his trousers. “Maria we must wait,” although by that point he was unable to bring himself to stop her because his body was crying out for her to touch him. The moment her hand caressed him, he released a shallow noise, a sigh of pleasure. Now he was powerless to stop her, almost at boiling pitch, he kissed her neck and breasts, wanting desperately for her to continue. Slowly she moved her hand up and down him, arousing him more and more. Unable to hold back any longer he burst into orgasm. “Oh God,” he cried out as his body jerked. Seconds later he was gently resting his head into her breasts then moments later they were kissing softly. Feeling the tears running down her face he said, “Hey what’s wrong?” “Nothing Jimmy it was wonderful. I never thought I would ever want to be with a man again, but you’ve made me feel whole. I always imagined it should be like that, but I never thought I would experience it.” Gently sweeping her hair back from her face he replied, “It was wonderful for me too babe. We’re going to work this out, so no more talk about going back ok?” “But I can’t risk anyone getting hurt because of me Jimmy.” “No one’s going to get hurt; anyway we’ve got until Friday so cheer up and give us a kiss” Their lips had just touched when they heard a noise,  stopping instantly Jimmy said, “Oh no that was the fucking door!” Realising the time he added; “Fuck me it’s Mickey with our dinner!” They both chuckled.

Scrambling to get dressed he emerged from the guest room tucking his shirt in. Having his own key to the apartment, Mickey had let himself in and was heading towards the kitchen as his friend appeared. “Sorry Mickey I didn’t realise the time,” said a red faced Jimmy. “No worries mate, I’m a bit early, how’s Maria?” No sooner had he asked when she came out of the guest room, clothes and hair looking rather dishevelled, barely able to look at him and blushing profoundly she simply nodding to acknowledge him as she quickly made her way into the bathroom. He didn’t have to be a genius to
work out what had happened. Smiling at Jimmy and giving him a wink he said, “Things are going ok then?” “Better than okay mate.” A cheeky grin came over Jimmy’s face as he called out to her, “Maria, dinners on the table.” There was no reply, but they could hear water running from the bathroom.

The two men talked while they waited. Jimmy said, “The grub looks good Mickey.” “I wasn’t sure what to get so I left it up to Luigi.” “Well the old Eyetie has done us proud, this looks fit for a king. Come on Maria its getting cold,” he called again. Seconds later she appeared, “Sorry, I had a quick wash. Wow the food looks great.” The table was laden with dishes full of Italian food; there was everything,
carbonara, tagliatelle, fresh glazed vegetables and a large tub of Morello cherry ice cream for dessert. “God, I don’t know what to have,” giggled Maria, “I really can’t decide, perhaps you should choose for me Jimmy?” Mickey looked baffled as he said, “Did I miss something funny?” Jimmy enlightened his friend to the fact that she had not been allowed to choose anything for herself and that it was driving him crazy.

“Nice to see you laughing Maria,” said Mickey, “and I must say you’re looking a lot better, especially your eye that’s gone down a treat by the look of it.” “Thanks Mickey, I feel a lot better.” “That’s good babe, because we need to talk and if our meeting with Nick today was anything to go by, the sooner the better.” Jimmy interrupted “Ah well there’s been another development today; apparently we only have ‘til Friday before the shit hits the fan!” “Fuck me Jimmy that only gives us a few days; it’s not enough time.” “We’ll just have to buy us some more time then, won’t we?”
She sat picking at her dinner while Jimmy told him about the phone call from Nick. Feeling a bit humbled knowing that he had probably made her feel bad about the time issue, Mickey looked at her and said, “Don’t worry babe, we’ll sort something out, they don’t call me and him Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for nothing you know!” They all laughed. They were interrupted by Mickey’s mobile ringing, answering it he said, “Hello?” “Hi Mickey, are you standing me up again?” “Oh fuck me babe, something came up I’m really sorry, can you do dinner tomorrow night?” “Yes that’s ok, but I’m warning you Michael Mann if you stand me up again, that’s it!” “Ok babe, I’ll pick you up about eight, see you tomorrow.”

Having heard most of the conversation, Maria said, “Was that your girlfriend Mickey?” Jimmy laughed. “What’s so funny?” said Maria curiously. “Nothing babe, it’s just that he always stands her up, but she always comes back for more and even more ironic she’s a detective down the nick.”
Mickey tried to defend his actions; he didn’t want Maria thinking he was a rat. Humbly he said, “Monica’s a really nice girl; we hit it off great it’s just that I tend to forget some of our dates.” Jimmy laughed and said, “Some of them?  You mean most of them!” “Ok sarky, now you’ve managed to pull my love life to shreds,” joked Mickey, “shall we proceed with business? Perhaps you should just tell me what this information you have about Nick is Maria?” Finishing her last spoonful of ice cream, she swallowed hard to clear her throat before replying, “I began to notice things about three months after I first went to live with him. I was never allowed to answer the phone or meet anyone who came to his place; he would tie me up and lock me in the spare room whenever he had visitors.” “Can I just stop you there babe,” interrupted Mickey, “I’m curious as to how a fifteen year old girl came to live with him in the first place.” “Oh it was Father O’Brien at St Augustus who arranged it.” The two men looked at one another in disbelief, before Mickey said, “Can you be a bit more specific?” “We all thought it was strange at first then we just sort of got used to it.” “Who’s we and what did you get used to?” asked Jimmy. “The meetings with different men at the church, we used to have to go.” “That’s interesting; go on,” said Mickey with a look of curiosity.” “Every few months some of the girls would be taken into the back of the church, it was normally off limits to us because it was Father O’Brien’s private quarters.” “Who took you there?” “Sister Marjorie, she’s the head nun. There would always be a man with the Father who would be introduced by a bogus name; I know that now because Nick was introduced as Malcolm Dalton. Father O’Brien would tell us that the man was a good friend of his and a wonderful benefactor to the church, he would tell us the man was looking for a young girl to train as his housekeeper, he always said things like, ‘it would be a wonderful opportunity for the right girl.’ Mickey interrupted her and asked, “Where did the girls come from, did they attend school there or something?”  “Oh no we all lived there; in most cases we had always lived there, we were raised there, my mother abandoned me on the church steps when I was a baby.” “Go on.”  “Every time a man came he picked a girl, before I was chosen I went to two previous meetings. The first time my friend Caroline was picked; the second time it was my friend Kate. I can remember helping Kate pack the day before she left, she was so excited thinking that her new employer was really nice, not to mention very rich. We all thought she might travel and see the world. You see things like that were very attractive to us; we rarely left the convent, except for the odd trip. Sister Marjorie was very strict with us, always telling us that one day we would marry and have our own families and that it would never be appropriate for young Catholic ladies to date boys, it was strictly forbidden, even if we ever kissed or touched a boy, or one another, God would punish us because we were special and God would send the suitor he had chosen for us.” “Sounds like a real gem this sister Marjorie,” said Jimmy. “We were afraid of her. When she came into the dormitory in the mornings, if any of us had our hands under the covers she would beat us, but we never understood why.”

The two men glanced briefly at each other before she continued. “One night there was a terrible storm; my best friend Melanie was petrified so I told her to get into my bed. We never did anything wrong, I just held her. I was thirteen at the time, she was a year younger. We had planned for her to go back to her own bed when the storm passed, but we fell asleep and the next morning Sister Marjorie caught us. It was terrible she made an example of us; she said that we were like the whores of Babylon. No one was allowed to speak to us; we weren’t allowed any food, only water for three days and she made us strip naked before she beat us in front of everyone.  We all hated her, but we couldn’t change anything, we had no families to defend us, there was no one.” Jimmy gripped her hand as she rested it on the table and fiddled with her rosary beads.
They could see she was reliving the whole dreadful ordeal; tears were streaming down her face. Reassuringly Jimmy said, “Maybe we should take a short break, perhaps a cup of tea is in order.” “Good idea” said Mickey. Maria simply nodded.

Five minutes later Maria sat quietly sipping her tea while the two men discussed briefly what she had told them. Jimmy made Mickey grin when he said, “I think we should send someone round to visit this Sister Marjorie, I know a couple of people who wouldn’t feel bad about belting a nun.” Even Maria giggled at his suggestion. Then Mickey said, “Do you think we can carry on now babe?” Nodding she replied, “Yes, I’m fine now, shall I continue about the meetings at the church?” “That would be good.” “Ok, well like I said after each meeting one of the girls would leave and we never heard from them again. They would always promise to write, but they never did, now I know why, they were prisoners like me. If we asked Sister Marjorie about them she would just say, ‘Oh I expect she’s off on some yacht somewhere, having far too much fun to write to the likes of you.’” Jimmy interrupted and said, “Babe tell us what happened the day you met Nick.” They both noticed she started to tremble as she replied, “Three of us were taken to Father O’Brien’s quarters, Nick was introduced as Malcolm Dalton, he seemed really nice. Unlike the previous men I thought he was handsome; and he seemed to like me straight away. I can remember Father O’Brien telling him I was very bright and very spirited. Nick joked and said he liked girls with a bit of spirit. Then he asked me some questions, things like had I ever had a boyfriend and how old I was and did I think I would like being his housekeeper, that type of thing? After talking to me for about an hour, he picked me. Melanie was quite jealous, but I promised to write to her. The following day I was taken to his penthouse.” Squeezing Jimmy’s hand, she paused for a moment as though
it was too painful for her to continue. “Take your time babe,” he reassured her.  Finally she said, “That was the day I arrived in hell, gone was the nice Malcolm who I had met the day before, instead this horrible man named Nick was there. When I first arrived he ordered me to sit down and listen to him very carefully. Then he slapped me round the face and said, ‘if I ask you to do something you don’t ask why, you just do it ok bitch, and from now on you can call me sir. You don’t talk to anyone, you don’t leave the apartment and you don’t use the phone. You eat what and when I tell you to and don’t ever think of trying to run away, because not only will I effing kill you, I’ll kill your friend Melanie, or take her as your replacement.’” Now the tears were flowing down her cheeks and she was shaking quite violently. Finally after several minutes and verbal reassurances from the men she regained her composure and continued, “I’m not sure what was worse, being left with Nick or realising the people who I thought loved me had actually sold me.” Mickey said “How could you be sure Nick paid for you, did you hear them discussing it?” “No, Nick made a point of telling me when said, ‘I’ve paid a lot of money for you bitch, so I expect a good return on my investment.’ I can remember crying and him telling me to stop; I couldn’t so he punched me in the face and said ‘there, now you’ve got something to effing well cry for bitch!”