Role Play (2 page)

I
was still staring at the bills on the coffee table when my phone rang.

Dick said,
“Lola’s going out with that guy tonight. To some sleazy sex club.”

“How do you know?”
I demanded. “Did you talk to her?”

“Yeah, I went to the mall and met her as she
got off work. She says she has a
master
now. She’s helping him do shows.”

“What kind of shows?”
I asked in a hushed voice.

“Sex shows, what do you think?” Dick sneered.

“Just tell me what she said, Dick.”

“She told me to get lost, that she never wants to see me again,” Dick snapped. “She says she’s got a new life. And when I said I wanted to meet this guy, to make sure he’s okay, she flipped out. She says she trusts him with her soul, can you believe that? I offered to
take her home, but she’s on her way to do a show at the Chamber.”

Everyone in the city had heard of the Chamber, the notorious underground
fetish club. Hearing that Lola was going there sounded much more serious, now, especially since I found the unpaid bills and Lola had refused to return my calls.

But
I couldn’t help feeling suspicious after dealing with Lola’s nonstop drama my whole life. “She wants you to go,” I told Dick. “Why else would she tell you she was going there?”

“That’s what I thought.” Dick sounded
madder than yesterday. “I don’t need this shit, Sierra. Your sister is fucked in the head, you know that?”

“I know.
..” What else could I say? It was true.

“I’m
going over there now,” Dick told me. “I’m going to bust that guy’s face when I see him.”

“Dick, wait! You can’t do that. Lola won’t forgive you. She has to choose you. If you force things, she’ll keep running away.”

“
Sierra…
I’m not letting her go to that place with some strange dude.”

I
knew that Dick was too conspicuous with his shaved head and solid bulk that screamed “cop” to sneak into the Chamber without Lola seeing him. Then she might act out just to get a rise out of him. And if Dick saw another man touch Lola, there was no way he was going to be able to restrain himself.

“I’ll do it,”
I told him. “Come and get me. I’ll go in to keep an eye on her. The second I see something weird go down, I’ll text you and you can rush in to save the day. A place like that is bound to get rough, and Lola won’t like it.”

“Maybe
it will scare some sense into her,” Dick agreed. “Good idea, Sierra. I’ll be right over.”

...

When I got Dick’s text, I ran downstairs and got into his car. “You took forever to get here,” I complained.

“
You need a disguise,” Dick told me. “Otherwise Lola will spot you in a heartbeat. Then she’ll make a scene and I won’t get to save her.”

I
realized he was right. If Lola saw me, it would be no better than sending Dick in there.

“I
went to get this at the precinct,” he said, pulling out a plastic bag. “We use it for undercover agents. There’s some make-up in there, too.”

I
pulled out a bunch of maroon curls. “A wig? This is what made you so late?”

“Stop bitching and put it on.”

Dick drove like a maniac to get into Manhattan, taking the Queensboro Bridge then across the park and down the West Side highway. It took a lot longer than I liked, not knowing what Lola was up to, but it gave me time to bundle my long brown hair up with the only two barrettes that were in my purse. Once it was on, the wig’s curls felt strange and the vibrant maroon dye-job kept catching the corner of my eyes.

At the stop lights,
I swabbed on the dark make-up, including the bright red lipstick. Dick kept sneaking glances at me. “That’s better. But you should take off your shirt and just wear your vest. You look like a librarian right now.”

“My skirt is short,”
I protested.

“Trust
me, it’s not good enough for this place. You need to blend in.”

Turning
my back to him, I took off my shirt and quickly shrugged on my vest. Buttoning it, I tightened the back strap so it didn’t hang loose and show my bra. My breasts formed an impressive amount of cleavage in the plunging v-neck.

Dick
kept eying me. My sister and I looked a lot alike, but our clothes were one of the biggest differences between us. I was always getting after Lola to not dress so provocatively, but my sister liked the attention she got. Even from guys hooting at her on the street. She ate it up while I shuddered every time it happened. I didn’t want anyone to get any ideas that they could take advantage of us.

“This shows how much I’m willing to do for my sister,” I muttered.

“That goes for both of us. She better appreciate it,” Dick said.

F
inally Dick parked his car on a strangely darkened street across from the dingy façade of the Chamber. The five-story brick building was narrow to fit the lot wedged between the busy streets that converged at 14
th
Avenue. In most places in the city, lights blared everywhere, but here the walls had solid faces of sooty bricks and the massive overhanging awnings cast dark shadows on the cars below.

It was not the sort of street
I was used to. It hardly felt like I was in Manhattan at all.

“Okay,”
I said, putting down the visor to take one last look. “Here goes.”

I
adjusted my borrowed wig. The wig and my heavy makeup did the trick. I was unrecognizable. Even if I ran into my sister, Lola wouldn’t know me.

“Ready?”
Dick asked impatiently.

“
I said I was going!” I flipped up the visor. “You don’t have to keep asking.”

His rough voice grated on
my ear. “Look, Lola’s been in there for more than an hour. There’s no telling what’s happening to her.”

“
You’re the one who took forever picking up the wig.”

Dick glared at
me. “Are you going to get out of this car and do this thing, or should I go in myself and drag Lola out of there?”

I
looked over at the dark maw of the fetish club. I refused to believe it was dangerous, because the city would shut it down if it was. Dick was a cop, for Christ’s sake! He would know. He just hated playing Lola’s game, and who could blame him?

I
was pretty pissed about it, too.

“Okay,”
I said again. “You wait for my text, or you’ll ruin everything. Got it?”

“
I know,” he insisted, more irritated than ever.

It would have to do.
I could only help the guy so much. He had to give me space to deal with my crazy sister. With the right management, I could still make this whole sordid thing go away.

I
crossed the cobblestone street. The guy at the top of the black stairs leading down under the sidewalk gave me a good once-over. He nodded appreciatively. “Looking for the Chamber?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He jerked his head at the steps. “Downstairs.”

It was seriously creepy going down the dim stairway.
My toe slipped on the slimy edge, and I had to grab the railing to keep from falling.

My
fear suddenly ramped up to anger again—this was all Lola’s fault! I wished Lola was standing in front of me right this second. I would tell her a few choice things about herself.
Self-centered brat! Grow up already!

At the bottom of the stairs was another door. Opening it,
I heard voices around the corner. The New Jersey accent was unmistakable as the guy said, “I have to be in Montreal tomorrow, but I can find out and let you know next week.”

I couldn’t see the girl who answered, but her
voice was husky like a smoker’s. “You will? You’re a life-saver, Victor. Why didn’t I think of that?”

A low laugh drew
me forward. From around the blind corner, the guy’s voice went deeper with the classic come-on. “You can thank me
later
.”

For some reason,
it made me even madder.
I don’t belong here!

I
never went to bars, and I hated pick-up scenes where the bridge-and-tunnel crowd pretended they were cool because they partied in Manhattan.

As
I rounded the corner, I muttered, “Even I’ve got better lines than that,
Jersey
!”

And came to a full stop, face
-to-face with a smoking hot guy. My eyes scanned upward, across his broad chest and arms that bulged as he crossed them. A strong jaw and cheekbones, tanned a golden bronze that matched his hair, just long enough on top to fall onto his forehead. It was too dim to tell what color his eyes were, but they were surprisingly light against his tanned skin. I could smell the money on him, the way his clothes fit and clung to his body. Only the best for a man like this.

He was standing in front of another
black-painted door. In the wall next to him was an open window. Inside the window an emaciated blond sat at a cash box. Her mouth hung slackly. “Are you talking to
us
?” the blond cashier pointedly asked me.

Vic
tor tossed the cashier an easy smile. “I know she’s not talking to
me
.”

“You’re so funny, Victor!”
The blond laughed, letting him know with her eyes that she was ready and willing. They were having a special moment right there in front of me.

It didn’t help
my mood when the gorgeous man completely ignored me, opening the black door and letting out the heavy thrum of music as he entered.

I
shrugged.
So maybe I’m wrong, what’s the big deal?
From around the corner I could have sworn he was your typical Jersey truck driver or construction worker. I had been careful to scrub the upstate New York from my own voice and stick to Manhattan-speak which had no trace of an accent. I learned quickly that girls who spoke well got the better jobs in the better stores.

“Read and sign this.” The blond
cashier handed over a clipboard.

It was a liability waiver. It talked about the risks involved in
“BDSM” and had a lot of rules like “no intercourse” and “no oral sex.”

I
shook my head as I signed. “You have to tell people this?”

“
It’s a fetish club.” The blond stared at me. “Are you sure you got the right place?”

“
Unfortunately, yes.” I handed over the money.

The blond
looked at me like I was cracked in the head, as she handed over a wooden ruler, marked off in twelve inches with “The Chamber” and their website printed on it. “Tonight’s theme is School’s Out. You get a door prize for looking like a teacher.”

“I do?”
I glanced down at my short skirt and vest. “I never had a teacher who looked like this.”

“A sexy teacher
,” the girl said.

I had to laugh at that, and it
made me feel better. I gave the skinny blond my first real smile as I opened the door.

It was too
dark inside to see much but a lot of shadowed people packed into too-small a space. The ceiling was very low and everything—walls, floor and ceiling—were painted black. I couldn’t shake the sensation that I was underground, in a clammy dungeon-like space with ancient brick walls.

The music was much louder, blanketing the voices except for a shrill cry
that broke through every now and then. Men kept trying to crowd in too close to me, until I was practically vibrating with silent warnings to “Get Away!” I cut off every guy’s attempt to speak to me with a tsst! and raised the ruler between us to shut them down. Like the dog whisperer, it worked perfectly. The last thing I was going to do was talk to a man in here.

The place was filled to the brim
. People were standing all around me and blocking my way, as streams of men slipped by. Occasionally through the layers of watching people, I caught sight of a near-naked man or woman with their wrists chained above their heads or bent over padded benches.

Is th
is the kind of show Lola is doing?!
I craned my head to see everyone, to make sure none of the women were Lola.

Shuffling along with the roving streams of people
from room to room, I saw a lot more than I bargained for. The one thing I didn’t see was Lola.

Wide-eyed,
I came to rest against the wall in the largest room, as a line of guys shuffled past, not quite out of arm’s reach. I was starting to think that Dick was wrong and Lola wasn’t here. Or we had missed her because it took too long to get here.

Then
I saw Victor again. He was so sexy that he didn’t even have to try. With his golden good-looks, he stuck out in this crowd like a lion surrounded by black alley cats. I wondered what he was doing in this seedy place when he looked like he would be more at home in a Calvin Klein ad. With a perfect model hanging off him.