Chapter 4

Louella pushed her way across the crowded dance floor while never taking her eyes off her target.   Valkyr Draken was a man she’d avoided having contact with due to his perilous reputation.   That was about to change.  She needed help that only he could give.  Sure, there were others in the city, but she didn’t know who they were.  He was the only one she knew she could turn to for immediate help in a crisis. So, she put on her best poker face and braved the crowd.  She was determined to solicit his help, no matter the cost.

His dark eyes hinted of amusement as he watched her battle through the drug induced dancers.  They barely noticed as she pushed and shoved them out of her way with such aggression that many lost their balance; yet they continued to dance.  It was as if they were under some type of spell.  In a way, they were.  The mild blend of ecstasy and tik that was slipped in minute amounts into every drink ordered through the night kept his patrons in the mental state he wanted them in.  Since they didn’t know the reason why they had such a great time, just that they did, his club stayed at maximum capacity each night.

Louella was aware of Valkyr’s practice of drugging his patrons, so she kept clear of the bar.  She rarely entered the club.  She found the fact that she couldn’t manipulate Valkyr with her looks and her body to be unnerving. Not only couldn’t she manipulate him, but she sensed disdain for her the few times they’d met.  Add that to his unsavory reputation and she had an excellent reason for avoidance.  Even so, she wasn’t about to let that deter her. She needed his help and she was determined to get it.

His eyes slowly assessed her when she finally reached the back of the room and the four steps that would take her to the hall leading to the private, employee section of the club. She took a moment to catch her breath.  “Did you enjoy that?”

He nodded and flashed a wicked grin. “Why are you here?”

She looked around at the dancers and

then at the two goons standing nearby with their arms folded over their chests in a

foreboding manner.  “Not here.”

He eyed her for an uncomfortable length of time before motioning for her to follow him with his head as he turned and headed down the narrow hall. She fell into step behind him, acutely aware of the two, oversized apes on her heels. 

Their walk to his office was only a matter of feet, but to Louella, it felt like miles. By the time they reached his office, her legs were tired from the strain of trying to carry her with a confidence that she didn’t feel and a swagger that was foreign to her. 

Damn those goons and their persistence in sticking to her like glue.  What did they think that her little five-feet-four-inch, one-hundred-ten-pound body was going to be able to do to his six foot-four inch, two-hundred pound one? She’d been searched for weapons upon entering the club and he was oblivious to her sexual prowess. What was left for her to use?  She turned and glowered at them for a good amount of time as she silently sent them a message to back off.  To her surprise and pleasure, they did.

Valkyr grinned as he held the door to his private office open for her to enter.  “Have

you heard the saying, ‘If looks could kill’?”

Feeling a little more courageous after her victory with his bodyguards, she bounded into his office and selected the seat that had the greatest advantage for someone who didn’t want their back to the room or to their host.   Easing her slight frame onto its well-used seat, she tucked a foot beneath her leg and sat back while she waited for him to close the door and join her.

He scowled at her actions. “Make yourself at home, please.”

Realizing that she’d annoyed him, she pulled her foot from beneath her leg and sat in a less casual fashion. “I need your help getting rid of something.”

He leaned forward and rested his clasped hands on his dented and marred mahogany desk.  “Something?  Or Someone?”

 She looked at her lap. “Someone.”

“Taking a person out isn’t cheap.”

“I don’t need you to take anyone out.  I need your disposal service,” she explained.  “The taking out part is already done.”

 “By you?” he asked with raised brow.

She jutted her chin out to add strength to her reply. “Is that so hard to believe?”

He leaned back and looked at her with newfound interest.  “It’s impressive.”

“Can you help me?”

He tapped his fingers on his desk in contemplation. “Where is he and how was he killed?”

“What makes you think it is a ‘he’?”

“You killed a woman?”  he said with surprise. Then, with a shrug he added, “She, then. Where is she and how was she killed?”

“It’s a bit of a mess.  It wasn’t planned and went down poorly.  But, it’s done and now I need it cleaned up.  She’s an old woman who travels extensively. I want it to look like she went away and then just doesn’t come back. Can you do that?”

“I can do anything if the payment meets my satisfaction.  I’ll need to know who it is.  I’m selective about what I get myself hooked up with.  Is she a high profile? If so, forget it.”

“No.  Just a rich old woman who stuck her nose in where it didn’t belong,” Louella said with a sigh. “Like I said. It wasn’t planned. It just happened.  Will you help me or not?”

“It’ll cost ya,” he grinned.

“I’m sure it will,” she scowled. She shoved a slip of paper to him, followed by an envelope containing five-thousand dollars. “Here is where you can find her.  She was stabbed with a knife and there’s a bloody mess in a few rooms, so you’ll have to clean it all.  If this doesn’t cover it, let me know.  I’ll give you more.”

“You bet your tight little ass you will,” he sneered.

Fear threatened to overtake her at the sudden look of aggression he gave, but she forced it back.  Standing up as casually as she could manage, she smiled coyly. “I didn’t realize you noticed my ass.” When he chuckled, but said no more, she added, “I don’t want to know what you did with the body.  How you disposed of it.  Nothing.  I just want it gone and everything cleaned up by the morning.  Is that clear?”

“Completely,” he said as he hurried around the desk to block her exit. “I didn’t say you’d only have to pay with money, now, did I?”

Valkyr was a handsome man in a rugged way with his broad shoulders and narrow waist.  His chiseled face and piercing eyes reminded her of Clint Eastwood in one of his many cowboy roles. In most cases, she’d find someone of his looks and stature arousing, but there was a sinisterness about him that made her shudder with apprehension.  Her body trembled with fear as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her

with a violence that told of pain to come.

She pushed away from him, but was free for only the briefest of seconds before he had her in a vice grip again. He tossed her, unceremoniously, onto her back on the abused wooden desk; pushing things off the top to make way as he did. 

His face was so close to hers, it looked a bit distorted as he said between clenched teeth with a voice that had gone deep and raspy, “You can either pay in the manner I say willingly or the deal’s off.  Which will it be?”

She looked at the door as it opened, and his two bodyguards slipped

inside. At first, she thought they’d responded to the threat the sound of things flying from his desk must have made, but, upon looking at the lust in their eyes, she realized that this was a common occurrence in Valkyr’s office that they were quite prepared for.

She closed her eyes and asked, “Just you?”

She could hear the men chuckling as they moved closer to the desk and her body contracted with fear to the point she almost wet herself.

“No need to be frightened, my beauty.  You’ll live to pay in such a sweet way again.  I can assure you,” he said in a gravelly, soft voice against her ear.   “Besides, I wouldn’t want to spoil the good time I hear you give your team of lawyers.”  When she gasped in surprise that he would be privy to such information, he held her slender wrists over her head with one hand while he pulled her shirt over her face with the other. “I understand that you’ve been known to take on all three at a time.  Such a petite body to accomplish a task as that.   You just keep impressing me.”

Her voice was muffled through her shirt as she said with more authority than she felt.  “Not everyone at once.    I’ll give it willingly if it’s not everyone at once.  Okay?”

She didn’t see the way his handsome facial features grew even more distorted and his dark eyes turned a fiery red as his two men stripped her of her remaining clothing so fast that she had no idea how it happened.   He left her to the mercy of his men’s ministrations while he pushed a button on his wall and it swiveled to display a large, round bed.  His largest and most aggressive guard, Victor, was already inside of her when he walked them over to the bed with his accomplice, Jeramiah, supporting her under her armpits. 

Valkyr was fascinated at the way Victor

didn’t lose his rhythm as he moved from the desk to the bed.   He attributed it to the side of him that was other worldly. He was certain that, if he were pure human, he’d have stumbled halfway to the bed.  Humans were a frail lot, to be sure.  

He had to admit that it impressed him that Louella’s delicate looking body was able to take the punishment Victor was dishing out as he slammed into her with incredible might.  She didn’t even flinch when his hands gripped and maneuvered her breasts like they were the knobs of a manual transmission.  She remained remarkably quiet; especially since she’d been given no hallucinogenic to help relax her.   Perhaps he would turn her into a steady sex partner. It might be refreshing to have his way with a woman who was alert and coherent instead of barely responsive due to the drugs in her system that kept her complaisant and stripped her of her memory of the event.  He’d see how it was once he had his turn with her.

When Jeramiah moved to pull her shirt away from her mouth, Valkyr said in a guttural voice, “You heard her.  Only one at a time.”

The guard’s face may have been distorted like Valkyr’s was, but it was still easy to see the disappointment on it as he moved away and leaned against the wall while he waited for his turn. 

Valkyr lit a joint and took a deep amount of the aromatic smoke into his lungs.  He squeaked out the words as he released it, “Once the payment is made, my lovely, we’ll honor our end.”

Something told Louella that she should consider herself lucky that she was getting something out of the deal instead of simply being used as a sex toy and then tossed away.  With her face still covered by her shirt, she used the trick she’d learned while having sex with her disgusting lawyers and emptied her mind while she prayed for a swift and merciful outcome.