Assets and Liabilities

"All of it," uttered DeFazio, while staring back into Anne's seething eyes.

She reached behind her and unfastened her bra, letting it fall off her shoulders onto the floor. She then stepped out of the black lace panties and dropped them on top of the bra, never once breaking eye contact with DeFazio.

DeFazio really admired her moxie, along with her flawless breasts and the neat triangle of light brown hair above her otherwise bare pussy. Was she really worth settling a three-hundred- thousand dollar debt? He wasn't sure, but breaking such a formidable opponent while her degenerate husband was forced to watch was just too tempting of an opportunity to pass up. He decided to go All-In.

"On your knees," he instructed, as he unbuckled his belt and removed his cock. For such a powerful man, his cock was a tad underwhelming. Sure it was thick but much shorter than average. As Anne knelt in between his outstretched legs, she thought it looked like a flesh-colored fire hydrant.

DeFazio guided her mouth into his lap and held the back of her head until she worked up to a steady rhythm bobbing on his stub of a cock. While she blew him, he focused his attention back on her husband and began to speak.

"You don't find a woman like...," he paused and asked her for her name. She answered as best she could with a mouth full of cock, and he continued, "...Anne here too often. She's beautiful, intelligent, brave, successful...and one hell of a cock-sucker." DeFazio reveled in humiliating them both with his words. He shocked them when he said, "Congratulations, Robert, your debt has been paid!"

Rob's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates at hearing such good news, and Anne pulled her head off of the short cock.

"Oh no dear, we're not done yet," DeFazio said politely, as he guided his shaft back into her mouth. "Now, where was I...oh yes...congratulating Rob. You're not only square with me, but you're also now officially divorced." Rob looked at DeFazio confused. Anne attempted to look up too but DeFazio kept his hand on the back of her head.

"There will be divorce papers ready at my lawyer's office by ten o'clock on Monday. You will both sign before noon or the deal is off, and poor Rob here will disappear permanently. Anne is now my property until which time she works off your debt in services rendered. I can tell you that she's already made a huge dent in last month's payment, and I haven't even cum yet." Anne could not believe what she was hearing but had no choice but to keep sucking DeFazio's cock.

"And to show there are no hard feelings," DeFazio continued, still addressing Rob, "Jimmy here is going to drive you to the bus station after you sign the papers, and treat you to a one-way ticket to Florida. Where you go from there is your own business, but if I catch you in New York again, I may forget this little arrangement, capisce?"

Rob reluctantly nodded his head and gagged slightly as the movement tightened the noose around his neck.

"Capisce?" DeFazio repeated, this time toward Anne, and she also nodded her head, with his cock still in her mouth.

Pleased with his negotiating skills, DeFazio grabbed the sides of Anne's head and fucked her mouth, until he filled it with his cum. He pushed Anne from between his legs and stood up to re-buckle his pants as he addressed his minions. "Cut him down after we're gone. Have him pack up his things and put him up at the Beekman until Monday. He doesn't live here anymore."

He turned toward Anne, who was still kneeling on the floor. "Get yourself dressed, doll, we're going shopping. You need something less Wall Street and more 42nd Street." As Anne stood and attempted to step into her panties, he admonished her, "Ut-ut-ut...you won't be needing those." She pulled her skirt up over her naked ass and realized that the full responsibility of her husband's debt had now been transferred exclusively to her.

*****

When she returned to her condo that night after the surprise booty call from Rob, DeFazio and two of his henchmen were waiting for her inside. He ripped off her clothes and tied her to the bed. First, he beat her with his belt, the thin leather strap landing on her ass, pussy, and tits. She begged for mercy and apologized, but he didn't stop until her torso and legs were covered in welts. Over the prior year with DeFazio, she learned to tolerate being with him, biding her time until the debt was repaid. But on that night, she learned that her ledger would never be cleared, until she was broken, used-up or dead.

One of his henchmen then brought in the newest hire from his downtown strip club. Anne knew the girl had to be over eighteen to work at the club, but the heavily made-up waif didn't look a day over fifteen. While she may have looked young, she was no innocent. DeFazio proceeded to fuck the teen on the bed, right next to where Anne was tied. She tried to turn her head away, but he slapped her face and demanded that she watch. He told her that if she could sneak around and give her pussy away to her ex-husband, then he could fuck whomever he wanted as well. She was forced to watch, as his cock relentlessly pounded the young girl's hairless pussy. What was more humiliating, however, was the sight of his two henchmen sitting in the bed-side chairs, watching her watch them.

DeFazio didn't cum in the girl, but instead jammed his cock into Anne's mouth and fucked her face until he shot his load down her throat. The taste of the young girl's pussy on his cock further humiliated the proud woman. He wiped his cock on her hair and then left the room. Anne was terrified that she was left to be used by the two large men. Instead, the young woman squatted over her face and forced Anne to lick her pussy until she came.

Afterward, the men only cut the rope off Anne's left wrist, leaving her to free her other arm and legs, on her own. As she was struggling with the knots, Red, the nicer of the two, snuck back into the room and cut the remaining rope. His parting words were, 'you probably don't want to get caught again.' As the welts on her flesh burned from the beating, she vowed to get out from under DeFazio's thumb, whatever it took, or die trying.

*****

Back in Cassidy's apartment, Anne was now astride the Agent, his cock buried in her pussy. "Tell me the plan again...I need to hear it...you need to get me out of this," her words timed with each upstroke.

Cassidy held her hips while she rode him cowgirl, and laid out the details of the plan for the umpteenth time, which hadn't changed significantly since he first made contact with her, six months prior.

At first, he tried to break her into being a witness against DeFazio, promising to keep her true identity a secret, but she was too smart and strong-willed for him. Over the next several weeks, the interrogations got less intense, and it was clear to Cassidy they were falling in love. That's when he hatched his plan to not only take down DeFazio, but to steal his money and use it, so he and Anne could flee the country, and spend the rest of their lives together in some tropical paradise.

"I can't make a move...until I find his bug-out stash," his staccato responses timed with each of her down-strokes. "Sources say he's got three million...in cash...squirreled away somewhere. With the heat of this arrest...he's gonna make a move for it...and when I catch him...we can disappear...and start a new life together."

The thought of a new life always made Anne cum. She closed her eyes and shivered as her pussy flooded the Agent's cock and balls. The contractions of her cunt triggered Cassidy's orgasm, and she continued to ride him until she milked the last drop of cum out of his wilting cock.

*****

Megan sat at her desk all morning, flipping the worn business card through her fingers. Since she caught Ms. Hogan with Cassidy, she had no idea who she could trust. She even worried about talking with Sam at work, as she didn't want her to get caught up in this too. She wasn't sleeping or eating, and she couldn't concentrate on work.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number on the card. It rang three times and she was about to hang up when she heard the voice on the other end.

"I wondered if I would ever hear from you again."

"I'm at the end of my rope and need to talk. Can you meet me for lunch?"

"How's twelve-thirty? Same place as before?"

"You're the only one left who I trust. See you there."

Megan hung up the phone and checked her purse for the twentieth time to verify the folded black & white picture was still there.

*****

At a quarter after twelve, Megan walked into the Victory Bar & Grille and paused, as her eyes adjusted to the darker environment. From behind the bar, Scotty recognized the young brunette and nodded his head toward the back corner booth.

As Megan approached the table, the leggy redhead stood up and gave her a warm hug. "I know you still owe me one, sister," Donna teased, "but doing it here in the bar is a little kinky, don't ya think?"

Megan blushed and giggled, and for the first time in the past two days, felt her body relax. As she slid into the booth near Donna, Scotty arrived at the table with two glasses of Knob Creek and a couple of menus.

She waited for Scotty to return to the bar and then leaned close to Donna and whispered, "You wouldn't believe what I've been through since we last saw each other."

Donna leaned in and responded in a more melodramatic whisper, "Try me."

Through lunch and another bourbon, Megan detailed being abducted, nearly killed, saved by Cassidy, betrayed by Cassidy and discovering him with her boss, of course leaving out the juicy parts where Cassidy fucked her. Donna scribbled notes in her ever-present spiral steno pad and only interrupted Megan when she needed clarification. At the end of the long story, Megan pulled a manila folder from her purse and surreptitiously slid it across the table to Donna.

Donna flipped through the folded picture of Ms. Hogan and DeFazio, and then the three clearest shots of her kissing Cassidy that Megan printed from the images on her phone. "Do you know what this means," she asked rhetorically, and then announced, "you're off the hook!"

"What do you mean?"

"When I run this story, everyone will think that Ms. Hogan was the source of the leaked files, and you'll be safe again." The excitement in Donna's seemed like she saw visions of a Pulitzer in her future.

"But she wasn't the source of the leaked files."

"Don't be naïve. I think that she and Cassidy set you up to take the fall for it from the very start."

Donna downed the last of her drink and said, "Hate to save your ass and run, but I've got a deadline to make." She leaned over and kissed Megan on the cheek. "We're all square now hun, but you still have my number if you ever want to even the scales on that other thing."

Megan sat in the booth and wondered if she had done the right thing.

*****

Anne Hogan opened the door of her condo, still dressed in her satin pajama, and retrieved the Times Union from her doorstep. She removed the rubber band that bound the rolled paper and scanned the front page as she walked back toward her kitchen, which was her usual morning routine. The two side-by-side photos above the fold on the front page hit her like a Mike Tyson punch to the solar plexus. She dropped the paper and ran to the sink to throw up.

She rinsed her mouth and caught her breath, then bent down to pick up the paper again. On the left was the picture of her and DeFazio. On the right was her clearly kissing Agent Cassidy, the chief investigator on the DeFazio case. She didn't need to read the article to know that she was clearly fucked.

She fished her cell phone out of her purse and tapped the entry at the top of her favorites. He picked up after half a ring.

"Have you seen the morning paper," she asked.

"Of course...EVERYBODY has," he answered in an agitated whisper.

"What are we going to do," she asked, fighting back tears.

"I'll figure something out," Cassidy responded, "but you can't call me anymore until this blows over, understand?"

"What am I going to do?" she asked desperately, suddenly feeling alone and exposed.

Cassidy paused a moment to think, then started barking out instructions. "First email work and tell them you're taking a leave of absence. Leave your car at home and take a cab. Stop at the bank and take out $900 cash. Anything more will set off a red flag. Leave everything else home, especially your cell phone. Go to the Beekman, we have a safe room there where we keep witnesses. Register under the name Elizabeth White and they'll take you to the room. When you get to the room, they'll call and let me know that you're there. I'll get to you as soon as I can."

The seriousness in his voice only frightened her more. "OK," she responded, barely above a whisper.

"Oh, one more thing, after you get to the room, do not leave for any reason! Is that clear?"

She started to say 'got it' but the line disconnected before she finished.

Anne followed his instructions and arrived at the Beekman by nine o'clock. She used the name he told her to and was shown to room 315, an innocuous-looking room midway between the elevator bank and stairwell. She sat on the bed and hung her head to cry.

Around noon her tummy started to grumble. It wasn't bad enough that she missed breakfast, but she threw up what little reserves were left in her stomach when she saw the front page of the paper. By three o'clock she was legitimately famished, yet there was still no contact from Cassidy, so she continued to stay put as instructed. At seven o'clock she said 'this is bullshit' and put on her coat and dark glasses and went out in search of some food.

There was nothing in the lobby of the cheap downtown hotel, so she walked to the corner bodega and bought some Ritz crackers, Slim Jims and a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. 'Some healthy meal,' she joked to herself, as she paid the Pakistani cashier with a crisp twenty.

She was busy trying to break the seal on the ice cream container with that stupid wooden spoon as she walked back to the hotel, and did not notice the windowless panel van parked a few spots before the hotel entrance. When she was even with the van, the side door opened quickly and she was whisked inside before she could even scream. The van sped away as the freshly opened pint of ice cream rolled off the sidewalk and into the gutter.

*****

Cassidy arrived at the Beekman at seven-fifteen with two orders of take-out lasagna from Lombardo's. He would have been there a half hour earlier, but they had messed up his order, so he had to wait for them to re-make it.

The clerk gave him a knowing glance as passed the front desk. He got out of the elevator and used his passkey to enter the empty room. He threw the lasagna at the wall and took the stairs two-at-a-time to return to the main lobby. He ran up to the desk clerk and grabbed him by his shirt.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?" Cassidy screamed at the scrawny clerk, fearing the worst for the love of his life.

"How the fuck should I know," the clerk answered defiantly, "I called you when she checked in like I'm supposed to. You don't pay me enough to babysit them too."

"IF I DON'T FIND HER ALIVE, YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD, ASSHOLE!" Cassidy threatened before he ran through the front door to his car.

"Please, please, please," he screamed in his car as he raced to the Deerfield Landfill. He drove straight through the locked front gate, smashing the front end of his Audi and knocking out one of his headlights. He skidded to a stop when he saw the lifeless woman lying in almost the exact same spot from which he rescued Megan, the left side of her head and body covered in blood.

He slid to the ground next to her and cradled what was left of her head to his chest, rocking her as he cried. A flock of crows flew from the trees as he screamed at the heavens, cursing God and swearing to get revenge on the motherfucker responsible for her death.

*****

Megan checked her email over breakfast and was happy to see the announcement about Ms. Hogan taking a leave of absence. She wondered what it will be like around the office without Ms. Hogan there, but mainly was looking forward to getting her life back to normal, now that she was no longer a target of the DeFazio family.

She treated herself to a Dunkin Latte on the way to work and blew into the lid of the hot beverage while she waited in the lobby for the elevator. She stepped into the empty car and punched 5, sipping her Latte as it slowly ascended.

Around the same time, the motorcade transferring DeFazio from the County lockup for his arraignment was approaching the granite courthouse building in the center of town.

Cassidy sat in his damaged car parked on the city street, still wearing the blood-stained clothes from the night before. He hadn't slept and was drinking his breakfast from the bottle of Jack Daniels perched between his legs. He removed the silver revolver from his shoulder holster and double-checked that all six chambers were loaded. With a flick of his wrist, he snapped the revolver closed and returned the gun to his holster. He took another swig off the bottle of Jack and leaned down to verify that his backup piece was secured to his ankle.

The three black Chevy Tahoes with tinted windows pulled up in front of the courthouse in the early morning hour. The heavily armed security detail stepped out of the vehicles and surveyed the steps to the courthouse, which were already infested with a gaggle of reporters. There were SWAT team snipers perched on the roofs of the adjacent buildings, and the men waited for the 'all clear' before they removed the prisoner from the car.

The usually well-dressed DeFazio looked like a common criminal in his prison-issued orange jumpsuit, his hands in cuffs, and his ankles shackled together. The security detail closed ranks around him as he hobbled up the courthouse steps for his day of reckoning.

The automated voice in the elevator announced its arrival on the 5th floor and Megan stepped off, still sipping her Latte. There was a sharp noise behind her, which reminded her of the gunshots, and she screamed and nearly threw her coffee cup. She spun around quickly to see it was only Elijah, who had accidentally dropped his mop.

"Sorry Miss Megan," the soft-spoken man apologized, "didn't mean to startle you."

"That's okay, Elijah," Megan replied, her heart rate returning to normal, "I've just been a little jumpy lately."

"You're the first one in," Elijah continued, "I think everyone else is taking advantage of Ms. Hogan being gone."

"I came in early because I've got a lot of catching up to do," Megan explained, as she swiped her card and opened the front entrance to the firm.

Elijah watched the attractive young brunette walk through the visitor's waiting area toward her office through the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows at the entranceway. He replaced his earbuds and went back to mopping.

Cassidy guzzled the remainder of the Jack and threw the empty bottle in the back seat. 'It's now or never' he said to himself, as he stumbled out of his car, and down the back alley behind the building. He used a pinch bar to pry open the back door and threw it in the nearby dumpster before slipping into the building undetected.

"We're inside the courthouse moving toward the elevators," the Lieutenant reported into his shoulder mic, as the security detail ushered DeFazio through the lobby. The six armed officers and the prisoner boarded the elevator, and the Lieutenant called for all posts to report as they ascended.

"Rooftop, CLEAR," crackled the voice over the radio.

"Courtroom, CLEAR."

"Front stairwell, CLEAR."

The officers all looked at each other waiting for the last post to check in.