Betrayed Ch. 10

Sipping piña coladas in Fat Tuesdays on Duval Street, clad only in a skimpy string bikini and high-heeled sandals, would be just as good as the charter-boat thing, wouldn't it?

It was daunting to stand backstage and listen to the applause the first models were receiving. The butterflies in my stomach had metamorphosed into vultures who were thumping away with their wings and picking me apart at the same time. I received my cue and hit the runway in white calfskin corset, collar, and forearm-length gauntlets with black patent trim, matched with white calfskin lace-up thigh boots with black patent scrollwork overlays and five-inch stiletto heels. Dianna had coached me on 'Attitude' and I had it to burn.Look at me wrong and I'll bite it off at the root!

Angie was right behind me in a purple calfskin corset mini-dress with matching platform sandals. Dianna followed Angie in a red patent corset combination like mine, with coordinating thigh boots. The applause from the previous models had continued to wane as I took the stage. By the time all three of us were on catwalk – just a second or two - the only sound was the music pounding from the loudspeakers. The seconds seemed like hours. I could tell Susan remembered me from the previous weekend. She looked none too pleased to see me again. I couldn't detect so much as a glint of anything else, but you never knew with Susan.... It was the silence of everyone else that was really damning.

Code Blue! Code Blue! Get the crash cart. Charge paddles to three hundred. I need one cee-cee of Eppie, push.

Then I looked at the faces. I don't think I had ever seen so many bulging eyes and gaping mouths in one place. The applause began – and swelled to thundering proportions, overwhelming the sound system and causing the massive central chandelier to rattle. I had already made my turn and passed Dianna on my way towards backstage. She winked at me.

Oh, yeah, Baby; JUMP-START that heart!

The applause came quicker and louder with each successive pass down the runway. That did wonders for my self-confidence.

Gee, if the commodities thing doesn't work out....

I heard the heated exchange between the third and fourth costume changes. It was coming from the wings on the far side of the stage. I crept around the back side and approached the two angry voices; one male, the other female.

"Damn it, you said you would have him here," the angry male challenged. "I swear, if you cross me on this, I'll make you wish you had never been born – ineithergender!"

"Heishere," the female spat. "I have him chillin' 'til the finale. He doesn't suspect a thing. Believe me;no onewill ever forget it - just like you wanted it."

"Yeah? Then whereishe?Show me, or I'll...."

I hurried around the corner and grabbed Dianna's arm. Jeff had an empty rocks glass raised in the air, poised over Dianna's head. It was heavy enough to deliver a crushing blow to her skull. Then again, if it shattered as he hit her....

"Sweetie," I urged, "we have to get you changed for the next set. Hurry up now. Hi Jeff! Nice to see you again."

"Lisa, WAIT!" he barked. "We need to talk...."

"We'll hook up after the show, 'kay?" I cooed. "Right now, I've gotta get my girlfriend here ready for our next pass down the runway. See you!"

I hurried Dianna backstage before either one could utter another word. She pulled me up short and spun me around. I could tell she was about to 'read' me aboutsomething. Whatever it was, I just didn't have the stomach to listen to it right then. I placed an index finger to her lips and patted it a couple of times, partly to shush her and partly to buy a moment or two while I collected my thoughts. Finally, I spoke.

"Just... do what ya gotta do, okay?" I muttered resignedly. "I don't want you to explain it to me; justdoit. Whatever it is, it isn't worth you getting hurt for. That would hurtme more than anything else. Iswear to God, if hedoes hurt you, I will personally hunt the sonofabitch down and kill him. I don't carewhatyou say."

Dianna's eyes welled with tears. She gently stroked my cheek and brushed my lips with hers.

"I love you." She murmured, then turned and ran back to the dressing room.

We had altered the order of our appearance with each pass down the runway. On our final appearance, Dianna led off in a leopard-print calfskin bustier-style corset with matching thong, collar, armpit-length gloves and stiletto-heeled thigh boots. Angie followed in a deeply-plunging shocking pink patent bustier-style corset minidress with sheer black seamed stockings, perched atop shocking pink patent platform sandals with six-and-a-half-inch heels. I brought up the rear in the ankle-length hobble version of that style, in black patent with red patent flame appliqués. The bodice plunged so deeply, if I inhaled too much, my nipples would pop right out of the top. That wouldn't be a problem; I was cinched down to nineteen inches and could barely draw a breath. As I minced my way down the catwalk in my six-and-a-half-inch red patent stiletto stilts, I was getting light-headed from lack of oxygen. I couldn't hear the music over the thunderous roar of the crowd. We held hands with Paul in our middle and took a bow, then made our way backstage.

"Hurry up, Dianna," Paul urged. "You have to get changed and onstage for the wedding number."

"Chill," Dianna reassured him. "I've got it under control. You go out front and enjoy it with Kitty. We'll take care of everything back here, 'kay?"

Dianna hustled him off. I was leaning against a post. Black spots were dancing in my vision. Angie detected my distress.

"You poor thing!" she cooed. That dress must be a killer. Here, let me help you sit down by the makeup table. I don't know about you, but I'm parched. Dianna, let's get us all something to drink."

Sure; just sit down. Easier said than done in that dress; it didn't bend much, if at all. I was more or less perched on the edge of the chair, unable to stand up or move around much. I became aware of a cell phone chiming insistently, inside my purse. It wasLance's phone. As I answered, I noticed there were about a dozen missed incoming calls.

"Are you all right?" my lawyer exclaimed. "I've been trying to reach you for almost two hours. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I assured him, "everything is fine."

"You sound funny," he observed. "Winded. Kinda high-pitched, too."

"I, uh, just ran a marathon," I replied. "I'm still trying to catch my breath."

"Are you someplace really public? Like, a lot of people?"

"Yeah," I responded warily. "Why?"

"Listen to me very carefully," the lawyer intoned slowly. "Go home. Lock the door. Stay there –alone. The investigator intercepted a call earlier between Jeff Spencer and his contact. She told him everything was ready to go, just as they had planned it. Lance, she told him she's scored a hit of GHB. They are planning on drugging you, then doing who knows what.Don't eat or drink anything! Got it?"

Angie and Dianna were returning at that moment. Angie carried two champagne flutes; Dianna, one. My eyes darted back and forth between the two, not believing what they were seeing.

"I gotta go," I told him. "I'll call you later."

I hung up, flipped the lid closed and slipped it back into my purse. Angie handed me a flute. I accepted it cautiously, as though handling a snake. She raised one eyebrow quizzically.

"Anything important?" she inquired musically, glancing toward my just-stowed cell phone.

"Not anymore," I replied wearily.

I felt utterly defeated. Both my lovers smiled at me disarmingly. Angie raised her glass.

"Well, what shall we drink to?"

I drew a blank. I don't think anyone in history has raised their glass and pronounced: "Here's to Treason!" I had no intention of being the first. At that point, I really didn't give a shit. I just shrugged my shoulders a bit – and chugged the glass. Hmmm; Mőet White Star, Extra Dry. Well, if ya gotta go.... I idly wondered: what was the current market value, in U.S. dollars, of thirty pieces of silver - split two ways?

I felt really spaced out, detached, like I didn't have a care in the world. Dianna was more beautiful than I had ever seen her before. She was dressed in a black tuxedo waistcoat with tails, black satin bow tie, and old-fashioned top hat, over a severely-cinched black patent corset, black fishnet stockings and black patent ankle-strap platform sandals. The 'bride' was bent over a bondage 'horse' before her, wrists and ankles securely locked, legs spread invitingly. The wedding dress didn't fit all that well; I think it was intended to look cheap, trashy. Then again, the bottom half was flipped up over the back anyway, so what difference did the fit make? I'm certain the garishly-applied makeup didn't soften the image at all, either. The expression on Dianna's face was so serene, as though she was realizing the culmination of her greatest wish. I was so accustomed to the feel of her eight-inch clit inside me, I could clearly visualize every millimeter sliding in and out of my eagerly-waiting love nest.

The curtain came up to the strains of Billy Idol'sWhite Wedding. Dianna consummated her 'marriage' with impassioned fury, driving in and out – amid the roar of the predominantly gay-male crowd. I happened to catch Susan's face amid all those others. She was recoiling with a look of horror and disgust. Funny; I thought she would be relishing this moment of ultimate triumph. Jeff Spencer was certainly eating it up. The look of sheer joy on his face told me he was loving every thrust. His massive twelve-inch bionic boner jutted out proudly, angled down between the legs of the horse - as Dianna plunged into his ass again and again.Shewas certainly enjoying giving it to him. I cherished the memory of her in me – and was more than a little envious.

The curtain came down as the music faded. Chantal and Mimi hurried onstage from the opposite wing, disengaged their friend and hurried her off in the direction from which they had come. Angie clung to me, holding me up, both of us out of sight in the near wing. I was, once again, dressed in that lovely lavender suede suit and mules that I loved so much. If anything, Angie's white suit looked better on her now than it had that Monday afternoon three months before.

"Baby," she cooed in my ear, "the girls are gonna get Dianna out of here. We have to go, too –right now."

We slipped out the side door and into the mezzanine proper as the pandemonium exploded around us. Hotel security and Chicago PD were running in every direction, searching for the fleeing, scantily-clad 'models'. So, too, were the photographers and camera crew who had to make their deadlines. Hell, with a scoop like this, their editors and producers would hold everything! Meanwhile, two young, attractive – if somewhat provocatively made-up - professional women slowly made their way toward the Michigan Avenue entrance. One had obviously had a little too much to drink.

***

I awoke to sunlight on my face. It was streaming in through the east-facing windows of my bedroom, overlooking Ogden Slip. Angie lay next to me, her head propped up on her arm. She gazed down at my awakening form, smiling so serenely.

"Good morning,Mi Corazón," she murmured. "Do you feel okay? No ill effects, I trust?"

"I wouldn't be tossing the word 'trust' around so casually right now," I replied groggily.

Suddenly, the memory of the previous night flashed into my head.

"Dianna...." I exclaimed, sitting bolt-upright in bed.

Angie stayed my moving body with a gentle hand to my chest.

"Safely out of town," she admonished, then added: "We had to. Every cop and sports fan in the city is gunning for her right now. This is WAY worse than Hugh Grant and Divine Brown."

I stared down at the blankets, puzzled. I remembered everything so vividly – but I thought, with GHB.... Angie shook her head, reading my thoughts.

"Valium," she corrected. "Not enough to knock you out immediately. Just enough to make you... tractable – so I could get you to the car without you making a fuss. I'm sorry. After that stink you raised about Jeff Spencer beating Dianna, and what you were going to do about it, we couldn't risk you doing something impossibly noble like you always do – and getting hurt really bad. We were trying to avoid that. That is what this whole thing has been about from the beginning. For the record, Jeff got the GHB inhisdrink. I don't think he will remember a thing – at least, not until he has to take a shit."

I brought my knees up to my chest, wrapped my arms around them, and rocked. Angie put her arms around me.

"You deserve to know everything, from the beginning," Angie purred soothingly into my ear. "Dianna told me some parts I didn't already know. Some of the rest is guesswork, but I think it's pretty close. That Friday night atRingers when you first met Dianna probably would have been your first, last, and only time together. As she put it, you were just another 'freak' to her then. She had a good laugh at the way you stormed out of her place afterward.

"Jeff Spencer went toRingersthat night, too – looking to score with her. Susan had been ranting in his ear all week about how you had left her high and dry – as though you owed her and her lover a life. He needed a good lay without having to listen to her whining. He spotted you and Dianna leaving the club – and recognized you immediately.

"He confronted her the next night and fed her some line about you having fucked him over on some deal or another. He told her he would make it worth her while to 'play' you. He wanted her to get in good with you, get you to dress up in girly clothes, then get pictures of you being fucked in drag by Dianna. She was okay with it at the time. To her, it was just making a little extra money from one freak fucking over another. Once they got that 'dirt' on you, Jeff and Susan would then be able to blackmail you into dropping the divorce and go on as before – with them shacking up whenever they felt like it andyousupporting them financially. Just to make sure you were 'on board' with their little scheme, he was planning to beat the shit out of you after he took the pictures."

"Susan knew?" I growled angrily.

Angie nodded.

"That's what he told Dianna," she confided. "Actually, I think she knew what Jeffwantedher to know. At that point, he would have had a hard time explaining how he knew Dianna was a T-girl without casting suspicion on himself. Most likely, he told her he had seen you out with another woman, and that it looked to him like it had been going on for some time. When she saw you and Dianna outside Morton's – and saw how beautiful Dianna was and how lavishly you had obviously pampered her – Susan was ready to believeyouhad been cheating onher longer than she had been cheating on you. She was insanely jealous! Dianna told me she felt on top of the world when Jeff told her that. As possessive as Susan is, I can't imagine her just giving up without a fight on a more personal level. Did I miss something?"

I told Angie about the incident in front of the office that Monday morning. She pursed her lips, smiled, and shook her head in amazement.

"As much as I hate the bitch," she murmured, "I'll give her this; she is a girl after my own heart. When she sees something she wants, she goes out and gets it. She never followed up?"

I shook my head. Angie nodded gazing speculatively into the distance. Then, she re-focused on me.

Again, this part is guesswork on my part. That's probably the time Jeff dropped The Bomb. Maybe he told her he had had Dianna followed and found out she was a shemale. Discovering she had lost you to a 'man' would push a woman like Susan right over the edge. She would have agreed to anything Jeff planned from that moment on. That's why Ireallydespise the cunt. She sat back, kept her nose clean, and let Jeff do all the dirty work. I'll bet she didn't even want to know the details - as long as he got the job done."

"I didn't sense that Dianna was on board with all this," I pointed out. "Did I misread her that completely?"

Angie rested her hand on my cheek and shook her head.

"My dear, sweet Baby," she intoned. "You haveno idea the kind of effect you have on a woman – especially after she experiences men like Jeff Spencer. He made her call you that Friday and set up the date that night, to start the scam rolling. After that magical Valentine's Day weekend, Dianna was ready to give up The Life completely and camp out on your doorstep. I would have, too. Apparently, you also set her straight on what thereal situation was between you, Susan, and Jeff. True?"

I nodded my head in agreement.

"The next time Jeff contacted her, she told him he could keep his money and his bionic dick; thatshewas keepingyou," Angie resumed. "That's when things started to getreally nasty. It wasn't enough that he slapped her around. It wasn't his first time by any means – nor his last...."

Angie gazed off towards a corner of the room again, marshalling her thoughts.

"Sweetie," she continued. "Girls like Dianna have to do... stuff to survive;illegal stuff. They can't get regular jobs; no one will hire them. Jeff knew about a public-assistance scam Dianna had run; not 'Welfare Cadillac' level, but serious. He could have dropped a dime and gotten her sent to prison – in her case, amen's prison. Do you have any idea what it means to a T-girl to have her hair shaved off and have to live as a man –andbe the communal fuck toy?"

I shivered.

"I think I have a pretty good handle on it now," I admitted.

"Poor Dianna," Angie lamented. "She was in an impossible situation; torn between her love for you and her fear of a fate worse than death. At that time, she knew nothing of the kind of connections and clout you had. She perceived Jeff as being the stronger of the two – and that he could wipe the floor with you. She wasn't about to let that happen. She did the only thing she knew how to do."

"What was that?"

"She knew she couldn't protect you in your and Jeff's world – as a 'man in a dress.' So she had to bringyou intoher world – all the way in. That was one place whereshemade the rules and called all the shots. She told Jeff about the fashion show, and how it would be the perfect time to set you up. He agreed; he loved the public humiliation aspect. That bought her some time to carry out her plan.

"He had to have told Susan. She would have been the one to set up the publicity appearance and make certain the photographers and television crew were on hand. Oh, how they must have been looking forward to destroying you publicly! Of course, all that time they were expecting to see a man in a dress. I don't think either one had any idea you could be so totally transformed, and be so convincing as a woman. Dianna knew – and knew it was her only way to save both of you from them."

"I can't believe your involvement in this was all a coincidence," I stated flatly.

Angie blushed, staring down.

"It wasn't," she admitted. "I knew almost from the start. Remember I told you I grew up in the scene? I had blown off my date for Valentine's Day – he kept me waiting once too often. I went toRingersto catch the show and chat with some of my girlfriends. I watched 'Lance' and Dianna go into the dressing room – andyou and Dianna come out. Only someone who had been in the scene for a while would have recognized you and 'Lance' were the same person. Then again, I had fantasized about youen femme for so long.... Oh,God; I wanted you so badly at that moment I almost came on the spot! Then, when you went outside – and that guy followed you –I was insanely jealous."