Not Quite a White Knight Vol. 04.4

The back of the dress included a broad "V" of the same almost-see-thru white lace from the shoulders to the start of the cleft of her bottom. Like the sides this material was close to transparent, the designer took light readings in the location to make sure.

The lace in back had a series of heart-shaped cutouts, arranged in a "V" pattern. At the shoulder blades the hearts were about one inch in diameter. They increased in size until the one in the center at the bottom of the "V" was closer to two-and-a-half inches across. The intention was that, when a man put his arms around Abril after the ceremony, if the hand was positioned properly, they would have flesh-to-flesh contact at a position so low on her spine that he could almost feel her cleft. If a guy reached too low he got the stiff satin, which was less of a thrill.

However, by far the most interesting part of the dress was that the front, from the low waist to the neckline, which was made of a very special lace that varied in transparency. By that I mean that, while the length of the white lace front the fabric was totally opaque on one edge/side. Moving from the edge the towards the center transparency slowly increased so at the center it was completely see-thru, concealing nothing. Two pieces of the variable lace were joined in the center, the dress had this material all across the front.

The border of the opaque region just covered the nipple. Less than half of the width of each breast was visible, but what was visible was the top to bottom of the center for each breast. One could not look away, the mind was sure that at some angle, with some motion of the body, the nipple would appear.

The fabric was hard to make, outrageously expensive, and very difficult to work with, but Ji El planned to use it as her unique trademark for custom wedding dresses. She called in a "window" feature.

In Abril's case, the front lace insert was a "shield-shape" (a "U" shape with a point at the bottom) extending from her throat to a point so low on her pubic region that you would swear you could see the start of Abril's slit. On the center line and to some distance on each side of that the lace was transparent from the neck to the tip of the point at the bottom. A tiny dab of body glue insured that the fabric stayed put at this delicate region. The insert was surrounded by a framing outline of white satin.

With the front transparency and the rear cutouts, Abril considered this the most scandalous wedding dress she had ever seen. It was completely decent, but she knew the thoughts of onlookers went to pure sin. She was sure that somebody could see through the fabric to her bare skin on the side when the light was right. Ji El had pictures that showed exactly that, taken by the professional photographer. But that involved using a plethora of lights, at all angles high and low, during the last fitting at her studio.

Abril was a little stunned at how good she looked in those pictures. Ji El planned to print and distribute only 200 of the coffee-table size books showing Abril's dress and 4 other one-off designs. Abril's picture would be seen by a very wealthy and limited clientele. (The other wedding dresses in Ji El's 2008 book included an Oscar winner, a Olympic athlete, and a very popular LA TV personality, one a month starting with Abril's in September.) Ji El was not 100% sure about taking on a new line, but she was sure there was a very high-priced market out there if she was willing to deal with bridezillas.

As the one person who could supply her customers such an exclusive wedding dress, she could really lay down the law to the most powerful entitled teenagers and their entourage. A simple question about exercise or diet (Did YOU have a cookie today?) asked with a needle and thread in hand and a look at an off-the-rack dress, could reduce the entire female contingent of the wedding party to groveling abject submission.

For a 4-week period before the wedding, Abril actually ate less than Li. (If a rabbit ate like Li it would die of starvation.) The dress was form-fitted, and as the wedding date approached Ji El had to scold Abril into eating, so she would stop shrinking. After the last fitting, three days before the wedding, Ji El actually gave Abril a schedule of what she had to eat for the dress to fit at the wedding - no more weight change, up or down, was allowed, the fit was too close.

The schedule had two doses "creamy male extract" the night before the wedding.

Abril agreed to this because she looked spectacular in the dress. There were no underclothes involved, the outline of Abril's nipples were very visible and the lace on the sides and back precluded panties of any type. There was a "nipple enhancement" feature, Ji El had Abril insert a vibrator that worked just enough to her keep her nipples standing. The batteries, special units that fit inside Abril ass, lasted 2 hours. Cynthia had the remote and would help with changing the batteries after the ceremony when we did the paperwork. In fact, Abril could not put on or take off the dress herself, or sit down while wearing it. Cynthia or Li had to help her in the bathroom. Sin-Sin also took every opportunity to provide a little naughty contact for their mutual delight.

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The Wheels

I knew that the wedding day would be hard for Abril because it was not a real wedding for her. She was a hardened con-woman on a job, but still a fake wedding like this went counter to her childhood dreams. To be honest, the ceremony marked the day of her sexual-submission-with-a-smile to men she did not love, the male law partners undressing her with their eyes as she strove to smile and stay marvelous. Plus, her payoff depended on me, she sometimes thought of herself as a high-skill player used as a pretty prop in my long con.

(When Abril confided this notion to Cynthia, who thought just a moment and replied, "like the car or the gun in James Bond movies?" It was a brilliant comment, Abril realized that both icons had outlasted a handful of spectacular James Bonds.)

Like many of her friends Abril associated a lot of special emotions with her wedding day. Despite the ring, the dress and all the rest, I knew that Abril would benefit from another morale boost as part of the experience that would carry over to everyday life but still be distinctive. It would help her to get through the day-to-day, and especially those law firm socials when she was not really in the mood. So I had paid attention and got some ideas about Abril's secret desires - desires that she did not really realize she had - well before the wedding.

The proof that I was on the right track came the first time Abril saw Li's custom S-10 Blazer. Her disproportionate reaction told me I was on the right track. This was good because at the time Abril's car was nearing completion.

I knew that Abril (and virtually everyone else) was a fan of the original Thunderbirds, the two-seater that is an iconic design included in that uniquely American movie "American Graffiti."

(Suzanne Somers drove a Thunderbird in a pivotal 10-second scene. Many confuse this with a similar scene from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" where Nancy Wilson, the blonde guitarist from the band Heart drove a Corvette.)

Unlike many of her generation, Abril is also a fan of the last series (11th generation) of Thunderbirds, which were also 2-seaters, produced until 2005. The two-seat car was a convertible with a removable hardtop that harked back to the original 1955 Thunderbird. In addition, Abril liked the "fastback" models of some Mustang models - the ones with separate side windows in back. On the other hand, she hated most "notchback and convertible" Mustangs as "common vehicles for common people to pay too much for."

However, a problem Abril could not see in the sporty two-seaters was the linkage between the format's attractiveness and natural vulnerability that came with it. The value-to-vulnerability ratio were a virtual assurance that such a car would be car-jacked or stolen unless measure were taken.

The first defense was avoiding vulnerable locations when driving their best rides. This was natural for people like Barnes in his Excalibur or Samantha in her Avanti. They kept those cars moving, and avoided heavy traffic. For Li in her Blazer, there was always an option of departing from the street. Abril didn't think that way.

The basic problem with any hardtop or convertible is that the windows have virtually no support, so unlike sedans they are far to easy to break into for thieves, who either want the stuff inside, or decide to take the car plus whatever they choose to take from the driver. Such cars simply cannot be fitted with bullet-proof windows. If the windows aren't bulletproof, the car can't be made bulletproof. This fact is known to low-life criminals with cheap guns who play Grand Theft Auto as a live-action role-playing game at busy intersections in LA.

Also, while the Thunderbird looks like a "fun" car in either ragtop or hardtop modes, the fact is that it is not that safe from roll-over crashes. LA is the home of the fabled "Dead Man's Curve" of song and legend. In that Jan + Dean classic a Jaguar XKE went into a slide and flipped over, which is very bad for the driver. (There are several real "Dead Man's Curves" in the US, but the song is about a fictional race on the Sunset Strip past LA landmarks.) Similar real accidents happened at that spot until the city was sued into fixing the road to make it safer.

I wanted the structure of the car modified to include roll bars around the windshield and behind the seats. This would also allow the support needed for a crash and for bulletproof windows.

Most people do not know it, but the 11th generation Thunderbird was build on the same "platform" as the Jaguar saloons and performance sedans of the era. Where the factory Thunderbird sold in the US was a so-so performer, it was easy to upgrade the engine (dual superchargers), suspension and basic design using Jaguar bits.

I had a team reinforce the "A" pillar (holds the windshield) to roll bar strength, and fabricate a solid structural roll bar for the "B" pillar (the back of the door). They also rebuild the back of the car into a sloped "fastback" design, one with side windows Abril liked. With a sedan-style door giving solid bracing all around, and the door backed by a solid pillar, the door window glass was replaced with a composite that could stop 10 mm pistol rounds. Other armor panels were added (firewall, doors, and seat-backs) including a shield that popped up behind the seats. (The 007 car has a shield at the very back, but I put it inside, right behind the seats.) Finally, to retain the convertible feeling, I specified a T-top arrangement. Instead of cheap light panels removed by hand I specified powered sliding panels, of light bulletproof kevlar composite, to close the top fast and safe. The resulting car had the "best of both worlds," fun for her and protection for my peace of mind.

The two-tone paint was pink up to the waist, and a light purple above. (We took color tips from Abril's clothes and shoes.) When Li and I showed Abril her new car she cried and almost fainted, it was perfect for her personality, a better fit than anything she could have imagined or asked for. She was amazed that it matched her fingernails!

Plus, with that expensive ring, I felt better if she was in something that could not be car-jacked on a whim by a 13-year-old with a cheap zip-gun and a lifetime of bad choices ahead of him, just because she caught a red light.

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Chapter 33. Work Before The Wedding

Monday August 11 to Thursday August 13, 2008

The week ended with the wedding but before that happened I had to get my brief done. So you might say that in one week I made the two biggest advances in terms of placing myself to become a partner in the firm.

I had finished the brief a couple of weeks ago, then set it aside to "rest" for a time before I gave it a final close read. The previous week I smoothed some last minute issues before I began a final edit and proofread. Monday and Tuesday I worked long hours finishing my proofread (I was in my office for over 30 hours). Tuesday afternoon I sent an email to Barnes saying I expected to finish up Wednesday morning, the 13th, confirming what I had previously scheduled. An hour later he emailed back, my proofing committee of 5 lawyers (Joe Pope, Judge Stern, Kick Howard and 2 associates) would meet me at 4:00 Wednesday afternoon to get access and talk about the process, so we were all on the same page. One issue was their personal calendars, they knew this was coming and they reasonably expected to spend 40 hours each at their offices on just this project, reading and checking their overlapping section of the brief. We agreed that Thursday August 14 between 9 and 4, I would be available for any quick questions. I agreed to stay in my office for those hours. Then we agreed to a one week deadline for their final comments, meeting on Wednesday the 20th at 2 in the afternoon. (Yes, they would each do their normal work plus 40 hours on my stuff during the next week. I was a slave driver.) We would hash out the final comments in the conference room.

Barnes made a note to schedule some extra service girls during the weekend, these guys were going to put in long mind-numbing hours and would need their service with a smile.

At that time, assuming there were no major issues, we would also talk about Samantha's hyperbook idea for the brief. We planned to deliver the work to the client later that week and were committed to monthly updates for 6 months after that. That was part of the price of the project and it could be a profit killer for both sides because it had to be there. However, with a hyperbook using the web and the cloud those updates could become long-term monthly revenue, and not just for our one paying customer. The partners liked that idea.

Barnes noted that this schedule allowed Saturday for my wedding and Sunday, Monday and Tuesday the 19th for my honeymoon. Clearly I was a guy who could do difficult work on a tight schedule.

I would actually be in Peru, dealing with the Five to persuade them to turn over their assets to the Patron, which was the exact opposite of what they planned.

The firm needed to know I was not available to chat during my honeymoon. I told Barnes he was to assume I was doing my honeymoon on a private submarine off Santa Catalina Island, coming to the surface only for fabulous meals. This was actually possible, and he said it was a great idea. But I would be out-of-touch.

I would actually return from Peru on a private jet, arriving around 7 Wednesday morning the 20th (damn the noise abatements laws) at Van Nuys or Hollywood/Burbank, depending on winds and traffic.

Barnes kidded about making me a partner on the 20th, since I would meet all the requirements. Of course, he was not kidding that much, we both knew my progress to a partnership was was in the final stages. Somewhere he got the notion that I was considering offers from other law firms. In the past the firm had always admitted new partners on January 1. However, with so many partners leaving the firm in the past few month an emergency change in policy adding partners September 1 was on the table. We all knew that some business meetings would occur during the 3 day social that was planned for the extended Labor Day weekend at the resort the firm booked. In line with that I needed to file some papers with the firm showing the financial arrangements for my equity.

I was all set for these details, I would buy-in to the partnership in full right away, showing plenty of capital resources. This would reduce suspicion on me when the firm suddenly and surprisingly went broke early next year. Cops don't expect white-collar criminals to steal from themselves, especially when they have a list of cyber-suspects in North Korea, Pune, Estonia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc.

At the proofing meeting my mentor, Joe Pope, was not as affable as usual. In fact, Barnes had to call him on his general demeanor to everybody. I knew it was because of what had happened at Chronis, when I saved Amy from most of her whipping and the blackmail pictures Joe planned to get. Then, the next day there was the search warrant that blindsided and embarrassed him in front of his women. He felt that somebody had cheated him so he was distrustful of everybody. He was also feuding with Judge Stern about their power in the partnership if something happened to Barnes. The bottom line was the Pope was visibly not happy and Barnes had to have some words with him about putting these "outside and emotional" issues aside when the partner's profits were at stake.

I did learn enough from Joe's body language and expressions to know he was pissed off about Amy but did not suspect me as the responsible party. Kick and I were two of the dozen or so law firm members who dated Amy "with overnight benefits" at Joe's invitation during the last year, so I guess that he had some suspicions about who could be involved. Joe also knew that Amy had friends in the entertainment industry, like that short "Tom" fellow from the unlikely "Mission" movies, who could easily buy her out of the whipping.

Also, she was an actress, so a drug dealer might be a fan. They also had cash.

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Late Wednesday evening I was copied on an email from Joe to all partners where he officially served notice to the firm that Amy was out of his house and would no longer participate as his wife-exchange partner. In the future he would attend the law firm social functions with "1 to 3 Church girls," who were current on all medical and other requirements due to their father's participation with them. The 2 older Church girls were popular with some partners for the exchanges because they did anything requested. (For example, one girl stretched her buns open for anal sex while the other got underneath to lick balls). They were usually a 2-for-1 deal. The third Church girl had never been to a law firm social. She recently came of age "and was broken in for solo work before Frank Church died."

The other law firm wives also learned that the Church girls had cut all communication and social ties with them "for the time being," as they adjusted to their new life. I (and others) assumed that since the sluts cheated on the late Frank Church with Joe and others, arranging date using phone calls, texts and emails, Joe knew they could not be trusted with any communication paths he could not monitor. They had new cell phones and emails in Joe's name, and he got detailed reports. Eventually the girls might learn about G-mail or something similar, but until then Joe had the sluts' social communications locked down tight.

Everybody took it as given the the Church girls would not behave properly at my wedding, so they would not be coming.

I had previously heard from Joe that he and Vi would be at the wedding, but he mentioned that they leave soon "due to another engagement." I took that to mean that Joe and Vi did not want to get drawn into any conversations about Amy or leave the Church sluts unsupervised for too long.

I wondered if Joe would make it to January 1. At this rate, he would have the preference with Abril for her first exchange in December or January or maybe as early as October (this was all still up in the air). After what he did to Amy at Chronis I was not sure he would live to enjoy that. A lot depended on how close he got to the truth about me being the one who sprung Amy. As "Connection" I heard from the owner of Chronis that Joe had called several times, and what the guy finally told him. Still, he might try to contact some of the Chronis employees in person. I put a 49 watch team on him. He would notice them, they were not subtle, but he could not stop them. They took pictures of everyone he met face-to-face.