Red-Handed Ch. 05

"Mac," she said, her voice impassive. "And how are you, this morning?"

His heartbeat quickened at the sound of her voice and there was a marked reaction in his trousers. "Very well, thank you for asking. As good as I've been in some time. I trust your pretty sidekicks brought you up to speed with the events of last night?"

"They did indeed. Sounds like you had quite a time of it."

"I can assure you I did. It was deeply enjoyable. I feel like I should thank you, Miranda. Much as I'd like to gloat, it was your screw-up that set the whole thing in motion. Most uncharacteristic of you, but there's none of us perfect. Tell me, what exactly did you hope to achieve by sending them here? What did you think they'd find?"

"Oh they weren't really looking for anything," Miranda said, "whatever I might have told them. It was more a matter of what they left. And for the record, Mac, I didn't screw up. Go and check inside the top drawer in your study." Mac paused open-mouthed, his exhilaration fading. "Don't panic, darling," his estranged wife said, like she could see his expression. "It's nothing bad."

He went directly to his desk, heartbeat pounding in his throat, and pulled open the first drawer. A manila envelope rested on top of all his files. "What the hell is this?" His heart was still thudding fast, despite her reassurance. He cradled the phone between his shoulder and chin as he worked open the envelope's sealed end with a finger and pulled out the documents within.

Mac stared at the A4 sheets, setting them on the desktop to leaf through them. They were easy enough to recognise, but Miranda's signature on the final one, along with that of her lawyer, was the difficult part to digest. "This is..."

"Your counter-offer," she said. "Rather generous. I could scarcely refuse it, well could I?"

Mac had considered himself well-slept, but maybe he needed another coffee. "You've... This..." he stumbled, confusion clouding the sense of relief that burgeoned within him. "You made those girls break into my house to deliver the signed papers?"

"Yes."

"But... why didn't you simply give it to me over dinner?"

"Mac, sweetheart, you are slow this morning. Those two little sluts were your divorce gift."

Mac's jaw dropped ineffectually once more. Miranda's words made no sense to him. What she was saying was impossible. But then he recalled those crucial moments from his encounter with her in the restaurant -- her indiscrete moments of texting, that inconceivably clumsy moment when she'd dropped the phone, her melodramatic flight after him when he'd driven off. Damn it all to fucking hell.

"You set it all up," he said, his voice low. "Them, me... You set the whole thing up like... like a little play for your entertainment."

"For your entertainment," Miranda corrected. "Believe it or not, Mac, I still do rather like you, and you've behaved so... nobly through all of this unpleasantness, I felt some kind of gesture was required on my part."

Mac tried to breath out the anger that was rising in him. Jesus -- to believe he'd actually out-manoeuvred this bitch, scored a point against her, while all the while she was having one more laugh at his expense... "A gesture, right. So tell me -- why couldn't you have let me in on this secret at the restaurant? You played your two little shop girls. How was it necessary to play me?"

"Darling, that's obvious," she said, her voice matter-of-fact. "Would you really have done what you did, if you hadn't been so angry at me? That decency of yours, that infernal sense of fair play, it does get in the way of your other attributes -- the really interesting ones. I needed to rev your engine properly, before I sent you in to deal with those two presumptuous little madams. Irritating suck-ups, the both of them -- perfect choices for this scheme. I was hoping you'd put them in their place, and I must say, you didn't disappoint."

"Oh didn't I?" Mac was listening, his cock growing stiffer in spite of his conflicted feelings.

"Quite the opposite. You surpassed all my hopes. You see I made them tell me everything, immediately it was done. Mac, you surprised me most delightfully. You didn't just stick your cock in those bitches, you played them every way you could think of. You made them your naked, quivering fuck-toys. Quite the evil imagination, you have there, Mackenzie Lewis."

Her words were selected to render him hard as steel, he knew, and he wasn't fighting it. "They told you that much, then?"

"Oh Christ, yes -- I made sure of it. The redhead made out she was pissed off, but I could tell what she was really feeling. And the blonde, God you made an impression on that one. She's ruined for her boyfriend. I'm going to bring them both round to my flat this evening and grill them more about it -- make sure I haven't missed any of the details." She sounded to Mac like she was ready to masturbate at the prospect. He suspected she already had.

"I might have called the police," he said, fighting the urge to massage his own crotch.

"That's a risk I took. It would have been a touch embarrassing trying to explain why I hired cat burglars to return divorce papers. But I honestly didn't think you'd turn down such a hot opportunity, once you were in that mood. And I was right. You used them well -- sexy clueless pawns in our game."

"Your game, you devious bitch. Twist it whatever way you like -- you tricked me too."

"Tell me, Mac -- and tell me without reserve -- how much did you enjoy last night? Go on -- even if you don't want to admit it to me, admit it to yourself."

Mac owed Miranda no honesty, but as images and sensations from his time with the girls clashed in his mind, he needed to share. And who would understand the glory of it all better than the demonic beauty he had married? "I enjoyed it beyond all reason," he told her, resentment still lurking in his low voice. "I enjoyed it to insanity. Working over those two was the greatest fucking experience of my life."

"Darling, I know it was." If Mac hadn't come to doubt his first ability to read Miranda, he might have thought she was happy for him. Even the suspicion of that idea was aphrodisiac to him. "You were a king last night," she told him. "I don't need to have been there, I simply know it. I'd love to see the CCTV footage sometime -- watch you in action. It sounds like you ruled those girls, body and soul."

"Maybe," he said, his jaw set hard. "I never ruled you though, did I?"

"Not like that," she said solemnly. "Maybe that's our tragedy. You might have done, but you simply weren't ready."

"Not ready? What the hell does that mean?"

"My gift to you was more than those girls' asses, however sweet they were. You came into something last night, Mac -- an inheritance. You were the punishing bastard you always had the potential to be, and you'll never forget how much you loved it. You'll crave it again and by Christ you'll have it."

"You're talking rubbish."

"Oh no I'm not."

"I wanted to punish you for sure, and they were there in your place."

"Yes, they were. Well let me tell you something else for nothing. How do you think they ever got the security code for your flat?"

"Surprise me," he said, danger reasserting itself in his tone.

"That temp of yours you fucked so indiscreetly, remember how she came around to visit, provide you with some TLC?"

Mac's anger reared to accompany the action of his dick. Celia. "You didn't..."

"And what if I did, Mac? What if she had some financial encouragement for making that visit? What if she had the means of subtly filming your resetting the burglar alarm and passing it on to me in case I ever needed it? How would that make you feel?"

He recalled the evening so well. Celia the peachy brunette, down on her knees, sucking him with such exquisite attention. Riding him slow. So she too had been a part of Miranda's conniving. "Goddamn you, you infernal bitch," he said. "God-fucking-damn you to hell."

"There's that anger," Miranda said. "Keep that. Use it. You want to make me pay -- well make her pay instead, the way you did Lysette and Imogen. She'd love it. She was quite conflicted, afterwards -- all swoony over what a tender lover you were, while she'd been there under false pretences. She almost didn't want to accept her reward. I'll bet you still have her number. You should phone her -- invite her around for a hot date once the divorce is finalised. Seduce her knickers off and then make her confess to her misdeed with your cock up her ass. Rule her like you want to rule me."

"You're so fucking twisted..."

"Yes I am, Mac -- and the twisted part of you has always loved the fact. Well here's news. That part is in the ascendant. The man you were last night, the man you are right now -- selfish, ruthless, amoral -- I could have loved him. And so many women will love him. They'll fall on their knees and worship your cock with their mouths. They'll offer up their scared asses. They'll take all their punishment and beg for more. You're coming into your kingship and you know it. That's my gift."

"Jesus, woman, you're crazy."

"No I'm not, Mac. I'm a bitch, but I'm not crazy. You'll never forgive me, I know, and you never should. But someday when you're owning some amazing woman's ass with no regard for anything but your own filthy pleasure, you'll thank me as well as curse me."

"Oh will I?"

"I like to think so, darling." Her voice had softened significantly. "You think I hate you, Mac, you think I view you with contempt, but you're wrong. Once we've gone our separate ways I want to know you're out there, being the big gorgeous bastard you always wanted to be. Enjoying yourself to the full -- taking your royal due. Let's let the lawyers tie it all up, Mac. What do you say to that?"

Mac was incapable of saying anything for some seconds. He released a long sigh. "I say it's a good idea."

"I'm glad," she said. "You're going to be magnificent. I'm sorry I won't get to see it. Goodbye, Mac."

She ended the call and he stared at his phone, a war of emotions playing itself out in his head. Fury at his wife simmered in the realisation that it the nightmare was finally as good as over. From some deep place came a pang of regret that he had lost her, followed by a renewed surging of anger. Yes he did still have Celia's number, along with an urge to make her do some serious penance. And he felt damn sure that there'd be further dealings with the blonde-haired half of the cat-burgling twosome. His cock would be busy in the near future. This anger would take a lot more burning off -- Miranda had been right about that.

"Fuck!" He slammed his palm against the desktop, making papers scatter. "Think you fucking know me, bitch..."

But beneath the anger he suddenly knew the truth of it. Yes, he'd never forgive the woman as long as he lived, and she'd been bang on the money about something else as well. After last night he'd never be the same man again. His life was about to turn around with dividends for his business, his bank balance and his cock.

Women beware. The real Mackenzie Lewis had arrived.

THE END