Screwed by Wall Street Pt. 02

Screwed by Wall Street - Part 2 - Joan Goes Away, But Not Really

Chapter 4 - Transition is Hard

I didn't set the alarm and was shocked when the phone rang and I saw it was after eight. Pat's voice was cruel, "Are you still in bed at this hour? What happened to the most organized woman executive in town?"

"My head aches. Private parts of me are sore. I went to bed naked, which I've never done before, and now I'm lying here in the sun and wondering where my three lovers went." I added an enticing moan after that.

She laughed, "You know what, you are twenty-eight going on eighteen and getting a few life lessons."

I put on a silken voice and said, "The homework this weekend was very nice."

Pat responded, "You are welcome. I had fun too. But Joan, we have plans and decisions to make. How do you want to handle the next few days? The girls and I have to be out of here by the end of the day today. Alex says he needs forwarding info for the phone and email and snail mail."

I thought fast. "We don't want anything or anybody coming here. What about a hotel suite or an instant apartment rental? Are you willing to be the dragon lady about my former existence until we get a few things going?"

Pat laughed. "With Alex's leverage and contacts, we can have an address almost anywhere you want. Are you going to be there at all? That makes a difference."

"Whatever it takes. And will you ask Gloria about how to get me some help with disguises when you get back to the apartment? Somebody discreet?"

"Her mom was a costume person for the Met for a while. Maybe she would help."

I gushed at her, "You know, you helped make me a new woman this weekend. If you didn't have the smartest, hottest boyfriend in town, I'd be all over you!"

"Ok, hot stuff, back to business."

"Alright, here's a quick game plan. Let's take a concierge floor double suite at a midtown hotel. Tell them we will be there for a couple of weeks, or more. Also, arrange for their security to provide two shifts of a dedicated guard. That will cut down on the curious folks we don't want to see, but put on appearances for the people we do need to see, including lawyers and selected reporters. See that they have a decent room for a press conference or two. Make sure it is a place where you are comfortable working."

"Hey, not bad. I'll call you after lunch with an update. Want to give me an idea of what you are going to be doing yourself?"

"Well, since I've regressed to eighteen, I'm going to have to look for a nanny, or governess or something."

We both giggled.

"Actually, that gives me an idea. I'm going over to the gym and see if Ellen can fix me up with a personal trainer to get my body on a program to take on Tony and Roy. I didn't do so well with them this weekend."

"Oh god, honey, you don't know what kind of star you are. They've already told Gloria and me that if we give them any shit, they know where they are going next."

"Ooh, both of them! But wait a minute. Let's take this plan a little bit further. Joan Middleton is going to leave town for someplace far away, isn't she? How soon can that happen and still keep all the lawyers happy?"

"At least two weeks, and that's tight."

"So, we need to be prepared to go out of sight someplace nearby in two weeks. A big house with isolation, but good access to Kennedy. Will it work for Erica's father, Mr. Austrian moneybags, to take a year's lease? What about some mansion that's been on the market but not moving? Herr Von Steichen insists on privacy and no publicity, doesn't he?

Practical Pat said, "There are a lot of blanks to fill in, but it's consistent with our talk on the weekend. The bank that has the largest of your accounts, which just got a lot bigger, should be able to handle the Von Steichen account without attracting too much attention. We're going to need at least a half a million."

"Let's start higher than that. Call our friend Steve in Geneva and tell him I'm going to be doing some co-investment work with an Austrian inventor and I would like a million transferred from one of his blind accounts to the new Von Steichen Enterprises account here in New York. That reduces the chance of some nosey bank clerk selling us out to the media. And gives you a bank reference for the rental."

"Erica, that's a hell of a lot of work for one day. Steve's probably already on his way home."

"That's why you're paid that fantastic salary, lady. Did I tell you about the new title and raise you just got? Executive Director of the to-be-named foundation. $350K plus bonus, housing and an unlimited personal expense account."

There was silence on the line. "Really?"

"Really. Get to work, I'm off to the gym."

Chapter 5 - Joan disappears, or does she?

After finishing my planning session with Pat, I called Gloria and asked if she had classes this morning. "Nope, but there's serious homework sitting right here."

"Did Pat ask you about the disguise business?"

"Yeah, but Mom's not back from visiting my sister in Boston until tomorrow."

"I've decided you need some exercise. Go down to that running shop and get matching running outfits in your and my sizes and bring them over here. Not too flashy. Something a couple of serious runners would wear. And get one of those stupid hats that takes my hair and mostly covers my face."

"You and I are going running?"

"Yes, I've never been seen running outdoors.The car and driver always took me to the gym. If anybody asks when we go out, you and I are new tenants, just moved in. I'm going to talk to Ellen about a new location and low visibility. I'll fill you in when you get here."

I called down to Tony and asked if there were any lurkers around. "They come and go. I think you are on their list, but not at the top. Why do you ask?"

"Your girlfriend and I are going running. In public, in matching outfits. We are two new tenants, and there's a whisper around that we are paired up."

Silence on the line. "Hmmm, you've turned the only girlfriend I ever really loved? I'm heartbroken. I'm going to extract severe favors. From both of you."

God, I liked this guy. Fighter, bodyguard, security freak, lover. Girl, I said to myself, you better pay attention to treating him right.

"So, you're not all worn down from the weekend? After your shift is over at three, what about some lunch and a planning session?"

"I'm liking the sound of that."

I heard a noise behind me, and there was Gloria sneaking up. She grabbed the phone and said in a loud aggressive tone, "Anthony, I thought you told me the building was secure. There is a strange female in my apartment and she is naked."

Gloria reached down and removed my robe with a quick pinch at both nipples.

Squawking on the line. Now the soft seductive voice, "Lover, Joan and I are coming down in five

and we better get away down the street toward the park without anyone harassing us, or you are out of luck for a long time." She grinned at me over the phone as she tossed a shopping bag in my direction.

The line went dead. I asked her, "Don't you worry that if you give him too much heat, he'll dump you?"

"You mean like 90% of the no-good, no-commitment guys in New York?"

"Yeah. Like that."

She walked over as I was extracting a running bra from the bag, followed by crimson shorts and a pair of nice looking runners. She helped me on with the bra, taking too long to fondle my tits as they were folded into the stretchy fabric. Before she pulled the shorts, which were entirely too short, all the way up, her finger sampled the juices in my pussy.

She sucked on the finger and said, "God, you make me hot."

I hugged her and nipped at her neck and said, "How did I get to be twenty-eight before discovering that a special woman like you can turn me on?"

I wanted nothing more than to have a wrestling match with her right there, but she swatted my butt and said, "There's time for messing around later. Let's run."

On the way down in the elevator, she became Laura and I became Patti, newly transferred from LA to Manhattan to work on a reality show that was going into production in the summer.

We were already moving as we came out of the lobby doors and headed down the street, waving and shouting at Tony that we were going for a run and thanks for the directions.

I had an idea thirty minutes would be a nice run. Gloria said we were from Venice Beach and ran every day, and no one would believe thirty minutes. Gloria also thought that sub-nine was required to keep up appearances. Erica, or Joan, or Patti, or whoever my body thought it was, damn near collapsed before getting back. Tony was standing there in his uniform, smirking, as I stumbled up to him.

"This outdoor life is a little hard on you, is it?"

I was bent over, catching my breath, but said to him, "I'll get you for this. Wait until I have my gloves on."

I glanced up as Gloria and Tony were high fiving each other. All I could think of was that they were enjoying the sight of the rich bitch hurting a little. They were right. My sessions at the gym kept the weight off, but serious fitness they were not.

I straightened up, smiled and asked, "Any extra attention around?"

"You're lucky, one of those fashion things is going on downtown and the paparazzi are after the anorexic models."

I put my arm around Gloria and said, "I guess that's not on our problem list, is it?"

We showered together but the hard run had turned down my sex thermostat and I settled for a joint lotion session with hands and fingers all over. Then we did each other's hair and fussed with a little makeup. Just enough to keep Tony off balance.

I asked her, "Does it bother Tony that you and I have a little byplay?"

"It might have, until he got such a great fuck with you at the beach."

She smiled at me and added, "Now he knows you are as straight as I am, but enjoy fooling around too."

She kissed me on the lips and said, "You are hot stuff, kiddo. With all that buildup, Pat and I came right with you!" The back of her hand rubbed my mound.

The phone rang and it was Pat. "I don't know why, but your impossible list for today is done. Steve has money headed to our new bank account, the hotel has fixed us up with a double suite we can have today if we want, and the starving actresses are doing great with the phones. Alex even came by and pressed another roll of bills into my hand."

"That gives me an idea, why don't you ask Alex for a couple of office juniors on overtime to do the move tonight. Put the girls in charge on double overtime, and tell them to call you here if any problems?"

"Oh my god, they will be so excited! I'll get right on it. I gather you want me over there later?"

"Yes. We're having a planning session. Bring Roy. We'll order in from one of those fancy places."

I hung up, told Gloria to relax for a few minutes, and went down the elevator to find Tony. I went up to him and said, "Follow me down the block a few yards."

I stopped at a black Mercedes and pretended to have problems with the trunk lock. "Tony, should we do a sweep of my apartment before we have a planning session up there?'

I didn't look at him. He gently elbowed me out of the way, pulled something out of his pocket, and quickly had the trunk open, exposing what looked like an expensive set of golf clubs and nothing else.

"Not likely, but not zero chance someone got to you before you were fired. I suppose you want a sweep right now?"

"Yes. Don't worry about the cost. Alex gave Pat another bundle."

"OK, I know someone who can do it within the hour."

I went upstairs and told Gloria we should straighten up a little before company arrived.

Max was balding, overweight, and completely nondescript. His bag was old and equally nondescript. The set of high tech scanners was not. Max pulled on a kevlar vest with a dozen pockets, into which went all manner of gadgets. Gloria and I sat on the sofa, holding hands and saying nothing. Max disappeared with little beeps and buzzes in his wake. In ten minutes, he returned, saying, "Pass 1 is ok." The pockets were refilled with different gadgets. We heard the dialtone from the phone once or twice. He came back with a smile on his face. "You're clean electronically, but come in here so I can show you something."

In the bathroom, he said, "Try to move the mirror."

I reached up and pulled at the molding on the edge of the mirror. It wouldn't move.

Max pointed to the unfilled holes in the mirror frame. "Now why do you suppose the mirror is screwed hard to the wall, and the molding isn't finished off?"

Gloria and I stood there dumbly looking at it.

He led us around to the closet that backed up the bathroom and showed us the metal plate high on the plaster wall. "Two guesses what is behind that utility plate?"

I crumbled inside. Someone had a lot of pictures of naked Joan in the bathroom of the apartment that no one was supposed to know about. Except that someone did. Maybe pictures with sound.

I pulled Max into the living room. Quietly, I said, "At best, a voyeur on the maintenance staff. At worst, someone blackmailing me with naked pictures that will go on the Internet?"

He nodded.

"Any way of telling how long it has been there?"

"Not really, but they usually have to be changed out after a week or so. Do you want me to disable it?"

I shook my head. "No, we'll move our meeting somewhere else. I need to think about this a bit. I really appreciate you helping us on such short notice."

"You are welcome. Let me know if you want help with pushback on that."

Gloria was looking seriously unhappy as Max packed and left. Even though Max said we were clean for bugs, I asked Gloria very quietly, "Your place?"

She shook her head and said, "Try Pat."

After several phone calls, Tony, Gloria and I were headed further north to Pat and Roy's place. I had a wig on under a baseball cap, a pair of crummy capris, and generally looked like the help after they got out of their uniforms.

On one and a half salaries, Roy and Pat had created a zone of style inside a brownstone in Harlem that had seen better days. Most of Roy's musician friends were African-American and both of them were comfortable living in a highly diverse neighborhood. Parking was the usual zoo and Gloria gave me some style pointers during the two block walk from the subway.

"Girl, you gotta let some of that famous CEO reserve go. You walk like a twenty year old trying to protect her virtue!"

"Gloria, the list of things I'm going to get you for is getting longer and longer. Just you wait." But I did let my hips loosen up, and pulled my shoulders back.

Tony had a smile a mile wide, watching his about-to-be-ex tenant pretend she was a street girl in black Harlem. "Honey, a little more work on that wig, and a short black dress, and you'll be all ready."

Pat let us in and did a doubletake on my outfit. "God, Joan, they let you out on the street in that?"

Gloria grabbed both of us and smooched us. "Hey, we didn't pull a single photographer!"

I ditched the wig and went to find a beer.

Roy said, "I guess the drill is order in for dinner? Figure out some things in private?"

Tony took a gadget out of the bag he carried and made a circuit of the apartment. "Clean."

I looked at Pat and she looked at me. I was slipping into boss mode, but she shook her head, "After dinner," she mouthed at me.

I went over, pulled her up into a full body clinch and whispered in her ear, "Thank you. Keep doing that. I like your instincts. Always have."

That got me a really hot, wet kiss. Gloria shouted, "I knew it, I just knew she was bi all along. First, she attacks me in the shower, now she's after Pat. Guys, your women are not safe from this predator!"

Before the guys got to comment, the door rang and food arrived. Pat pulled a fifty off her impressive roll of cash and told the young delivery girl to use the extra for her education. Which got her a surprised smile and a hug.

The Thai dishes disappeared in a hurry. I licked my fingers and went to sit beside Gloria. "I need to ask you a question. But first, Tony would you place Gloria over your lap?" Her legs were over my thighs and I quickly raised the skirt to reveal a gorgeous, muscular deep brown ass. A very bare ass.

"Gloria, the question is, when we have the game room finished at our new headquarters on Long Island, and I have you strung up with the very special ropes we are going to install, what color does this incredible chocolate ass turn when I beat it?"

Gloria was not liking this line of questioning, but the others were laughing. Tony was working hard to hold her down, and I was doing a miserable job of beating her bottom, which wasn't turning any new color at all.

"Let me up, let me at her. I'll teach her to beat on me!"

I nodded at Tony to let her up, which meant the two of us were on the floor in an instant, with her on top. She pushed my shirt up until my boobs were uncovered, and bit one of my nipples really hard.

"Ouch!" She bit the other one, but smothered my mouth with hers, our tongues fighting each other and her knee in my crotch doing bad things.

After a minute, she sat us up and hugged me against her, back to front. Her fingers on my breasts felt nice. She announced to the group, "I think we are going to have to hang on to this one, even if she is filthy rich. I've had more fun in the last few days than since before I grew up."

Pat made noises about needing plans and decisions. Everyone grabbed another beer and we sat back.

I began. "That camera in my apartment may just be a nosy neighbor, but we shouldn't count on it. If whomever is behind the surveillance has a long term interest in me, then we shouldn't disappear too quickly or too abruptly. They have keys, so a bug could appear anytime. We haven't talked about Long Island in those rooms, but we have talked about the hotel arrangements. Let's assume for starters that we begin to talk about moving me to the hotel because the lease is up. We can also mention my plans for travel but in a way that sounds like the destination is still up in the air. How does that sound? What about my personal and general security?"

Roy and Tony announced that I was to remain where I was for the night. Whether I was allowed to reside at the hotel would be worked out after tighter security was established. Pat led me to the shower and got in with me, both of us washing smelly bodies with periodic clinches to push the nasty world away. She had a spare nighty that covered very little, and placed me in the middle of their bed. In the night, I woke with a warm body on either side, and felt better. A lot better. I thought that my former person would not have appreciated friends as much as my new one.

In the morning, the women and I were alone in the bed, tight against each other. Gloria was in front of me and her boob filled my hand deliciously. Pat's fingers were playing up and down my spine. She said, in German, "Erica, this is your first day in New York and you have lots to learn. Gloria and I are your escorts. You need a new wardrobe. That suitcase of stuff from Vienna may be trendy over there, but here it is an embarrassment."

As I was led to the shower, Gloria said, "Shit, you mean I have to learn German in this new gig?"

"Ja, fraulein." Pat and I giggled as we soaped the chocolate brown body. She gave us threats back in her best Harlem hip hop slang.

Over breakfast, there was a lapse back into Joan the CEO. "Ok, we need temporary job assignments. Pat is CFO and CEO. She is also doing the planning on the disappearance of Joan Middleton. For now, she is also our ATM, and will dispense cash on reasonable demand."

The words weren't out of my mouth when Tony and Roy had their hands out. Pat stared them down, and found some fifties in her purse.