The Tales of Ariel Brody Ch. 02

"I just figured that since you paid..."

"I said stop that and sit over there."

The car was moving so I couldn't get out, so I sat down. I don't know if my face showed any defiance, but I was ready to beat his ass if he got on me about the hooking.

"Young lady you've missed two days of school this week and instead of being home studying I find you're out on the town!"

I was dumbfounded. "Excuse me! I'm dressed like the cheapest street whore in town, Howard just took me from a car where I had a very unpleasant man's cock in my mouth, and you're asking about my study habits? "

I lost whatever control I had had and flew at David with both fists flying. I hit him in the chest, arms, and shoulders; but avoided his face. I continued pounding even though I was sobbing hysterically. He neither attempted to push me away nor to defend himself. I finally wound up on the floor still sobbing.

The car had pulled into David's garage and Howard carried me up to David's bedroom. The two of them undressed me and David handed Howard every stitch I had had on. "Trash them all. She takes a six shoe and a small in everything else. Watch out the top isn't too tight; she's a little bustier than the average 'small'. I don't care about colors." Howard left and David carried me into the bathroom. He lowered me into the hot tub and then undressed himself and joined me. He held me in his arms and rested his cheek on top of my head.

"You sent Howard to buy me clothes?"

He didn't answer right away. He just held me tight and whispered into my hair. "Shhhh...You don't need to talk now...Everything will be all right..."

I groaned. "No...Nothing will ever be all right...ever again."

"Shhh...Shhh...Shhh." He was rocking me like a baby.

"Luis called my Dad..." I went on, in fits and starts, and told David everything. He just kept rocking me.

I didn't remember falling asleep but I woke up alone early the next day. At the foot of the bed were three outfits. I looked them over. I said aloud to myself, "A little conservative, but not bad Howard. I'll bet you had help."

I showered and dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen. Howard was making scrambled eggs and I could tell they were for me since he had mixed the freshly ground pepper into the eggs along with diced onion before they went into the pan, just the way I liked them. I walked up behind him. "Morning Howard, could you turn around?" As he did so I threw myself into his arms and hugged him as hard as I could. I kissed him on the cheek and whispered into his ear, "Thank you. Thank you for the clothes, thank you for being you." I kissed him again, this time on the lips.

He hugged me back. "Believe me when I say 'My pleasure'. Breakfast in the solarium. There's already coffee out there. O.J. or G.J.?"

"Grapefruit please!" I called out as I grabbed the paper and went out expecting to find David in the solarium, but instead finding... "Daddy?"

He stood and took me in his arms. "Morning honey."

"What are you doing here? Where's David?"

"Out, I don't know where. He wanted us to have some time together. I guess if you really needed him Howard could find him." At that point Howard came in with my breakfast.

"I'm headed over to the market, anyone need anything?"

We both said together, "No, thank you."

After Howard left I repeated my question to Dad. "Like I said, what are you doing here?"

"I guess the answer is I'm licking my emotional wounds. I was asleep...make that passed out last night and the next thing I knew Howard and David were dragged me out of bed. All that business about using caffeine to sober up is nonsense. Adrenaline works faster. Howard held me and David slapped me repeatedly asking one question. 'Where is your daughter?' I kept telling him I didn't know, but he kept slapping and asking again. When I finally got angry enough to be mostly sober I screamed my answer 'If you're going to kill me get it over with. I told you I don't fucking know!'

At that point Howard let go and David lowered his voice. 'You should know motherfucker! That's your most important job!

Look, I want you to get hold of your temper for a little while and listen to me. Ariel is in trouble. I can and will get her out of this jam, but as long as she's forced to play the parent to you as child she's vulnerable to more problems. She needs a father and for some bizarre reason she's decided she loves you enough to want you for the role.'

He then proceeded to tell me about Nicholas, Luis, and some of the things you've had to do to keep our little ship afloat." Dad was speaking through tears now.

"Ariel, to say how sorry I am seems so inadequate. It is inadequate. I can't promise you anything with regard to my drinking and if I did you shouldn't believe me. I will say that nothing in this world is more important to me than that alcohol never interfere with my desire to be a good father."

I got up out of my chair and curled up in his lap. "So what do you think of David, Pops?"

"I think he's older than my father, that he's a dirty old letch, he should, in my opinion, be breaking a few laws every time he climbs into bed with you, that it can't possibly last, but that he was the perfect person, in the perfect place, at the perfect time to help my little girl when I couldn't; so he's okay by me!"

"I like him a lot, I may even love him, and he's really good in bed."

He winced. "A father doesn't need to hear that. I don't need to hear that. A thirty-eight year old male doesn't, however, mind hearing that there's a sex life twenty three years down the road.

And it's also true that only one girl in a thousand lives out her life with her first sweetheart, so if a boyfriend's not going to last why not pick one who has a few bucks."

"Dad he has his own jet. Howard's his pilot."

"That doesn't suck! How about getting your old man some more coffee?"

"You got it."

Dad and I were still talking over coffee when David came home. I could see right away that the tension level rose dramatically. I didn't mind much since I knew Dad had a talent for winning people over, and David was naturally charming. I was about to tell a lewd joke but decided this wasn't the right audience. Dad finally asked the question which had been rolling around in the back of my head. So what do we do to keep Luis away from Ariel?"

David looked over with a curious expression. "Luis? Luis Who? I don't know anyone called Luis and I don't think either of you do either."

Dad and I looked at each other and knew that the subject shouldn't be pursued. Dad thanked David again and excused himself.

Then David said "Ariel I've been up all night and I need some sleep. See you for dinner?"

"Okay. I know I should be studying but I need to just wander around a little. Maybe clear my head."

"Fine." He kissed me and headed upstairs. For the first time since I'd known him, David looked old.

I walked all over. David's place was near Dumbarton Oaks and I just let my feet take me where they wanted. The running shoes Howard had picked out were really comfortable. I guess I wasn't really surprised that they took me to the Hyatt. I needed to know how David could be so sure Luis wouldn't cause problems. I went into the hotel. I was walking toward the concierge station when one of the bellmen stopped me.

"Hey, you're Luis' friend right?"

"Yeah, I am. I was just coming to see him."

"Christ, you haven't heard! I can tell you how to see Luis, but he won't be seeing you. There was a gas main explosion last night under his building. Luis is alive, but he got burned bad, really bad. He's got no eyes; he breathed the flames into his lungs so he's on a respirator. They say his vocal cords got fucked up; he's a mess. They're calling him 'critical but stable'. One of the nurses said that even if he lives, he probably won't be able to communicate with anyone, ever. He'd just be a veggie. Luis the carrot. Oh, I forgot, sorry."

I wandered out of the hotel in a state of shock. I didn't know how to react to it all. I walked right into a man standing in front of the hotel. I mumbled "Sorry." And looked up; right into Howard's face.

"Want to walk some more?" I fell into step next to him and he steered me over toward K Street. "Did you ever see that Billy Crystal movie where he jumps in the river to save the cow?"

I looked up at Howard, "It was called City Slickers, I saw it."

"David did that once. It wasn't a cow it was a dog, but he jumped in the Potomac up by Great Falls to save some guy's Golden Retriever. He wound up getting knocked out hitting his head on a rock, almost drowned.

You know Mrs. Esposito the cleaning lady? Well her sister's boy needed a bone marrow transplant. No money, no health insurance, no hope. Then this foundation calls the sister and asks for her permission to do the surgery for free, all expenses paid; so they can teach new surgeons how to do the operation. What a crock! That one cost him $280 thou'.

Then there was the time he went partners with Jimmy Wertz on some real-estate deal down near Quantico. Wertz knocked a secretary up and worked out a deal with her where he'd fire the secretary, and then she'd sue the company for $200 grand for 'wrongful termination' making it seem like they fired her because she was pregnant. It was just a scam to get money out of David. That one cost him over $800,000."

I interrupted, "But if she only sued for $200,000 how could it cost him that much?"

"Because he found out about the hustle and hired all sorts of investigators and lawyers. He hired them first to successfully defend him in the suit, which they did, he didn't pay that bitch a penny. And then their job was to turn over every stone in Jimmy's life looking for any kind of dirt. Two years later Jimmy Wertz declared bankruptcy the week before they locked him up in Lorton for bribing a public official. Before he fucked with David Jimmy had been worth $20 million.

So Ariel, the moral of the story is that if you're one of life's innocents David will move mountains to help you; and if you try to hurt him or his, God better help you 'cause nobody else will be able to.

Don't feel sorry for Luis Rojas. Let's just say justice caught up to him with a vengeance!"

"Is the car around? I want to go back to David's, he looked tired."

"It's parked back by the Hyatt and what do you expect? He's sixty-one."

I crawled into bed as gently as I could and took his head in my arms. I had intended to just hold him and let him sleep, but just like any man his lips quickly found their way to my nipple and before long he was on top of and inside me. There wasn't a pore on my face which wasn't individually kissed lovingly. It seemed that neither of us could get as close to the other as we wanted. David's arms were squeezing the breath from me and I was trying to do the same to him. I raised my hips in time to his thrusts. Each time he drew his cock back seemed like abandonment just as each reentry an act of forgiveness. For me, each time I have sex is a little different. This one felt like mutual forgiveness, it was nice.