Book 1 - Active Trust (5 page)

She began to do an online search
on how to be less abrasive in customer service matters. She
downloaded several books to read on her laptop. It was time to up
the ante on her game and she would schmooze with the best of them
in order to accomplish her goal.

On the other hand, Michelle
planned on doing the opposite. She’d learned her sweetness from her
mother, but she had to reach out to her cousin Sandra in her quest
to become an ambitious monster to get what she wanted.

“Hey Sandra, it’s your cousin,
Michelle. Listen, I need your help with something.”

“I’ve got a minute, what’s
up?”

“Well, I am being looked at for
the partnership at Briggs & Trice and I need some help becoming
less of a nicer person. They said I’m too nice and it’s hindering
my progress here.”

“So you called me?”

“Yes, can you help?”

“I’d be honored to turn you into
a cold, heartless monster.”

“I need to be able to go in for
the kill and murder any opportunity Victoria Strauss has at
becoming partner.”

Michelle breathed in her
perceived victory and hit “end” on her cell phone. She’d agreed to
pick up Sandra from her house and spend the weekend together.
Sandra said that she would straighten her out and that Briggs &
Trice wouldn’t know what hit them.

In her own office, Victoria
plotted away at bettering her own interpersonal skills. She opened
one of the books, but was instantly bored and decided it best to
hire a professional. She searched Google for a local customer
service workshop that would help her learn basic skills to reach
out to more customers in order to retain repeat business.

She called Life Coach
Enterprises and said to the receptionist, “Hi, my name is Victoria
and some have called me a bitch in the workplace. Can you help me
not be a bitch so I can get a promotion?”

“Certainly, Victoria, can I get
you scheduled in for an appointment?”

“Yes, like yesterday,
please.”

“How about tomorrow morning at
9am sharp?”

“Sounds great, thank you, I’ll
be there.”

She hung up the phone and had
her assistant add “CS Workshop” to her schedule for the morning.
Victoria knew that she had to grab the bull by the horns in order
to succeed. If being abrasive was holding her back, then she would
do what she had to in order to get ahead.

The next day, Victoria promptly
showed up to Life Coach Enterprises, wearing a black scarf over her
face and checked in with the receptionist. She removed her scarf
and jacket and kicked her leg one over the other and looked in
protest to be there.

She waited, but was losing her
patience quickly. She looked down at her Cartier watch and saw that
the time was 9:22am. She looked to the receptionist for an
explanation and was greeted with a smile. The receptionist buzzed
and a woman in her mid-thirties emerged from her office.

“Victoria, I can see you
now.”

“Yes,” she said as she scooped
up her handbag, scarf and jacket and followed the older woman.

“Is this what you do? You have
your receptionist schedule me in for ‘9am sharp’ and then keep me
waiting?”

“You’re the one who’s being
called a bitch in the workplace? Gee, I can’t imagine where that
came from. Here, you will learn to shed that nickname in favor of
someone who is merely assertive, but also gets things done. Is that
what you want?”

“Yes, but I don’t see how
keeping me waiting is going to help achieve that goal.

“You see, most people who are
considered abrasive are angry at being made to wait. You fall into
that category. Learning to be a nicer, less abrasive person means
that you need to first learn patience before anything else. I am
sure you are nice in certain situations, but we need to channel
that. Making abrasive people wait usually ends up in them leaving
within the first fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, but I still don’t get
it.”

“Having you wait that much
longer, just means that this is important to you. You set aside
your clock watching in lieu of something bigger. This is your
ambition. You have that or you wouldn’t be here. What is it that
you aspire to do with your life, Victoria?”

“I work as a lawyer and I’m
being mentored by a partner. But, in order to make partner, I need
to work on my perceived abrasiveness.”

“We can do that. In answer to
your statement about making you wait, I did that so that you learn
your first lesson in the only way you will understand – by
doing.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’ve just learned that you
are not the center of the universe.”

“Ahhh, I gotcha.”

“This is going to work out well,
Victoria. Much progress will be made at whatever pace you are
comfortable with.”

“Sign me up.”

“Already done.”

Weeks passed and Victoria and
Michelle were both working on their flaws that were pointed out by
their mentors. Victoria would always love her catty, no-nonsense
attitude, but she quickly sanded down her rough edges. Michelle
learned to be aggressive in her approach with things needed it and
was on her way to becoming partner material.

Victoria kept digging through
information on Fassett & Lews as provided by her client at
Janus Incorporated, but when it came down to it, the court battle
had just begun. Mason Janus wanted the millions of which he
invested into F&L to be returned to him and Victoria and the
team at Briggs & Trice were hot on the money trail. In court
was the only time that she allowed herself to unleash her inner
bitch and take people down with extreme prejudice. She felt like a
force to be reckoned with in her Prada pants suit, black stilettos
and pearl necklace. She was invincible and the opposing counsel,
while stern, also knew that Ms. Strauss was no one with whom to be
trifled.

While Victoria waged war in the
courtroom as well as the media frenzy, Michelle was learning more
and more about Governor McBride’s evening activities. Through the
help of Chase Freeman, Michelle learned that the pregnant woman was
in fact a prostitute hired by a local woman who was rumored to be a
madam to the elite of the city.

She found that the pregnant
woman is 24-years-old, has bright blonde hair and hazel green eyes.
She was a former cocktail waitress before she began turning tricks
with the influential city leaders. The name she uses when out on
the town is Reese Nichols, but Chase’s associate was hot on the
trail of the madam and the woman’s true identity.

Chase’s assistant Alyssa was
just the right fit for the brothel, but she needed to find a way
in. She went to the same place that the Reese was tending bar and
put in an application. The owners of the establishment gave her a
once-over, and she was hired on the spot.

“You have a great body,” said
one obvious creton in charge of the place called Vixen. Neon pink
lights ran rampant in the bar and it wasn’t the type of place where
you would take your significant other. Men came here to see naked
women and get drunk – and if they were lucky, a little more than
that.

One grey-haired, greasy looking
overweight man approached Alyssa and said, “Here, take this, it’s
your uniform.”

Alyssa looked around to find
that the other women in the club were wearing what appeared to be a
skinny neon string bikini and not much else.

“Go in the back and see the
redhead; she will find you some shoes,” he commanded.

Alyssa looked disgusted, but
managed a simple, quiet, “Thanks.”

She’d picked up a few moves
after tossing back two drinks and the tips began to flow like an
open faucet. Later that night, the girls accumulated in the back
room for some special meeting to which she wasn’t privileged enough
to receive the invitation yet.

‘Ugh, I’ve got to keep doing
this?’ She thought to herself as she switched back to her civilian
clothes before leaving the nightclub.

On her way out, an older woman
wearing a fur coat and dark red lipstick eyed Alyssa up and
down.

“You must be new,” she said
meandering on past and entering the inside of the building.

Alyssa sent a text message to
Chase with an update: “Almost in with the girls. I deserve a raise
for this. –A.”

Chase dialed her up on his cell
and told her, “If there is a bonus for wrapping this case up with a
nice little bow, you will be the first to know. Find anything
out?”

Alyssa settled into her car
before speaking.

“The women in this place are so
seriously pathetic. Granted, some of them probably haven’t
graduated high school, but this place is littered with drug users
and prostitutes.”

“Keep at it if you’re
comfortable and I will check back with you soon.”

They hung up and Chase sent a
text message to Michelle with the update on the situation. Alyssa
put the key in the ignition and turned it, but her mood was
interrupted by a woman who ran up to her car and placed her hands
and body on the driver’s side window.

‘What the ---‘ She thought as
she jumped nearly out of her skin.

She pushed the button to roll
down the window and looked to her left. The girl at her window was
young with messy, curly blonde hair and tear-stained mascara
running down her face.

“Hey, do you got any coke?”

“Coke? You mean drugs. Um, no I
don’t.”

“You suck,” and just then the
girl removed herself from view and allowed Alyssa’s exit from the
darkness of the parking lot.

Alyssa texted Chase: “Just got
propositioned for Coke. You owe me.”

She locked her doors tight and
sped off.

Another few weeks passed before
Alyssa was able to blend in enough to be trusted by the woman in
charge. She wore a nasty bright pink skirt with a torn dirty white
t-shirt and her hair was a total mess. She had gathered that she
was going about this thing the wrong way.

Upon the close of her shift, she
was greeted by one woman who was missing several front teeth and
was complaining about the lack of Johns this time of the year.

“Hey, I’m Lorraine. You’ve
probably seen me around.”

Alyssa tried hard to look out of
it.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you. What’s it
to ya?”

“Don’t get all defensive.
Listen, I’m here to help.”

“Go on.”

“Well, the broad in charge,
let’s call her Andrea, she said that you looked like you could use
some extra cash. So, Andrea sent me over to you to see if you’ve
got a boyfriend.”

“No. No boyfriend.”

“Okay, so do you want to make
some money or what?”

“It depends, what do I gotta
do?”

“You get a boyfriend for the
night.”

“I can do that.”

“Follow me and keep your mouth
shut unless you are spoken to.”

Alyssa climbed in Lorraine’s
beat up 2001 Ford Taurus. She breathed in the funk of an unwashed
person, cigarette smoke and noticed stains everywhere. She thought
back to a time when she was in college and never thought she would
find herself among prostitutes and drug addicts.

After driving for a short while,
Lorraine announced that they’d arrived at their destination. It was
an upscale hotel of which she’d seen in her younger years.

She thought to herself, ‘This is
more like it.’

“Andrea stays here. Come
on.”

Lorraine didn’t bother locking
the car as it was already missing its radio. Alyssa followed
closely behind her so that no one at the ritzy hotel would
recognize her. Lorraine led Alyssa through to the elevator, up to
the eleventh floor and to a corner room. She knocked on the door
and was let in by a burly man with bad breath.

Lorraine said, “This is Andrea,”
while throwing up her fingers in quote-like marks to accentuate the
use of a fake name.

“Andrea, this is Alyssa. She’s
been working at Vixen for a while now. You two chat, I’ve got to
get going. Business.”

“So you want to make some money,
do you?”

“Ummm, sure.”

“Stand up, lemme take a look at
you.”

Alyssa stood and turned in a
circle with the woman’s indication.

“Come closer, darling.”

Alyssa approached the woman who
was seated and she arose to meet Alyssa eye-to-eye.

“Your breasts look perky, the
fellas will love them. Do you mind if I give them a squeeze?”

‘Ugh, could this be any worse?’
she thought as the woman acted like her question was rhetorical.
She grabbed her breasts from behind as she hugged Alyssa’s small
frame.

“Oh yes, you will do quite
nicely.”

She let go of her grip from
Alyssa’s body and then she offered up the details.

“The pay for you is five hundred
a night and if you try to skip out on me, Alex over there will find
you. He finds everyone.”

Alyssa nodded in agreement and
tried to act like five hundred was a large sum.

“You do good work and you’ll be
earning six hundred a night before too long. Have you done this
before?”

Alyssa looked to the floor and
nodded a slight “no” as her host gave off a chuckle.

“I only knew someone who
did.”

“Oh yeah, who’s that?”

“My girlfriend Reese.”

“Oh you know Reese, do you?”

“Yeah, from way back.”

“She did what no one in our line
of work should ever do.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Alyssa hadn’t wanted to give
away too much of her inside information on Reese’s situation.

“Reese got pregnant by her
client who just happened to be a whale. While it would seem like a
fairytale romance, it’s not.”

“I know,” Alyssa mumbled trying
not to sound too anxious.

She continued, “It’s because you
can’t go around getting knocked up by The Governor, who’s
married.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, so when do I start?”

“I will have Lorraine give you
your first assignment next week.”