Close Up: Exposure Book Three (7 page)

A
sher picked
me up in the park about a half hour later. He was back to using his limo, and I got in with him in the back.

“I’m sorry for throwing you out,” he said.

“I’m sorry for making you throw me out. That was all my fault.”

He kissed me gently, and all reason flew out of my head.

I sighed and laid back on the seat. His hands, his masculine, beautiful hands, were casually going through my hair, and stroking my cheek.

Then I suddenly sat up. “No,” I said. “I called you for a reason, and it wasn’t this.” That was what my words were saying, but my body was still craving him. His hands left a trail of heat all up and down my body, and I felt like screaming.

He looked at me questioningly, and I said “Sophie. Was she behind my abduction by any chance?”

I saw by the way that his face got red that my hunch was correct. “How did you find out?”

“There was a homeless guy that I saw this evening at this Freegan event, and he remembered seeing a blonde woman with the guy who pushed me into the van. Apparently he never told anyone this piece of information, though.”

I was tapping my toes, waiting for his answer.

He finally nodded his head. “I can explain.”

“You can? You don’t seem very shocked about this. You obviously knew that she did it, because I would imagine that you’ve been in contact with her recently. But you still don’t seem shocked that she would be capable of such a thing. Am I right about that?”

He raised an eyebrow, and his face got even redder. “On the contrary, I’m not shocked in the least. This is something that she definitely would do. She’s capable of anything.”

I felt rooted to the seat in shock. “Oh. I see. Sophie is the kind of woman who would be behind an abduction of an innocent person, and yet you slept with her.” I could feel my blood pressure rising with each word I spoke. “Why would you have even spent a single second with a woman like that, let alone get with her? Make me understand, Asher, or I swear to God, I will leave you and you’ll never see me again. That should happen, anyhow, just because you slept with her, but I do want to hear you out.”

Asher opened his mouth to apparently defend himself, but I found that I wasn’t quite finished with what I had to say.

“And another thing. This Sophie person is the mother of your child. That would mean that, if I marry you, she will always be in our lives. That’s a deal-breaker right there. Believe me, I know about contentious situations between ex spouses who co-parent, and I want no part of that. None. Especially if the other parent happens to be psychotic, as this Sophie person evidently is.”

Asher looked stricken, and looked as if he was wanting to say something to me. He opened his mouth and closed it several times. He paced around the room, his hand going through his hair, over and over and over. He pointed at me, and his mouth opened again. And then he shook his head. “No. I can’t go through with this.” Then he seemed to change his mind again. “CJ, please meet my father. Please agree to marry me. If you can do all that, then I’ll tell you the truth about everything that went down between Sophie and me. Everything. But I can’t say a word about it until I know that you are protected 100%.”

“What do you mean, the truth? You mean that there’s more that you’re lying about?”

“Yes, but it’s a good lie this time.”

I almost laughed out loud when he said that. “A good lie? Is there any such thing? No, Asher, you might think that all these lies and these secrets are things that are meant to protect me, but I’m here to tell you that they’re not. And it’s no way to base a relationship.”

“I know that.” He seemed exasperated with the whole thing. “Listen, there are things that you still don’t know about Sophie, and her intentions regarding you. She knows some powerful people in this city, people who won’t play games next time. She has me by the balls at the moment, just because she’s made some credible threats about your safety. She’s playing a game with both of us, and she’s playing to win. That’s why I need you to be under the umbrella of a man who’s even more powerful than the men that she knows. That’s the only way to win a war, is to bring more firepower than the other side. And that’s what this is, CJ. It’s war between Sophie and me, and you’re right in the middle.”

“Oh, I see. Basically, you and I can’t be together unless we’re married. Is that it? If you and I stay together, another abduction is going to magically happen, and next time, I won’t make it out alive?”

“Yes,” he said. “That’s it.”

“How romantic. You want to marry me because you want to save my life.” I was being sarcastic when I said that, but, at the same time, I was touched. “I can’t marry you under those conditions, Asher. I want you to want to marry me because you want to marry me, not because if you don’t, I’ll be rubbed out.”

“Goddammit, CJ,” Asher said, his anger coming seemingly out of nowhere again. It was much like the last time he got angry, which also came out of the clear blue sky. I made a mental note to notice the signs that he was about to blow and try to calm him down before that happened the next time. “Why are you being so hard-headed again? I love you, I want to be with you forever. All that is true, so why does it matter that, yes, us getting married is literally a matter of life or death for you?”

“No it’s not. If we weren’t together, then I would be safe, wouldn’t I?”

Asher looked like he was about to blow. “No. You wouldn’t be safe. If you can recall, your abduction happened before during a time when you and I were over for good. Ironically, it was what brought us back together. But I had said goodbye to you, yet Sophie still saw fit to do that to you.”

“Why didn’t she just have me rubbed out and get me out of the way completely? I don’t understand why she would pussy-foot like that if she really wanted to get rid of me.”

“Because she didn’t really want to get rid of you. She’s playing a game, CJ. Her psychological games are twisted, and simply getting rid of you wouldn’t be fun for her. She evidently wants to make sure that you and I can never be together. Her having you abducted was really a shot across the bow, so to speak. There will be more. Trust me on this.”

“Oh, I believe you. I still don’t believe that you would sleep with a woman like that, though. I really don’t.”

“Knock it off,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, and you won’t know what you’re talking about until I know that you’re protected. Now, please, meet my father.”

“I can’t just meet your father in Russia. I don’t have a passport. I have a job. I have a new assignment. I can’t just take off in a plane to go to another part of the world.” A part of me, though, was fascinated with the possibility that I would be able to see Russia. It sounded like excitement to me, although I would have never told him that.

“He’s not in Russia at the moment,” he said. “You forget, his syndicate has a worldwide reach. He’s living in London right now.”

I narrowed my eyes. “London?” I felt my heart rate decrease. Although the possibility of going to Russia was something that was exciting for me, it also seemed just a bit dangerous. Maybe I was relying on stereotypes about that country, but it seemed like a place that was desperately poor. A land where stray dogs were on the streets in packs, and people didn’t have heat or running water.

But London…that was a different story. I had always wanted to visit that particular city, and it didn’t seem quite as dangerous and intimidating as Russia would have. “How long has he been living there?”

Asher shrugged. “I got a message from him a few days ago. He’s investigating a merger there, and so he’s going to be living there for the next few months at least. Maybe the next few years.”

“Well, I still don’t have a passport. And it takes like 90 days to get one.”

“I can get you a passport in a few hours. It won’t be real, but it will look real enough that nobody will ever question it.”

I was starting to warm to the idea. “But what about my job?”

“Ask them if there is an assignment that you could do in London. I’m quite sure that the music scene there is something that you could investigate and get some amazing photographs of. And they have Freegans there, too, if they want to keep you on that particular story.”

“What about your job?”

“I’m the boss. I can take some time off, and this would be something that is important enough for me to be away from the office for just a little while.”

I took a deep breath. “But what am I going to find out there? I mean, what your father does is pretty despicable. I don’t know if I can stand to be around that man for longer than an hour or so. And what if my memory comes back to me? I might suddenly remember my abduction, and then knowing what your father does might make me want to kill him slowly. I might make things worse, Asher, if I do meet him, for just that reason.”

“I know. I’ve thought about that, too. I don’t necessarily have an answer for you there, except that perhaps it would be wise for you to try to recover your memories before you go over there. That way, you can be prepared.”

“What does that supposed to mean? How can I recover my memories? Hypnosis won’t do it. I’ve already looked into it.”

He took a deep breath. “I know that. But I might know of one way that can help.”

“And what’s that?”

“I would like to take you to the underground sex club where you briefly worked.”

“
W
hat
? Why would I do that? Why would I want to do that?”

“Hear me out. I’ve done research, too, on recovering memories after a traumatic brain incident. And it turns out that the sense of smell is one of the most powerful senses there is, as far as recovering memories which are lost after trauma. If you could go there and experience that club – see the sights and, especially, smell the scents – then you might recover some of your memories there. If you could process through them before you go and see my father, then there would be less chance that you’ll spin out over there. I want you to be prepared for what he has done. I
need
for you to be prepared for that. The best way that I know how to prepare you for that is for you to come to terms with what happened to you at that club.”

“Oh? Since when did you become a therapist?”

“CJ. I’m trying to help. If you would like to see a therapist about your memory problems, than I will be more than happy to support you in this. But I’m trying to force you to remember quickly, because, well, there’s really no time to waste. You need to meet my father, and you need to get under his protection, and that needs to happen quickly. We don’t have months and months for you to gradually remember your life for the past two years. We literally have only a matter of days.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Asher, there is something that you’re not telling me.”

“No, in this case, I’ve told you everything. Sophie and I have met, and she has made threats against you. She’s basically told me that if you and I get back together, she will have you killed.”

“But you slept with her. I can never, ever trust you after that.”

“CJ,” he began. “I know that you don’t know me very well, because your memories of me are gone. But please, listen to your heart. What is your heart telling you about me?”

I let out a breath. Asher got me there. My heart was totally with him. My instincts told me that he and Sophie had never even slept together at all. I just couldn’t imagine him doing something like that. And I didn’t have a bad feeling about him at all. There was no inner voice that was screaming at me to run away, as fast as I could as far as I could.

“That I can trust you,” I finally said quietly. “My heart is saying that I can trust you. My brain, on the other hand….” I just shook my head, unable to speak.

He smiled. It seemed that he knew that he had won. “Listen to your heart. You should always listen to what your inner voice is telling you. Your brain might be playing tricks on you. Sophie put all this doubt in your mind, but you have to clear that out and just listen to what you really believe.”

When he said that, it was like something clicked in. The clouds parted, and I could think clearly. “Okay,” I finally said after a few minutes. “I’ll go to that club, to try to regain my memories of what had happened. And then I’ll go and meet your father.”

He looked totally hopeful when I said that. “And that means that you’ll marry me?”

“Well, that’s contingent, isn’t it? On what your father says?”

He nodded. “It is. I’ll admit that it’s contingent on that. If he doesn’t give the blessing, then…”

“I’m in danger, no matter if you and I stay together or not.”

“Basically, yes,” he said.

I shook my head. “You’re choosing to tell the truth about this. I guess I should listen.”

“I guess you should.”

I suddenly knew that this whole thing was an enormous risk for me. Everything was riding on what Asher’s father said about me, and whether or not he agreed to protect me.

I could either end up the happiest woman in the world, and be the wife of Asher Sloane.

Or I could end up dead.

T
he next day
, Asher and I went to an unfamiliar place. It was a non-descript building that had no signs on the facade or any indication on what it was. It was in the heart of a busy street on Midtown, though. Yet, anybody walking past it would have zero idea on what might be behind the doors.

I took a deep breath, because I was nervous. A part of me wanted to tell Asher just to turn around and never look back. But another part of me wanted to go through with this. Needed to go through with this. Perhaps it would be the key to at least a part of my recovery. At any rate, perhaps it could help me work through the trauma that happened there at the club, which could, in turn, help me to process what Asher’s father was involved with.

Then again, it could possibly backfire and make me even more upset about Asher’s father. I hoped that wasn’t the case, because I really, really needed for him to accept me and give Asher his blessing on our union.

We walked through the doors, and there was a woman there behind a window. She took one look at Asher, smiled, and waved both of us in.

I looked at Asher questioningly.

“I was here once before,” he said with a smile. “I, uh, paid a visit to the owner of this club. So, now, I guess, I get the VIP treatment because Robert, the owner, knows never to fuck with me again.”

“I see.” I chose to believe that was the only reason why Asher would have occasion to visit this place. God forbid he would come here for some other reason.

We were led into the main part of the club, which looked like a standard strip club with unusually beautiful women. I always imagined that a stripper would look a certain way – bleached blonde hair, huge fake ta-tas, way too much makeup. A basic trailer trash trollop. A porn star.

But these women weren’t that. They were beautiful by any standards, and it was clear that they would be beautiful out in the world, too. These women were elegant and looked more like models or movie stars than strippers. None of them looked “rode hard and put away wet.” Not one of them looked like they might have a guy named Bruno at home who wears wife-beaters and sports a bad mullet. Not that there’s any other kind of mullet but bad, especially for a man.

“Okay,” Asher said to me. “These women are highly paid by the men that they escort. Their going rate is in the thousands of dollars for a night, and they might earn hundreds of thousands for a month away with one of these men.”

We were approached by a woman who asked for our drink order, told us that her name was Anais, and said “you two looking for a third?” She smiled, and I was stunned about how easily the topic of prostitution came up. I guessed that there was no point in beating around the bush with these women. They know that the men, and women, came in there for one thing, so they might as well clear the air right away.

Asher held out a stack of hundred dollar bills and said “we’re looking for Andrea. Is she working today?”

Anais looked disappointed, but told us that Andrea was, indeed, in the club that evening. “But she’s busy,” she said, her eyes fixed on Asher.

Meanwhile, I was looking around the club, trying to find anything familiar about it. Asher was right, though, about the nose being a pathway to the brain. Smelling the scents of the bar – the smell of cigarette and pipe smoke, the perfumes that the girls wore, the cologne that the men were wearing – these all seemed vaguely familiar to me.

I took a deep breath, trying very hard to calm my racing heart. Anxiety was welling up in my throat, and I gripped Asher’s hand tight.

“In the meantime,” Anais said, “can I at least interest you two in a lap dance or….” She raised her eyebrows.

“No,” Asher said. “We’re good.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll tell Andrea that you two are here.” And, at that, she went through a door and disappeared briefly. Then, not five minutes later, she came back out and walked around the club, going from table to table, finally landing on a table full of five or six well-dressed men.

I was still gripping Asher’s hand. He told me that he wanted to see Andrea in particular, since Andrea was apparently my “mentor” at the club. The hope was that seeing her might trigger something in me, and, if she was wearing a particular kind of perfume, that, too, might trigger me.

Two of us sat there watching the crowd interact. Everywhere around us, women were giving lap dances and girls would disappear behind various doors with various men. They would inevitably emerge 10 or 15 minutes later, and the girl in question would continue walking around the club, looking for someone else to give a lap dance to and, presumably, have sex with.

I shuddered to think that this would have been my fate had Asher not saved me. Having sex with multiple men a night for money, walking around in g-strings and barely-there tops, and “dancing,” if you could call it that. It really looked like a lot of grinding, and the men’s hands were running everywhere on these girls.

“I always thought that men weren’t allowed to touch the girls in these clubs,” I said to Asher.

“This club isn’t legal. If it were, the girls certainly couldn’t be prostituting themselves.”

“Shouldn’t we try to shut this place down?”

Asher looked pained. “I thought about that. I really did. But another club would spring up in its place, and owner of the new club wouldn’t be under my control the way that this one is.”

“And why is the owner of this club under your control?”

“He just is.”

I nodded my head, and sipped my drink and said nothing. I wondered about Asher – how he could apparently just snap his fingers, and, just like that, a sex trader could be brought to heel.

Asher looked at me, and gripped my hand. “CJ, I don’t think that you know how much power the Pushkin name carries. That’s why it’s so important to me that you’re just as protected by my father as I am.”

I knew what he was talking about, but, still, I felt anxiety well up. It was bordering on fear. I felt that my memories of this place were slowly being unlocked.

In a few minutes, a tall red-headed woman headed to our table. She had long legs, large breasts and, like every other woman in this place, was drop-dead gorgeous. And she was naturally gorgeous, too, because her makeup was minimal.

“CJ,” she said. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

I shook her hand politely, and she sat down at the table with us. “Andrea,” I said, although the word came out like a question.

I looked over at Asher, who was studying me intently. I shrugged, which was a non-verbal cue to him that I didn’t recover my memories just yet.

She also looked at Asher questioningly. “What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously.

“CJ wanted to come here to see if anything would trip her memory. As you know, she was in a serious accident when she left the club all those months ago. She lost a part of her memory, and she would like to see if she can recover them and process through them.”

“Oh,” Andrea said. “I see.” And then she took my hand. “Come with me, CJ.”

I looked over at Asher nervously.

“You’ll be okay,” he said to me. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”

I nodded nervously, and Andrea led me through the club. We came to a door, that seemed vaguely familiar, and we walked through. There was a dressing room in there.

“Okay,” she said. “I wanted you to be alone with me so that the rest of the club doesn’t distract you.” She sat down, and put one beautiful leg on the table in front of her. “Come here, CJ.”

My heart pounding, and went and sat next to her.

She put her wrist up to my face. “Breathe.”

I did, and the perfume on her wrist was powerful to me. It was an isolated scent, which was exactly what I needed.

All at once, things started to flood back to me. I felt panicky, and then I started to remember being there with her. I remembered the man who wanted me to do the gang-bang, and I remembered the guy who owned the yacht. I didn’t remember either of their names, but I remembered their faces and what they wanted me to do. I even remembered Andrea telling that her stage name was Ginger, and that she enjoyed the job because of the money and the perks that came with it.

“Ginger,” I said. “Your name is Ginger.”

She smiled and nodded her head. “There you go. You’re starting to remember, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding my head. “I do. I remembered that I felt absolutely hopeless being here, like I had no way out. I remembered that you encouraged me to do drugs, because I had to work here. If I stopped working here, I would be putting the people I love in danger.”

She nodded her head encouragingly. “What else do you remember, CJ?”

I felt my heart racing, faster and faster. “I took some drugs. Ecstasy and acid. And I remember hallucinating.” It was amazing how many memories were cascading into my brain just by getting a smell of Andrea’s perfume. “That man beat me.” I couldn’t remember his name, but I could see his face, plain as day. “I did something that pissed him off and he beat me.” I shuddered, and I could feel my blood pressure rising with every word I said. “How can you work for a man like that?”

She shrugged. “I never do anything to piss him off. And, if I do, I know how to get out of it. But I have to say that, for the past month or more, Robert has laid off all the girls. I don’t suppose you know anything about that, do you, CJ?”

I shook my head. I did know about it. It had something to do with Asher “controlling” Robert with threats about his father. All at once, I fell just a little bit more in love with Asher. He might not have been perfect, but he went out of his way to make sure that the girls at this club were more protected than they were before. That meant a lot to me.

But I had to admit, at the same time, I dreaded meeting his father. To think that this man was involved in this kind of work….I shook my head. Could I marry into a family like that? Could I have a father-in-law who was into such a despicable vocation? I would want to kill him, maybe, once I met him.

I loved Asher, but I had no idea if he was for me.

Andrea put her arm around me. “You’re lucky you got out of here. I know that I talked this place up, and how much fun it is and all of that. But I was giving you a sales pitch. I really hate it here, and I can’t wait until my time here is up. I really need to put this all behind me and concentrate on getting on with my life. Finding a life, for that matter.” She looked sad.

“Andrea, if you hate it here, you can leave. Robert can’t keep you here any longer.” Even as I said that, though, I wasn’t at all sure if what I was saying was true. Asher apparently had some control over this Robert, but I had no idea how much control he had over him. Would Andrea be safe if she left?

She just shook her head. “It’s only for a few more months, and then I can hopefully leave. I admire you and envy you, but I’ve come this far. I might as well see it through. After all, Robert is a violent man, and, even though he’s been less of a bastard for the past month or so, I don’t think that he can be trusted not to…” She shook her head. “Well, you know what happens when you leave.”

“I do. But when you leave, I would like to make sure that you’re protected. Asher can protect you.” I didn’t know if that was true, but I hoped that it was.

She shook her head again. “No. I appreciate what you’re saying, but I’m frightened.”

I remembered how she was before – her “mentoring” me was coming back to me as I sat across from her. She had seemed so confident and in control. I now knew that was all an act, and it broke my heart.

“Okay. But, please, Andrea, here’s my number,” I said, writing down my number for her on a napkin. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

She rapidly nodded her head, and looked around nervously. “Thanks. But, really, you probably should get out of here. If Robert comes in and sees you in here with me, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

At that, a man came in. He was dark-headed, with thick black eyebrows and a craggy face. I immediately recognized him as being Robert. I got a whiff of his cologne, and I wanted to puke right in the trash can. I looked at my hand, and it was shaking wildly. I tried hard to calm my racing heart, but I couldn’t. It was pounding so hard that I could hear it in my own ears.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was just leaving.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

I didn’t know what to say to him. It was so complicated, and I didn’t want to tell the entire story to him. It wasn’t his business anyhow.

“Please let me leave.”

He looked like he was about ready to blow a gasket, and then I saw Asher come in the door.

I looked over to the door, where Asher was standing with his arms crossed. He was glaring and boring a hole into Robert’s back. Robert, seeing me looking at the door, spun around. He then turned back to me, his face as pale as a sheet.

He hung his head, and immediately left.

Andrea looked at Asher with respect. “How did you do that?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“On the contrary, I’m fascinated. I’ve never seen Robert so intimidated by anyone.”

“Please don’t ask me.”

I put my arm around Andrea. “You see? If you wanted to leave, you could.”

She sighed. “I have to get out there.” She got out a water pipe, and sucked it in, blowing the smoke out. “Would you excuse me?”

I looked at Asher, and he shook his head. “Let’s go back to my place.”

“But Andrea-“

“She’s made her choice. I have to worry about you. As much as I would love to save every girl who ends up in these situations, I can only do so much. She has your number, and she knows that she can call you if she changes her mind.”

I felt sick, but I knew that he was right. There was only so much that either of us could do. I felt awful, though, because she had helped me immensely. She helped me regain my memories about this place, and I remembered that she helped me when I was here.

“Okay,” I said. “Well, the mission was accomplished. I remembered this place, and I’m ready now to meet your father.”

Even as I said that, though, I doubted that was really true. I still felt apprehensive, to say the very least, about meeting Asher’s father.