“I can’t even guess.”
“He said that my cooking was good, but nothing that his kitchen staff couldn’t handle.Nothing his kitchen staff couldn’thandle,” she repeated incredulously. “What the fuck? I’ve been cooking for him for a year, and he drops this bombshell, now? If that were truly the case, why has he kept me on at such an exorbitant salary?”
There was no answer for that, as she kept spewing. “So, you know what I said,” she added, irate all over again.
“You told him to stick it, and you… Wait. You didn’t walk the hell out because you said you left three hours ago, which means you were there until ten o’clock.”
“Yeah.” Bobbie deflated. “I’m an idiot. Or at least I was for a while. Dollar signs kept dancing through my imagination, then incinerating themselves before they made it into my pocket. It was like…poof. Bye-bye autonomy. I hate to say it, but what that prick pays me is more than I make slaving away with the parties I do for the entire rest of the week. So I…compromised.”
“Not happily, I can tell,” Buck gruffed.
“No. Not at all. I told him I still needed to do the prep, even if he thought my skills weren’t necessary, and that I’d then get things set up so Allain could take over. But then I told him about Reyghan; that she was on my boat, needed my attention, and that I’d be taking short breaks throughout the duration of the night to make sure she was okay.”
“And?” Buck prodded.
“And he went ballistic. It was…shocking.” Bobbie could still hear the tirade and quoted him. “You brought a dog on my property without my permission?That was not in our contract. You agreed to always come alone.”
“We’re talking about a puppy here,” her voice rose. “So I attempted to reason with him. I told him I hadn’t known I was going to have her until a few days ago. That this wasn’t planned.”
The next words out of the asshole’s mouth had chilled her.
“His response was…get rid of it.”
Playing the flat statement over again in her head didn’t make it any better.
“Get rid of it?” she fumed. “Not her, butit. Fuck him. I really had to call on all my strength not to throw something at his head and storm out. But again, money.” Bobbie huffed. “Isn’t that always what rich people have over us working stiffs? They know they can keep us in line with their cold, hard cash and we’ll do whatever the fuck they want.”
“Don’t tell me,” Buck groaned. “He saw that you were on the edge, and offered you additional pay if you’d accommodate him.”
“He did. But you’d be proud of me. I told him I wasn’t taking anything other than my normal paycheck, and that I would, indeed, sit next to his government friend, but I would also be taking breaks to care for Reyghan, and if he didn’t like that, I could just leave right then and there.
“He thought about it for a half a second, then agreed, but told me I would not be allowed to bring ‘that cur’ with me in the future. I was incensed, but I didn’t say anything else. I just got up, nodded, and left. I was shaking so badly by the time I got back to the kitchen, that Allain noticed, and took me aside to calm me the fuck down. He was sympathetic about Reyghan, but when I told him I had to attend the party that night, he grew…concerned. He didn’t elaborate or anything, but he was looking over his shoulder when he told me to be careful. He actually asked me if I carried any kind of weapon, to which I laughed. Because…you know. If border patrol caught wind that I was carrying a firearm across international lines, I’d be screwed.
“He told me to stay put for a minute, then came back and actually slipped me a small bottle of pepper-spray.” Bobbie had been floored. “I tucked it into my pocket, but before I could ask him about it, that head-butler guy walked in, and all opportunity to question Allain was lost.”
Buck’s next query emerged roughly. “So you went to the party, and things turned even worse?”
Bobbie regrouped to tell the rest of her story.
“Sort of,” she agreed. “The dress that Provard had sent me was…revealing to say the least. It was black, drastically abbreviated off one shoulder, which had one boob almost popping out. It also had a huge cutout in the back that scooped low enough that I felt my ass was partially on display, and a slit up the front of the long skirt that went almost to my hoo-hah.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Funny thing, though. If there’d been an accidental crotch reveal, whoever was looking would have seen me at my finest; with full-on, white, granny panties.”
Buck didn’t laugh, but she understood. She was giving him a lot to take in and he wanted the rest of the story.
“The government guy I was partnered with, Stan? He was okay. And by that I mean he wasn’t handsy or anything. The whole thing was just…dull, until it wasn’t anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“After the meal, around nine o’clock, people started disappearing into another room that is the salon. They’d enter, completely staid and proper, then come out all…jazzed up. Like hyped and wired. I wondered if maybe there wasn’t a comedian in there, loosening the whole bunch of them up by telling bad, dad jokes, but then I caught a look at one lady’s pupils who’d been in there, and… I knew there had to be drugs involved.”
“Shit, Bobbie. What did you do?”
“Well, I wasn’t quite surewhatI should do. But when Stan suggested we head into that room for a little ‘fun’, I told him I had to go check on my puppy, and that I’d be back.” Bobbie shook, just recalling it. “I got out of there so fast, my borrowed heels should have spun off, but then I got lucky.”
“How?”
Buck was full of short replies tonight. Probably so she could get everything out as quickly as possible.
“I took care of Reyghan, then checked the weather as I normally do on a Tuesday night. I immediately saw that a fairly good-sized storm was going to be moving across the region, mid-morning, so I knew if I wanted to beat it home, I’d have to leave within the next few hours; which to me, considering circumstances inside the mansion, translated to mean, get the fuck out right away.
