Catching the CEO (The CEO Duet, #2), page 4
At last, everyone collected their suitcases, except for Billy. Then I see a bright pink suitcase appear on the belt, which is packed so tightly, it looks like it’s going to explode. Billy runs toward it and has to make an effort to get the ridiculous thing off the belt. He pulls at the little lever of the suitcase to tear it off, but the suitcase is probably heavier than he is, because he gets towed along with it a few inches. Anita and I rush over to help him, but luckily, John has already gotten hold of the pink monster.
“Jesus! Billy, what on earth have you packed in here?” Panting, he puts the heavy thing on the floor next to Billy.
“Correction: God, not Jesus. They usually call me God. Oh, God! Oh, God!” The serious look in his eyes doesn’t quite match what he is saying. He really is an odd piece of work.
AN HOUR LATER, WE FINALLY leave the airport. Flying always is a big fuss. Not just the checking in and being at the gate on time, but the security protocols are also massive. Tired, we walk to the exit. The time here is six hours earlier than in Holland, and we can feel the difference already.
“There should be a van around here somewhere that will bring us to the apartment,” Anita explains. We have a look around, and I see a big man in a black suit holding up a sign saying “Motley Crew.”
“Oh, that’s us!” Pointing at him, I roll my suitcase toward the man.
“Motley Crew?” Over my shoulder, I see John shoot a questioning look at Anita.
“Yes, that’s us, John. Cowboy knows that we call ourselves the Motley Crew when we go out, that’s English for Bende van ellende!” I shout, walking ahead.
“We call ourselves the Motley Crew?” Meanwhile, the others start moving too. Jesus, John is so oblivious!
“How can Cowboy know when I don’t even know myself?” He has a point. I’ve already accepted the fact that Cowboy seems to know everything, but I can imagine this might raise some questions for the others.
“Cowboy knows everything.” There, short and powerful. I’ve grown tired of having to explain everything to John about Cowboy and me. I leave it up to Anita to fill in the gaps for him.
The man in the black suit shakes our hands one by one and welcomes us into the black van that will take us to our temporary home. Just as I’m about to climb into the van, I hear another car hit the brakes really hard. A black SUV maneuvers in front of the van, but in such a way that the van has no room left to drive off.
The SUV has not come to a full stop yet when its doors open. I feel goose bumps emerge on my skin. Not because I’m cold—the temperature is nice here for this time of year— but because three beautiful familiar faces emerge from the car, and those same three women begin to walk up to me. One is blonde, the other one has black hair, and the third one is a redhead. Crap all over ... it’s the tyrannical trinity! Huey, Dewey, and Louie! The three women who are always in Cowboy’s wake.
The redhead is the first one to reach me. Her name is Cristina, if I remember correctly. Without even a hello, she tells the man, who is still waiting next to our van, “Nina comes with us.”
What? Oh, no. I’m not going anywhere with these three devils.
The moment I start to tell my friends this, the blonde one—I think her name is Barbara—steps in front of me and pushes a cell phone under my nose. “Here. For you.”
I take the device while looking at my friends in the van. Anita shrugs and silently asks me what’s going on. I reply with a similar shrug and put the device to my ear.
“Stellina.” It’s Cowboy’s familiar, deep and husky voice on the other side of the line. He doesn’t give me any time to react and quickly continues. “The girls will take you to my apartment.”
“But I want to be with my friends, Cowboy.”
“You will see them soon enough, but I want you with me the next two weeks.”
Mr. Control Freak has already hung up the phone, so I can’t even ask questions. My God, this man drives me crazy!
I try to sigh away the anger that rises in my throat. Very slowly, I give the cell phone back to Barbie, then walk over to the van to tell my friends I’m going with the ladies, and that I’ll talk to them later. Anita adds a phone gesture with her hand while she sits down.
I wave goodbye to my friends and they wave back. Then, I join the three women and step into the black SUV with my little suitcase.
If my life were a highway, I would be on autopilot now.
3. Head-butt
Nina
A little uncomfortable, I sit down in one of the remaining seats of the black SUV. Next to me, there is a perfect Barbie-replica, whose name is, very appropriately, Barbara. In the passenger seat, is a rather wild-looking, dark-haired Noa, and behind the wheel, is the stoic-looking redhead, Cristina. This tyrannical trio hasn’t been too friendly to me up till now. Everywhere Cowboy is, they are present as well. They follow him everywhere and always eye me suspiciously. But according to Cowboy, they’re good friends of his and I need to respect that. So, I do my best to keep my mouth shut and refrain from saying anything that could be taken the wrong way. I really don’t want to argue with these women who, apparently, play an important role in Cowboy’s life.
On the inside, though, I am fuming. I’m furiously angry at Cowboy who, without consulting me first, decided I would live with him these next couple of weeks. It’s not about the fact that I’m staying with him, because that actually sounds like fun, but that he decided this without discussing it with me first. Mr. Control Freak ... But I cannot take that out on these women, so I try to calm myself and keep my temper under control. I decide that I will tear Cowboy apart, but I’m saving that fit for later.
All of a sudden, Noa turns around. “Yo, Nina! Was your flight okay?”
Yo? I’m momentarily surprised by the way she addresses me, and then realize she is trying to act friendly. Okay. I can be friendly as well. “It was, thank you. Everything went smoothly. Apart from the fact that I had some trouble finding the gate at Schiphol, but that’s typical Nina.”
She looks at me with amusement, and then there is a long pause. I look out of the window, still unable to believe I’m in the States. It all looks exactly like in the movies. Wide streets, attached to sidewalks that are almost just as wide. It all looks almost exactly like in the movies. All the clichés and stereotypes appear to be true. Maybe my first impression is tainted by the fact that I don’t want to be here right now, sitting in a car with my three greatest enemies.
Fortunately, the drive doesn’t take long, and the silence is broken by Cristina, announcing that we’ve arrived. Once I’m out of the car, Barbie points to a large building. It looks modern and is much taller than any of the other buildings here. Looking around me, I realize this is an upper-class neighborhood, with expensive houses and equally expensive cars parked here and there.
We walk in together. It’s so quiet here that it strikes me only now how loud the passing cars and the other noises outside were. The elevator brings us to the topmost floor. Once inside, I’m struck by the luxury of it all. Everything is decorated tastefully in earthy tones and white. Large windows look out over a river. I’m already in love this place. “Would you like a drink?” Noa asks, as I take in my surroundings.
“Do you have Coke Zero?”
Instead of replying, she simply opens the largest fridge I have ever seen in my life, and sets a bottle on the table.
We all sit down at the dining table. The silence seems very loud in the room, and you can cut the tension with a knife. Noa tries to start a conversation and lighten the atmosphere by asking me questions. Chitchat, really, but I try to answer all of them politely. Meanwhile, Barbara is eyeing me intensely and Cristina looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here. The only thing she does is study her long, bright-red nails with a disinterested look.
When Noa asks me a new question, all of a sudden Cristina speaks over her. “Are we gonna talk bullshit the entire time, or are we gonna talk about what we should talk about?” Oh, so she has been paying attention!
With a sigh, she gets up and moves a seat closer to me, and huge blue eyes stare at me. They are so big they seem to radiate a certain amazement. But I realize now that that’s not the case, that’s just the way she looks.
The other two ladies follow her example and move closer as well. Now that they are in my personal space, I try hard not to feel intimidated. I straighten my shoulders in an attempt to look more confident.
“FYI, Nina ... we have to apologize to you,” Barbara says.
Noa takes over the baton quickly and continues. “We haven’t been very friendly to you, though we should have been. We’re sorry about that.”
What she’s referring to is the time in the ladies’ room during that party in Germany, when I heard them gossiping about me. They said I looked ridiculous in my tight dress, that my ass was huge, and that my friends looked ridiculous as well.
It appears Noa is getting a little on edge now. I can tell because she gets up and gives her hair, which is already lying wildly on her shoulders, a good ruffle with both hands. We watch her do this and then hear her say, “If we are going to have this conversation, I need a drink. Nina, do you care for rosé? They have Zinfandel here. That is the best rosé you will ever taste. I would rather have a beer myself.”
“That sounds good, Noa. The wine, I mean.” It occurs to me how tense I feel in the presence of these women. A drink might help.
Unceremoniously, she takes the wine and the beer out of the fridge. It’s obvious she feels comfortable in this place, and knows where everything is. She even knows what kind of booze is in the fridge. While she opens the bottle and takes out glasses, Barbie takes the mike back.
“Listen, here’s the deal. We have been a team with Sebastian for a long time. We protect each other and take care of each other. There was a time when he conquered one woman after the other, and dumped them just as quickly. As women, we cannot tolerate that kind of behavior, understand? Sebastian hadn’t seduced any women for a long time, but before that, he did. A lot. It was like a pattern we’ve seen many times before. When you came along, we assumed you were one of those victories as well. So, we weren’t too happy about that. We wanted to scare you off, maybe in a bit of weird way. Actually, to protect you more than anything else.”
“Oh.” My jaw drops. I knew that Cowboy had been with a lot of women, he told me himself. But the fact that he dumped them all brutally, that’s new information to me.
Since we’re being honest, I ask, “So, back at the Audi party in Germany, when I was in the bathroom and you were waiting your turn. When you said that I had a fat ass and that my friends looked ridiculous, that was all just to scare me off and to keep me away from Cowboy?”
While I’m rambling on, a glass of wine is set in front of me, which I toss back as soon as I’m done asking my question. Noa notices I’m getting stressed and reproaches Barbie, but doesn’t answer my question. “You’re telling this story the wrong way, vixen. You’re supposed to be the big ‘marketing storyteller,’ aren’t you?”
She waits for a reply, but when Barbie doesn’t give her one, and instead, merely stares her down with a super-annoyed look in her eyes, she continues. “Whatever. This story needs to be told the right way. Don’t you see that you’re upsetting Nina?”
The way Noa talks sounds very strange. Why does she call Barbara vixen? Even though that’s the name of one of Santa Claus’ reindeer, it doesn’t seem very nice to say that to a woman. Could that be a nickname too?
“I’m not upset. Well, yes, actually I am because this is the first time that I’ve heard Sebastian is a hard-ass player, who seduces women only to dump them again quickly. Is he doing the same to me now?”
Cristina interrupts, addressing Noa first and then me. “Noa, Barbara is not a vixen, and no, Nina. That’s the thing Barbara is trying to point out, in an unsuccessful way. Sebastian is different around you. It now seems as though he has been looking for something in all those women. Something he has only managed to find in you.”
As flattering as that may sound, it makes alarm bells go off in my head. How serious are his intentions with me? How can I know he’s not playing me, like he appears to have done with all those other women? Noa gives me another refill. I nod at her thankfully and take another sip.
With the liquid pleasantly burning in my throat, I decide to push my doubts about Sebastian’s player behavior to the background because I suddenly realize this is the perfect moment to ask these women the questions that have been piling up inside me from the moment I met Cowboy.
“What’s the deal exactly, with you and Sebastian? How did you meet? How did you guys become such good friends? And how far does that friendship go? Is it sexual too?”
“Wow. Those are a lot of questions, Nina.”
“Yeah. Are you going to answer them?” My confident tone seems to amuse her, because she smiles a little with a playful look in her eyes.
“Please pour me a glass of wine too, Noa,” Barbara requests, and Cristina holds up her wine glass as well. As soon as everybody is taken care of, Cristina points at the large, L-shaped couch.
When we sit on the couch, it occurs to me that Noa seems to be the exact opposite of Barbara. Barbie sits down in a civilized fashion, making sure her skirt is placed neatly on her upper legs and then she calmly puts her hands in her lap. Noa on the other hand, sits down on the couch in a half-crouched kind of way. One foot finds a place on the couch while the other remains on the floor. Her jeans have holes in them the size of China, and her black T-shirt, with a picture of the Wu Tang Clan, is draped loosely over her upper body. It’s a huge difference from the way she dresses at the office.
And then there’s Cristina, who is still a bit of a mystery to me. She has a stern look in her wide eyes, and looks like a cop in her black designer pantsuit. You do not want to mess with her, I think. As soon as all four of us have nestled on the couch, Cristina offers the mike to Barbara again. “Barbara, you can tell the story. But do it right, okay?”
Barbara reacts enthusiastically, rubbing both hands together. “Okay. Are you ready?”
“Oh, just tell it already!” Cristina dictates impatiently. It seems as though she’s the boss of this group.
“Prostitution was one of the most significant sources of income for Francesco’s business. All three of us got involved in that, for various reasons.”
“It sounds worse than it was, Nina,” she clarifies, noticing the shocked look on my face. “Trust me. Francesco took good care of us. He always made sure that the men who took us were at least kosher on some level. He and his men checked every single man thoroughly. Our safety always came first—no pun intended.” She gives me a little wink. “His clients were respected members of society, who were looking for a sexual adventure, but would rather not tell the newspaper about it. Therefore, discretion was the main reason they went to Francesco, who guaranteed this. Francesco was a well-respected man. A dangerous one too, because everyone knew what would happen if you didn’t keep up your end of the bargain. Thanks to that, his girls—us—were always able to do our job under the safest of circumstances.”
“I feel a but coming,” I blurt out. Let’s face it, if everything was as easy as she claims, she wouldn’t be telling me this now, would she?
“But ...” she confirms, albeit with a somewhat unhappy look on her face. “On the night that I met Sebastian, I would be everything but safe.”
The other two women are listening to Barbara, mesmerized. They look like they haven’t heard the story yet and would fancy a helping of popcorn. With admiration in her voice, Noa whispers in Cristina’s ear, shifting slightly on the couch, “She’s a really good storyteller, isn’t she?”
I actually agree with that. You would almost think the story she is describing was straight from a movie. But somewhere in my head, I realize this concerns her real life and that makes me a little sad. For the first time, I start feeling compassion for these women because why would you decide to sell your body? No one would choose that voluntarily, would they? It seems to me you have to be really desperate to do such a thing. What had driven these women to that?
Barbara ignores her friends’ remarks and continues. “That night, I had a date with an important politician. It was the first time he made use of Francesco’s services, but he had been checked thoroughly and declared safe for me. So, I met him in a hotel room booked and paid for by Francesco. But soon enough, this man told me he wanted to take me to a different venue. That was against the rules, but at the moment, there was nothing for me to do but go along with it. I would tell Francesco what had happened later and then this man, as a result of his violation, would probably be put on the black list and never be allowed to make use of our services again.”
“No way this can end well.” Did I say that out loud? Apparently, I did, because all three of them shake their heads to confirm my conclusion.
Undisturbed by my remark, Barbara goes ahead with the story. “The man drove me to a deserted parking lot somewhere outside the city. He asked me to go sit in the back. There was no one around and we were in the middle of nowhere, so you can imagine I started to panic by that time. I tried my best to remain calm. I thought that, if I just did what this man wanted from me, everything would be all right. But nothing I did seemed to please him. When I was gentle with my blow job, he demanded I do it harder. If I did it harder, it was still not hard enough. He became more and more aggressive, and I became more and more desperate. He pulled my hair and struck me in the face, and accused me of trying to irritate him on purpose.
“Soon enough, things started to escalate and it became more and more clear to me that this was not going to end well. When he started taking off his pants, I took my change, jumped out of the car, and started running. For a moment, I thought I was going to make it, but then I fell down on my knees on the cold pavement. The adrenaline stopped me from feeling any pain. The only thing that shot through my mind was that I had to get up quickly and keep running.
