direction.
“Smile,” she said. She clicked a picture, looked at it, and tucked the phone back into her purse. “I’ll be right back,” she added, and then she turned and ran from the room.
While she rummaged around for a knife, I added camera phones to the top of my list of things I hate in life.
Tanya walked back into the room carrying a small, serrated knife, and I felt my anxiety begin to build again. She was the complete antithesis of Destiny, but it didn’t matter. I was developing a full-blown fear of women with weapons. Maybe I could trade my newfound phobia to Elvis for a tarot reading, and two future predictions of his choice.
Tanya came over to the bed and stood above me with the knife extended. She bit her lip and I knew she was holding back another laugh, I could see it in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just can’t help myself. If you were in my position, you’d be laughing too.”
“I doubt it.” I rolled onto my side and added, “Now would you cut me free? Maybe I can get back a little of my dignity.”
Tanya worked carefully on the bindings, but at one point I winced when she nicked my thumb. After she’d worked the tape off, blood rushed to my fingers and I groaned. While I tried to get the circulation flowing, she cut my feet free and pulled the sheet over my lower body.
“You’re bleeding,” she said, looking at my hands. “I thought I was being careful.” She ran toward the door. “I’ll get a bandage.”
Tanya returned with a washcloth and a box of generic bandages. I slid over to make room, and she sat down on the edge of the bed and set about cleaning and dressing my minor wound.
When she finished playing nurse, Tanya took both my hands in hers and began to massage them. Working her way downward from my wrists to the fingertips, then back up again, she brought them back to life.
“How’s that?” she asked as she released my hands.
I was pouting and refused to answer at first, but she winked at me and I felt my anger begin to dissolve. “Much better,” I said. I even managed a brief smile.
“Are you ready to tell me what happened here tonight?” she asked.
“What do you want to hear about first?” I asked. “Should I describe the humility I felt at having a woman I thought I was helping pull a gun and force me to strip before she tied me up? Or the embarrassment of being photographed in this somewhat compromising situation?”
“Somewhat compromising?” she said. “That would make you the master of the understatement. I didn’t mean to embarrass you, but you looked so cute and helpless I just had to have a picture. If it bothers you that much, I’ll erase it.”
I mulled over her suggestion and decided I didn’t need to sweat the small things in life. “If you’ll guarantee I won’t appear on some obscure site on the Internet,” I said. “You can keep it.”
“I don’t know if I can make that promise. I was even thinking of making a copy and pinning it up in the ladies room at the bar.”
“You wouldn’t?”
She raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Your secret is safe with me. I promise not to show the picture to anyone. I’m the only one who will ever see it, but it will be awhile before I let you forget it. If I ever need a favor, I might even use it to blackmail you. But enough about your naked ass-are you going to tell me what happened here, or are you going to leave it to my imagination?”
Not likely, I thought, so I started talking. I told Tanya about my encounter with Bob and his twin, Willie. I filled her in about Bob getting shot, and about waking up to find Detective Davies watching over me. To wrap it up, I told her about jumping out of bed and getting dressed when I discovered Destiny in my bed.
“I can’t help but notice you’re still calling her Destiny,” Tanya said.
“You may think of her as a sweet young girl named Gail who you grew up with,” I said. “But I have a different image of that girl. Calling her Destiny reminds me of what she is, a stripper and a thief.”
Tanya raised her eyebrows again. “Harsh words. So how did she manage to strip you, toss you back into bed, and hogtie you. I have to admit Gail’s a capable woman, but this seems a little extreme even for her.”
“I still thought she wanted to work with me. I told her we needed to turn the diamonds over to the cops and after a little argument she agreed. I sent her out of the room to get dressed, and when she came strutting back through the door she brought Bob’s gun with her. She had it pointed in my direction and I believed her when she told me she’d shoot if I didn’t do what she wanted.”
“She’s not going to let the diamonds go, is she?” Tanya asked.
I shook my head. “I think she’s convinced herself she deserves the diamonds. She believes she can still get away.”
“If this Frankie guy catches her, will he kill her?”
“I’d bet money on it,” I said. “And if Elvis is involved, he might beat Frankie to the job. To be honest, though, I don’t think he has anything to do with the stones. I think Destiny had them the entire time.”
“I had my doubts from the beginning,” Tanya said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in psychics. But Elvis has been a local character for a long time. I’ve met him, and I have a couple of friends besides Gail who swear by him. I think he’s even helped the police on a couple of cases. He’s got a successful business in town. Why would he try to kill Gail? For that matter, why would he try to steal the diamonds?”
“I think she made the whole thing up to mislead me,” I said. “There was no reason not to believe her-the story seemed plausible. He’s my only lead right now. Destiny may have lied about him having the diamonds, but she seems to trust him. I suspect she’ll go back to him for advice.”
When I looked her way, Tanya had a quizzical look on her face. “What?” I asked.
“Are you going to tell me you weren’t even tempted?”
“To take the cut she offered me on the diamonds?”
She slapped my arm. “You know what I mean.”
“Destiny is quite the package,” I admitted. “She’s sexy. She’s vivacious. She’s intelligent. But she’s also crazy. To be honest, she scares the hell out of me. I can visualize it like it was playing on a movie screen. First she’d play with me. Next there would be hours of wild sex. Then, once I fell asleep, she’d knock me on the head, or plunge a knife into my chest, or maybe she’d decide she wanted my balls for a souvenir. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize Destiny’s capable of doing any of those things.”
“I think you’re exaggerating.”
“Look what she did to me when I wouldn’t have sex with her.”
Tanya ignored my comment and began chewing on her lip. “Would you have been as quick to throw me out of your bed? If it had been me?”
“No.” I didn’t hesitate to answer her.
“In that case,” she said, “Why don’t you roll over and make room for me?”
I did what she asked. She jumped out of the bed, switched off the light, and I listened to the rustle of her clothing as she undressed. By the time she climbed back onto the mattress and slid her naked body up next to my back, my heart was racing.
Just a short time earlier I was fighting to keep my eyes open. Now, as I started to roll toward her, sleep was the last thing on my mind. Unfortunately, whatever I had in mind didn’t coincide with Tanya’s plans.
“Let’s get some sleep,” she said. “You must be tired after the terrible ordeal of having not one, but two naked women climb into bed with you. And it was busy at the bar tonight. I can hardly move right now. I’m sure a good night’s sleep will reinvigorate both of us.”
I reigned in my disappointment, wiggled a little closer to her, and closed my eyes. Tanya was right. I was exhausted beyond belief. Still, as she drifted off to sleep, I laid awake, listening to her breathing. I couldn’t help but be aroused the heat of her body and the pressure of her breasts against my back. Damn, I thought when I closed my eyes; I better not wake up in the morning and discover this had all been a dream.
The musical tone of my cell phone drew me from a sound sleep. I disengaged myself from Tanya, whose arms were wrapped around my waist, and climbed out of bed.
Tanya mumbled something I couldn’t hear, and pulled my pillow over her head. By the time I got to the phone it stopped ringing, but before I could turn away it started up again.
