He watched as the nurses adeptly moved Michelle to a gurney with legs and wheels and trundled her out of the room.
“You come?” one of the nurses asked, turning to him as they went out the door.
Omar didn’t want to, but he followed them into the hallway, down a long corridor, and up in an elevator to the surgical suite.
They went through the swinging double doors and Omar could see a doctor in the glaringly bright surgical room with several other people wearing sterile gowns standing around, waiting to begin the operation.
“You stay here,” the nurse told him as they pushed the gurney through the door into the harshly lighted room.
Omar had no intention of watching. All he cared about was the result, and he turned around to go back to his luxury suite and wait until the procedure was done. As he walked down the hallway he remembered his phone buzzing several times earlier in the day. He took it out of his pocket. There were several emails. The little paper-clip icons indicated that pictures were attached.
Humm—unknown sender. His thumb pressed the first email and he smiled. He was gratified to see that his pet witches had done as he asked. There was no message to go with the image, but it was totally unnecessary, considering the graphic nature. Omar was pleased. His pets were doing as he had commanded.
There are many ways to manipulate people. With Feng, the man impersonating Omar at his Honolulu apartment, there was a definite problem. Omar wanted him to stay and work for him, but Feng already had a job and he didn’t want to leave his family in Beijing. The man didn’t drink or take drugs. Omar didn’t want to waste his time on spells. They could be unreliable and tricky. He was in a rush to get Feng to comply with his wishes, since his long time henchman, Samson, was currently in prison.
Then he’d seen how Feng reacted when he’d been introduced to the coven of witches Omar had accumulated in Hawaii. Gotch-ya! The guy was practically salivating, his tongue hanging out of his mouth at his first glimpse of the beautiful women.
The rest was a piece of cake. Some people need booze, some drugs. However, sex is very potent and addictive as well. It can also be used to manipulate people because most want to keep their little peccadillos private.
Omar knew he had Feng as his slave now. First, because Feng would easily become addicted to his witches sexual wiles, and secondly, because Feng had a traditional Chinese family who would be shocked if they saw the pictures. Omar could apply the threat of exposure to Feng’s conservative family. Especially since these women were definitely Caucasian.
Wait!
Omar stopped dead in the hallway, staring. Something was wrong with the picture. He thumbed through the rest of them. All depicted Feng’s escapades involving naked women. Sometimes more than one was entwined with him, but Omar noticed the camera angle was impossible. The perspective was all wrong.
The hallway was crowded and a woman behind him bumped into his back. “Perdoneme” she said, scurrying around him.
Omar almost batted her out of the way he was so incensed as he blindly moved on. Someone was taking pictures from outside his apartment. Someone from one of the buildings behind his own place had the audacity to snoop. He wondered who it was and how the person got his own personal cell phone number.
This could be extremely damaging if the photos were shared, say to newspapers, gabby websites, porn sites. Or even the police. The most trouble would be if they went to the HPD. Feng looked a lot like Omar when viewed from a distance, but the differences were apparent in the pictures. It wouldn’t take much for the police to conclude that Omar had fled their jurisdiction.
Considering the serious charges against him there would be a real man-hunt begun if the police went to his condo to check and see if he was in residence.
Omar realized suddenly that he shouldn’t use his cell phone now at all because someone might be monitoring it. He shut it off and hurried to the lobby of the clinic. He needed a pay phone. Luckily, there was one right by the desk with the beautiful receptionist that had been there when he and Michelle checked in. Pretending to be practically blind, he asked the receptionist for the location of a pay phone. He took the time to dazzle her, staring deeply into her eyes, to mesmerize her. Too bad he didn’t have the time to seduce her into one of his covens. She was quite lovely and happily gestured him to the lobby phone beside her desk.
Omar dialed the number for his Honolulu condo and waited impatiently, through several rings, before Feng answered the phone.
“It’s me,” Omar said.
Feng didn’t reply, knowing enough not to use Omar’s name in case the phone had been bugged by HPD.
“Someone in a building behind mine took some interesting and graphic pictures. Pictures of you and a couple of women there in the apartment. They were quite explicit. It would be wise to use the blackout feature. Do it now.”
There was a long pause, and Feng whispered, “What kind?”
Omar put steel in his voice. “Incriminating. Now use blackout on all the windows.”
“Yes, yes, immediately. I’ll...”
Omar quietly placed the phone on the receiver as Feng was speaking. He’d wanted to slam it down forcefully, but was aware that the beautiful blond receptionist was sending him sideways glances. Too bad she thought he was married.
Omar didn’t use the black-out film that made the windows on his condominium opaque, often, but it came in handy when he was doing a ritual, with lighted candles, or the initiation of a new witch into the coven. That always required sex as part of the ceremony. During those times, he didn’t want anyone looking into his place.
He had used Samson
