“Forget it. You just return the favor for me sometime, okay? Next time I’m in the city for an overnight, just fix me up with one of those foxy ladies in a Roman toga.”
“Hey, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, right?”
“Right, Joe.”
“Listen, I’m not checked in or anything.”
“I already took care of that,” Nolan said. “I sent your driver, Brown, back to the city to get a change of clothes for you.”
“Oh... well, Brown is...”
“Yeah, he’s sort of a bodyguard, too, I know, but don’t worry. You’re on vacation here. Nobody’s going to hurt you.” Nolan grinned again and whispered. “Unless some foxy chick bites you on the ass, you know what I mean?”
“I know what you mean.”
Nolan got up. “Enjoy yourself, Joe.”
Half an hour later, Joey was in bed under the covers in his room. He was naked. He was waiting.
Too good to be true, he thought. He’d really misjudged Nolan. Back in the old days Nolan had been a tough customer, but the years must’ve softened him up. All those stories about Nolan being such a hardass, why, shit. He was friendly, would you believe it, and not just a little naive. If Nolan really thought Charlie could die accidentally, in a car crash, well...
A knock at the door.
“It’s open,” he said.
She came in.
“Lock it, will you, sugar?” he said.
She did.
“It’s dark,” she said.
“I’m over here.”
“Don’t you want to see me?” she said.
“I... I don’t know if you’ll want to see me. I... I could stand to lose some weight, sugar.”
“I don’t care about that,” she said.
“Turn on the light then.”
She was in a flowing red silk robe, tied at the waist, brushing the floor. She undid the belt. The robe fell in a red silk puddle at her feet.
“My God,” Joey said. “You’re beautiful.”
She was beautiful. She had brown skin, coffee-skin, ivory white where some wisp of a bikini had done its enviable job. Her nipples were large and copper-colored and as yet soft, but he would see to that; they would soon be as erect as he was. Her legs were long, muscular, tapering. She smiled at his appreciation. She turned in a circle, like a model, saying, “You like?”
Her ass was perfection. Oh, that dimpled ass! Oh my God.
She stood at the foot of the bed, hands on her hips, legs spread, that tangle of hair between them open and inviting and she said, “Anything I can do for you?” and she pulled the covers off him.
Joey patted the bed beside him. She crawled onto the bed like a cat, and wiggled into his arms, and he turned her on her side and he eased himself up against her, gently ever gently, saying, you sweetheart, oh honey, oh sugar, and the guy with the camera came in and the flashbulbs started popping.
“Jesus fuck!” Joey said. Spots in front of his eyes.
She was gone. Blinking. Where was she?
She had the robe on again, how could she have the robe on again so fast? She was standing back beside the door, which was closed, and Nolan was there.
Nolan was there.
Oh God. Nolan was there and some guy with a camera. Oh God, some guy with a camera and...
And so what? Joey wasn’t married. Joey never had time for that. So, so what? What did he care? Scandal? A damn laugh. Nolan was an asshole.
“You’re an asshole, Nolan,” Joey said, “if you think those pictures are worth a goddamn.”
Nolan said, “How many shots did you get?”
The guy with the camera said, “Six. Six good ones. I got more than butts, too. I got faces plain as day.”
“Okay,” Nolan said. “Now get out of here.”
The guy with the camera did.
Joey got out of bed and pulled on his trousers. His dignity was ruffled, and he was a little confused, flustered, but that was all. He said, “Nolan...”
“Joe,” Nolan said, “allow me to introduce you to Felicia Colletta.”
Colletta?
“Who?” Joey said. “Colletta?”
“Colletta. That’s right. You know the name.”
He knew the name if it was
“You know how Mr. Colletta feels about his daughters,” Nolan said.
Colletta. Boss of the biggest New York Family. Colletta, with four beautiful daughters from age fourteen to twenty-two. Four beautiful daughters Colletta loved with an Old World paternal passion.
“You probably heard about his older daughter Angela,” Nolan was saying, “who is married now. You probably heard about the college kid who screwed Angela when she was fifteen.”
Colletta had a guy use acid on the kid, Joey didn’t want to think about where.
“Felicia’s going to turn eighteen this summer, aren’t you, Felicia? Mr. Colletta sent her here to the middle West where she could breathe some clean country air.”
This wasn’t happening.
“All right, Felicia,” Nolan was saying, “thank you so much. Don’t say a word about this to anyone, you hear?”
And she was nodding and leaving.
Joey sat down on the bed.
Nolan came and joined him.
Nolan said, “I want you to tell me about Charlie.”
Joey said, “No.”
“The pictures will be destroyed. I’ll bring you the camera and let you take the film out and expose it yourself.”
“This is a goddamn hoax.”
“Okay.”
“That isn’t Felicia Colletta.”
“Okay. See you, Joey.”
Nolan got up.
Joey grabbed Nolan’s sleeve. “That... that isn’t Felicia Colletta, is it?”
