He stared at us. “Do you have any identification?”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my old FBI badge. I had doctored it a bit with some stick-on paper to make it look less like a bureau badge. I flashed it to him and put it away.
He frowned at us and looked at Laney. She looked back at him and smiled slightly.
“Okay,” he said. “Come on in.”
He opened the outer door and we walked inside. Laney followed close behind.
Inside, the place smelled like smoke. The walls were yellowed and the ceilings were low. There wasn’t much light and the carpets looked old as hell. We followed him into a living room. There was a single couch dominating the space in front of an entertainment system with a large flat screen TV. Football highlights were playing on mute.
He cleared off a spot for us on two chairs and sat down on the couch, pulling out a cigarette. “Mind if I smoke?” he asked.
“It’s your house.” I pulled out my folder. “Okay, Mister Gibson.” We shook hands.
“What’s this all about?” he asked, lighting his cigarette.
“Like I said, we had some complaints.” I pulled out the photographs we had done earlier that day.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Well, this looks like a mountain of garbage on your roof.”
I held up the image, smiling serenely.
His eyes bugged out of his skull, and he nearly dropped his cigarette.
“That’s not mine,” he said quickly.
“We both know it is,” I said a little quieter. I pulled out another image of the rat and held it up. He was practically quaking. I pulled out a few more images, of the broken laundry machines and such. Finally, I held the images out for him to take, and he actually took them.
“Well, Mister Gibson, as you can see, these complaints are serious. This is your property, is it not?”
He nodded, dumbstruck.
I leaned forward. “Listen, Chuck. I can call you Chuck, right?”
He nodded again.
“Chuck, between me and you, this stuff is routine. I mean, these people could fix this stuff themselves if they wanted to, right?”
He nodded a third time and took a drag of his cigarette.
“But you know, it’s my job to follow up on this sort of thing. The boss would have my ass otherwise.” I paused and made a show of smiling kindly. “So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to fix all this, uh, unfortunate side effect of running a high-residence building. You’re going to fix it tomorrow.” I paused and raised an eyebrow. “Then I’m going to follow up. Everything will look fine, lovely, no problems. I’ll write a positive report, and this all goes away.”
He looked at Laney. “What was your name again?” he asked.
“Don’t look at her,” I said forcefully. His gaze snapped back to mine, surprised. I softened my voice. “She’s just here to observe. This is between us, Chuck.”
“You want me to fix this stuff,” he said dumbly.
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
“I can’t. That’s impossible.”
“Chuck.” I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head. “You’re a man of means. You can handle it.”
“I’m telling you, this stuff will take weeks to sort out.”
“Chuck, do you like owning a building?”
“Of course. What does—”
“Then do what I’m telling you to do.”
He stared at me, shocked.
For my part, I was having so much fun. I loved playing a role, loved lying to this guy, loved pushing him around. He was a scumbag and an asshole, and I loved playing on his emotions. I wanted to punish him, and the punishment was so much sweeter when it was slow.
“I can’t,” he said simply.
“Listen to me, you fat, stupid, disgusting oaf,” I said. “You will fix this fucking horrendous garbage, and you will fix it tomorrow. If you don’t, I will take away your building.” I stood up.
“You can’t talk to me that way!” There were equal amounts of rage and confusion playing on his face.
“Yes, I can, because you are at my mercy. Mrs. Arnsdot?” Laney stood up.
“I’ll tell your supervisor!”
“Please, do that. Then they’ll come and do their inspection. Which is exactly what you don’t want.” When he didn’t respond, I turned to Laney. “Mrs. Arnsdot, please make a note to compliment Chuck here on how polite and helpful he has been in your report.”
“Yes, Mr. Greenspan,” Laney said.
I wanted to kiss her. It was so perfect.
“You can’t do this,” the asshole said.
“Tomorrow,” I replied, and then I nodded to Laney. She walked out and I followed.
Then we were out the front door, down the front walk, and moving fast back toward the car.
I felt elated, excited, energetic. I laughed out loud as we climbed back into the car, cackling.
“Did you see his face?” I asked. “What a fucking idiot!”
Laney shook her head, grinning ear to ear. “That was insane. Why did we pretend to be government people?”
“Always works better than just straight-up threats. He’ll figure out that there’s no bureau of rentals or whatever, and he’ll be even more freaked.”
“What if he doesn’t do anything?”
“Then I’ll go back alone and say a few more convincing things.” I started the engine. “But we don’t have to worry bout that.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s going to do it. I’ve done this a few times now, and I can tell.”
“You’re crazy.”
I grinned at her. “Yeah, probably. But you were great, Mrs. Arnsdot.”
“What’s with that name?”
“Who knows. But he was looking at you like he wanted to rip your clothes off.”
She blushed. “No, he wasn’t.”
“Sure he was. He’s a fucking creep.” I leaned closer to her, smirking. “But you do look fucking sexy as hell, especially when you’re lying straight-faced to a prick.”
She blushed even more. “Okay, that’s enough. Let’s get out of here.”
“You got it, Mrs. Arnsdot.” I pulled out and drove back toward the office.
I felt great. I always felt this good after something like that, but it was different. Somehow, having Laney around made me more confident, like I wanted to impress her or some shit.
But that wasn’t me. I wasn’t the type to show off for a woman. I had never needed to before, and I sure as shit didn’t need to now.
Still, that knowing smile she gave me, the way she blushed when I talked dirty, it all drove me wild. My heart was pounding, and I wanted nothing more than to pull over and fuck Laney until she screamed my name right in the back of my car.
Instead, I took her to Starbucks and bought us both coffee. I’d fuck her brains out later.
5
Laney
“Senior Easton, thank you so much!”
I watched as Easton practically squirmed in Mrs. Suarez’s embrace.
“Just did my job,” he mumbled.