THIRTY
Hard Bargaining
I paused as I stepped out of the conference room. Mother was sitting in a chair in a small waiting area, casually flipping through a
Fortune
magazine. After a moment she sensed my presence, looked up, and then smiled.
"Finished?" she asked as she placed the magazine aside and stood.
"That's what they tell me."
I'd been the guest of the DEA for the past five days. When Mother delivered Valencia and me to the McAllen office, I was separated from the two women, and I hadn't seen Mother or Val since. I'd been put up in a hotel room, first in McAllen, and then in Houston, and I'd had two agents as my shadow since. My world had shrunk to the hotel room, the conference room in the DEA's Division Office in Houston, where I was debriefed, and the drive between the two. After the second day in Houston, I'd started asking about Valencia and Mother, but had received only placating non-answers.
I was glad the debrief was over. The agents who were questioning me never directly accused me of lying, but I had the distinct impression they were trying to catch me in an inconsistency. They asked the same questions over and over--'Why'd you do this?' or 'Where'd you do that?'--but subtly changing the wording each time. Anytime they thought they'd caught me contradicting myself, they'd seized on the perceived discrepancy and the questions became more direct and intense. 'Yesterday you said A, B, and C. Today you're saying X, Y, and Z. Which is it?' I'd then explain what they thought was an inconsistency, and once they were satisfied, the normal questions would resume. Had the interrogating continued many more days, someone was going to get punched... or I'd have started refusing to answer their questions.
She nodded. "I thought I'd give you a ride home."
"Thanks."
She led me through the warren of offices and down to the parking garage where her Cadillac waited, the lights flashing as we approached. I opened the passenger door and settled into the car. A moment later, Mother slid behind the wheel and pressed the starter button. She snapped her seatbelt and then opened the center console before reaching inside and withdrawing my Sig.
She handed it to me with a smile. "I think this is yours."
"Thanks," I said as I took the weapon and quickly checked it. The weapon was loaded, but there wasn't one in the chamber, and the safety was on. Normally I carried with one in the pipe, but I placed the weapon in the cup holders as it was. "So?"
"So... you and Agent Cantor did good."
"Was she able to convince the bozo's she hadn't turned?"
Mother snicked the car into gear and said nothing until she was out of the parking space. "She's still being debriefed, but let's say she's winning them over. Some of the information she's given us has checked out."
"But not all?"
"I wouldn't say that. Some of it is incomplete and will require more digging, but what we could easily check seems legit." She turned out of the garage and accelerated away. "Some of it, if it checks out, is... incredible. Almost unbelievable." She glanced at me and smiled. "I've been following her debrief, and yours. That was some wild shit you did."
"Yeah."
"Did you really fight VÃctor like you said?"
"Are you talking about the last time, in the box, or the time before when our cocks were in that pussy vice thing?"
"Yes. Both."
"Yeah. Not fun."
"Fuck..."
she growled, drawing the world out long. "Those are some sick bastards."
I shrugged. "Didn't you already know that?"
"We had suspicions, but we didn't know there were formalized games, with rules and such. We thought it was just a bunch of men and women getting together to fuck in an orgy while people watched. Not that it matters for why I sent you in, but..."
"But?" I prompted.
"But... I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It wasn't all bad," I said with a small smile.
Not only had I experienced the best sex I'd ever had, and may ever have, the DEA hadn't asked me about the money Voice paid me, I hadn't mentioned it, and I still had it. I'd spent a lot getting out of Mexico, but I had much more left. Now that I was back in the states, I'd convert my pesos back to dollars and see how much of Voice's money I still had.
"No, I suppose it wasn't."
"So, did I earn my bonus?"
She glanced at me and smiled. "I guess you haven't been able to check your account."
"No. They wouldn't let me use a computer."
"It's there. Three hundred twenty-five thousand, just like we agreed."
I glared at her. "That's not what we agreed on. The deal was five hundred thousand."
"And that's what I paid you. You didn't really think you were going to get that without the IRS getting theirs first, did you?" She grinned at me. "I've done some sketchy shit in my day, but I'm not fucking with the IRS."
I quickly calculated. "A hundred and seventy-five thousand?"
"That's right. Thirty-five percent. Don't bitch. If you'd gotten what you wanted, they'd have taken thirty-seven percent of it."
"Fuck," I grunted. I couldn't explain why I was pissed off. Three-twenty-five was more money than I'd ever had in my life, but I was still pissed the government took such a big chunk of what Mother had paid me.
She grinned at me. "Sorry. Nothing I could do about it."
"Yeah, I know... but still... fuck."
As she worked her way across town to my apartment, we talked about my time in Mexico. I'd given the examiner all the important details, but I'm sure her report was as dry as burnt toast, and Mother was clearly wanting more intimate and nuanced details.
"Fuck..." she groaned softly as I explained in detail how I'd kicked Javier's goon's ass while fucking LetÃcia, embellishing the story only slightly. "So you were fucking her when Toro's lacky's goons attacked you... you then beat the shit out of them... and then after you fucked them up, you went back to fucking her until she tapped out?"
I nodded. "Yeah, more or less."
"And that's what got you noticed?"
"I think so, yes," I said as she wheeled her car into the parking lot of my apartment. "Dammit," I grunted. "I just realized I left my apartment key at Voice's compound. Shit."
I wasn't overly worried about the missing key. I'd taken my spare key with me to Mexico, leaving my other key locked in the apartment on the ring with my truck key, but dealing with the complex site manager was always a pain in the ass. After Mother parked in a visitor's spot, she waited by her car while I went to the complex office, told my story about being out of the country and losing my key, and after proving my identity, they used their master key to open my door for me. Mother followed me into my apartment. I immediately started the air conditioner to reduce the temperature and to remove the stale, musty smell in the apartment before I turned my attention to Mother.
"Thanks for the ride." She smiled at me, and I smiled in return as my cock began to harden, wondering if we were going to start fucking right now.
"You want to verify the money is in your account?"
"If you say it's there, I trust you."
Her smile widened slightly as she stepped out of her short heels. "In that case, I believe we have some unfinished business to take care of."
"Yes, we do, but let me turn up the water heater so we'll have hot water in case we... you know... need a shower later."
She pulled her blouse over her head to reveal her amazing breasts, and I couldn't stop my smile as they bounced with the removal of her shirt. Both times before, when I'd seen her breasts, I thought she might have the best set of tits of any woman I'd ever met, and now seeing them a third time, I wasn't inclined to change my opinion.
Forcing my attention away from Mother's breasts, I opened the tiny closet in my kitchen that contained my washer, dryer, water heater, and small pantry. I first turned the water back on to my washer, and then turned the knob on the water heater from
Vac
to
4.
Shutting the door behind me, I realized that Mother had disappeared while I was fooling around with the water heater and washer. I hadn't heard the door close, and there was a trail of garments leading from the entrance to the bedroom. I smiled, my cock hardening with the thought of what I'd find in the other room. I started to follow, but then changed my mind and decided I should finish what I started since it would only take a couple minutes more. I pulled my refrigerator out from the wall and then squeezed behind it to turn the water on to the ice maker. Less than ten minutes after I'd entered my apartment, I'd put everything back in working order.
My cock throbbing hard, I began unbuttoning my shirt as I followed the trail of clothing to my bedroom, stooping to pick up each piece as I reached it. The final piece of clothing, laying in the doorway, was Mother's black, lacy, brassiere. I smiled at the goddess laying on my bed. Mother was laying on her stomach, her breasts puddling against the mattress, with one of her knees bent and her head propped on her hand as she watched me enter the room.
"I was starting to wonder if you were coming," she said as I neatly draped her skirt, blouse, and jacket, along with my shirt, over the back of the chair.
"Not yet, but I'm sure I will."
She beamed at me as she watched me undress. "You can count on that. I've been saving myself for you, and I'm going to fuck you until you're screaming for me to stop."
"You haven't been with anyone since me?" I asked, my disbelief clear in my tone as I stepped out of my pants.
Her smile spread even more as she drew a pattern on my comforter with her free hand. "Okay... not really. Just the last couple of weeks, since you contacted me and said you were getting out."
I hadn't fucked anyone in the past week myself, and I was very much looking forward to Mother breaking my drought. I smiled at her as I removed the last of my clothing. "What's the ROEs?" I asked, pronouncing it 'rows