The Color Of Sex Ch 26 30

Chapter 26

The first day of February arrived with Candice doubling over in pain. Her stomach was cramping, sweat poured down her forehead and skated along her spine. She crawled out of bed, hoping to make it to the bathroom before she peed herself; unfortunately that didn't happen, but it was not urine that had been applying pressure to her lower abdomen. Blood poured from her vagina and a scream erupted from her lungs as she collapsed on the floor, clutching her belly. She reached for her cell phone and just as she was hitting the last 1 in her 9-1-1 call Gregory burst into the room.

Gregory had been in his kitchen, going through his usual morning routine. He had the computers on and the speakers of the surveillance equipment whispered in the background. He had heard Candice's alarm going off and knew she'd be waking up soon and going through her own rituals. The scream he heard from her came through the speakers so loud and chilling that it made the hairs on his neck stand up. Gregory wasted no time in leaving his apartment, nor did he think to pick up his ring of keys. Two sound kicks had the door off its hinges and Gregory was inside, darting to her bedroom.

He found her on the floor, clutching her belly. There was more blood than he had seen in years, and all of it coming from her lower half. Instantly he knew what was happening and he cursed Jon and Ben for their stupidity as well as his own and Candice's.

He pulled her into his arms, took her phone from her and spoke to the operator on the other end of the line. He gave them her address and she screamed again as another pain shot through her. The blood poured out, as did several large clots. He closed his eyes and said a prayer. The operator told him to get both her feet up and to try to keep her calm. He rolled his eyes, knowing calm was not going to happen. By the time the ambulance arrived Candice was barely conscious. He watched the EMTs head out the door with her and his heart felt as if a piece of it was missing.

Gregory darted back to his apartment, changed clothes and with both his cell phone as well as Candice's he headed downstairs to get in his car and head toward the hospital. On the way there he called her parents, explaining he was the neighbor across the hall and that he had heard her screaming. He told them she was on her way to the hospital and he explained which one. Another call was placed to Jon and then Ben. The hostility in his voice was evident by the sound that radiated from deep within his gut. The last call he placed he had to dig out of Candice's cell phone. It was to what Gregory considered to be the girl's steady lover, the one man that wasn't paying her to fuck him, unless one counted grades. Samuel Harris' voicemail picked up and all Gregory said was that Candice Williams was on her way to Mercy General and that she was suffering a miscarriage.

When Gregory pulled into the parking lot he was praying to a God he rarely ever spoke to. He hurried through the glass doors and up to the ER reception desk where he once again identified himself as Candice's neighbor and friend. Minutes later a doctor appeared and he grabbed Gregory's arm.

"I heard you mention Candice William's name. Who are you?" the doctor asked Gregory.

"Her neighbor and you?"

"Samuel Harris; she's one of my students," Samuel said. "What happened?"

"I left you a voice mail. She's more than one of your students, but that's your business, not mine. She's suffering a miscarriage and," Gregory took a deep breath, "look I don't know if that's your field or not, but you need to find out what's going on before her parents get here."

Gregory suddenly felt another arm on his and a pulling sensation. He turned and came face-to-face with Ben. "What's going on?" Ben asked. Gregory turned back and introduced the doctor to Ben and vice versa. He then explained what he'd come across to both men in great detail. Ben shook his head and pushed Gregory out of the way, just as Candice's parents arrived.

"Tell them what you told me," Ben said, in the meantime he took a firm hold of Doctor Harris' arm. "What's your field?" he asked.

"I'm an OB-GYN, I'm on call. They'll probably be paging me after she's prepped." Samuel suddenly looked down. "That's the page now. I have to go." He turned to leave only to be brought up short by Ben.

"Look, I know you and her have a thing and I know you have a sick perversion for hard core play. You take care of this, make it go away and I'll take care of you," Ben hissed.

"What do you mean?" Samuel asked. His eyes were full of confusion and fear.

"She's my slut, my whore and my money ticket. You don't need the details, but what you do need to do is make sure this shit never happens again," Ben growled low in the doctor's ear. His grip grew tighter.

Samuel stared at him for a long moment, the pager on his hip buzzed again. "What do you mean 'never happens again'?" he asked.

Ben's fingers dug into the doctor's arm. "You make sure that whore can never get pregnant, if you don't, I'll be sure everyone knows how you like to lick some cold-hearted bitch's feet and you don't mind making your students work for their grades," Ben said before shoving the doctor away. Samuel's face grew pale. He ran down the hall toward the operating room that would have been ready for any new arrivals.

Gregory had seen the heated discussion between the doctor and Ben. Yet he was unable to hear their words due to the frantic sobs of Renee and the concerned voice of Rick, Candice's parents. He tried to explain what he'd seen and he shared his fear of what had happened in regards to their daughter. He led them both to a waiting room, and then disappeared in search of Ben; he ran into Jon and told him what was going on. The hate for the other man was easy to read, but he said nothing; instead he chose to find something for Mrs. Williams to drink as well as continue his search for the other boss that ran Candice's life.

Renee and Rick sat together on a waiting room couch. Rick held his wife, who was now hiccupping, yet her composure was slowly coming together. Rick watched Ben pace the floor, and for the hundredth, if not thousandth time he wondered if his boss was more involved in his daughter's life than he realized. He wasn't ignorant to the fact that Candice was a beautiful woman nor had he missed the way his boss had looked at her when she wasn't looking. Rick had casually mentioned to Ben that Candice was a young college girl, trying to make her own mark on the world and he, as a father, was concerned that she was running around with the wrong crowd.

Ben and he had talked about relationships as well as how Candice would one day find the right man and settle down, but in Rick's eyes Ben never really was into the conversation. Shortly after that Rick had been moved to a different location on the other side of the city, working behind the walls of a business where his daughter was not. Now as Ben worried the carpet Rick wondered if the child Candice was losing was in fact his boss's.

His gaze shifted to another who walked into the lobby – Jon. Rick honestly didn't know a lot about Jon, and seeing him here at the hospital took him by surprise. Jon walked over, shook Rick's hand and told Renee he was praying for Candice. He then headed over to Ben. Rick's eyes narrowed as he watched the two men converse. Why was Jon here? Rick wondered. He didn't ask. His wife needed him, but he promised to discover what the two men were cooking up. Obviously for Jon to be here, meant Ben was most likely the father of Candice's baby.

Rick closed his eyes feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was his fault his daughter was fighting for her life and his grandchild was no more. He wiped the tears from his eyes and leaned back against the seat, pulling Renee with him. He kissed the top of her head and knew she was oblivious to her surroundings. He saw Ben and Jon disappear; he knew they were racking their brains, trying to come up with some reason for the affair that Rick was now sure had occurred between his daughter and the high class executive.

Jon and Ben found somewhere private to discuss what was happening to their top girl. Jon closed and locked the door behind them, then turned and asked Ben to explain what Ben had trying to tell him earlier. He had sensed Rick's eyes on their backs and he knew that Ben's show of concern would be interpreted as a man carrying for his lover, not as a boss carrying for his asset.

When Ben turned around he confessed his plan to blackmail the doctor into performing the hysterectomy.

Jon's eyes grew wide. "You did what?" he yelled. His voice resonated through the walls, but the sound was muffled to any that may have passed by. "What the fuck were you thinking?" he shouted.

Ben lifted his hands. "She's our meal ticket – right now our biggest clients want her and only her. They trust her to deliver and the new girls, they just aren't ready. Look we gave her some slack. We let her focus on herself for a while, gave her a bit of a life and look what we got for it. If this miscarriage hadn't taken place she'd be off her back and knitting booties for the wee one – not to mention we don't even know who the father is!" Ben hissed.

Jon shook his head and took a deep breath. "Any clue how far along she was?" he asked.

"No," he answered, "I have no clue at all. I never saw any signs so she can't have been that far along. A few weeks, maybe 6 or 8," he whispered, shrugging his shoulders in indifference. "It doesn't matter does it?"

"Not until she finds out what you've done," Jon said.

"By the time she does, she'll have retired from our fuck fest and moved on to greener pastures. Don't pity her. She's milked us for a lot more than our cum. The girl's amassed a lot of wealth over the past few months – we're just asking her to pay some of it back, by not ever getting pregnant." Ben turned around and walked over to a leather chair. He sat down and pushed his hands over his face. "I can't believe the damn slut let herself get pregnant."

Jon cleared his throat. He didn't agree with what Ben had done, but it was too late now. He walked over and claimed one of the seats in the room for himself. "So the doctor on call is the same one she's been fuckin'?"

"Yeah, lucky break," Ben admitted. "It's like fate stepped in and once again everything you and I want is falling into place."

Jon said nothing. In his mind Ben had fucked up and it was the biggest fuck up of all time. He sat back in his seat, contemplating what his next move would be. He knew that Ben's fantasy world where Candice was an idiot was going to one day blow up in their faces. Jon was not about to face charges of sex trafficking and embezzlement. He'd beat the system years ago, he'd do it again.

He glanced at his partner in crime. It was time to leave, he told himself. He'd put the wheels in motion to skim as much as he could from Ben's company before disappearing. He thought of Amelia. Would she go with him? Or would she too disappear? He knew the answer before he finished the mental question. Amelia would walk out of his life and be done with him. She'd made the promise to with him if he swore to keep his nose clean – obviously he failed. Though she was willing to be the subservient pet, she was no man's fool. Would she miss him?

Jon sighed heavily. "It looks like you have this all under control," Jon lied. He knew everything they had accomplished was going to leave more than broken hearts, it was going to destroy the over-zealous business man's life – Jon needed to protect himself and do so quickly.

As Jon quickened his step toward the exit, he was stopped aggressively by a strong hand on his forearm. He was spun around and dragged down an empty hall, pushed against the men's room door and shoved inside. He had only a few seconds to identify the man who had grabbed him and when he did he felt his heart stop beating for a moment.

"What the fuck?" he shouted to Gregory.

Gregory had returned to Rick and Renee, a coffee in one hand, a juice in the other. He'd been told that Jon had arrived and the two men had disappeared around a corner. He'd gone in search of them and had come up empty-handed. When he did finally see the business man he had wasted no time in confronting him.

"What were you and Ben discussing?" Gregory demanded. His fists were clenched and his jaw fixed in a ridged line of hostility.

"What do you think?" Jon asked, smoothing down his jacket. He looked over the bathroom, checked the stalls and determined they were empty. "I hear you found her. Where were you when she got knocked up?"

"Where was I? What the fuck?" Gregory fought the rage building inside him. He knew he was somewhat responsible for Candice and her unborn child. He didn't need nor want Jon to point that out to him.

"Yeah, your job is to keep her from slipping up," Jon said.

The two men stared at each other; each one trying to gauge how much the other knew or needed to know. Jon sighed. "Look, Ben's pretty worked up about all this. He's scared she'll run her mouth and admittedly, so am I."

Gregory rolled his eyes. "She's going to be so fucked up mentally – you and Ben are going to be the last thing on her mind," Gregory said. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to think about where to go from there. He was done allowing Candice to whore herself out to whomever the two men felt were worthy of their attention. "I think you're worrying for nothing. Let me deal with her. She trusts me."

"I don't," Jon said.

Gregory smirked and chuckled low. "You shouldn't," he admitted, "but I'm taking care of her – you were right – she is my job. I fucked up." He saw Jon relax and Gregory smiled inside. "I'll take care of her, you just make sure Ben leaves her alone and doesn't hound her to perform before the doc okays it."

"Deal," Jon said. "I still don't trust you though."

"The feeling is mutual," Gregory said before turning away and leaving the business man alone in the restroom. He made his way back to the lobby and as much as he wanted to remain behind and show Candice's parents his support, he couldn't. He was nothing more to them than a helpful neighbor. He shook Rick's hand and offered a supportive smile to Renee, who stood up and hugged him tight. She thanked him for helping their daughter and promised that as soon as they knew more, one of them would stop by the apartment. Gregory gave them his cell number and told them to call when they were able.

He then left the hospital and headed back to his apartment. Once there he called in all his favors and tripled his efforts in nailing Jon against the proverbial wall. He knew the man was going to run and it was only a matter of days.

Samuel Harris washed his hands, scrubbing them harder than usual. They shook under the water. The deed was done – Candice Williams would never have her own children without undergoing another surgery to reconnect what he'd disconnected. He had seen to it. The supporting staff had baulked as he knew they would, but he also knew enough garbage on each and every one of them that he pulled their strings like the puppets he knew them to be.

Harris' team had been handpicked by him. He had been with the hospital long enough to make things happen. People jumped when he snapped his fingers; women catered to his whim because he was charming and seductive. Only a few special women, women like Candice knew his true nature – everyone else saw him the way he desired them to see him – threatening and a force to be reckoned with.

When he told the group that the girl had been in his office weeks before discussing an abortion, they had been shocked. When he told them she also wanted a tubal ligation they had all doubted him. It wasn't until he wove his tale of lies that they finally saw that he would perform the surgery with or without them --- and when he began to list their past medical and personal indiscretions they all knew why they were always on his team and that they were all going to cave. Their professions were their lifelines and the glue to their reputations. Each saw Harris as a man to befriend, not a man to make an enemy of, not if they wanted to continue on a path similar to his --- success filled.

Candice was taken away and he knew he would have to face her eventually. He had a few hours before she was awake and alert. He would not tell her what he'd done; he would tell no one and as the accusing and guilty eyes filed past him he knew neither would the others. His secret – their secret, would be safe until the young girl finally looked for a legitimate reason as to why she could not get pregnant.

As he dried his hands, he thought of the man in the hall – Ben. He would tell Ben what he'd done. He would tell him that the girl could not get pregnant, but she could still have her periods. To give her a full hysterectomy would have made her instantly suspicious the first time her period was scheduled to come around. The fool had made demands that from an uneducated point of view, made sense, but for Samuel he'd known what was best for the girl. If she ever wanted to reverse the procedure she could – he would just have to make sure he wasn't around to suffer the consequences of her discovery.

Samuel changed into a clean jacket and headed back to speak with Candice's parents. He introduced himself and quickly told him how far along their daughter had been. "Approximately five maybe six weeks along," he said. His mind had already done the math; the child she'd carried could have been his. However after hearing Ben's confession about her being a whore, he truly didn't know if that was the case of not. He tried not too over think the possibility that his child had just died. He instead ordered his heart to thicken and he took the necessary means to protect himself. "She's in recovery right now and then she'll be taken to a room, where you can visit her," he said.

"Will she be able to have children in the future?" Renee asked.

Samuel glanced at both parents and noted Ben sitting in the corner. "She should, when she's ready. I take it this was unplanned?" Samuel asked, his gaze shifted over to Ben who looked at him with a raised brow. The doctor quickly nodded his head in the man's direction. The movement in Renee and Rick's eyes meant nothing more than a doctor seeking privacy for grieving parents, but to Samuel and Ben it was so much more.

Ben stood up and walked over to Renee. He placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. "I'm going to head into work and start lining up a replacement for your daughter. Don't worry, she's still got her job, I just want her to not feel any stress during this time of recovery. She means an awful lot to so many people," he said. There was more truth to his words than either parent realized.

Samuel spent a few more minutes talking to Rick and Renee before he turned them over to a hospital staff member. When it was time they were taken to Candice's room and were allowed to greet their daughter.

Chapter 27

Candice opened her eyes. Her lids felt heavy and her abdomen was sore and tight. She reached down and stroked the thin blanket that covered her. Her gaze moved to the right, then the left; she was in a hospital and her parents were hovering over her semi-conscious state. "What happened?" she whispered. Her throat was dry; her father gave her a small ice chip to suck on while her mother reached out and stroked her hair.

"You were hurt and screaming. Your neighbor heard you and...," Renee's words were full of pain and etched with heartache, "he saved you. You're okay and we love you so very much."

Candice's brow furrowed in confusion. "Gregory? Gregory's here?"