Chapter 67: Chapter Sixty-Seven

Gloria fought to keep her eyes from rolling to the back of her head as Frankie sauntered off without any sign of injury. The man was clearly not used to going this long without sex and it showed. She was surprised he didn’t take her in the backseat with Leo watching. Thinking of Leo reminded her of Frankie’s strange behavior. What had he been talking about? Why was he throwing out reports for Accardi that he would normally safeguard with his life? She would have time to figure all that out later. Now, she needed to focus on the matter at hand: finding her father. And she knew just where to start.

Her eyes snapped back to the receptionist who was doing everything in her power to avoid Gloria’s stare. She stalked toward the desk and planted her palms wide.

“Hello Miss Rubanov,” Juniper said, her voice filled with uncertainty.

“You know where he is, don’t you?” Gloria asked.

“I… Mr. Donati was just here wasn’t…”

“My dad.”

Juniper’s face drained of color. She glanced around nervously as though there were spies in the wall. “Look, Miss Rubanov…” Juniper began, lowering her voice and leaning forward.

“Jesus, stop calling me that. My name is Gloria, but you knew that from the years you spent fucking my father behind my mom’s back,” Gloria hissed.

Juniper took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I haven’t seen anyone in that life for nearly ten years.”

Now it was Gloria’s turn to lean forward. “Lucky for you my dad is a creature of habit. You’re going to tell me where he took you during your little excursions and you’re going to tell me now.”

The lobby doors opened and a couple strolled in. Juniper greeted the couple who gave her a quick distracted nod.

“Not here,” Juniper finally relented. She stepped back from her desk. “We can talk in my apartment.”

Gloria gave a reluctant nod. She crossed her arms as she followed Juniper down the hall past the elevators. Juniper stopped at the first door. Gloria’s irritation grew as the woman tried and failed to insert her key into the lock. After another minute of failure, Gloria shoved Juniper aside, took the key from her and unlocked it with one swift click. Juniper pushed the door open and gestured for Gloria to enter.

The apartment was far smaller than Frankie’s, as could be expected. It was homey though, far from the modern look Frankie appreciated. The floors were a light hardwood, the walls were a soft pastel green. Her furniture looked second-hand but their charm only emphasized the warm, comforting aesthetic Juniper had cultivated.

“Would you like something to drink? Some tea?” Juniper asked, moving around her kitchen with a tea kettle held up in invitation.

“Fine,” Gloria growled, sitting down on the couch.

She listened to Juniper move around the kitchen while she stared across the room at a picture frame on the wall. There was something familiar about the people in the photo. She shoved up from the couch and walked toward the picture. Her hands constricted into fists as she realized what she was looking at. It was her… She was maybe five or six. Her mom was standing beside Juniper… who was holding Gloria in her arms. All three women were smiling. It even looked like Gloria had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. A shadow passed over her shoulder.

“I wasn’t always his…” Juniper stopped. Gloria turned to look at her. She extended a teacup for her to take. Juniper looked at the photo on the wall. “I was your nanny for a time.”

Juniper turned away to walk to the couch and Gloria took one last look at the photo. “Why don’t I remember that?” she asked.

Juniper shrugged. “The mind does a lot of things in order to protect itself. I think it was easier for you to accept me as… what I became then to remember what I was.”

“What happened?” Gloria asked, sitting on the couch beside her.

“He’s your dad, I don’t want to…”

“He killed her,” Gloria interrupted. “When she got me out and put the contract at risk. He killed my mom. He’s not my dad. Not anymore.”

Juniper swiped a tear from her face. “She was a good woman, your mom. I hated seeing how badly she was breaking.” She shook her head. “Your dad was a difficult man. He wanted what he wanted and there was no one powerful enough to stop him. Not your mom… not me.” She sighed. “He attacked me one night. Assaulted me. Took me somewhere he could break me down to what he wanted me to be. I didn’t want… But it didn’t matter. I had to survive.” She looked up at Gloria. “I’m so sorry for how badly I hurt you. The first time you saw me with him in his office. I’ve never been able to forget the look you gave me. Not betrayal but… disgust.”

“I didn’t realize… I thought you wanted his money. I thought you’d chosen to become his mistress,” Gloria said, shame washing over her.

Juniper shrugged and gave her a sympathetic smile. “You were only a child, Gloria. You saw a woman on your father’s lap who wasn’t your mom. Your reaction was understandable. I never blamed you.”

Gloria stood up to get away from the uncomfortable emotions she was feeling. The uncertainty, the embarrassment, the confusion. “I need to find him. I can’t help but think we’re spinning our wheels with Sergei. He keeps going underground. He’s a coward.” Gloria turned back to face Juniper. “But we both know my father isn’t one. I received information that he was striking up deals. He’s active in this and I need to stop him. He’s at one of his hideouts. He never alluded to where they were to me or my mom so I need you to tell me.”

Juniper played with her fingers and sighed. She reached forward and grabbed a pad of sticky notes. “I haven’t been to one in years but if he’s trying to stay hidden, he’ll go to the place he took us when he was… breaking us in.” She jotted down a few lines and walked up to Gloria. “I hope you can find him.” She held the paper out but when Gloria reached for it, she held it back. “If you’re going to do this, I’m going to need something from you.” She looked upward. “Well, two things.”

Gloria sighed. “What?”

“There will be girls there. I need you to get them out. Bring them here, to me. I can get them in touch with Nora and together we can help them start anew.”

“Okay,” Gloria said with a decisive nod, reaching for the paper. “And the second thing?”

Juniper’s look of discomfort drifted from her face. Her light eyes swirled darker as if a storm was cresting over the horizon of an otherwise calm sea. “You’ll kill him for what he’s done to us.” Her eyes jerked to the photo on her wall. “All of us.”

Gloria left Juniper’s apartment with her stomach in knots. That was in no way how she expected the confrontation would go. As she walked toward the elevator, she couldn’t help but wonder how many people she had misjudged because she was so blinded by her own plight. How many people had her own mother known weren’t at fault and helped to find freedom before she’d had to do the same for her own daughter. As she stood outside Frankie’s apartment, Gloria knew one thing… it was time for her father’s rule to be over. She’d made a promise to Juniper that was far too easy to make. Her father would die. The sooner the better.

She didn’t see or hear Frankie when she stepped into the apartment. She sighed and made her way up the stairs, expecting him to be in the bathroom showering off his week-long hospital stay. Once upstairs, however, she realized that wasn’t the case. She prepped the bathroom with fresh towels and stepped into her robe with the sole purpose of coaxing him into cleaning himself. She walked back down the steps and noticed the door to his security room slightly ajar.

Gloria padded toward it and peeked her head inside. Her breath stalled in her throat. He was seated at his desk, his body relaxed as he watched something on the screen in front of him that she couldn’t quite make out. He wore large headphones over his ears, preventing him from hearing her enter. None of those things are what had stolen her breath though. No, what had stopped her was the movement of his arm and what it clearly signalled.  She leaned heavily against the door jam to keep from pooling to the floor. She bit her lip, trying to imagine what he was watching that made him want to touch himself.

“Oh, fuck, Vixen, deeper,” he moaned. Gloria snapped up straight. What? He was watching something with her? Was it a tape from one of their jaunts in the apartment? Had he been unable to wait even ten minutes for her to get back to do the real thing? “That’s right, fuck, yeah, that’ll scar up real nice.”

Her brow furrowed as she took a step forward. His free hand came into view. He was gripping the desk edge tight enough for the bones in his knuckles to shine white through his skin. His other hand worked harder against his shaft and she could tell the movement was causing him slight pain as he hissed between his teeth.

“Fuck, don’t step,” he continued to whisper to the screen. “Just a little longer.”

His fingers popped as his fist tightened against the desk. Gloria finally got close enough to see what he was watching. She gasped and covered her mouth just as Frankie reached completion. Cum spouted from his cock as he came on his hand. His head fell back and his eyes were screwed shut as he worked the rest of his cum from his dick in slow measured strokes. After a moment he licked his lips and swiveled in his chair. His head fell forward and his eyes lifted just enough to look at her. A slow, tired smile spread across his lips.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my wet dream…” he whispered. “Here in the flesh.”