Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen

Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen
Frankie leaned back against the wall just inside the alley where the representative from the underground club was set to pick them up. He flicked his cigarette across the alleyway, stretched his arms until his back cracked and yawned. He shook himself off and went to stand beside Gloria, who waited at the opening of the alley, her honey eyes on a swivel. He draped his arm across her shoulder and sighed. 

“Home sweet home?” he asked.

Gloria scoffed. “I hate this city.”

Frankie chuckled. “Well, good thing you run half of it now.”

Gloria let out a long breath. “Yep.”

“I still think we should have gone to your dad’s place,” Frankie said, careful not to say ‘her place’ and earn another scowl. “We could have gotten cleaned up. Maybe rested for a night. Fucked in all the rooms,” he said with a shrug. 

Gloria laughed. “If we had done that, we would have needed a whole other day to recuperate, Frankie.”

“Silver spoon,” he coughed into his sleeve. She gave him a smirk and a cocked brow in response. “Two days wouldn’t have…”

“I just want this to be over with, Frank,” she said, closing her eyes and tilting her head up toward the sky. “I just want to find these scum, wipe them from the face of the earth and…”

“And?” he pushed, sensing the turmoil that had been warring in her mind for days that she refused to acknowledge.

“Move on,” she said, dropping her head and going back to surveying the bustling streets around them. 

“Well, in a matter of days, it will all be over,” he assured her, pulling her into his side and kissing her temple. 

Almost on cue, a black pedicab screeched to a halt in front of them. A young girl with bright blonde hair pulled under a black ballcap beamed up at them. “Hello!” she exclaimed. “I’m Nicole! I work for the Leroy Hotel! Are you Frankie and Gloria?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head as if she were a street vendor at Disney World.

Gloria looked down at the business card in her hand and showed Frankie. The Leroy Hotel was on the card Johnny had sent them. 

“We sure are, Nicole,” Frankie said, just as exuberant.

“Can I see your referral number?” she asked, playfully narrowing her eyes like Frankie was a five-year-old who just told her he was twelve. 

Gloria handed the card over to her and she typed in the number.

“Okie dokie!” Nicole said, handing the card back. “Hop on in!” 

Frankie sent Gloria a broad smile while touching her back, urging her to go first. Once they were settled, Nicole turned in her seat and held out two blindfolds.

“If you could put these on, I’d super appreciate it!”

Frankie helped Gloria to put hers on before putting his on by himself. 

“Alright, folks, just hold on tight! We’ll be pulling some high Gs heading to our destination! Juuuust kidding, but I do ask that you keep your seatbelt and blindfold on at all times until I instruct you otherwise. Here we go!”

The pedicab lurched forward as Nicole began their journey to the club, which, so far, was living up to its reputation. 

After a few minutes of brushing up against Gloria without his sense of sight, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You know, this blindfold is giving me lots of ideas.”

Gloria laughed softly. “Oh yeah?”

“Hmm,” Frankie said, running the knuckle of one finger down her thigh. 

“Save some of that kinkiness for the infamous sex club we’re going to, Mr. Donati,” Gloria reprimanded him, taking his hand in hers so he wouldn’t continue his exploration in a way that might be seen by tourists on the city streets around them.

Frankie leaned further until he felt the shell of her ear against his lips. “If you think I’ll be letting anyone see you or touch you at this club, let me squash those ideas before they have a chance to sprout wings, alright?”

“Why even bother going then?”

“Careful, Vixen, blindfolds are only a single kink locked away in the dirty recesses of my mind. Imagine wearing this and feeling the sting of a riding crop across that bare ass of yours.”  Gloria shivered as his breath fanned her skin. “See? Pretty hot, isn’t it?”

“Stop it,” she whispered. 

Frankie chuckled and sat back in his seat, though he kept their fingers interlaced.

The pedicab didn’t go far. Frankie kept a count in his head while having a fair guess at their rate of speed. He knew when they entered the tunnels as the temperature of the air around them dropped dramatically. One, two, three, four, five, left turn. One, two, three, right turn. One, two, three, four, five, six, right turn. On and on they went for approximately five minutes at a slight downward incline. Gloria’s fingers tightened slightly in his grasp and her palms became sweaty. One, two, three, four, right turn. One, two, three, four, five, six, left turn. He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it to help ease her worries. At last, the pedicab came to a halt. 

“Alrighty roo, folks, you can take off your blindfolds!!” Nicole announced with an excited clap.

Frankie ripped his blindfold off and his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting shining off the white-washed concrete walls. Nicole sashayed over to a round steel door, the shape of which reminded him of the door of a hobbit-hole. She knocked eleven times, each knock at a different rate, before the slat at the top opened.

“Howdy!” she called. “I have two new guests with me today.”

The slat closed and Nicole walked over and gave a little curtsy. Frankie held back a laugh, helped by Gloria pinching him in the side. 

“It has been my pleasure escorting you to our fine establishment this evening. Did you bring masks as instructed?” she asked. 

Gloria and Frankie nodded. He dug through his bag, procuring Gloria’s black lace, red rhinestone mask and his all-black balaclava, which he’d worn the night he’d stolen her from Sergei. He helped her tie her mask on before he slid on his own, just like with the blindfold. Only this time, he could see Gloria’s reaction to him in his mask and, perhaps because she remembered the last time he’d worn it, her cheeks deepened a shade in color and she bit her lip before looking quickly away to Nicole.

“You two look great!” she said, giving them a double ‘OK’ hand gesture. “So cute. You are going to have so much fun. Now, just like the blindfold, the minute you step through this door, we ask that your masks stay on unless in one of our private ‘preparation’ rooms or in one of our private ‘fun’ rooms. ‘Kay? When out in our public spaces, please keep your identity private both for your own sake and the sake of our other patrons. Once you step through these doors, you will undergo our onboarding system, which involves the removal of any weapons and outside communication devices, followed by our questionnaire service. Then you will be directed to one of our preparation rooms and theeeen,” she drawled out and leaned forward, her hands clasped. “The fun really begins. Have a great night, you two,” Nicole finished with a wink before skipping, literally skipping, back to the pedicab. 

Once Nicole rang the bell on the dash and started pedaling away, the heavy steel door creaked open. A large man in an executioner’s mask stepped out. He studied them for a moment with his arms crossed before bobbing his head for them to enter. The entry room was even more brightly lit than the one they arrived in. 

A man and woman stepped forward. The man searched Frankie’s bags and body for weapons, while the same was done for Gloria. Frankie sent a wink Gloria’s way while the man proceeded to remove three handguns and seven knives from his person. Gloria blew him a kiss as the woman found five handguns and nine knives on her body. Frankie’s mouth hung open at the sight of the woman carrying away the box of Gloria’s arsenal. The moment the man released him, Frankie stalked over and gripped her by her hair and kissed her. By the time he pulled away, they were both out of breath.

“I thought of a better use for the blindfold. I wear it and try to figure out where the fuck you were hiding those,” he said, out of breath with excitement. 

She smirked. “And what happens if you can’t?”

Frankie groaned. “Then you can play with the rider’s crop.”

Someone cleared their throat. It was the man who had searched him, annoyed that they were holding up the process. “This way, if you don’t mind.”

The next room they entered was a swanky office in a hallway lined with swanky offices. 

“Hello, my name is Georgia. Can you repeat the numbers on your referral card so I can check I have the correct participants?” asked a woman in a three-piece suit with her hair pulled back tight as she sat in the seat on the other side of the desk.

Gloria read off the number while Georgia nodded along. 

“All seems good here. Now, all I need you to do is fill out these forms and we’ll get you on your way.”

She handed over a clipboard to each of them and Frankie looked over to see what was written on Gloria’s.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Georgia said, tsking as she shook her head. “We ask that each individual, even those who come as a couple, fill out their own forms without collaboration. We think this helps maintain a healthy relationship and that both partners are fulfilled at our establishment.”

It took both of them nearly ten minutes to fill out the form, which asked questions ranging from why they were there, what their dirtiest fantasies were, their favorite kinks, positions, what they were looking for in a partner and how often they had sex with their current partner, all the way to what their favorite hobbies, foods and animals were. The forms made him feel violated, to say the least, but Frankie looked at the broader picture. They were here for a purpose and that purpose was to find Asher Thompson. 

“Alright,” Georgia said, taking both clipboards back. 

He noted how Gloria’s face was red and wondered how honest she’d been on her forms. He added ‘get his hands on her form’ to the list of things he needed to accomplish in the near future. If he was going to keep his wife happy, he needed to know everything on that form… and he intended to know. 

“Now,” Georgia said, a mischievous smile on her face. “You two can get ready. I’ll take you to one of our prep rooms where we recommend you get dressed, cover up any defining marks: tattoos, scars, etc., while I run these forms through our system and find you two the best matches for your situation. Usually, the first night you’re here,” Georgia said as she led them out of her office. “We recommend you mingle, get a feel for the atmosphere, have fun. If you chose someone to couple with, of course, you’re more than welcome. But there is no rush. Your membership dues have already been processed, so you have all the time in the world to get comfortable and enjoy yourselves. Here we are,” she said, stopping beside a tall red door. 

Gloria opened the door and stepped inside with Frankie following closely behind.

“Take your time. When you’re ready, you can pull this rope, it’ll notify us and we can escort you to the main room, okay? Okay. Bye bye now.”

The door sealed shut as if they’d been placed in a tomb. The room sat in deep hues of reds with heavy red curtains, red furniture and even red lighting. Gloria grasped her arm and turned around, taking in her surroundings. 

“People here are weird,” she said. “This whole place is weird.”

Frankie walked up to her and cupped her cheek, which allowed her to close her eyes and exhale her anxiety. “This is supposed to be fun, Vixen. So, let’s just have some fun, huh?”

She raised one dubious brow behind her mask and shook her head as he placed down the bag they’d brought with the change of clothes the club had recommended.