An exasperated Lance let out a puff of relief as he pushed open the turning glass that guarded his exit from the offices of Baxter and Michaels, one of the most illustrious asset managers in the country, the 3 hour meeting combined with the 2 hour drive having worn on him. Descending down the polished granite steps, his right hand dug into his pants pocket and fumbled around for his cellphone. Pulling it out, he brought the screen to life with a press of his finger against the back and examined what he had missed during his time upstairs. A notification blinked across it reading, "12 missed calls from Eugene" accompanied by a text message from the same number that simply stated "call me". Pressing his thumb against the telephone symbol in the corner of the text, Lance wedged the phone between his shoulder and jaw while pulling a small golden cigar case from inside his blue cambric jacket. Extracting one of the Cubans from within, he put it up to his lips and lit it while listening intently to the ringing on the other end of the line. Within a few seconds the deep voice of an African American man responded, "Bout fuckin time bruh, been blowing you up for over an hour".
Lance relaxed against a metal light pole at the end of the steps while taking a puff of his cigar, "Yeah, sorry about that," he replied, "had something important at noon and couldn't reschedule. What's up?"
"Yeah, we all got important shit" the voice on the other end laughed, "just remember you're paying me by the hour" they finished in a playful tone.
Lance snickered at the comment as he responded, "of course buddy, you never let me forget it" clearly more relaxed now than he had been upon exiting the building, "now what is it I can do for you, my good man?"
"Well, you know that remodeling project you wanted me to work on? The loft down on 5th avenue?" his friend inquired over the line.
Lance's look became a little less jubilant, anticipating the sentence following his response would likely agitate the mild headache that had begun upstairs. His lower lip tucked in underneath his upper one as he deeply inhaled before responding, "Yeah, I do." he stated less than enthusiastically.
"So, we're here right now, and everything's cleaned up and shipped out like you wanted..." the voice began, Lance tensed up sensing the inevitable bad news to follow, "...but this motherfucking lock box? Shit is tougher to open than a virgin at a church cookout." he finished.
Lanced huffed realizing this was likely to be a costly setback, reaching to his previously upbeat tone in an attempt to mask his annoyance he replied, "Well she's a fucking theif 'Gene, were you expecting a Rubbermaid container?" laughing in a vain attempt to imply his friend was overstating things.
"Nigga, you think i'd call you up on the job over a Sentri-Lock?!" the man replied to him jokingly, though clearly somewhat offended at the implication Lance had made, "This shit is the Lamborghini of safes, whatever's in this motherfucker she wanted to make sure nobody could get to it but her."
Lance closed his eyes in frustration, knowing that indeed if Eugene felt it serious enough to call him over he wasn't exaggerating things. Lance shook his head and took a strong puff on his cigar before replying, "So how long?" he asked.
"Well..." the voice began, "I can open it but I gotta take it to the warehouse, probably looking at 2 hours once I get it there, but that's two hours of overtime if ya get me".
Lance nodded despite Eugene not being able to currently see him, his belief that this would cost more confirmed. "Yeah, I get you." Lance replied, "What about everything else?" he finished, pushing himself off the light post he had propped on, he began walking toward a large parking garage across the street.
"Oh, we're great on that..." his friend confidently replied, "...furniture, bed, tv, shoes, clothes, etc all clear. All the social media shit's clear, your fed boy ain't even gonna be able to find her now. I'm standing in the middle of a squeaky clean apartment, bitch had more dresses and shoes than I do miles on my car, boys was splittin em all up to take home to their girlfriends." Eugene laughed.
Lance picked up his stride as he went through the crosswalk making his way to the garage opening, "and the security tapes?" he asked.
"Not to worry..." came the voice over the phone, "...your donation was more than enough for the security head to let me look at their archives for a while. Thankfully we didn't have to delete too much since she aint been here long, which is lucky for me since she seemed to run in and out the goddamn house all the time. Anything else you want me to have dropped off besides the box stuff?"
Lance's reply came quick, "No, that'll be it, appreciate you as always man." as he came under the archway that led into the garage he took pause and looked at a Walgreens across the street.
"Hey no problem pimipin..." Eugene replied, "...I'll shoot you a text when my courier leaves".
Lance seemingly caught off guard while entranced by the drug store stammered a reply, "yeah...sounds good...thanks again 'Gene" he said pulling the phone down and tapping a symbol on his screen to end the call. Staring intently toward the pharmacy entrance, Lance briefly looked back over toward his parked vehicle in the garage, before turning back toward the drug store and making his way toward it.
Brittany's exhaustion had allowed her a good four hours of sleep, but the uncomfortable position she found herself in quickly made staying asleep a tough task. She had removed the collar immediately when Lance left, but there was little she could do about the boots, meaning that lying on her back was the only viable option to avoid the invading pressure of the locks against her legs. Resting there against the soft black leather with her head propped on the tiny white pillow Lance had provided, she stared blankly at the ceiling of her confines, feeling like a doll trapped in it's box. All she needed was to get out of here and get back to her loft, she had the remainder of her money as well as the expensive collection of fake IDs and paperwork she had acquired over the years stashed there. All the things she needed to make a break out of Vegas. Calling the police on Lance never crossed her mind as it would undoubtedly unveil her transgressions as well, she reasoned that despite feeling violated it was not worth her also going to prison, still unable to acknowledge the minor feelings of arousal she had experienced during her ordeal earlier. Much as she denied them to herself, there was something about the way Lanced stripped and humiliated Brittany that sparked a feeling deep in her soul she had never experienced. Those shocks too! As much pain as the wand had caused she couldn't shake this feeling that a part of her wanted to experience it again. Still, she was no man's plaything, she ignored any deep seeded stimulation the events had brought about and pressed on with formulating a plan.