Phoenix Rising

Valerie padded over to Henry and looked down at him with a smile.

“This was not quite the way that we had it planned, Henry,” she said as she started to unzip the wet suit. “We were going to just make you sign the backdated loan form so that when you got back to the casino you would have a bit of credit. Then, if I understand it right, you would lose your trust fund and so on and I would receive a remuneration that paid for all my expense and hard work in organising this small undertaking. Our plans have changed now that my friend has turned up, so we will have to extemporise now and throw the old strategy away.”

“I will pay you myself if you let me go,” said Henry. “I mean, in six months I get my inheritance and I can pay you.”

“Mmm. An interesting offer, Henry, and one that certainly is worth considering. How much are you willing to give me?”

“Double what you are getting from Crystal, that bitch of a lawyer,” offered Henry.

“I don’t think that Mrs Crystal Veryon, my lawyer as well incidentally, would be very happy with me auctioning my services to the highest bidder. I mean, how little trust there is in the world already and you just lowered the average by a small amount.”

A pair of legs appeared in the gangway entrance to the deck. Low oxfords and stockings first and then Crystal came fully into view. Short skirt and a windcheater jacket she was wearing the usual heavy makeup and her hair was hidden beneath a baseball cap.

By now Valerie had stripped off her wetsuit and stood naked, still dripping with the water that had been trapped inside. To Henry the tableau was outlandish in the extreme.

Though Steve had put the knife away he was standing watching Henry as though he thought he would attempt some act even when he was handcuffed to the boat.

Just behind him was the naked Valerie looking triumphant and enjoying living in the moment of triumph. Her large breasts were without support and hung long almost to her swelling belly. Her sex was naked, naked of clothing and naked of hair.

Dark skin lipped the half parted opening.

“Was this little shit trying to bribe you Valerie?” asked Crystal. “I mean if he offers you money that he hasn’t got yet, he might just think that he does not have to pay you when the bill comes due.”

Valerie laughed at Crystal even taking the whole idea of accepting money from Henry seriously.

So she teased a bit more.

“So, Henry,” she said, “ We are talking about six million dollars here, I mean if you double the three and add my costs then we are talking about six to six and a half million.”

“Yes,” said Henry who felt that he was getting somewhere. “Seven is fine!”

“But that’s half your fortune,” came the reply. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely!”

Valerie turned to Crystal and smiled.

“That’s a lot for you to compete with, Crystal. Are you prepared to up the bid?”

“No way! We had a deal!”

By now Valerie was creased with mirth, she couldn’t hold it in any longer and doubled up with the repressed laughter.

“Darling Crystal!” she said between gusts of hilarity, “I would not sell you out for the world. What are you thinking? But I’ll tell you what! I’m sick of that little painted shit,” Valerie pointed at Trudy, “so how about you and me? I mean we would make the perfect couple!”

Crystal relaxed visibly. The moment of stress had passed and been just a joke so she took this new offer in good part.

“Valerie, if I liked women I would go for it, but I’ll certainly consider it, you are looking quite ready for a little rough fuck dressed as you are! I’ll just trust you to look after our business and I’ll owe you a favour. Come up on deck and we’ll discuss the details. It’s important business that needs to be done privately.”

The two women went on deck and left Steve with the two captives.

Chapter 7 : Choices.

***

The signing took moments.

On Valerie’s cruiser the scene in the large living room was one of grim formality. Henry sat at the small desk with a pen in his hand while Valerie sat, relaxed by the window, Crystal stood over Henry and pointed to where he should sign.

For a moment the tableau held still as Henry hesitated. He knew that he would sign the loan forms and then he was damned to a life without all the things that all the millions would buy. That flick of the pen would signal the end of his life of gambling and enjoyment of riches.

With Steve standing, watching every movement, there was no option. They had not been explicit but his failure to sign might end with him being tipped into the water of the lagoon.

‘In the end the result was the same,’ he thought. ‘I am as much use dead as alive to that bitch Crystal. One way or another she will have her hands on the trust fund and I will be poorer by millions of dollars.’

So the pen flicked and he performed as he had been told.

Crystal let out a sigh that could have been interpreted as relief, or maybe triumph as she swept the papers up and scrutinised the signature to see that he had not been so foolish as to not use his usual signature.

The documents were slotted into a slim attaché case ready for the bank’s attention and the case was locked into a drawer.

“That’s it than,” said Valerie with a small smile. “Henry will not arrive in Miami for three days, giving you time to get the forms processed and the money placed into his bank account.”

“Sort of ironic really, isn’t it?” asked Crystal as she came to stand next to her victim. “I mean that fact that we pay Henry and that ensures that he loses everything that should be mine anyway.”

Henry looked up at his adversary and thought, ‘She actually thinks that the money is hers. Until five years ago she had never even heard of my aunt Maisy, now she has had the money in her care so long that it has become her right.’

Crystal must have noticed a slight change in his demeanour because a frown came to her face.

Her hand slapped his face sharply, like a mother punishing her child for being rude.

“Henry, from now you are just another failed bum. Just like you always were, but now without the means to support yourself. Be glad that I do not have the inclination to punish you even more for your insolence to me.”

Valerie crossed her legs and wagged a toe at Henry. Her stilettos lay discarded on the plush carpet of the cruiser’s lounge close by her silk cased feet.

“I think that we can finish this little story in several ways Crystal,” she said. “We can just let him go and watch him being sucked down the plughole of life. He’s pretty useless at everything really so he will be living in a dumpster before the year is out. I have a second idea to add to that just in case you decide that Henry might just be a little too credible when he goes to the police.”

Valerie reached into her cleavage and pulled out a small box and opened it.

“Just imagine if he arrived with some cocaine dusted into his clothes and secreted on his person. I think that that would take the wind out of so many of the problems that could arise from his integrity as a witness,” said Valerie.

“There is of course the third way,” said Crystal, “where poor Henry is washed up on a beach in Florida, or better still in the Bahamas, with just enough remaining to identify the remains. How about it Henry? Liking it so far? We just want to plan your future for you; we just want the best for ourselves, after all!”

Henry looked at Crystal and then to Valerie and then hung his head. He knew that they wanted to humiliate him and destroy him. What they wanted as well, was to make him beg and plead with them.

It was in their power...

Valerie laughed, “So many choices, so many variations of those wonderful choices. They all have risks attached to them but I really think that between myself and my lawyer here we can bring them to such a low level that poor little Henry will be the only sufferer.”

Crystal put her hand on Henry’s head in a motherly fashion and said: “Of course it is our duty now to provide for Henry. I mean think of the moral side of the equation. We have impoverished him with our little scheme and it would be wrong of us not to ensure that he was well provided for!”

“What do you think?” asked Valerie of Henry. As she spoke she picked up one of her shoes and looked at it speculatively as if trying to resolve some thought that had occurred to her. “Tell us which choice you would make if you were us! You could be on the streets of Miami in four days, or perhaps with the police as you try to explain all the drugs that you are carrying as a mule. On the other hand the sharks need feeding and you would make good bait for fishing. Then there is the other option, we could care for you, specifically Crystal!”

Henry saw that he could not escape giving an answer. He looked up at Steve who seemed ready to cut his throat at any moment and toss him overboard.

“Please, Mrs Veryon,” he said as he addressed the lawyer that had robbed him of his patrimony. “Please, would you provide for me?”

Crystal felt a thrill of authority tingle her skin, it clenched her insides like a fist and made her feel like a divinity who was dispensing divine justice. Now she could exercise that power and make him beg, the little shit.

“Henry, of course, if that is your choice. I really feel that I could look after your future, that is if you show proper respect for Valerie and myself.”

For a moment he looked up at her face and saw her smiling at him. Not a pleasant smile, more like a victorious, self satisfied grin. He wondered what she meant by ‘respect’ and then Trudy entered his thoughts. Was that what they wanted, these two evil bitches?