It took all three of us to get the two out of the hideout. They had tried
coercing the guys to listen to them, to get them to make me let them stay.
Oddly enough, Benny and Trigger wanted nothing to do with Nina and Diedre.
They were more than willing to help kick the two out. I warned them that
they were not to show up here again, or alert any law enforcement, including
Batman to this particular hideout. If they did, they would find themselves
knocked out, trussed up, and sailing out of Gotham on the first cargo ship
I could find.
Once they were gone, the two helped me start cleaning up. Both offered to
call their sisters and have them come over. I knew that Trigger's sister,
Sarah, ran a small cleaning company, and after a quick call, she agreed
to come over, bringing her van, and Benny's two sisters, along with a couple
cousins. Why the two were being so helpful in getting the place cleaned
up, I wasn't certain. They had never cared if the place was neat, only caring
if there was food in the fridge.
When their families arrived to help, I went back to take a look at the bedroom
and my study. Both were in shambles. Thankfully my desk was in one piece,
and the safe unopened. After the last time those two had robbed me blind,
I had engineered my own safeties and installed them on the safe. From the
looks, however, they had tried everything short of blowing the safe open
to get to the contents.
The bedroom was another matter. They had slashed the mattress open, and
shredded the bedding. Both my clothing and Dee's lay strewn about the room.
I cringed when I noticed evidence that the girls had not spent the entire
time here alone. After getting a trash bag, and a pair of gloves, I started
to clean up in there.
A couple hours of cleaning, and I had the room respectfully clean. New furniture
would need to be ordered, but that could wait. I had more important things
to do, and I needed someplace quiet to think about what had happened. I
decided to go down to the Iceberg to have a drink and do my thinking. Leaving
the place in good hands, and giving the men a couple thousand to buy any
paint or cleaning supplies they'd need, I left to catch a taxi.
"The usual, my good man," I said, settling myself in one of the barstools.
"Everything ok, Mr. Nigma?" the bartender asked.
"Peachy," I replied, sipping the liquor.
"Eddie, what are you doing here?" a voice asked.
I turned to see Pamela Isley walking toward me. She looked rather disheveled.
"Hello, Pam. That's a nice black eye you've got there. Where in the world
did you get it?"
She gave a mirthless snort of laughter. "Your girlfriend. She came to see
me at the park just as I was heading out to dinner. Brought her here and..."
"Dee's here? Where is she?" I asked, looking around. Perhaps this whole
misunderstanding could be worked out tonight.
But Pam shook her head, waving her hand impatiently. "She's gone. Got herself
good and drunk on your scotch, which she broke, by the way."
I didn't care. Sure, it was an expensive bottle, but I was more worried
about her. "She got drunk?" That didn't sound like her. "You sure it was
Dee?"
"Positive. She told me what happened. Not very smart, Eddie. Did you leave
your brains in Europe?"
I just glared at her. She had no right to insult my intelligence, especially
since she didn't know the whole story. Even Dee didn't know the whole story.
"So what made her hit you?" Not that I blame her, I added to myself.
"Oh, I told her about us, Doris, Clurissa, those girls you hired..."
I spat my scotch out. "You what?! Have you completely lost your mind? Have
you been sniffing the fertilizer, you idiot?"
Grabbing her by the arm, and making damn certain that I had her by a part
covered with fabric, I dragged her out of the Iceberg. As an added bonus,
I made certain the hold I had was somewhat painful to her.
"God damnit, Pam! What the hell were you thinking telling her about that?
She didn't need to know that, and I never planned on telling her that! And
it wasn't like I actually wanted to sleep with you. Not only that, but the
whole thing with you is just an embarrassment to me! She didn't need to know
about any of what you told her! You and I both know that Clurissa was one
of Harvey's great mistakes, and that nothing happened!"
"You have it all wrong, Edward. Sleeping with you is the embarrassment,"
she said coldly.
"I'll bet you never mentioned what you did to me that night to Harvey, did
you?" I asked, giving her a shake.
"Harvey wouldn't care."
"Bullshit, Pam. You know he would and that he'd come after me if his coin
told him to do so. I'm certain in your telling you would leave out how you
dosed me up with those damned pheromones of yours. I do believe that that
is the equivalent to rape. That's all you are when you do that to a man;
a rapist." With a shove, I released her, sending her stumbling back a couple
of paces. "Where is she now?"
"I have no idea. I took her out to my car, planning on taking her home so
she could sleep the scotch off. But instead, she punched me and took off!"
"Good. That's the least of what you deserve for your interference tonight."
I turned and walked away, leaving her fuming. Why in the world would she
ever go and do something like telling Dee about those others? Dee certainly
knew she had not been my first, but I had been her first. That meant more
to me than all the others put together. Telling her of the others I had
been with had never been in my plans. If she had asked, I would have told
her. The fact that she hadn't let me know that she didn't want to know.
A couple blocks from the Iceberg, I hailed a cab, asking to be dropped off
at Robinson Park. If Dee had gone over in my car, and then gone to the Iceberg
with Pam, she would need to go back to the car at some point. With luck,
I would catch her at the car.
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