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Bobby thought. Get you in the sack and bang the crap outta you. Yeah, sure, you can certainly trust him to do that.
Later, Tree returned with the check. Bobby threw down his credit card, and a few minutes later, Tree came back with the receipt for him to sign.
“Isn’t it awful about Gemma Summer,” she remarked, deciding they were now friends, and it was perfectly okay to make conversation with these guys. As a matter of fact she was beginning to think that she might have picked the wrong one to flirt with. The black dude with the big brown eyes and sexy shaved head was certainly cute. And the other one was a total babe.
“They’re saying that Ralph Maestro might’ve done it,” she continued. “What do you think?”
“Might’ve done what?” Bobby asked, just about to sign the check after adding a more than generous tip.
“Shot his wife in the face,” Tree said, keeping an eye out for the manager, a man who didn’t approve of his waitresses lingering at tables.
“ Whaat! ” M.J. exclaimed.
“Are you saying Gemma Summer got shot?” Bobby asked, shocked to hear the news. “How do you know this?”
“’Cause it’s everywhere,” Tree said, surprised that they hadn’t heard about a newsworthy event like a famous movie star getting shot in her own bed. “It’s on TV, the internet – it’s every place.”
“Holy shit!” Bobby said. “We’d better go find Frankie right now. He needs to get back to Annabelle pronto.”
“Who’s Annabelle?” Tree asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bobby said, hurriedly scribbling his signature on the bill and jumping to his feet. “We gotta go.”
“So you think it’s okay if I hook up with your friend?” Tree inquired hopefully.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” M.J. said, sliding out of the booth. “Gotta strong hunch he’s not gonna show.”
And with that, the two of them took off, leaving a somewhat bemused waitress full of hopes and dreams that were certainly not reaching fruition any time soon.
Chapter Nine
Annabelle
C lutching her coat around her to conceal her ripped dress, Annabelle finally managed to leave the hotel suite where Omar Rani – if that was indeed his name – had kept her captive for the last two hours. What had happened to her was unthinkable. She’d been more or less raped and brutalized, treated like an object to be used for one man’s pleasure. Omar had been more than rough with her, exhibiting no respect at all. As far as he was concerned, she was bought and paid for, which in his eyes allowed him to do anything he wanted. Her pleas of, “Stop! No! This isn’t going to happen!” affected him not one bit. She’d struggled, but to no avail. He was relentless. The bastard had treated her like a cheap street whore.
With shaking hands she retrieved from her purse the cell phone she only used when going on an “appointment”, and speed-dialed Chip.
“I’m coming out now,” she said, stepping into the elevator. “Are you outside?”
“The friggin’ doorman moved me on,” Chip complained in his usual whiney voice. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be more than half an hour.”
“Never mind what I said,” she hissed as the elevator made a fast descent. “Get here now !”
The elevator doors opened and she stepped out into the grand lobby, hoping and praying that she would not run into anyone she knew.
She stood still for a moment, shuddering at the memory of Omar’s sweaty hands all over her body, invading her most private places, fondling and handling her as if she was a piece of meat.
Well, screw the fat bastard. There was no way she was allowing him to get away with it. Wait until Sharif Rani heard what had taken place, then the shit would really fly.
Outside the hotel there was no Chip to be seen. Swearing under her breath she had the doorman hail her a cab.
Chip pulled up in the Mercedes just as she was about to enter the cab. For a moment she hesitated, trying to decide whether to stick with
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