ChapterThirteen
“Please, call me Greg,” he offered, some of the tension draining out of him. “I appreciate your candor, Ms. Cohen.”
“Do you really? I find it irritates most people,” she challenged.
She still felt comfortable enough to respond in kind. “But you can call me Beth.”
Greg chuckled. “On the contrary. Our aim is to make this a safe and happy place. We can’t do that without all the facts.”
“Okay then,” Beth said as she relaxed back in her chair.
“So, what can I do to improve your stay, Beth?” Greg asked with genuine consideration.
Beth laughed cheerlessly. “Well, I think that’s a bust,” she replied with a shake of her head. “The whole point of my trip was to play out the fantasy of having my own harem on Valentine’s Day. I think we can safely say that bird has flown.” With anyone else she would have been embarrassed to be so blunt, but the guy managed a kink club, for goodness’ sake.
“I’m sorry,” Greg murmured. “Please let me try to correct that before the end of your stay.”
Beth huffed out a breath and waved away the offer. “What I’d really like to know is how I got paired with those three in the first place,” she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “I mean they couldn’t have been more unsuited, even if they hadn’t been half drunk. I thought you had systems for this kind of thing.”
“And that, Beth, is a very good question,” Greg agreed, turning to the event planner who started nervously shifting from one foot to the other in her sensible navy pumps.
“What do you have to say about this Vivica?”
The girl wrung her hands together and bit her lip. “I’m an event planner, Sir,” she replied timidly. “I plan events and execute them, that’s all. The other stuff… Well, that’s not actually my job.”
Greg looked at her with narrowed eyes before reaching for a tablet on the table and tapping on it. “So that responsibility would lie with the events manager…” he paused and squinted at his screen. “…Helen Randolph. I’m not familiar with her. Where is she? I want her here now.”
Vivica wrung her hands some more and looked like she might burst into tears. “I - I’m afraid that’s not possible, Sir,” she whimpered. “She’s not here.”
Greg scowled and surged to his feet and Vivica stumbled backwards. “What do you mean, she’s not here?” he demanded. “I might not know the woman, but I know damn well all the event personnel contracts state the staff must be present for all scheduled events, regardless of where their down time falls. And I know they’re compensated very generously if that happens. So, I assume you mean she's elsewhere on the island. I know there are other events taking place this weekend.”
Vivica’s ears almost disappeared into her shoulders. “Um, I don’t think she is actually,” she squeaked.
Greg’s eyes bored into Vivica and Beth honestly thought she might fall onto her knees before him at any moment.
“Where is she then?” Greg barked.
Vivica flinched. “I don’t know. She objects to having her scheduled time off interrupted, too. But I’ve been doing the best I can, honestly I have.”
Beth got up from her chair. “Why don’t you sit down,” she said softly, guiding the trembling girl to the seat she’d just vacated.
She glanced at Greg, who sighed but followed her lead and produced a tissue when Vivica started to sniffle.
“I feel like there’s a story here that you need to be telling us,” Beth encouraged, even though this was really not her job. She felt sorry for the girl, who was obviously out of her depth.
Vivica kept her head down but shook it slightly. Beth got the impression she wasn’t going to disclose anything… until Greg intervened with his Dom voice.
“Vivica,” he said so sharply that the girl jumped. But it was like flipping on a switch. She was clearly submissive and if Beth wasn’t mistaken, someone had been taking advantage of that. And now Greg did the same, but with far more virtuous reasons. “Answer Ms. Cohen please. Her entire vacation has been ruined. I think you owe her that much at least, don’t you?”
It was exactly the intervention Vivica needed.
“M-Ms Randolph doesn’t approve of the club. She refuses to be involved in any of the events for Iniquity, so she leaves them to me and works on the Empyrean side. I do my best, Sir. Really, I do. But there are just some things that are beyond me and if it wasn’t for the guys who help me out…” she trailed off and screwed her eyes shut as if believing she’d said too much.
“Continue, Vivica. What guys?” Greg says the word softly, but the authority was still there.
“I don’t want to get them into trouble,” Vivica replied meekly, keeping her head bowed. “Ms. Randolph doesn’t allow the rest of the entertainment team to work on the club events. She says they’re immoral, and since I am immoral too, it’s my job to deal with them on my own. But I can’t handle it all. I'm sorry, I’m so sorry! But it’s a lot, so occasionally some of the other staff help.”
Her voice shriveled to barely more than a whisper. “But I can’t ask for too much help because they threatened to report Ms. Randolph, and then she’ll fire me. She already told me that. I - I don’t want to lose my job,” she finished on a sob. “I love it here.”