Ladies of Chance

Chapter 18

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t see that there was a hell of a lot to be said. It looked as though Cherry and Blattscomb would be having enough to say to fill in all the gaps.

I moved nearer Sandra and saw she was watching me with triumph or something else in her eyes. It was as though she wanted to look triumphant but couldn’t quite make the grade.

I heard the panel slide back outside and Cherry and the lawyer get out of the elevator. There was a slithery movement beyond the drapes; a voice, muffled and indistinct.

The drapes parted and the nude odalisque ushered Cherry and Blattscomb in.

Cherry’s eyes lingered on the girl, then went to me. Blattscomb kept looking at the girl until she dropped the drapes behind them.

Then he wet his lips and looked at Sandra. Then at me. I’d known all along that I didn’t like the man, but I hadn’t realized how much I didn’t like him.

My fist sounded good and felt good smashing into his face. There was just the smashing sound, then a little rustle as he crumpled to the floor in a heap.

I swung around to face Cherry with my fist still doubled. I heard Sandra say behind me: “You can’t get away with that. I’ll...”

I kept on spinning around and she was reaching for a button. I caught a white forearm that had muscles in it like a toe dancer’s leg. I dragged her off the lounge and pushed her away from the buttons. There were red marks on her arm when I let go.

I said: “You can call your wolves later. You’re going to listen to me first.”

She stood near Cherry, breathing hard. I had a hunch that being manhandled was a new thing in Sandra’s life. She wasn’t the kind to scream and she knew she couldn’t get past me to call for help.

Cherry had a funny, twisted smile on her face when I looked past Sandra to her. Fleetingly, it seemed to me I glimpsed approval in her eyes. Damned fleetingly. It vanished in an instant and she was all the way against me. She opened her mouth to speak but I beat her to the gun.

I put it straight to Sandra: “This shyster and girl are trying to horn in on your game. They’re burned up because I know too much about them to let them get to first base when I start running things for you. Without being on the inside, I can tell you they’re here to queer me.”

Sandra looked into my eyes a moment, then turned on Cherry: “Stormy said you insisted on seeing me personally to tell me something I should know about Barlow.”

The little smile came back to Cherry’s lips. This time, it was an acknowledgment of checkmate. Her eyes wandered to Blattscomb. He hadn’t moved nor uttered a sound since hitting the floor.

“My chief witness is indisposed.”

“Don’t quibble,” Sandra raged at her. “Tell your story and get out.”

Cherry’s head came up. Her eyes were level with Sandra’s. “Under the circumstances, I think I prefer to get out without telling my story and being called a liar.”

I laughed with as much mockery as I could put into a laugh. Neither of the women heard me. Sandra was all cat. Her eyes were green and it didn’t take a strong imagination to detect her back arching. “Tell me or I’ll slap it put of you.”

Cherry turned her back on her. Sandra made a movement forward and I got between them. “Let the dead bury its dead.”

Sandra tried to push me out of the way. I didn’t push. The arch went out of her back. She moved to the lounge and pressed a button. Cherry stood facing the drapes with her back toward us.

I heard the elevator stop outside, and a couple of huskies came in. Sandra said, “Take them away,” pointing at Blattscomb and Cherry. The two huskies took them away. Sandra rearranged herself on the lounge. She had changed back from an infuriated leopard to a purring house-cat.

“I like men who don’t cringe. So few don’t.” She patted the lounge by her side.

I said: “You’re going to like me more and more as you get to know me better.” I didn’t move toward her.

The long lashes came down over her eyes. “You’re not letting me get acquainted very fast.”

I grinned at her. “That’s because I know what you would do to a man who let himself go for you without having a lot of things understood first.”

She leaned back against the cushions. “You’re talking in riddles.”

“No, I’m not. Don’t play dumb, Sandra.”

She laughed at that. A low, gurgly laugh. The first perfectly natural sound I had heard her utter. For a moment she forgot to play up to the Sandra stage-setting. I went on in a hurry because I wanted to get it said and get the hell out of there:

“You want to get acquainted with a man on your own terms. In your house and under the pressure of knowing that a move that offends you will mean getting slapped in the face with a spade. Damn that. No woman has ever had me her way. It’s got to be fifty-fifty or I don’t play.”

She didn’t look at me. She was touching the red marks my fingers had left on her forearm. “You’re the queerest man I’ve ever met.”

“I’m probably the first man you ever met.”

She nodded, still without looking at me. “I’m beginning to wonder if you aren’t.”

That was my cue to get out — while she was still wondering. My only hope was that she would continue to wonder until her curiosity became so great she would be ready to come to me. If I could get her in my room with the dictograph open...

I turned away from her. “Suppose you take time to think things over. We’ll talk turkey whenever you’re ready to forget the way you’ve made asses out of every other man you’ve known. Send for the elevator so I can go down.”

I went through the drapes into the other room without giving her a chance to get in a last word. I didn’t know whether the elevator would come or not, but it did. I went down on it and Stormy took me out to the boat without asking any questions. They blindfolded me and took me back to Miami Beach.