“Man, you look good to me,” Dink said.

“I meant to. I’ve been so horny I couldn’t stand it.” She took him in her mouth and got him started, then pulled him on top of her.

HALF AN HOUR later they lay together, catching their breath. “Are you going to the city anytime soon?” Dink asked.

“I can if you like,” she said. “I can go directly from here and stay at our apartment tonight. The folks will be away for the weekend.”

He wrote down a name and number for her and gave her the slip of paper. “This is the lawyer who Dad got to put me in here. I want you to call him and get together with him. Tell him how well I’m doing and how grateful you are to him for helping me and tell him I’m grateful, too. Then fuck him.”

“Am I going to enjoy this?” she asked.

“He’s a decent-looking guy, about thirty, dresses well, smart.”

“Okay, then I’ll fuck him. What then?”

“See him a couple of times. Get him hooked on you, because I’ve got plans for him. I’ll tell you more later.”

“I’d better enjoy this,” she said.

“Sweetheart, you enjoy sex more than any girl I’ve ever known.”

“You have a point there,” she said.

“You’d better get dressed and get out of here. Try not to be noticed until you’re back at the main lounge. If anybody asks about me, say that I went back to my room for a nap.”

“Okay, baby,” she said, planting a big kiss on him. She slipped the dress over her head, zipped it, fluffed her hair, picked up her bag, and was gone.

Dink hid his new cell phone, then fell asleep.

29

HERBIE FINISHED UP his meeting with the franchise group and asked to see a copy of their presentation before his new client did. Cookie buzzed him.

“Allison on line one,” she said. Allison was Stone’s Woodman & Weld associate who worked out of his house. He had been seeing her for the better part of a year.

“Hey, there,” Herbie said.

“Hey. Where are we having dinner tonight?”

“The Park Avenue Café all right?”

“That’s fine. I can’t be there before eight,” she said.

“Eight is good. You want me to pick you up?”

“No, I’ll meet you.” She said goodbye and hung up.

That was unusual, Herbie thought. Allison liked being called for. Cookie buzzed again. “Mike Freeman on one.”

“Good morning, Mike.”

“Good morning, Herb. I’m going downtown to take a look at the work my people are doing on the High Cotton Ideas building. Would you like to come along?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ve got time for that. I haven’t seen it since the work began.”

“I’ll pick you up in front of your building in fifteen minutes, then.”

“I’ll be there.”

Bobby Bentley knocked on the door. He had been at the franchise meeting and had asked some good questions Herbie hadn’t thought of.