Chapter 14

The night came and it was time for Ingrid to get on stage, she asked for an extra five minutes so that she could fix herself in the dressing room one last time. She put a little bit of foundation over the bruises around her neck, but they were hard to conceal. She put heavy make up around her cheeks and then looked at herself one last time. She wore black stockings, and a black lingerie bodysuit that had some lace on it.

She had curled her hair and made it fall on one both sides of her shoulders to hide the bruises.When she walked onto the stage, she reminded herself that she had to move elegantly, seductively, but with grace. She used her fingers and her waist to have the men's eyes glued to her. She swung on the pole and spread her legs to do splits.

She dared not to smile through it all, no man had noticed the sadness in her eyes, but they only felt the networks of lust that she was creating. She shut her eyes for a moment and wished that Giovanni would walk through the doors and save her from it all.

***

Giovanni made a last stop at the office to fill in some required information after dropping Ingrid off. Time was ticking and he couldn't wait to hear what James had to say. He drove to the Café and sat down outside to wait patiently for James.

"Well, you're here early, or am I late?" James said when he had finally arrived. "Well, it depends, for me, I was too anxious," Giovanni said.

James laughed a little and then sat down, he pulled out an envelope and removed a picture of a man with short curly brown hair, he looked like he was in his late 50s. "Robert Johns," James said, "He is the administrator, apparently, Carl wants to help with the case, he helped me re-open it, and he led me to this guy."

Giovanni stared at the image, "so I'm guessing that you plan on going to ask him to interrogate him about the will?" "Well, yes, but I'm not going alone, Carl is coming with me, as the investigator, it's his job," James said. James explained that Carl's interest in this case mostly came from the story he shared about Ingrid, he mentioned that Carl had quite the humanity left in him and he felt much remorse for having even laid his hands on Ingrid's supposed fortune.

"Well, I guess the good people still walk this earth," Giovanni said, "So, When do you plan to pay Mr. Robert a visit?" he asked. James said that he wanted to make the arrangement for it the next day just in case the will was a little far, he would be given the time to look for it, "But if he so much denies that he knows nothing, he might just be taken to the police station for intense questioning." Giovanni nodded his head, It was a good idea, "Please, let me know how everything goes." James said his goodbyes and left the café.

***

Ingrid's dance was over and she went back to her dressing room to cover up the bruises that had been exposed by her sweat. She looked at herself in the mirror as a tear rolled down her cheek, this was not what she wanted, Giovanni was right, this was no place for her. "Ginger, you will be needed in the VIP private room in 5 minutes," the man outside her door spoke.

She put herself together and started heading towards the door, her heart was aching, she was hoping that when she opened that door, the man that would be waiting on the bed for her would be Giovanni, but then, a part of her knew that it wasn't going to be him. She shut her eyes and walked in slowly, when she opened the door, the man with the cowboy hat stood up to greet her.

He walked towards her and took her by the hand, "How do you do, Ginger? Surprised to see me?" he asked, Ingrid did not respond, she thought that if all he was going to do was masturbate, then she didn't have to worry about anything, "Today, I paid about $800 to sleep with you, watching you dance set me off too high," he said.

Ingrid's eyes widened, she wanted to run, she wanted to negotiate, but she knew that if she declined all this, Clover would probably do worse than what he did before. She stood there, shocked, as he started to take off all his clothes. He looked up at her and found her stagnant, "Oh, you're worried? Don't worry, I'll be using a condom tonight, you may be pretty but I'm a cautious man," he chuckled. Ingrid didn't care, she just wanted to get this over and done with.

It seemed like the man could not take her hesitation, he grabbed her and started to undress her. He spread out her legs and started to penetrate his fingers into her. Ingrid was a bit sore so everything he did hurt to some extent, to make it worse, he wasn't even being gentle. She put her arms over her eyes and told herself that she was just going to lay there and do nothing.

The man took out his fingers and penetrated Ingrid himself, she covered her eyes even tighter as a few tears escaped her eyes. This man was so fast that he reached his climax in about five minutes. Ingrid almost thought that it was over, but she heard him opening another condom and snapping it onto his shaft after tossing the other one.

He went in again and Ingrid did not dare move a muscle, all she could do was wince at the pain she was feeling even when he fondled her breasts. He lasted a little longer this time but still reached his climax, Ingrid waited. She heard him snap another condom on, 'when will this end?' she thought.

Finally, the man had reached his climax and laid down on the other side of the bed. Ingrid heard him start snoring almost immediately. He must have exhausted himself too much for his age. Ingrid got up slowly, she put her clothes back on and began to tiptoe to the door. She opened the door slowly, with the hopes that the man that lay on the bed would only wake up after his time with her was officially over. She ran back to her dressing room and shut the door behind her.

She started to sob when she heard her phone vibrate in her purse, it was Giovanni. He sent her a text, asking her to let him know when she was on a break or done with the night so that he would spare the time to call her. She locked her phone and stared in the mirror, what was she going to tell Giovanni anyway?

After a long time of sitting in the room, Ingrid was drifting off into a deep sleep when her alarm went off, notifying her that work was over. She picked up her make-up cases, her purse, and placed them in her bag. She grabbed her coat and opened the door to find Clover standing, "Let's go home," he said. It looked like he was still mad at her for something she didn't do. She didn't want to talk about it at all, and so she chose to not talk about anything.

When they got home, Clover forcefully turned Ingrid around and demanded for the money. "Clover, I told you, he didn't give me anything, I have nothing, you have every penny that I make," Ingrid said as she started to cry. "Very well, from now on, for the next two weeks, you shall be doing pole dances, and I expect you to raise enough money from them, no negotiations!" he yelled. He pushed Ingrid out of his way and went upstairs. Ingrid turned around and started heading to her room.

Thinking about everything Clover had said, Ingrid thought about how exhausted she was going to be from the task that he had given her. Pole dancing demanded more muscle and grip than anything else she was doing. She thought about this all because she allowed Clover to see Giovanni. She was tired of crying, all she did was shut her eyes and fell asleep.

***

The morning came, Giovanni woke up with quite the excitement, he was getting to the bottom of things and he was going to save the lady that he was falling in love with. He woke up and took his usual bath. He got dressed up for work and headed into the kitchen. "Good morning, Mrs.Brown," he said with a kiss, "Oh, good morning dear, you look a bit jolly this morning," she said. He explained that James was getting closer to the information that was going to lead to Ingrid's salvation.

"Perhaps, I should ask her to be my girlfriend after I give her the news," he said, joyfully, "well, you know what I always say, If you love someone, tell them, no matter what, tell them," Mrs. Brown said. Giovanni nodded his head and checked his phone. He understood that Ingrid may have been tired because of the night and that's probably why she hadn't texted him.

He had some breakfast with Mrs. Brown and then went off to work. Giovanni had to have some one-on-one meetings with the employees just to encourage them on their working ethics. This went on from 10am to around 13am. When he was done, he laid back a little bit and decided to rest. Just then, his phone rang, he looked for it in excitement, hoping that it was Ingrid, but no....it was James.

"Hey, How's it going?" Giovanni asked. James told him that he sent him an address and he wanted him to find a way to be there as soon as possible. "We need a witness, just in case this guy chooses to bend some information, we need you to come over to Robert's house," he said. Giovanni agreed and grabbed his jacket.

He went to his car and used his GPS to find the place that James was waiting for him from. He got there in about half an hour and found that James had parked a small distance away from the house. When Giovanni exited his car, James and Carl started walking towards him, "this is the place, all we have to do is pray that he's home, let's go," Carl said.