“Let me see the number.”
Berman handed her the contract.
“That’s more like it. Now come here.”
He walked toward her, and she pushed him back down into the club chair.
“Where do you keep your toys?”
“My toys?”
“You know what I mean. A man like you in this big house.”
“In the bedroom. In the cupboard on the right next to the bed.”
“Stay here.”
Pia killed the lights in the living room and went up to Berman’s bedroom. She found the cupboard and, indeed, as she suspected, it was full of sex toys, masks, and a coil of nylon rope and a lot of things she didn’t recognize. She worked quickly before she lost her nerve. She found a blindfold and some handcuffs and took the rope, not exactly sure what she was going to do. Then she struggled out of her jeans and shirt, leaving on her panties and bra. She gathered up the sex paraphernalia along with her clothes and returned downstairs.
Berman’s eyes opened wide when he saw her near nakedness and the booty from the cupboard in her free arm. “Don’t you move!” Pia ordered as she dumped everything onto the couch except the rope.
“I haven’t. What are you going to do to me?” Berman was good at role playing. He was transfixed by her activity and body, watching her every move.
“You’ll see,” she said. She stepped behind him, told him to lean forward, and to put his hands behind his back. He complied, trying to catch sight of her over his shoulder. With some difficulty with her cast, Pia managed to tie his hands, but not too well. She wanted him to be able to free himself but only after some effort. She then returned to face him and pushed him back into the chair. “I said you’ll see. But I was lying.” Pia slipped the blindfold over Berman’s head. She then popped all the snaps on the front of Berman’s shirt, exposing his chest and his admirably flat abdomen. “Is this what you like?” She ran her hand down the contours in front of him stopping at his belt. She gave his belt a tug.
Berman groaned and shifted in his seat.
“What I’m trying to do here,” Pia explained, “is give you a good premonition of what it is going to be like when I fully recover. I told you I have broken bones, so unfortunately we’ll have to wait for the real thing, won’t we.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t want to wait!”
Pia got the camera and, standing directly in front of Berman, made sure it was in focus. She then reached out, pulled off the blindfold, and snapped a rapid series of photos of his face with his eyes thrown completely open in surprise.
“What the hell!” he shouted.
“Perfect,” Pia said. “These will go well with my wildflowers.”
“I told you I don’t like having my picture taken,” he said.
“You said you didn’t like cameras,” Pia corrected him. Quickly she replaced the blindfold before Berman knew what was happening. He shook his head violently in an attempt to get rid of it.
“Hey. Take this thing off!”
“Sorry,” Pia said. She took another picture of Berman with the blindfold in place, and then quickly retrieved her clothes and the camera lens cover.
“What are you doing now?” Berman demanded as he struggled to free his hands.
“You have to wait for next time. I want to be fully healthy. And in case you are interested, I wanted to have a few photos in my possession just so you don’t hold all the cards, Mr. Berman. I assure you that they are for my use only.”
Berman struggled to his feet and then buried his head in the chair in an attempt to dislodge the blindfold.
Pia grabbed the contract from the table and ran to the front door, carrying her clothes. She didn’t want to be there when Berman got himself free. Nor did she bother to put on her clothes when she got down to her car, not wanting to take the time. She didn’t know if Berman could remotely keep the gate closed at the base of his driveway, but she assumed so and didn’t want to take the chance of being caught on his grounds. When the gate opened as she approached it, she felt a great sense of relief. As she drove away on the county road, she suspected there would be some consequences to what she’d done, but at least she had the photos.
CHAPTER 42
The first thing Pia did when she got home was take a quick shower to get Berman’s scent off of her. Then she uploaded the pictures from the camera onto her computer and found that the shot of Berman could not have been any better. With the shock of the blindfold coming off and the flash of the camera, his eyes were fully open. Pia could see white sclera all 360 degrees around the iris. And the focus was so sharp it practically looked three dimensional. It was a better picture than the one of her own eyes, and that had worked well.
As she had done with her own photo, Pia enlarged the eyes to life size, then transferred the image to her iPhone. She worked fast, maintaining the intensity that had a hold on her since she ran out of Berman’s house. She’d never bothered to dress even when she pulled up to her apartment in her complex. No one was around at the time, as it was almost midnight, and she just ran in, carrying the camera and her clothes.
She hadn’t stopped moving since. Now she prepared to go to Nano immediately. She found her lab coat where it had been hanging for over six weeks and her ID, then tied her hair back in a ponytail before returning to her car. On the way to Nano, she ran down a checklist in her head. She knew she needed a lot of luck if it all was to work, and the closer she got, the more nervous she became. The confidence she’d felt back at her apartment melted away. The only thing in her favor was her familiarity with the graveyard-shift security staff from having interacted with them so often, probably more than anyone else on the scientific staff, coming in as often as she did on off hours. She was betting on the fact that they hadn’t seen her in over a month wouldn’t arouse any suspicions. In the past there had often been equivalent intervals. Still, the closer she got the more nervous she became. There were lots of reasons why what she was about to attempt might not work.
By the time Pia pulled up to the gate, she was shaking. She bit her lip as she handed over her ID to the guard. To Pia’s delight, the man merely glanced at it before handing it back. He touched the peak of his hat in a kind of salute before saying “Evening, madam” and raising the gate.
Getting through the gate as easy as she did buoyed Pia’s spirits, even though what was ahead was going to be more of a test. At the same time she was reasonably certain she would recognize at least one of the security people, and he would recognize her. She had frequently chatted with the guards when she was leaving and they often teased her about being so committed. She hoped that familiarity would mean they wouldn’t watch her too closely.
Pia parked and walked as confidently as she could to the entrance. Two guards were on duty. One, Russ, she recognized, but the other was a much younger man she didn’t know. She guessed he was new.
“Hello, Dr. Grazdani, long time no see,” said Russ. “Sorry to hear about your accident.”
“Yes, hi, Russ. I’m back.” Pia groaned inwardly.
Russ had been on duty when Pia had gained entry using the picture of her own eyes. Pia looked over at the reception desk, and was relieved to see that no one was sitting by the computer. Pia worried that a guard stationed there might see that the system was admitting Zachary Berman, CEO, and not this woman no one had seen for more than a month. But if she couldn’t get in, it didn’t matter who was sitting where. Pia switched her attention to Russ, but he was back talking to his youthful colleague and paying her no mind.
Pia whipped out the cell phone and without looking back placed the image of Berman’s eyes in front of her own. There was a reassuring beep. A green light flashed. It worked the first time. Pia swung open the glass door and was about to march through.