"You… you startled me," Pam said nervously. She was still crouching on the ground. Seeing Max staring intently down at her, she wondered for a moment what he was looking at, and then she remembered that she hadn't worn a bra under her halter-top that morning – the day was so warm – and he could undoubtedly see a lot more of her than she wanted him to.
Max thought the same thing as he stared hungrily down at Pam's half-naked breasts. The thin halter-top had fallen away from her body a little as she spun around, and at the moment he could see almost the whole of one large shapely breast. He wasn't sure, but thought his view extended right out to the edge on one pale-pink nipple. But the tantalizing glimpse of Pam's lush bosom was cut off as she quickly got to her feet, self-consciously pressing one hand to her breast.
What does he want here? she thought. Pam had never liked Max, and this was the first time she'd ever been alone with the big man, and she didn't like it, even if it was out there in the open.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Flaherty?" she asked, attempting to be polite.
"Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something in a few minutes," he answered.
What a fanny thing to say, Pam thought, a little on her guard. "How's your niece Anna?" she asked, looking for safe conversational subjects.
"Guess your old man hasn't had the guts to tell you, huh?"
"W-What?" Pam gasped out, trying to make sense out of Max's deliberately upsetting words.
"Oh, come on now. You don't expect me to believe you didn't know what was going on?"
"I-I… don't know what you mean," Pam stammered, wondering if this awful man's cryptic words were genuinely hinting at what they seemed to be hinting at.
"My niece… Anna! He fucked her the night of the office party!"
Pam started to speak but no sound came out for a moment. She didn't want to believe Max, but suddenly she knew why Jack had taken that shower when he came home from the party. "You… you get out of here!" she managed to gasp at Max. "Stop saying such horrible things."
"Oh, isn't that sweet," Max sneered. "The faithful wife, ready to believe in her hubby till the bitter end. Well, baby, I just came over here to give you a little advance warning before the shit hits the fan."
"What do you mean?" Pam asked, sensing the threat in Max's heavy voice.
"I mean I'm pissed off that your punk husband has been dipping it into Anna. She's my meat, and I'm gonna bust up his little game. When I get finished with him, he'll wish he'd been born a eunuch!"
"You're not going to…"
"Beat him up? Hell, no, I'm going to do a lot worse than that. I'm on my way down to see his boss and tell him what kind of a man he has working for him."
"No!" Pam cried, seizing his arm. "Y-You can't do that! It would mean his job!"
"That's just what I figure, baby. From what Anna tells me, that job is his whole life. Well, I'm going to take it away from him!"
"They'll never believe you at the office," Pam exclaimed. "I-I don't believe you myself."
"Oh, don't you, baby? Well, they'll believe me down there, because I got the whole damned thing down on film." He half-lifted a large thick envelope out of his pocket and then let it slide back down inside.
Pam's head was spinning dizzily. A few minutes before, she'd been happily tending her roses, and now her whole world was crashing down around her head. Jack? Anna? He's been unfaithful to me! the young housewife thought in agony. Almost as painful as Jack's betrayal was her disappointment in Anna. She had felt a genuine liking for the older woman, and had hoped they could become friends. That was hardly possible now. And what was that Max was saying? That he was going to ruin Jack at the office?
Pam tried to get her emotions back under control. Every wife has to face this possibility, she thought desperately. Jack had been unfaithful to her, that was bad enough, but it was something they might be able to hammer out together. But if Max carried through his threat and went to see J.B…
That would destroy Jack!
"Wait!" Pam said desperately as Max started to walk away, grinning triumphantly. "Please don't do it!"
"Not a chance, baby. I wanna get even, and these pictures are gonna do it for me."
"Wait!" she said again, thinking rapidly. "I-I'll give you a thousand dollars for those pictures." Max stopped abruptly.
"You serious?" he asked thoughtfully, turning around to stare at the distraught young blonde.
"Yes!" she said, with more determination this time. "I'll give you good money for them, if… they turn out to be what you say they are."
Max looked around carefully, as if afraid of being heard. "Well, now, little lady, maybe we might have something to talk about." He had a hard time not laughing at the look of sudden relief on Pam's innocent face. Oh, you simple little cunt! he thought to himself, but continued to play the game, looking around again as if he suspected that they were being observed. "Yeah, maybe we can do it," he growled, "but not out here."
"We'll go inside the house," Pam said quickly, and turned to lead the way, unable to see the look of sudden triumph on Max's heavy face. She opened the door, and when the big man had come in, she closed and locked it after them, having picked up some of his feigned nervousness. "All right, let me see them," she said firmly, holding out her hand.
Without a word, smiling, Max reached into his coat pocket and fished out the envelope, handing it to her. With trembling fingers, Pam opened the envelope and pulled out several glossy photographs. She gasped when she saw the first one.
It was Jack, naked! Anna knelt in front of him, her lips pressed obscenely to the tip of his rigidly erect penis!
She looked at another. Anna was sprawled lewdly in a chair, her legs hooked up over the arms, and Jack was approaching, his cock hard and enormous, heading straight for her wide-open genitals. In the next one, he had buried his huge cudgel part-way up inside Anna's vagina, and from the look of ecstasy on her face, she was enjoying it very much.
Pam felt suddenly sick. Unable to look at any more of the pictures, she let several of them fall to the floor from her nerveless fingers. Gathering her strength, she quickly bent to pick them up. "All right… I'll pay you for them. But I'll have to write you a check."
"Just as long as it doesn't bounce," Max said cheerfully, grabbing the photographs back.
Pam went into the other room to get her checkbook. She had already looked inside the envelope and was relieved to see that the negatives were included. She had heard of people who had paid for things like this – paid blackmail – and then had the negatives held back. She quickly wrote a check, realizing she'd have to beat Max to the bank so she could transfer some money from her savings to her checking account. It does pay to have money sometimes, she thought as she wrote the word "thousand" on the check.
Coming back into the living room, Pam handed the check to Max and then reached for the pictures.
"I don't know about all this," Max said, pulling the envelope back just out of her reach.
"I've paid you… give me the envelope!" Pam said, her voice becoming a little desperate.
"I-I just don't know," Max said. "This seems too much like, well… blackmail. Do you think this is right?"
"What kind of game are you playing?" Pam asked in desperation. "We made a deal. Give me those pictures!" She tried to grab the envelope from Max, but he easily held her off. My God he's strong! she found herself thinking.
"No… I just can't do it," Max said, tearing up the check in front of Pam's unbelieving eyes. With horror she watched the tiny pieces of colored paper drift to the carpet.
There goes Jack's future, she thought, knowing she didn't have the strength to get the photos away from Max by force. "Oh, please, don't use those pictures against my husband," she begged, thoroughly shaken.
"Well, maybe there's another way out," Max said solemnly.