Chapter 17 – Safe for the Night

Once outside in the back alley, a flat black Ducati 1199 was waiting for her.  Jimmy looked it over, obviously impressed at her choice of motorcycle. A short while after, Vito appeared in the doorway and watched her strap the bag over the tank. After putting on her helmet, she straddled the bike and sat in the seat and popping up the visor. She gave Vito a nod and started the engine. The bike roared to life with that distinctive Ducati exhaust note. She lifted the kickstand with her foot and stood with bike and a few seconds, before closing the visor. Revving the engine, she put it in gear and rolled away down the alley. The two men watched her stop at the end of the alley, then turn onto W 54th.

“Jimmy.” Vito said.
“Yea pop.” he replied.
“Call Ralph and Bobby C and tell them I need them.” he said, still looking down the alley.
“Sure pop.” he replied. “You think she's in trouble?”
“I don't know.” he said. “But I promised her dad I would look out for her.”
“Okay pop. I'll make the calls.” Jimmy said, as he walked past his dad and patted him on the back. Stopping at the door and turning back, he asked “Do we need to get someone to follow her and make sure she's okay?”
“Naw.” Vito replied. “Deborah could take on ten guys and drop them all like nothing. They trained her well.”
He stood in the alley for a few minutes, thinking about what could be going on. He was very well connected and knew she had been investigating the Bosati cases. Deborah never let on that she was undercover, not wanting to get him involved in anything. He knew she was NYPD, but what Deborah didn't know was he knew far more about her than she thought, thanks to her father,  and thanks his own underworld connections. Rubbing his face with his hand, he shook his head and said out loud “Jimmy, Jimmy. What have you gotten your little girl into?” He turned and walked in the door and shutting it behind him.

Deborah drove around for a little while, looking for a place to stay the night. Carlos had no idea what was going on. He could hear the engine and feel the bumps in the road through her body as she drove circled around blocks near Central Park south. It was abundantly clear that there was so much more to her than he ever could have ever imagined. He felt like a teenager again, enthralled with a college girl that was out of his league. She was protecting him, but he wondered what her motivation was and how long it would last. Now that he had been removed him from where ever Paige had been holding him, there was no doubt in his mind that she had just opened a can of worms that would bring a shit storm of trouble. “What have you gotten me into?” he said to himself.

Deborah turned into the Midtown Hilton and down into the parking garage. She drove around a bit, before parking the bike in an out of the way spot and shutting off the engine. Getting off the bike, she took off her helmet and looked around, making sure she wasn't followed. “We're almost there.” she spoke to Carlos through her jacket.

Un-clipping the bag on the tank and slinging over her left shoulder, she took the key out of the bike and made her way to the elevator and up to the hotel lobby.
“Good evening?” the young woman at the long reception desk said as Deborah approached. 
“Do you have a room available?” she asked.
“Do you have a reservation?” the young woman asked.
“No. I don't” Deborah replied. 
“Let's see.” she said as she clicked her mouse and stared at the monitor in front of her. Scanning the lobby, Deborah took mental notes of all the exits, the stairways and elevators.
“I only have a suite available.” she told her. “It's a cancellation. I can give you a discount, but the room charge will be $675 a night.”
“That's fine, put it on this.” Deborah said, sliding a credit card to the clerk.
She swiped the card and said “Welcome Miss Sherwin. Do you need help with any luggage?”
“No, I'm fine.” she replied. “Just the room is all I need.”
“Of course.” the clerk said as she slid the room keys to Deborah. “You're in 1521. You can take the elevator just past the stairs to your left. Enjoy your stay.”

Waiting for the elevator, she watched a brother and sister chasing each other around oval columns in the lobby. Their laughter brought her back to a time when she and her brother Robbie would do the exact same thing when ever their father would take them with him on a trip. “Ma'am?” she heard somebody say as her stare was broken. “Thank you.” she said to a bell hop standing beside her, motioning for her to enter the elevator. She rubbed a tear from her eye, still thinking about her and Robbie. She got out on the fifteenth floor and headed for her room. Unlocking the door, she looked down the hall on either side before entering the room and closing the door.

Taking a quick look around, she made sure the room was clear, then took off her back pack and jacket and put them down on the bed. She removed Carlos from the harness and placed him on the bed beside the back back, then took off the harness and dropped it to the floor. “I'm going to have to cut you out of that thing.” she said down to Carlos.
“Just be careful.” he said. He didn't know if he could ever trust her, but he just wanted to be able to move again.
“Don't worry, I'll be careful.” she said as she took out a knife from her back pack. She proceeded to carefully slice the hardened gel length wise, from top to bottom. She repeated slicing until she came close to his body. Prying it apart with her fingers, she tried to split it open and it finally gave way and separated. She gently pried him from the slightly moist gel and set him down on the bed. After seeing all the plastic ties around him, she shook her head and said “What has she done to you?”

Reaching back into the bag and took a pair of nail clippers. Slowly, and carefully, she snipped each tie, being careful not to hurt him. With the last tie cut, Carlos lay still, totally numb. He had been held motionless for what seemed like days, and couldn't move. Deborah gently caressed his legs with the tips of her fingers, trying to get the blood moving again. She used her thumbs and index fingers to gently knead each of his limbs. He started to get some feeling back as she lowered her lips to his chest and kissed him.

He raised his hands and said “Don't. Just let me be.”
She lifted her head and stared at him for a few seconds before saying “Listen sweetie, I know this all looks bad...but....”
He cut her off and said “Looks bad? Deborah, you have to tell me the truth. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but whatever it is, is much bigger than you're letting on. What have you gotten me into?”
She took a deep breath and looked down at him and said “Let's get you cleaned up and then we'll talk.”
He nodded, realizing that she was his only way out of whatever mess they were in.

Back at the fund raiser, Jennifer looked at her watch as she nervously tapped her foot on the floor. The keynote speech had been cancelled, and now, there seemed to be a flurry of activity with both the secret service and CIA agents. An agent spoke to Pete for a few minutes and then walked off.
“We're still trying to locate Mr. Wiley.” he told her. “Why don't you head home and I will let you know as soon as I have any more information.”
She shook her head, obviously distressed that she didn't know where he was. Wiley was trying to hear the conversation between the booms of her tapping foot, but it was nearly impossible. The feeling of utter helplessness was overwhelming him.

“Let someone take you home Jennifer.” Donna said. “There's nothing you can do here anyway. They'll find him.”
Reluctantly, she nodded and stood up. Pete grabbed an agent and told him to drive her to her condo. Within seconds, Wiley was again enduring her footsteps as she headed out the ballroom and down the stairs to a waiting car. A short ride to fifth avenue landed the car in front of her building. “Do you need me to accompany you upstairs ma'am?” the agent asked.
“No, that won't be necessary.” she said.
He opened her door and watched as she entered the lobby of the forty storey condo complex.

After the agonizingly long ride up the elevator, she got out and walked slowly to her door. Putting her key in the lock, she opened the door, walked in and closed it behind her and locked it. She turned around, bent down and undid the buckles on her sandals then slid them off her feet and tossed them on the floor. Wiley was so relieved that she had finally taken off her heels as she walked across the carpet into the living room in bare feet. The dull thuds of her bare soles on the carpet was so much easier to take. She took her phone and pressed he number, and put it to her ear. After hearing voice mail again, she ended the call. She looked at her text messages. Nothing. “Where are you Everett!”  she said out loud as she put her phone down on the table.

Wiley couldn't have felt more helpless. He was so close to Jennifer, but so far from being able to let her know what Paige had done. She poured a glass of wine and sat down on the sofa, lifting her legs and putting her feet up, crossed at the ankles. Wiley stared at the teal surface that stretched out skyward before him. Her toe rocked gently back and forth as she flexed them. He could see her second toe come into view and then disappear again as she continued to flex. The slow, gentle motion of her big toe made him feel so comfortable. It was at the exact moment that he realized the mistakes he had made with her. She was beautiful and sexy and he had let the CIA steal his marriage from him. Tears filled his eyes as his tiny lacquer prison rocked back and forth.

Jennifer sipped her wine, wondering if she had done something to cause him to leave. They didn't have the closest relationship, but she couldn't think of anything that would make him do something like this. “There's a perfectly good explanation, I'm sure of it.” she said to herself.

After a few minutes of thinking about it, she looked at her right root. She thought about the conversation with Donna, and wondered if he would even be interested in exploring something new, or if she would even be able to become more dominating. Tilting her head, she said out loud “Donna's right, I do have nice feet.”  Uncrossing her legs, she used her right big toe to caress the arch on her left foot. Wiley had a front row seat the view of her enormous bare foot as she slid the side of her toe up and down. Wiley screamed “Jenn!!!” as loud as he could, but he was so tiny, there was no chance she would hear his cries. He prepared for the worst as she slid her toe around the side of her left foot and ran it diagonally up and down the ball. For Wiley, the view was mind boggling. He was staring at the huge ridges of her skin as the slowly caressed the ball of her foot with tops of her toes. The sound of her rubbing her toe was incredibly loud and utterly terrifying. Wiley's only saving grace was her cuticle. He was so tiny, that what was a simple ridge of skin on her toe, was the only thing preventing him from being crushed like a tiny insect.

Her toe moved upwards and he was now staring into a the cavernous space underneath the toes of her left foot. She had long, straight toes, and he could see light peeping through the thin spaces between them. Suddenly, he was lifted skyward at what felt like a thousand miles and hour, then down like an elevator plummeting form the hundredth floor. Then another thud, with her enormous right foot stretching out above him for hundreds and hundreds of feet. The sensation to him was just incredible, but for Jennifer, she had simply crossed her legs at the ankles. Wiley saw her beautiful face at the end of the sofa, but she was so far away. Her long legs stretched out in front of him for what seemed to be miles. He knew she would never hear him, but he screamed her name over and over anyways.

He felt a lump in his throat as she turned her head and seemed to be listening for something. She was frowning, and moving her head forward as she listened. She could swear that she could hear screaming. It was barely audible, but it a was a high-pitched squeal. She leaned forward, uncrossing her legs. The sound seemed to be coming from the end of the sofa somewhere. She had a hard time narrowing in on it, but eventually, she focused on her feet. “I must be going crazy.” she said out loud.

She squinted as she focused her attention on her right big toe, where there was a darker area on her toenail just under the cuticle. Thinking for a minute, she reached over to the table and took her phone and placed the camera close to her toes and took a few pictures. Swiping with her fingers and zooming in, she looked closely at the dark area. It wasn't clear enough to make out what it was, but she could still hear the feint sounds. She got up and went into the bedroom to get her camera. Wiley was hoarse from screaming, but was sure that she might of seen him. He prayed that she had, as her bare feet thudded on the floor back to the sofa.

Sitting back down, she took her SLR camera and focused the telephoto lens on her toes. She snapped off several pictures, then zoomed with the camera's controls. She dropped the camera to the floor and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. The shock of seeing her miniscule husband stuck to her toenail made her feint. For Wiley, it was his salvation, but now, how on earth was she going to remove him without killing him?

He would have to wait for the agonizingly long minutes before Jennifer came to before he find out if she actually believed it was him, of just her mind playing tricks on her.

A short distance away on the Upper East Side, the lights went on in a condo on the 32nd floor of a building on 74th and 2nd. After a long day, Paige locked the door and headed to the living room. She took of her shoes and tossed them on the floor, then took the container containing Davidson from her shirt waistband. She opened it and dumped him out onto the coffee table. Looking down at him, she said coldly “You shouldn't have betrayed me Ed.”
“I didn't!” he screamed. “I was just protecting myself!”

Walking off, Paige headed to the kitchen and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. She returned to the living room and sat down on the sofa. Sipping her water, she stared down at him, not saying anything. After what seemed to be an eternity, he said “Listen.” She cut him off and said “No Ed. I think you need to listen. You're going to tell me what you were doing with my files and your going to tell me what you told Wiley.”
“You're just going to kill me anyway, so why should I?” he defiantly shouted.
Plopping her right foot up on the table and landing it with thud beside him, she let him get a good look at it's size before saying “I can crush you bit by bit, if that's the way you want to play it.”
“When they find Wiley.” he said. “They're going to be on to you.”
“Where you listening in the garage earlier?” she said, sliding her foot closer to him. “I glued him to his wife's toenail. I'll bet she's already squished him. He was only a few millimetres tall, so I don't think we'll be hearing from Wiley any time soon.”
“I know a lot more that you think I do.” he said, taking a step back. “I know things that can help you.”

She tilted her head as she slid her foot closer again. “Why should I believe you?” she asked. “You could know absolutely nothing and if I step on you right now, it wouldn't change a thing.”
“Can you afford to take that chance?” he told her, backing away from her towering bare foot.
Paige thought about what he said and a moment, then said “Alright. I'll bite, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. She removed her foot and reached down, pinching he head between her thumb and  index finger. She stood up, held him up to her face and said “I need some sleep, so tomorrow, you are going to tell me what you know.” She lowered him to the center of her dinner and released his head. He tumbled onto he surface and scrambled to his feet only to see a huge glass coming toward him. With a loud bang, he was sealed in. “Until tomorrow then.” she said, then walked off toward her bedroom.
Davidson sat down, thinking about what he was going to tell her in the morning.