Alex jumped back in shock.
"Lori?" Raymond rasped. His eyes fluttered open, not really tracking but clearly showing signs of life.
"Holy shit!"
Raymond gasped, winced, and looked around weakly. "Who... who are you? Oh, God, you have to help me. I can't get up. That bitch..."
Alex just looked at him in amazement. "You've been lying here like this since Monday?"
"What?" the other man croaked. "Look... I can't walk. You gotta call an ambulance for me."
Again, Lorelei stepped out of the walk-in closet. She was now dressed in designer jeans that looked painted onto her and a shimmering gray top under a matching blazer. Alex would have noticed how great she looked under almost any other circumstance. At the moment, though, he was simply too stunned.
Raymond's face twisted in an immediate rush of conflicting emotions. "Oh, God, Lori," he babbled. "Why did you... what..." Raymond babbled, then winced in pain. "Fuck, it hurts so bad. You hurt me so bad."
"I apologize, master," Lorelei said coolly to Alex. "I had thought this would be done by now."
"Master? What?" Raymond blinked. "Who the hell is this kid, Lori?"
"He is more of a man than you have ever been at any point in your misspent life."
"Have you been lying here since Monday night?" Alex said more firmly.
"Yes! Yeah, God," Raymond spat. "Something's wrong with my hips. Stuff feels broken, grinding. All I could reach was this water. Can't get to my phone. I called off the maid so Lori and I could... oh God. You gotta call me an ambulance." His voice was barely over a whisper. Desperation was the only thing giving him lucidity. "I thought I was going to die."
Lorelei turned to Alex and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Master, this is something I should finish," she told him gently. Alex and Raymond both realized that she already had a pillow in her hands. Neither of them had any illusions about what she meant to do with it.
"No," Raymond pleaded.
"Wait, wait," Alex said.
"It was his fate," Lorelei responded unemotionally.
"Stop. Stop for just a minute." He looked at Raymond, then at Lorelei and back again, trying to think. The shock of Raymond's sudden awakening and the seriousness in Lorelei's eyes had Alex unsettled, to say the least.
"Man, don't let her—"
"Shut up!" Alex snapped. He ran his hands through his hair, turning away with his eyes wide. Then he turned around to face them both. "Lorelei, what happens when he dies?"
She just shrugged. "His soul descends into Hell."
"No, I mean the money. All that money."
"As I said, we can claim it if you wish. I was uncertain how you would feel about it, given your personal standards."
"Huh, you're damn right I've got standards," Alex huffed. "No, I don't want it. That's fucked up. It's not mine. What's gonna happen to it when he's found dead?" Alex shifted his attention to Raymond. "How much do you have in the bank?"
"I can get twenty million easily," Raymond said. "You can have all of it, just call an ambulance and don't—"
"Shut the fuck up! Just answer the questions, alright?" Alex was agitated, more afraid than intimidating, but Raymond wasn't in any condition to sort that out. "You're a finance guy. You've got a will, right? Something? What happens to your money when you die?"
Raymond's lower lip quivered. He looked between the shaking youth and the deadly cold seductress standing over him. "I don't... I didn't really give a shit," he explained. "I've got a sister. My mom. I guess they'll get some after the state sorts it out."
Alex's jaw dropped. "You guess? You do finance for a living and you don't make out a will?! Jesus," he fumed. He looked at Lorelei, whose face was a very strange blend of pleading sympathy for Alex and stone cold resolve for Raymond. "And all your investors?" Alex pressed, fighting to calm himself. "You live it up 'til you die and they just stay fucked?"
For a moment, it looked as if Raymond might try to talk his way through this. His lips twisted, eyes glancing around frantically as he tried to come up with something clever to say.
"That's it, right?" Alex asked Lorelei. "He just dies and nothing gets fixed?"
"My purpose here was punishment for his crimes, not restitution. That is not in my—"
"Nature, right," Alex said, cutting her off. He tugged on his own hair again, looking back down at Raymond. "How many investors did you have in your scam?"
"It wasn't a scam, I just—"
Lorelei's hand shot out at Raymond's throat. She pulled him up just far enough to demonstrate that she could do much worse. Even that was agonizingly painful on his hips. "Do not lie to him, worm," she hissed fiercely. Then she let him go. Raymond collapsed back into the bed, overcome with fear of the raven-haired demon.
Alex took a deep breath, held it and released, then did it again. He had to think. "How many investors? You were smart enough to pull this shit off. You had to have been keeping track of this shit. How many accounts were there? You've got files, right?"
Raymond looked only at the intimidating woman towering over him. "I-I didn't... I was worried about being subpoenaed. Search warrants."
"So you didn't keep anything at all? Not even just in case you had to cop a deal later down the line?"
"Answer him," Lorelei ordered.
"It's in a safety deposit box under a false name," Raymond conceded. "The media played it up, but I did... I bilked about fourteen thousand investors out of everything."
"How much are you worth?"
Raymond blinked. "That's not an exact thing."
"I know. You're a rich fucker, I'm sure most of it's in stocks and stuff. Give me a conservative ballpark figure, and don't bullshit me. How much are you worth if it means buying your life? Selling everything off, whether it came from this scam or legit stuff." Alex had learned just enough in a couple of economics classes to learn that it was all very complicated, and that the rich didn't operate like normal people.
"I could... I don't know..." Raymond thought frantically. "I could work up between eighty and maybe ninety million depending on how things sold."
"You said you could do twenty easily. Someone with that kind of money could have way more of a house than this. Isn't that a lot in liquid cash?"
"Not for someone who wants to be ready to flee the country and live in comfort on short notice," Lorelei noted.
Alex put his face over his hands, trying to think past Raymond's whimpering and labored breathing. Eighty million dollars, fourteen thousand accounts... It didn't divide out to a whole lot in the end. Better than nothing, for sure, but there had to be more. "Where's the rest of it?"
"I'm dying here! I can't put together a PowerPoint right now."
"Humor me."
Raymond made an exasperated noise. "Some of it got put into big bonuses for people who helped me... a lot of it was corporate profits. I can't draw it all out here."
"But you could draw it all out for the Feds, right?"
"What?"
"You're going to turn yourself in, Ray," Alex growled, stepping closer to the bed. "When you get to the hospital, you're going to get on the phone with whoever you've got to and start selling off every fucking thing you own to give as much back to your investors as you possibly can, and if that's only a few grand for each of them that's still more than they've got now, right?
"And while you're doing that, you're going to call up the FBI and confess everything to them. You're going to connect all the dots and you're going to do your god damned best to make sure as much money as possible goes back to the people you fucked."
Lorelei watched without betraying emotion, but Alex wasn't looking at her. His eyes were fixed on Raymond, who was breathing heavier in both fear and hope. "You're going to call for help for me?"
"Yes," Alex said, "and you aren't going to say a god damn thing about us being here. Make up whatever shit you've got to, I don't care, but I'm going to read in the papers starting fucking tomorrow about your amazing change of heart. And if I don't, you're dead. Got me?"
Raymond nodded, weakly, and couldn't help but glance up nervously at Lorelei. "I have already done this to you," she said simply. "I can and will find you and end you in any way he wishes."
"Sure as hell won't be as fun as the way you almost died," Alex added. "Where's the phone?"
"It's in my pants," Raymond winced. The slight alleviation of his panic only left him more sensitive to his actual pain. "Please hurry. I've probably got an infection."
Alex grabbed the trousers at his feet and threw them onto the foot of the bed without thinking about it. There was a slick stain of... something along the front. He blinked.
"Master," Lorelei said, her voice showing her first visible emotion besides anger since she came into the room. Her expression had softened somewhat, altered by some mix of guilt, sympathy and perhaps embarrassment. "Let me do this."
"It's fine," Alex said, shaking his head. He checked the pockets and found the cell phone. "Do we have everything you need here? I don't want to flip out, but this shouldn't wait and I don't want anything from this piece of shit. Not his money, not his toys... nothing."
"I came primarily for what is in my purse. There is also a car in the garage that belongs to me. It was not purchased with his money. I believe you would approve if I explained," she added slowly.
"It's fine. Nothing else? Lots of incriminating clothes."
"They will never be traced to me, master."
Alex paused, nodded, and then stopped himself from touching the cell phone. He tossed the pants at Raymond. "Call for help yourself," he frowned. "I don't want to worry about fingerprints." He waited until Raymond dug out the phone on his own and dialed 911. "Let's get out of here," he told Lorelei.
Raymond dialed frantically. He watched as the hottest thing he'd ever scored in his charmed, ruthless life picked up a beat-up leather jacket from off the floor and obediently followed some holier-than-thou kid she called "master," of all things, out of his room and out of his life.
Everything below his navel radiated in five kinds of awful pain. He certainly hoped she was out of his life.
Five minutes later, Alex and Lorelei were up the street standing next to her parked car and his motorcycle. They watched as a fire truck and an ambulance arrived, firefighters rushing up the steps to get inside. Other than carrying out Alex's wish to stay and observe, neither had said much.
"Lorelei," Alex said, as the firefighters looked for a way into the house, "are you okay? I should've... I should've asked before now. I'm so sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for, master," Lorelei said. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She seemed lonely and cold.
"That doesn't sound like such a term of affection now," he observed quietly.
She looked at him, her face guilty and worried. "No," she protested, "I just -- if anyone should apologize, it is probably me. I should have told you what to expect. I regret that you were put through this. I should have..."
He waved it off. "I pushed you, and I didn't ask for an explanation. It's not your fault."
Her gaze fell to the pavement. "I might have volunteered the information."
"Why didn't you?" he asked, venturing to put a hand on her shoulder. She clutched at it without looking at him.
"Affection is... not an emotion I am accustomed to in all my life. Compassion is even more alien. I am not sure I recognize it in myself, or know how to follow it."
"You were made to punish people," Alex said.
"I was, I did. What you did in there I... I would not have thought of that. The victims were not my concern. I do not know if I feel appeased for this, or merely that I am satisfied that you are satisfied." She looked to him and shrugged. "You are a good person, Alex. I am not."
"Do you want to be?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I want to make you happy."
"What I want is to make you happy. As much as I can."
"I know, Alex," she nodded softly. They both heard the paramedic crew break out their gurney and start hustling it up the steps, which drew their attention for a moment. "You have done a very good thing here. All that I was interested in out of Raymond Cordingly was another soul bound for Hell."
He couldn't tell if that was a confession or simply an observation, but he squeezed her shoulder comfortingly anyway. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my God," he blinked. "Lorelei, is that -- is that going to be a problem? I mean did I just cheat some demon?"
"That would depend on your definitions of cheating and fairness," Lorelei said, her voice stronger with the shift in topic. "Hell would see it that way, certainly, but only because that would work to its advantage. The Hosts would think very differently."
"Yeah, but is someone going to come after us?"
Lorelei just shrugged, eliciting a groan from Alex in response. She turned to look at him. "Would that knowledge have changed your actions?"
"What do you mean?"
"Cordingly's victims will likely get some measure of their life's savings back. Other thieves who escaped scrutiny may now face punishment. Cordingly may even make good on his life with this second chance and find redemption. Unlikely, but possible. Nothing in my experience with you leads me to believe that you would have turned from the chance for all that because you might incur someone's displeasure, regardless of who or what they may be."
Alex thought about it for a moment, staring at the house without really looking at it. "I guess maybe you're right."
"I am," she said coolly. "You are a brave man, Alex. My feelings for you may be conflicted in many ways, but that is something about you that I adore without reservation."
He blushed uncontrollably, but resisted the urge to hide or turn away. It wasn't like she wouldn't guess how he felt, anyway. "Still," he frowned, "I should have thought of you before putting you in the middle of it if there is a problem."
"I would have done as you wished regardless."
"Lorelei. You're my friend. I don't want to do anything to hurt you or put you at risk. If I'm about to, you need to tell me. Okay?"
"As you wish," she smiled quietly. "Master."
He grinned back at her, blushing again and unable to help it. Alex looked her up and down. "You look really good in that outfit," he said.
"I am glad that it pleases you. There were clothes of a different sort in the house that may have also pleased you greatly, but I would just as soon burn everything that I wore for that man."
"Well, as long as we can replace it. You, um... appear to have a lot of money of your own." He glanced at the hardtop Lexus convertible behind them.
"What is mine is quite literally yours. If you are my friend, you will not be shy about that," she grinned. "I suggest that we take the car to go shopping rather than your motorcycle. There are side streets where we can park it where it will not be bothered."
"It's too bad it isn't warmer. Putting the top down might be fun."
Lorelei's grin shifted as stepped in closer to Alex and put a hand on his groin. "I can keep you warm easily enough, master," she smiled.