Stalker Problems - Chapter 46 - The Secret Door
I jumped up and stared into the gaping hole in my wall where my bookshelf used to be.
All I could see was darkness. What the hell was in there?
I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Had the previous owner of this apartment had a secret room for his murder victims?
Or a creepy way to spy on the neighbors?
“Did you seriously get a secret bookshelf door and not tell me about it?” asked Madison. “I thought we’d promised each other that if we ever got one, we’d both install them at the same time.”
“I didn’t know I had a secret bookshelf door until about three seconds ago,” I said. Oh. It’s new! Of course! I took a deep breath. This had to be Tanner’s doing. There weren’t going to be any bodies cut up in little pieces in there. Hopefully.
Madison eyed me suspiciously. “If there’s a Hogwarts-themed reading nook on the other side of that door I’m gonna lose my shit.”
“If there is, then we have Tanner to thank for it. This must be the surprise he mentioned earlier.” I peered into the dark space. “The only question is…what kind of surprise?”
“Probably your neighbor’s apartment” suggested Liz. “You know…because that’s how walls and apartment buildings work.”
Fuck you, Liz. “Yeah, that’s probably it. And since you solved the mystery, you get to go in first.”
Liz gave me a look. “Thanks, but I’d rather not go into the dark scary room. This is a classic sloshing-lure if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Sloshing-lure?” I regretted asking as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
“You know,” said Liz. “When your neighbor keeps trying to get you to watch them going at each other on top of baked goods - cakes, puddings…the sloshier the better - and you keep saying no. So they find a way to lure you over, and the second you step foot in their depraved sex dungeon… BOOM. The lights go on and you see them naked and covered in food.”
What the hell? “Is that seriously a thing?”
“Walk through the door and find out.”
“Uh, no thanks.”
“I’ll go in,” said Chastity.
“Really?” I asked.
“Sure. I mean…so far Tanner has given you two big surprises. First he took you to a museum where you got to suck on Dr. Lyons’ beautiful cock.
And then he took you to a Finnish sauna and offered you up to all sorts of Nordic hotties.
If those are any indication, then I’d guess that this surprise is going to involve dicks.
Lots and lots of dicks. I think it’s going to be a first-come-first-served situation. ”
“I’m leaving,” said Madison.
“Wait!” I said. “How about we all go in together. The four of us could totally fight off a bunch of naked dudes.”
Madison pulled some pepper spray out of her purse. “Let’s do this.”
We counted to three and then all charged in. The lights flicked on as soon as we stepped over the threshold.
“Holy shit,” I muttered. It was like I’d stepped into an Odegaard boutique. There were mirrors and mannequins and racks of clothes everywhere. And shoes. So. Many. Shoes.
“This is the coolest closet I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Chastity.
“You call this a closet?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure it’s like twice as big as my apartment.”
“And it’s two stories,” added Madison, pointing to a spiral staircase.
I pinched my arm. Was this real life? “How did Tanner do this?” I asked.
“Probably hired some contractors,” said Liz.
“Right. I know he didn’t do it all by himself. I was more talking about how he did this without me noticing. You’d think I would have heard or seen the construction people. Especially when they cut a hole in my wall to make the secret entrance.”
No one responded. They’d all gotten distracted.
Chastity was holding up clothes and desperately trying to fit her feet into some of the shoes.
Liz was getting ready for a nap on one of the plush blue couches.
And Madison was jumping around corners getting ready to pepper spray hidden sexual predators. She didn’t find any.
“I’m always excited about Single Girl Rules,” said Chastity. “But I’ve never been more excited to quote Single Girl Rule #18: Clothes are shared amongst friends. Owner gets first choice.” She lifted up a very skimpy dress. “You lucky bitch.”
I laughed.
“Hey,” said Chastity, abandoning the dress. “There’s a note over here.” She waved a piece of paper around.
“What does it say?” I asked.
“I figured you needed a little extra room for your Odegaards,” she read. “Hope you like it.” She tossed me the note and shook her head. “Does Tanner have a brother? Please tell me he does. I would do anything to get a closet like this.”
“Tanner really is the best. First Spaceboy, and now this.” How did I get so lucky?
Seriously. I knew he was a billionaire. But it still took a ton of thought and planning to surprise me with the coolest freaking closet in the history of closets.
The fact that the entrance was a secret bookshelf just made it all that much better.
“Spaceboy?” asked Chastity.
“Yeah. At the launch party.”
“WHAT?!”
“Oh my God! I can’t believe I forgot to tell you. I was going to, but I wanted to do it in person. And then the whole thing with Joe happened. And then this closet…”
“Wait. Hold everything. Are you seriously telling me that Tanner got Spaceboy to play at our launch party for Wineflix and Chill?”
“Yup.”
“OH MY GOD!!!!” yelled Chastity. I had never seen her so excited. “I’m gonna get to bang Spaceboy!”
“DJ Spaceboy?” I asked. “Or his dancers too?”
“Um, all three of them can do whatever they want to me.”
“Ew,” said Madison. She’d apparently completed her perimeter check for perverts. “They probably have AIDS, you know. By the way, this closet is even bigger than we thought. There’s actually three stories.”
“Three? Are you serious?”
“Yup. Did you really not see anyone build this place? That seems almost impossible.”
“Vampire magic!” said Chastity. “I just wish we could have caught it on tape. Wait…did you ever set up that webcam I sent you when I was trying to convince you to be a camgirl a few months ago?”
“I did not.”
“Damn.” Chastity plopped down on one of the many couches. “We were so close to learning all his secrets.”
“Were we?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure all the video would have showed us was what construction company he’d hired. What we really need is a camera in his apartment. Or his office.”
“Ash! You’re a genius!”
“I am?”
“Yeah. Bugging his office is brilliant. Best case scenario he’ll just let his secret slip during a private phone call. Worst case scenario, he’ll give us enough hints to find Club Onyx, and then we go there and learn all his secrets the old-fashioned way.”
I laughed. Or he gets us fired. “Of course. How did we not think of that sooner? Especially since bugging an office is so easy. Let me just call my contact at the CIA and get a few pointers.”
Chastity rolled her eyes. “I’m serious. It’s not that hard to bug an office. I know Dexter has some equipment we could use.”
“The IT guy that tricked you into getting naked during a game of D&D?”
“That’s the one.” She pulled out her phone and texted him. He responded almost immediately. “Okay, he’s in.”
“Just like that?”
“Yeah. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist a good blowjob.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind,” said Chastity. “He actually has a pretty nice dick. And I don’t know what his secret is, but his cum makes my skin so soft. Anyway…my job is easy. You’re gonna be the one doing all the hard work tomorrow.”
I had a lot of questions about that cum comment. But I was a little more preoccupied with what she was going to make me do. And whether or not my skin was about to be soft too. “All the hard work?” I asked. “What exactly is your plan here?”
“I’m not sure yet. Depends on the tech Dexter has available. But I do know one thing…”
“Which is?”
“One sec.” Chastity disappeared among the racks of clothes. When she reemerged, she was holding surprisingly classy work clothes. “You’ll need to wear this tomorrow.”
“Okay…”
“And this underneath.” She let the work clothes slide off her arms to reveal a hanger with some strappy blue lingerie.
“Why exactly will I need to wear that?”
“You’ll see.”
***
“Did you get the tech?” I asked as Chastity and I walked into Tanner’s office building on Monday morning.
“I did. Dexter was happy to help.”
“I bet he was.”
“Are you wearing what I told you to?” Chastity pulled on my blouse to look down my shirt. “What the hell? Where’s the blue lingerie I picked out?” The other people waiting for the elevator pretended not to hear that.
“I thought you were joking.” I didn’t really. But I wasn’t prepared to seduce Tanner in the middle of the office. Or to do a striptease in the middle of our cubicles. Or whatever crazy thing Chastity had planned.
“Eh, no big deal. The plan might work better without it.” She stepped onto the elevator.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t believe her. But I didn’t press for details until we were safely at our cubicle.
Chastity pulled a tiny little USB drive out of her purse and put it on our desk. “So this is the bug.”
“Is it a microphone? Or camera?” I turned it over in my hands. “Are you sure Dexter didn’t just give you the USB for a wireless mouse?”
“Dexter wouldn’t dare screw me over. Especially after the things I did to him last night.”
“Please don’t elaborate.”
“Wanna see?”
“No. I don’t need to see what you two did behind closed doors.”
She stared at me for a second and then laughed.
“Wow, not at all what I was offering. Although I’m happy to give you tips any time.
All I’m going to say about last night is that he successfully invoked Single Girl Rule #27: If he makes you come, he can cum anywhere he wants.
” She winked at me. “But really I was asking if you wanted to see how the tech works?”
Where had he cum on her? And I thought it was just a blowjob? What had she been up to? I just nodded.
Chastity took her phone out and put it on the desk a few inches away from the bug. At first, nothing happened. Then part of the bug started unfolding until it had 8 little legs. It scurried over to her phone and attached itself to the charger plug at the bottom.
“Jesus!” I said, nearly falling out of my chair. “What the hell is this creepy thing?”
“What did you expect from something called a bug?”
“I don’t know. Like a little microphone that just sticks to the bottom of a desk. Or a camera that you put in a stuffed bear.”
“That’s a nanny cam. Why would I blow Dexter to get one of those when I could just order it on Amazon?”
“Because you love sucking dick?” And it really seemed like they’d done more than that…
“Hmm…fair point. Anyway, this tech is a million times better than a microphone or a nanny cam. Because not only will we be able to hear Tanner’s conversation in his office, we’ll be able to hear them everywhere. And track his movement. And see all of the files on his phone.”
“Are you serious?”
“Mhm.” She slipped me a piece of paper with a URL, username, and password.
I followed the instructions on my laptop. Sure enough, an interface popped up that showed the home screen of a phone. I clicked on the gallery to make sure it was Chastity’s. Which was a mistake, because about 75% of her photos were naked mirror selfies. I quickly exed out.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” asked Chastity.
“I mean…it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. But yeah, you keep it tight.”
“Thank you. But I was talking about the tech.”
“Oh right.” Awkward. “Yeah, it’s amazing. So it’s just gonna scurry in there and hook up to Tanner’s phone and then we’re all set?”
“Kinda. Dexter is working on a remote-controlled one that could do that, but for now, this one can only locate and run to a signal that’s within like 6 inches. Then it connects, uploads the malware, and runs away.”
Sure enough, the bug had disengaged from Chastity’s phone and returned to its original position.
I still had access to her phone on my computer, though.
“I admit, this is cooler than I thought it would be. But should we really hack Tanner’s phone like this?
He just made me the coolest closet ever.
And got us freaking Spaceboy for the launch party. This feels like a betrayal.”
“What’s a betrayal is that he keeps teasing you and then pulling away.
If he would just man up and ask you out, then we wouldn’t have to do any of this.
But noooo… Mr. Vampire boy has to be all secretive.
And it’s not like we’re gonna sell his data to terrorists or something.
We’re just going to track his every move and listen to all his conversations.
And look through all his files. And his search history. No big deal.”
“That feels like a pretty big deal.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Chastity, putting the bug back in her purse.
“It’s better for you to just keep blindly pursuing him and then end up being melted in a vat of acid by the cartel he pissed off.
Or if you’re worried about that, you could just stop hanging out with him.
He’s not that great, anyway. Who needs private Spaceboy concerts and giant secret closets? ”
“Fine! I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Chastity pulled some red lingerie out of her purse and tossed it at me. “Now go put this on under your clothes and we can get started.”
I hid the lingerie under the table to try to avoid our coworkers seeing it. “Where did you get this?!”
“I took it from your closet because I knew you’d be lame and not wear what I told you to.”
“Is it really necessary?”
“Yup. We need to get the bug close enough to his phone for it to latch on. And there’s only one way I see that happening.” She told me the plan. And as much as I hated it…she was right. The lingerie was necessary.