Chapter 26
“G ood morning, Officer Douritz,” Petra offered as she walked up to the gallery. The police officer was standing in front of the gallery window, and nowhere close to his beat, which was supposed to be her side of Broad Street.
"Petra..." He seemed transfixed by the very obvious sweaty print of her tits on the glass.
Finn had insisted on leaving the blinds open in that section to display her wantonness to the world.
Kinky exhibitionist fucker. "I saw the security grate wasn't fully closed and came to check that everything was okay.
" His jaw clenched as he glanced back at the window.
“Oh.” She smiled. “I didn’t know you lived this close enough to notice something like that. As to the grate, my boss had an installation started last night, apparently it needed to dry a bit,” she offered, looking at the prints of her body.
"This is artwork?" He looked deeply uncomfortable. "Who made it?"
“Not sure. We have a show coming up, one of our regulars, and the work is kind of...erotic I guess. My boss is very avante garde these days, I believe this is part of the marketing,” she offered, very sure she never wanted the man before her to know it was her.
"You should perhaps wear heels," he told her abruptly, turning away from the window. "It's exactly your height. Wouldn't want anyone thinking you're the model."
“Oh. I guess it is. Normally I do wear heels, today is warehouse day,” she said brightly. “Can’t climb ladders in heels and it’s not safe to wear no shoes on the catwalks,” she said of the building behind the show room. “Much to do. Are you just going into work yourself?”
"Yes, I was just heading out to patrol when I saw the shutters." He straightened his uniform. "I'll get going, then. Have a great day."
“You, too, Officer! Stay safe!” She waved and went to the door, opening it with the code, and entered, locking it behind her.
Lorne would be in shortly and as much as the comments from the cop amused her, she didn’t think Lorne would buy the same story.
Needing not to get pulled up in the drama, she grabbed the Windex and some towels and set to work cleaning it off.
Fifteen minutes later she had cleaned off the windows, much to her own chagrin, and Lorne was coming through the warehouse doors.
“Morning, Ms. Franklin, how was your day yesterday? We have a ton of things to get inventoried.”
Four hours later she was getting off her knees and arching her back, cracking it in the process. Everything was done, Lorne’s extensive list of new intake cataloged and inventoried and she was in need of a glass of wine and a soak.
“Ms. Franklin? I need to head to the parkway, Glitter Franz is scouting a location for the installation...”
“It’s fine, Lorne. You coming back later?”
“No,” he chuckled. “Glitter wants me to meet their agent...”
She nodded. “Well, have fun.”
“You, too, and enjoy your weekend off.”
She nodded as she watched him walk out, and then stood, sighing.
"How much will you love me if I offer to massage that aching back for you tonight after a luxurious soak in the hot tub?" Leo's voice came from the front door of the gallery.
"Us," she heard Jack say as she turned to them both. "Hey, beautiful girl."
"So much," she offered and skipped over to them, kissing them both.
"No yoga with Keezie this weekend." Mischief danced in Jack’s eyes. " Our yoga instructor wants to make our sweet girl scream."
"She can take a ticket and wait in line," Leo teased. "And she only gets to do it if we can watch."
“Funny, I mention my exes and you wanna murder them. Skeezie Keezie wants to fist me and you are all for it,” she teased.
"I didn't say I wouldn't kill her afterwards," he pointed out. "She'd technically be an ex after."
“Ugh, she is not worth hiding the body,” Jack said. “And I’m pretty sure she would give her an STI, then where would we be? A full course of antibiotics and a miserable Petra...”
“True,” Petra said. “No reasons for antibiotics needed.”
“So how was your day, beautiful?”
She shrugged. “Aside from showing up and one of the cops seeing my boob prints on the window...”
"I'm sad we didn't get to see it," Leo laughed. "And I'm going to tattle to Finn that you cleaned it off. I'm looking forward to watching him punish you."
“It will be worth it. I mean, could you see Lorne getting all pissy about it? Then he would know me and Finn defiled this place in every possible way. He would never leave us to work alone again. No, thank you.” She shook her head.
“Though I do admit it was weird having to come up with a story to the cop that asked me.”
“You know him?”
She nodded. “He’s a beat cop on my block. He lives over this way apparently and saw the grate not down, so he investigated, as cops are wont to do...”
"Well, I guess I'm glad that someone is looking out for you," Leo said. "The law is generally useless, but in this case, one more pair of eyes on you can only be a good thing."
“Yeah, but when that pair of eyes is figuring out that it’s my tits on the window...”
Jack chuckled and chucked her on the chin. “Probably gave the guy spank bank material for weeks.”
"You want us to kill him?" Leo asked. "You know...for laying eyes on your tit prints?"
“Well, no. It just was uncomfortable...I mean, he’s a cop.” She shrugged. “So just the two of you picking me up? I assumed Easton would...”
“Ah, but Easton has been here before,” Jack offered. “We haven’t so...”
“Well, to that logic Carter and Rix should be here, too, and Emerson.”
“All of who are already on their way to our destination.”
“Well I gotta grab a bag.”
“All taken care of.” Jack winked. “And there are actual clothes in the bag we packed for you. Not just frilly sexy things.”
"Against my protests, I might add," Leo laughed. "I voted for total nudity, but the birthday boy said no."
She smiled. She hadn’t seen Emerson, and was eager to, considering they had only had phone and video time. “Don’t worry, love,” she told Leo. “For your birthday I’ll go completely starker’s the entire time.”
"I'd like that in writing," he said seriously, despite the twinkle in his eye. "I need to be able to hold you to that."
“You know I would never deny you, Leo. Any of you.”
“Birthdays could be fun going forward,” Jack quipped.
"Oh, I have no doubt whatsoever that you'll make all our birthdays very special," Leo said, glancing at his watch. "You about ready? The car will be here any second. Can we help you lock the place up?"
She nodded. “One of you can make sure the back grating is closed. The other? Make sure the warehouse is empty of people. I can handle the showroom,” she said and they set to work.
Mere moments later they were all in the showroom and they were ushering her out to an SUV parked in front of the building, the windows blacked out.
She locked the door, hitting the code in, and the grating came down, clicking into place. “There. All done.”
"Well then, my lady," Leo rubbed his hands gleefully. "Your chariot awaits."