Eloy Beglaryan yawned and stretched in his bed. He rolled to his left, expecting to see his latest piece of ass Chloe next to him. She wasn’t there.
His gaze shifted to the bathroom, but the door was open. Had she left?
He pulled himself into a sitting position and pulled on his shorts. “Chloe! Where you at?”
Padding out into the living room, he saw her huddled on his leather couch with tears streaming down her face. She was looking at her phone.
“What’s the matter? Why are you crying?”
She held up the screen for him to see.
Shit! He was surprised and angry. Somehow, she’d found his Barely Legal Lady Bits website—his biggest money-maker.
“You put my pictures up on the internet for everyone in the world to look at,” she shrieked. “How could you?”
“A better question is, why were you snooping around, and how did you find that website?”
Guilt, then fear, washed across her face, as she glanced at the kitchen island which he used for a desk.
Buried beneath papers and bills were fliers featuring crude photos of young women. When he hit the clubs, he smuggled in the ads and posted them in the men’s room.
Rage rose from his gut to explode in his chest, causing him to yell. “You went through my private paperwork?”
She folded her arms across her chest and lowered her head as if he was going to hit her.
He was glad her fear intensified.
“I didn’t mean to. I was looking for a piece of paper to leave you a note that I was leaving.”
“You expect me to believe that bullshit?”
She lifted her gaze. “It’s true. I need to meet my friend Mal. We’re supposed to go to the beach.”
“Yeah? Well, those plans are out. I’ve got something else for you to do.”
From the way she lowered her eyes again, Eloy could tell she thought he was going to ask her for sex. Good. She’d be relieved when he told her what he really wanted.
“Remember how I said I’m in retail?”
She looked up at him and nodded.
“Well, this is how it works. I have people who go into the high-end department stores at the malls or home improvement stores.
“At the mall, they wander around looking at expensive items, you know, purses, shoes, perfumes, that kind of thing. At the construction-type stores, they check out the power tools.”
“Okay,” she said, shrugging, and obviously bored.
“That’s what I want you to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll go to the Flair department store in Porter Ranch, and scope out high-end merch.”
“What’s the point of that?”
“Because, the next day, I have a crew of people who go in and clear the shelves of all the expensive goods. Each person grabs no more than nine hundred and fifty dollars of merchandise and gets the hell out.”
Chloe’s eyes widened, and her voice held a tone of disbelief. “Without paying?”
He nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Then I take the stuff and sell it online at a discount.”
“Who would be stupid enough to go in, steal a bunch of crap, and then give it all to you?”
“They don’t do it for nothing. Most of them want drugs, and that’s usually how I pay them. A selected few of my better operators I pay in cash.”
“Why don’t they just sell it online themselves?”
She’s not just a dumb blonde.
“Because most of them don’t want the risk of selling hot goods. Some are homeless, but most are dopers. They just care about their next hit of heroin or whatever.
“The folks I pay in cash don’t want to get caught with the hot property. Especially since the cops are getting better at busting crews like mine.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Eloy. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a thief.”
“I’m not asking you to steal. I’m asking you to go into a mall and identify the pricey items.”
Suddenly, excitement filled her eyes, and she smiled. “If I do that, will you take my photos off that website, and let me delete those pictures you took of me this morning off your phone?”
Although impressed by her game, there was no way he’d give up the only leverage he had on her.
He gave her a devious grin. “I’ll tell you what I won’t do…I won’t send your parents the link to my website where they see with their very own eyes your naked pictures and print out copies if they want.”
Her face got so white, he thought she was going to pass out.