Beauty And The Bounty by Robert J. Randisi

Author:Robert J. Randisi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Western
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

Chapter Eighteen

At the same time, over in Portsmouth Square, Victor Van Gelder was having breakfast in his private suite with the beautiful Annie Tucker.

“Well, Annie, I understand your sister has left us,” Van Gelder said.

“That’s right, Victor,” Annie Tucker said.

She had been to bed with Van Gelder the night before, but had returned to her own room to sleep. Now she sat across from him in his suite, wearing a filmy peignoir. He had sent Big Harry over to her room to “invite” her to breakfast.

“After one night? Don’t tell me she didn’t like it here.”

“It just wasn’t right for her, Victor.”

“It’s right for you, Annie.”

“Sally and I are different.”

“She’s a beautiful young girl, Annie. Soon she may be as beautiful as you.”

“Or more,” Annie said. She wanted Van Gelder to know that there was no jealousy between the sisters. She didn’t know what he was getting at.

“I was sort of counting on her to…do as good a job as you in the near future.”

“I’m sorry, Victor, but she’s just not cut out for this kind of work.”

“I see.” He picked up a muffin and began spreading jam on it. “Tell me, where did she go?”

“To another hotel.”

“Here in the Square? Will they have her doing the same thing?”

“No, she went outside the Square.”

“Outside,” Van Gelder said, thoughtfully. “Where?”

“Victor, what does it matter—”

He brought his fist down on the table so hard that everything shook.

“Where?” he said, his tone calm.

“Ballard House.”

“Duke Ballard’s place?” he said. “You sent her there?”

“I didn’t send there, Victor, she just…went.”

“On her own.”

“The man who was shot here the other night. He’s a friend of Ballard’s. He got her the job.”

“Ah yes, your sister’s friend. I paid his doctor’s bill.”

“He wasn’t her friend. She didn’t even know him until that night.”

“And yet he got her a job?”

“Yes.”

“He must have been a very satisfied customer.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

He leaned over the table and said, “It is always like that, my dear Annie.”

“Victor—”

“I don’t think you should eat any more breakfast, Annie,” Van Gelder said. “I think I noticed a few extra pounds on you last night. Not very becoming.”

She stared at him, knowing he was baiting her.

“That’s all right,” she said, putting her napkin on the table. “I’m not very hungry, anyway.”

“On your way out, please tell Harry I would like to see him.”

She shuddered. “Big Harry,” as the girls in the hotel called him, was the only man who had ever scared Annie Tucker. He was a huge man with sloping shoulders and arms knotted with muscle. It was generally known that Harry could have any girl in the hotel he wanted for the night, and that he was not called “Big” just because of his muscles. He had never had Annie because she was Van Gelder’s girl, but she knew that if she ever fell out of favor with Van Gelder, he would toss her to Big Harry in a minute.

And Big Harry would love it.

She shuddered again and left the room.

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