Chapter 5
Dee composed herself as best she could and had put her dress back on. Dougman had been in the room several minutes and had been whispering with Jerome and Mitzi in a corner of the room. Dougman turned to Dee and stared at her long and hard.
"Well, well, Dee," he said, a forbidding look of lust on his face, "Jerome here tells me that you're quite a lay!"
Dee had now composed herself completely and had re-evaluated her shocking actions and told herself that she had to get out of this situation now!
She really could not explain her shocking behavior, but she told herself that she probably submitted to Jerome's demands for lust because of fear. She knew that people frequently acted irrationally when faced with overwhelming situations with which they simply could not cope with. Was she just an unfortunate victim of fear? Yes! Yes! She thought to herself that had to be it! Well, the best thing to do was to get out of here and quick! That was it! She couldn't let this situation develop any further than it had.
Dee summoned all the courage she could muster as she turned to face Dougman.
"Mr. Dougman," Dee said, a slight tremor in her voice. "This has gone far enough. I want out!"
Dougman smiled a cool, impassionate businessman's smile, completely devoid of any emotion.
"I'm afraid that's quite impossible, my dear," he said. "You're in over your head as it is: Remember ... I own you!"
"That's impossible!" Dee shouted. "You can't do that! Nobody can own another per son!"
Dougman's entire face turned a fiery red, and then he exploded in a maddened rage as he grabbed a table lamp and hurled it across the room, just missing Dee's face!
"Godamnit, bitch!" he roared as he brandished his fists wildly in the air. "You gotta learn! Why, I even had a man tail you tonight just to make sure you got here! I can send a fuckin' army to your house if you want me to!
Dee's memory flashed back to earlier in the evening when she had seen the stranger staring at her as she backed out of the garage.
"Why, hell," Dougman said, "I even bribed the godamn security guard to let my man through the gate! People are very inexpensive commodity, my dear girl!"
So! Dee suddenly thought. That was why the security guard had denied seeing the man! Dougman had paid him to lie!
"You see, Dee," Dougman continued, "You are completely indefensible against my kind of power! There is absolutely nothing in the world you can do to protect yourself against me!"
Was it true? Did Dougman have her locked in? It certainly seemed that way! No one would ever believe that such a "pillar of the community" such as Dougman would be involved in such a web of sin and deceit!
"Well, Dee," Dougman said. "You officially start tomorrow night, with all of the benefits I previously told you about. I'll see that you are safely escorted to your car and that you find your way home."
Dougman gave Dee one last, cold stare, and then was gone.