Chapters 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11
Dogsbody
Chapter 1
David Anderson yawned wearily as he emerged from his rental car and walked up the path to his house. He was feeling extremely jet lagged; his flight had landed at LAX only an hour before, and he’d been on-and-off of airplanes for the last forty-eight hours on his journey back home from Japan. His very bones ached with tiredness. All he wanted to do was crawl into his bed, and sleep for twenty-four hours straight.
He fumbled with his key, barely managing to get it into the lock. Pushing the door open, he grabbed the handle of his rolling suitcase and dragged it into his foyer. Running a hand through his hair, he made a face at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall in a silver frame. He looked as exhausted as he felt. Yawning hard enough to crack his jaw, he scrubbed at his face with his hand as he walked into his living room. He wanted to call his sister and tell her that he’d made it home okay, before he hit the hay. And since his cell phone was packed into his suitcase, and he didn’t want to take the time to dig it out, he figured that he’d use his landline.
Something came at him from the left. He turned, startled, as a blur flew at his head. He ducked, instinctively, with a speed and grace that he never would have figured that he possessed. But his hindbrain took over for the fatigue-sodden reasoning part of his brain, and he found himself on the floor on all fours as whatever it was crashed into the frame of the archway where his head had been but a moment before.
He stared upward at the person wielding the weapon, which turned out to be a lamp from off of one of his end tables. He saw a young man standing there wild-eyed, clutching the lamp and breathing heavily. He was sporting some spectacular bruises on his face, and he looked terrified. This person lifted the remains of the lamp over his head, clearly thinking of having another go at David with it.
“Hey!” he yelled, his fatigue dissipating in the face of sheer terror, “What the hell are you doing in my house!”
The intruder stopped in mid-swing, his eyes going even wider. He stared down at David, his mouth hanging open. “Oh, Jesus,” he said in a trembling voice. “Are you David Anderson?”
Baffled, confused, and beginning to be angry, he lifted himself up into a sitting position carefully. “Yes, I am,” he snapped. “And just who the hell are you?”
“Fuck,” the intruder muttered, looking at the remains of the lamp in his hand. “I’m really sorry. But I thought that you were supposed to be out of the country for two more weeks!”
“I was,” David replied, “But I had to come back unexpectedly. Oh, hell, why am I explaining this to you? I should call the police,” he started to his feet, intent on getting to the phone.
“Oh, please don’t do that!” his intruder cried desperately. “I’m really, really sorry that I attacked you! But I thought you might be one of Vlad’s guys!”
Baffled, irritated, he glared at the young man standing in his living room looking scared and rather forlorn. “Who is Vlad?” he asked, cursing himself for even opening his mouth when he should just be calling the police.
The other man’s shoulders drooped under the rather dirty denim jacket that he was wearing. “Vladimir Kucinich is a guy that I owe money to,” he explained unhappily. “I can’t pay him back because I’m broke. So I needed a place to hide, and Uncle Sid said that you were gone so I could crash here for a few days…”
“Sid? Sid Greenway? My agent?” an astonished David questioned. “HE told you to break into my house?”
“Actually, he knew that you kept a key in a fake rock in your garden, and he told me where it was,” the young man replied. “You really shouldn’t do that, you know. Thieves always figure that kind of thing out.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he said dryly. “I can’t believe that Sid would tell someone how to get into my house…”
“I’m not just someone; I’m his nephew,” the intruder pointed out. “And since Uncle Sid doesn’t want me to end up in Vlad’s hands, he did what he had to. Don’t be mad at him, please.”
David rubbed at the side of his face, looking at the bruised and battered person standing in his living room. “Why do you owe this man Vlad money? And what would happen to you if he found you?” he asked.
The young man stiffened, fear flashing over his face again and leaving his eyes haunted. “He loaned me some money when I first moved here,” he said thinly. “I was naïve enough to think that I’d make it big, and be able to pay him back with interest. But I never got my big break…in acting,” he told David. “And even though I got a part-time job, I never made enough to even pay back the principal, let alone the interest. And Vlad’s the kind of guy that requires A LOT of interest on his loans.”
“He’s a loan shark,” David clarified, beginning to understand.
“Yeah, among other things,” the intruder said with a nod. “He already did this to me when I told him that I didn’t have any money,” he pointed at his own face. “He told me that if I couldn’t scrape up the money, he’d be coming for me to ‘take it out of my hide’. And once he does that, he’ll put me into his stable to work off what I owe him.”
“His stable?” David asked, puzzled.
“Vlad runs boy whores,” his intruder said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “As soon as my broken bones healed, he’d have me on my back making money for him. Damn it…all I wanted was to become an actor…” he said, wilting visibly. “I never imagined that it would turn out like this…”
David felt a flash of pity for his intruder. He was young and had made a bad mistake, for which he was going to have to pay a high price. “Can’t Sid help you out?” he said into the silence.
The younger man shrugged. “Not really. He can scrape up a few thousand bucks, but Vlad’s not interested in a payment on the loan - he wants the whole amount NOW or he wants me. Nothing else. That’s why Uncle Sid suggested that I come here and hide for awhile, until he can figure something out. But I’ll leave...don’t be mad at Uncle Sid, all right? He was just trying to help me.” he turned and started for the front door, intent on leaving.
“Wait,” David called, wondering why he was speaking and not letting this guy leave and take his chances. But the truth was, he felt rather sorry for him.
The young man stopped and looked at him over his shoulder. “What?” he asked, his voice tight.
“How much do you owe this Vlad person?” David asked him.
The young man’s brows knit in confusion. “Why do you want to know that?”
“I just do,” he said impatiently. “You owe me that, considering that you broke into my house and tried to brain me with my own lamp.”
The young man’s grey eyes were puzzled, but he answered slowly: “Twenty-five thousand bucks. That’s why Uncle Sid couldn’t help me - he doesn’t have that kind of cash lying around. He was hoping to put something together for me by the time you got home, but…”
David shook his head. ‘I really can’t believe I’m doing this,’ he thought. Aloud he said: “And if this Vlad person gets twenty-five thousand dollars, he’ll leave you alone for good?”
“Sure. He doesn’t want me as much as he wants the money,” the young man said. “Why?”
David sighed, rolling his shoulders “Don’t go,” he told the young man. “Come with me, instead.”
“Where?” the young man had turned back around to stare at him in puzzlement.
David grimaced faintly. “To the bank,” he replied.
****
“You can’t do this!” the young man, who’d identified himself as Mark Greenway, protested vigorously.
David smiled at the teller, who was printing out a cashier’s check for twenty-five thousand dollars for him. “Of course I can,” he replied. “It’s my money. I can do whatever I want with it.”
Agitated, Mark made some rather wild movements with his hands. The teller eyed him warily, clearly wondering if he was on drugs or insane. “But…this has nothing to do with you!" he hissed. “I’m not your problem! You shouldn’t just hand over that much cash to save my ass!”
“I don’t have to, but I’m going to,” David replied serenely.
“But WHY?!” Mark nearly wailed as the teller shoved the cashier’s check at David in an envelope, clearly wanting to get rid of him and his crazed companion as quickly as possible. He took it and turned to leave, with the still agitated Mark walking beside him.
“Several reasons. One: I feel sorry for you. Yes, you got into this situation yourself, but I can see how a naïve guy with stars in his eyes could come to this town and get in over his head. I’ve seen it happen before, and no one should get the shit beaten out of them, and then be forced into prostitution, just because they made a mistake. Two: I like your uncle. We’ve been friends for years, and I want to help out his nephew. And three: This isn’t just me giving you the money that you need to pay off this loan shark, no strings attached. I expect you to work it off, albeit not as a male hooker.”
Mark’s mouth opened. “Work it off?” he repeated. “Doing what?” he eyed David as though he were wondering if he’d just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
David shrugged as they headed for his rental car. “You’re going to be my dogsbody for the next year,” he told Mark as he opened his door.
“A…what?” a baffled Mark asked.
“A dogsbody. A sort of general assistant/secretary/errand boy. Whatever I need done, you’ll do it, whether it’s cleaning the house, picking up my dry cleaning, answering the phone, whatever. This money,” he waved the envelope at Mark as the younger man crawled into his car, “Will be your first year’s salary, so you won’t be getting paid. But I will give you room and board,” he added. “You can sleep in the guest room, and I’ll buy your clothes and the other things you’ll need. And in your off time, if you still want to go to auditions, I won’t care. If you DO make it big, well, then you can pay me the money back outright. Simple solution, don’t you think?”
Mark stared at him in wonder. “You really trust me that much? What if I take off after you’ve paid my debt?”
“You won’t do that,” David said confidently as they pulled out of the bank’s parking lot.
How do you know that?” Mark demanded.
“Because if you were the kind of person who’d do that, you wouldn’t have objected so much about me paying off your debt. And you would have tried to schmooze me more back at my house, rather than trying to leave and asking me not to hate your uncle. You’re not trying to play me - you’re just a desperate guy who’s scared to death. Although, if I’m totally wrong, I’ll just be out some money and will have learned a valuable lesson. No big deal.”
Awe was clearly written on Mark’s bruised face. “Wow, Uncle Sid was right about you,” he remarked. “He said that you were a total mensch.”
David moved his shoulders uncomfortably. “Sid’s a good guy. That’s another reason I’m trying to help you,” he replied.
“Well, I can’t thank you enough. And I’ll be the best damn…err…dogsbody than anybody’s ever had,” Mark vowed firmly.
David’s lips twitched slightly. “I’m sure that you will,” he agreed in amusement.
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Dogsbody
Chapter 1
David Anderson yawned wearily as he emerged from his rental car and walked up the path to his house. He was feeling extremely jet lagged; his flight had landed at LAX only an hour before, and he’d been on-and-off of airplanes for the last forty-eight hours on his journey back home from Japan. His very bones ached with tiredness. All he wanted to do was crawl into his bed, and sleep for twenty-four hours straight.
He fumbled with his key, barely managing to get it into the lock. Pushing the door open, he grabbed the handle of his rolling suitcase and dragged it into his foyer. Running a hand through his hair, he made a face at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall in a silver frame. He looked as exhausted as he felt. Yawning hard enough to crack his jaw, he scrubbed at his face with his hand as he walked into his living room. He wanted to call his sister and tell her that he’d made it home okay, before he hit the hay. And since his cell phone was packed into his suitcase, and he didn’t want to take the time to dig it out, he figured that he’d use his landline.
Something came at him from the left. He turned, startled, as a blur flew at his head. He ducked, instinctively, with a speed and grace that he never would have figured that he possessed. But his hindbrain took over for the fatigue-sodden reasoning part of his brain, and he found himself on the floor on all fours as whatever it was crashed into the frame of the archway where his head had been but a moment before.
He stared upward at the person wielding the weapon, which turned out to be a lamp from off of one of his end tables. He saw a young man standing there wild-eyed, clutching the lamp and breathing heavily. He was sporting some spectacular bruises on his face, and he looked terrified. This person lifted the remains of the lamp over his head, clearly thinking of having another go at David with it.
“Hey!” he yelled, his fatigue dissipating in the face of sheer terror, “What the hell are you doing in my house!”
The intruder stopped in mid-swing, his eyes going even wider. He stared down at David, his mouth hanging open. “Oh, Jesus,” he said in a trembling voice. “Are you David Anderson?”
Baffled, confused, and beginning to be angry, he lifted himself up into a sitting position carefully. “Yes, I am,” he snapped. “And just who the hell are you?”
“Fuck,” the intruder muttered, looking at the remains of the lamp in his hand. “I’m really sorry. But I thought that you were supposed to be out of the country for two more weeks!”
“I was,” David replied, “But I had to come back unexpectedly. Oh, hell, why am I explaining this to you? I should call the police,” he started to his feet, intent on getting to the phone.
“Oh, please don’t do that!” his intruder cried desperately. “I’m really, really sorry that I attacked you! But I thought you might be one of Vlad’s guys!”
Baffled, irritated, he glared at the young man standing in his living room looking scared and rather forlorn. “Who is Vlad?” he asked, cursing himself for even opening his mouth when he should just be calling the police.
The other man’s shoulders drooped under the rather dirty denim jacket that he was wearing. “Vladimir Kucinich is a guy that I owe money to,” he explained unhappily. “I can’t pay him back because I’m broke. So I needed a place to hide, and Uncle Sid said that you were gone so I could crash here for a few days…”
“Sid? Sid Greenway? My agent?” an astonished David questioned. “HE told you to break into my house?”
“Actually, he knew that you kept a key in a fake rock in your garden, and he told me where it was,” the young man replied. “You really shouldn’t do that, you know. Thieves always figure that kind of thing out.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he said dryly. “I can’t believe that Sid would tell someone how to get into my house…”
“I’m not just someone; I’m his nephew,” the intruder pointed out. “And since Uncle Sid doesn’t want me to end up in Vlad’s hands, he did what he had to. Don’t be mad at him, please.”
David rubbed at the side of his face, looking at the bruised and battered person standing in his living room. “Why do you owe this man Vlad money? And what would happen to you if he found you?” he asked.
The young man stiffened, fear flashing over his face again and leaving his eyes haunted. “He loaned me some money when I first moved here,” he said thinly. “I was naïve enough to think that I’d make it big, and be able to pay him back with interest. But I never got my big break…in acting,” he told David. “And even though I got a part-time job, I never made enough to even pay back the principal, let alone the interest. And Vlad’s the kind of guy that requires A LOT of interest on his loans.”
“He’s a loan shark,” David clarified, beginning to understand.
“Yeah, among other things,” the intruder said with a nod. “He already did this to me when I told him that I didn’t have any money,” he pointed at his own face. “He told me that if I couldn’t scrape up the money, he’d be coming for me to ‘take it out of my hide’. And once he does that, he’ll put me into his stable to work off what I owe him.”
“His stable?” David asked, puzzled.
“Vlad runs boy whores,” his intruder said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “As soon as my broken bones healed, he’d have me on my back making money for him. Damn it…all I wanted was to become an actor…” he said, wilting visibly. “I never imagined that it would turn out like this…”
David felt a flash of pity for his intruder. He was young and had made a bad mistake, for which he was going to have to pay a high price. “Can’t Sid help you out?” he said into the silence.
The younger man shrugged. “Not really. He can scrape up a few thousand bucks, but Vlad’s not interested in a payment on the loan - he wants the whole amount NOW or he wants me. Nothing else. That’s why Uncle Sid suggested that I come here and hide for awhile, until he can figure something out. But I’ll leave...don’t be mad at Uncle Sid, all right? He was just trying to help me.” he turned and started for the front door, intent on leaving.
“Wait,” David called, wondering why he was speaking and not letting this guy leave and take his chances. But the truth was, he felt rather sorry for him.
The young man stopped and looked at him over his shoulder. “What?” he asked, his voice tight.
“How much do you owe this Vlad person?” David asked him.
The young man’s brows knit in confusion. “Why do you want to know that?”
“I just do,” he said impatiently. “You owe me that, considering that you broke into my house and tried to brain me with my own lamp.”
The young man’s grey eyes were puzzled, but he answered slowly: “Twenty-five thousand bucks. That’s why Uncle Sid couldn’t help me - he doesn’t have that kind of cash lying around. He was hoping to put something together for me by the time you got home, but…”
David shook his head. ‘I really can’t believe I’m doing this,’ he thought. Aloud he said: “And if this Vlad person gets twenty-five thousand dollars, he’ll leave you alone for good?”
“Sure. He doesn’t want me as much as he wants the money,” the young man said. “Why?”
David sighed, rolling his shoulders “Don’t go,” he told the young man. “Come with me, instead.”
“Where?” the young man had turned back around to stare at him in puzzlement.
David grimaced faintly. “To the bank,” he replied.
****
“You can’t do this!” the young man, who’d identified himself as Mark Greenway, protested vigorously.
David smiled at the teller, who was printing out a cashier’s check for twenty-five thousand dollars for him. “Of course I can,” he replied. “It’s my money. I can do whatever I want with it.”
Agitated, Mark made some rather wild movements with his hands. The teller eyed him warily, clearly wondering if he was on drugs or insane. “But…this has nothing to do with you!" he hissed. “I’m not your problem! You shouldn’t just hand over that much cash to save my ass!”
“I don’t have to, but I’m going to,” David replied serenely.
“But WHY?!” Mark nearly wailed as the teller shoved the cashier’s check at David in an envelope, clearly wanting to get rid of him and his crazed companion as quickly as possible. He took it and turned to leave, with the still agitated Mark walking beside him.
“Several reasons. One: I feel sorry for you. Yes, you got into this situation yourself, but I can see how a naïve guy with stars in his eyes could come to this town and get in over his head. I’ve seen it happen before, and no one should get the shit beaten out of them, and then be forced into prostitution, just because they made a mistake. Two: I like your uncle. We’ve been friends for years, and I want to help out his nephew. And three: This isn’t just me giving you the money that you need to pay off this loan shark, no strings attached. I expect you to work it off, albeit not as a male hooker.”
Mark’s mouth opened. “Work it off?” he repeated. “Doing what?” he eyed David as though he were wondering if he’d just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
David shrugged as they headed for his rental car. “You’re going to be my dogsbody for the next year,” he told Mark as he opened his door.
“A…what?” a baffled Mark asked.
“A dogsbody. A sort of general assistant/secretary/errand boy. Whatever I need done, you’ll do it, whether it’s cleaning the house, picking up my dry cleaning, answering the phone, whatever. This money,” he waved the envelope at Mark as the younger man crawled into his car, “Will be your first year’s salary, so you won’t be getting paid. But I will give you room and board,” he added. “You can sleep in the guest room, and I’ll buy your clothes and the other things you’ll need. And in your off time, if you still want to go to auditions, I won’t care. If you DO make it big, well, then you can pay me the money back outright. Simple solution, don’t you think?”
Mark stared at him in wonder. “You really trust me that much? What if I take off after you’ve paid my debt?”
“You won’t do that,” David said confidently as they pulled out of the bank’s parking lot.
How do you know that?” Mark demanded.
“Because if you were the kind of person who’d do that, you wouldn’t have objected so much about me paying off your debt. And you would have tried to schmooze me more back at my house, rather than trying to leave and asking me not to hate your uncle. You’re not trying to play me - you’re just a desperate guy who’s scared to death. Although, if I’m totally wrong, I’ll just be out some money and will have learned a valuable lesson. No big deal.”
Awe was clearly written on Mark’s bruised face. “Wow, Uncle Sid was right about you,” he remarked. “He said that you were a total mensch.”
David moved his shoulders uncomfortably. “Sid’s a good guy. That’s another reason I’m trying to help you,” he replied.
“Well, I can’t thank you enough. And I’ll be the best damn…err…dogsbody than anybody’s ever had,” Mark vowed firmly.
David’s lips twitched slightly. “I’m sure that you will,” he agreed in amusement.
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