Free I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

of DC’s most beloved plastic-surgery victims Mom. He was also widely believed to be gearing up for a Senate run of his own, all of which made Mr. Painter quite valuable — in Nicholson’s way of viewing the world, anyway.
    Right now, the future groom and senator was sprawled on a club chair in suite A. Two of the youngest, prettiest, and least threatening girls, Sasha and Liz, were slowly undressing each other on the bed while a new one, Ana, worked him over through the cotton of his yuppie boxers. The threesome looked to be in their midteens, but all were of legal age. Nineteen, to be exact. Barely legal.
    Nicholson ran a finger across his touchpad to adjust the image. The cameras were wireless, pan-tilt-zoom units the size of pencil erasers. This particular one was embedded in the room’s smoke detector.
    A microphone, no bigger than a match head, was hardwired through the ceiling and into the chandelier directly over the king-size bed, where Sasha was just sitting up, smiling blithely,
cooing
.
    She straddled Liz, both of them naked now except for expensive-looking costume jewelry, their slinky black cocktail dresses in tiny heaps on the floor.
    Sasha reached across to the nightstand, opened the drawer, and pulled out a thick flesh-colored phallus. She held it up and waggled it for Benjamin Painter to see. His eyes widened appropriately.
    "Would you like me to do Liz?" she asked, smiling demurely. "I’d
like
to do Liz. I’d really like to do Liz."
    "That’s great," Ben said, as if praising a useful underling at his father’s firm. "Get her ready for me, Sasha. And you —" He put his hand on the top of Ana’s head as she knelt in front of him. "You just take your time, Ana. Slow and steady wins the race, am I right?"
    "Oh, I wouldn’t have it any other way, Benjamin. I’m enjoying this too."
    If Mr. Painter was busy giving Nicholson excellent video material to work with, his good friend from their days together at NYU Law, Mr. Suiter, was all but writing a blank check.
    Suiter had two of the prettiest Asian girls, Maya and Justine, in the spa. Maya was lying across the tiled soaking-tub platform, on her back, with her small, shapely legs wiggling in the air — while Suiter drilled her furiously. She seemed to be enjoying it, which was doubtful, since Maya and Justine lived together and were a couple — recently married in their home state of Massachusetts.
    Justine, in fact, was just now providing "the money shot." She stood over Suiter, knees slightly bent, gripping a hold bar on the ceiling and letting nature take its course down the client’s shoulders and back.
    Suiter panted out in time with his own thrusts, his voice rising toward climax. "That’s right… That’s right… That’sa girl, that’sa fucking girl."
    Nicholson rolled his eyes in disgust and muted the mating sounds. He didn’t need to hear this idiot’s twaddle right now. Later in the week, he’d pick out a nice thirty-second clip to send to Mr. Suiter at his home office. Something with full frontal and choice words always seemed to do the job best.
    Because as much as these men were willing to pay for getting spanked on a Saturday night, or even just to fuck a woman who wouldn’t ask what they were thinking about afterward, Tony Nicholson knew that they were always —
always
— willing to pay even more for the privilege of keeping those dirty little secrets to themselves.
    All of them — except Zeus.

Chapter 30

    "WHAT HAVE YOU got?"
    "License DLY 224, a dark blue Mercedes McLaren. Leased to a Temple Suiter."
    "The lawyer?"
    "Presumably. Who else would it be? Guy’s got more money than God."
    Carl Villanovich put the camera down and rubbed his eyes vigorously. It had been three straight nights of surveillance in the woods of Blacksmith Farms, and he was stone-cold sick of the duty.
    He unfolded a tripod from his pack and mounted the camera to give himself a break. The image played on a laptop next to him as he zoomed out for a