"No ... at least, not yet. But if it doesn't get any better, that's probably the route I'll go."We sat in silence for a few minutes while Christie gat...ered herself. I could see that she was a bit shaken by the encounter with her ex-husband although I didn't get any sense that he'd laid his hands on her. Verbal abuse was bad enough. I would not stand for physical abuse."He said something odd when we were talking about Diane and you. I get the impression he tried to seduce Diane, maybe more than. Jim replied a few days later that he did not think that was going to be a problem. He responded that he had a few guys in mind that were safe. He said they would be tested before the big night and bring the results with them.We arrived in Vegas and checked into our suite hotel, we have stayed at this location before; it has a large bedroom and separate kitchen and living room area. It is really a condominium, but the economy killed the condominium market and they rent them out now. It is real. "Tommy smiled and led her away to the stairs, holding her hand in his as they went.Dinner that evening was at a nice, intimate restaurant in town. They chose American fare for the meal this evening and everyone went lightly on the consumption of wine or other drinks before the meal. Afterward, Mr. Kitagami, Melanie, Peggy, and Derek chose to return to the house in one limo; Tommy, Brooke, Jeremy, and Joyce wanted to spend a couple of more hours on the town, maybe finding some dancing and. . for since then, there had been three successive nights when he had wanted to repeat that horrible performance, to once more set up the tripod and camera and writhe in abandon on the rug, or, as the case last night, on the bed. The very sheets seemed now permeated with debauchery, with the sins of carnality, and the remembrance of how he had tried again to push her head down on his penis and the coldness with which he had treated her afterwards when she had refused to do it brought tears.