Chapter 31 – Elie
I smiled at Sasha. “Well, we found your little friend. In the shower. I’m sure that Bruno got an eyeful. One of them has the hots for her, but I forget whether it’s him or Lex. Now that she isn’t so delicate, maybe she’ll lighten up and give them some.”
Sasha just looked away. Her eyes were swollen, and I genuinely hated to see her like this. This was why Travis wasn’t given the women who were profitable. I should have stopped it, but there was a principle involved. Sasha needed to see how life would be like without me. She was ready to leave, but I think that part of her mind was already changing. She was already seeing that without my protection, she would never make it in this city.
“What do you think, Sasha? Do you think she’s going to be happy with her new assignment?”
Sasha shook her head and then closed her mouth. The bruising on her jaw told me that she wouldn’t be saying much. She may not have been that good to look at, but she certainly was more pleasant now. Now I didn’t have to hear all of the backtalk and issues that she suddenly had. Sasha just sat in the chair with her hands clamped together on her lap. She didn’t say a word to me as we both waited for her friend to arrive.
I heard the doors in the back open and close. There was an argument going on. Mariah was cursing out her captors. I would have thought that they would let her get dressed first, but that was not the case. When she was pulled into the room, she was not wearing a stitch of clothing. Her face was red, and when they finally let her go in front of me, Mariah stood there staring down at me with a murderous look in her eyes. Lex had a large scratch on the side of his face, and I knew then that Mariah was not going to be easy to work with. It wasn’t until she saw Sasha sitting there, her death gaze moving off of me, that she straightened up and I told the two men to leave.
“You’re a little hard to find lately, Mariah.”
“What happened, Sasha? Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about her, Mariah, worry about me.”
Her blue eyes moved to me. There was the fire in them that I hadn’t seen before. It seemed that Mariah had changed in more ways than one in the last couple of days.
“I am worried about you. You drugged me at the auction!” Her face was brilliantly red and her anger was something to behold. I knew she was mad, but I really didn’t care. I wasn’t there to make things better for her. She was here to make me money, something that she wasn’t doing.
“So?”
That shut her up. Maybe she thought I was going to deny it, but I felt no need for that. I felt a need to let her see things as they were. Sasha had to do the same thing.
“You were not acting the way you were supposed to. Even with you incapacitated, I still got complaints.”
Mariah was getting even madder. “Just give me my money for the auction, Elie. That’s all I’m here for. You’re a sick man, and I’m not going to deal with this anymore. Sasha, come on.”
Sasha looked to her friend and I smiled when she looked away. Sasha had been taught her lesson, and now it was Mariah’s turn to learn hers. A little something extra in the way of chemicals never hurt, and I made sure to give some to her next client to help with all of her thoughts of getting out of the business. When she was dealing with Travis, it might even save her if she was a little more open to new experiences and people.
“She’s not going anywhere, Mariah. Sasha understands that this is where she belongs. This is where you belong as well. Why can’t you see that?”
“You said I could turn down anyone I wanted. That was a lie. I want to leave. Give me my money and I’ll go.”
“No. I’m not giving you that kind of money. I don’t know what you’re going to do with it. I’m just helping you.”
“If you want to help me, let me go with the money that I earned. You get your cut, but the rest is mine.”
I shook my head again and told her that it wasn’t going to happen. I can’t say for sure that I ever had any intention of giving it to them. Not when the bids had gotten so high. I deserved the money more than they did. I was the one who’d set everything up. Their disloyalty just gave me another reason to hold onto it.
“I’ll give you the rest when you come back from your next job. Sasha was offered the same deal and she took it. Don’t you see how happy she’s now?”
Her friend’s eyes were deadened because of the drugs. I should have seen that that was the only way to deal with Mariah too. I just needed to get her started on them and it wouldn’t take long till her body would need them more than its next breath. Sure, it made them sloppy, less interesting to the clients, but at least they would still be around and I could still make something off of them.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Not with me, with one of my better clients. He wants you for a business trip and I already said yes for you.”
“I don’t care what you said to him, I’m not going anywhere. I don’t work for you anymore.”
“No, I own you Mariah. I have since you got here. Sasha left out some of the details of employment with me. You work for me when I want and with whom I want. Your cut just got a whole lot smaller, and if you ever want to see the auction money, you’ll do as you’re told.”
“I don’t even care about the money. I don’t need it. I’ve got enough.”
“You’ve got nothing left. We found your shoeboxes in the closet. You’re as broke as when you first came to this city. Is that really how you want to leave it?”
She was stubborn and told me that she didn’t care about the money. I could tell she did, just like Sasha did, although she had far more saved up. She was planning to leave me, they both were, and I was not going to let that happen. I just couldn’t.
“You’re not going anywhere, Mariah. You’re mine, and I need you to understand that. You’re not going to leave me. You can’t. You and Sasha are going to be working for me for a very long time. One day you’ll be worn out like Louise, but until then, you’re not going anywhere.”
Sasha didn’t give a response. I doubted that she really knew what was going on. The drugs had kicked in and she was not feeling any pain anymore. Travis had worked her over good. He had instructions to be less rough with Mariah. Nothing was to be left on the face. I needed her pretty when she came back. He also knew that he had to bring her back. I wasn’t going to accept what happened last time.
“You’re crazy, Elie. We’re not staying here. Come on, Sasha, let’s get out of here.”
I shook my head slowly and told her that she didn’t quite appreciate the situation that she was in. “You’re here now, and I’ve got a feeling that you’re not going to be able to leave.”
She looked to the door. We both knew that the two men who’d dragged her in here were still outside, waiting for my orders. Those two would do what I wanted to her, and she didn’t seem to see how precarious it all was. Mariah still thought that her life mattered.
Mariah got up. I waited with a smile on her face. She was the type that had to learn the hard way. While I would appreciate that kind of attitude at the club, when dealing with me she needed to change her ways.
“Bruno and Lex will take you to Travis. He’s very eager to see you. Sasha just wasn’t enough for him.”
The look on her face was almost enough to make me question the chance I was taking with her. I didn’t know if Travis would bring her back in one piece. There was an agreement in place, but that didn’t meant that he would stick to it. It was a gamble, but one I thought I had to take to prove my point. If the worst happened, it might be hard to replace her, but it wasn’t the end of the world. She wasn’t as valuable anymore anyway. Now that she was no longer untouched, the loss wouldn’t be so great.
I heard her fighting back when she encountered the two men in the hallway. I’d instructed them to give her something to calm her down before they got to Travis. If she stayed calm and complacent, there was a better chance of her coming back in a usable state. I was really just trying to help her out. I don’t know why she couldn’t see it.
“Has Mariah always been like this, Sasha?”
The dark woman just looked up at me and then back down again. Her next dose was going to have to be a little less. She wasn’t going to be worth a dime the way she was. Sighing to myself, I got up and went to the front of the club. The men were just now getting Mariah in the back seat of the car outside, and since she was being carried out, I figured that it was a toss-up if I saw her again. I’d wanted it all to go so very differently.