Micah
Sadie walked into my office way sooner than I thought she would. I hadn’t even really, seriously thought that she would come to check in with me until at least the end of the week, so when she came to me on Tuesday night after I’d given her the new assignment on Saturday, I definitely thought it was going to be with excuses.
Instead, she sat down across the desk from me beaming. “I did it,” she told me. I noticed that she’d dressed down a bit from the first time she’d come to my office: instead of business clothes that made her look like some kind of sexy librarian, she was in a shorter skirt, a light blouse. No blazer, and the heels looked more like something someone downstairs in Vagabond would wear instead of something she’d wear to work.
“Tell me about it,” I told her. I was definitely in need of good news; I wasn’t about to tell Sadie about it—or anyone, not even anyone in my own org—but shit was going in a pretty bad way in the few days since she’d collected on Chester for me. Saturday night after I’d met with her, and again on Sunday, a few of my girls had gotten stiffed on drugs—and the money for the drugs—they’d been selling as up-services, and Manny hadn’t been able to chase down the guys who’d done the stealing. In the larger scheme of things, I had to admit that two bad nights were not necessarily the worst thing that could ever happen to me, but there was also the fact that Manny hadn’t been able to get to the guys—that wasn’t a good thing.
“I talked one of the guys in my office into agreeing to let me set his new client up with an escort,” Sadie told me. I could tell she was proud of herself—not just for what she’d done, but for something else too. I could read her like a fucking book in some ways, and in others she was like a foreign language.
“I told you it would be easy,” I said, sitting back in my chair.
“It was easier than I thought,” Sadie admitted to me. “I even got something out of it my own self.” I raised an eyebrow at that.
“Above and beyond the pleasure of knowing you’re one step closer to getting your brother off of my shit list?”
Sadie nodded. “I made it that I was doing a favor for Jack,” she said with a little grin. “I actually got him to agree to give me a cut of his end-of-year bonus when he gets it, if the client comes through thanks to the help of one of your girls.”
I couldn’t help grinning at her for that. Girl has a decent mind for crime, I thought. “Not bad,” I said, tapping my fingertips on the top of my desk. It was good to see her; I was a bit concerned at how good it felt to see her, especially with the confidence I could see on her face, totally different from the defiant type she’d had before. Sadie looked like she belonged in my office, like she knew she belonged there and that she didn’t care about how it looked or who I was.
The fact that she wasn’t rushing off to leave, either—that she just sat there after telling me the story about getting the gig for one of my girls, as if it were a normal, everyday thing— was kind of hot in its way. She wasn’t just “being brave”; she was actually doing this.
“I should probably meet with the girl you pick for the client before she goes to his hotel room,” Sadie pointed out.
“Why?”
“Your girls are used to…” Sadie paused and for a moment I could see a flicker of doubt on her face—reminding me of the first time she’d met with me, less than a week before. “They’re professionals, don’t get me wrong, but the clientele they’re used to likes things a bit—shall we say—up front,” Sadie said, giving me a look.
“Yeah, I get what you mean,” I told her, nodding.
“So since you’re obviously trying to move up in the world, client-wise, it’d probably be good if the first impression you give is a little more…” She pressed her lips together. “Business-oriented.”
“If you think you can pull it off, then go for it,” I told her with a shrug. I was more concerned with the prospect of getting my girls in hotel rooms with high-dollar businessman than with what they did in those hotel rooms or how they looked.
“It’ll ensure repeat business,” Sadie told me. “If the girls look like someone they could take downstairs to the hotel bar without attracting a bunch of notice, it’ll work out better for everyone.”
“I’ll put Lisa on it,” I told Sadie. “I’ll have her come here before she meets your client.”
Sadie nodded. I figured Lisa would be the best one to start with, since she had caught big fish clients before. It shouldn’t be too hard for Sadie to fix her up to be ready to spend the night with some rich asshole who wanted a little fun and companionship while he was in town. And Lisa could make the pitch for the drugs to the guy in a softball way; if he was already spending filet mignon prices, it wouldn’t matter so much whether he did the upgrade or not.
It was a bright spot in the otherwise shit week I was having.
“You look like you’re pissed off about something,” Sadie said, staring at me from the other side of my desk.
“Just business bullshit,” I said. I couldn’t trust her with what was really going on. When Rob had heard about the girls getting stiffed, he’d raged out. I could understand it—the guy hated Manny—but he’d shaken the girls up, and I couldn’t have that shit going on indefinitely. I needed to get to the bottom of the thefts.
It wasn’t just the girls, either; I’d had to fire a bunch of the runners—including Sadie’s brother—for owing me money, and all of them had said they’d been stolen from. I couldn’t give anyone a pass on that shit, but it was starting to look like someone knew more than they should about my operations, and that someone was taking advantage. Too many thefts going on, too little security. I’d have to make sure shit was on lock.
I’d started to wonder if it wasn’t Rob running the scam. Manny had tried to go after the guys who’d robbed the girls, but he hadn’t been able to find them out on the streets; he’d just been too late. But it had been when Rob was supposed to be switching over, going to take care of the girls while Manny went back to the bar to watch over things on that end of the business for the night. I always thought Manny had shown every sign of having my back, while Rob was bright enough and mean enough to go his own way if he felt like it.
“I’ll be back on Thursday when it’s time to meet with your girl before the client,” Sadie told me.
“Sure thing,” I said. “Get here early; I’ll have Lisa come by before the bar is even open. She can meet the guy for drinks, get a feel for him and all that.”
“I’ll make the final arrangements with Jack,” Sadie said with a little nod as she rose to her feet. Part of me wanted to find a reason to make her stay, propose that she let me take her over the edge of my desk again, or maybe ride my dick this time—but I didn’t have any good leverage over her. Not at the moment, anyway. Besides which, with shit going down in my businesses, and the next big move coming up, I needed to focus—not be distracted by the prospect of hot fucking.
# # #
Sadie
I got to Vagabond before the doors even opened for the night, the day that Micah’s girl Lisa was supposed to be meeting with Jack’s client. I’d finalized the details with Jack: he was going to have his client waiting in the hotel bar, and I’d send Micah’s girl in to meet with him. Jack would get the bill and I would file it for him—we’d decided on a way to submit it to the accounting department that wouldn’t get it immediately bounced. Lisa would get paid, Jack would most likely have an extremely satisfied potential client who would then go on to become an actual client, and from there things would go on.
But I knew—better than Micah—that Lisa, whoever she was, definitely needed to look a certain way. A guy the caliber of one of Jack’s clients wouldn’t actually care that he was having sex with a prostitute; he’d probably love the fact of it, especially since it was going to be all-expenses-paid. But he wouldn’t want to be seen in a four-star hotel lobby bar with a woman who was obviously a hooker. He wanted to look like he had a classy lady on his arm.
So I knocked on the door the way Micah had told me to when I’d made sure of when I would be coming, the day before. The door opened and I saw one of Micah’s guards; I thought it was Kenan, or something like that. “I’m here to see the man,” I told Kenan without batting an eyelash. I had a duffel slung over my shoulder with a couple of dresses, a makeup kit, things like that. I didn’t know what Lisa would look like, how she would dress, how much work would be needed; I didn’t want to do it halfway.
Earlier that day, Nate had actually stopped by my desk and had mentioned that Jack had told him about our “little arrangement.” Once I see how things work out for old Jackie, I might actually have someone I’d like you to match up with your acquaintances, Nate had told me.
“Did Jack tell you the price of my assistance?” Nate nodded. I had managed to wait until he’d left to snicker to myself. Not only was I getting my brother out of debt—and therefore out of mortal danger from Micah—but I was also going to make a tidy sum off of my coworkers for the privilege.
I followed Micah’s guard up the stairs to his office behind Vagabond, and thought to myself how bizarre it was that it was actually becoming somewhat normal to me, to go through the club and up the stairs, knowing that I was going to meet with Micah. The guard met with Brody—the fact that I knew the guy who always watched Micah’s door by name did startle me a bit—at the top of the stairs, and Brody spotted me, nodded, opened the door to the office.
Micah sat at his desk; for a second I didn’t see anyone else, and then I spotted the girl I was going to be sending in to work with one of Jack’s potential clients. Lisa was a tall, leggy blonde, which I thought was enhanced-natural. I took her in for a moment, and decided that her Forever 21 dress was not quite nice enough for the meeting, that the heels weren’t either, and that I was going to do her makeup and hair from scratch.
“Okay,” I said, swinging the duffel bag off of my shoulder as Brody closed the door behind me. “I’ve got a couple of dresses you can choose between, and you are taking all that makeup off.”
Lisa looked at Micah doubtfully, and I felt a little thrill of power when he shook his head at her. “This is her world. You want the work, you’ll do what she says,” he told her. I started taking the dresses and heels out of my bag. It looked to me like Lisa would just fit into the smaller sizes on the dresses, and fortunately her feet—like mine—appeared to be utterly average-sized, so there shouldn’t be any problem there.
I got to work under Micah’s watchful eye, turning the bar-fly prostitute into a respectable escort; Micah pretended to make phone calls, do something or another on his computer, but I could feel his gaze on me while I tweaked the fit of Lisa’s dress on her body, and then started on her hair and makeup. I wished I had time to actually wash her hair, but I would have to make do with what I had. I misted her down with some water from a spray bottle to soften the hair spray, and pulled her blonde locks back into something like a messy-elegant chignon, pinning everything into place. “You can keep the pins,” I told her absently. They were cheap enough that I didn’t even care—even if I could guarantee that I’d get every last one of them back, it was more trouble than it would be worth.
I re-made her face, focusing on contouring and giving her a clean look. I covered up the circles under her eyes, shaded her eyelids with neutral colors that would go well with her overall, more professional look. I painted and powdered and looked at her again and again. No one who saw her on the client’s arm would probably think that she was some innocent, some twenty-something with the guy just because he was charming; but by the time I’d finished with her makeup, I was pretty sure they’d at least decide she was a trophy-girlfriend-in-waiting, someone who was—on the outside—dating a rich guy in the hopes of getting a solid home. Lisa had stripped out of her dress and heels with nothing on underneath them without even batting an eyelash; Micah had barely glanced at her, instead—strangely enough—looking at me.
“What do you think?” I turned Lisa around in a circle for Micah’s approval.
“Looks like someone who belongs in a four-star hotel, on the arm of a rich fuck,” Micah said with a grin. He nodded to Lisa. “Kenan’s going to drive you to the hotel.” The girl left and I stood there in Micah’s office, kind of at a loss. The club downstairs was still hours away from opening, everything was quiet, and we were alone.
“I have a follow-up,” I told Micah. “I’ll have another client for one of your girls probably next week. One of my coworkers had heard from Jack.” Micah grinned and then just looked at me, and I felt my heart beating faster in my chest again.