The Deadline

by Kiki Swinson

  “Who is your boss? Looks like a lot of bosses in here,” I said, then turned away to look out into the crowd for emphasis of my point. As soon as I turned around, I could feel the heat of someone’s hard gaze on me. Oh, shit! I screamed in my head. It was Barker . . . staring right at me. I was immediately unnerved, but I had to play it cool. This was a matter of life or death at that point.

  “Follow me and I’ll show you who my boss is,” the man said, moving away from the bar and getting in front of me so I could follow him.

  I inhaled deeply as we made our way to an area of the club that was closer to the VIP section. I took a seat where I could still see Barker partying. Women surrounded him as he took in the attention like he needed it to breathe. He laughed as the women scrambled around him like paid entertainers. A vision of Barker’s wife flashed through my mind, then his beautiful little boy, and lastly I saw those little girls that had been herded out of a truck at that warehouse. My jaw rocked, but I kept a partial smile on my face. I knew I needed to look friendly or I might get my ass tossed out of this private party.

  “You, I want you,” Barker slurred, pointing to a tall, slim, muscular girl standing right next to me. My shoulders slumped with relief. I wanted to be close, but not so close that this nasty bastard had to touch me the way he was touching those women. I watched the slim girl rush over and put her breasts in Barker’s face, and then a man walked over, dumped a small mound of cocaine on the table, and grabbed the girl’s hair and made her snort it. Barker threw his head back and laughed.

  “My kind of woman!” he yelled. Then the same man forced the girl’s head from the table into Barker’s crotch. Loud laughter followed.

  I watched as the girls around Barker were forced to snort lines of cocaine and chase it down with shot after shot of Patrón. By the time the VIP section was almost cleared out, most of them could hardly stand. Barker and the girl he’d chosen were fondling and licking each other as his people tried to urge him to leave.

  “I’m the fucking boss. I’m going to be the mayor. I say when it’s time,” Barker slurred.

  I hadn’t seen him take drugs, but he’d certainly had his fill of drinks. I’d been dying to take out my cell phone to get pictures, but it was too risky. I knew I was being watched. If the security wasn’t so deep, I could’ve taken the pictures right then, but I decided to wait. I wasn’t giving up until I got something from this undercover mission.

  I looked at my cell phone clock. It was already three o’clock in the morning. I remembered Kyle saying that when Barker had these private parties, he usually opted to stay downtown at the posh Crowne Plaza hotel for more wild partying and to scratch that sexual itch of his. As Barker prepared to leave, the girls he hadn’t chosen were herded out the door. Basically, kicked out. I prepared to join the herd, when the guy that had approached me earlier grabbed my arm again.

  “Hey,” he said, holding on to me.

  I whipped my head toward him. “You just don’t learn, huh?” I asked, annoyed.

  “You’ve been picked for the after party,” he said.

  My heart started pounding. The first thing I thought about was Kyle not being there with me and not knowing where I would be.

  “Is that how this works? He picks who he wants,” I asked.

  “Yeah, and we just do what he asks,” he said, shrugging. Something in his eyes told me he wasn’t down for the bullshit Barker was doing, but he worked within this shit and had to comply or die.

  This guy was sweet on me. I could tell. Right away I thought he might be a good source of more information to use for my story.

  “I guess I have no choice,” I replied. And I really didn’t. If I wanted the real dirt, I was going to have to go along with whatever came my way.

  “Not really,” the guy said. He led me toward where a different group of women was standing. As we walked, I figured I’d probe him and see how far I could get. If he even answered one question, I would know I had him. If he told me to shut the fuck up, I would know I was in big damn trouble and about to see and do God knows what to get this story.

  “What’s your name?” I asked the guy, batting my eyelashes this time. I might as well have played along to get what I want.

  “Dee,” he answered vaguely, as if he had just come up with that off the dome.

  “Nice to meet you, Dee,” I said.

  “And yours?” he asked.

  “Kay,” I returned with a vague response of my own. I was cheering for myself silently. He’d not only answered my question, but he’d shown me he was interested. That was all I needed.

  9

  ON A MISSION

  We left the club and headed to the hotel. The women being transported with me in the Mercedes Sprinter minibus were all in different stages of intoxication. The scent of sweat, perfume, ass, and weed made for a bad mix of odors wafting around the vehicle. I was out of my league, for sure. These chicks obviously sold ass for a living. Who else would allow themselves to be herded around like cattle going to slaughter? It would take some skill for me to remain calm when I got close to Barker. I’d been in real sketchy undercover roles as a reporter before, but I was confident in my abilities. We were loaded out of the vehicle a couple at a time. Dee, my new friend, made sure I was in the group of girls following him.

  “Good evening,” Dee said to the concierge behind the desk at the hotel. The man nodded and smiled politely, like he was very familiar with Dee.

  “You know who sent me. He’s had a wild night and wants me to prepare the rooms,” Dee said, sounding official. The man behind the desk made a face that read as a mixture of understanding and disgust at the same time.

  “You know how it can get, so make sure you secure the entire floor. It can get very wild,” Dee said, using his hands to depict a sexual act. “No one we don’t know is to come up to that floor at all. You know the drill, but I was told to repeat it. Absolutely imperative that you secure the adjoining rooms and everything,” Dee said, sliding money across the counter in the man’s direction.

  I furtively snapped a picture with my cell phone. This was solid proof of Barker having his people pay off others to keep their secrets.

  “Yes.” The man smiled, quickly placing his hand on top of the cash and sliding it off the counter. “The usual?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Dee said. He picked up a stack of card keys, spoke to another guy standing by, and then had us all head for the elevators.

  * * *

  When we got upstairs, a few of us were taken into a suite where there was music playing and the party continued.

  “So, what happens now?” I asked Dee as I boldly walked over to him.

  “You can wait and see,” he answered stoically. All of a sudden his mood changed. I walked away as more men filed in and out of the room. They partied with girls and some took them and left.

  Almost an hour later, Barker and his companion entered the suite. A rush of excitement and nervousness flooded my body, causing my skin to feel tingly and sensitive. I followed them with my eyes and read Barker’s mouth as he told one of the guys he was going to the room next door. With the extra key I grabbed from the table next to the lamp, I quickly slipped out before Dee noticed and anyone else could miss me—or at least I hoped they didn’t.

  I got inside the other room and hid in the bathroom, pulling the shower curtain closed as I stepped into the tub. I heard when Barker came inside with the same slim, big-busted girl from the club. I listened to the sound of smacking and sucking and pictured Barker and the girl from the club tongue kissing and fondling each other.

  “Let me go freshen up,” I heard the girl say to Barker.

  “Hurry up!” I heard him reply, sounding like he wasn’t happy.

  My heart raced as I heard the girl step into the bathroom and lock the door. I peeked out from a small opening in the pulled shower curtain and watched the girl undress. Just like I had suspected, her breasts were huge, unnatural-looking implants, but as I watched the girl fini
sh undressing, something else happened that I didn’t expect. The door opened and a little girl walked inside.

  Oh, shit! I cupped my hands over my mouth and watched the slim girl grab the little girl through the doorway.

  I shook my head. These motherfuckers are sick!

  “What does he want you to do?” the slim girl asked the little girl, who couldn’t be any more than thirteen years old. The little girl shrugged.

  “They gave me this,” she said, holding up a flimsy piece of lace lingerie.

  The slim girl shook her head in disgust. “Nasty motherfuckers. Just know I am not okay with this,” she whispered to the little girl. Then she went about helping the little girl dress up to look more like a grown woman. While I watched, I gripped my father’s hunting knife in my bag until my knuckles paled. I felt all kinds of emotions swirling around me like hurricane-force winds. I thought about Kyle’s warnings and I knew I was trapped and had to be quiet. I was there to get pictures and information. I was there to get evidence. I was there to bring down the would-be mayor who’d proven himself to be a disgusting piece of shit. I had a brand-new resolve inside me. I was ready.

  The blonde went into her purse and retrieved a small glassine envelope of cocaine, dumped a tiny mound onto the back of her hand, and inhaled deeply.

  “Ah! I’m going to need this to fuck this nasty old motherfucker,” the slim girl whispered. “You should take one too. It’ll make it easier to cope,” she said to the little girl.

  That made me furious. I went to pull back that curtain and stop that baby from taking those drugs, but then . . .

  “Aye! C’mon! I don’t have all night!”

  The slim girl, the little girl, and I all jumped when Barker banged on the bathroom door and started yelling for them to hurry up.

  “I’m coming!” the slim girl called out in a fake, flirty voice.

  “Shut the fuck up and wait,” the slim girl grumbled quietly, grabbing the shower curtain and yanking it back. Her eyes popped open and her mouth dropped open into a wide O. She was so shocked to see me, a scream got stuck and wouldn’t come out.

  “Shh,” I warned, putting the point of my knife out in front of me.

  The girl closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Tears immediately drained from the corners of her eyes. The little girl covered her mouth with her hands.

  “Don’t scream. I’m going to help you,” I whispered to the little girl.

  “I have nothing to do with his business. I’m not the one you want. I just get paid to be here,” the slim girl whispered.

  “You need to go out there and distract him so I can get this little girl out of here,” I whispered back harshly, pushing the knife into the slim girl’s skin just before it was enough to draw any blood. “Put this in the room with you somewhere. I need to make sure I have this on tape,” I said to her, sliding a tiny pin camera to her. She nodded her head up and down vigorously in agreement. She had no idea who I was and was probably thinking she’d just stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

  I motioned with my head for her to leave before Barker came busting in there. I was thanking God a million times in my head that the bathroom of the suite was closer to the exit than anything, and the bedroom part had a door.

  The slim girl did as she was told. I reached over and turned the shower on so that Barker wouldn’t hear anything when the little girl and I made our escape. I made her put on my jacket over that lingerie, which was ten times too big for her underdeveloped body. I stopped the slim girl right before she left the bathroom.

  “How many men came up here with him?” I whispered.

  The slim girl shrugged her shoulders.

  I got closer to her and squinted my eyes. “Don’t be coy now. I am trying to help us all get out of here alive. I won’t leave you for dead,” I huffed in her face.

  “Fuck,” she panted, wiping the sweat off of her head. “You must not know how dangerous these people are. You think I want to be here? If I could just run, I would have already,” she whispered harshly.

  “I’ll ask you again—how many men are out there?” I whispered through clenched teeth as I held the knife perilously close to the slim girl’s throat.

  “They’re all in the adjoining rooms. He wanted to be alone with me and her,” the girl sobbed. “Nobody knows about his . . . um . . . secret,” she said, darting her eyes to the little girl cowering in the corner. “So he . . . um . . . doesn’t allow them in the suite with us. They are all fucked-up drunk and high and probably sleep or are fucking some of the whores he keeps around. He was supposed to be here for the night. They said they did a sweep before we came up here,” the slim girl relayed. “Please, just get her out of here safely. Don’t worry about me, I really hate that he makes me bring kids into the bed. It’s . . . it’s not my thing and I think he’s disgusting,” she cried.

  “I will get her out and I’ll make sure I meet up with you to get that video. Give me your name and number,” I said, pushing my cell phone forward.

  “I’m Shara,” she said with a drag of sadness in her tone. “I have to go. You’re saving her, but I’ll have to deal with this sick bastard and his shit if I don’t get out there now.”

  “Get out here!” Barker boomed from somewhere on the other side of the door.

  I stepped back and watched as Shara exhaled, shook off her fear, and stepped out into the room. I heard her talking to Barker, saying the little girl had to use the bathroom and urging him into the bedroom until the little girl was ready. That had been good thinking on her part. I had a good feeling about Shara. She might be useful to me as an eyewitness for my news story later.

  I reached out my hand toward the little girl and she grabbed mine. She was shaking all over. But, shit, so was I. “Scared” was an understatement to describe what I was experiencing at that moment. I was somewhere between being completely and utterly terrified and falling into a damn coma. Judging from the time my father was shot in front of me, I think this one takes the top spot, which means that I’ve never been this frightened in my life.

  I pulled myself together and opened the bathroom door a crack. I could see that most of the suite was dark but for a tiny sliver of light coming from the bedroom. I yanked the door all the way this time and tugged on the little girl to follow me. It was time for us to make a run for it. At first, the tiny, trembling girl just stood there. I shot her a serious look and moved my face close to hers so I could speak so that she understood the seriousness in my tone.

  “You have to come on. We will have to run,” I whispered harshly. “We don’t have time to play around.” I took her by the hand and roughly tugged her harder this time.

  “If you don’t come on now, I’ll leave you here and he will rape you. Do you understand that?” I said through my teeth. That finally spurred the little girl into action and she started to move right along with me. She better had, because if not, all of this risky business would’ve been for nothing.

  When we stepped out of the bathroom into the suite, the room was dark, but I could still see the objects from the light poles outside of the parking lot. I hesitated a few seconds, letting my eyes adjust to the poorly lit room. In the room I could hear loud music coming from the room next door and something like wrestling sounds coming from the suite bedroom. That made me think of Shara and what sick shit she might be enduring at the hands of Barker. I could tell that he was an over-the-top pervert. Fucking bastard! I couldn’t wait to expose his ass.

  I shook off the thoughts that might’ve made me bust up in that bedroom part of the suite and kick his ass to save Shara from his shit. I craned my neck and squinted until I could see a clear path to the door. I used my fingers and hands to make signals to the little girl to tell her that we were going to the door, so she knew to follow me closely. She nodded her head like she was ready. I carefully inched to the door, slowly twisted the doorknob, and opened the door a crack. I didn’t see anyone standing right outside the door, but that didn’t mean there weren’t gu
ards somewhere in the vicinity. I knew better than to think Barker would be in the suite without security on tap somewhere close. I couldn’t stay in the room, so I’d have to take the chance. A flash of panic lit in my chest and almost made me freeze in place, like I usually did when I was stressed-out like this.

  C’mon, Khloé, you can do this. You have been through worse and gotten out of it. This is to save you and this baby. You can’t get weak now. You’re better than that. You got this. You got this. I gave myself a strict pep talk silently in my head.

  Slowly and quietly I moved with the sneakiness of a sly fox. When I got into the hallway, I signaled the little girl to move fast. I dragged her along so fast that her feet were barely hitting the floor before she was being pulled. We both moved like two tiny gazelles. My breath came out of my mouth in raggedy, jagged puffs. I whipped my head from side to side frantically. This hallway seemed to be miles long. What the fuck? I cussed to myself. I couldn’t see one damn door for us to run through to get to the steps. I knew getting on the elevator was a no-no. That would be like walking right into a trap. Besides, we had no time to stand and wait for an elevator. And my best guess was that Barker would have several men posted up by the elevators, just in case anyone got wind of him being in the hotel and tried to come on his floor for a quick photo opportunity, or, worse, do like me and get an entire news story on his ass.

  Just as the little girl and I almost cleared the hallway, I almost lost my heart through my mouth. The little girl sucked in her breath so hard, it sounded like a round of hiccups.

  “Hey! You!” a man’s booming voice called after us. “Hey! Girl! Where are you going?” he yelled, standing still at the opposite end of the hallway. He must’ve thought we were those programmed bitches they had in those rooms, and that we would just stop at his commands. He thought fucking wrong.