“I told you. It’s simple. Business. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I hear you have girls to sell and I’m in the market to buy some. If I’m satisfied with our initial transaction, I’d be open to doing further business with you.”
“You’re not a cop?”
“Hell, no,” I said, laughing and shaking my head. “Not by a long shot.”
He nodded, slowly, squinting his eyes again as if he were trying to get a psychic reading on me.
“So why haven’t I heard of you before?” He asked.
“Most of my operations are on the East Coast. I’m looking to expand.”
He nodded, pouring another shot and staring over at me thoughtfully.
“Time is money,” I said.
“That’s true,” he replied, “but time management isn’t the only important thing in this business. I’ve found that intuition is also of great importance, don’t you agree?”
“I do.”
“I’m glad. And here’s what you might not know about me, Grace,” he said, leaning in close across the table. I felt Nate shift beside me. “Despite my charm and handsome, eager smile, I’m actually not the most trusting person in the world.”
“Is that so?”
“It is,” he nodded. “So, you can understand why I’m not just going to sell off my best product to someone I just met, can’t you?”
“Sure,” I replied.
“Good. So there’s that,” he said. “But also, I really don’t think you can afford my prices.”
“You’d be surprised,” I said, lifting my chin.
He laughed and shook his head.
“My girls are very valuable. I can make at least a grand, maybe two, off each of them in just a few days.”
“I understand that,” I nodded.
“So, while it’s important for me to keep things fresh around here, while they’re here, each girl is an asset.”
“And when they lose their luster?”
“That’s when I turn an even bigger profit, because then I can sell in bulk.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “I understand the value, Snake. I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t. I’m prepared to compensate you generously.”
“Are you really? I’m talking twenty grand a girl, at least. More for the younger ones.”
“Yes, really, Snake. I didn’t come here to play games. In fact, I’m prepared to offer you double your asking price.”
“Double? Why in the hell would you want to do that?” he asked, his brow wrinkled.
“Well, I would have to inspect the merchandise first, obviously. But if your girls are as high quality as you’ve stated, then to me, they’re worth it.”
“Why?”
“Forgive me, Snake. I haven’t fully explained my plans to you. In New York, I run an elite agency, something unlike anyone else offers. Handpicked girls, the best girls, the ones that got lost in the shuffle and have serious potential to make thousands upon thousands of dollars. I clean them up, dress them — polish them, if you will — and you’d be surprised how my income has soared. Just as you have a need to keep things new and exciting, my clients desire variety as well. That’s why I’m here. I want to do the same thing in L.A. That’s why I’ll pay you double for your best girls, after I choose them personally, of course.”
He sat back, folding his hands behind his head and staring back at me.
“That’s smart,” he said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“There’s still one problem,” he said, shaking his head.
“What’s that?”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“Of course you don’t. You just met me, why would you? You’re smarter than that, I’d guess. So, tell me,” I said, leaning in slightly across the table, “what can I do to make you more comfortable?”
“That’s a good question.”
He squinted his eyes again before his face lit up with an idea.
“I’ve got it,” he said, his eyes raking down to my breasts. “Let’s just party. I’ll give you a tour, we’ll drink a little, hang out for a while and see where things go, what do you say?”
“Now?”
“Hell, yeah, why not?”
“I can stay for a little while,” I said.
He smiled widened and he finally met my eyes.
“Snake?” I whispered, smiling back at him.
“Yes?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m not fucking you.”
He burst out laughing and nodded.
“Duly noted,” he said.
“Great. So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s party. But I do have to get going soon.”
“You got a man waiting or something?”
“Something like that,” I winked.
“A woman?” he asked.
“I don’t kiss and tell,” I said, flashing him a smile.
“Alright, alright,” he said, downing another shot of whiskey and pushing the shot glasses over to me and Nate. He looked over at Nate and nodded. “You don’t talk much.”
“Grace does all the talking,” he said.
“Well, I hope she doesn’t do all the drinking.”
Nate downed his shot and shook his head.
“No way.”
“Excellent,” he said, pouring another shot and lifting his glass. “Well, here’s to getting to know each other.”
Our glasses clinked together and we downed our shots. I smiled over at Snake and nodded towards the front door.
“How about that tour?” I asked.
“You got it,” he said, sliding out of the booth and grabbing the bottle of whiskey to take with him. Nate and I followed behind and I couldn’t help but feel a little jolt of joy.
It was working…
CHAPTER 9
NATE
The dude was falling for it.
Snake seemed to be believing our story hook, line and sinker. Grace had him eating out of the palm of her hand. I’d expected a lot more resistance, and while this goose wasn’t cooked yet — we still needed to get him to trust us, as he’d said — I was pretty sure the money Grace dangled in front of him like a gold plated carrot was enough to get him to agree to do business with us.
Business.
It was all so fucking cold and clinical, when in reality, it was nothing but.
Snake began giving us a tour of the place and as soon as I saw the first ‘girl’ as Snake kept calling them, my stomach turned.
This place was dirty. And raw. Painful and sad.
Snake led us down a dark, dusty hallway that led to a heavy metal door that led outside. We crossed a paved open clearing that spread between the clubhouse and another building. It was dark, the cold rain hitting our shoulders as we passed by a group of members smoking under a ledge, their hulking frames lit up by an overhead light. Their heads turned, watching as we strolled by.
Silently, Grace and I followed Snake into the other building.
The smell hit me at once.
While the clubhouse smelled like an old bar, the air filled with smoke and stale beer, it was familiar and miserable — and even though this smell was just as miserable, it was different.
It was stark and sharp and pungent — it was human. Like old sweaty sheets, it was sour, sick, bloody.
I glanced over at Grace and saw her flinch slightly. She steeled herself, lifting her chin as we followed Snake down a hallway, towards the rancid stench.
Beginning softly, almost imperceptibly, the soft sounds of a woman crying grew louder with each step we took. Echoed afterwards by sounds of whispered comforting murmurs, my heart cracked for the first time.
“The girls mostly hang out together. I rotate them in and out of the back room of the bar, which I’ll show you when we go back. That’s where we do business. I figured you’re more interested in seeing the back stock, instead of the heavily handled merchandise up front.” He winked, like his joke was supposed to be funny. Grace laughed
, going along with him, nodding and agreeing, playing his game.
All I knew was that with every callous word he spoke about these girls, it became more and more difficult to resist slamming his face into the concrete floor. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that. Not yet anyway. I had to remember we were in this for the long haul and my fantasies of revenge for these girls would have to wait until they were safe.
In the meantime, I was packing every fucking word away in my memory so that when I finally got the chance to demolish him, I could savor every reason why all over again.
For now, I followed Grace’s lead. Smiling, laughing, nodding.
He paused, unlocking and then turning the doorknob of a black door at the end of a hallway. The sound of female chattering poured out, only to come to a complete halt as the door swung open. Dozens of heads turned our way, curious eyes wide with questions.
“Don’t mind us, ladies,” Snake said, smiling at the girls. “Go back to what you were doing, I’m just giving a tour of the place to my friends here.”
Blinking eyes met our gaze, the silence deafening as they all looked at us.
I could hardly look back.
With a sweeping glance, I took it all in.
The smell was nothing compared to the sight before me.
Dozens of mattresses lined the floor. Some were covered in linens — dirty sheets, tattered blankets, moldy pillows, clothes strewn all over them. But some were bare, covered in stains that I didn’t even want to think about. All of the mattresses were occupied. Girls lay two or three to each one, splayed out in various states of undress. Some conscious. Some not.
Those that weren’t looked the most peaceful of all.
The ones awake were either crying or consoling those that were.
None of them looked healthy, in any sense of the word.
I cringed when I saw the three little girls in the far corner. They were young, way too young to be subjected to a reality like this. But nobody deserved this, I thought. Not one person on Earth.
“So, as you can see, there’s quite a variety. Do you have a certain type you’re looking for?” Snake asked Grace.
Grace’s eyes were hard and cold, her lips pressed into a thin line that she forced upward into a smile that never reached her eyes. I wondered if Snake was testing us. I wondered if he was still buying our act. Grace looked stricken and who could blame her?
I hardened my gaze, determined to keep all the disgust swirling around inside of me from bubbling to the surface.
“I’d like to look around a bit more,” Grace said. “It’ll take me a few moments to decide. I’ll choose a few to talk to before I make my final choices. I need my girls to be well-spoken and polite, of course.”
“Sure, sure,” Snake said. “We can come back here later. Let’s go back to the bar and I’ll show you the room where most of the action takes place — if it’s not occupied, that is. Unless you’re into watching?”
Grace flashed him a wry smile and shook her head.
“I don’t mix business and pleasure,” she said, winking at him.
“You’re a fiery one, aren’t you? Quiet but smoldering, I can feel it.”
“Can you now?” she teased, flipping her hair. She was flirting slightly, playing into his game and he was slowly letting her in. I could tell by the way he stood closer to her, the way his hand brushed against her arm as he guided us out of the room. I glanced back before the door closed, my eyes landing on a shelf by the door that was littered with needles and empty vials and baggies smeared with white residue.
My gaze shot up and my eyes crashed into the eyes of one of the little girls in the corner. She looked at me, but she wasn’t there. Glassy and wet, her eyes were distant, the lids hooded and heavy as she stared towards us, a silent, weak plea that I couldn’t answer right now.
When I forced myself to turn away, that tiny crack in my heart broke wide open.
****
Half an hour later, we sat in the bar again, back in the booth with Snake as he finished off the rest of the bottle of Jim Beam. He poured us shot after shot, but he didn’t notice Grace pouring most of them on the floor under her feet when he wasn’t looking. His eyes were glassed over and he was completely relaxed, regaling us with hilarious stories from his youth. At least he thought they were hilarious.
I could hardly listen, my mind was clouded with what I’d seen. Haunted by the eyes of all of those girls, I couldn’t think of much else. I watched the back door, as man after man went in and out of the room in the back of the bar. Snake showed us what was in there, calling it the ‘action room’, and while there were only a few girls in there at a time, and the conditions of the room and the bed were a little nicer than the other warehouse, it wasn’t any better when you realized what went on in there.
The girls were drugged and docile and sick. All of that, just to go in there to be abused. I was disgusted.
“My old man took me on a cross country trip when I turned eighteen,” Snake said, “taught me how to rob banks that summer. We hit a dozen places, never got caught.”
Rage began to fill my veins as Snake rattled on and on, bragging about his skills, either completely oblivious, or more likely, not giving a shit, about the abuse he was responsible for heaping upon those women. Resisting the urge to knock him out was getting more difficult by the minute.
“Excuse me, Snake?” I asked. “Where’s the men’s room?”
“Time to drain the snake, eh?” He winked.
“Uh, yeah,” I said, glancing at Grace. “You okay for a minute?”
“Of course,” she nodded. “I’ll be right here.”
“Down the hall to the right,” he said.
“Thanks,” I nodded. “I’ll be right back.” I threw a pointed glance at Grace, unsure about leaving her alone. But if I didn’t walk away for just a moment, I was afraid of what I might do. Snake’s face was looking more and more like it needed a serious beat down and I’d never been good at restraint, to be honest.
I was working on it, I really was. I’d been working on controlling my anger for years. I used to blow up, lash out at the slightest thing. But I’d gotten older, matured, learned that if I just removed myself from the situation, if I let myself cool down a little, then most situations could be resolved without resorting to violence.
Tonight, that effort required a little more inner strength than I was used to calling upon. I was determined to do this right, for Grace’s sake, for the club’s sake, hell, for the sake of my brother and my friend, and most of all, for the sake of those girls.
I found the bathroom and did my business, taking a second to look in the mirror and take a deep breath.
“You can kill him later,” I said to the man staring back at me. That man was angry. It was in his eyes, pouring off of him like lava, in fact. “Just do your job.”
Do my job.
Right.
I took another deep breath, washed my hands, and walked back out. I headed down the hallway and back into the bar, searching for Grace. My first thought was that I was grateful she was sitting just where I’d left her. But then I saw she was alone, and Snake was walking right towards me with another man by his side, chatting like old friends.
Shit.
I squinted my eyes, hoping I was seeing wrong. But when the guy turned his head my way, there was no mistaking it. It was Charlie Harrison, an old prospect of the Gentlemen, also known as Scary Charlie. He was missing an eye, covering the gaping hole with a black eyepatch that he loved to lift without warning to scare children. He’d shown up not long after I’d been patched in, while Eli was in the Army.
He was a total asshole, definitely not a ‘gentleman’, by any means. In fact, Dad threw his ass out of the club not long after he began prospecting because he beat the shit out of his wife, right in front of his three year-old daughter.
I’d recognize his ugly face anywhere. The problem was that he would know mine just as easily. I turned around and realized I was trapped. The men�
��s room was a wide-open room, with no stalls to hide in. The only other escape was a heavy door behind me that appeared to lead outside.
It was my only choice.
I ran down the hallway, praying like hell opening the back door wouldn’t sound any alarms. I turned the knob while holding my breath. I paused, thankful for the silence, as I pushed open the door and closed it quickly behind me, just as I saw Charlie and Snake enter the hallway.
I took a moment to look around while I caught my breath, my heart pounding in my chest as rain began pouring down on me. I didn’t care. I was just happy I got away.
That was fucking close. If Charlie told Snake who I was, our cover would be blown completely. And who knows what they’d do? What Snake would do? The smile on his face said he was friendly and easy-going, but I’d known men with eyes like Snake’s. I knew what they were capable of.
The door had led me to a small outdoor area behind the clubhouse. Secluded away from the main courtyard area between the buildings, it was partially blocked off by the dumpster and recycling bins on my right. A dim light hung over the door, illuminating the tight space.
I took a step towards the chain link fence to my left and my boot kicked over a coffee can full of cigarette butts that was sitting next to the door, the butts falling out everywhere as the can rolled away towards the fence, hitting it with a loud clang that rang out into the darkness.
“Fuck!” I whispered, crouching down and scooping the wet, ashy mess back in the can as best as I could. I placed the can back by the door, then waited a few minutes, the rain soaking me completely. I’d have to come up with a reason I was so wet. I couldn’t just go back to the table dripping wet without an explanation.
If I could go back to the table at all, that is.
Deciding to just peek in the door, I turned the knob to go back in.
Locked.
“Shit,” I growled.
My options were few. I pulled the burner phone out of my pocket and started to dial Grace’s number, but stopped. What if Snake and Charlie were back at the table? I didn’t want them coming and opening the door. I shoved the phone into the back pocket of my Levi’s and headed around the dumpster.
SAVING GRACE: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK SIX) Page 6
