The Madame (The Chloe Chronicals)

by Eden Rose

“Nah, I would rather have you here,” the words slip out of my mouth before I can stop them. Shit! I didn’t mean to say that. It’s the pregnancy hormones, it has to be.

  He pushes off the wall and walks over to me. “No, what did you just say?” I shake my head and he comes closer. “I think you just said that you want me to stay here.”

  “I’m sleep deprived.” I mumbled and then walked over to the foyer to grab the rest of my shit. Once I have shoved my feet into some uncomfortable shoes, I turn around. “Come on, let’s go.”

  *

  For the past twenty minutes, we have skirted around what I said at my place by talking about everything but that. Like seriously, about everything else. We discussed his family and how he’s liking being with the FBI. We discussed how my parents are dirtballs who don’t pay attention to anyone but themselves.

  He has my hand lightly tucked in his and it feels good. It’s almost like waking up to a new day with the sun shining. You know? One of those days that just starts off so great and you want to give money to the homeless man outside of your apartment?

  No?

  I’m not crazy. Those days do exist and I’m having one of them right now.

  Despite the fact that I have been throwing up so much. I need to start seeing the beauty in everything. Or at least that is what Mable used to say. I probably should call her and talk about what is happening with me and my pregnancy. As much as I hated going to see her, I need to talk to someone about this.

  By the time that we get there, I’m more anxious to get out of the car in order to avoid talking about anything that needs to be talked about. That is the last thing I want to talk about. What the hell did I say earlier?

  Jesus. I’m fucking crazy.

  “You ready, Anya?”

  I nod my head and hold it high even though I want to go home and curl up in bed. Pregnancy is going to kick my ass and I’m not interested in it. Fuck my life.

  I knock on the door and when I don’t hear anything, I twist the handle and walk right in with Howard behind me. I chuckle inwardly because I can feel the heat of his stare on my ass. “Stop,” I hiss and fight the urge to shake it.

  “Yeah, right.”

  We walk to the back of the warehouse where Barry told us he was at and there are a plethora of different computers and printers around. Barry is currently directing Vlad and Dom about something so neither of them notice us.

  “You want help?” I ask trying to break in my Russian accent.

  All three of them turned their heads to look at me and Vlad nodded to the computer next to him. Even though it’s darker than necessary in the room, I know he’s wearing his clergy uniform. This is fucking crazy. He’s a priest and he’s dealing in the skin trade.

  I take my seat next to him and the computer screen wakes up. There’s a list on there of different profiles ranging from women to men and they are all in series of different positions. “We are looking for our next girls. Natasha comes soon to bring old ones out.”

  Wait. Natasha is still working with them? Since when? I was under the impression that she worked for us now. I knew no one should trust her. Howard nods his head in a silent way of telling me that he is making a note to tell James of this.

  “Where old girls?” I ask and look around.

  Dom stands up and laces his fingers with mine when he stands in front of me. Holy shit. My hormones are going crazy right now and I have a bunch of tingles running through my body on full fledge speed.

  I let him lead me out of the room and down a little hall that is full of red walls. There is literally nothing on the walls. They are completely empty and they look scary as hell.

  “Anya, how long you been in American?” His silky voice asks and his eyebrows rise.

  I fight my laughter because he said American instead of America. Silly fucking people. However, I’m thinking his accent is a little manufactured. It doesn’t seem authentic. “Not long,” I remark.

  He chuckles and then points to a room. I walk first into the room and am instantly hit with the smell of bleach. It’s putrid and straight up abrasive. I can’t help the gagging that I feel in the back of my throat as I breathe it in and I want to leave.

  “Girls are this way,” he says as he walks past me. But he doesn’t miss the opportunity to brush up against me.

  God damn it. I need to get laid something bad. My arousal is being manipulated by this oxymoron of a man. He’s a fucking priest but deals in the skin trade. Never saw that one coming.

  I follow behind him and take in my surroundings. Again, the walls are bare but the floor is filled with random marks that look as if something was dragged across them. Dom must realize my questions because he stands behind me and places his hand on my back.

  “Sometimes, we have to do things we don’t want to do.”

  Howard- Then

  I watched Chloe be led off by the man that I want to kill. Not only is he hurting innocent women, but he’s toying with the one woman that I would kill for.

  As a cop, I have killed before. I’m not proud of it, but for the first time I have something that I’m willing to kill or be killed for.

  Chloe Delacruz.

  God damn it.

  I’m messed up. I know for a fact that she’s harboring some major secret from Grant and I want to know what he did to her to make her so angry. So I could thank him.

  Barry must realize what I’m thinking about because he clears his throat and when I look at him he flips me off. Once our eyes are locked, he mouths knock it the fuck off.

  I shrug him off and then sit in the rolling chair next to Vlad. “What are we looking for?” I ask and shake the mouse.

  “We are looking for new girls. Click on the link that is highlighted and search for girls. We want blondes, brunettes, redheads… it doesn’t matter. We need a variety and they must be ready to leave.”

  “How do I know-” I begin but then I cut myself off. This is not the time to ask questions. I’m wanting to ask about the girls I saw him with before since I’m curious as to what happened to them. However, this is the opposite of the right time to ask.

  I scroll through the grid of a website that kind of reminds me of online dating websites. There are so many women out there that are looking for jobs and certain people to help themselves. It’s almost as if I’m God or something. No matter which one I pick, I could be setting them up for a world of hurt. My decision can alter their lives forever.

  Not to mention, the ones that I don’t pick. There is no telling if they are going to be saved from this either. Hell, I’m a monster right now.

  Vlad leans over my shoulder and I’m tempted to shove him off. “What?” I bark and roll my shoulders back.

  “These girl,” he points to the screen and then nods.

  I click on her ad and I meet Emily McCloud. There is something about the name and the way that she looks that strikes me as familiar.

  Hello, my name is Emily and I’m looking for a particular type of work. My expertise is quite special and I would be happy to tell you all about it. Please email me if you have any questions about me. I look forward to meeting you. Really, looking forward to it. ;)

  She has some big ass brown hair that takes up more than half of her face and her lips are big and puffy. Why does she look so familiar? Especially her name. I don’t know how I know her.

  It’s weird picking her profile and flagging it to show Dom and Vlad later. I can almost feel myself signing my soul to the devil. There is no redemption for me now.

  “We pick up these girl later. Natasha is coming later today to pick up old ones.”

  “Did you find buyers for the old ones?” I ask and then instantly blast myself with insults. I don’t need to know the answer to that because it’s going to make me more depressed.

  I’m already trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to be normal after this and it makes me feel more selfish than needed.

  He laughs a little and then points to the door. “Some. And some I kept
. Go take a look.”

  On wobbly legs, I stand up and walk towards the door that he pointed to. Once I have my hand on the knob, I turn it and am met with the sounds of whimpering and sobbing.

  The smell is something terrible and I can’t help my bowels when vomit comes shooting out of me. I brace my hands on my knees and begin to puke my guts out in the corner.

  It smells like human waste in here. There is no other way to categorize what it’s like in here. There are women that are laying haphazardly in the hallway and there are some that are on little cots. I see one woman bustling between the cots with a needle in her hand. My guts churn again when I see that she is inserting it into their bodies.

  I knew that drugs had to be involved after listening to Natasha’s testimony, but I guess I didn’t allow myself to fully think it out.

  One woman in particular- and when I use that word to describe her, it’s stretching it- she doesn’t look much older than fourteen. This is going to be hell for her and I feel my heart begin to soften.

  My stupid fucking heart.

  Nothing good can come from that.

  There’s a scream behind me and I turn quickly to see a woman wearing a nurse outfit standing there with her mouth open. She doesn’t look American or Russian. It’s evident that her appearance is of Spanish descent but she’s looking at me as if I’m a monster.

  “You leave. You leave girl alone,” she barks at me and busts past.

  “Excuse me?” I yell back at her and she begins to cry.

  “What the fuck is happening here?”

  I turn to the voice that is laced with Russian and am met with Dom and his arm is over Chloe. She’s looking at me as if she can tell that I’m pissed and she doesn’t want me to make a big scene out of what is happening. I know that if I act to irrational, people could die.

  I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her. The problem is, I crave being with her and it’s disgusting. I fucking hate myself that I’m craving my best friend and old partner’s girl. Plus, she’s now the mother of his child.

  “What’s going on?” Chloe asks in that broken English and looks from me and then to the scene. I can see her eyes get wider and wider as she takes in everything. Her face turns green.

  The woman that came to me before about leaving the woman alone, comes forward and points at me. “He messing with girls. I told him no.”

  Dom squeezes his arm around Chloe and then kisses her cheek. My eyes get wider and I start to walk forward but she stops me with her eyes. Fuck. I need to get out of here. She’s going to get me in trouble and I can feel it.

  “Were you around the girls?” Dom asks and then takes inventory of the girls in their cots. “You aren’t looking good. Damn,” he leans down to look at one of the girls who is laying on the floor. “Get rid of her.”

  Before any of us can say anything, he has turned around started walking back towards Chloe. “Come on, my precious one. Let’s continue.”

  Chloe- THen

  By continuing, he means helping me find ways to puke my guts out. I found out I am pregnant only just a bit ago and now I’m being subjected to conditions that I wouldn’t even put a farm animal in. Fuck. I’m an FBI agent and I wouldn’t even put a rapist in this place.

  “Where is the, uh, bathroom?” I ask and start shifting from side to side to show him that I’m serious about finding the bathroom. Really, I am. I’m about to puke up my stomach and probably all of the other organs that are in my body.

  He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and then I realized my mistake. That fucking accent. “Down the hall.”

  I quickly run past him and down the hall as fast as I could without drawing too much attention to myself. But I don’t know how else that could have gone down really.

  I heave my insides into the toilet and then when I’m confident that I don’t have anymore, I flush the toilet and then wipe my mouth off with the back of my hand. Yeah, super lady like. Bite me, fuckers.

  The smell from that room reminds me of the six months that I worked in the jail. Straight up stench of human filth. People that didn’t bathe because they were too busy getting high and trying to find their next fix. It’s absolutely horrid what people do to their bodies when they are addicted. The worst part is, you can’t even be mad at the girls for being addicts. They didn’t choose to be and they certainly didn’t choose to be here. This place is what nightmares are made of.

  Once I have brushed my teeth with the mini toothbrush that I keep in my purse, I shake out my hair. It’s still wet from my shower from earlier, but for the most part it is dry. I emerge from the bathroom to see Barry and Howard leaning against the wall. Barry has a “what the fuck is going on” look on his face and Howard looks as if someone told him that he was never getting laid again.

  “What is wrong with you?” Barry asks me and looks at me intently in the face as if he could read what I’m feeling. Which he could. He had always had the insane ability to read me.

  “Nothing,” shrug him off and walk away from him. I haven’t even passed him before he is grabbing onto the sleeve of my coat. “Nothing is wrong. Let’s go.”

  Barry tries to get me to stop again but Howard steps in front of him. “This is not the place nor the time. Let’s get this shit done and leave.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? Oh my fucking god. You-”

  “Shut the fuck up before I break your jaw, god damn it,” I yell.

  I push past both of them before they can stop me and walk right out into the main room again and see that the computers have been vacated and they are all standing in a line. Once I’ve walked up to them, I step up next to Dom and he smiles at me. Before I can ask what it going on, a line of girls come in.

  There is about fifteen different girls that are being led in by Natasha. Never in my life have I wanted to kill someone so badly before.

  “Everyone, line up against the wall,” she ordered and the girls looked at each other.

  Some were my age and some were older. Most of them are skinny little things with barely any curves. I shiver with the unfortunate possibilities of why they were chosen. Some people are just sick fucking bastards. All of them looked differently but all of them had the same look of fear. It was evident that they were afraid of being here and they should.

  Once the girls are against the wall, Dom comes through with a belt in his hand and his gun in the other. I watch as he commands the room and the girls cry harder.

  “Clothes off.”

  The girls begin to shake and look at each other out of the corner of their eyes. I could tell that some of them are questioning making a run for it, but they don’t get the chance. Vlad comes strolling into the room dragging a woman by her hair behind him.

  He holds her up and I see that she’s about a teenager weighing only a hundred pounds. Her blonde hair is unruly and she has tears streaming down her face. I wouldn’t have guessed she was such a spitfire but she’s yelling all sorts of swear words to Vlad.

  “Fuck you! You are going to burn in hell!” She yells.

  Vlad stops her in the middle of the floor and takes his gun out of his pocket. “I wvant everyone to pay attention to me. This is wvat happens wven you disobey me.”

  Have you ever had one of those moments that you wish you could do something but you can’t? This is one of those moments. I want to save this girl but I can’t fucking do anything. At all.

  I watch with my eyes bugged out as he slaps the girl in the face with the gun and she falls down. She’s still screaming at him which means she knows that she’s about to die. Maybe that is what she wanted ever since she stepped in through the door. Maybe she wanted to die. That way she wouldn’t have to live with what these bastards are going to do to her.

  He cocks the gun and fires it right in her forehead. There is a earsplitting scream as all of the girls start crying and reaching out to the one that just died. One of them, it looks as if she’s the dead girl’s sister or something, pulls away from everyone and
reaches out to her.

  “You shot… No! Sabrina! No!” She cries out and collapses on the floor.

  Vlad doesn’t take much time to walk over to her and yank her head up. “You need to learn.”

  Before anyone can say anything, he makes a fist and punches her across the face.

  The vomit that I have been trying to swallow this whole time? It comes up.

  Howard- Then

  I’ve stared at the television screen for the past few hours. I’m not sure what I’m watching and nothing is registering in my brain.

  The bottle of Jack Daniels is tucked in between my legs and I really don’t feel it. My whole body is numb as I pick up the amber liquor and take a pull. The tingly liquid flows through my veins and further numbs me.