by Naomi West
I needed to make him think he'd finally won. “What then? You'll leave me alone if I whore for you?”
“More or less,” he said with a shrug, then leaned forward in his chair. “It's a win-win for both of us. You get more money, I get more money.”
I sighed. Pretended to consider it for a moment. “Fine,” I said finally, with an exasperated sigh. “Fine, Daddy, you win. But, so help me God, you ever pull what you did at the roadhouse, leaving me there and expecting me to blow guys for twenty bucks a pop, I'm out. Done. I'll kill myself before that happens. You hear me?”
He heaved himself up from the chair. “Oh, Micah, that was just me being sassy. Didn't mean nothing by it. Promise you, you're too sweet a strawberry to ever get passed around like that here. You have my word.”
I looked up at him, lips tightly pursed together, and nodded. “May I go back to my room, then?”
Daddy nodded. “Of course, Micah. Be my guest.”
I got up from the little couch I'd been sitting on and went to leave.
“Oh, Micah,” he said without even glancing back over his shoulder.
I stopped, my hand on the doorknob.
“Don't try getting any ideas about breaking your word on this. You hear me? Running away is one thing, but lying to me is one that's completely another.”
“Don't worry, Daddy. I'll keep my word,” I lied, pausing before I opened the door and headed back into the rest of the mansion.
I threaded my way through the halls, with their variety of furniture. Past the closed doors that led to differently themed bedrooms. Through the cabaret ball room, with its giant stage, hardwood floors, vaulted ceiling, and royal blue walls. Workers were busy cleaning and decorating for tonight's big event, completely oblivious to what they were setting up, or the auction they were helping to pull off.
I didn't blame them. I couldn't. They didn't know any better.
I did blame Ford, though. He'd knowingly dropped me back into this viper's nest and was helping Daddy pull it off. He'd decided to just take the position and the finder's fee, and hadn't even bothered to let me try and convince him otherwise. I guessed the threat from Tambor was just too big, too much. Even for him.
The fact that he'd chosen that path instead of helping me and Kessa, though, was what really tore me up. I'd wanted to believe he was different, that he wanted to be with me for more than just what was between my legs, or what I could offer him in bed. I'd thought he considered me more than just a pretty face.
The worst part about it, though? I'd believed in him. I'd believed he'd be able to help me and Kessa. But now I'd been shown the truth. There was nothing, and no one, I could put my trust in.
I pushed past the back door and headed into the yard that separated the Mansion from the dorms. As I headed down the little garden path, over and through the rocky, dusty terrain, I was reminded of how much of a façade everything was. Even me, and what I wanted to do in life. Acting? More like make believe, just like Daddy's business.
Perfect, manicured lawns were in front, well-watered and taken care of. In back? Rocks and dirt. A barren desert, like everywhere else in these badlands.
A woman who'd get down on her knees and worship the ground you walk on, laugh at all your jokes, and scream out her orgasm as she came on your cock? Only if you paid enough for her.
A man who would protect you, help save your friend, and fight for your honor? Only if your offer was better than everyone else's.
Disgusted, hurt, and disillusioned, I shook my head as I went into the dorms and back up to my room. Ford had at least shown me one thing: I couldn't depend on anyone but myself to get out of this mess. Something I should have known from the start.
I went into my room and looked around. Everything I'd left behind was completely undisturbed, including my clothes, my stash of money, and Ford's diamond ring. Which, unfortunately, I'd never managed to find out the owner of. He sure hadn't seemed like he had a girl who it was destined for. But what did I know? He clearly wasn't the man I'd thought he was.
I packed everything up and changed into a skirt and tight tank top, something they wouldn’t assume I was going to make a run in—my cash, a change of clothes, the ring, my jewelry. All the things that were worth serious money that I could fit in a small bag. I left my room, clothes and shoes still in their place, and headed out and down the hall, to Kessa's room on the other end of the floor.
The halls were empty as I made my way through them.
Quietly, I sidled up to her door and pressed my ear to it. “Kessa,” I whispered. “Kessa, girl, you in there?”
No answer. Maybe she was sleeping? We all kept crazy hours and slept even stranger ones.
I knocked on the door and whispered again, this time a little louder. “Kessa! You in there, girl?”
I gasped then, as I heard someone talking as they came down the hall. “Now, the girl I'm gonna need you to manage, we've had to keep her all cooped up in her room for the night.”
Daddy Williams.
And the man who replied? I'd have recognized his voice anywhere, even though he and I'd just met. Ford. “Manage? What does that necessarily mean?”
No! I couldn't let them find me here, especially not with this bag. Maybe I could get inside and hide? I tried the door, suddenly frantic, but it wouldn't budge.
“Micah?” Kessa asked from the other side in a drowsy voice. “Is that you? What are you doing back here?”
Crap! I tried the door again, but it wouldn't budge. I went across the hall and tried the door. It swung open and I went to dart inside.
“Micah?” called Daddy from down the hall.
I stopped in my tracks like a deer who's just realized she's on stage and forgot to wear her antlers. I slowly turned around.
Standing there in the hallway were Daddy and Ford, both thick as thieves.
“Micah? Is that you, hon? What're you doing . . .” he began, trailing off as his eyes settled on the bag slung over my shoulder and thought about where I was. Immediately his face twisted in rage. “You no good, two-timing little slut!”
He came after me, barreling into the room. Ford grabbed him by the shoulder though and held him steady. “Mr. Williams, Daddy,” he said, “don't hurt her! You hurt her, you hurt your money!”
Daddy shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and spun on Ford. “Don't you think I know that, son? Been in this business since before you was just a twitch in your poppa's cock!” He slowly turned back around as Ford dropped his hand and backed off a little.
I stared past Daddy, right at Ford. If my eyes were swords, I'd have gutted him like this was an Errol Flynn movie. No questions asked.
“No, I ain't gonna hurt her.” He yanked my bag from my shoulder and dumped it on the floor. Wads of cash, my spare panties, and jewelry fell on floor. “Watch her, Ford. If you ain't figured out by now, she's slippery.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Williams,” Ford growled, stepping closer to me as Daddy bent down to the little stash he'd just spilled out in the middle of the empty room.
I glared up at him as hard as I could. Even seeing him here, next to Daddy in the dormitory like this, seemed like just a horrible nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. To think, he was working with my pimp, helping to secure us women.
“Got yourself quite the treasure trove here,” Daddy said as he sorted through it. “Jewelry, money. Looks like you was trying to make another go at a runner, huh?”
I frowned, but didn't respond to his words.
“No comment?” he asked, picking up a wad of cash and stuffing it in his jacket pocket.
“Hey!” I shouted, taking a step forward, immediately getting caught in Ford's strong grip. He held me still by my wrists, strong enough for me to not be able to budge, but not enough to hurt me.
“Hey, what?” Daddy growled, still squatting down on the floor in front of the pile. “Oh, looky here, Ford. That's one hell of a diamond right there.” Ford glanced back at Daddy's hand, at the ring I'd stolen from Ford. “Li
ttle old school for my taste, but still, it ain't too shabby.”
Ford whipped around to face me, his hands tightening their grip as he glared down at me, his lip curling, his eyes burning with rage. I'd seen that look before.
“Ow, Ford,” I said with a wince as he lowered his face to mine, his grip becoming more intense. “You're hurting me.”
“My mother's ring?” he hissed into my face. “You stole my mother's fucking wedding ring from me?”
Oh, no. I bit my lip and tried to turn away from him, tried to get away from him.
This wasn't good. Not good at all.
Chapter Fourteen
Ford
“I didn't know it was your mother's ring!” she cried, trying to weasel out of my grip.
“You still stole from me!” I cried. “Why?”
Suddenly, I had zero regrets about the choice I'd made. None. I understood why she'd done what she'd done. She was desperate; she was just trying to get away from the consequences of a bad decision. I understood that, and I could empathize.
But, not only was she leaving me high and dry here, she'd also taken the only thing I had left that even mattered to me. The one thing I never wanted to lose, not unless I absolutely had to.
“I-I-I thought,” she said, falling over her words as she flinched away from me, “I thought I could sell it and get out of here. I took it the night I first met you, when you gave me your coat. I didn't know, Ford! I didn't know it was your mom's!”
Daddy let out a little chuckle behind me as he stood up from his squat, his knees popping loudly as they straightened. “Well, well, well. Now maybe you understand, Ford, what I'm dealing with as a business owner here. Girls skimming, trying to run off without so much as a goodbye, see ya' later, that's all folks! Feel my pain?”
My nostrils flared, and I nodded roughly, my hands still tight around her wrists. “Yeah,” I growled. “I feel you.”
“Girls like this,” Daddy said, coming around to my side, “they need to learn some manners. That's my opinion. Their own daddies didn't use the rod damn near enough, and so we got to.”
I nodded, having an idea of what he was talking about.
“See, we got a room downstairs reserved for real special occasions, Ford. High paying customers, girls who get outta line. Got lots of toys, ways to make a girl feel real nice, or real hurt. Sometimes both.”
“I believe I know where this is going,” I said through clenched teeth.
“How about, as part of your signing bonus, you go ahead and take Micah on down there? Teach her a lesson or two before the other guys get in and have their turn?”
I was still so pissed from this little revelation of her stealing my mother's ring that I didn’t even register the last part of his sentence. All I could think of was teaching Micah a little respect, a little discipline, and working out some of my own frustration. Nothing else mattered. I nodded. “Show me the way, boss, and I'll get to work.”
“Ford,” she whispered, shaking her head, pleading with me.
I just grinned at her, baring my teeth.
Daddy Williams led us out the dorm room and into the hall. I kept Micah by my side the whole time, a watchful eye on her as we made our way through the halls, past the beautiful young women, who clearly knew something was up. I kept my hands off Micah, but she knew exactly what would happen if she tried to run or tried something else equally as stupid.
The fear on her face was obvious, and I was torn by the look in her eyes. On the one hand, some vindictive, angry part of me wanted to relish it and wanted to make her hurt for what she'd done to me.
But on the other, there was just something that made me feel like I was the lowest of the low. Was I really going to do this to her? Could I really hurt her and do any lasting damage? She had barely known me; I was just a ride home for the night; and she was desperate, worried about becoming nothing more than a prostitute, her dreams dashed to pieces. I was willing to do worse to her the second time I'd seen her, wasn't I? To just turn her in and collect the fee so I could save my own ass? How was I any different from her?
I didn't know how to feel, but, with her this close to me, with me able to think about things, I realized I couldn't do it. I couldn't go through with this. I cared too much about her to do the things Daddy Williams wanted from me. And I certainly couldn't leave her to the rest of the men, to use and abuse as they saw fit.
And then it hit me. Did I care about her that way? Did I really? I shook my head as we walked, chewing my lip.
The question was, how did I keep Daddy's confidence in me, but still get Micah out of harm's way?
We crossed back over the rocky, dusty patch between the dorms and the Mansion, and went in through the back. We took a side door that led us to a set of beautifully wrought gilded stairs that led down into the basement level of the building.
Daddy Williams flicked on the light, a big grin spreading on his face as I felt Micah tense up beside me. “Y'all two have fun, now,” Daddy said.
“Not gonna watch?” I growled.
“Oh, God, no. I trust you, Ford. You get some sense in that head of hers. Make her come around and see why she can't run far. 'Sides, we got plenty of cameras and microphones down there. Think running girls is my only business? Gotta have a few sidelines. Get me?”
“Yeah,” I said as I took Micah's trembling arm and silently guided her to go downstairs in front me. “I get you.”
Now, with Daddy trusting me, I just had to make sure I could gain Micah's again. With him watching as I punished her, though, I didn't know if that would be possible.
Chapter Fifteen
Micah
With a chuckle on his fat lips, Daddy shut the door on us.
Tears were filling up in my eyes, tears of fear, tears of guilt. The look on Ford’s face when he'd realized my betrayal was just like a punch in the gut. So, it was with mixed feelings that I let him lead me down the stairs. I knew I deserved to be punished for stealing from him. There was no question about that. But I didn't deserve it for running from Daddy, or for trying to get Kessa out.
“I know you're upset,” I said quietly as he took me down, “but you have to understand where I was coming from, Ford. I needed the money I could get for that ring to run away from this place, to start a new life.”
“Yeah? You think you need the fucking money?” he asked, his words clipped as we reached the bottom of the steps and looked around the room. “Well, I fucking needed it too. Had to pay off my loan shark with it. Only reason I didn't go looking for it was that you dropped right in my lap.”
The dungeon, as Daddy called it, was beautiful, albeit a dark, creepy kind of beautiful. Crimson cloth, black leather, electric candles and dim lighting. Stationed around the room in the low light were various bits of painful-looking sexual paraphernalia. Adjustable chains hung from the wall. There were free-standing stocks in one corner, a device that locked a woman's head in place and kept her arms straight out and her legs spread, a rack to chain a woman to that would keep her spread eagled. Along the closest wall was a glass case full of whips, floggers, paddles, clamps, dildos, and vibrators.
“Oh my,” I whispered.
It was the kind of place where you expected things like this to happen.
I heard him swallow dryly as he took it in, before leading me into the center of the room. He quickly got his bearings, though.
“Ford,” I started in a shaky voice, “you don't have . . .”
“Enough, Micah,” he snapped, his voice loud, but not quite shouting. It just held a sense of authority, of command, one that immediately shut me up. “These are the rules. Rule one, no speaking unless spoken to. Rule two, you will only call me sir. Rule three, if you veer from these, I will punish you. Each time, the punishment will get worse. Do you understand me?”
It was my turn to swallow. I nodded.
He stepped closer to me, his eyes like a wolf's as they fell on me.
Feeling like a scared rabbit in that hungry gaze, I step
ped back unconsciously.
“Some of the things I'm going to do to you will hurt. Pain is a way to discipline. The reason why you're down here is because you've been bad, and you haven't played along the way you should. Now, strip.”
I hesitated, licking my lips. Something about the look he gave me seemed to soften a little bit.
“The only way you're going to get out of here,” he said as he began to circle me like a predator, “is if you realize how wrong you've been. You need to learn that following the rules is better for you. You need to learn to go with the flow. Now, what did I tell you to do?”
“Strip?” I asked in a trembling voice.
