“There are speculations goin’ around, but nobody knows for certain. The fella who owned the place musta used it to move dope, if you ask me. Always had somebody outside watching the front and scoping the neighborhood out. Shit, whoever done blowed them boys up did the neighborhood a favor. We already got so much to deal with, we don’t need that shit too.”
“Thank you,” Kidd said, somewhat satisfied with his answer.
He rolled the window up, but not all the way, before he drove off. It was a nice day, and he was enjoying the breeze on his face. He rounded a few corners until he came upon his house, or at least the plot that his old house used to be on. Ollie’s old house was still standing. Some foreigners had moved into it and were outside sitting on their porch. They watched Kidd curiously when he parked the car by the curb in front of their house and got out. He ignored them and went to stand in front of where the house he grew up in used to be. He knelt down and let the old memories he’d suppressed come flooding back. He had forced himself to forget them when he thought his mom forgot about him. But right then he remembered just how great of a mom she’d been to him.
He stood up straight, thinking about what she’d said, and looked toward where the mailbox used to be. It was still there. He guessed the city didn’t see the need to rip the mailbox up from the ground. Kidd went to it and opened it, expecting to see nothing but spiderwebs, but there was something there. It was a small, folded-up piece of paper with his first name written on it. He quickly looked around him, as if whoever had left the paper were still around somewhere. All he saw were the Taiwan people looking at him as if he didn’t belong in his own neighborhood. Removing the paper, he unfolded it and read what was on it.
Your mother wants you to speak with me. I can explain everything. Call me.
There was a number listed at the bottom of the paper that Kidd didn’t recognize. There was no signature, just those words that he read over and over. He clenched his jaw, not knowing what to make of it, before folding it up and putting it in his wallet. He checked the gold Rolex on his wrist and realized that it was time to head over to the Bliss Lounge. He got back in the car and hit the highway, hoping he would beat the bus there.
He didn’t know what to expect with Belle, but he hoped that she wouldn’t make the decision to officially become one of Gene’s Girls. He meant the last words he’d said to her. And while they were said in a place where lust could overtake any man, they had come from the heart. He would rather see her anywhere else than the Bliss Lounge. There were only a few things that a working girl could get from there, and happiness wasn’t one of them.
When he’d taken on the security job for the club, he hadn’t counted on feeling compassion for the girls. Maybe that was why he felt such a strong need to protect them. But when it came to protecting them from Gene, even he was powerless. All it took was one mistake to get on his uncle’s bad side. Kidd had seen his share of body bags. He’d even helped dispose of some of the girls’ bodies. He was sure if the girls knew exactly what they were signing up for, they wouldn’t have inked their names on the contract. Because once they did, Gene owned them. Mind, body, and soul.
Kidd had wanted to tell Belle that the last time they spoke, but like Aria, his loyalty was still shifted too much toward Gene. Now he wasn’t so sure. There were too many questions surrounding his uncle. He thought about the piece of paper in his pocket and contemplated whether he was going to use the number listed. He couldn’t lie and say he didn’t want to know who had left the letter and how they knew he would go and get it.
Before he did something he would regret, Kidd thought it was best to tread lightly for the moment. One hurdle at a time. The first was to make sure Aria hadn’t completely brainwashed her new recruit the way she’d done to so many others. She pretended to be their friend, to gain their trust. And once she had it, it was too late for the young women. They’d already been caught in the spider’s web.
But that time he thought things would be different. He’d gotten the vibe that Aria really liked Belle. She didn’t act the way she had with any of the other girls. Not as pushy. Not as fake. For the first time in a while, Kidd had seen the real soft and caring side. But then again, maybe she had just gotten better at being deceptive. Because at the end of the day, Gene always came first. He couldn’t help but wonder if Aria knew that Gene had been searching for Belle, or if she had just gotten lucky. Either way, whatever Gene had planned for Belle wasn’t good.
Kidd didn’t understand Aria’s loyalty to Gene. He knew Gene had found her while she was practically starving on the streets, but that still didn’t explain it to him. She would have given her life up for Gene with no question or hesitation. What he said was law to her, and it was like she lived to grovel at his feet. And if groveling meant bringing him the freshest meat on the block, then so be it. Kidd should have told her no when she asked if she should let Belle on the tour bus, but he’d been so mesmerized by Belle that he just couldn’t let her go. Maybe that was why he felt it was his duty to relieve her of Gene’s Girls. Because if she went down that road, he would be partly responsible for whatever her fate would be.
Chapter 12
Diamond, diamond, diamond, diamonds on me dancing.
—Future
The tour had come to an end for the winter season, and Belle found herself wondering what was next for her. In such a short amount of time, she’d saved up a little over $50,000. That last night in Atlanta had been a killer. She’d made $15,000 in one night. She had more than enough to start fresh somewhere and never look back. She couldn’t see herself going back to Nebraska, not anytime soon anyway. That was the place where her heart broke, and she needed to be somewhere that would heal it. And she didn’t know how long that process would take.
She sat cross-legged on the bed in the tour bus with Cream and Dynasty passed out asleep beside her. Cream’s face was still busted and bruised, so she was forced to sit out the last tour stop in Atlanta. As Belle watched her sleeping peacefully, she felt a strong empathy toward her and wanted to stroke Cream’s face the way her mother used to do to her when she was upset. Maybe Russian was right and this life wasn’t for her. She didn’t want to end up like Cream. Not now, not ever. If what Russian Roulette said was true, Aria would turn on her in a heartbeat once her name was on the dotted line. Her mind was made up.
Belle listened to the sound of giggles coming from the front of the bus where everyone else was. The girls were up there playing some card game with the security and sounded like they were having the time of their lives. When Kidd left, Belle didn’t bother getting to know the person who replaced him. She just let them all do their jobs without getting in their way.
After the first day of texting Kidd, Belle had stopped replying to him, although she was the one who had initiated the conversation. There was something about him that made her want to push him away. Because if she didn’t, she would pull him as close to her as she could. The way he cared about her well-being was something that she didn’t feel she deserved. Mentally she was weak, and emotionally, she was broken. If she was damaged when she first started the tour, she was certainly damaged goods now. He’d watched her sell her soul for money. How could he ever want her? Still, the look in his eyes when he looked at her the night before he left lingered with her. If she hadn’t been so high, she probably would have left with him. But she was too stubborn.
“You all right back here?”
Belle realized that she had been staring into space, but she quickly snapped out of her daze when she heard Aria enter the room. They hadn’t really spoken since the night Cream got hurt, and in truth, Belle had done her best to stay out of Aria’s way. She just couldn’t look at her the same. Even in that moment with Aria dressed in a dark blue skintight T-shirt and a pair of Bermuda shorts, all Belle saw was Lady Passion.
“Belle, are you all right?’ Aria repeated. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”
“I’m good,” Belle said and cleared her throat after hearing ho
w meek she sounded. “Just a little tired, that’s all.”
“Aren’t we all?” Aria said and sat down at the vanity. “I really wish you had been with us at the start of the tour. I know you made some bread, but if you had been on the whole tour with us, you would be coming back to Miami with at least two hundred thou. You’ll see for yourself next time.”
“Next time?” Belle found herself asking, and she could have kicked herself.
“Yeah.” Aria looked at her in the eyes. “You don’t plan to stick around?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet,” Belle answered truthfully.
“Beauty, you just made a motherfucka’s salary in a few weeks, and you want to give that up?”
Belle gave her a funny look. Aria had called her by her stage name, the same as she did with the other girls. When she thought about it, Belle hadn’t heard Aria ever call them by their real names, and vice versa. Russian Roulette’s voice snuck up on her again.
“You’re a good girl, Belle. Smart, sweet, compassionate. But Lady Passion only sees your face and your body.”
“Earth to Beauty,” Aria said and snapped her fingers.
“Belle,” Belle told her, looking sharply back at her. “My name is Belle. We aren’t in a party. Call me by my first name.”
Aria opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but she quickly shut it. Belle saw her jawline pop out as she clenched her jaw. Maybe she didn’t like the tone of voice that Belle used with her, but Belle really didn’t care.
“Okay then, Belle,” Aria said, adding extra emphasis. “I hope you aren’t planning on leaving us. There is a lot more money to be made.”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Belle answered, still looking Aria in the eye. “I’m not sure if this is the right thing for me. After all, I don’t want to end up like Cream.”
“So that’s what this is about? That’s why you’ve been so quiet?” Aria said and chuckled.
“I heard you beating her,” Belle said since the cat was out of the bag. “She was begging you to stop, but you just kept going. You beat her like she was a dog.”
“What happened to Cream is what happens when it comes to light that over ten thousand dollars’ worth of Miami’s finest dope has been getting snorted up her trifling nose. Trust me, she’s lucky I found out about it and Gene didn’t, because I could have easily made a phone call. And if I had done that, something much worse would have happened. Gene doesn’t take too well to being taken advantage of, especially by people he puts in a position to become rich. So what if they have to use their bodies to do it? They signed a contract, and until that contract is up, they know the rules.”
“They. They. They,” Belle said. “The girls this. The girls that. What about you, Aria?”
“What do you mean?”
“You barely dance, yet you’re on the tour with the rest of the girls. How do you get paid?”
“I guess there were a few details I left out in the beginning, but only because I didn’t want you to think I asked you on board for personal gain.”
“Details like?”
“Like, as Lady Passion, I already receive a set amount of earnings from the Bliss Lounge for coming on this tour. And when we get back, every girl is to pay me ten percent of her earnings.”
“Wow,” Belle scoffed. “Is that why you wanted me to come with you? You saw me and thought about how much money I would make you? I should have known it was too good to be true.”
“No, that’s not it,” Aria said, shaking her head with distraught eyes. “I didn’t plan on taking any of your earnings. I didn’t want to do anything to discourage you from becoming one of us.”
“So that I would sign my name on the dotted line. Then you could make money off me the next time around.”
“No.” Aria stopped talking to close her eyes and take a deep breath. “That’s not what I meant, Beauty.”
“My name is Belle!” Belle snapped.
The bus began to slow down, and the driver yelled back to them all that they had arrived at their final destination. Belle’s things were already packed up next to her duffle bag of money, and she grabbed them as soon as she felt the bus come to a complete stop. She’d officially made her mind up. The moment she got her car from Kidd, she would be back on the road again. Before she rushed to the front of the bus, she stopped and looked down at Aria’s pitiful face.
“I appreciate you for giving me this opportunity, but this is my last stop.”
With that, she left the room and made her way to the front of the bus. The other girls were rushing toward the room to grab their things, so she had to bully her way out. Finally, though, she was able to get off the bus and step into the warm Miami sun.
She turned in a circle and took in her surroundings. They were parked in the back of a sleek, tall black building. The windows were tinted, so she couldn’t see inside at all, but she was almost certain that you could see out of them. There was a door that led inside of the building back there with a key card entrance, but Belle didn’t even want to see the inside of the place.
There were no other businesses around it in her eyesight’s range. In fact, it felt like she’d been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Her eyes travelled over every car in the parking lot as she searched for her own. There were so many cars there that it took a while, but finally, she spotted it near the back, gleaming in the light like it had just been washed. She was able to take only one step toward it before a voice stopped her.
“Going somewhere?”
She didn’t recognize it, and when she whipped around, she knew why. She had never in her life seen the middle-aged man standing on the sidewalk. The door she’d seen earlier was now wide open, and two big, burly guys wearing suits stood on either side of it. The man who was looking directly at her too was wearing a tailored suit and looking like a million bucks. He was handsome and clean-cut, and Belle didn’t have to be close to him to tell that he probably smelled delightful. In between the pointer and middle fingers of his left hand was a Cuban cigar, or she assumed it was. She doubted a man of his caliber smoked anything other than the finest.
“Gene?” she asked with a level of uncertainty in her voice.
“What gave it away?” he joked with a charming smile. “Now what are you doing looking like a mouse ready to run away from a cat.”
“I . . . I was looking for my car,” she said.
“Ah, yes. The Camaro my nephew has been driving around.”
“Nephew?” Belle questioned. “You’re Kidd’s uncle?” Kidd hadn’t said anything about Gene being his uncle.
“I’m sure he didn’t tell you. He’s a very private person if you don’t mean anything to him,” Gene said casually and waved for her to come closer to him.
There was something entrancing about him, because she felt her feet move toward him without question. When she was near enough, she inhaled his scent. She had been right to assume he smelled heavenly. He examined her face, and his eyes didn’t drop beneath her collarbone. They didn’t need to. He was sure to have seen every curve she had to offer in her formfitting maxi dress when she walked toward him.
“You’re even more ravishing than I was told,” Gene said, gently placing a finger underneath her chin and lifting her head ever so slightly. “A woman of your sort should always keep her head high. You weren’t planning to leave so soon, were you?”
“I—”
“Good,” Gene said with a smile. “Follow me inside the Bliss Lounge while the others are unloading. Bring your things with you.”
He turned and walked back in the door he’d come out of and didn’t look back, as if there was no question that she would follow. And there wasn’t. There was an invisible string that Gene pulled her with, and she went after him with her bags in tow. She walked through the doors and matched him stride for stride down a long, dark hallway. When finally the room opened up, she had to do a double take because she was blown away. She literally had to clamp her lips shut to stop herself from utt
ering, “Wow,” at the sight.
“This is the main hall,” Gene said and waited for one of his security detail to unhook the barrier separating the exit from the rest of the vast room.
The Bliss Lounge was something from a movie. The main hall was one big room that resembled a Las Vegas nightclub. There were big black leather couches and glass tables on top of the red carpet that set the tone with the jet-black walls. There were no windows in the main hall, but there were staircases that led the patrons to different levels of the lounge all over. There were many stages and completely naked women dancing seductively on them. Some twirled on poles while others captured their prey on the ground. At that moment, although it was only midday, the place was swarming with people enjoying the environment and snorting as much cocaine as their hearts desired. The soft music that graced the air was the same music the women were dancing to.
“Drink?” Gene offered and held a hand toward the long bar.
Belle glanced over and saw another naked woman behind the bar staring curiously at her. As many naked women as she had been seeing the past few weeks, one might have thought it would be normal to her by then. Still, Belle found her eyes on the woman’s extra-large breasts. They were so big that Belle couldn’t understand how she was still standing. Her back had to have been killing her.
“Uh, no, thank you,” she answered. “Not right now.”
“All right, well, how about we go to my office then?”
“That’s fi—”
“Unc?”
Upon hearing the voice, Belle whipped her head around and saw Kidd standing right there. The butterflies fluttered into her stomach without warning. He was even more handsome than the last time she saw him, and she found herself tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. His eyes were on her like it was the first time he’d ever seen her, and there was a fire shooting to the center of her face. She recognized a look of concern in his eyes when they shifted from her to Gene.
Belle Page 15
