“Most of Mr. T’s girls never come back to stay with us,” she informs me with a somber expression.
“Why is that?”
She shrugs. “Don’t know.”
“Do you know where they go to?”
She looks away, and I can tell she doesn’t want to tell me.
“What if I want to come back here?”
She turns back to me. “Would you?”
“Why not?”
Just then Tatiana returns. “Jimmy wants to see you now.” Then she waits, watching as I head out of the room.
“Where is he?” I pause in the hallway.
“The basement.” Tatiana says this like I should know.
“Where’s that?”
“I’ll show you,” Ruby offers.
“No,” Tatiana snaps at her. “You’re not needed down there. Go to your room, little girl.”
Ruby looks hurt but doesn’t say anything. Instead she continues walking, leading the way to a great room with several mismatched couches and a big-screen TV. Off to one side is a large but messy kitchen, and numerous bottles of liquor line the counters. Ruby turns toward a stairway and quietly goes up. I assume her room is up there. But my eyes are searching around this space, taking inventory of the windows and doors. All appear to be barred or else protected by metal exterior doors that look very secure.
“This way.” Tatiana shoves me past the kitchen and into an alcove where she opens a door. “Down there.”
I go down the dimly lit stairs and enter into a space carpeted in brown, giving this room an even gloomier appearance. It smells slightly damp down here, like mold and mildew and something else I don’t want to think about. There are no windows down here. But like upstairs, there is a big-screen TV and a couple of ugly couches as well as a king-sized bed covered in a purple velvet bedspread and pushed into a corner of the back wall. My stomach turns just to look at it.
I feel like hurling. God, give me composure. Please! Whatever is about to transpire down here, I know that I have to pass this test.
Jimmy is sitting in a recliner with his eyes fixed on the TV screen. I’m relieved to see that he’s only watching baseball. I don’t know what I expected exactly, but everything about this house is so creepy and nasty and disgusting that I am continually bracing myself for the worst.
“So you got your shower?” he says without taking his eyes off the TV screen.
“Yeah.” I try to sound cheerful. “Thanks. I really feel better.”
“That’s good. We want to take especially good care of you.”
“Thanks,” I say again.
“Sounds like we’ll have you with us for a few more days,” he tells me.
“How long?” Tatiana asks with irritation.
“As long as it takes,” he snaps back at her.
She cusses now with a dark scowl, folding her arms across her front.
“Get over yourself,” he says as he mutes the TV. Now he looks directly at me. “Tatiana is miffed because you’re in her room and she’s having to bunk with Kandy now.”
“Oh?” I give Tatiana a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry to inconvenience you.”
“Shut up!” She swears at me. “I’ve had enough of your Miss Congeniality act, Serena. You might be able to fool Ruby, but I’m not that stupid.”
I give her an innocent look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, give it up. We all know you want out of here. Don’t try to act like you don’t. We’re not buying it.” She glares at Jimmy. “At least I’m not. I can’t speak for you.”
“That’s right.” He stands up, coming over to check me out more closely. “You can’t. And as long as we’re getting our cut on this deal, we’ll take good care of her, Tatiana. You get that?”
She scowls again.
“I’m really sorry that I put you out of your room. I’m willing to share a room with someone else if that helps.”
“No,” Jimmy says firmly. “You’ll stay where you are.”
“Until Mr. T,” Tatiana says in a sneering tone. “After that, I’m taking it back.”
“We’ll see,” Jimmy tells her.
“You mean you’ll let me come back here after Mr. T?” I try to sound hopeful, like this is a place I want to return to.
“That depends.” Jimmy is studying me closely now.
“On what?”
“On you.”
“How so?” I’m carefully watching both of them, trying to read their expressions. Tatiana looks slightly worried, but Jimmy is more curious.
“Well, we just assumed that you wouldn’t want to come back here. They usually don’t.”
“Why is that?” I ask.
Tatiana laughs. “Are you really that ignorant?”
“They don’t usually want to come back because they never wanted to be here in the first place,” Jimmy explains. “Just like you.”
“How do you know that?” I lock gazes with him.
He shrugs. “We know you were brought here against your will.”
“Really?” I tip my head to one side. “And who told you that?”
His brow creases. “I guess I just assumed it. That’s usually the case.”
“Well, maybe you should ask Marcia and Bryce. I’m sure they can tell you I put up no resistance. I mean, sure, I was surprised. I honestly thought I was going to get a modeling job.” I laugh. “How naive was that?”
Tatiana snickers. “Well, at least you know better now.”
“So after I got over myself,” I continue, “I figured I should just make the best of it. I mean, it’s not like I had anything to go back to anyway.” I repeat the tale that I gave Ruby. I don’t expect to get their pity, but I do hope they’ll think I’m here willingly.
“Are you saying you want to be part of our little family?” Jimmy asks hopefully.
“Don’t fall for her lies.”
“Shut up, Tatiana,” he snaps at her. “In fact, why don’t you make yourself scarce. I’m getting sick of you.”
She swears at him now, but then she leaves. And I have made a serious enemy. After the door slams, Jimmy sits back down in the recliner and invites me to sit on the couch. I’m surprised at how nice it feels to sit on something besides the floor and the bed.
“So tell me, Serena, how do you think you can fit in here?” Jimmy begins this conversation almost as if it’s a job interview. I’m caught off guard by how he seems too intelligent to be involved in a place like this. “What can you contribute to this household after your date with Mr. T?”
I let out a long sigh. “To be honest, it’s all new to me, Jimmy. And I’m not really looking forward to Mr. T.”
He laughs. “Yeah, well, I can understand that.”
“But I realize that I need to cooperate. I know that a lot of money is involved. That Marcia and Bryce are invested in me. And it sounds like you are too.”
“You got that right. There’s a lot riding on this deal.” He smiles. “I’m glad you understand that. Most of the girls we get here for Mr. T aren’t that smart.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’ve heard that most of them don’t come back here.”
“But you really think you want to?”
“I guess I’m curious what the alternative is. For some reason I’ve gotten the impression it’s not that great.”
He shakes his head in a sad way. “You got that right. Most of Mr. T’s girls don’t last too long. They’re just not tough enough. I’m sorry to say a lot of them end up at the morgue.”
I try to conceal my shock. “Because of Mr. T? Does he kill them?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s because they didn’t choose to be here in the first place, Serena. Because they resist and they fight back. And sometimes that causes them to get injured, you know?”
I nod, remembering the screaming from last night. “Yeah, I can understand that.”
“And sometimes they take their own lives.”
“Oh …” My stomach twists at the thought.
�
��And there’s other risks.” He shrugs. “But what can you do?”
I look directly at him, trying to appear calm. “I really appreciate your honesty, Jimmy. I mean, this is all pretty new to me.”
“So now let me tell you about the brighter side.” He grins. “Maybe I can entice you to consider becoming part of our family.” He describes what could be considered a glamorous lifestyle of fancy clothes, expensive cars, good food, and a lot of male attention. “It’s the world’s oldest profession,” he tells me finally. “And in some places it’s legal.”
I’m so over my head and sickened by all this, but somehow I need to make him believe I’m seriously considering this lifestyle. “Can I ask a question?”
“That’s why I invited you down here. Ask away.”
“I’m not saying I don’t want to stay here — I mean, after Mr. T — but what would my alternatives be? Well, besides the morgue, which I find pretty unappealing.”
He laughs. “Marcia and Bryce still own you, and they have the right to continue selling your time to the highest bidders. Except that the price will drop down the longer you’re working for them.”
“Right.”
“The downside of remaining with them is that they will shuffle you around and you will never be treated like a human.”
“So how would it be possible for me to stay here?” I ask hopefully. “I mean, if Marcia and Bryce still own me?”
He narrows his eyes. “First of all, we have to decide if you can be trusted.”
“Trusted?”
“The girls here are dependable. They understand the rules … and respect them. I’m not convinced you’re ready for that yet. Your first taste of freedom and you’d probably run home to Mommy.”
I know I need to think fast. “But you just told me all the benefits of working here. A girl like me — well, I come from poverty. My mom could barely afford to support both of us and now she’s losing her job. I guess you could say I’m pretty desperate.” I wave my hand. “And this house is way nicer than where I used to live.”
He nods smugly. “It’s not a bad setup.”
“So you’d consider letting me stay here?” I keep my voice even, trying to conceal the disgust churning inside of me. “That’s possible?”
“It’s possible. First we’d have to pay off your debts to Marcia and Bryce. And after that you’d work for us.”
I control my expression and just nod. The idea of me owing anything to any of these people is so ridiculous I can hardly stand it.
“Tom, that’s my boss, will negotiate a price for you. And I’m sure you won’t come cheap. But it’s an investment.”
“Uh … right.” I remember reading about the slave trade in history books, but I never really imagined it was still flourishing.
“Tom has big plans for this house. He wants only the best of the best living and working here.” He flashes a smarmy smile. “And you are an exceptionally pretty girl, with just the kind of look a lot of our more-sophisticated clientele are looking for.”
“Thank you.” It takes all my self-control to hide my disgust.
“And Tom is quite impressed with your photos and he likes that you created a Facebook page. Very forward thinking. Although we’ll have to change the name on it, of course.”
“It sounds as if you’ve given this plenty of thought.” My stomach turns to think of how I put that stupid portfolio together, how I posted it out there for the whole world to see. Like I was going to be famous. How naive could I be?
“We try to cover our bases.” He stands up and reaches for my hand, pulling me to my feet. “And now I’d like to give you a quick tour.” He heads for the stairs. “That way you can see for yourself that this is actually a pretty cool place. A lot better than we used to have.”
As he leads the way upstairs, he explains how each girl usually has her own room. “Although sometimes, like now, some girls have to share. But most of the time they have their own space. The house has five bedrooms.”
“Does that mean five girls live here?”
“Right now there are five, counting you. I have my own room. But if you decide to join us, I might move someone down to the basement.”
As we walk through the great room again, I glance out the front window to see that this house is in a regular suburban neighborhood. In fact, judging by the attractive house across the street, it’s a pretty nice neighborhood.
Jimmy continues explaining the setup as we go up the stairs to the second floor. He is so matter-of-fact about everything, like this is just a normal business or a respectable boardinghouse he helps to manage. He’s telling me how the girls sometimes entertain their dates here at the house. It actually feels like he is recruiting me — or like he’s already hired me for a job and this is my “orientation.”
“But only if they know the guys well enough to trust their discretion,” he says at the top of the stairs. “Otherwise they meet up with each other at our place downtown.”
“Wow, you have a location downtown too?” I act impressed.
“Oh, yeah,” he says with pride. “At least Tom has an account with the owner. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t own the place before long. We’re very enterprising and profitable.” Now he even brags about how their organization takes credit cards for services rendered.
Everything in me wants to demand to know how — how is it possible that all this takes place and no one notices? No one questions this house with all its “security” bars? No neighbors are suspicious of this den of ill repute where men must come and go at all hours of the night? Doesn’t anyone think it’s a little odd? Or do people out there just close their eyes to these things? Does anyone care?
… [CHAPTER 10]………………
Jimmy knocks on the first door and then just opens it. So much for privacy. “Hey Desiree,” he calls out. “You up yet?”
A pretty girl with long messy blonde curls sits up in a big four-poster bed, yawning sleepily. “What’s the deal, Jimmy?”
“I want you to meet someone.” He tugs me fully into her room. “This is Serena. She’s considering joining us.”
Desiree frowns. “You woke me up to tell me that?”
“Hey, it’s after noon already. Time to rise and shine, Miss Dawn.” He chuckles and winks at me. “Desiree Dawn never gets up before dawn.”
I’m looking around the room, which is painted a peaceful shade of blue, and while it’s not very big, it is fairly nicely furnished. Jimmy opens up her closet now. “As you can see, Desiree has a nice wardrobe.”
She just lets out a loud groan and flops back down in bed, pulling the periwinkle blue bedding over her head as if we’re not there.
“She came to us with nothing.” Jimmy pulls a pretty pink shoe out of her shoe rack. “Now she has all this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mutters from her bed. “Keep it down, would you?”
Jimmy points out a few other things like her TV and DVD player and Xbox and selection of the latest games. “She’s a video-game addict,” he quietly tells me.
“There are worse addictions!” She pelts a pillow at him. “Now get out of here.”
He just laughs as he leads me out. The next room belongs to Kandy Kane. Her walls are painted bright red and her bed has a red-and-white striped comforter with lots of candy-striped pillows. Even Kandy’s hair resembles peppermint in that it’s been bleached to platinum and striped with hot pink. I’m sure I will never look at a candy cane in the same way again.
But at least Kandy is wide awake and a lot friendlier than Desiree. “Hey Jimmy Boy. Is this the new girl?” She speaks with what sounds like a southern accent as she comes over to look more closely. “You are pretty enough, but kinda boring if you don’t mind me saying so.” She points to my outfit and chuckles. “Sorry about those pitiful threads I loaned you, but when Ruby asked for clothes, I wasn’t so sure. I mean, I’d never even met you.”
“Hey, I appreciate them,” I tell her.
“I guess I
could find something a little nicer, ’specially hearing how you’ll be stickin’ around a few more days.”
She glances over to where Tatiana is sitting in a hot pink velvet chair by the window, glowering. “Not everyone is happy that you’re still here.” Kandy smiles at Jimmy. “But I don’t mind having a little ol’ roommate for a while. As long as it’s not a permanent arrangement, you know?”
She runs her hand over Jimmy’s collar. “You got something for me, sugar?”
“Not right now, Kandy.”
She glares at him. “When?”
“Later. I’m giving Serena the tour at the moment. I want her to see that you girls have it pretty good here.”
“As long as y’all give us what we need, Jimmy Boy.” She turns to me with a smile. “Yeah, we do have it pretty good. Better’n before anyway. So, are you thinking of joining our little family?”
I smile. “Yeah, I am.”
“Oh, sure,” Tatiana growls. “I’ll just bet you are.”
I face her. “I really am sorry to have taken your room.”
Tatiana swears at me, then turns back to the window.
Kandy laughs. “Well, her room sure ain’t much, if you noticed. That’s why she’s the one who always gets to relocate when a visitor comes.”
“My room looked just fine,” Tatiana tells Kandy. “Before I had to take all my stuff out.”
“Maybe it’s fine for you, but it’s sure not my cup of tea.”
“It’s minimalist,” Tatiana retorts. “And a lot better than all this candy-striped garbage. I swear it makes me want to gag sometimes.”
“Yeah, and being a minimalist is so handy. It makes it so much easier to boot you out of your room,” Kandy teases. “Maybe you wanna rethink that strategy, huh?”
Tatiana turns away again, looking out the barred window with her arms tightly folded across her front. Although she seems to have the most hostility of the group, I think that might actually be a good sign. Maybe she is the most discontent of the bunch. Maybe she secretly wants out as badly as I do.
Enticed:A Dangerous Connection (Secrets) Page 8
