McGyver

by Candace Blevins

  “And if one of them comes to you, and you know he has an ol’lady?”

  “They don’t. Once they have an ol’lady, we don’t see them again.”

  Iris must’ve looked like she didn’t believe her, and Candy said, “Wolves mate for life, sweetheart. Didn’t you know?”

  The news hit her like a punch in the gut. Danny had once told her his wolf had chosen her, and she hadn’t understood what he’d meant. He’d fucked other women while she was deciding, but then had told her it would just be her.

  “So, once they choose a mate, that’s it?”

  “Yeah. I mean, they might still work here, but they don’t sample the goods anymore.”

  “How are ya’ll hired?”

  “We’re interviewed and then auditioned. If you’ll offer three holes, you’re auditioned in all three. So, yeah, I guess we all give one freebie, but beyond that, we’re paid.”

  “Do you have to offer all three?”

  “Don’t know if we have to, but I think we all do. Used to have a girl who didn’t do anal, but she did some other kinky stuff. She got married and quit, though.”

  “Did you go to high school?”

  “I’ll answer all your questions about being a hoe, but I’d rather not answer anything personal.”

  Iris felt her face flame red. She should’ve asked if it was okay to ask personal questions. She’d just assumed, and that’d been wrong. “I apologize. Would it be okay for me to ask general questions about...” she sighed. “Life after this, I guess. Not just you, but all the girls.”

  “A few girls are going to college, but most of us, this is what we do. We make damned good money, and Brain and Mac have both offered their services to help us invest and plan, but they don’t push that on us. Brain helped me set up a savings account and an investment account, and I bought a house, which he says is the best investment of all. One of the girls has bought a bunch of duplexes she rents out. She plans to own enough of them to support herself when she retires. Some just spend their money.”

  “Drugs?”

  She shook her head. “If they smell drugs on us, we’re fired. A girl who’s worked here a long time, they’ll send to rehab and give another chance, but a newbie is out the door.”

  “Has anyone ever got rough with you? Hurt you?”

  “Yeah. Not often, but it happens. The guys know I don’t want to stick around and see the john get the shit beat out of him. Some of the girls like to watch. I don’t like violence. I mean, I’m glad they take care of them, but I don’t want to see it.”

  Iris had lost track of the time when Candy’s phone dinged, and the likeable girl gave her a shy smile. “Ten minute warning. Not sure what kind of happy ending you’re looking for, though.”

  “I should pay you and go. Thank you for answering my questions. How does the payment part work?”

  “For cash, usually, I go to the restroom and they put it on the side table. There are envelopes in the drawer — some people prefer to put it in one and hand it to me directly. Credit cards, they need to go back to the lobby. We can’t put card machines in the rooms without tipping off law enforcement it isn’t a regular hotel.”

  Iris opened her wallet and put four hundred on the nightstand. “Keep the extra. It isn’t much, but I appreciate…” Another question occurred to her. “Do you have to give up a quarter of your tips, too?”

  “No. Tips are ours. When a brother has had to step in and keep me safe, I’ve tried to offer them a tip, but they never take it. They say it’s their job to protect us, and they get their cut in the fees, not the tips. They don’t expect us to tip the maids, but some of them go the extra mile to work around me when I’m in a hurry in between appointments, and they work hard, so it feels like I should show them I appreciate it. Not all of them, but some.”

  “Have you ever been hurt bad? Some of the rooms are a long way from the office — how do they know you’re in trouble?”

  “Before I came to work here, I was hurt plenty. Black eyes, wrenched shoulders, torn anus a few times, and someone bit my clit hard enough I went to a doctor because I thought he’d done permanent harm. Since I started working here, I’ve had a few bruises, but nothing serious. Two of the times I got bruises, a brother made them pay three times what they’d agreed to, and gave them more than a few bruises for it. Established customers get the farther out rooms, and new customers are in the first six — someone in the office can hear you through the ductwork in the first six.” She shrugged, “Someone with good hearing can hear a scream from any room. I usually get established customers — the ones the other girls have reported like it gentle.”

  They walked out together, and Iris’s heart sank into her stomach when she saw one of Danny’s bikes. The temps were in the thirties, but werewolves weren’t much bothered by the cold.

  Iris was tempted to just leave, but she went into the lobby to face the music. She’d known this conversation would have to happen when she chose to come investigate for herself. She wasn’t ready to talk just yet, but she wasn’t going to run away, either.

  Danny was leaned against the wall behind the counter when they walked in, and he didn’t move a muscle, though his eyes watched her like… well, like a wolf watching prey.

  “Don’t do that, Danny.”

  “Did you get what you needed?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He pushed away from the wall and pulled his wallet from his pocket. “An hour? What’s the MC’s rate for you, Candy?”

  “Iris paid me. We’re good.”

  “You’ll need to refund her money so I can take care of it.”

  She held her hands out to the side. “That’s between the two of you. Not gettin’ involved.”

  “I get a discount. No sense in her paying the MC’s portion.”

  “I gave her the discount.”

  Danny looked at Slick, clearly wanting some kind of answer, and the other man shrugged. “I called Iris your ol’lady, and she didn’t argue. That makes her one of us, and club gets the discount. Candy did right.”

  Iris’s instincts were screaming for her to look away and not hold eye contact with Danny, but she lifted her chin and stared right back.

  “You didn’t argue?” he asked.

  “I was picking my battles.”

  She could see an instant of pain on his face. He recovered within a microsecond, but her words had hurt him.

  “The discount stands,” Slick said. “Candy, you have an appointment in twenty minutes. Head to room six. I’ll send him to you when he arrives.”

  She nodded and left, and Iris walked out and to her car. Danny followed.

  “I’m going to the grocery store. You should go back to work.”

  “Found someone to take the rest of my shift. I’m free the rest of the day. We’re going to talk.”

  “I need time to think.”

  “You can think while I push the buggy.”

  “Shopping cart.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a shopping cart. Buggy sounds ridiculous.”

  “And now you’re being a bitch. Why?”

  “I told you. I need time to think. Force me to talk too soon and you get the bitch.”

  “Well then, it’s probably time I met this side of you. You drive and I’ll ride with you. I’ll figure out how to get my bike home later.”

  Since she was standing by her car with the key in her purse, the passenger door unlocked and opened for him when he pulled the handle, and he got in. Convenient when it’s a passenger you want, but a pain in the ass when it’s a boyfriend you wish would just go the fuck away until you have time to think.

  She opened the driver door and leaned down to look at him. “Get out of my car. I need time to think.”

  “You can think out loud. It’ll be good.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Now? Really? I mean, we’re at a hotel, so I could get us a room. I hear it’s a real clean establishment.”

  She growled at him and stoo
d, considering her options. Kenny might make him get out, but he might also tell her he’s only there to keep her safe, and that Danny would never hurt her, which would be accurate. She sighed and slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door, but didn’t look at him.

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “So I’ve been told. I assume your father told you about this arm of our business?”

  She pushed the button to start her car, and backed out of the parking space. “Yeah.”

  “Is there a reason you came here instead of talking to me about it?”

  “Of course there’s a reason.”

  He sighed. “We have an unusual relationship with the local police department. On the one hand, crime went down in our part of the city when we moved in — we cleaned it up when we claimed it. There are few break-ins and robberies, no street prostitutes, and no drugs sold. Granted, people just go outside our territory to buy their drugs, or to procure a piece of ass. Crime in the city hasn’t gone down, but they need fewer patrol cars in our area of town.”

  “No street prostitutes? What do you do to them if you catch them?” She finally turned to look at him. “Tell me you don’t beat them up to make your point!”

  “Case by case basis, but we don’t beat them up. We rough the johns up, if it comes to it, which means the girls don’t have customers and have to move elsewhere. Usually, a conversation takes care of it, and they move outside our territory.” He sighed. “Repeat offenses, we take their money, but we don’t hit human women. Also, because we contribute so much to the local women’s shelter, if a workin’ girl wants to clean up her act, we can get her into a shelter, but most don’t want to.” He shrugged. “The ones that do, we help.”

  “Why’d you tell Candy to talk to me, and not one of the others in the lobby? And how did you know who was in the lobby to start with?” She squeezed the steering wheel. “And how did you have her damned phone number?”

  “Bobcat texted me, and I peeked in on the security cams, since I was in the control room. These girls are our employees, so of course we have a way to call them.” He crossed his arms. Uncrossed them. “Slick handles their initial legal training, but then Brain and I finesse it. We also have some regular johns who enjoy being a part of their training, and get a substantial discount if they volunteer to be the john when we run a drill. We use new prospects the girls don’t know for the other johns, if we don’t have enough customers.” He sighed. “A girl passes with flying colors, the MC pays her full fee despite the discounts given. She fucks up, it comes out of her cut, and she has to forego working and earning while she gets more training.”

  She stopped at yet another red light and looked at him. She’d made it to the hotel in about a minute, but traffic was gridlocked and it was taking longer to get back to the grocery store. “A drill? Like a fire drill?”

  “Yeah, but we break in and pretend to be the cops. They’re told during initial training that we’ll wear navy shirts that say THIS IS A DRILL on the front and back when it’s a drill, and they’re to treat us as if we’re five-oh. Everyone goes in cuffs, and we question them and try to trick them into saying something incriminating, just like the real cops would. Girls who fuck up two drills in a row, or who can’t learn how to use safe language until the john specifies what he or she wants, get fired. We have a refresher once a month — a meeting where the girls are reminded what to say and what not to say. They can’t miss more than two in a row, and they have to come to at least nine a year. We’ve never had an arrest stick.”

  “So, you keep them safe from the johns and from the police.”

  “That’s the goal.”

  “Why Candy and not the other two in the lobby?”

  “She’s been around a while. I thought she’d answer your questions without…”

  “Without calling me a stuck-up rich bitch?”

  “Something like that.”

  “What else do you do that’s illegal?”

  “Mostly tax stuff.”

  The light turned green and she resisted the urge to swing onto a side road and floor it. Seven more blocks to the grocery store. Two more traffic lights. “Mostly?”

  Another sigh. This one longsuffering. “We beat the shit out of people who disrespect the club. We beat the holy fuck out of anyone who peddles drugs in our territory, and I’ve seen a few of our enforcers pour the asshole’s drugs into a storm drain once he’s turned the dealer into a barely breathing bloody pulp. It’s possible some of us own guns that aren’t technically legal.”

  “Do you sell those guns to other bad guys?”

  “Where are you going with this, Blue? If you’d come to me and talked, I’d feel a whole helluva lot better about incriminating myself and my brothers. This conversation feels wrong.”

  “You’re the one who insisted on coming. I told you I needed time to think.”

  “But you’re only asking more questions. This isn’t the conversation of someone thinking, but of someone gathering evidence.”

  “I won’t do anything to get those girls arrested.”

  “Good to know. What about me and my brothers?”

  He’d know if she lied, and the truth was, she might. If she found out they murdered someone, or that they sold fully automatic weapons to bad guys, she may very well turn them in. “I’m working my way through that.”

  “So, you’d get Harmony’s husband thrown in jail for a decade? Angelica’s husband? Gen’s husband? Gabby’s?”

  Fuck. Those women were her friends, but if she went to the police, they wouldn’t be.

  “I’m not sure I could look the other way for something like murder.”

  “If the murderer had raped a few women and wasn’t likely to go to jail?”

  “I don’t know.”

  His palms landed on his thighs and squeezed. “Then you do, indeed, need time to think.”

  Iris finally turned into the lot, swung into a parking space, and put her car in park.

  “I love you, but I’m not sure how to reconcile…”

  She’d spent her life wondering why her father worried so much about public perception, and now she was doing the same thing. What would happen if this got out? A snapshot of her going into a known brothel would play huge on social media and the gossip sites.

  And if Danny got arrested for being a pimp, or whatever the correct legal terminology was, she couldn’t imagine the backlash. Worse, she wouldn’t be able to explain what Candy had told her without incriminating people she cared about.

  Chapter 33

  McGyver analyzed Iris’s scent, listened to her words, and watched her body language.

  And worried he was going to have to beg Kendra to make his Blueberry and her father forget about their criminal activities, and not care if someone told them again. Not all vampires would wipe memories for money, and if Kendra refused, he’d have to go to a vampire he knew would probably do it — one he’d rather not invite into Iris’s head, but he didn’t see an alternative.

  He was going to do everything in his power to help her be okay with what she’d learned, but he didn’t trust her away from him yet. She needed to learn security protocols, and she’d have to talk to the MC’s attorney, to learn what to say if questioned by the cops, and none of that was going to help her deal with what she’d learned.

  Thankfully, she was quiet while they shopped. At least she had the good sense to know not to talk about it where others might hear.

  In her car, on the way back to her apartment, he told her. “We can’t talk about any of this at your place. The car’s safe, but Kenny can hear our conversation from outside your apartment.”

  “I need to put my groceries up and do some homework.”

  “Why don’t we put them up and then go to my place? You can do your homework while I cook, and we can talk after we eat.” Her scent told him she wasn’t going to agree, so he added, “I’ll invite Harmony and Brain over to eat with us. Maybe talking to Harmony will help you work through it. Not all ol’ladi
es know about our other businesses, but Brain tells her everything.” Now wasn’t the time to hold back, so he gave it to her straight. “Knowing the truth means you may have to lie to the police at some point. Several ol’ladies have a deal with their ol’man that they’ll never know anything they might have to lie about.”

  “But by going to Candy, I don’t have the option anymore.”

  “Not about our workin’ girls, but other things, you still do.” He sighed. “It isn’t just the police, Blueberry. You have a public image, and plausible deniability will help when dealing with the public, too, should we be arrested.”

  “What are the odds you’ll go to jail?”

  “We’re careful, and we have exceptionally good attorneys. Now that you know about the girls, you’ll need an appointment with our main attorney, so you can learn what to say and what not to say. He has some tricks so you can keep from lying and keep from incriminating us, but under some circumstances, you’d have to lie. No way around it, now.” Unless he brought Kendra in.

  “Okay. I’ll go to your place so I can talk to Harmony, but I’m driving myself so I can leave whenever I want.”

  He couldn’t let her leave until he was certain she wouldn’t talk about what she’d learned, but he merely said, “Okay.”

  He texted Brain to let him know he needed them to come to dinner, and he used a code to alert him this was a big deal. Brain knew about Iris’s stunt at the hotel, so he’d have a good idea of the problem.

  A few minutes later, Harmony texted to let him know she was headed to his place to put the potatoes in the oven and figure out another side dish. The steaks wouldn’t take that long to cook.

  McGyver and Iris put the groceries away without speaking, and then left for his place. Iris had makeup, hair products, and clothes at his house, so she didn’t need to pack. She wasn’t planning to spend the night, but McGyver intended to convince her. He’d have to make everything okay tonight, before she had classes the next day — and if he couldn’t, he’d have to bring a vampire in to wipe her mind of what she’d learned, and to keep her from caring about any illegal activities she was told about in the future.