Chapter Ten #2
“You’ve lost your goddamn mind,” I say. “No.”
Matthew taps on his phone before sounds play through the room. When he turns the screen around, it’s me on stage. I can feel all the color drain from my face as he goes to the next, and it’s of a private room. “One hour or it goes to the press,” he says as he stands.
“Go ahead,” Cam says with a shrug.
“Cameron,” I snap, but he ignores me.
“Suit yourself,” Matthew says with a matching shrug. “By the way, Remington. You’re lucky. The girl can suck a cock better than any whore I’ve ever met.”
“Get the fuck out of my building,” Cam says with a grave tone.
“Ah, but we have a contract. I’ll see you next week, everyone,” he smiles before leaving the room. I stand from my chair to get away from them as I start to hyperventilate.
“Hey. Hey. Hey,” Tris says, holding my face. “You’re okay. The company will be fine. We will be fine. You will be fine. Okay? The media will hyper-focus. You’ll have to explain things in a bit, but…”
“Rob will get in trouble,” I whimper. “He never hurt me. He shouldn’t get in trouble. He kept us safe.”
“Let’s go see him then, huh? The club is open, right?”
“Yeah,” I sniff.
“Let’s go see him so he will at least have a heads-up,” she says. “Guys?”
“Yeah. Let’s go,” Cam says. “I promise, we will get through this, sis.”
“Easy for you to say,” I say coldly. “You aren’t the one who is about to be publicly slut-shamed or blamed for this entire company going to shit.”
“Lorelei, we will stand beside you no matter what,” Cam says. “Surely you accounted for someone finding out one day.”
“I mean, I did. I just assumed that none of them would speak up as they would out themselves also,” I say. “Let’s just warn Rob and… I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”
W e walk into the club and Omar is up front. “Hey, girl,” he smiles, hugging me tightly. “Who are they? You okay?”
“Oh, uh. This is my brother Cameron, my best friend and his girlfriend, Beatris, and my… boyfriend, Remington. He’s also Cameron’s best friend,” I say. “This is Omar.”
“Nice to meet you guys,” Omar says. “What brings you here?”
“Is Rob around?” I ask.
“Yeah. He’s in his office. Is everything okay?”
“Uh… no,” I say.
“Well, go on back,” he says.
“Probably… shouldn’t open,” I say. “Let me talk to Rob first.”
“Uh oh,” Omar says. “Okay.”
I wave the others back with me, and we walk on to the main floor. Some of the girls are out and wave at me as I walk back to Rob’s office. I knock and hear him answer right away. “It’s okay,” he says.
“Hey, Rob,” I say.
“Hey, Lorelei,” he smiles, but his face drops when he sees Remy. “What’s wrong?”
“You know each other?” I ask Remy.
“Yeah,” he smirks.
“Okay… I feel like that deserves an explanation,” I say.
“Oh, he was just looking out for you. Never had many issues, so there was no need to tell him much,” Rob says. “What’s going on?”
“Matthew Hernandez,” I say.
“Oh God. Him,” Rob says, rolling his eyes. “What did he do?”
“He is a client of the company, apparently,” I say. “He attended the quarterly meeting today and… He knew who I was the whole time. He basically said that if we didn’t give him ten million, that he was going to go to the media. He gave us an hour and that was forty minutes ago.”
“Oh hell,” Rob says.
“He has video, Rob. Of me. Of the back rooms,” I say. “Every single client…”
“Fuck,” Rob snaps. “Come on. Let’s tell the girls.”
We follow Rob out to the main floor, and he calls all the girls out. “So many boobs,” Tris says.
“You’ll get that in a strip club,” I laugh.
“Okay girls…” Rob sighs. He tells them what I told him, and they all listen without interrupting. All of them look sad, but a few look like they’re mad.
“So, what now?” Angel asks. “Are we going to jail now?”
“No,” Rob says.
“Don’t lie to them,” I say.
“Girls… I knew that this was a possibility. None of you have done anything wrong. I’ve always believed that you should be able to do whatever you want with your body, so I’ve kept you safe and allowed you to do what you want…
I’ve never forced any of you ladies to do anything. You aren’t a hostage,” he says.
“Rob. No. Absolutely not,” I say, but he ignores me.
“When the police show up… Tell them I made you. The only way you get out of this without getting in trouble is if they think that I trafficked to you,” he says as he gets emotional.
“Rob, you can’t just…” Dazzle starts to say.
“Girl, stop. I know you don’t want to do this. I know it feels wrong, but I’m not letting you all get in trouble,” he says. “I’ll destroy my records and… Well, just lie. Just get your story straight.”
“Rob,” I say tearfully. He walks over and hugs me.
“Lorelei, honey. I can’t let you get in trouble for this. I can’t,” he says. “Tell them I made you do it and I took half. You were too scared to speak up.”
“Are you sure about this?” Cam asks.
“Absolutely,” Rob confirms. “I don’t have a wife or kids. It’s just me. I’m not leaving anybody behind.”
“I’ll make some calls and make sure you have a good lawyer if this is what you really want,” Remy says. “Thank you for looking after them.”
“I did everything I could to keep them safe and let them do what they wanted. No one should have the right to tell these girls what they can and can’t do with their bodies.
All the clients treated them right, and we hardly ever had issues.
When we did, it was handled,” Rob says. “I’ll throw myself under the bus to make sure they don’t get in trouble. ”
“Uh… Lori,” Tris says slowly. “He didn’t wait an hour.”
“What?” I snap, turning to her. She handed me her phone, and I see the video.
“It’s everywhere,” she says sadly. “It’s been up for less than five minutes, and it’s already like five hundred thousand views.”
“Was she named?” Cam asks.
“Yeah,” she says. She plays a breaking news story from the media, and everyone is silent as they listen.
“…Breaking news. Lorelei Belmont, COO of Saltz-Belmont Technologies, has been seen in a recent video as an adult entertainer at a local club here in New York City. There are reports coming in that she was soliciting sex for money. One source says that the business owners, Cameron Belmont and Remington Saltz, were using Lorelei to blackmail other executives into business dealings for the technology company. We will have more information as it becomes available…”
“Y’all need to get out of here before the cops show up,” Rob says. “Girls, go about your business, but do not take any clients to the back rooms. Understand?”
“Rob,” I say tearfully.
“It’s okay, Lorelei,” he says as he hugs me. “You girls are like my kids. Let me protect you. Okay?”
“You’ll go to jail, Rob. Forever. Human trafficking is a huge charge,” I sniff.
“I know, hun. I know,” he says. “I’ll do what needs to be done to make sure none of you gets dragged into this. You all have bright futures ahead of you. I’m just an old man.”
“We should go,” Remy says softly to me.
“Go on, Miss Lolita,” Rob smiles, his eyes full of unshed tears. Remy takes my hand and pulls me along. Omar stops us to hug me.
“You’ll be okay, girl,” Omar says.
“Omar, I love you, son. Get the fuck out of here,” Rob says. “Go home and don’t get caught up in this. I have files to delete.”
“Cops,” Dazzle calls out, looking at her phone. “My man said there is a group of them driving this way.”
“Come on,” Remy says, pulling me out.
We all run outside and get back to the car. I am in tears by the time we are pulling out of the parking lot. I’m sitting in the backseat with Remy while Cam drives. A few seconds after we pull out and driving down the road, we see a pack of police cars pull into the parking lot of the club.
“I’m sorry, Lori,” Remy murmurs as he holds me in his lap.