Thirty-Six
Kaiden
“Hey, Kitty. What’s going on?” I ask as I walk into the brand-new lounge area of the recently renovated building.
It’s taken a while to get the work done, but it actually turned out better than I could have dreamed.
The structure was always sound, so it didn’t need any major work. It was just old and neglected.
Repurposing some of the rooms to make a large, comfortable and much deserved living room, renovating the tired, battered kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances as well as a few luxuries like the Keurig coffee machine, and updating each of the bedrooms so each has its own attached shower room has transformed the place.
The ‘working’ rooms are now completely separate from where the women live and sleep, giving them all their own private space as well as much-needed security.
Now, the girls are all healthy and no longer live with fear as a constant companion. It’s amazing how just providing basic creature comforts and protection made getting the majority of them clean from drugs so much easier.
In the end, those who chose to leave were actually the ones who didn’t want to stay once their on-tap supply of crack was taken away.
The girls who remain get a decent place to live.
Proper working hours and days off. And a pay scale they’d never find in any other unskilled job.
Not that these women aren’t skilled. What they do amazes me on a daily basis.
It always has. The difference now is they do it with pride and freedom instead of shame and dependency.
The transformation is nothing short of astounding, and more than anything else in the life that was forced upon me, it makes my blackened heart happy to know I’ve accomplished this.
“What the hell?” My words degenerate into a string of curses as I get a look at the bruised and battered woman Kitty is attempting to console.
Tears stream from eyes almost swollen closed.
Red-purple discoloration mars the entire right side of her face, and her lower lip is so badly split that someone - Kitty, at a guess - has already treated it with a butterfly stitch.
“Fuck! Does she need to go to the hospital?” I ask Kitty as I crouch in front of the two of them.
“No hospital,” the woman - Tina - croaks with such a nasty wheeze that my eyes automatically fly to her throat, where there are obvious strangulation signs.
Kitty shoots me a warning look and gives a subtle shake of her head. “We’ve got everything under control,” she assures me. “There’s nothing they can do that I can’t take care of.”
She casts a wary eye over me, and I know my features have hardened into an expression that would scare off most grown men. But these women also know I’d never hurt any of them.
I’m angry. Hell, angry doesn’t even cover a fraction of the fury I feel right now. But not at Tina or Kitty. I’ll save my wrath for whoever did this.
“There’s something else you need to see,” Kitty says, her voice vibrating with an emotion somewhere between rage and fear.
“Tina…” Kitty cajoles the young woman as she gently peels the fluffy, oversized robe down one of her shoulders. “I’m just going to slip this down a bit.”
Tina nods, but her expression is worryingly vacant, and though I’ve seen, and even conducted a lot of vicious shit in my time, I have trouble masking my horror as I catch a glimpse of her marked and welted skin. It looks like someone took a whip to her, but that’s not the worst thing.
The real barbarity lies underneath the red-stained gauze on the swell of Tina’s breast and is revealed as Kitty carefully moves the dressing.
“Jesus Christ!” I spit in disbelief. “Is that…” I shake my head, hardly able to comprehend what I’m seeing. “Is that a brand?”
I swallow and grab my phone, snapping a quick photo before Kitty recovers the wound and bundles Tina up again.
I stand and pace, dragging my fingers through my hair. I need more information, but I don’t want to upset Tina any more than necessary.
Thank God for Kitty, who understands without me having to verbalize anything. “LaToyah?” She calls to a stunning African American woman who’s been anxiously hovering in the background. “Can you take Tina and get her settled in her room, please? I need to speak with Kaiden.”
LaToyah nods jerkily, but she’s gentle and caring as the two women help a stiff and suffering Tina out of the room.
I head into the private office I’ve set up business operations inside and wait for Kitty to return, already running damage control and extra security in my head, while I try not to allow the very obvious symbol of the Red Scorpion, barbarically branded onto one of our girls, derail my thought process.
“How the hell did this happen?” I ask Kitty when she returns, pulling at my hair in frustration.
This kind of abuse was supposed to be a thing of the past. The girls are supposed to feel safe - be safe.
Kitty doesn’t pretend not to know what I mean or prevaricate with excuses. “Tina messed up,” she says, though her tone holds no censure. “She felt safe enough to work outside the usual security parameters.”
I huff out a breath and rub my hands over my face.
The protocols I’ve instigated are there for a reason, but not all the girls truly believe they are worth more than being treated like a piece of shit yet.
And others, like Tina, maybe, view the protection we provide as the opportunity to be a bit too carte blanche in their actions.
“What did she do?” I sigh, knowing this would likely have happened to one or another of the girls, regardless.
Someone is sending a message, and it’s one I’m going to have to deal with swiftly and decisively.
I let the question hang there, watching Kitty’s expression shift from protective to resigned. She knows I need details to fix this, even if she’d rather shield Tina from having to relive it.
“She took a private client,” Kitty says carefully. “Someone who approached her directly, offered double if she went back to his place.”
“Fucking hell!”
I surge out of the chair, hands fisted, and attempt to pace off my fury.
The girls know not to do that kind of thing.
But change is slow, and the Viper would have beaten them for refusing work of any kind, so they’re used to being compliant.
I’ve cleaned things up. Provided them with soundproof ‘working’ rooms, which are nevertheless monitored for their safety, and a minimum pay threshold below which they do not put out.
I’ve tried to make them understand their worth and give them agency.
But maybe those protections have given them a false sense of security. Outside these walls, I have no control.
Kitty’s voice is tight with her own barely controlled anger.
“The client seemed legit - well-dressed, polite, generous with his initial upfront payment. He offered her a substantial bonus if she went back to his place for…” She makes quotation marks with her fingers. “Some light BDSM elements, including being bound and gagged.”
Screwing my eyes up, I rub at the tension headache beginning in my temples. I can already see how this played out, without the rest of the details. Honestly, I’m more surprised Tina isn’t dead, though I keep that observation to myself.
“Did she describe the perp? Identify the property?”
Kitty pulls a piece of notepaper out of her pocket. “She knew the address. I wrote it down along with the description she gave.”
I take the paper and read it through. Dark blond hair, blue eyes, medium build, average height, no strong accent. Dark slacks, white shirt, grey sports jacket.
There’s nothing at all that stands out, and I guess that was the point. This guy could be any one of thousands of people.
The address gives me more to go on. But it’s a metaphorical middle finger to La Cosa Nostra, being right in the middle of our territory. An audacious gesture designed to send a message just as much as what’s been done to Tina.
“I’m going to go check this out,” I tell her, tapping the address. I doubt I’ll find anything, but it’s not something to overlook or make assumptions about.
“In the meantime, I’ll call in extra security. But brief all the girls to carry on as normal. I do not want anyone thinking we’re spooked. But make it clear that they don’t work outside the protocols.”
After what’s happened, I probably don’t need to hammer that home, but I’m taking nothing for granted.
“I’ll be back to check on things later and discuss this some more.”
“Okay,” Kitty replies with a nod. I can see the tension around her eyes and mouth and know this has shaken her. As bad as things were in this place under the Viper’s management, at least they knew what to expect.
Somehow, this hits worse because it’s totally unforeseen.