CHAPTER FOUR
“Three hundred thousand dollars?” asked Bo. “Is that what she said?”
Joey turned to see his teammates standing at the door to his apartment, staring at the two of them. Marissa folded her arms over her chest, hoping to hide the fact that she was naked beneath Joey’s t-shirt.
“That’s what she said,” frowned Joey. “How? How do you owe them that much money?”
“Joey, please,” she said wiping her nose on his shirt. “Please just let me go back.”
“No. How could you possibly owe them that much money? Are you doing drugs?”
“No! No, you know I would never do that,” she sniffed.
“I never thought you’d strip either, but here we are. Do you have to give them your tips?” She nodded and Bullett tossed him a clean t-shirt. “Bullett, Bo, Red? This is Marissa Jordan.”
“Jordan? Do not fucking tell me she’s one the Jordans,” said Bullett.
“God, they know my family? Of course they do. Everyone knows the famous Jordans. All famous except me,” she cried.
“Everyone knows, honey,” said Bo. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here but let us try to help. Why do you owe them that much money?”
“I’m so stupid,” she cried. “My roommates, ex-roommates, convinced me to go on a boat ride with them one weekend. They’d been bugging me about it for weeks.
The boat was owned by three guys that they partied with before.
I was tired of spending all my time studying.
The first few times, it was fun. We danced, talked, and just had fun. There was nothing weird happening.”
“Then what happened?” asked Joey, grinding his teeth.
“You’re not helping,” she said staring at him.
“I’m trying, Marissa. Believe me, I’m trying to hold back my anger and the desire to blow that fucking place to pieces. Then what happened?”
“It was just one hand of poker. It was for fun, pennies. I won a little over five dollars. It was silly.”
“Oh, shit,” muttered Bullett.
“The next time it was a minimum of a dollar, then the next twenty. I was winning for the most part, then I lost a ton. I took money from my college fund and paid it off. I think they thought I had a lot of money and they invited me back. I told them I didn’t want to play and they said I either had to play or they’d dump me in the Atlantic.
I can swim, Joey, you know I can but we were far out. There’s no way I would have survived.”
“Fuckers,” muttered Joey. “Why didn’t you hit your beacon? The team would have come for you.”
“Why? This is why! You, here, acting like a madman. Plus, I was embarrassed. I am embarrassed. Anyway, we were on that boat for four days. But it wasn’t just the usual group. This time they were bringing others in every day by smaller boats. These guys were different. They were professionals.
“When it was all done, I owed them three-hundred thousand. I couldn’t ask mom and dad. I just couldn’t. Now they say I have to strip to pay back the money. I had to leave school, leave my master’s program and I’m barely making enough to eat. My bank account is drained.”
“Why didn’t your parents see that?” asked Joey.
“I-I changed the bank I use. I guess they didn’t look, thank goodness.” Joey just nodded, staring at his friends. “Please, Joey, I have to go back there or they’re going to kill me, or worse.”
“No. No way. We’re going to figure out what the hell is going on and get you out of this,” he said pushing her hair from her face.
“Joey, they’ll hurt me. They’ll hurt you. They’ve hurt other girls, I know they have. Some of them have disappeared. They won’t stop until they have their money.”
“Marissa, I don’t know you honey, but it sounds to me like these guys were playing a scam all along and your roommates were part of it. I’m going to guess that they owed him money and you were their payment.”
She stared at him open-mouthed, shaking her head. Then the other men nodded. Turning she looked at Joey, sobbing, falling into his arms.
“We’re going to figure this out,” he said, “but I can’t let you go back there.”
“He’ll find me, Joey. He’s found me before. I tried to go home. I tried to get on a plane and come home. I knew they wouldn’t find me there. What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to stay here. I’m going to protect you. We will protect you,” he said staring at his teammates. They all nodded, knowing they wouldn’t desert him.
“What if they find us?”
“You forget who we are, Marissa. If they want to come and find me, I’m happy to oblige.”