Intoxicated

Two

Las Vegas, Nevada~ The Present

Dorinda Patterson had finally made it. Entrepreneur, investor, she was even an honorary board member at her 5000 member church. Life was good. She had yet to secure the roles of wife and mother, but life was good.

Besides, Dorinda knew, those particular aspirations had never been ones she'd obsessed over. It would have been unrealistic to do so anyway. While becoming a mother wasn't such a far stretch, men rarely married women in her line of work. Such truths had stopped bothering her long ago. The income her line of work provided allowed any upset she may've experienced because of certain truths, to be quickly eased.

That didn't mean the job wasn't without its share of stressful moments. In the field of prostitution, stress was not only a given, it was quite often highly profitable. Men wanted their... sexual recreation to be trouble-free, stress-free. After all, trouble and stress were what work and marriage were for. When it came to sexual recreation, men were willing to pay very well to make stress disappear.

Dorinda had considered herself very blessed not to have had stress be a consistent part of her work life. There had been the occasional uprisings of course, but nothing that hovered at the fringes of life and death.

Until, The Ten.

She slid back the lavender suede chair from an immaculate white lacquer desk and surveyed the surroundings she had, on many occasions, demeaned herself to earn. It had all been worth it to pull a nod from Enrique Roya. The stories of how the man had staked his lucrative lifestyle were vast, varied and made her demeaning exploits seem G-rated.

Still, she'd gotten his nod- a nod that had allowed her to put her brothel under Roya's protective umbrella. Protection didn't come without a price, but Dorinda at first believed the price would be worth it. At first. Being one of Roya's associates got she and her girls more than protection.

The Roya name had transferred her brothel from being little more than a penny ante motel, to one of the premiere destinations on the Vegas underground. The transformation had come in the literal and figurative sense.

Gone, was the tacky shag carpeting over which even tackier throw rugs had been placed to hide careless spills of beverages and...other substances. Her floors now shone with gleaming hardwoods. The entire place had been newly painted, treated to resist stains. The walls boasted vibrant colors that she'd allowed her girls to select. Cheap looking curtains had been replaced by privacy blinds in rich, earth toned shades. It was like an entirely new dwelling.

The 'newness' brought on new tricks as well. Gone, were the cheapskates looking for a quick thrill on a budget. Diversion, Dorinda's brothel, then appealed to a better funded set.

As Dorinda wanted to ensure their loyalty, she made certain that her client's needs were consistently met without question. When certain customers complained about the lack of...variety, Dorinda didn't panic. She went out and added new girls to her roster.

When certain customers requested fresh girls regularly, she didn't panic. She supplied. When Roya drew her into the inner circle of his sex trade conglomerate, she thought she'd died and gone to heaven. It wasn't heaven.

She'd heard about The Ten, heard about Roya's involvement with the Grodins Alberts Network,. No one who earned a living on the relaxed side of the law, went long without hearing of the organization. The Ten however... The Ten were a group few in her business knew of unless their services were specifically requested.

As Dorinda's reputation for pampering her clients grew, so did her place along the Roya food chain. Not long after that, Grodins Alberts wanted Dorinda's special brand of customer service for its most revered members. Though she was eager to meet the demand, finding new girls wasn't an easy thing to do. High class women for high class clientele, didn't just show up wanting to be paid for sex.