Free Falling

Cupidity

As the elevator doors shut, Denitra could hear the old grandfather clock in the lobby of Safeword chime, announcing that it was midnight, the start of Wednesday. It was now going on day four of her time with the Saints. Oh, the agony.

As they traveled up to the penthouse suite, she noticed that Jamien still hadn't looked at her. The way he set his mouth in a tight line, she figured it'd be a while before she heard a word from him. Maybe, just maybe, the man had learned his lesson about wanting her to go with him every-damn-where and exposing her to just any-damn-body.

After they'd left the Broken Shillelagh, Jamien had gotten a phone call from Zimos, who wanted to give Jamien his money for his work and ask for yet another favor. She'd begged Jamien to take her back to the penthouse, but he insisted that it would save time and gas just to take her along.

Denitra bit back a chuckle as they stepped off of the elevator and Jamien immediately hit the bar. She made her way upstairs to the bathroom, both needing and wanting to take a long, luxurious bubble bath to unwind and calm down. As the tub filled, she wondered why Jamien was so pressed to have her with him all the time. The brothel was constantly occupied with Saints members, who were almost always armed, so she would not go anywhere. If they couldn't stop just one unarmed woman from escaping, then he needed to look into finding better thugs.

The water felt way better than she thought it would. The lavender-scented bubbles coupled with the baby oil was just what the doctor ordered. Though she tried to relax and block out all thoughts of Jamien, Zimos, and the bullshit the two of them had cooked up, she couldn't.

Zimos had asked Jamien to play chauffeur for one of his girls while she serviced a few clients in the car's backseat. Denitra attempted to strangle Zimos because she'd thought he had intended for her to do it by the way he'd stared at her while he'd said it. It's a good thing that Jamien has such good reflexes. Despite her loud protests, they forced her to ride shotgun. She'd refused to say a word to Jamien until the sensual noises made in the backseat got louder than the sounds of squealing tires as Jamien drove recklessly, trying to avoid the gang of tabloid reporters pursuing them to get pictures of the clients the girl was servicing.

"How in the hell can you do this shit?" Denitra asked heatedly, throwing a thumb over her shoulder to show she was talking about driving around a sexmobile that smelled of sweat and shame.

He shrugged and cut around another corner, narrowly missing an elderly couple trying to cross the street. He did, however, hit the police officer walking behind them. "There's a lot of things in life we don't want to do but have to. You learn to deal with it."

"You don't 'have to' do this. You have plenty of money."

He chuckled. "Sure, I don't. But the money I make from doing little side things like this doesn't benefit me directly. To me, thisis no different than a woman choosing to sell her body so that her kids can eat and have a place to sleep at night. You do what the fuck you have to do."

To say that it appalled her would be an understatement. "How in the hell can you compare this to something like that?"

"It's the same damn thing to me. In a sense, I'm pimping myself out for money. I offer to do whatever Zimos, Kinzie, or Angel needs doing to earn some money. Hell, you watched me get run the fuck over for money. I'm doing something I really don't wanna do-"

"You don't have any children in need, you asshole!" She shouted at him, hands balled up into tight fists, prepared to hit him.

He cut his eyes at her, suddenly losing his sense of humor. Even though she was now sitting in a tub filled with hot water, a chill still ran down her spine at the memory of how cold his eyes had been as he spoke to her. "If you hadn't noticed, the Saints are mostly of teens and young adults. To me, they are children. Other gangs don't give two shits about their runts. I make sure that every one of my members has access to health care, have a home, and receive some sort of paycheck to help with their bills and expenses."