Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Witness

She let the last of the pirates get ahead of her before she slipped into the crowd, following closely behind the group. They walked off the main road into a less crowded street and she fell back further careful not to give herself away. They arrived at a three-story building that looked to be somewhat busy and went inside. If Ava followed, one of the pirates was bound to see her. She looked around for anything that would give her a line of sight. All of a sudden, a group of people rushed out from the building the pirates had just been in. That wasn't a coincidence. Her heart began to beat faster, were they raiding the place? She found a tree across the street from the building and began to climb it. She climbed until she found a good view into the second-floor window, where she saw a dozen or more naked girls around the room, pirate crew and three men in front of them.

That was the pirate business? Visiting a brothel? Ava was about to climb down when she saw Theo draw her sword. Theo looked around the room and said something and the girls all scurried out of the room. She stepped forward to the window and looked out onto the streets and the other buildings to see if anyone was looking. As Theo was scanning to see if anyone was looking she locked eyes with Ava and her expression hardened. Now that Ava was caught and Theo did not look like she was about to interrupt whatever was going on to get her to stop watching, so she stayed. Theo turned away from the window with a scowl and stomped back over to the three men.

"Get them on their knees," Theo spat out and three women stepped forward quickly, pushing the men to their knees, "You see, last time I was here I recall being merciful. I made you a deal, you treat the girls right and pay them their cut and I wouldn't castrate you."

Theo paced in front of them, twisting and turning her sword expertly in her hand, "I can't quite wrap my head around why you won't pay these women what they deserve. I'll let you explain it though. You are on trial here, after all."

"W-we're struggling. It's not business like it used to be. And-" the man in the middle gulped and wrung his hand in front of him, "and it's the three of us trying to p-provide for all of them."

"See, I thought you would say something like that. So, I had my friend Xyra over there make some calculations for me. Xyra, how would you say business is at the grand ol' Three's a Crowd."

Xyra stepped forward and looked down at a piece of paper she had, "Given that this here is a reputable establishment, they charge a standard rate of four gold an hour. The women work for ten hours a sun which means each of them brings in forty gold each sun."

"And how many would you say work here, good sir?" Theo pointed her sword to the one to her left.

"F-Forty, Captain."

"Forty," Theo repeated, "Xyra, please tell what does that put them at for the night?"

"Assuming some customers go for more than the standard rate, a minimum of 1,600 gold. Which means they each take home way over 500 gold each night," Xyra calculated then took a deep breath before saying, "More than 250,000 gold coins for each of them each length."

Theo let out a wry laugh and pressed her sword against the same man's neck, drawing blood, "But I didn't even need her to tell me that to know you were lying because when business is bad I don't wear thousands of gold worth of jewelry on me and silk robes while my workers starve every night."

The man in the middle began sputtering tears and he held his hands up begging, "Please! Please, we'll pay them equally, we will. I'm sorry," he sobbed, "I'm sorry."

Theo kicked his hands away and knelt in front of him, "You let disgusting men come in here and use these women, cycle after cycle and give them nothing. One gold every sun. You take 39 gold pieces from them every fucking night for what? What could you possibly need to buy that you don't already have?"