The Cunning

60

The living room was foggy from Jase's cigarettes.

"Where's Janine?" Madison asked. It was only Sam and Jase in the living room with her, which put her on edge. Jase's demeanour was different. There was something dangerous camping behind those mossy eyes. Her body prickled. All the alarms were going off but she couldn't pinpoint what was making her so uncomfortable. This was not the Jase she had woken up next to.

"She's not coming down tonight," he said. Madison swallowed, sinking into herself on the sofa, pulling her knees up to her chest. He was too calm and blank. The knock on the door made her jump. Jase didn't take his eyes off Madison as Sam went to answer it, inviting the caller in.

Sam told the stranger to sit down on the other side of the sofa. He wore an ill-fitted cheap, navy suit and appeared both young and old, simultaneously, with tiny ice-blue eyes behind square-rimmed glasses and skin pitted from years of bad acne. Madison looked to his hands; clasped together then released, wiping sweat on his thighs. She wondered if Jase made everyone this nervous or if it was this guy's first time in a brothel. Either way, she was glad she wasn't the only one suffering the heat of Jase's wolfish glare.

"Ugh, hello, I'm Toby-" the stranger introduced. Jase looked away from Madison at the guy, he placed him in his mid-thirties.

"I know who you are. What are you looking for?" Jase leaned forward, tapping ash in the tray on the coffee table. Toby laughed uneasily, rubbing the back of his neck. This was definitely his first time around someone like Jase, it was written all over his leaking face.

"I'm not actually here for me. It's for my boss." No one said anything, and he proceeded. "He wants a girl, a young girl. Preferably blonde, small..." His eyes drifted down to his hands. Madison's stomach twisted at his choice of words. It didn't sound like his boss was looking for a woman.

Jase sat back. He liked the silence between them. He liked watching people squirm. The hit of dopamine from the power trip reminded Jase why he had initially enjoyed working for Benny, relished in it even. He hadn't felt that in a while.

The stoned, sensitive moments with Madison had started to make him question whether he still wanted to do all of this. Last night had confirmed that he did indeed want to continue his role and he couldn't risk that by being too involved with Madison. The boundaries needed resetting.

Watching the body drop to the floor, blood pooling beneath the man's head, his ankle spasming, Jase had felt nothing. But he was no longer bored.

She had almost had him and the worst part was - she knew it.

Clever, clever girl, Jase thought.

"What about her?" he finally asked, nodding at Madison. Her eyes widened, the colour draining from her face. She was unsure if she'd heard him right, the blood had rushed to her ears, a painful pressure built in her forehead. The shock on her face confirmed Jase's suspicions; she thought she was no longer on the shelf.

He was beginning to think the question she'd asked that morning, about when she started working, wasn't out of fear or an acceptance of her fate. It was to gauge his reaction, and he'd told her exactly what she wanted to hear.

Jase's face remained impassive as all the pathways connected. On the inside, he was burning with rage, at himself or Madison, he was unsure. There was a lot of second-guessing.

She wasn't celiac, he'd already figured that. And she had obviously befriended Janine in a bid to siphon information out of her, but there was nothing Janine could tell her that was helpful. That he was aware of, at least. What else had she done to fool him? How far had he allowed the deception to go? Who was Madison, why did she know how to pick locks? Why was she not worried about the fact that no one was looking for her?

The paranoia goaded Jase's temper. His grip on the armchair tightened.

Toby turned his attention to Madison, looking every inch as guilty as he was. He frowned. "Could you stand up?" She looked at Jase.

"Stand up, Madison," he ordered flatly. It baffled her how she managed to get to her feet considering her legs had liquified. Jase's turn in character felt like an intense case of whiplash. "Turn around." She did as he said, too confused to do anything else. Rotating slowly, Madison was unable to compute what was going on. Just hours ago, she had been lying in bed with him, and now she felt sick to her stomach because he was putting her on display for Toby to ogle like an underfed rotisserie chicken.

It was one of the few times in a woman's life when her body disappointing someone was a relief.

"She'll do," Toby said, making no attempt to hide his disheartenment. "I can send a taxi out tomorrow?"

Jase shook his head. "They don't leave the house."

"But he won't come here. He only does home calls," Toby replied. Jase shrugged, picking up the cigarettes from the coffee table and sliding one out as he responded.

"And we only do in-house. Madison, upstairs." She didn't need to be told twice. Madison dashed out of the living room. Jase looked back at Toby. "Fuck off then," he told him. Toby stammered for a second, and Jase raised his brows, daring him to protest. That was enough to have him scramble to his feet and show himself out.

Sam sat back in his chair, smirking at Jase.

"It's good to have you back," he said.