The Cunning

64

"Why do you look so pleased with yourself?" Sam asked when Jase walked into the kitchen.

"Just informed Madison who bought her," he replied with a smirk. Sam laughed.

"You're fucking loving this, aren't you?"

Jase shrugged. "She might be a conniving little bitch, but I'd be lying if I said she didn't keep things interesting."

"You're sadistic," Janine said quietly, her lip curled in distaste. Jase looked at her, tilted his head. She quickly averted her eyes. It was unwise to get brave with him at the best of times, it was downright stupid to do it whilst he was in one of his 'moods' and ready to play God.

"I suppose I am, and Madison is like the gift that keeps on giving. You can tell her I said that."

"She's just a kid," Janine replied. Sure, she was pissed off at Madison for taking the risk she had but who could blame her.

Jase nodded, "A kid that bit off more than she can chew. If you want to play with the big boys, you've got to be ready to suffer the consequences. She could have come into this house and made her life easy by doing as she was told, but she didn't. She tried to get the better of me."

Janine took off upstairs, she couldn't sit there and listen to the lunacy of it, as if Madison had chose to be there. Sam didn't say anything. He hadn't seen this side of Jase in a while, and it was best not to get in his way. He was just glad the rumours would finally start dying down and things could go back to how they were, when everything felt simpler. Madison had been getting too big for her boots as it was, and everyone knew it. Jase was reinforcing the power balance in the house.

*

"If he hates her so much, why doesn't he just hand her over to the guy that brought her?" Janine asked, sitting in front of her mirror as she angrily applied her make-up in preperation for the nights showing.

Sam scoffed. "He won't do that. Jase gets his kicks from girls like Madison."

She looked at him over her shoulder. "What do you mean 'girls like Madison'? There has never been a girl kick up this much fuss before."

Sam sighed, sitting up on her bed, shrugging. "He won't hand her over until she starts to bore him. Hopefully, that will happen soon. Like an old toy, he'll throw her away and wait for something new and shiny to come along."

Janine scowled.

"That's twisted," she said. Sam picked up his phone from the nightstand and laid back down.

"That's Jase. This is what he was like before her, remember? Him being nice and calm was clearly a phase." Janine's blood simmered at the thought of Jase seeing Madison as a plaything to be discarded. As if she didn't already have hell coming her way now Jase had lost interest.

A few hours later, the weeks second showing started. Sam and Janine went down together, Janine plastering on her practised smile. She knew how everything went down. Jase was already railing cocaine at the dining room table, but something was different about the evening guests. There were more. And amongst them, other girls. Happier, healthier-looking girls.

"Who are they?" Janine asked, sitting on Sam's lap at the table.

"It's the other house. Their girls have been a little restless lately. The men are bringing them here to show them how good they have it." Janine's heart dropped. Like the job wasn't dehumanising enough, she was now being used as an example of how things could be worse. Sometimes, a part of her hated Sam, but a bigger part hated herself for loving him.