Belle

by Treasure Hernandez

  “Okay, Nebraska. I see you must have gotten your shit together.”

  “Yeah, she’s about to be feeling herself in a second,” Drip said with a wink.

  And feel herself she did. As she walked toward the man who had asked her for a dance, Belle rubbed herself seductively. He was sitting in a chair alone in a far corner, seemingly waiting for her.

  “I thought you forgot about me,” he said with a sly smile when she approached him.

  “Me forget about something as handsome as you? Never, baby. What’s your name?”

  “Stephen.”

  “Well, Stephen, have you ever seen an ass this fat before?”

  The words were coming out of her mouth, but she couldn’t believe she was the one saying them. Gone was the timid girl who had walked in. She turned around to give him the perfect view of her apple bottom before she spread her legs and bent to grab her ankles. The music had slowed down by the time she walked out of the bathroom, so moving her body sensually to the beat was easy. She pulled out all of the tricks she’d seen exotic dancers do, and she tried her best to imitate them.

  “Damn,” she heard him say while she was on the carpet on her back with her legs open in the air.

  She was shaking them so that he could see her meat wiggle, and he had the perfect view of her fat cat in her pink thong. The Xanax made the carpet beneath her feel so good on her skin that she wondered what else would feel good. And then she knew as soon as Stephen started throwing it. Money. He threw an entire stack on her body before she even stood back up, and when she did, he grabbed her hand gently, pulling her to him.

  “I think I’ve thrown well over a hundred dollars,” he said breathlessly. “Now come rub that fatty on my jimmy. Please.”

  Belle did as she was told without thinking twice. She put her hands on her knees as he leaned back into the leather chair he was in, and she twerked her bottom to the beat of whatever song was playing. She felt his hard-on between her cheeks, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to keep feeling the money fall on her body. She realized the harder she bounced and ground down on him, the more he threw. She didn’t bother picking up the money because Aria had told her it was security’s job to sweep it up and put it in their individual piles to count at the end of the night. When Belle noticed that Stephen’s hands fondled her backside for too long without throwing anything, she stopped dancing. It was time to find her next victim because Stephen’s fantasy with Beauty was up.

  “Hey, hey. Where are you going?” Stephen asked and grabbed Belle’s arm. “We were just starting to have some fun.”

  “Fun stops when the money does,” a voice said, coming up to them.

  When Belle looked, she saw Kidd standing there, staring sternly at Stephen’s hand on Belle’s arm. Stephen instantly let Belle go, and she stepped away. Stephen smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders up at Kidd.

  “Hey, I pay my monthly dues like the rest of these fellas. You mean to tell me that I pay thousands of dollars a month and still have to throw dollars for a dance?”

  “It’s called a tip,” Kidd told him. “This tour is a perk for only the best of Gene’s clientele. You know that. Your monthly membership pays for access to that. Now if you want to cancel, be my guest. Otherwise, there are other girls who would appreciate the generosity you’ve shown Beauty tonight. There is also enough coke for you to take home to that pretty wife of yours.”

  Kidd nodded at Stephen’s left finger, and he instantly balled his hand into a fist as if to hide it. Stephen cleared his throat as he stood up, and he went to join one of the other guys eyeballing Luscious, who was going bananas on the pole.

  “Thank you,” Belle said to Kidd and offered him a dopey smile.

  “Shorty, let me talk to you for a minute,” Kidd said to her and lightly grabbed her hand.

  He led her to a back room away from the noisy party. He wanted to be able to speak to her without shouting over the music. When they were inside one of the basement bedrooms, Kidd turned the light on and closed the door.

  “What’s this? You wanted to get me all alone?” Belle grinned and leaned her body into him. She pressed her breasts on his chest and wrapped an arm around his neck. “You got some money in these pockets?”

  Her free hand traveled down his leg, but instead of stopping at his pocket, she stopped at his crotch. The bulge there was impressive, and she licked her lips seductively up at him. He returned her look with one of longing before shaking his head and pulling away.

  “Chill out. This ain’t you, shorty,” he said, focusing on her eyes. “I mean, look at you. You’re high as a kite!”

  “How can you tell me what is or isn’t me? You barely even know me.”

  “True that, but I know this ain’t you,” Kidd said and pointed at her body. “I don’t know if what happened back there at that gas station fucked you up or what, but you ain’t gotta do this.”

  “Do what?”

  “Use your body to make bread.”

  “What else am I going to do? This is just some quick cash until I get on my feet.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they all said.” Kidd shook his head. “Once you get in too deep, there ain’t no getting out. And Gene . . .”

  “Gene what?”

  “He ain’t gon’ let you go. Especially when he sees you.” There was a plea in his tone and his eyes at his last sentence.

  He was trying to warn her, but Belle was so lit that she didn’t care. The last person she let control her life was her father, and look where that got her. Broke and homeless. She rolled her eyes at Kidd and turned to go back out to the party, but he stopped her.

  “Belle, please,” he said. “I got you. Just stop doing this shit. I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

  “Take care of me?” Belle scoffed and snatched her hand away. “I can take care of myself.”

  He wanted to stop her again, but instead, he let her leave the room. It seemed as if her mind was made up, and with the drug coursing through her system, there would be no getting through to her. Kidd knew one thing for certain: there was something about her that made him feel something dangerous. It was the same something that had almost made him put a bullet between dude’s eyes for snatching her arm. It was the same something that could mess up his own paper, and that was why he couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t watch Belle destroy herself while everyone else celebrated her. No, he would let her do that by herself.

  In the next room, there was a party with only two people going on. While the other girls were busy entertaining their guests, Aria had cornered one of her very own. His name was Jeremy Jeter, and he was the senior vice president of a software company. His take-home salary alone was enough to knock the panties off most women, but that didn’t mean he didn’t mind paying for pussy. He also had a bit of a gambling problem, and that didn’t go over too well with most ladies.

  “Hell yeah, take it off,” he said from where he sat on the bed.

  The lighting in the room was dim, and he’d removed the jacket he was wearing as if it had suddenly gotten hot in there. His hands moved back and forth on his thighs like a kid in a toy section after his mother told him not to touch anything. His eyes were glued to Aria as she swayed her body to the music coming from under the closed bedroom door. Not only was she a temptress, but Aria had a way of putting all her clients in a trance. She was the tamer, and Jeremy was her snake. She pouted her red lips as she walked seductively toward the bed with her hand behind her back.

  “Are you ready to have some real fun?” she asked and ran her finger down his chest.

  “Does it involve me getting my dick sucked?” he asked breathily.

  “Now, now. There will be plenty of time for all of that,” Aria answered. “Be patient. In fact, I brought my whole bag of goodies in here just for you. Let’s have some fun, shall we?”

  She took her hand from behind her back and revealed that she was holding two pairs of handcuffs. When he saw them, he quickly showed his pearly whites and lay
back on the bed so that his head was on one of the pillows. He then held his arms out, letting her know that he was okay with whatever fun she had planned for him.

  “Make me feel good, baby,” he said as she handcuffed him to the bed.

  “Oh, I will,” she said and walked over to the bag by the door. “This is going to be a time you’ll never forget.”

  From the bag, she grabbed two black scarves so that she could tie his legs down as well. When she was positive that he couldn’t get loose, she grabbed a few more things from her bag and climbed on top of him seductively. She moved her hips as she ground down on his erection and watched the look of pure bliss take over his face. He began to moan, so she placed in his mouth the gag ball she’d brought with her, and she tied it at the back of his head.

  “Do you like that?” she asked, grinding harder.

  He nodded ferociously.

  “I know you like that. You wish you could feel this pussy on your raw dick, don’t you?”

  He nodded again, that time with a muffled moan.

  “Mmm, I know, baby. Do you know what I like?”

  He shook his head. His eyes were too busy looking at her exposed nipples to see the flash of the blade being put to his throat.

  “I like it when you pay Gene his motherfucking money on time,” she said, pressing the sharp knife to his throat. “Now why the fuck did you think it was okay to show your face at this party, Jeremy, when you’ve missed your last three payments? Did you think Gene was going to let you keep enjoying the amenities without you playing your part?”

  Under her, Jeremy tried to fight against his restraints, but she had him tied up too good. Next, he tried to yell, perhaps to get help, but that was no use either. No one could hear him. Aria feigned a yawn at his futile attempts until finally, he stopped.

  “Realize you’re not getting free until I allow it, eh?” she said with a chuckle. “Now let’s get back to business, shall we? From what I hear, you have a little bit of a gambling problem. So I take it you know all about choices and options. Well, I have a few options for you to choose from. I can kill you right now on this bed, slice your throat open, and watch your blood spill out all over this nice thirty-five-year-old body. Or you can pay Gene what you owe him right here, right now, and you can continue to enjoy the party. What do you say?”

  Jeremy glared up at Aria, and he screamed until his face turned red. The rage he felt read all over his face, but that was the least of Aria’s concerns. To her, he was as scary as a mouse. Gene was the boogeyman in comparison. The only thing on her mind was doing as he said, which was collecting all debts from his clients while she was on tour. Jeremy was in the hole $20,000, yet hadn’t missed a party and had even shown up at the Bliss Lounge in Miami. She was prepared to do whatever it took to recover the money, even if it meant cutting him into tiny little pieces.

  When he was done screaming, he panted for air. Aria waited to speak again until she saw the defeated look in his eyes.

  “The clock is ticking. You have five seconds to make a decision. Actually, make that one.” She pressed the knife harder to his neck, and he shook his head.

  “Mmm!” he moaned and made a small gesture with his head toward his right pants pocket. “Mmm!”

  Her eyes followed the gesture and saw a small bulge there. She reached inside the pocket and pulled out his wallet and his phone. The wallet only had about $1,000 in twenties inside of it. She pressed the phone to one of his thumbs, and it unlocked instantly.

  “That’s the funny thing about technology. Everything is literally at our fingertips. These days you can transfer money all over the world, all from your phone. Isn’t that convenient? Ah, here we go.”

  In less than thirty seconds, using his fingerprint again, she transferred all the money that was owed to Gene from Jeremy’s checking account. When Aria was done, she gently slid the phone back in his pocket along with his wallet and stood up.

  “I can’t lie. I’m a little disappointed, Jeremy,” she said as she strutted to the door. “I thought you would put up a little more fight than that. But no matter. I got what I wanted. I’ll have Phil come in here and untie you momentarily. Oh, and I wouldn’t try any funny business if I were you. I have a knife, but Phil? He has a gun. Enjoy the rest of the party!”

  She winked back at him before grabbing her bag of goodies and tucking her knife back into one of the sides. When she opened the bedroom door, sure enough, Phil was standing guard outside of it.

  “You handle your business?”

  “Always,” she said with a smile and walked away to join the rest of the girls.

  The first thing she saw was Luscious shaking her gigantic booty and a shower of bills being thrown at it. The second thing Aria saw was Belle in the corner, smiling in the face of a man and him giving her a handful of hundreds. All she had to do was smile and she was raking in dough. Gene was going to love her the moment he met her. Aria knew it. She just hadn’t decided yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  Chapter 6

  My right hand is a monster.

  —Deontay Wilder

  “Where are you off to?”

  Aria’s voice caught Kidd off guard, but he didn’t stop what he was doing. It was the morning after the party and the other girls were still sound asleep in the hotel. Kidd had gotten up to go outside to the bus before the sun was in the sky. He’d removed all of his things and relocated them to the trunk of Belle’s car. Everything of hers that had been inside it that he thought she would need he’d put on the tour bus. He didn’t give Aria eye contact when he shut the trunk and went to the driver’s side door.

  “I’m just gon’ meet y’all back in Miami,” he answered. “Gene will send somebody to the next stop to replace me as security when he knows I’m gone.”

  “Why are you leaving us so suddenly?”

  Kidd bit the inside of his cheek and hit the top of the Camaro lightly with his fist before finally looking her way. She was wearing a thin pair of leggings, a pair of boots, and a light jacket. Her hair was wrapped up in a scarf, but her makeup from the previous night was still sitting perfectly on her face.

  “You should go back inside,” he told her. “It’s cold out here. We don’t need you getting sick now, do we?”

  “No, what I don’t need is Belle filing a police report on you for stealing her car.”

  “Not stealing, borrowing. You and I both know she’s not gon’ give a fuck about this car now that she has y’all. Plus it will be waiting for her when the bus gets back to Miami.”

  “Whatever,” Aria said, crossing her arms. “You still never said why you’re leaving. You’ve always been our security on the tours.”

  “Yeah, well, things change.”

  “Things like . . . Belle?” Aria raised her eyebrow at him, and when his jaw clenched, she knew she’d hit the nail on the head.

  “She’s not built for this life, and you know it.”

  “I mean, she brought in four thousand dollars on her own last night. I’d say she’s a natural.”

  “That’s not what I mean.” Kidd clenched his fists and sighed. “Did you even think to look her up? When we found her at that gas station, did you even think to look up who she was?”

  “Nooo,” Aria said and made a face. “We’ve found girls in raunchier places than a gas station bathroom.”

  “Well, I looked her up. It just seemed odd to me that a girl her age could be riding around in a brand-new Camaro but claim to be broke.”

  “You mean she’s not broke?”

  “She is now, but she wasn’t before. Nowhere near it. Her father was Lucas Dubois, owner of a major management company. He was murdered along with his wife and son, leaving her with nothing. Not even his estate.”

  “So what’s wrong with her making a little bit of money?”

  “She ain’t like us, man! When you look at her, you see a dollar. When I look at her, I see something more. She’s supposed to be in college studyin’ for class. Instead, you got her
out here popping pussy like you.”

  “And what’s wrong with me?”

  “You know what’s wrong with you! And me! You know how Gene is, just like I do. This ain’t freedom. It’s a prison. Even when she saves enough money to get out, she won’t be able to leave. And if she tries to, you know what will happen. Because it happened to you.”

  “You’re wrong,” Aria said to him, trying to hide the fact that his words had gotten to her.

  “If you really believed that, you wouldn’t be standing there looking like you have shit under your nose. I’m out!”

  He threw up two fingers before getting in the car and driving away. When he looked in the rearview, he saw Aria walking back in the hotel, probably to tell the others that he was leaving. He hoped that Belle wouldn’t report her car stolen while he was on the highway, but then again, he didn’t care. He had to get away, far away, from all of them.

  There was a long road ahead of him, but he passed the time with music and getting lost in his own thoughts. He’d meant what he said. Belle wasn’t built for what was in store for her. She had been raised with a silver spoon in her mouth while he and Aria had been raised on the streets. They had been raised to do whatever it took to survive, but for Belle, it was different. Pain was pushing her in the wrong direction, and Kidd could see that clear as day.

  As he drove, trying to beat the morning traffic, Kidd reflected on the day that Gene took him in. It was a hot summer night, and Kidd was only 16 at the time. It was a day that he wished he could go back and change, but of course, he couldn’t.

  “Kidd, come on! Let’s go!”

  “Nah! I think he’s about to stick his dick in her butt!”

  Two young kids had been standing on red crates outside of a bedroom window. They had been peering inside until one of them, Ollie, checked the time on his watch. When he saw that it read after ten o’clock, he’d jumped down and taken off toward the sidewalk. He stopped only because he noticed that his friend was not behind him.