Gina felt the pain of his silence. She wanted him to embrace her, thank her, acknowledge that her partnership was to be recognised and celebrated. She had done it all for him, for them, so they could live the lives they’d both only dreamed about a few years ago. But he was a proud and selfish fool and she wasn’t going to stand for it any longer.
“You can shove your job and all the money up your arse, Aiden. I’m out of here!” she bellowed and stormed over to the door.
“You’ll go to Mr Baker’s tonight, G…” Aiden announced from his chair as he stubbed out his joint in the ashtray, distracting her from her escape.
She turned to look at him and exclaimed, “I don’t think so!”
He stood, slowly, like a lion stalking its prey. “You will go,” he reiterated.
Gina couldn’t bear the unyielding authority in his tone. The cheek of him made her want to laugh, but the fierce look in his eyes told her that it was no joke. Aiden had a lot of money riding on her performance tonight, and he wasn’t going to let her ruin it for him.
Despite his threatening demeanour, she found herself lingering at the doorway, holding onto one last shred of hope that he would display his beautiful smile, wrap his arms around her and tell her that he had just had a bad day, yet deep down she knew she was deluding herself. Their whole relationship had been a delusion from day one. That he could ever adore her as much as she adored him had always been in doubt, yet she had pinned all her hope on that changing over time. She had dreamed of the moment he proved that he was hers once and for all.
Anger and an aching pain of rejection grew inside her now that she finally understood that it had all been a lie: that Aiden had never loved her, however much he had told her he did in the past. He’d never planned to spend his future with her. He’d used her to make money. He’d blatantly informed her that she was merely a product that he could sell and resell as much as he wanted. And all he’d had to do to get her to comply was hold her and tell her what she wanted to hear.
She shook her head, and with clear-cut malice, whispered, “I ain’t going.”
Aiden stepped up to her. Even through the wall of tension that had materialised between them, Gina still felt the familiar suffocating energy he exuded as a result of his fury and what came next took the breath from her. Taking a handful of her hair, Aiden dragged her back into the room. “Aiden, no!” she pleaded, knowing exactly what was to come, but her pleas were cut short as the wind was punched out of her by a powerful blow to the stomach, and within seconds she found herself on the floor and having to endure the full force of his wrath as he kicked her about the room until she could endure no more. She lay still and breathless, curled into a foetal position, her vision blurred from the tears that streamed down her cheeks.
Aiden stepped back and glared down at her battered body, breathless from his exertions. He felt not one ounce of remorse, just anger. He announced, “You’ll be at Mr Baker’s at eleven, even if I have to drag you there meself…”
It was the last thing she heard him say to her before she closed her eyes and surrendered to the darkness.
************
“G… G… can you hear me, love?”
Shelly Matthews had given up the videos not long after Gina had begun, but a girl still needed to earn and she had no other prospects, so Aiden had put her in touch with Mr Baker. Then, when Gina had recently been employed under Mr Baker, she and Jackie Mansfield had been put in charge of looking after her. Now, as Shelly knelt down and placed her hand over Gina’s burning forehead, she wondered how the hell she had ended up on Mr Baker’s bathroom floor, totally out of it, and she knew if Gina couldn’t work tonight, Mr Baker wouldn’t be happy. An MP was arriving at 11:30pm, having specifically asked for Gina, and he was worth thousands.
Shelly started when the door creaked open, but sighed with relief when she saw that it was Jackie. When Jackie noticed that Gina was sprawled out on the tiled floor, her expression transformed from indifference to one of fear. “What’s the matter with her?” she asked urgently, her wide, brown eyes beseeching Shelly to give her good news rather than bad.
“She’s out of it… I don’t know what to do with her. And look…” Shelly pulled up Gina’s vest to show Jackie the extensive bruising across her stomach and rib cage.
Jackie gasped. “Who…?”
“Who do you think?” Shelly interrupted sourly.
Jackie sighed. “I’ll ask Mr Baker to have a word with him. It isn’t good for business if she can’t bloody move from pain… and the punters won’t like her bashed up all the time.” She sighed again and added sarcastically, “Should I bring it up before or after he kills us both for letting her get in this state?” Yet she couldn’t deny her pounding heart.
Gina suddenly howled as if she were in immense pain and curled up into a foetal position. Her eyes shot open, suddenly alert and darting around the bathroom frantically, with no idea where she had awoken. Shelly began to pull Gina’s arms away from where they were wrapped tightly around her stomach, and Jackie stared down at the scene in horror. “Oh… Jesus!” she quavered.
“What?” Shelly turned to face her, but Jackie’s stare was fixed to the floor. When Shelly turned back, she saw the pool of blood. “Oh, shit!”
Shelly sprung to her feet and threw open the bathroom cupboard doors to grab some towels. Jackie went to protest – they were good towels, used by their best clientele – but she was intimidated by Shelly Matthews and Shelly didn’t look like someone who gave a flying fuck about the quality of the towels at that moment.
“Call an ambulance!” Shelly cried, dropping back to her knees.
Gina was groaning loudly. She was evidently in pain, but whatever drug she had taken was sending her into a semi-conscious state and Shelly couldn’t get anything from her, until out of the blue she groaned, “My baby!”
Shelly and Jackie stared at each other. “Aiden, our baby…!”
Jackie’s mouth tightened. “That bastard,” she muttered.
“It’s alright, Gina,” said Shelly, pulling her up by her arms. She attempted to make her sit up, but Gina’s body was a dead weight, and she flopped back on the floor before Shelly could get a proper hold on her.
“Jackie, ambulance, now!” she cried.
Jackie finally rushed into the hall. She was shaking and in no doubt about what had caused Gina’s bleeding. She herself had miscarried once, and it hadn’t been a dissimilar experience to what Gina was now going through. Her baby had been an unwanted surprise, a child conceived with Mr Baker, who she’d worked for for the past five years. She too had gone off the rails for a short time, like Gina, and had been left at the mercy of alcohol whilst she flushed her baby away in the same bathroom as Gina lay in now. The memory sent shivers down her spine as she picked up the telephone to call for help.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Jackie spun around. Mr Baker was standing at the front door with a scowl on his handsome face. She gulped. “It’s Gina… she needs an ambulance.”
His eyes widened. “Don’t fucking call one here!”
“We can’t move her!”
“Where is she?”
“In the bathroom…”
Mr Baker stormed past her and Jackie replaced the phone receiver and followed on his tail. Shelly had managed to mop up the blood, and Gina was lying against her, mumbling and whimpering – in pain or for the loss of her baby, Shelly didn’t know.
“Shelly, can she be moved?” Mr Baker asked, more compassionately than either woman had expected.
“Aiden… he’s hurt her real bad!” she stuttered. “But, yes, I think she can be moved.”
“Right…” He crouched down and lifted Gina in his arms. “She’s been bleeding?” he asked with alarm, taking in the dark blood stains on the green dress he remembered buying her just last week.
“Yes,” Shelly replied breathlessly as she struggled to get to her feet in her heels. “I think it’s a miscarriage… Aiden…”
&n
bsp; Mr Baker’s eyes immediately went to Jackie. Jackie had told him about her miscarriage about a year after it had happened. It had been a heated discussion, and one that neither she nor Mr Baker wanted to dwell on. But he was looking at her for confirmation, and when she nodded and lowered her eyes, he strode out of the bathroom with Gina semi-conscious in his arms, and out of the front door before any more words could be said between them.
“Blimey,” Shelly muttered, still leaning against the sink fifteen minutes later. Adrenaline continued to course through her and she shook as if she were freezing.
Jackie left the bathroom, her own appalling miscarriage at the forefront of her mind. Padding into the kitchen, she took out a mop and bucket from the cupboard behind the door and began filling the bucket with floor cleaner and hot water. When she turned off the tap, she heard voices. Entering the hallway with mop and bucket in hand, she was faced with Aiden and two brunette teenagers, who were giggling loudly and clearly intoxicated.
“Jackie!” Aiden greeted her with a sardonic grin. “Did Gina get here alright?”
Jackie dropped the bucket, soapy water sloshing onto the floor, and glared at him in disgust. “I’m surprised she was able to leave her own flat in the state you left her in, you spiteful bastard!”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed and he ushered the brunettes into the lounge – their giggles and chatter were all of a sudden jangling his nerves. Before he could retort, Shelly came into the hallway from the bathroom, her expression conveying that she could easily commit a murder, and her bloodstained clothes suggesting to Aiden that she may well have done already. Aiden’s eyes lowered to the blood. “Gina’s blood… if you’re interested…” she snapped, running her hand through her wiry red hair.
Aiden’s eyes met hers, and for the very first time, she saw a little compassion behind them. “Where is she?” he asked.
“Hospital, I hope. Mr Baker took her.”
Aiden glanced at the two women before him. Both looked as if they could quite easily slaughter him. He peered into the lounge. The brunettes were making themselves at home, but he didn’t care about them now. He went to leave when Shelly added, “It was a miscarriage… thought you might like to know. There’ll be no Aiden Junior for a while yet…”
Both women watched Aiden leave before they teamed up, firstly, to kick the brunettes out on their arses, then Jackie fetched her mop and bucket whilst Shelly went to collect more towels.
************
In the hospital, Mr Baker was sitting at Gina’s bedside. A petite mousey-looking nurse was completing her final checks before Gina was to be left for the night. When they had arrived, Mr Baker had introduced himself as Gina’s closest friend and informed the nurse that he’d found Gina at her flat, alone. He had flipped out his platinum credit card and requested a private room and unlimited visiting rights, and it had all been arranged and paid for within the hour.
“Will you be staying the night, Mr Baker? Do you need a pillow?” the nurse asked politely.
He gave her a friendly closed-lipped smile. “I’ll be staying, but I can do without a pillow… thank you.”
The nurse nodded. “Well, she’s stable, but she has consumed a high dosage of amphetamines, as well as alcohol. She would have been grateful for her semi-conscious state, as it would have helped her through the pain of her injuries and the miscarriage, but such a high consumption could have killed her. She’s very lucky to be alive. You found her just in time…” She smiled politely once more. “I’ll leave you now. I’ll be back in around 3am to check on her,” she added, then left the room.
Mr Baker turned back to Gina. At first, he hesitated, then he placed his hand over hers and eventually gathered it up into a full hand-hold, relishing the feel of her soft fingers between his.
Chapter thirty
When Gina had awoken the following morning, she’d had an overriding spell of panic as she took in the hospital room then the bed she was laying in and the tube in her hand. What had surprised her all the more were the fingers wrapped around that same hand and the hazel eyes of Mr Baker, who had been gazing fretfully down at her.
Those eyes were on her again, but now she was safely tucked up in Mr Baker’s bedroom. The curtains were closed. The day had already faded away without her noticing, and a small bedside lamp with a fader had been set to an ambient light, giving a sense of tranquillity within the modern yet comfortable room.
She blinked away her tiredness and stared up at the man who had been taking care of her. She couldn’t remember much of the previous day and what she could remember she tried hard to abandon to the corners of her mind. Because if she thought on how Aiden had beaten her, thought on the fact that she had been told that morning that she had lost their baby, she might just walk to the bathroom, take out one of Mr Baker’s razor blades and end her life once and for all.
She gulped down the pain of her loss. Already many times she had fallen into a sleep only to wake and find that all that had happened had not been a dream, she now willed her tears to remain unshed.
“How are you feeling?” Mr Baker whispered. Angst and sorrow were etched on his handsome face and, not for the first time since she’d seen him that morning sitting beside her in her hospital bed, she wondered why he was being so nice to her, why he was so concerned about her, his employee. He shifted closer to her and leant in to place his lips on her forehead, but she turned her head from him. He sat back, his frown deepening in dejection. “Gina,” he whispered, his voice cracking under the strain of her rebuff.
Gina could feel bile rising to her throat. Aiden didn’t want her anymore, and the only possible reason he might have stayed with her was now gone. She’d lost their baby, her tiny reminder that Aiden had once wanted her. She felt empty inside. She felt sick. Her losses tore at her heart like nothing else ever had, but it was the loss of Aiden that hurt the most.
Mr Baker made to leave, and Gina turned back to him, an expression of painful determination on her ashen and gaunt face. “Does Aiden know about the baby?” she croaked.
Mr Baker’s expression hardened. “Would he care?” he replied.
Gina puffed a pitiable laugh and smiled timidly up at him, as if it took all her strength to form the gesture. She closed her eyes and he turned away and left her to sleep.
It was 7:45am the following day when Mr Baker returned to his bedroom. He had slept in the room next door, one of the five rooms he had in the apartment. When he stepped into the room, he saw that Gina was awake and staring at the wall opposite in deep thought. She didn’t rouse from her reverie until he took her hand. “How about you try and get up and we go for a walk?” he suggested, forcing himself to sound as positive as he could handle.
Gina glanced at him then set her eyes back on the wall. After a moment, she asked, “What’s your name, Mr Baker?”
He frowned at such an unexpected query. “Why do you ask?” he replied.
She shrugged then, and after yet another spell of silence, asked, “Have you always been a pimp?”
He’d swear he heard a touch of disapproval in her tone of voice, and he had to swallow down the urge to admonish her. Calmly, he answered, “No. It wasn’t something I had aspired to be, but life hands you specific opportunities and you have to take them or sink.”
She turned her head to face him. “Do you care for me?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“But I am your employee. I sleep with men to make your living.”
He closed his eyes then opened them. “Yes,” he replied.
She didn’t say any more and he left her to her thoughts.
************
Aiden was in his kitchen, dressed only in his grey jogging bottoms and downing a glass of Alka Seltzer to combat his impending hangover when the phone rang. He glanced at his Armani watch and strode into the hallway to pick it up. “Yeah,” he said down the line.
“Aiden, it is Mr Baker.” Aiden didn’t respond. “I take it from your silence and from what Jackie told me ye
sterday that you know what happened to Gina?” he asked.
Aiden sniffed and replied, “Yeah, I know,” feeling a touch of regret, though it was masked by his attempt at indifference.
“She’s been asking for you,” Mr Baker added.
Just then the tall, pretty blonde who had entertained Aiden during the previous night came sauntering down the stairs in just a thong. She approached him with a smirk and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Come back to bed…” she whispered lasciviously into his ear.
Mr Baker obviously heard her, because he raised his voice down the line and spat, “What’s been going on with you and Gina, Aiden?”
“I’d already called it off…” Aiden muttered distractedly, as the girl ran her fingernails through his ruffled hair and slipped her tongue into his ear.
All of a sudden, Mr Baker bellowed, “I don’t give a fuck what you do in your spare time, but when you mess with one of my girls, it makes me fucking angry! You beat the shit out of the poor girl, when she was pregnant!”
Aiden suddenly held the phone receiver into his chest and pushed the girl away. All playfulness set aside, he snapped, “Upstairs, now,” at her and flicked his head towards the stairs with a glare to ensure his message was loud and clear.
She stared at him for a moment then skulked back up the stairs. She didn’t, however, refrain from slamming the bedroom door to convey her infuriation. Aiden held the receiver back to his ear and said quietly, “I didn’t know she was pregnant… she never fucking told me…”
“Would you tell you?” Mr Baker retorted, but Aiden didn’t answer. “You’re a fucking animal…” he muttered.
Aiden spat, “You might like to tell me why you care so much.”
“She’s a good earner…” he replied circumspectly.
“Is that all?”
Human Conditioning Page 22