by Marni Mann
Toy was fucking wrecked.
I shut down the shack and brought him back to the prison. He started acting like Beard—you know, when he had been using all the time and mixing the drugs with booze. Fuck, at one point, Toy even OD’d.
He missed you, kid. He wanted you back, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.
But, out of everything that had happened, you know what pissed me off the most?
When your mother had run off, she had taken my flash drive with her. Like a fucking idiot, I’d left it at the shack. At that time, Tyler didn’t know what was on it. She couldn’t have. But she must have seen it come out of my pocket and knew it had to be something important.
It was more than important.
It was proof that she was still alive, that she’d lived in the prison, that I’d fucked her while we listened to Beard yell, “Scream for me,” outside her cell.
I had a feeling, one day, she’d show the contents of that flash drive to someone important.
Again, I was fucking right.
You see, we forced Beard to take some time off, and instead of going home to San Diego, he would head to Miami. He wasn’t there long when he met Layla and her girlfriend, the stripper. Those two lesbians had one hell of an agenda. They weren’t just trying to fuck my best friend. They were trying to find out if your mother was really dead, and they thought Beard would tell them.
The truth was, those two cunts weren’t really lesbians. They weren’t who they portrayed themselves to be at all.
They were part of The Achurdy.
Layla, whose real name was Mina, was in charge of all the girls. She had recruited your mother, mentored her, made her the lying thief that she was. And the stripper’s real name was Wynter, an old roommate of your mother’s and Mina’s pet bitch.
When your mother had taken off from the shack, she must have started keeping a close eye on Beard because she saw what Mina and Wynter were up to. For some reason, one I’d never understand, Tyler got herself involved to protect Beard. She found my father in San Diego and told him she wanted to hire the prison. My father didn’t know who the hell she was, and he wanted her gone.
That cunt wasn’t leaving until she got what she wanted.
So, she gave my father the flash drive and told him to watch it.
Right there, in front of her, my father saw the footage of me fucking Tyler. From the angle of the camera, he could see Beard outside the cell. He could hear it all, too.
Now, she had his attention.
He listened to her demands. Then, he agreed to send Mina and Wynter to the prison, and he would allow Tyler to go there and watch it all happen. The two of them worked together to set up the logistics, and soon, your mother, my father, and you were on a plane to Venezuela.
Clients weren’t allowed to go to the prison.
Not ever.
My father had made an exception. Tyler wasn’t just a paying customer; she was the mother to his grandson.
When he told me that Mina and Wynter were coming to the prison, I didn’t know Tyler had had anything to do with it. My father had kept her a secret. All I knew was that the two women were to be prisoned and tortured and killed.
As soon as I placed those cunts in a cell, Beard called in a fucking panic. He thought his lesbians had been kidnapped. He didn’t realize they really had, and we were the ones who had done it. I told him to get his ass home, and I sent him a plane.
Minutes later, my father called and said he needed to speak to me in my room. I didn’t even know he was in town. So, I had Diego and Toy cover my shift, and I went upstairs. When I opened the door, I lost my fucking shit.
“What the hell are they doing here?” I snarled at my father.
But my eyes weren’t on him.
They were on you and your mother.
He stepped in front of me to block the two of you, and he said, “Calm down, Seth.”
He never used my real name.
“You want me to calm down?” I roared. “Then, get her and that fucking baby out of here.”
“Seth—”
“Do you know what Beard will do when he finds out that baby isn’t his?” I said. “He’ll lose his fucking mind, and I’ll have to kill him. I need him here. Having him dead won’t do me any good.”
My father walked toward me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “That isn’t going to happen, son. Tyler isn’t here to rat you out. All she wanted to do was protect Beard and his baby.”
I looked past my father and said to Tyler, “His baby?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s Beard’s. I’m assuming you’re okay with that?”
She was calm. She didn’t look terrified. She didn’t even look angry.
I was sure my father had been shrinking her.
My gaze bounced between the two of them. “She’s just going to tell Beard it’s his kid and lie about his age and act like the prison stay and the cage and the shack never happened?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I want to be with Beard, and Bond wants to see his grandson. We think this arrangement will work just fine.”
Fuck, she really has been shrinked by my father.
I sure as hell wasn’t going to say anything to Beard. I just couldn’t believe this cunt could keep her mouth shut.
“I’m good with it,” I told them both. “But I’m warning you right now; if Beard finds out, you’re all fucking dead.”
“Deal,” Tyler said.
“That won’t happen, son,” my father said.
As hard as it was to believe, the three of us kept that promise.
And, like I’d thought would happen, Beard was happy as fuck to see your mother, and the two of you moved right into the prison.
With all of us living there together, shit was good for a long time. My father visited more often, so he could hang out with you. Beard thought you were his son and treated you like one. Toy acted like your goddamn nanny and spent the most time with you. And I took you down to the beach every day. That was our thing.
Your mother would watch us the whole time. I could feel her gazing at us from her window. She thought I was going to kill you, so she didn’t trust me.
I didn’t want to kill you, kid.
I actually kind of liked you. You couldn’t talk; you couldn’t repeat the things I told you. And, at times, you’d do something so stupid, it would make me laugh.
So, yeah, it all worked out between us. We were one big happy fucking family.
But, somehow, The Achurdy found out that we were the ones who had taken Mina and Wynter. My father unknowingly led them right to our prison. They didn’t come in and try to talk. They plowed through our goddamn door and blew up the entire place. It all went up in flames.
I lost everything in that fire.
And I should have died.
Instead, I was arrested.
The Venezuelan police didn’t mind us paying them off every month to stay away from our building and airplane. But, when there was an explosion and fire and rubble flying into the fucking air, they needed someone to blame.
Not only did I lose everything that day.
But I lost my freedom, too.
All because of your cunt of a mother.
That bitch.
My hands still shook when I thought about her.
I’d never forgive her for making me lose everything. I only wished she were here, so I could punish her. So I could put my hands around her neck and strangle the air out of her like I should have done when she was in my own prison.
But I couldn’t kill the cunt.
And that just fueled me with rage.
Anonymous
Before
I think you’re feeling a little too comfortable.
It’s time to change that.
Arin
My passport was in. It had actually arrived three days ago. I just hadn’t gone to pick it up. I knew I shouldn’t leave it at the post office, but I liked spending time w
ith Huck. I liked not having the identification weigh on me because, the moment I had it in my possession, I knew it would be time to go home.
My God, these feelings were still so unexpected. I never thought I’d want to be here or that I’d want to stay with him any longer than I needed to. I never thought I’d find his body so sexy, that I’d find his beard so yummy. I never thought I’d enjoy tasting his cum.
I certainly never thought my heart would open up for him.
But it had.
I wasn’t just spending every night in his bed and eating all my meals with him, but I was working with him, too. Since those men had grabbed me and tried to take me from the brothel, Huck hadn’t let me resume my position downstairs.
Actually, he barely let me out of his sight.
It was cute that he’d taken charge of the situation, and I found it hot as hell that he was trying to protect me.
Still, I insisted on doing something to earn the money he gave me; otherwise, I’d feel like a whore, like he was paying me to have sex with him. So, now, I worked in his office every day, and I didn’t feel guilty at all. Seeing how things were run behind the scenes taught me so much about his business as well as how successful it was.
I knew Huck had built it from the ground up. I knew he’d had some financial help, but it looked like the hard, everyday labor was done by just him. From what I’d heard, there were brothels all over Bangkok; he’d just made this one different than the others.
It couldn’t have been easy, doing it all alone.
But something told me Huck didn’t like easy.
He wanted to be different.
And he was.
I looked at him from the other side of the desk. My hands rested on the laptop that sat on my thighs, but my fingers weren’t pressing any keys, imputing the inventory I should have finished by now. That was because I couldn’t stop staring at him. His eyes were glued to his computer screen. Periodically, he’d chew the corner of his lip. His fingers would pull it out of his mouth, and then he’d suck it right back in.
I’d miss that.
I’d miss his lips, too. They were so damn arousing.
“I’m going to go for a walk,” I told him.
He finally glanced up from his monitor. “One of the security guards is going with you.”
I tried to take a walk at least every other day, and each time, Huck would say the same thing. I didn’t mind. The guard would stay several paces behind me, and I’d barely even know he was there. However, if something happened, I’d be safe. That was the important part.
“That’s fine,” I said.
Not that it mattered. I’d already learned I had no say when it came to this.
“I’ll have someone meet you by the back door.” He reached inside his desk and handed me the key, the one I no longer had to get from Lawan. “Take this.”
I stuck it in my pocket and moved to the doorway. “I’m going to pick up something for us to eat for dinner while I’m at the market.”
He leaned on his side to remove his wallet, and I watched him pull out some baht. “Here—”
“No, I’ve got it.” I wrapped my hand around the doorknob. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
“You don’t have to pay for dinner, Arin.”
“I know. I want to.” I gave him a quick smile before I closed the door and went to the stairway.
I moved with almost no pain now. I didn’t even have to hold on to the railing, but I did just in case. And, when I reached the elevator, I didn’t take it. I walked down the other two flights because I wanted the exercise.
Huck had been right about my legs. They had completely healed. Even my bruises had vanished.
For Christ’s sake, those guys hadn’t had to beat me so badly. They could have just kicked me a few times and punched me in the face. I didn’t know why they had taken it to the extreme.
It was a miracle I’d made it to Huck’s because I hadn’t exaggerated that pain one bit.
At least I was healed now.
Once I got downstairs, the security guard was waiting for me in the back. I didn’t know his name, but he’d escorted me in the past. I also knew he spoke broken English, which had come in handy before.
It wouldn’t today though.
I felt him behind me as I made my way down the alley, toward the main street. Fortunately, I was dressed in normal clothes, and my shorts and tank top were much better for the heat. I hadn’t worn the scrubs since the night I was assaulted. I had a feeling Huck preferred me in clothes that were much tighter than the nursing uniform, and that was why Lawan hadn’t ever brought them back.
I reached the entrance to the market, so I knew the post office was on the next block. It wasn’t like the large ones in the city. This was similar to an office supply store that had a small section of boxes you could rent.
When I got to the front of the store, I turned around, so the guard could catch up. “You can wait for me out here,” I said.
He looked past me to gaze into the store. The only person in there was the man behind the counter. “One minute,” he said. “You not out, I come in.”
I nodded, knowing it wouldn’t take me that much time.
I went inside and immediately approached the counter. “Do you speak English?” I asked even though I had come prepared if he didn’t.
“Yes,” he said. “Mailing today?”
I shook my head and took a quick glance behind me. The guard was watching me from outside the doorway.
“You have a key for me. My name’s Arin, and it’s for box six.”
“Oh, yes.” He walked over to his desk and opened the second drawer. He pulled out a key and gave it to me. “Right over there.” He pointed at the short wall of mailboxes.
“Thank you.”
I moved over to the spot he had pointed at and used the key to open box six. Inside was a white envelope with my name and address handwritten on the front. I smiled as I lifted the flap and took out the passport that was inside.
Making sure my back was facing the guard, I held the passport against my face, smelling the leather exterior. My eyes closed for just a second as I searched for a particular smell. Not of paper, but more of a spicy scent.
It wasn’t there.
The envelope had masked it.
I tore the packaging in pieces and said to the man behind the counter, “Do you mind throwing this away for me?”
I dropped each bit of the envelope in his hand, and I observed him putting it in the trash. Once he returned, I gave him the key and thanked him again.
The back pocket of my shorts was wide enough to hold my passport, so I slid it inside and met the guard at the door. “I’m ready,” I said to him. Then, I made my way to the market.
I knew Huck loved fresh fish, and we ate lots of it in his apartment. Most of the ones he’d served, I hadn’t even heard of, and I couldn’t remember any of their names. So, when I got to the seafood section, I checked out the variety to see if any of them looked familiar. They didn’t, and the signs were all in Thai, so those weren’t any help either.
I called the guard over and said, “Can you tell me which one is the best?”
“That,” he said, pointing to the red ones on the end.
They still had their heads and tails and all of their skin. I had no idea how I would cook it, but I was sure I could find some instructions on the Internet.
I held up four fingers, telling the seller that was how many I wanted, and I gave him enough baht to cover it. As I held the bag of fish in my hand, I made my way over to the produce and filled a basket with spring onions, sugar peas, shitake mushrooms, and bok choy. I showed the vegetables to the seller and paid the price she’d requested.
Everything had come to eight dollars.
Had I purchased this in New York, it would have cost six times that amount. It was so inexpensive to live here. And, now that I’d seen Huck’s numbers for the month and I knew what he took in and what he had to pay out, I wondered wh
y he didn’t make a better life for himself. His apartment could have been so much nicer, and his clothes could have been designer. He could have hired someone to manage the things he oversaw in the office.
I wondered why he didn’t.
And I wondered what he did with all his money because he certainly didn’t spend it on himself.
A man who had it and didn’t flaunt it. God, that made him even sexier.
I wished it didn’t.
Huck
“I’m going to go take a shower,” Arin said, cracking my office door just enough so that she could stick her head through. “Want to come join me?”
Fuck, I wanted to so badly. But I’d gotten a text from the security guard who had accompanied Arin on her walk, and the message said he needed to talk to me.
“I’ll meet you in there. I’ve got to finish something real quick.”
“Don’t take too long.” She smiled and shut the door.
From the monitor, I watched her go into my apartment and put something in the fridge. Then, she went into the bathroom and began taking her clothes off. Once she stepped in the shower, I called the security guard in.
“Tell me what happened,” I said in Thai as he moved to the front of my desk.
He rested his hands on the wooden edge and shifted his weight between both legs. “She went to the mail shop by the market. At the counter, she said something to the guy, and he handed her a key. She used it to unlock one of the mailboxes and took out an envelope. She opened it and pocketed whatever was inside.”
“What do you mean, whatever was inside? What the fuck was inside of it?”
“I’m not sure, sir. I didn’t go in the store with her.”
I ground my teeth together and leaned into the desk to get closer to him because I didn’t think I’d heard him right. “You…what?”
He broke eye contact, looking at his hands, which were now gripping the desk the same way mine were. “I’m sorry, sir. She asked me to wait outside. The store didn’t have anyone in it. I didn’t think it would be a problem.”
“You didn’t think it would be a problem?” Screaming at the guard wouldn’t change what had happened. The only thing that would change was that he’d never escort Arin again. No one took orders from her. I was the boss. They only took orders from me. “Finish,” I barked in Thai.