Scanning her surroundings revealed no source of the noise, until something falling from the air passed her vision. A dull smack sounded when it hit the ground at the foot of the apartment building, and the yell abruptly ceased.
She was too far away to see details, but Flick was almost sure that unmoving mass was a body. No one passed by, so no one else saw anything. She was torn between the shock of what she’d just witnessed and her urge to do something, though she didn’t know what. Flick was still sitting in place when Rushe and Cody re-appeared and got back into the car.
Rushe started the engine and pulled out of the lot as if nothing at all had happened. Maybe it hadn’t. Flick began to think she’d imagined the whole thing.
‘Was that—‘
‘Don’t ask,’ Cody said.
‘Seatbelt,’ Rushe said through gritted teeth, and without anything better to do, Flick complied without a word.
On the journey back Cody had been much quieter, but Flick was glad of the mental breather. When there was no talking, the time they spent in the car often gave Flick a chance to reflect, and she knew from experience that Rushe liked to take the time to think too.
Eventually they got back to Silver’s place, and Rushe parked in the same spot as before. Cody got out and traipsed into the house, but Rushe lingered at the wheel so Flick stayed put. Unsure if he was going to say something, or if he expected her to, Flick let the silence hang. But they couldn’t stay here forever, and when he moved to exit she did too. Both closed their doors at the same time but Rushe didn’t move toward the house. He stayed at her side.
A few seconds passed before he looked at her. His eyes were empty, yet filled with something, hope, maybe, or shame.
Stepping into his body, she curled her lips and slid her hand up onto his stubbled jaw. ‘I trust you,’ she whispered.
Though their eyes remained locked together his hand glided over her hip, the other followed suit and he jolted her back against the car. Bending his knees, he lifted her against the vehicle, and she cupped his face when his mouth devoured hers.
Rushe had never had acceptance in his life, and he’d never had trust, not like this. Inside, she saw the soul of a good man, with a good heart, and honest intentions. He just wasn’t constrained by the rules of others. Maybe his approach could be brutal, but if Rushe was at your door, if Rushe hurt you, then there was a reason for it. Flick would be tolerant of his methods because she believed in him, and she trusted him.
‘It’s been a while since we’ve done it on the hood,’ she said, enfolding her arms around his neck until her hands curled on her own elbows.
‘I don’t share,’ he growled.
And because she knew for a fact that that was the only thing preventing him from taking her here, outside, in broad daylight, she laughed and kissed him again.
‘Knock it off!’
Rushe’s mouth vanished as he simultaneously released Flick onto her feet and turned to face the voice, while keeping her sandwiched between his spine and the car.
‘What?’ Rushe demanded.
‘We got trouble,’ Cody said.
Rushe glanced at her with ideas of what had been interrupted still flitting across his expression. But he took her hand and led her into the house.
In the living room Silver was still in his seat, three other men were in the room already, one of whom was Cody, and all looked as pissed as the next.
‘My on-site watchman just got himself arrested!’
‘Using?’ Rushe asked, slipping himself in front of Flick but letting her remain in the room, which showed great progress. Back in the time when they’d first met, he would dismiss her from the room when the men started to talk business, but not anymore.
‘Yeah,’ Silver snapped.
‘On premises?’
‘No! Fuck!’
‘Don’t think he’s that dumb,’ Cody said.
The riled Silver was angry, Rushe clearly had an idea of what was going on, and she didn’t have a clue. Except this wasn’t the time for her questions.
‘You gotta get over there.’
‘No,’ Rushe said. ‘That wasn’t the deal.’
‘Fine,’ Silver said, passive-aggressively cool. ‘Then the place will be unprotected.’
‘Send one of these guys.’
‘Rushe,’ Silver said, drawling out his name in a way which somehow conveyed a secret message for no one else in the room to understand.
Flick could almost hear Rushe grind his teeth together. ‘Fine.’
‘Leave your shit here if you want,’ Silver said.
‘Not a chance.’
At breakneck speed, she and Rushe were out of the house, and with Cody glued to their heels the three were then in the car again, and driving somewhere new.
She didn’t know what this new development entailed, but Rushe displayed his unhappiness without disguise. Having Cody present meant that she couldn’t question what was happening. So trusting Rushe was Flick’s only option.
This journey wasn’t as long as the first. They drove to the most built up part of town and through, until they came to a detached building on the outskirts of a neighbourhood that didn’t seem too savoury. A gang of at least twenty men hung around at the corner on the end of the block, all of whom looked their way when Rushe pulled the car up to the shop front.
Half a dozen long blacked-out windows ran from left to right, and then the next six contained window dressing promising what was inside. Flick tried to absorb the details, but one thing was very immediately apparent – this was a sex shop.
Toys and posters displayed in the window gave hints as to what was contained within the single-storey structure. One mannequin stood in a rubber nurse’s costume, while another wore a gimp mask.
Cody got out, like this was nothing, and Rushe followed him with no delay this time. Until Rushe opened her door, Flick had assumed that she was to stay put again.
‘Out.’
Unable to argue, she did as she was told. At the last location, Flick had desperately wanted to be a part of the task, to be useful to Rushe. Now, here, the window intimidated her so much that she dreaded to think about what could be lurking inside.
Cody went to the shop entrance and held it open for her. With a hand on her lower back, Rushe urged her forward, thrusting her into a cornucopia of merchandise that she couldn’t begin to understand, let alone identify.
Lingerie unlike anything she had seen before decorated the walls, shelves offered toys and lubricants, beads and plugs, restraints and paddles. Flick couldn’t close her eyes to it. Two sides were dedicated to pornography, there were magazines and videos, DVD’s and books, everything in this place was explicit, but Rushe and Cody were unmoved.
Actually, they had moved in that they were now on the other side of the store while she remained agape in the doorway. Cody shoved aside some hanging beads, and Rushe held them to scowl back at her.
‘Come.’
She might not have caused Rushe’s anger, but Flick got the brunt of it right now. Scurrying across to him, he shoved her into a short passage where Cody was holding another door. This was a metal door with a buzzer entry, which seemed a strange thing to have at the back of a shop, especially if it was just protecting stock or...
Flick went through the access and knew straight away that the shop was a front, in more ways than one. A dozen women, in various states of undress, loitered around. Though there were no windows and the space was painted a dark grey, the pink lighting made the place feel cosy, yet there was an unmistakable carnal aura hovering.
To her left were two rows of perpendicular chairs, then there was a corridor leading away. A curved reception desk at the top of the room was painted the same grey colour as the walls, and on the other side of that desk was a curtain. Flick couldn’t see what was beyond it.
Cody was at the desk grinning ear to ear and talking to the chest of a young Hispanic woman. Flick’s entry drew the attention of, but no reaction from, the women. Then Rus
he came in at her back.
Flick was used to all sorts of responses when people first saw Rushe. Some people were intimidated, some were scared, or sad, or angry, some even tried to puff themselves up. But she’d never seen this.
Six of the women, including the one at the reception desk that Cody had been talking to, all grinned, shrieked, and rushed toward them.
‘Oh my god!’
The women cast Flick aside to get to Rushe, and then they all hugged, cooed, and screamed at him with unadulterated delight. He didn’t say anything; there wasn’t much of a chance to, but his expression was relaxed enough to let Flick know he was happy, or at least not sad, to see these women too. He touched a shoulder here, a chin, a cheekbone, stroked the hair of one and tipped aside the head of another to inspect a faded bruise.
‘Watchman’s room’s back here.’
Flick turned her head toward Cody’s voice, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from the strange sight of these women fawning over Rushe.
‘What’s all the... oh my god!’
A woman wearing nothing but a lace camisole ran from the corridor she’d come from and through all the other women to hug Rushe.
‘Right, Lilah,’ Rushe said, when the lace-clad blonde didn’t let go.
Lilah shook her head and looked up at him with adoring eyes. ‘Cody shoulda known better than to bring you here. She ain’t here tonight.’
Another of the women gasped while all of the other females still fussed. ‘You’re here for Tawny? She’s not here. No, she’s not here tonight.’
‘I’m not here for Tawn.’
‘You taking over?’ Lilah asked. ‘Please tell me you’re coming back.’
For the first time, Rushe lifted his eyes over the top of the women stroking him to set them on Flick. Her eyes were dry because she couldn’t blink, and she only noticed her chin had been hanging loose when she brought her teeth together with a clack.
The women followed Rushe’s gaze, and Lilah stepped away from the group. ‘You brought us a new thing?’ Lilah asked, wandering toward Flick, while looking her up and down with a critical but friendly eye. ‘She’s a beaut, she got experience?’
Unsure whether to compare herself to a used car or livestock, Flick blinked when the woman came so close that she had to lean back.
‘She ain’t for you,’ Rushe said. ‘Cody.’
‘Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.’
Cody took hold of Flick’s arm and gave her such a pull that she stumbled. ‘Wait a minute,’ Flick said.
‘Not now.’
Cody kept pulling, and Flick was still too flabbergasted to argue with Rushe’s clipped words. This was a whorehouse, but the women didn’t look ill, and they didn’t look like they’d been abused. Other than that one pale bruise Rushe had taken note of there was no sign of harm. Dragged through the curtain, she and Cody went up a narrow hall that opened into a pentagram-shaped hallway.
‘Through there you got a bathroom,’ Cody said pointing to the door to the left. On the right, he opened another door and drove her forward. ‘This here’s the watchman’s accommodation. You stay here until Rushe comes.’
Flick opened her mouth, but Cody closed the door and there was the unmistakable snick of a lock. As his footsteps disappeared she rushed to the door and rattled it, but she was locked in.
Waiting for Rushe could mean waiting for hours. The space was a decent size, all one room, with a double bed to the left, and a couch running alongside it facing a flat-screen TV. In the corner straight ahead was a fridge with a microwave on top and a couple of kitchen cupboards beside that.
Here she was, in another prison, and just like every time before, she hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on.
Flick had turned on the TV to check that it worked, but at the sounds from outside the room she had turned it off. But after listening for a while she realised two things. First, she couldn’t make out different voices, let alone individual words. And second, this room shared walls with the reception area, shop, and the hallway behind the curtain, which meant she could hear a lot of activity, but no one was actually coming to her.
She paced, and riled herself into anger, and then she got so bored that she just longed for company. When Flick started to get hungry, she opened the cupboards to find nothing but canned soup. The fridge contained only an out of date jug of milk, and there was no can opener in the place. Whoever bought the soup had apparently taken the can opener with them when they left.
That thought brought her attention to the bed. The linen hadn’t been washed and smelled musty, so she decided against lying down on it. The couch was leather and seemed clean enough, so she sat on that and put the TV on again.
The only windows in the place were frosted narrow slits up high on the wall next to the bed, so she couldn’t make out any external details. The light faded, dark came in again, and she was still here, alone, without answers.
Chapter Six
On a groan of displeasure, Flick tried to resist the invading arm when it pushed under her shoulder blades, but she was lifted in spite of her feeble protest. It was only when she was laid down and a grubby smell assaulted her senses that she remembered where she was.
Flick immediately opened her eyes and pounced up, away from the smell, shoving Rushe aside in the process.
‘It’s just me,’ he muttered. ‘Do you think I would let a stranger come in here to you?’
Flick blinked her eyes and then squeezed them shut as she tried to overcome the transition of asleep to awake.
‘The sheets are filthy,’ she croaked, rubbing her face and trying to find her voice.
‘You think ‘cause this is a brothel every bed’s been used by the product?’
Raising her chin, Flick re-discovered her anger. ‘You’re going to come in here and get pissy with me? You think that if you get mad first, if you’re the one to pick the fight, that I’ll forget what went on here today? Smell the sheets, asshole, it’s not spunk I’m worried about it’s fucking lice,’ she roared out, and turned her back on him.
‘There’s plenty clean.’
She sensed more than saw him move, and on whipping around Flick stumbled forward a few steps. ‘Please don’t lock me in.’
Panic she hadn’t realised she felt coloured her tone, and so she rolled her lips into her mouth to try and belatedly conceal it.
‘You were scared,’ he said, coming back toward her. ‘You think I brought you to a whorehouse to leave you here?’
Flick shook her head, but when he came into her personal space and dropped a hand to the top of her head, she let him take her other one and tuck it into his pocket.
‘You are my woman.’
‘I know,’ she said, with a long inhale. ‘I need to pee.’
‘Come.’
‘I don’t need you to take me,’ she snapped, and pushed past him to head for the room that Cody had pointed out, though why he had bothered when he planned to lock her in, Flick didn’t know.
The restroom was small and functional, but blessedly clean. She took time over washing her hands and her face. A gaggle of female voices just outside the door made her slow her actions even further. She actually found herself waiting on the other side of the locked restroom door until she heard Rushe’s voice.
‘Get, the lot of you.’
The women laughed and there was more movement, and only when it died down did Flick open the door. Rushe stood on the other side of the hall, in the bedroom doorway.
She didn’t say anything but knew he was watching her. Rushe wanted to judge her mood, he wanted to control the situation, and he wanted to foresee every argument that she could throw at him. But Flick just waited, fixated on his chest, until he moved aside. On returning to the room, she saw the bedclothes had been changed.
‘What else do they do for you?’
‘Whatever the hell I want, I’ve been out there all day having sex.’
‘Did I say that?’ she asked, and Flick spun as he simultaneously slammed the do
or. Her hands came up and she stepped forward, frozen at the thought that he’d just trapped them.
‘We’ve got a key,’ he said, fishing one out of his pocket to show her.
‘You’ve got a key! Rushe, I have been in here all day, alone, without a clue about what was going on! I thought we were past this! I thought we had trust! I thought we had—‘
‘Can we save the earache for another time,’ he said, dropping to the bed to unlace his boots.
‘You’re a complete jerk!’
‘Whatever,’ he said, tugging off his tee-shirt and flinging it to the floor.
‘You’ve been here before. How can you exploit these women to line Silver’s pockets?’
‘Don’t judge what you don’t know,’ Rushe spouted her own words back to her.
Locking his fingers behind his head, he lay down on the bed. Her anger receded to a deeper curiosity when she frowned at his jeans. Since they’d been together he’d never gone to sleep wearing his jeans, or wearing anything for that matter. If she thought about trying to go to bed in as much as a thong he’d rip the apparel from her and command her to spend the rest of the night making amends for her slight.
‘Are there cameras in here?’ Flick asked, scanning for any clues. The only reason he wouldn’t initiate intimacy or sex was if he would be expected to perform for an audience, in other words – share her.
Rushe muttered something that she didn’t hear then said, ‘Kill the light.’
The steam left her funnel, refusing to engage her meant no argument and no explanation. If he didn’t want to talk or have sex, then something serious was troubling him.
Putting her own grievances aside, Flick switched off the light as he requested. ‘Can I take off my clothes?’
‘Do what the fuck you want,’ he grumbled.
‘I don’t know where we are, Rushe. If we’re being watched—‘
‘This place is under my watch.’
‘You’re here to protect these women?’
The foul mood she had spent the day entombed in this room with had skewed her view of the circumstances. Ridding herself of her clothes, Flick found her way to the bed and fumbled for his body. Climbing onto him, she pressed her breasts down onto his torso, and while lifting her ass to elevate her weight off his hips, she let her hands loosen his jeans, and then slid her fingers around his member.
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