by Ashlee Price
Was she telling me that she’d wanted me to do something about it? It felt like I should have, but Elie had me in a tight spot. How had he gotten Sasha to agree to the things that she now did for him? What did he have on her?
“I don’t know what to think anymore, Sasha. That man who came to his house was Greg. You remember me and Kimmie talking about him, don’t you?”
Sasha nodded and I continued. “So Greg shot Elie and now I owe him. When I found out Greg was in town, I panicked. Elie told me that he would help me, and now Greg is dead and Elie has a hole in his shoulder.”
My friend just shook her head and made a sound that told me that it was very familiar sounding. “Elie helped me out with the police when I first got down here. You know I was a mess, and when I started at the club, I was at rock bottom. I don’t know what I was doing, but I was doing a lot of drugs. I got into a bad patch and Elie bonded me out and made sure that I had a lawyer that got me off. I’ve owed him ever since.”
“When does the debt get repaid?”
She shrugged and said she would let me know when she found out. It made me wonder why I was even feeling guilty about any of it. He’d helped me just to get his claws into me deeper.
“I’m sorry I got you into this, Mariah. If I’d thought it would be like this, I never would have told you to apply. If I could go back far enough, I would make it so that I never met Elie. He seems to want to help, but nothing in this world is free.”
I was starting to realize how true her words were. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d done so much to help me out; it was the false sense of security that Elie had provided in the beginning that I missed the most. I missed when the worst thing I had to deal with was the clients. Now I had to deal with the politics of it all and I can’t say that I was really enjoying it that much.
“I don’t want to go to that auction, Sasha. What happens if I don’t?”
Sasha looked away. I could only imagine why that was, but she was going to have to tell me, for my own safety. I needed to know what I was up against, and what he was willing to do to get his way.
“You’ll wish you had. Elie has a way of knowing everything. I don’t know how he does it, but even when I leave with a client he knows everything that goes on. Whatever you’re thinking you can do to get away from him, you can’t. I hate to say it like that, but it’s the truth.”
“Why are you still with him Sasha? This isn’t like you.”
“I can’t really say why. I guess because I can handle him most of the time. Being out here by myself wasn’t near as fun as I thought it would be. When Elie gets his way, he’s rather pleasant. He’s not like that all the time, but most of it anyway.”
She was making excuses for him, so I took that as an indicator that I was going to have to watch what I said. I don’t know how deep she was into him and what she was willing to do to keep that man happy. I didn’t know if Sasha was still really my friend or if she was Elie’s girl first now.
“That sounds like a lot of ifs.”
“It is.”
“Have you ever thought about leaving here and just getting away from it all?”
“I have, Mariah, but I’m so close to having the money to start a place. It seems like such a waste to do all of this, go through all that I’ve gone through, for nothing. I want all of this to have counted for something. It makes it easier to keep my head down and do what needs to be done.”
I started to understand her a little better. She was brave and I didn’t have to worry about her. It was still Sasha; she had just accepted the reality of the situation. None of us had loving families to go back to, so it was sink or swim. There was no padding to cushion the fall that was just around the corner.
“I hope you get that, Sasha. You deserve it.”
“Thanks, Mariah. If the auction goes as well as Elie thinks it will, I’ll be ready to quit right after that.”
“Are you really going to do it, Sasha?”
She nodded her head so hard that a few tiny braids fell in her face. I could see that she was serious, and I knew that I was going to have to find some of the same kind of strength that she had. Maybe I could get enough from the auction to get away as well. If it went through, though, I was going to have to make sure that Scott was there to bid on me. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if someone like Travis won the privilege for the night.
I shuddered at the thought. I was going to have to make sure that Scott was there. He might not want to be seen at such an auction, but he was going to have to for me. I just wished I was a little surer about what he was going to do. I needed him, and I would know soon enough if he was going to be there for me or not. Soon enough I was going to know the truth.
Chapter 22 – Scott
“I’ve missed you, Mariah. Are you free tonight? Is that why you’re calling?”
“No, I needed to talk to you, Scott. I have to go in for a while tonight, but I wanted to ask you about something.”
“Sure, what’s going on?” I wasn’t going to like this. I could tell by the hesitation and the tone in her voice. I steeled myself for whatever news Mariah wanted to tell me. This was not going to be good.
“Have you heard about the auction that the club is going to have?”
I hadn’t heard anything about an auction. The feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that I was right about my previous prediction. It didn’t sound like I was going to like this at all.
“No, what auction?”
“Can you go on the website for a minute?”
“Why?” Why was she being so weird?
“Because I don’t want to have to say it out loud. If you look on the site, I promise that it will all be clear to you.”
I did as she suggested, just because I was too curious not to. Whatever she wanted me to see there, I knew that it was making her more than a little nervous. I felt bad for her as the silence dragged on while I worked to find the website that I hadn’t visited in a while. There was no need to look anymore when I’d found what I wanted.
“Wow.”
“So are you looking at it?”
“I don’t know what to say, Mariah. I thought you weren’t ready for that?” How was she going to give away her virginity to anyone with the highest bid? How could she do that when she’d so completely turned me down? I didn’t like this at all. I’d known that I wouldn’t.
My eyes were fixed on the picture in front of me. Mariah was half-dressed and she had a come-hither look that was hard to see without getting hard. I was at work, the very last place that I wanted to get horny, but here I was nonetheless.
“Say something, Scott.”
“I don’t know what to say, Mariah. What do I say to this?” Fuck I was confused. I wasn’t sure if I was coming or going. The upside hadn’t occurred to me yet. All I could think about was another man getting the one thing that I wanted most in this world. It was bad enough that I had to share her with other men. I was not going to let someone take her innocence. That was mine.
“Just tell me that you’re not mad.”
She had that tone that she’d taken with me in the restaurant, that small voice that sounded so vulnerable and naïve. It was the sound of me getting driven crazy, and I asked her again what I was supposed to say.
“I want you to tell me that you’re going to bid on me, daddy, and make sure no one else gets your little girl.”
She was using that title again, and so help me it was doing something to me, almost like I’d been conditioned for her.
“You want me to go to this auction and bid on you?” It was problematic. My shareholders would not be happy, to say the least. The board was already looking for a reason to take more of my power away, even though it was my own company. The last thing that I needed was for the media or anyone to get the ghost of a hint of what I did in my free time. I didn’t think my or the company’s reputation would be able to make it through that.
Her voice changed. “Why do I get the feeling that
you’re going to tell me you can’t?”
“I don’t think I can, Mariah. That would put me in a really bad position. I don’t know if I’d be able to recover if it got out. What would people think if I bought a girl who was advertising the sale of her virginity? I’m in my thirties, Mariah, and the press would have a field day with it.”
She made a whimpering sound. I knew that I was making a bad decision. I had a feeling that this moment was going to dictate what happened next with us. It was going to determine if I was going to lose her or not.
“I just can’t, Mariah. I’m sorry.”
The silence on the other end was deafening. I just wanted her to say something. “Mariah?”
“I’m sorry to have called. I don’t know what I was thinking, Scott. Don’t worry about it.”
She was about to hang up on me, but I wanted to keep her on the phone.
“Why don’t you let me pick you up and we can really talk about this? I hate to do this on the phone.”
“No, I have to go to work.”
“Mariah…”
“Sorry I called, Scott. I won’t make the mistake of doing that again.”
Daddy was no longer my name, and I already missed it. It hadn’t lasted long, but the way she had acted was perfect. Now I felt like I’d just lost everything. If I lost Mariah, I was losing everything.
Frustrated, I hung up and almost called her back. She was upset, though, and I had a feeling that nothing I said or she said at this point was going to help anything. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be the one, but I couldn’t jeopardize everything for one night. Not even if that one night was with Mariah.
***
The night of the auction, I was even more upset than I’d thought I would be. Looking at the clock at work, I knew that in a couple of hours, the woman that I’d fallen for was going to be sold off to the highest bidder. Could I really just sit here and do nothing?
I had to move. Sitting down was just making all of the pent-up energy worse, and I had to get moving. I needed to get out of there. I wasn’t getting anything done, and it was just slow torture to stay and think about what was coming.
Leaving the office, I bypassed my assistant, just because I didn’t want to hear about how much I still had to get done. I had a couple of meetings that I was supposed to go to, one of which I’d called myself, but I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I just couldn’t do it today, not when I was losing the girl I’d waited for for so long. I couldn’t think knowing what I was allowing to happen.
The new thought drove me to my car and then towards my house at blinding speed. Nothing was fast enough. Nothing was going to be the same again. I wanted to see how fast I could go, not caring what happened to me next.
I slowed down as I got to my long driveway. If I was that determined and didn’t care what happened to me, did I really have to give a damn what the board thought about it? Why would I care what those assholes thought of me? What was the point?
For the first time since I’d talked to Mariah, I was feeling like I could smile again. I’d been thinking about it all wrong, worried about my reputation, everything that really didn’t matter. They didn’t matter to me – the public, the board, no one. What mattered was Mariah and making sure that she wasn’t subjected to some strange man’s appetites. I knew that it would be a waste of time to talk to Elie. He wasn’t budging, so the only thing that made sense was to go there and bid on her myself. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the resources to win.
I got dressed, more determined than I’d been in a while. Mariah had weaseled her way into my consciousness and my mind. I couldn’t think a thought without her creeping into it. I had to wonder if the feeling would dissipate when I finally had her. Maybe she was just a challenge to me, the forbidden fruit that tasted so sweet because it was wrong. Was that what Mariah was to me?
It didn’t matter what she was going to be afterwards. Right now she was the one I wanted, and I was a man who got what he wanted. Since it was Mariah, I did what I always did when there was a goal in mind. I started to take actions that would make sure that I got what I wanted.
When I got to the event, it was bigger than I would have thought possible. The auction was on the fringes, as it were, but that didn’t seem to matter. I wasn’t the only one driving a car that was far too expensive for the neighborhood. I started to get nervous when I recognized one of the Astons out front. I knew who it was, and I had a good idea of what he was doing there. The only good thing about recognizing people was that they were there for the same reason. No one was there for charity, after all.
I took a seat in the back and looked around the room. I wasn’t the only man there with a thousand-dollar suit. I’d never imagined that so many people came to the Fetish Club. I looked around again, trying to figure out which ones were there for Mariah. She was a beautiful siren who’d pulled me in. How many more were there for the same reason?
I saw movement up by the front staging area. The auction wasn’t being held at the club, but down the road a bit in a convention center. Apparently Elie had pretty high expectations for this thing. It was already bigger than I’d imagined. The only thing missing, thankfully, was the press. If they got wind of the big names sitting in this room and the reason for it, I was sure that they would be here in droves.
Elie made his way to a microphone on a stand. He was walking slower than usual and he had one of his arms and shoulders bandaged and in a sling. What had happened to him?
“Thank you all for coming. I see that we’ve gotten more of a turnout than I could have hoped for.”
That was an understatement. I looked around and there were people everywhere. At least a hundred men were sitting in the crowd with me, and I knew at least a dozen of them. The girls weren’t out yet, so it was all men paying attention to Elie. He thanked the girls for making this an auction to remember and talked about how it was going to become an annual event. It was the start of something great, to hear him tell it.
The only thing I was convinced of was that it was going to be more competition than I’d imagined. I knew that there were fifteen girls up for auction for the night, including some that were just as young and pretty as Mariah. I didn’t think that everyone was there for her, but I had a feeling that a lot of them were going to be far more interested in the last auction just like I was. I wasn’t the only one there to get the first taste.
Chapter 23 – Mariah
“Everything is going to be okay, Mariah. I promise that it’s not going to be as bad as you think.’
“How do you know, Sasha?”
“Because Elie has done something like this before, when I first started with him. It wasn’t as big as this has turned into, but there’s going to be a lot of money thrown around. I made so much last time. That’s why I told you this could maybe be my last night.”
I looked to Elie and asked her if she’d told him that yet.
The look she gave me told me that she wasn’t that stupid. It wouldn’t be hard to guess what he would have to say about everything. He was not going to let Sasha go, just like he didn’t want to let me go. I knew from my last meeting with Elie that he was not above threats and possible violence to get his way. He’d made that clear with how he’d handled Greg. I knew where I stood, and although Sasha still talked like she might stay around, I hoped that she wanted to leave the area, because I would go with her. Kimmie was getting closer with her boyfriend and might want to stay, but I was thinking that getting out of New Orleans was the best thing for the two of us. That was because of Elie. We both needed to get away from Elie.
“When you’re ready to get out of here, Sasha, I think I will be too. I don’t think that New Orleans is really the place for me. I’ve tried it here, but I need a change.”
“I don’t want to go back home, Mariah.”
“Neither do I. Not after what happened with Greg and everything else. There’s no way that I’m going back home. I don’t have anything else there.”
“We s
hould wait for Kallie. She’s going to be here next week or the week after.”
I hadn’t heard that, and I asked Sasha when she’d talked to her last.
“She called a couple of days ago, but it slipped my mind. With everything going on around here and Elie getting more demanding than ever, I just forgot all about it.”
“Is she coming to stay or what?”
Sasha shrugged. “I don’t even think she knows. She broke up with that guy she was seeing, so I think she’s ready for a change.”
“What would it be like to get us all back together for a while, get out of here?”
“It would be nice, but Kimmie likes it here.”
She did, and I knew that her coming with us might not be an option. She was at her boyfriend’s house more than she was home these days. I knew it was only a matter of time before she moved in with him officially. Sasha and I didn’t have that option, or that much time. We’d gotten wound up with the wrong sort of people and now we had to leave. Elie wasn’t someone that I wanted to tangle with any more than I had to. Look what a couple of months had brought me.
The girls were departing the back room one by one, but we were far enough away from the stage that I couldn’t really hear what was going on. I hadn’t had time to go down to the stage and look out, see what was going on. Most likely that was a good thing, because I’d seen the full parking lot.
“This is going to be the last time I do this kind of thing, Sasha. I think I’m getting out too, and when you do, I think we should just go. If the other two want to go, great, but one way or another I’m getting out of here. I think you should too. Elie scares me.”
“You don’t even really know the half of it, Mariah. You should feel that way. Elie was a guy that I thought the world of, but everything changed a couple months in. Since then, I see him for what he is.”
“Then come with me, or let me come with you. I don’t want to keep doing this, and I can tell you don’t want to either. There are tons of places to set up a little store. I’ll have enough saved up to go anywhere. If tonight is good, then I’ll be ready for it.”