by Ashlee Price
“Just give me a couple of days. I’ll make sure that you get a huge payout for it.”
“You mean you’ll have a huge payout.”
“What’s the difference? We both will.”
Mariah was not getting it, or maybe I was going about it all wrong. I wasn’t sure what, but something wasn’t going the way I wanted it to.
“Just wait a couple of days and I’ll figure something out. There’s no sense in letting a little sappiness keep you from a lot of money.” I didn’t need it to keep me from a nice payday, either.
“I don’t know, Elie.”
“I do. That’s why I run this place. Take a couple of days off. I’ve been working you hard, so you deserve a break.”
“Are we not going to talk about the cameras and sound?”
“You knew they were there the first time you came here. Nothing has changed.”
“It feels like it has.”
I felt it too, but I didn’t think that it was all because of me. A lot of it had to do with her and what she had going on. There was something happening with her and Scott. He used to be my best customer, but now he was competition. He was trying to take Mariah away from me, and I wasn’t going to let it happen. I just had to find my opening. I was still looking for it. Knowing that Sasha was back home, I planned to call her and get some inside information from her.
Mariah left, and although she was upset, I knew she would be back. I would be seen as generous for giving her the weekend off. It would give me time to find a way to make some big money from her new decision, although I still wasn’t sure if that was what I wanted. What if I talked her into taking my money for it? How much would it cost?
***
“Haven’t seen you around much, Scott.”
“You keep the girl I want booked up, so there’s not much point coming by to visit any more, Elie.”
“There are many other girls to choose from. I think I gave you an option for Sandra last time you were here.”
The younger man smiled and moved to pinch a piece of lint off of his jacket sleeve. I couldn’t see it, and I didn’t know if it was really there and my eyesight was bad, or if he was doing it out of nerves. I liked to think of the billionaire as nervous. I had a feeling that it wasn’t the case, though. He’d been in more stressful situations. I’d worked with him for years. Scott wasn’t going to get torn up over a woman, not one of these women anyway.
“Yeah, but I want Mariah.”
I sat back in the seat and smiled at him. “Do you want something to drink?”
My question threw him off a little. When he finally answered, I could tell that his mind was still on Mariah.
“You just had Mariah, and I’ve got you scheduled again for next week. She’s a busy girl, I can’t help that. I’m just here to help facilitate her work.”
“You’re more than that, Elie, and we both know it. You’ve got some kind of hold on her, and I want to know what you want from her.”
“It sounds like I own her.”
“Do you?”
He was trying to get me to say something, although I wasn’t sure where he was going with it. “Do I what?”
“Do you think that you own her, Elie?”
I didn’t miss the way he phrased it. It wasn’t if I owned her, but if I thought I did. That meant that if I did, he was going to educate me in the matter. This was not going to end well. I was torn between a steady client who paid very well indeed and an ego that didn’t want to take his shit. Would he still come to my place if Mariah wasn’t available to him? I doubted it.
“She’s an employee, one that I make a lot of money for.”
“She makes a lot of money for you as well. I’ve read the forum boards.”
“Do you like how popular Mariah has become? She’s one of the busiest girls that I’ve got now.”
His teeth gritted, and I could tell that he wanted to hit me. He would get one good one in before Bruno and Lex took care of him. That was why I was feeling a little cockier than usual. Scott didn’t look like the type of guy that I wanted to get involved with on a personal level. He seemed like he would rather hit me than talk about anything constructive. That was usually my kind of scenario too – if it wasn’t me on the receiving end of it.
“What would it cost to have her for the week, or hell, for a month?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Yes, you do. I don’t want her handed out to anyone who comes through those doors, so what would it take for me to have her exclusively? I don’t even need to bring her here, so none of your rooms would be taken up. I just want to know what the price is to take her off your books for a while.”
“She makes me a lot of money…”
Scott’s knee was shaking, and I could tell that he was becoming more and more irritated with me. I had a feeling that I should call the guys in just in case, because he was not going to like my answer. That was okay. I didn’t mind, but he would.
“Name your price.”
“You’re willing to pay that much for a whore?”
His hands clenched at the side of his body as he sat, and I straightened up a little bit. I was going to need to pay attention to this man.
“She’s not a whore and you know it. You’re making her into a whore.”
“Mariah came here like all the other girls. She wanted to make money and I’ve made that happen. Why are you getting involved with something that has nothing to do with you? I don’t think Mariah would agree to it anyway. Have you asked her?”
“The rooms are wired and she isn’t answering her cell phone.”
“As to the first part, I won’t confirm if that’s the case, but I’ll say that if she isn’t answering your phone calls, it would appear that she’s not as into you as you would hope. You know how fickle females are, Scott. I know for a fact that you’ve had your fair share of them, so you know all about that. Don’t worry about Mariah so much. I’ll set you up with any of the other girls, on the house.”
He wasn’t going for it. I hadn’t thought for a second that he would, but it was all I could come up with. I knew that he was drawn to her, like me and several other men were. It was becoming a race to see who could convince her to give in, and Scott was going to win if it was a fair race. But nothing is fair in this life, and I was going to make sure that I stacked the deck in my favor.
“I don’t want anyone else here. I want Mariah.”
Scott had repeated that three times now. I’d misjudged his feelings for her as well. “I’ll talk to her and see what she says about going exclusive, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
“I thought this would be more productive than it has been. I thought you were a businessman.”
My jaw tightened as the man got up. He was like me: he didn’t like being told no. To get to the position he was in, I was sure that he didn’t make a habit of taking it for an answer. That made me like being the one who stood between him and Mariah even more. A man like him got everything. He didn’t deserve Mariah as well.
“I’ll see you soon, Elie. We’ll speak on this again.”
“I look forward to it, Scott. You know that you’re one of my best customers, and I always look forward to these little chats of ours.”
He didn’t say anything else, and I could tell that my comment had hit its mark. I wanted him to realize that he was the one getting all cramped up about it. I wasn’t going to worry about it. Mariah worked for me, and I was going to make damn sure that she wasn’t going to go anywhere.
After Scott had been gone a while I got another call about Mariah. This time it was from Travis, and he was calling about none other than the same thing I’d spoken to Scott about. I ran the idea of selling her virginity by him, and he jumped at the chance. It got me thinking.
“I’ll pay whatever price you set. Let me know the when and where and I’ll make the transfer.”
When I got off of the phone with Travis, my mind was whirling with ideas. How could I make the most money of off
what was going on? How could I convince Mariah to do what I wanted and give herself to the man who would pay the highest price? She’d been holding on to her innocence for a long time. It was going to take something special to get her to choose my way.
Irritated that I still hadn’t found an in with her, I called Sasha and told her to come down. She’d taken a couple of days off when she got back and I hadn’t seen her in weeks. Maybe she would be able to help me somehow.
Chapter 15 – Greg
“I told you I wasn’t going to give up on her. Tell me what you’ve got.”
Captain Monroe didn’t look very happy about it. I’d been looking for Mariah for well over a month, though, and if the man had some information on her, he’d better give it to me.
“I’m just asking if you’ve really thought this through, Greg.”
“Yes. Now give me the information. I haven’t been wasting all this time and money on her for nothing. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for Mariah to come around? I’m not going to let her just walk away now. We were meant to be together. I was going to marry this girl.”
“If she doesn’t want you, there’s nothing that you can do about it. She left for a reason, and I don’t want to see you get hurt any more than you already have. I told you that the girl was a mess and that you shouldn’t get involved. Never get involved with the victims of a case, it just gets too complicated.”
I didn’t need the lecture. I’d heard it before, years ago when we’d first gotten together. Nothing had changed. I still didn’t care about rules and protocol, not when it came to Mariah. That was why I had no problem asking my friends to use all of their power to help me find her. I had the police database at my disposal, and after some detective work, we finally had something.
“So what is it?”
He sighed and sat down across from me. We were in his office since mine didn’t have a door. “I really like her too, Greg. I always told you that she was a sweet girl, but things change.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Mariah. She has changed, and I don’t think you’re going to like what she’s doing now. It’s been a couple of months since she left, and it looks like she has changed.”
“Has it been that long?” It didn’t feel like it. It felt like it was just yesterday I came home to an empty house and a short letter apologizing and thanking me for everything that I’d done for her. She was just gone, and I was lost without her. I didn’t care what she was doing now. Mariah was mine, and I was ready to claim her and bring her back home.
“Yes, it has been over two months, and now Mariah is into things that you’re not going to like.”
He kept saying that, so I knew that it had to be pretty bad. Did I really want to know? The question was answered when I grabbed the paperwork from him. I had to know. I had to know that she was okay, and I wanted to know where she was so I could go get her. I wasn’t going to live my life without Mariah a day longer than I had to.
“Just tell me.” I was looking at a bunch of reports and I just wanted to know what they said. It was like a bandage: I wanted him to rip it off instead of me slowly tugging on it.
“She’s working at a fetish shop.”
“What the hell is that?”
“Well, you know what a fetish is, a sexual fetish?”
I nodded that I knew. I knew that Mariah had fetishes, but I didn’t see how that translated into a shop or a job. “Yes, I know what it is. What does that have to do with Mariah?”
I was still reading the papers while the captain went to his phone. “Do you have an important call that can’t wait?”
He smiled and shook his head. “No, old friend. I’m going to show you something that I don’t want to, but I have to, so just know that I don’t take pleasure in this at all.”
My partner and friend might as well have been speaking in Greek. He had something to tell me, and he was holding out.
“Why don’t you just go back to Marla and be done with Mariah? That would be the best thing that you could do. Marla is sweet and she’s pretty. What more could you want? I don’t see why you’re digging up bones if you don’t have to.”
“Because I love her.”
He just shook his head and made a comment that nothing he said was going to help. “I know that you’re not going to listen to me, but you’re going to have to do something. I wish I didn’t have to show you this, but maybe then you’ll finally understand what I’m trying to tell you.”
Captain Monroe handed me his phone and the first thing that I saw was a compromising picture of Mariah. I was about to get mad, curse him out for having a picture of her like that, but then I realized that it was on the internet.
“What’s this?”
“Scroll down and see for yourself, old friend. Greg, I warned you that you didn’t want to go down this route. Maybe now you’ll see that she’s a lost cause. There’s no coming back from that lifestyle.”
I read the description of the woman I loved. It wasn’t flattering at all, but it was made to entice. It described her as a beautiful virgin who liked a little bit of pain. Make her beg for it, the ad suggested.
As I scrolled down further, I got to the phone number of the place where she was working. I wrote it down, as well as the address. I was going to go find Mariah. The distance didn’t deter me, but it did make me realize that I was going to have to go right now. At least now I knew where she was. To me, that was a whole lot closer to her than I’d been in a very long time.
“I’m sorry that you had to see this, Greg. I know what she means to you. Now you can see why I said that there’s really no point in going to find her. She’s lost.”
Mariah was definitely lost in a way that she hadn’t been before, but this was not going to stop me from loving her. I was always going to love her, and none of this mattered. She must have felt that she had to. Something had made her do such a thing. Her friend was gone too, so I was sure that it was Kimmie who’d talked her into it. If she’d stayed here with me, this never would have happened.
“She isn’t lost. I still love her, and I’m just going to have to save her again.”
“Did you ever think that maybe she doesn’t want to be saved? She goes from one bad situation to another. That’s not coincidence.”
“You just don’t understand what she’s been through. She’s been through more than you could ever imagine. She doesn’t think that she deserves to be loved, even though she does. It’s all in her head, and she just needs someone to remind her of that. That’s all it is.”
He shook his head. I knew that he wasn’t going to see it the way I did. It was hard to explain, admittedly. It was always hard to explain Mariah, and this time I wasn’t even going to try. He’d found her, and for that I owed him, but for now, all I was worried about was finding her and getting her back in my arms where she belonged.
“So what are you going to do?”
“You know what I’m going to do.”
“You’re going down to see her?”
I nodded. “I guess I’m going to have to take a week or so off. I need some time down there to see what’s going on before I bust in and get her to leave with me.”
“What if she doesn’t want to go?”
That wasn’t even a thought until he put it into my head. Before I wasn’t even thinking of that, but now I had to wonder what I was going to do if she didn’t want to see me. She’d left, after all, and that didn’t seem to be a sign of someone who was in love. It was the sign of a woman who wanted to get away from me. I wanted to think that she was just scared, overwhelmed, something. I didn’t like to think that she’d left because of me. I’d pushed a little on sex, but I didn’t think she would leave just because of that. How could she just walk away? I couldn’t.
***
Ever since I’d found out about Mariah, I’d become obsessed with the website, the one Captain Monroe had shown me. I couldn’t stop looking at it, reading everything that I could
to figure out what Mariah was doing there. What had gotten into the sweet girl who’d left just a couple of months before? Where and how had everything gone so wrong? I knew that she liked pain. That had been a surprise to me at first, but I thought that it was something special between the two of us. Now it was something else altogether.
I was on the first flight out of Kalamazoo. The connection had me on the red-eye to Louisiana, nervous as hell about what was going to happen when I got there. I tried to play it out in my head, what I was going to do and what I was going to say to get her to come home with me. She had to. She just had to, and once again I had to think about the other options as not even there. Mariah loved me and she was going to come home with me. That was the end of it.
Getting off the plane, it took me a little while to get a hotel booked for the week and then hire a rental car to get me around the city. I wasn’t going to just jump into all of this right away. I had some investigating to do first. I wanted to know what was really going on and what Mariah was up to now.
By the time I got settled in for the night, the sun was coming up and I was exhausted. I was going on too many coffees and too many highs and lows. One minute I was missing her and had no idea where she was; now I knew and I was in the same town as her and I had addresses for her house and her work. It was going to happen, something was, and although I thought I knew what, I realized that it was still up in the air. My friend was right, things had changed. I just needed to find out what kind of things had changed, and how much.
It didn’t take long for me to find the house she was supposed to be living in. It was registered to somebody by the name of Sasha Marks. Since I’d heard Mariah talk about a Sasha from time to time, I had to think that it was one of her and Kimmie’s friends. Kimmie had left town about the same time as Mariah, and I still assumed that they’d left together. I couldn’t prove it, but I had a feeling I was about to. I was about to find out the truth, but I wasn’t finding the courage to walk up to the door and knock.
What was wrong with me? I was there and she was just on the other side of the wall. Had I let the captain get into my head? Was that why it was so hard to move? Maybe I needed to observe things for a little while and see what was going on before I charged ahead.