by M. S. Parker
“Hi,” I said awkwardly. “I’m here to see Seleste.”
The girl’s expression was bored, not giving anything away. The tiny ‘school girl’ uniform she wore was how I knew I’d arrived at one of Fernando’s whorehouses. Brothel if people were feeling…nice.
“Cindy!” A woman’s sharp voice came from behind the girl “What have I told you about answering the door?”
The woman was attractive, probably in her early forties or so, with light-brown hair and cold gray eyes, but I knew she wasn’t one of the prostitutes. Her dress was sexy but in more of a businesswoman kind of way. Women like her were usually called madams, but if she worked for Fernando, I wondered if manager was a better description.
“Who are you?” she asked in a measured, clipped voice. No Texas accent for her.
I wasn’t about to give her my name. “Are you Seleste?”
She crossed her arms and gave me a once-over. “I have a couple girls already doing the naughty schoolgirl thing, but there are plenty of tricks with that particular fetish.”
“I’m not a hooker,” I protested. “I have a delivery from Fernando.”
“Oh.” She stepped to the side and gestured for me to come in.
I would’ve preferred to just hand over the bag and leave, but she knew how this routine usually worked, so I’d go along with it for now.
A couple men were in an open room, surrounded by half-dressed girls, but we didn’t go inside. In fact, we stayed just far enough inside the door for it to shut behind us.
“Are you sure I can’t offer you a position?” she asked, giving me an appraising look down to my toes and back up.
A position. Like fucking for money was a regular job.
“No thank you,” I said stiffly. “Do you want me to put this somewhere?”
“You should consider it,” she continued like I hadn’t said anything. “You’ve already done it once. The first time’s the hardest.”
I hoped I didn’t look as shocked as I felt. My gut told me Seleste was like Fernando when it came to exploiting weaknesses. “I-what?”
“Fernando told me that some guy paid twenty-five K for the night. I can’t guarantee you’d get the same thing here, but it shows that you have what men are looking for.”
Right. Slade had officially paid for sex with me, even if that wasn’t exactly what he’d intended to do.
“No, thanks,” I said, keeping my voice light and even. “Just want to drop this off and get back to work.”
She shrugged. “All right. I’ll get you the receipt.”
The receipt. Like a legit business.
I couldn’t wait to get this debt paid off. Leaving El Paso was something I’d never let myself think about after Austin was born. I hadn’t even considered leaving him behind, but now that our mom was gone, I could take him with me. We could start over somewhere new.
“Cheyenne?”
I turned toward the familiar voice, not bothering to hide my surprise when I saw Resa coming down the hallway, her sheer robe doing nothing to hide the skimpy lingerie underneath.
“I didn’t know you worked here,” I said.
She glanced into the room where other women were flirting and laughing. “I never thought I’d live this long, you know?”
That was a particularly morbid statement, but I didn’t say anything. She was going somewhere with it, I was sure.
“I grew up in Dallas,” she said, her voice as flat as her eyes. “Ran away when I was twelve. I told myself it’d be different here. That the things my uncle had made me do…” She shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. “One week in a shelter and I was back turning tricks. It was better to pick them myself, and at least I got to keep the money I made.”
I didn’t bother asking her why she hadn’t gone to the police about her uncle. It was always hit and miss whether cops would believe a kid, especially if her uncle told them she slept around on her own.
“I’ve always known I was living on borrowed time,” she said, giving me a bleak look. “I just thought it’d be up before I got too old to do this anymore.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, even though I was starting to get it.
“I lost the apartment.” She looked down at her shoes and compassion poured out of me. “I couldn’t make the rent the last two months because I haven’t had enough clients. Working here, I at least have food and a place to sleep.”
Once, when I was about fourteen or fifteen, I overheard Resa telling my mom that she’d never work for a man again. She’d decide the prices and who she went with, and if she went hungry, it would be her choice. Mom had made some excuse about how she couldn’t do that because she was a mother and had responsibilities that Resa couldn’t understand.
Now, I saw the same desperation on Resa’s face that I’d seen on my mom’s all the time when I was a kid. It showed up when a person’s principles and their needs were head-to-head, and they’d made the choice to compromise in exchange for safety.
And I wasn’t so different.
When Fernando came to me with my mom’s debt, I hadn’t gone to the police. I hadn’t even really thought about it. All the excuses I’d heard over the years had run through my head. When I’d found Slade’s badge, I hadn’t even thought about asking him for help.
I had no right to judge Resa, any of the women here, or the other women at DDD. Even though Resa being here meant she was, inadvertently at least, working for Fernando, it wasn’t a betrayal of me. It wasn’t about me at all. She had to take care of herself, and it wasn’t any of my business if this was the way she did it.
Still…
“If you ever want to…” I placed a comforting hand on her arm, “you can crash on the couch at my place until you can get a better job.”
She gave me a half-smile and put a cigarette in her mouth. “Thanks, kid.”
She coughed as she lit it, a deep hacking sound that got worse every time I heard it. It didn’t stop her from taking a long drag though.
“What have I told you about smoking in the house, Resa?” Seleste’s harsh voice came from behind her.
Resa barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “Heading out back now, ma’am.” She gave me a quick hug. “Don’t be a stranger.”
I squeezed her back. “You too.”
Seleste gave Resa a disapproving look as she headed down the hall, then she held out a piece of paper. “Here. And next time, don’t distract my girls, or I’ll let Fernando know that you’re costing him money.”
I took the paper and ignored the rest. There wouldn’t be a next time. I would find a more permanent solution to my problem.
Twenty-One
Slade
“Can I talk to you?” I asked Ramon as soon as I got a chance to speak to him alone.
All morning, I’d been trying to talk to him, but either Joey or Neely was always around, and this wasn’t a conversation I wanted them to know about. I trusted Joey, but this was the sort of thing I needed another man’s opinion on. A man who wasn’t still bragging about sleeping with the stripper from DDD.
“Sure,” he said with an easy smile. “What’s going on?”
I glanced around, but most of the other agents were still at lunch, so the place was as private as it was going to get. I didn’t want to put it off again, waiting for the right moment. I’d been on edge all weekend, unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Inevitably, a memory of Cheyenne would intrude, and I’d be distracted.
“I met someone,” I said, “and I need some advice.”
“You want advice on women from me?” He grinned. “Are you kidding me?”
I glared at him, but I understood the humor. I’d joked with him more than once about how it’d been so long since he dated that he wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she threw herself at him. His general response about how he loved his wife and his balls – which Angelica had threatened to cut off if she ever caught him cheating – was more than just something to say. He truly me
ant it.
“Look,” I said, “she isn’t like any other woman I’ve been with, and I don’t want to screw this up.”
“All right.” He leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. This was another reason I’d come to him. He’d think before giving me some half-assed advice. “Have you slept with her yet?”
“Really?”
He shrugged. “You said she was different.”
“She is,” I snapped. “It’s not like that.”
He held up a hand. “That’s proof enough. You never cared before what I thought about who you slept with and when.”
He had a point, but I wasn’t entirely sure I liked it. I did want more with Cheyenne than two explosive sexual encounters, but I’d dated women casually before. That wasn’t new. Coming to Ramon for advice, however, was.
“If you want her to be something more than a fuck buddy, you need to take the time to get to know her,” he said. “And not just what positions she likes, or random small talk after sex. You need to spend time with her without sex. Ask her on a date and make sure she knows that she’s more than just a random body.”
That was the real question, I knew. Not if she was something more to me, but if I was more than a random body to her.
Shit. I ran my hand through my hair. Why did things have to be so damn complicated? Especially now when my head was just starting to get cleared up after what’d happened back in Boston.
I could leave it, I knew. Leave it and let her go her own way while I went mine.
No chance in hell.
“I hope things work out,” Ramon said sincerely. “You deserve someone great.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but I nodded. “Thanks.” I returned to my desk and dropped into my chair. This was what it came down to: to call or not to call.
If I was going to do it, I needed to do it now before Neely came back from lunch. The last thing I needed was him figuring out that I was banging the waitress from DDD.
Dammit. I didn’t even like thinking that phrase about Cheyenne. She wasn’t just some waitress from a strip club, and ‘banging’ wasn’t what we were doing.
I pulled out my cell and dialed her number before I could talk myself out of it.
“Hello?”
“Chey, it’s Slade.”
Why the hell were my palms sweaty? I wasn’t a fifteen-year-old boy asking his crush out to his first dance. I’d been dating since I was fourteen, and I’d never lacked for confidence, but this woman…
“Hi.” She sounded like she was smiling.
I heard a child’s voice chime in from the background.
“Hi! Hi! Hi!”
I laughed. “He sounds like he’s been having a good morning.”
“He has,” she said. “We both have.”
“I know you’re probably busy having fun with your brother, so I’ll make this quick. I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me sometime this week.”
She was quiet for a moment, and I wondered if I’d misread the situation.
“I’d like that.”
“That’s great,” I said, feeling a foolish smile spread across my face. “I’m thinking lunch? Would that work for you? I know you have your brother to take care of, and I don’t want to–”
“Lunch would be great,” she said. “Wednesday?”
“Wednesday.”
For a few seconds, we sat on the call, neither of us saying anything, background noise from work and from Austin the only thing filling the silence, and I didn’t feel the need to fill the intimate void.
“Hunter! Let’s go!”
And that was my cue. “Hey, I gotta go, but I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay.” Pause. “Wednesday, right?”
“Wednesday. I can’t wait.”
I’d hung up the phone before I realized just how much I couldn’t wait. Hell, I would’ve loved to go to her place right now, but my gut told me that I could take control in the bedroom, but I needed to let her have some elsewhere.
“Slade!” Joey yelled from the doorway of the conference room.
I jogged over, still managing to get to a seat before Neely. “What’s going on?”
“No clue,” Joey said. “I haven’t heard anything.”
“All right, people!” Our boss, Agent Chetham, called us all to attention. “We’ve got a new case, a real El Paso winner. Agent Domingo brought him to our attention, so he’ll be running the team.”
I looked over at Ramon. Shit. I had a good idea about who my friend had brought to the DEA’s attention, and it was all my fault.
“Thank you, Agent Chetham,” Ramon said as he went to the front of the room. He turned over the whiteboard to reveal half a dozen pictures, some of people, some of places, most familiar.
“Isn’t that the guy you were telling us about?” Joey whispered, gesturing to the place where the name Fernando Sanchez was written under a mugshot.
“It is,” I said, keeping my eyes on Ramon.
This should have been what I wanted. Take a bad guy off the streets. Hell, it’s what I’d been thinking about from the moment I realized what an asshole he was.
Except, as Ramon started to rattle off all the possible charges – drugs, prostitution, assault, to name a few – all I could think about was what would happen to Cheyenne, to whatever this thing was between us.
And then things got even worse.
“It’s not just going to be us working on this,” Ramon said. “We’re working on a joint task force with the FBI to take this scum down.”
Twenty-Two
Cheyenne
He’s not here, so don’t bother looking.
I’d told myself that same thing every time I’d walked out into the main room tonight, and every time I still scanned the room to see if he’d come.
He’s busy. He has an important job, and he can’t spend every night in a strip club, playing white knight.
Again, it was something that I kept telling myself, but it wasn’t quite working.
I didn’t get it. We’d had sex last Wednesday night, and I hadn’t come into work on Thursday wondering if he’d be there. While I’d still been thinking about what we’d done together, I hadn’t expected him to come to the club. It’d just been sex between us.
So why was I looking for him now?
I knew the answer. Because he’d asked me out on a date. A real date. Not just sex. We were going to lunch on Wednesday like a couple. Not that we were a couple.
But now I wondered if we could be.
And it terrified me.
“You’ve got it bad,” Ruby said as I walked around the bar to get my orders. When I ignored her, she kept going, “You think we don’t see what you’re doing? Out there? Looking for your little Romeo to come rescue you from the life you don’t deserve.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said mildly. “I just need to get two more shots of Jack Daniels for table four.”
She laughed. “You’re nothin’ special, darlin’. We’ve all done it. Some guy here comes on to you, tells you how you’re too good to be working at a place like this. He promises to take you away from it, give you a wonderful life, but all you get is a case of the clap and maybe fifty bucks toward an abortion.”
I felt like telling her that she had no idea what she was talking about. Slade hadn’t promised me anything aside from lunch on Wednesday.
But since that was none of her damn business, I kept my mouth shut.
What happened between Slade and me was private. If we decided to make things public, that would be our decision too. Not that I was going to be pushing him into anything like that. The only personal thing I was considering bringing up on our date was the tattoo I’d been drawing for the past few days. I didn’t know for certain he’d even like it, but I’d been imagining it continuing out from his dog tags, across his back, across those muscles…
“Cheyenne! Get in here!” Fernando shouted loud enough for me to hear him over t
he music, and that wasn’t a good thing.
I held my tray out to Ruby. She didn’t make a move to take it. “Okay,” I said, “I’ll let Fernando know that you’re the reason two of those good ol’ boys didn’t get their drinks.”
“Bitch,” she snarled as she snatched the tray from me.
Since I didn’t think she’d appreciate it if I told her I didn’t like it any better than she did, I kept my mouth shut and made my way back to Fernando’s office. He stayed in the doorway, watching me, and then simply turned aside, so I had to squeeze past him, nearly choking on his cologne.
“Got a drop for you to make,” he said as he stepped around me.
I shook my head. “I did that once. I’ll have your usual payment for you on Friday. I’ll be caught up again.”
His eyes narrowed even as a smirk appeared on his lips. “That’s not the way this works now, remember? I tell you what I want, and you do it.”
I gritted my teeth. “Our arrangement worked for you before.”
He slapped my ass and walked around me to lean against his desk.
That, did not feel the same as it had when Slade had done it.
There wasn’t a damn thing consensual about it.
“I’m changing our arrangement,” he said. “You’re now doing the run to Seleste permanently.”
I bristled. “I’d rather pay you.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he growled, showing me his yellowing teeth. “You do what I say, or both you and your boyfriend are going to jail.”
Despite the sweat trickling down my spine, I went cold. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“I know the guy who gave me twenty-five grand to fuck you works for the DEA. Add that to the video I have from Seleste’s of you handing off drugs, and one call from me puts your kid in foster care while you rot in jail.”
The room began to spin. He knew about Slade?
“Don’t ever try to fuck with me, little girl. Those shitty government agencies can’t hide nothing from me. I got eyes and ears everywhere.”