by J P Books
“Oh boy,” Wesley chuckles. “Prepare to have the wildest evening of our lives.”
Roberto appears in the lobby a few moments later, donning the tackiest red suit I’ve ever seen a man wear. I’m not surprised though. He was always one of the most eclectic men we worked with when we were developing the Tysley tablet. It had been before we officially launched the business and he was simply looking for artwork for his company.
Wesley handled all the business aspects while I got to focus on doing the art for the promotional images. It was a fair trade off, and though Roberto Mancini paid well, the project was short and simple.
“There you are,” Roberto says, approaching us with a bit of swagger in his step. He moves as if the world revolves around him like he doesn’t care who’s staring because he already expects all eyes to be on him. It’s impressive how little he gives a shit, and part of me is jealous of his carefree nature.
We exchange quick hugs before settling down in the lobby. Wesley nurses his glass of whiskey and I swish my around, trying to find the strength to drink more. I usually stick to beer because this stuff tastes like ass and is way too strong.
“So, tell me, how have you two been lately? It’s been so long since I’ve seen either of you,” Roberto says.
“We’ve been good,” Wesley says. “Working on new versions of the tablet. Considering branching out into other technology. Nothing too terribly exciting, but we have a lot in the works.”
“That’s what I like to hear! You boys were always one step ahead of the curve. I’m sure whatever Tysley puts out next, it’ll be a hit.” He sits back in his chair and turns to me. “You boys been getting into anything exciting here? When I heard you were back, I thought we could maybe hang out, have a little fun, just like we did when you guys were here a few years ago.”
I don’t even want to think about those days—mostly because I can’t remember a lot of them. Because of how simple work was on the project, we ended up finishing early. We had time to kill, so Roberto took Wesley and me on a trip through the city, drinking at every casino and gambling away much more than we ever would had we been sober.
“Honestly, we’re just here to have a little bit of fun,” I shrug. “Nothing too exciting. We’ll save that for when it’s vacation time.”
“If you’re not doing anything, why not keep me company at the auction tonight?” he suggests.
“What auction?” Wesley asks.
Lowering his voice, Roberto leans in. “Every year, some of the most beautiful women you’ve ever seen get on stage and auction off dates. You wouldn’t believe some of the beauties that get up there.” He sits back and sighs, shaking his head like he’s reminiscing about the good old days.
“What do you say? It’s gonna be fun. Drinks, smokes, gorgeous women. It’s every man’s perfect dream,” Roberto says. “Oh, and it’s for charity.”
I try not to let my emotions show on my face too obviously.
Partaking in an auction for women is decidedly not something we’d normally be interested in, but he’s almost too charismatic to turn down. Roberto grins at us with that toothy smile of his, and I feel my defenses slowly starting to fall.
I glance at Wesley as I say, “I mean, if you’re buying drinks…”
Roberto’s grin grows even wider. “Of course! Of course, all the drinks are on me. You won’t have to worry about paying anything. What do you say?”
Wesley taps his chin with his index finger, thinking it over. After a moment of decision, he says, “I say, why the hell not?”
Roberto claps and sits back in his chair. “Magnificent! We have about an hour until then. If you two want to go drink and gamble a little more, feel free. I have some people to talk to but meet me back here in this lobby and we’ll go to the auction together.”
“Sounds good,” I say, nodding slowly. A moment later, he disappears, hurrying off somewhere. I can only shake my head and smile at him. That man could probably talk me into bungee jumping with him if he tried hard enough.
“An auction,” Wesley says, his voice rumbling in his throat.
“I don’t even know how to take that. This isn’t going to be illegal or anything, is it?”
“Roberto’s a good man,” Wesley says. “A little eccentric, sure, but…a good man, nonetheless. I don’t believe he’d ever involve us in anything illegal.”
I have to take Wesley’s word for it. We did business with Roberto, sure, but I don’t know much about him outside of the small snippets of his life that I gained from working with him. He’s single, almost eternally so, and he doesn’t have any kids or prior commitments. He spends most of his time in big cities, chasing tail and getting drunk off his ass.
He’s the guy you call to go out on the town with, but I’ve never stuck around him long enough to find out his family history or morals or anything of the sort. The only thing I have to go off of is that he’s wealthy and he doesn’t have a problem spending it on frivolous things, like dates with women being auctioned.
“Well, let’s just hope he’s not introducing us to anything sex traffic-y. I’m going to kill him if he is,” I mutter.
Wesley cracks a smile and grabs his glass of whiskey, finishing it off. “Don’t be so worried, kid. Just have fun. Who knows, maybe you’ll meet the love of your life as she walks down that stage and a ton of other men wager on what she’s worth.”
His laugh is obnoxious, and I want to slap him upside the head, but I only roll my eyes and drink from my glass as well. I’ve given up on looking for that perfect woman for now. Rather than occasional dating like I did in the past, I’m just going to have fun. I’m going to live in my youth and enjoy all the perks before I shrivel up.
One thing I know for certain is that I won’t be bidding on anyone. That’s just not my style, and I don’t suspect it’s Wesley’s either.
CHAPTER 3
Wesley
This isn’t what I expected when I took the weekend off to visit Vegas with Tyler, and I’m perplexed how I ended up following Roberto Mancini through the halls of the Red Royale as he leads us to a private date auction.
I still don’t exactly know how to feel about that.
Normally I’m all for a little risqué fun, but I know how men with money can get. When they have money and power, the women around them become more like objects than people. Sitting around a room full of these men isn’t how I want to spend my day off.
But dammit if Roberto isn’t one convincing bastard. We won’t place bids, that’s all I know for certain. I have no interest in partaking in this kind of event. I’d much rather be an observer, watching something foreign to me entirely.
When we make it to the room sectioned off for auction, a bouncer gives Roberto a nod and lets us past. The room is beautifully decorated, with rich red carpet, wood-paneled walls, and a stage directly in the middle of the room. Around it, tables are set with white tablecloths and an elaborate combination of candles.
It looks like the classiest strip club I’ve ever been to.
“Right this way, boys,” Roberto says, directing us to a table in the back.
We take a seat and he begins scrolling through his phone, texting someone before he turns back to us. “This is the worst part. Waiting for the girls to come out.”
I nod slowly. “How long does this whole thing usually take?”
“About an hour or so,” he says. “Last year we went on for three hours, but we had double the amount of girls participating.”
“Interesting,” Tyler murmurs. I can tell that he’s not entirely sold on this whole thing either. Tyler was always the good one between the two of us. I much preferred dragging him into questionable situations with me, much like tonight. But Tyler had a reputation. He had parents that cared whether he was well-received or not.
“Excuse me, I’ll be back in a moment,” Roberto says, putting his phone to his ear and hurrying off. Once we’re alone, I turn to Tyler.
“What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?” I laugh.
Tyler cracks a smile and shrugs. “I have no idea. I’m still not convinced this isn’t some weird dream I’m having. I mean, seriously. An auction?”
“People will do a lot of strange things for money,” I murmur. A waitress comes by to take our drink orders, and when she reappears, I throw my first shot back without a second thought. If I’m going to be here watching girls sell themselves, I need to be a little tipsy.
The lights in the room start to dim, and a woman steps out from behind the curtains, walking across the stage. She holds a mic to her mouth as she speaks.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming out tonight to partake in this incredible opportunity. Behind these curtains are fifteen beautiful girls ready for a date with fifteen of you, lucky people! They’re eager to mingle, and we’re looking forward to donating our proceeds to local animal shelters. The conditions of those places are so sad, and we at Model Citizens are excited to do our part and make things better.”
There’s a round of applause, and I lazily bring my hands together in a weak couple of claps. It all sounds so forced. Her upbeat personality is clearly an affectation, but I remind myself not to be a sour sport about this shit. They worked hard to organize this. The girls behind those curtains need money, too, otherwise they probably wouldn’t be doing this.
As the hostess finishes her speech, Roberto returns by my side, taking a seat. “I didn’t miss anything, did I?”
“Just the introduction,” Tyler says.
“Oh, what a tragedy,” Roberto says with a roll of his eyes. I crack a smile. Glad I’m not the only one in this boat.
The first girl that walks across the stage is a beautiful black woman with curly black hair framing her face. She wears a thin white dress that contrasts her skin, and her bright red lips pull into a smile as she walks down the catwalk. Immediately the bids start flying.
“Fifteen thousand,” someone on the other side of the room says.
“Fifty,” a woman replies, catching my attention. For some reason, I thought this place would be packed with perverted old men, but there are plenty of women here as well. Interesting.
“One hundred,” the man on the other side retorts.
My eyebrows go up. “Fuck,” I laugh. He started low, but clearly, he has enough money to outbid whoever this woman is. These two go back and forth until they finally settle on $190,000 for a date with the first woman.
“I don’t know what to say,” Tyler whispers.
“Yeah, no kidding,” I reply.
This goes on for a while. Another impossibly beautiful woman steps out on that stage and the money begins to fly. The excitement of the crowd is almost infectious, and I find myself looking forward to the next person to step out from behind the curtains if only to see how much people think they’re worth.
As I take a sip from my glass of wine, the next girl walks out. She’s stunning, shorter than most of the other girls, with nutty brown hair, full pink lips, catlike eyes, and an adorable button nose. I stare at her for a moment longer than I should, and that’s when the slap of familiarity hits me. I know this girl from somewhere.
I lean forward and narrow my eyes, trying my hardest to place it.
“Holy shit,” Tyler says. “That’s—”
“That’s Adele,” I finish for him.
I couldn’t place her at first because it’s been nearly seven years since we last saw each other, but she has that same uneasy expression on her face that she wore for most of the time we knew her.
I remember her standing in the shadows, always too afraid to come hang out with me, Mark, and Tyler. She always seemed to doubt herself, to question everything she did, and now as she walks to the center of the stage and the bids begin, I see that same girl again.
Something inside of me twists.
“What is she doing up there?” I ask, more to myself than Tyler.
“What, you know that girl?” Roberto asks.
Almost absently, Tyler says, “An old friend’s younger sister.”
And then the bids begin rolling in. I watch as at least half a dozen men begin raising the price in increments of ten thousand. The number continues to rise, higher and higher, and my mind races, thinking about what Mark would say if he found out she was here. None of us know what these men are like.
They could be decent, but there’s a bigger chance that they’re looking to pay for sex and they don’t care how much it costs them as long as it’s with one of the beautiful women on the stage tonight. The thought of Adele being subjected to that hits me intensely, and I raise my hand without thinking.
“Two hundred thousand,” I say.
Roberto chokes on his cocktail, and Tyler’s mouth falls open. He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What are you doing?” he hisses.
“Keeping her out of the hands of these perverts,” I say. “You think Mark would want his little sister up here doing this? What if she goes home with some freak?”
Tyler’s face contorts into concern, and he nods. “We’ll split it,” he says. “One hundred each.”
The auctioneer asks for any other bids, and the fire in all of the men from before dies out. It’s clear that I’ve won. They let me have Adele. The audience cheers as I stand, allowing her to see who’s “won” a date with her. When she sees me, her face falls, but all around us, people clap wildly. It’s the largest bid so far.
I didn’t plan on spending a single dime here tonight, but I couldn’t just let her end up in the hands of anyone. I know Mark. It’s been years since we talked, but I know that he’d never want to see his sister end up here. It makes me wonder what she’s doing at this auction in the first place. She never struck me as the type.
The hostess walks Adele backstage, and then hurries over to our table, informing me that after the event tonight, we’ll be able to pay and Adele and I can set up the proper time for our date together.
Roberto sits back in his chair and laughs, his belly rising and falling. “You boys make me feel young again, I swear.”
I try to smile, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. Adele would never do an event like this unless something was wrong. I look back up at the stage as another girl walks out, but all I can think about is Adele.
CHAPTER 4
Adele
I thought walking across that stage in such a skimpy outfit would be the most humiliating part of the night. I thought seeing all those men and women ogle me would be as bad as it got. But hearing that someone bid $200,000 on me, and then seeing who it was, had to be the worst part of it all.
I can’t describe the humiliation that washed over me as I stood there on the stage, looking out into the crowd and seeing Wesley and Tyler, of all people. They’d just watched me try my hardest to strut down this catwalk in hopes that some millionaire would pay for me. And then they did pay for me. Oh my god, I want to die.
I can’t do this. I really can’t do this. In the dressing room, I turn to Camila, the girl who went out after me, and say, “Is there any way to get out of this?”
She stops powdering her nose in the mirror and turns to me. “What? Why would you want to do that?”
“The guys that bid on me… They’re my brother’s old friends. I grew up with those guys. I can’t do this with them.”
“Girl, I would kill to have someone I know win me for the night. Instead, I got stuck with some seventy-year-old bastard in the front row.” She lets out a puff of air from between her full lips and looks at her reflection. “Besides, unless you have twenty percent of whatever it is you were sold for, you’re not getting out of this.”
“Wait, what?”
“The contract you signed, sweetheart,” she says, almost laughing at how dumb I must sound. “Model Citizen takes twenty percent of however much you make. So unless you have forty thousand dollars to give them, you’re going to have to go on this ‘date’ th
at those guys paid for.”
Shit. There’s no way I can afford that. With dad’s debt rising, I’d only be adding to that, and right now, that’s the last thing we need. I feel hopeless, and I put my head in my hands. How did I let myself think this would be a good idea? How’d I trick myself into believing this was a feasible alternative to working at the casino?
“You’re not crying, are you, babe?” She glances at me again, and I take a deep breath, looking up to meet her eyes.
“No. I’m trying hard not to.”
She puts an arm around me in a half-hug. “Look, if they’re your brother’s friends, then they’re probably gonna be super chill anyway. You’ll be fine. You probably got the safest people in that room to bid on you.”
I have to admit, she’s right about that. Seeing all those older men wave their money around for me made me just a little sick to my stomach. I didn’t feel like a human. I didn’t feel like the woman that dropped out of college to help her dad after his wife died. I was just some hot young thing on stage that these men wanted to do horrible things with. Tyler and Wesley saved me.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to have dinner with any of them.”
Camila cuts her eyes to me again. “Let alone sleep with them.”
“That was never my plan,” I say, laughing.
She cracks a smile, but not because of my joke. “Baby girl, did you even read the contract you signed? You get the money once you sleep with these guys. Model Citizen pretends it’s anything more than a fancy escort service, but it’s not. You get the money when you fuck these dudes.”
“Fuck me,” I groan, head falling back into my hands again.
“That’s the plan, baby,” she snickers.
“I’m going to die.”
“You’ll be fine, girl. The first time is always the hardest. Just go out there, flirt it up with those boys, head up to a hotel room, and get your money. It’s one night!”