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Chapter Five – Paulo
"Look at this," Alex told me, as he slid a letter across my desk. I glanced up.
"What is it?"
"A threat," he replied, nodding at me to read it as he crossed his arms over his chest. "From Selina’s pimp, by the looks of it. He’s not letting go of her that easily, it seems."
I sighed and reached for the opened letter sitting on the desk in front of me. It wasn’t the first time we’d had a threat like this from someone who had used one of these girls for work, but the way Alex was talking, it seemed like this one might have been more serious than the others.
I skimmed over the letter—it was the usual shit, the threats scrawled in a coked-out mess across the page—but, if he had managed to get it to the house, it meant he knew where Selina was staying, and that wasn’t good news.
"What’s the plan?" I asked Alex, glancing up at him again. His mouth was set into a hard line, and I could tell this was getting to him.
"I don’t know," he replied, shaking his head. "Sounds pretty serious. I know the head of that brothel got out of there, and he might be looking to rebuild with any of the girls he can get his hands on again, whether that’s Selina, or the rest of them too."
"Selina’s the only one mentioned in the letter," I muttered, narrowing my eyes as I read the letter again.
"Yeah, I noticed that," Alex agreed. "You think there’s anything to it?”
"There could be," I admitted. "He might be interested in her specifically. Might be willing to do whatever it takes to get her back, too."
Alex slumped into the chair opposite me and yawned. He looked tired. I knew that he and Morgan had been working hard to keep on top of everything that had been happened, getting some of the girls into detox facilities after they relapsed on drugs when they got back out on to the streets once more, and I could tell it was getting to him. He worked his ass off to try and provide for these women, to try and give them a better chance at life, but there came a point where there was only so much he could do, and when those girls slipped through the cracks, it stayed with him. Got under his skin.
"So, what’s the plan?" I asked, leaning forward. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt some kind of connection with this woman, Selina. Even though she had a harshness to her, a hardness no doubt borne from her years of having to work in that hellish industry, there was something else there, too. Something softer, something with more give. I had seen it when I had suggested to her to give it a few days to see how she felt when the shit was out of her system. She wanted to get better, even if she couldn’t quite admit that yet, even to herself.
"I don’t know," Alex admitted. "We could take her to a safehouse outside of the city, camp her out there for a while, but I get the feeling that’s not going to be enough to keep him at bay. He seems fixated on her."
"No way," I replied, shaking my head. "She’s already a flight risk. I caught her trying to get out of the house to pick up some coke the other night."
A cloud crossed over his face. He frowned heavily.
"Really?" he muttered, and I nodded.
"Yeah, I think she’s struggling right now," I replied. "She needs all the help she can get, and that’s not going to happen if we send her away. Better to keep her here, where we can keep an eye on her. That’s what we need to prioritize right now."
He grimaced but nodded in agreement.
"Are you able to handle that for me?" he asked. "I’m kind of busy right now. Morgan is helping one of the other girls get set up with a place to live, and it’s been taking up a lot of our attention."
I nodded at once.
"Of course I can," I replied smoothly. I was surprised at how easy those words came to me. I didn’t even need to think twice—maybe because there was a part of me, no matter how little I wanted to admit to it, that really liked the idea of keeping her around for a little longer. I felt drawn to her, drawn to something about her, tempted to keep her closer, even though I was sure that wasn’t a good idea.
I just felt like there was some kind of connection between us, probably because both of us had struggled with addiction for a long time. I might not have come clean to her about the extent of everything that had gone down with me, but I didn’t need to. I knew she could see it written all over my face, how much I had been through, how much it had hurt me. Addicts could smell it in each other, that vulnerability to the temptation that might have ruined everything for us.
"Thanks." Alex sighed, getting to his feet. "You hear anything from him again, and I want to know about it, alright?"
"You will," I promised, and I nodded to the door. "You can trust me with this, Alex."
"Thanks, man," he replied, stifling a yawn, and he made his way out of the office and down the stairs, leaving me alone once more—alone with my thoughts. And I had a whole lot to ponder.
Even though I wasn’t exactly his father, I was damn proud of the man that Alex had become, the man he had worked so hard to be. He had pushed back against what was expected from him in this line of work and turned it into something worthwhile. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to do the same thing in his position. Shit, I had been in this industry a long time, and I hadn’t thought to take the risks and make the moves that he had. He was a stronger man than I was.
But there was still time for me to prove—to myself and anyone else—that I still had this fight in me. That I still had this ability to do the right thing. I might have been in my fifties, but I was determined not to go through another year with nothing to show for it. I had lived my life long enough leaving no real positive mark on the world—no wife, no kids, no legacy to speak of—but if this was the one thing I left behind, I would be happy with it.
My mind drifted to Selina, probably still sleeping off the worst of her withdrawals in the room a few feet away from me. I hoped she hadn’t heard the conversation we’d had. I didn’t want her to worry about that asshole coming back into her life. A surge of protectiveness rushed through me, and I stared down at the letter on the table in front of me. That fucking prick. He didn’t know what he was up against, if he thought he could take on people like us.
And I couldn’t wait to show him the mistake he’d made, trying his luck with the Caronis.
