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“You mean you don’t want to lose my business, and you don’t want me saying bad things about your service.”
“That’s certainly true,” she said, “but I also don’t want to leave you stranded right before these big events. Please tell me what I can do to make this better.”
I watched the blonde I’d scared off eyeing me warily from her spot on the treadmill. I thought of my perfect apartment upstairs, immaculate and barren.
“Please tell Audrey I’d like her to come back. I’ll triple the fee for her troubles. You need to ensure me that half of that money will go directly to her. She’s the one earning it.”
“Of course, Mr. Preston,” she said, and I heard barely concealed glee in her voice.
I watched the blonde begin to run, her ti**ts bouncing up and down. But I only thought of Audrey. How she’d arched beneath me last night, moaning. How she’d slept in my arms.
“And Elena, please tell her that this time, I would like to enjoy the full range of her services.”
* * *
I had Kai take me to her right after I took a shower. I was worried that if I let more time pass, she would run away and hide.
I called Elena again from the car. “I need her street number, please,” I said.
“Mr. Preston, I don’t usually—”
“I’m in her neighborhood right now. Give it to me,” I snapped.
I repeated it to Kai, and he turned down the street into a sad-looking neighborhood. The yuppies had clearly not gotten to this part of town yet. The row houses were all triplexes, in various stages of sagging. Audrey’s was painted a bright turquoise; the paint was peeling in large, insidious-looking curls.
I went up and rang her buzzer.
“What,” she said flatly.
“It’s me,” I said. “James. I’m here to pick you up.”
There was nothing but dead silence for a moment, and I held my breath. I wasn’t sure what she was going to do. I buzzed again.
“Audrey.”
“What,” she said again.
“Let me up.”
“Yes, sir,” she said and buzzed me in.
I went up the ramshackle, worn stairs to her apartment, located on the second floor. The building smelled foul, of odd spices and indoor cats. I knocked, and she opened the door, a neutral look plastered across her face.
“I could have just come to you, you know,” she said, stepping aside so I could enter. “You don’t need to see this—it’s not exactly the penthouse condo at The Stratum.”
I went past her into the apartment. It was neat and clean but otherwise in very sad shape. The sagging hardwood floors were worn thin. It was a studio, so the so-called kitchen opened onto the main living space. Her oven looked as if it were built for a doll. There was a forlorn purple futon in the middle of the room. Other than a boxy television set and a stunted-looking spider plant, that was pretty much it.
“I thought you made decent money with Elena,” I said, looking around.
“I do,” she said. “But I have other people to take care of.”
“Your brother.”
She nodded, her face impassive. I was pretty sure her brother was the only reason she’d agreed to come back to me.
I stood there, clenching and unclenching my fists. Audrey said nothing. Her face looked puffy and red, as if she’d been crying.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said formally.
I wasn’t sure how to handle her right now, or what to say. I just wanted her back. The dark mix of emotions behind that want, the pressing need I had to be with her—all of that got shoved to the back of my mind, where I could ignore it at my leisure.
“Audrey…” I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me, but she was as stiff as a board against my embrace. I immediately let her go. I couldn’t stand to feel her like that, indifferent and limp against me. I remembered her face last night. She’d smiled at me at one point, when I was on top of her. And I’d known then what I knew right now.
But I didn’t let myself think about it. Instead, I led my highly compensated prisoner out the door and pondered my next move.
Audrey
James had now seen my flea-trap apartment. He knew about my brother. He’d been inside me every which way, and he knew what I tasted like. He knew what I sounded like when I came…
What I sounded like screaming his name.
He had all of my ugly pieces laid before him, exposed.
I didn’t want to be in this position—getting back into his car, Kai studiously not looking at me.
I knew my face was puffy, and I knew James knew why.
I hated him.
But I needed him.
Not him, I reminded myself—I needed his money. I had to keep Tommy at the home. If I could finish this job, I would make enough money to pay for his expenses for a long time. And I could try to earn as much as possible in the meantime, to finally get ahead for once in my life. Maybe I could even stop turning tricks. Go back to school. Get a day job.
