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“What if we paid you?” I asked. “Name your price. I’ll pay you whatever you ask for Hayk. And for Billie,” I added, since I knew Hayk wouldn’t agree to go without her.
Master Daron stopped laughing, but he was clearly still amused by the offer. “You?” he asked, looking me up and down. “You don’t look like you have a mark to your name. You look more like the sort who comes to me begging to sign a contract instead of offering to buy whores out of theirs.”
Cold prickles raced down my back. I couldn’t breathe. The idea that came to me was terrifying, but it would mean I could stay with Hayk.
“And besides,” Master Daron went on while I was still paralyzed with my idea, “you just told me these two are heroes, that they helped foil some sort of spy plot. Once word of that gets around, they will be the two most sought-after whores in all of Good Port. You could pay me all you like for the two of them, but keeping them will bring in more business than just the two of them could handle. It will make me a wealthy man.”
“But you can’t do that,” Lefric sputtered. “You can’t use my friends as bait to bring in more customers. That’s not fair.”
“There’s no fair or unfair about it,” Master Daron said with a shrug. “I own their contracts for two more years. I can do whatever I like with them until those years are up.”
“The excitement over the spies will die down in no time,” Jace said. I was surprised that he would get involved, and even more surprised that he was looking at me with a sharp gaze, as if he could see into my thoughts. “I think you’d be lucky to get a year out of the gossip. You might get even less.”
“Perhaps,” Master Daron agreed with a shrug. “But the gossip will carry me through the winter at least.”
“And then you’d be willing to renegotiate their contracts?” Jace asked, crossing his arms.
Master Daron evidently saw something in Jace to respect. He narrowed his eyes and rubbed the bottom half of his face. “It would depend on how much money we’re talking about.”
“What if you were paid in something other than money,” I said, my voice hoarse with disbelief over what I was about to say.
“This is Good Port, Anton,” Lefric reminded me. “Everything is about money.”
I swallowed hard and glanced to Hayk. It was worth it. It would definitely be worth it if it meant the two of us could stay together in any way.
Hayk’s mouth softened and nearly opened as, I assumed, he guessed at the offer I was on the verge of making.
“It’s still money, in a way,” I said, facing Master Daron. “What if I took on a year of Hayk’s contract?” I asked. “If I agreed to come work for you, would you take the time I worked off of Hayk’s contract?”
Master Daron stared at me with the light of interest in his eyes. My friends all gaped at me in disbelief.
“Anton, you wouldn’t really…would you?” Neil asked.
I swallowed hard and nodded.
Master Daron apparently had the same reservations. “You don’t strike me as a whore,” he said.
I could have made a joke. I could have told him about the things the Sons had done. I could have even dropped to my knees to give a demonstration.
But I froze.
And like the god I was sure he was, Hayk came to my rescue.
“Anton isn’t a whore,” he said. “He couldn’t do the job.”
I sucked in a breath and turned my head to him so fast my neck popped. “Hayk, it’s the only way I can stay with you,” I hissed.
“Oh,” Master Daron said, shifting his stance, but still rubbing his chin. “I see how it is. You’ve gone and found yourself a sweetheart, Hayk.”
“I have,” Hayk admitted, then went straight on with, “Anton doesn’t have it in him to be a whore, but the brothel needs other staff too. You need someone to clean and do laundry, someone with a city education, perhaps, who could help with the books and the business as well. Someone who is close friends with Lord Olympus’s lover?”
I was certain Master Daron would reject my offer until that moment. At the mention of Olympus, his eyes widened and he gave me another look. More than a cursory look, too.
“You would come work for me, for free, mind you, in whatever capacity I choose outside of whoring, in exchange for taking a year off Hayk’s contract?” he asked.
I thought fast. “I will come work for you for free and do whatever you want me to, aside from fucking with people, and I will do my best to use whatever influence I have to advance your business if you agree to renegotiate Hayk’sand Billie’scontracts in the spring, after the furor over the spies has died down,” I said. Still thinking fast, I added, “And I get to share a room and fuck with Hayk when he’s not working. And you will agree to seriously consider letting us buy out the remainder of their contracts in the spring, not just renegotiate the terms.”
I hated being so crude about fucking Hayk with a now huge audience of people looking on, but I wasn’t about to put myself in a situation where I would be around Hayk night and day while he fucked with other men, but I wouldn’t be allowed to touch him myself. And I wanted to dangle the carrot in front of him that he could still make a lot of money in the spring if Lefric agreed to loan me the money to buy out the rest of Hayk’s and Billie’s contracts then.
