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“There are stipulations, of course,” she said, staring at the floor. “She said I might not be the only one, and I might not get much attention from her when she’s really busy. Now I can quit both jobs and only go to the club when she invites me as her date.” Thalia forced a smile. “Otherwise, I spend all my time at her house. I’m not supposed to go out without her. The room she gave me is nice, though. It’s on the top floor with a great view of her gardens…”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“I… I had no idea there were so many women living there. I knew she always had a couple who didn’t have anywhere else to stay, but I wasn’t expecting… like, the whole second floor is a dormitory. I’ve never seen anything like it. Sometimes they’re wearing maid uniforms and working around the house, and sometimes they go out for days at a time wearing clothes like you and I wear to the club.”
“Thalia… you know Ms. Lister is a madam, right? She’s a pimp.”
“I know. I’ve been in the club. The other waitresses talk. To think… I was jealous of them. Candace brags about having trained them herself.”
“Is she training you, too?”
It was an incredibly intimate question, and one Mitch wasn’t sure would be answered, let alone truthfully. Yet Thalia’s silence wasn’t an implication that Mitch had gone too far. Instead, she gazed up at Mitch with the biggest kitten eyes a woman like her had ever seen.
“To what she likes, yeah.” Thalia pulled up the hem of her loose pajama shorts. “Then she did this. Right outta the blue the other night.”
Quiet tears fell down Thalia’s face. There, on the inside of her thigh, was a smoldering indentation into her skin with the initials “CL.” No matter what she wanted to say, Mitch was absolutely speechless.
“It really hurt,” was all Thalia said for a moment. “Also, this shit sounds way more romantic in my head than actually seeing it happen in real life.”
Mitch knelt on the floor, her hand beseeching Thalia’s. “Are you okay? Thalia, tell me the truth. Do you want out of this? Do you want to get the fuck out of here? Because I can do that for you. I’ve got the means to send you wherever you want to go.” The FBI wouldn’t find her, either. Mitch would make sure of it.The last thing Thalia needs is more stress.
“I’m not sure. Ms. Lister is my dream. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner.”
“Thalia, she fucking branded you. Like she does the girls she personally trains. She’s going to pimp you out like the rest of them.”
“No, she wouldn’t do that. She told me that she loves me.”
“She did?”
“Our last night in Thailand. I almost couldn’t believe it…”
Because you can’t believe it.Yet Mitch couldn’t do a thing to help Thalia if she didn’t want help.She might not even know she needs help right now.
“Yes. I mean no…” Thalia bent over her lap, arms crossing her legs. “This isn’t what I imagined at all.”
Finally, the tears came with a desperate cry of failure. Thalia thought she had achieved one of her biggest dreams, yet here she was, ruing the day a woman like Candace Lister paid attention to her.
Mitch texted Vanessa that she would be out for most of the night. She then called Luke, making him swear to secrecy for now. It was his connections that Mitch required to get Thalia out of San Francisco by morning.
She had a plan formulated from a lack of sleep and a determination to stop Candace Lister from hurting another woman under anyone’s watch.
But Mitch couldn’t go in blind. She had to tell the right people and warn the correct authorities. She needed Agent James to equip her with a wire, or whatever law enforcement used now when it was time to gather the last of the big evidence.
This all had to be done without Vanessa’s knowledge. Because Mitch’s partner wouldneverlet her do what she planned to accomplish.
Stella and Jade were informed with a visit to the Castro. The people Thalia was staying with were told only what they needed to know, and also sworn to secrecy should Vanessa call about it. Mitch even told her mother something. The last person she went to was Agent James, directly at the FBI branch office in South of Market.
“You shouldnotbe here,” the woman said when Mitch was shown to her. “What if one of Lister’s people saw you here?”
“They didn’t.”
“I’m very assured by that.” Margaret James showed Mitch to a meeting room. “What is this about?”
When Mitch laid her plan on the table, everyone privy to the meeting told her she was crazy, that it was too dangerous, and that it was completely uncalled for a civilian to put themselves in that line of fire.
Everyone but Agent James, who wrote something on a legal pad while chewing over Mitch’s plan. When she spoke, it was to poke holes and help Mitch come up with better ways to do things, and better lines to memorize should she be put into a certain situation. They both agreed that Vanessa should be the last person to know.
The other agents thought they were crazy, but this was Margaret’s case, and she was the most senior agent in the group. What she said was probably going to happen.
