Andrej smiled. Personally, I think I got a few weirdo mob brownie points with him for being sassy. This girl Jen says those guys like a little sass. Not a lot—that will get your eye blackened—just a little.
“No sex,” Andrej said agreeably. “Two thousand a week. You work upstairs.” He had pointed at the office upstairs, where no one but thugs was allowed to go.
I’ve seen mob movies before, so I should have known where this was going. Irrationally, though, I said:
“Two thousand?”
Andrej nodded.
“No sex.”
He smiled. It looked like he moved his head in an affirmative nod. But who knew with these Russians? For all I knew, he could have meant, “No.”
I folded my arms and glared at him. “You gotta say it.”
“No sex,” he said casually.
And then he stood up. I’m not sure I had ever seen Andrej standing before. He is a big guy. He towered over me, and he had a mean glint in his eye. The kind of glint that made me re-think the way I’d been so flippant with him.
I held it together, but only just.
“But your mouth?” he said. Then he put a big meaty finger on my upper lip and a thumb on my lower lip, and he pressed them together hard.It hurt, and I had an invisible bruise the next day that made it hard to eat. Not that I’d ever show him that. Then he mimed buttoning them, zipping them, and throwing away a key.
“You don’t knownothingabout nothing,” he said coldly.
And then he mimed slicing his neck. “Or anyone.”
I was in too deep, but I didn’t really have a choice.
It was also—at least for a while—a good gig. He paid me cash, they spoke Russian ninety percent of the time, I kept my eyes on my tray. No one asked me for blowjobs—in fact, no one asked me for anything, and I went home earlier than the other girls most nights. It was pretty obvious that some seriously illegal shit was going on up there, but I told myself I was too dumb to notice it, and that was the story I’d tell anyone who asked.
I’ll admit, I got used to it, and I made a devil’s bargain. It wasn’t my business what Andrej was up to; himorhis Russian friends, or his other friends who spoke English with accents. It was all Greek to me. Lucy had her room at Stoney Creek, and I got one extra hour of sleep, which made a real difference in my grades.
Because Iamgoing to finish my degree and get a real job and get the hell out of here.
That went on for a while. I got used to Easy Street.
But thenheshowed up.
And all that went out the window.
“This guy,” Andrej said, his hands trembling, which scared the shit out ofme, “you do whatever he says. Okay? No fucking lip, Natalie, I’m serious.”
“You told me—”
Andrej had his hand on my throat so fast I didn’t see it coming, and I was a little confused as to why my eyes were watering.
His eyes were bugging out, and I had a second to think this was the end, when someone spoke Russian to the left of us.
Or some Slavic-sounding language.
Again, not my business.
How to describe this voice? Not deadpan, because deadpan is for when you’re trying not to be funny. This was the kind of flat, controlled, serious voice that you justknowhas never been funny in its life.
Andrej let go of me as fast as he grabbed me, and he was shaking for real. Tremors just below the surface of his skin, which terrified me more than if he’d just wigged out.
I rolled my head along the wall to look at this guy—voice guy—and the stage lights were on behind him. But his silhouette was bulky—not like Andrej, leaner than that, and wearing the kind of suit that shines because the material is more than your monthly rent per yard. But muscles pressed against it in all directions, and... I don’t know. You just know when a person is someone you don’t fuck with.
