“I’m a...ah...a writer. I’m doing an article on how women wind up in the life.”
She eyed him with suspicion. “You don’t look like a writer.”
That was for sure. “Okay, let’s start with something easier. How long have you been working here?”
She shrugged. “A little over a month.”
“How did you get here?” He sat down in the chair across from the bed.
Eve looked at him and her big blue eyes filled with tears. She had a small pointed chin and a kind of fragile sensuality that matched her willowy frame. “I shouldn’t tell you.”
“Why not? We have to fill up some time or you’re going to get in trouble for not doing your job.”
She nodded. “Okay.” She took a shaky breath. “I was living with this guy out in Prairie View. He was a real prick, you know? He’d get drunk and start hitting me. I wanted to leave but I never did. I started taking pills and pretty soon I was hooked. One night he beat me real bad, and I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
“So you left.”
She nodded, wiped away the wetness on her cheeks. “I packed a bag and hitched a ride to Houston. It was only a couple of days before I ran out of money. I needed food, drugs. I was living on the street when a couple of men picked me up and brought me here. I’ve been here ever since.”
“You haven’t tried to leave?”
She tipped her head toward the door. “You saw those two guys out there. The first week I was here, they drugged me, knocked me out cold. While I was unconscious, someone put the tattoo on my neck. I belong to them now. That’s another rule.”
“Are there other places like this one?”
She nodded. “A couple, I think.”
“What if I prefer a younger girl? Someone underage?”
“They keep the young girls somewhere else, and they cost a lot more.”
A loud banging sounded on the door the instant before it crashed open. Harlan Burke and Marvin Duff rushed into the room. The stun gun in Duff’s hand hit Jase in the middle of the chest as he shot to his feet. He wavered, tried to push through it. Duff hit him again and he went down like a sack of cement, his head hitting the corner of the dresser. Blood ran down the side of his face, but he couldn’t really feel it.
Eve shot to her feet. “We were only talking!” Fear laced her voice. Another jolt shot through him, zipping along his nerves with agonizing force, and his teeth clenched together.
“That’s the problem, sweetheart,” Duff said calmly. “Your job ain’t to talk—it’s to get the guy’s nuts off.”
She was shaking. She looked at Jase with pity but there was nothing she could do. “How...how did you know what we were doing?”
“You stupid bitch.” Burke laughed. “You see that mirror on the wall? We got customers who like to watch. Plus it’s a good way for us to keep an eye on things.”
Eve made a little sound in her throat. Jase struggled to move, but every muscle was frozen, his whole body locked up tight. His head pounded and his vision blurred. He’d have to wait, find an opportunity.
Burke shoved Eve toward the door. “Get your ass back in there and get to work. And keep your mouth shut.”
“What...what about him?”
“I’ll take care of him,” Duff said.
“Get going!” Burke shoved Eve forward. When she didn’t move fast enough, he grabbed her arm, hauled her around and slapped her, then he pushed her out the door and walked out behind her.
Duff moved closer. The stun gun hit Jase again, and he silently groaned. As he lay on his side on the floor, Duff kicked him in the ribs a couple of times, kicked him in the head, and his brain finally went dark.
He wasn’t sure how long he was out, but he woke up groggy and bleeding and tied to a chair in a storeroom. He hoped like hell Reese wouldn’t wait too long before he called the police.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“I’m not waiting any longer,” Kate said. “He should have been back fifteen minutes ago.”
