“That’s what I asked her. She told me it was a test of my merit as a physical specimen, as well as my loyalty to Aces. She did say I could turn it down, but then I would not be looking at a promotion anymore. It seemed like a weird requirement, but it’s not like Rouge does things by the book anyway. I figured there was no harm, that if I could stop providing my physical services to the bloated male patrons of the club and make twice as much money, it would be a good trade-off.”
“So you took the shroom?”
He nods. “I started seeing these vivid images almost immediately. Rouge told me it was normal, that I would have visions. She apparently had genetically modified them, enhanced their effects.”
“What did you see?”
His eyelids tremble. “Lots of things. I was on a beach, but the ocean was made of a sticky red syrup. And then I was in a library, but the books kept turning into bats and flying around my head. The visions weren’t pleasant at all. Like the stuff you see when you have a bad dream. And I kept shifting between those visions and what I think was real.”
“You think?”
“It was hard to tell. Even when I was clearly back in Rouge’s office—or, rather, in the bedroom attached to her office—the things I saw, they weren’t quite real.” He swallows. “At least, I think they weren’t…”
I lean in. “How do you mean?”
“Well… When I first came back to reality, I realized I was in this big bed, the kind with curtains around it. And my shorts had been taken off.”
I drop my jaw. “You were naked?”
“Yes. And then…” His face twists. “Someone was fucking me.”
“Rouge?”
“No. She made it very clear we would never do anything physical. But someone else was…inside me.”
“Who?”
He bites his lip. “Mr. Rose.”
“The patron? Florian Rose?”
He nods slowly.
Mr. Rose normally sticks to the Clubs section, but I’ve seen him come to Hearts, usually to talk to Jack. He’s taken a special liking to him and has taken him behind the velvet curtains often.
He’s always seemed like a creep, but apparently Jack has made top dollar servicing him. He’s grinned and borne it because of the carrots Mr. Rose has dangled in front of his nose.
“But Rouge didn’t clarify that someone would be fucking you during your trip. And you couldn’t have possibly consented once you were under the influence.” I take his face in his hands. “That’s rape, Jack.”
Again he nods, his eyes wide. “Yes, it was. But that’s nothing compared to what I saw next.”
I blink. “How could anything possibly be worse than that?”
He draws in a slow breath. “The second time I came to, a second person lay in the bed next to me. A woman.”
“Rouge?”
“No. The Two of Hearts. The girl who was supposed to cover me on my shift.”
“Was Mr. Rose fucking her as well?”
“No. She was just lying there…and then the visions took over again.”
“What do you remember after that?”
“Next thing I remember, I was in this embrace with Rouge.”
“She was hugging you?”
