He frowned at her description.
“I’ve seen them go into the back room when some of the players are getting a little too horny from staring at my butt. Tina says she heard one of them say she gets loads of cash for performing and satisfying the whole group. The thought of it made me want to hurl.”
“I’m curious, if Moreno doesn’t know who you are, why haven’t you taken a chance and skipped town?”
She lowered her eyes. “Don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind a million times. First, I don’t have the money to get much farther than the next town. Second, even though he doesn’t know my real name, I think he could still find my family if I left. My phone went missing right around the time Eddie lost the game. And there’s this picture I had in my bag…”
She took a deep breath trying to control the fear she felt every time she thought of Moreno hurting her family.
“A picture?”
“I had a picture of my family and Moreno somehow got it. Probably Sonny, one of the bouncers. He has a habit of going through the girls’ bags. Right after Eddie took off, he called me into his office to let me know he expected me to continue until the debt was paid off. I was about to tell him to shove it when I noticed my picture was pinned to the bulletin board behind him. There wasn’t anything else on the board, just my picture.”
“Did he threaten your family?”
“No, he never even mentioned the picture. I didn’t say anything either because I was too scared. I nodded and told him of course I’d keep working for him. What a chickenshit, huh?”
He looked at her, pity in his eyes. She hated pity. Certainly didn’t deserve it.
“You did what you thought was best. Was that the only time you saw the picture?”
“No, it’s not there often but a few times he’s put it up when he thinks I’m getting too big for my britches and need to be cut down to size. It was there the other night.”
Chris narrowed his eyes. “What had you been doing?”
“Nothing, but he wanted to proposition me again to domorethan wait tables. Something that would get me off my feet. Maybe he thought the picture would entice me to say yes this time.”
“Entice? You mean scare?”
“I told him no. I keep trying to figure out how much information he can get from the picture. It was taken in front of our house but I’m not sure how you could tell what city or state it’s in. I don’t want to take that chance though.”
She imagined the picture in her mind but all she could see were the happy faces of her parents and siblings. A stab of longing shot through her. Letting her eyes roam the room, she tried to keep the emotion from her voice.Show no weakness. Don’t let them see you sweat.Yeah, it was what her brothers always use to say but it certainly applied to her here too. She couldn’t afford to be vulnerable…to anyone.
“Mr. Moreno has never said anything about the picture but every time it comes out it always has a big red push pin stuck in someone’s head. Each time it’s someone different. And if he has the phone, he could easily call and find out where they are. Convince them to come down and get me. I can’t take the chance that he’ll go after them. If I’m still here, he has no reason to.”
She shrugged trying to appear nonchalant. “And I get to hang out on the beach all day. That’s a sweet deal, right?”
“Yeah,” Chris muttered then closed his computer. “That’s enough for now. We’ve been at it for a while. I appreciate all the information. It was good, and hopefully we can start building a solid case against this scum bag. How about a little break? You have to work in a few hours, right?”
Standing up to stretch her legs and back, she nodded. The idea of slinking into her stretchy shorts and high heels then doling out the fake smiles and flirty attitude always made her sick. Some of the customers weren’t too bad but most of them simply came in to ogle the cocktail waitresses.
“Yes, but at least my walk is shorter. It’s only a few minutes to get there now.”
Chris got up, glancing out the slider to the balcony. “Looks like Moreno isn’t around the pool today. I got this suite specifically because the bedroom balcony overlooks the beach and this balcony overlooks the pool. I can see if Moreno is down there or keep an eye on him from up here.”
“Today is Wednesday,” she supplied. “Mr. Moreno does the books on Wednesday afternoons at the club. He has to make sure payroll is ready for Friday.”
“You get your paycheck on Friday?”
“Mostpeople do,” she griped. “I don’t actually get paid. Mr. Moreno says he takes what I would have earned to pay off my debt. I get to keep some of my tips if he doesn’t try and take them. I usually have to hide them somewhere but those stupid outfits don’t leave anyplace to put much. I’ve never argued since this way I don’t have to provide a social security number and I can keep my real name hidden from him.”
He frowned looking back at her. “Well, you don’t have to worry too much about money right now. You can stay here for free and I’ll even feed you. Hopefully we can get you out from underneath Moreno’s thumb. How about we go for a swim in the pool then I can cook you an early dinner before you go to work.”
“You cook?”
He grinned. “I got a lot of KP duty while in the Army. Figured out how to make boring food more palatable.”
He pointed to the bedroom. “Go change.”
