“How worried should I be about this bordello woman you’veangered?”she asked.
And there it was.
“You shouldn’t worry at all.”
“Loren—”
He went about picking up his fork in order to go aboutconsuming his eggs, saying, “I’m now aware that she holds ill will with theintent to do something about it and will thus be prepared in the future.”
“What actually happened?”
His head was slightly bent to his plate, and he kept it thatway as he lifted his gaze to her.
“Oh boy,” she said when she caught his eyes.“That bad?”
He took a bite of some eggs, chewed, swallowed, andanswered, “We’ll just say I made a statement, though, apparently, not a bigenough one.”
“Mom told me what you did to the baddie who was guardingher.”
Loren grew motionless.
“It’s okay, honey,” she assured.“That guy was rough withMom, and he was gearing up to…well…”
Loren kept her pegged with his eyes.
If they were sharing—and this had finally begun between themwith depth and honesty, and as far as Loren was concerned, there was nostopping now—thus, she would too.
“Violate Maxine,” she whispered.Then quickly, likely seeingand maybe even feeling his reaction to those words, she reminded him, “He’svery dead.You yourself made him that way.”
“I should have perhaps taken more time in that endeavor,” hemurmured, cutting into his sausage.
She released a surprised giggle, and he returned hisattention to her.
She waved a hand in front of her face, shifted fully to herplate, reached for her coffee (a surprise she drank that with her breakfast, ashe did, an unusual thing for a lady, they customarily drank tea), and said, “Iknow, I know.I shouldn’t think it’s funny that you murdered someone.But Ican’t call up any remorse for a man who would stand guard over captive women,not allowing them to bathe, eat properly, and, it needn’t be said, all therest.”
“We share a similar sense of justice,” he noted.
This time,Satrinepegged him withher eyes.
And she agreed, “We absolutely do.”
When she gave him this, Loren made a decision, set his forkdown and straightened in his chair.
“Winnow Dupont, the madam of the bordello running theextortion scheme, ruined lives.How frank would you like me to be?”
“As frank as you can,” she invited.
He accepted her invitation.
“Farrell perhaps gave in to a moment of weakness,regardless, he behaved poorly.He had a favorite, and he assured me his intentin being there was to say good-bye to her prior to his nuptials.”
He lifted his hand when she opened her mouth to interrupt.
Then he carried on.
“Agreed.He could have done that in a café.But he did not.And we both know why.He bears responsibility.But in that scenario, two heartswere broken by Dupont’s greed, not simply one.And then there are others.Somewho should not have been unfaithful to their wives.Some who simply haveproclivities that are no one’s business.She made them the business of peoplewho were in the position to react and had the power to do something about it.Men lost wives, loves, but also employment, status, stature, not to mentionquite a bit of money.I carry no judgment as to how a man finds his pleasure.Others, sadly, do.If he enjoys being tied up, or the company of another man,or a woman taking control, this means nothing to me.But men have slunk away inshame, and at least one took his own life, because it means something toothers.”
“Took his own life?”
