Simon Says_. Walk (Kate Morgan #6)(18)
Author: Dale Mayer

 

“Well, you can understand where he’s coming from. This isn’t where he wants to see his sister.”

 

“She had opportunities to leave,” Stone replied, not giving an inch. “She never took them.”

 

“Probably because those opportunities always came with strings attached.”

 

He gave a ghost of a smile. “What is an opportunity, if you don’t have to do something for it? … Not everything in life is for free.”

 

“And, in your case, nothing’s free, is it?”

 

“What? … Am I supposed to feel bad about that now?” he asked in a mocking tone.

 

“Have you seen her since you sold her?” she asked, using the term deliberately.

 

“No, sure haven’t. As I told her, her brother was a piece of shit, kept coming and breaking up my girls, stuffing the johns, taking pictures, and generally making life a nightmare.”

 

Her eyebrows shot up at that, and Stone nodded. “Yeah, he was a real pain in my ass for so long. The only reason I sold her was to get him off my back,” he snarled. “Besides, she lost her looks, and her income was certainly dropping.”

 

“Maybe if you fed her and treated her better and didn’t beat her up quite so often, she would have kept making you the big bucks.”

 

“Now, you see? I tried that, and then they just give you a lip, and all you end up doing is having to plow into them to smarten them up,” he explained, his voice hard. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got other things to do, like keep some of my girls occupied because, while we’re here talking, they’re standing around doing nothing. Waste of God’s fucking space.” He turned and glared at the one closest and yelled at her. “Clarice, get your ass out there and shake it.”

 

The woman immediately turned and raced away on her stupidly high heels, clicking like a loud tinker. Kate eyed the heels and shook her head. She’d have broken her neck for sure on those suckers. Good thing she wasn’t in the business, and that thought rang in her mind.

 

She looked back at Stone. “What about the brother?” she asked in an offhand question. “Did you ever see him again?”

 

He slowly nodded. “Yeah, actually I did. That was a funny thing. He hung around for a while, as if he wasn’t sure that his sister would be okay. I didn’t quite get it. I told him to piss off and to get out of my life, or I’d fucking sic the hoods on him.”

 

“Interesting,” she murmured. “Did he say what he wanted?”

 

“He told me that he was keeping an eye on me.” He snorted, making it obvious what he thought of it. “His heart wasn’t in it. He wanted to make sure his sister was safe. I told him that his sister was fucking safe, as long as she stayed the hell away from me. However, the minute she came back, looking for something from me, you can bet that I wouldn’t give a shit about him anymore.”

 

“And did she?”

 

His expression turned sly. “You’re taking up valuable time here, which I don’t do for nobody.”

 

“Well, we can go down to the station and talk there for a much longer time,” she suggested immediately. “Besides, why do you want to bring all the cops down on you here for?” she asked, with a laugh. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll call in the narcs and make sure that they hound you constantly. It’s obvious you got more drugs up your sleeves than these guys who even sell for you.”

 

“Hey, hey, hey, hey.” Stone held up his hands in protest. “You don’t see me with no drugs.”

 

“That’s ’cause your girls are carrying them,” she replied smoothly. “Goes along with the tricks, doesn’t it? A few tricks, a few extra blows. What the hell. Blow on both ends and they’re happy.”

 

He gave her a fat grin. “See? I knew I liked you. You get it, don’t you?”

 

“I get it, but, if you don’t help me, you ain’t going to be very happy about what you don’t get.”

 

He glared at Kate and then shrugged. “I don’t give a shit. It’s no skin off my nose, but she called me last night out of the blue.”

 

Her eyebrows shot up at that. “What did she want?”

 

He gave her half a smile. “She wanted some blow. Said she was in rather desperate need.”

 

“And did she sound as if she was in need? As if she was a junkie still who wanted that fix?”

 

“No, but she sounded terrified, told me that something had happened, and she needed to take the edge off.” He took a moment to think and continued. “Now that I understand—because these girls, they always tell me that shit—it was a bad john. He was really brutal, vicious. Even the young ones, when they first came on board, they need that hit to take the edge off what they’re doing.” He laughed one hearty laugh. “Christ, it’s Mother Nature. All you have to do is lie there and spread your fucking legs.” He snorted. “What the hell? But, no, they’ve all got the same damn whiny story about needing to take the edge off.”

 

“So you give it to them.”

 

“I always give it to them,” he said. “That’s what I do. I take care of my own.”

 

“Right.” She shook her head, turned toward Rodney, then asked Stone more questions. “So did you give her any?”

 

“No, I didn’t give her any. I told her that she should go ask her fucking brother for some, and it’s her brother’s fault that she didn’t have any.”

 

“What did she say to that?”

 

“She started bawling. She was getting to be such a pain in the ass with all those damn tears all the time, and it was more of the same,” he muttered. “Like seriously, man. It’s bad enough when you have to deal with these chicks, but when you get the whiny ones, and they’re out there thinking that their shit doesn’t stink and that they don’t have to do the same goddamn work everybody else does?” He scrunched up his nose. “Got to start seriously thinking about getting rid of them.”

 

“What does getting rid of them mean to you?”

 

He laughed. “I don’t kill them, if that’s what you mean,” he replied, with a smirk. “No way in hell I’m bringing that kind of heat down on me. I make a nice living here.” He sneered. “And I told her to go talk to her brother, and, other than that, she was to lose my number. Although maybe, don’t hold it against me, but I might have been a little rougher in my tone.”