“I’ll get rid of him,” Danika said.
“Are you sure? I mean technically it’s not like he’s done anything wrong. Dealing with drunk come-ons is one of the job hazards.”
“He’s not drunk. He just got here. He’s trouble. He’s out. You stay back here until he’s gone.”
Julie sat behind Danika’s desk in the office, swiveling back and forth on the creaking olive leather chair. There was some shouting—a good deal of it coming from Danika. There was the expected resistance and Aleksei’s certainty that she couldn’t do shit to make him leave. Then the sound of several chairs scraping out as all the regulars got up and escorted him from the building.
There was another attempt to come back in, and yelling, a threat of the cops from Julie’s boss, then he left for good. A few minutes later Danika returned to the office. “It’s clear, you can go back to the bar.”
“Thanks.”
“Yep.”
“Julie, you all right?” one of the regulars asked when she came back out.
“Yeah, a little shaken. I should be used to guys like that by now.”
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to get used to guys like that.”
The rest of her shift was uneventful, which gave Julie plenty of time to brood over Gabe. But when she wasn’t brooding, she was seriously reconsidering her employment. She’d never planned to work at the bar this long. It was only meant as a stop gap until she found something better. She’d stayed as long as she had because tips were good and... she’d met Gabe. But with him gone, and the hope dwindling that he’d ever return, the tips weren’t seeming worth the trouble of dealing with guys like Aleksei.
When they closed up for the night, Julie went back to the office. There was one man still in the bar, one of the regulars. They were on a rotation to walk the girls out to their cars after work. It was a tradition that had started long before Julie had started working there.
“Danika?”
Her boss was filing the night’s receipts. She looked up from the pile of papers. “Yeah?”
“I need to move on and find other work. I wanted to give you notice.”
She sighed. “I worried this was coming. Do you know how hard it is to get a cute, mildly flirty girl in here who brings in the clientele and drink orders but doesn’t drink herself or go home with all the guys? You’re like a unicorn around here. I’ll never be able to replace you.”
“I’m sorry. I never meant to stay this long. But I like you and most of the regulars. It had started to feel like home, but now I’m sad whenever I’m here and then guys like Aleksei come in... and it’s not worth it anymore.”
“I understand. But you’ll give me a few weeks to find your replacement?”
“Absolutely.”
Danika nodded, resigned. “I’ll miss you, Julie. Even if you’re late all the fucking time.”
Julie laughed. “Only like four times a week. Can I go for the night? Everything’s wiped down and set up for tomorrow.”
“Yeah, get out of here. Once you get a fancy day job, don’t be a stranger, okay?”
“I won’t.”
“Ready?” Fred asked, when she got back to the front. He was her car escort for the night.
“Yeah.”
Fred walked her to her car. She half-expected the scary Russian guy with the snake tattoo to be lurking out in the shadows, but when they got to the parking lot, it was deserted. Fred said goodnight and waited until she pulled away to go back into the bar and wait on Danika.
Julie only lived a couple of miles from the bar in that twilight space between the good side of town and the bad, though some nights it felt like part of the bad side.
The apartment was dark when she arrived. Her roommate was probably out with her boyfriend. She usually went off with him when she didn’t have the car. In truth, Julie barely saw her. Some cash for her half of the rent mysteriously showed up on the kitchen table at the end of each month. At least she was reliable.
Julie fumbled with her keys. She heard a rustle and turned to find a small animal darting under a bush. Then there was a sharp pain at the back of her head and all was blackness.
Julie woke disoriented. She reached around to the back of her head and felt a prominent and tender bump.
“He knocked you a good one.”
She turned toward the voice still trying to get her bearings. She wasn’t sure if the room was dark or if her vision was all wonky from being hit. She was lying on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. She gingerly sat up and turned toward the direction of the voice.
It was a dark-haired woman of maybe twenty-five. She had a slight accent, but Julie couldn’t place it. She’d obviously worked very hard on an American dialect, though her words came out almost too crisp and proper as a result.
“I’m Manka.”
“J-Julie.” Her throat was so dry. Was that the creeping fear and dread?
“You’re American? We never get Americans. You must have done something to piss one of them off.”
“One of who off?” But she didn’t need an explanation. The last person she’d pissed off was the Russian guy at the bar. He’d had criminal written all over him. So he’d just… taken her?
Julie sat up in the bed and looked around. She was in a big, long room. There were no windows. Maybe a basement? She didn’t want to think warehouse. The floor was concrete and there was a row of bunk beds lining each wall and a big open space in the middle of the room. Fluorescent lights were recessed into the ceiling. In the space in the middle was a series of large drains in the floor. Overhead were a row of shower heads.
Rising out of the floor were several concrete columns, which contained soap and shampoo. There were no curtains, no pretense of privacy. At the very end of the room against one wall was a large metal shelf with rows of neatly folded white towels. In the corner was a toilet. And again, no door, no curtain.
She shuddered. “What is this place?”
“It’s Dmitri’s basement. We live down here without sunlight or fresh air until our services are wanted. Then they dress us up like little whore dolls and take us upstairs to fuck their rich, disgusting clients.”
Julie flinched. It was almost more bluntness than she could handle, but Manka’s words had come out and run together so fast, she could almost have the luxury of forgetting she’d heard half of them.
“Who’s Dmitri?” As soon as she said it, she wished she could take it back. Why ask questions she didn’t really want the answers to?
“The boss. He might look nice and fancy, but don’t cross him. He will make your life hell. Aleksei is the nice one, which is saying little. And then there are some others whose names I don’t know because Dmitri talks to Aleksei. Then Aleksei gives the others orders but doesn’t use their names.”
Julie felt her throat constrict as her body pulled tight with tension. She felt as though this exchange with Manka was a brief calm prelude to something unimaginable and she couldn’t decide if she wanted to stay in this moment as long as possible or if she wanted it to hurry and be over so she could stop dreading and anticipating whatever was coming.
By way of distraction, she said, “There has to be a way out of here.”