Taken (Dark Desires 1)

Instead, Velvet gave me more than I ever could have asked for. She told a truly horrific tale of coming face to face with two guys who, had they not gotten so piss drunk would have killed this girl for sure.

She met them under a viaduct. It was raining. Business was slow, of course. And for some of their booze she offered a knobber to both. Fair enough trade for transients living under a viaduct, if you ask me.

But, well, after she held up her end of the bargain these two gentlemen tied her up. They talked about gutting her. They talked about raping her. They seemed to like to do a lot of talking. And as they talked they got thirsty and drank and drank until finally, they both passed out.

Velvet got out of her bondage. They tied her with a couple of old t-shirts or something, she said. And instead of taking the bottles they had been swigging from and bashing their skulls in she just ran away.

“I finally made it home.” She sobbed. “But I knew I’d have to get back out on the street in order to live. So…”

“Well, if you learned anything you learned to stay away from viaducts.” I said, chuckling a little. “Tell me, where is home?”

She described the Walona Motel. It was a run-down place that screamed for the 1970’s with its dated mint green and orange sign and long, long curved awning to protect the royalty that would sometimes show up and the huge rectangular windows for each room where the curtains were always pulled shut.

One or two men with gold chains and guns in their pockets were almost always loitering around the entrance. Women in jeans and t-shirts with bodies that had long ago given up on being firm walked back and forth along the busy street waiting for a car, any car, to pull up to them. Junkies would scurry like cockroaches into and out of the rooms they polluted for weeks at a time. Velvet had a room there that she shared with another whore splitting the twenty-two dollar a night fee and whatever smack they could score.

“Do you think this is what your mom wanted for you?” I asked, feeling the burn in my legs as I continued squatting in front of Velvet who was trying hard not to cry in the chair she was sitting in.

I had the endurance of a thoroughbred racehorse. Feeling the ache in my legs just meant I was getting stronger. But Velvet, well, I knew that chair wasn’t comfortable. I knew her back had to be hurting and her behind was uncomfortable and her neck was stiffening up. But she only slightly shifted.

Finally, at the mention of her mother she began to ball and snot all over the place. She had no father. That was no big shock.

Finally, after letting her cry over her own pitiful existence I stood up.

“Okay. This has been fun.” I said. “Let’s go.”

I turned and strolled confidently to the door we had come in from. Flipping off the lights as we went I walked out the door first and made sure it was locked tightly behind us.

We got back in my car and I drove her to the lonely, pitiful corner I had picked her up on.

“Look.” I said in my most understanding voice. “It sounds like you have been through a lot. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.”

Immediately the wheels started turning behind Velvet’s eyes. This was it. A big miracle was about to land in her lap. A handout bigger than any government could make. It was priceless.

“I’m not going to make you suck my dick. Here.” I handed her the four twenties she had seen me count out for her at the warehouse. Leaning across her lap I opened the passenger door and watched as her face became a mass of confusion and pain. I could barely keep myself from laughing out loud.

“You take care now.” I said nodding toward the open car door. Velvet started to cry, crumpling up the dollar bills and stuffing them deep into her coat pocket she got out of the car.

As I drove away I laughed so hard I had to pull over for a second just to regain my composure.

I have to say that Velvet earned every penny of that eighty dollars. I was happy to pay her. She was a good sport and gave me a pleasant experience to fantasize about as I sat through the boring state of the business address by my brother. But Velvet’s expression when she got out of the car was too much and I couldn’t hold back the chuckle during Marty’s meeting.

“Anything you’d like to add, Josh?” he said, glaring at me.

“Nope. I’m good.” I said, smiling and looking at my watch.

“Yeah, well. It’s been a long morning. We’ve got lunch on the way. Why don’t we stop here and pick up after we’ve all had something to eat.”

Of course, the sound of the dinner bell got every hog at this table running.

I needed to talk to my brother but as soon as the door opened his pitbull secretary Denise was there with half a dozen messages, her little notepad to scribble in and an attitude toward me that made me want to slap her across the face. When she finally went back to her own corner like a spider scurrying back into its web, I slipped into my brother’s office.

We had a nice little chat about the new secretary that had been working here for over six months now. How was he going to feel knowing I got her hired?

“Well, it proves it is possible for you to do something right.” He said, barely looking up at me from behind the great oak desk that used to be our father’s, and that was now Marty’s.

“So, you like her?”

“Yeah. She’s very good. So stay away from her on your visits. You know how you have the tendency to disrupt things.”