“You took a risk doing this,” I said to her. “I appreciate it.”
She scratched her temple with nails covered in chipped polish. “You saw what it was like in that meeting, Devon. You missed some things while you were inside, but Craig Bastien—he’s practically taken over the club. And the girls. It’s no picnic.”
“He seemed particularly interested in you,” I said.
She bit her lip, and I knew she was holding back a shudder of revulsion. “There’s nothing I can do about it. He likes to have me around, like a piece of furniture. He likes to put his hands on me. Sometimes, when I make him happy, there’s money in it. But even when he doesn’t pay me, if I don’t make him happy, he knows I have a son.”
And there was that fire inside me again. Licking up, up. “I get it,” I said. “I’m not judging you.”
“You never were that type.” She smiled at me through her tired haze. “You always were a good guy, Devon. I’m glad you got all that money. If you can get away from Bastien, you can turn around and do good.”
Starting now, I thought but didn’t say. “I need some information,” I told her. “In fact, I need everything you have. Everything about Bastien that you’ve heard, that you’ve seen. Everything you’ve overheard in these meetings of his.”
She bit her lip. “You gonna do something to him?”
I watched her. “Amy,” I said, “don’t you worry. I’m going to set him on fire.”
“He’ll kill me if he finds out I was talking.”
I shook my head. “He isn’t going to get the chance.”
She looked at me, and then she grinned. She always had guts, Amy had. “Okay,” she said. “Here goes.”
I’d noticed, in our little meeting, that Craig Bastien liked to treat Amy as if she wasn’t there. He liked to fondle her like she wasn’t a real woman, like she was a possession. It turned out he liked to do that a lot. Which meant Amy had sat in on a lot of meetings, getting her tits and her h
ips grabbed, and she’d learned a hell of a lot of things.
And now she told me all of it.
I asked her questions sometimes—names, mostly—but other than that I let her talk. For a guy who thought he was smart, treating a woman like a lamp was a fucking stupid idea, and now Bastien was going to find out just how stupid. By the time Amy finished, I knew everything I needed to know.
“Okay,” I said. I reached into the inside pocket of my jacket and pulled out an envelope of money. “This is payment for everything you’ve just told me.”
Her eyes went wide and she reached for it, prying open the flap. She went silent when she saw what was inside.
“And this,” I said, taking out a second, even thicker envelope, “is payment for you being quiet about this meeting and never telling anyone it happened.”
She paused for a minute, and then she reached out and put her fingertips on the second envelope, her hand shaking. “Devon,” she said. “Holy shit.”
“Take it,” I told her. “Go home and pay your sitter, then pack your bags and your kid’s bags and get on a one-way ticket out of town. You don’t want to be around for what happens next.”
She was shocked, amazed, but I could already see the calculations starting up behind her eyes. “You think I should go?”
“I know you should,” I said. “Fuck Pure Gold. Fuck Craig Bastien. Fuck stripping. You see my tattoo? You’ve got no time, Amy. None of us have any time. Take your money and go raise your kid. Starting now.”
She was still in shock, but she put her hands on both of the envelopes and pulled them across the table toward her. “You’re really going to do him in, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Read it in the news,” was my answer.
She put the money somewhere inside the peasant blouse and looked at me, her gaze suddenly knowing in the way only a woman can be knowing. “You wouldn’t do this just for yourself. Whoever she is, she’s fucking lucky.”
I felt a stab to my gut, but the fire was still burning. “I’d kill for her,” I said, “but she doesn’t want me to. So I have to be creative.”
That made her smile. She pushed back her chair and stood up. “So long, Devon,” she said. “It’s been nice knowing you.”
“Likewise,” I said.
She came around the table and put her hands on my face, tilting my chin up. Her touch was cool. She kissed me on the cheek.