I turned around and saw a beautiful blonde woman smiling at me. I wiped the tears away quickly and glared at her.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Did you say your name is Amity?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then he held up his end of the bargain. My name is Valentina, but in the Red Light District, I am Danique,” she said coming forward and holding a hand out toward me.
I rolled my eyes and walked away from the mirror. I could already tell this wasn’t anything I wanted a part of. This would be the same song being sung every time I made a friend, only this time, it would be at Luuk’s mercy and not Kerstan’s.
“I don’t care who you are. I don’t want to be your friend. It doesn’t matter who I am, just stay away from me,” I replied miserably.
“I understand,” she said, sitting on one of the two empty beds in my room. I watched her cross one of her long legs over the other, as she leaned back on her hands and spoke. “I used to be just like you when I first started. Kerstan would do the same thing to me; if I made a friend he would immediately find a way to send them off or get rid of them. If I worked hard for him and kept my thoughts to myself, he would give me days where I wouldn’t have to go out. I’d get to stay with him and please him at his whim. This Luuk that I’ve heard of? I can tell this is something personal and I don’t think I like the way this will end, so I came to help you get out of here. I can get you back to Kerstan and then you’ll have to figure out the rest from there.”
I raised an eyebrow at Kerstan’s name. Actually it was more at the mention of how Kerstan had treated Valentina. Almost exactly like me.
“So, is that something he does with all of his best girls?” I asked, trying to mask the disappointment in my voice.
Before she could answer, Ilse ran into my room and looked at me, her eyes wide with excitement.
“Lieve, you have to come with me! Now!” she said holding out a hand to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving forward and taking her hand.
“Kerstan has just arrived,” she whispered excitedly.
What? Why is he here?
I let my curiosity make my hand close around hers tightly as we left the room. Ilse told me that he was in the main room with Luuk and that they were talking angrily with one another.
“Over what?” I asked.
“You.”
Six
Kerstan
I sat facing Luuk with one hand on the table and the other draped over the back of the chair. Something about seeing Danique again reminded me how much I wanted Lieve back and I didn’t plan on leaving without her. I knew this would be difficult and I knew that Luuk wanted his pound of flesh, but I decided that he would have to take it from me and not her.
“I won’t give her back to you. You knew the deal from the very beginning. You train her to be the whore that I knew she’s been her entire life, then you give her to me for her final humiliations,” Luuk said simply.
I wondered what he truly had against Lieve. He never did tell me the whole story because I was so intrigued by the fucking plan he had that it never dawned on me to ask more questions than I already had. My eyes wandered toward the ceiling as Luuk kept giving me his reasons that Lieve was now “property” and I tuned him out. Besides the fact that I wasn’t listening to his nonsense anymore, I concentrated on the door behind me. I heard faint footsteps stop just behind it and whispers that went silent as soon as they approached.
I wondered if it was her. I wondered if Danique had made it here safely. I wondered what about Lieve had drawn her back into this and I wondered if Luuk could tell she had a motive. Then I chuckled as the whispers started again softly.
“Do you not have control over your own home?” I finally asked, cutting off his incessant rambling.
“What are you talking about?” he asked curiously.
I smirked at him and shook my head as I got to my feet and walked to the door. I put my hand on the doorknob once I reached it and slowly tilted my hand to look through the sliver of space between the door and the frame. Once I confirmed my suspicions, I pulled the door wide open and watched as three women fell on top of each other. Each had a black leather collar around her neck and had on white panties only.
Blonde, brunette, and a fading color. Let’s see if I can sort them out.
I gripped the blonde first by the arm and pulled her to her feet. She gave me a big half grin and I shook my head, laughing as I positioned her next to me.
“You were always too curious for your own good, Danique,” I said.