Page 74 of Havoc

“Ebony’s okay,” I said. “Once you get to know her.”

“Why have you come today? I hear you’re the one holding my little prize for ransom.”

“No ransom, she’s not yours.”

“She is, Presley, and she will be in my clutches soon enough.”

The confidence oozed off him, and it made me angry he wasn’t scared of me. By the end of today, he would be.

“I want to see your facility, how does it all work?” I asked. “I should know given I run your business now.”

“You don’t run it, you run this city.”

“Same thing, Cordell. Now, show me or I’ll do to this facility what I did to my childhood home.”

His smile disappeared. He’d heard…good.

“Follow me.”

I stood, and motioned for Lennon to follow. He did so, silently, as Cordell took me down the long corridor and into a circular room with booths all around a stage. Each booth had a leather seat, a small table and a buzzer to bid on women.

So cliché.

“Who are your clientele?”

“Mostly internationals, but some high rollers.”

“How do they get the girls out?” I asked.

“Several ways, but mostly by boat.”

“And they bid on them like prized cows?” I asked, sitting in one of the booths.

“Yes,” he replied. “The girls stand up there and twirl or dance, whatever the clients want, and when they are happy with what they see, they can ask for a chance to meet with them, to feel the goods as it were, and if they approve, a transaction is made.”

“When is your next session?”

“Once I get my girl, I can start sending out invitations.”

“And if she’s no longer in the country?”

Cordell sighed. “She’ll need to be back before the next month is out.”

I could see Lennon’s fist curling angrily beside him, but he made no effort to hurt Cordell.

“She won’t be,” I replied. “But, I do want to see where you condition them.”

Cordell showed us the door, and we moved down a different corridor, down some stairs and in through a door painted gold. As Cordell opened the door with a set of keys from his pocket, I could see the torture room for its real purpose.

A dentist’s chair was in the centre, and on the walls, all types of whips and gags hung on the walls like trophies.

“Walk me through it.”

“Girl is being sassy or difficult, she’s shown how to behave. Whipping usually does the job but there was one girl who refused to behave a short while ago…she eventually broke after a little waterboarding.”

“Where is she now?”

“With a gentleman in Singapore, I believe.”

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