Page 136 of Their Courtesan
Chapter 35
JUDITH
Another Friday afternoon, another set of rounds to make in the Château.
Since Monica was gearing up for her maternity leave, Judith was tasked with more chores. Didn’t help that Monica was told by her doctor to rest as often as possible and stay off those dainty feet of hers. So while the madam holed herself away in her office to do paperwork and have business meetings as usual, Judith became queen bee of the front end.
One of her favorite things to do was to use Monica’s key to access the camera control room. There were two, and the one by her chambers was the good one, full of cameras peering into everyone’s bedrooms and other private places that clients liked to use for sexual services. (Minus any bathrooms. Nobody would ever sign off on that.) Everyone knew about these cameras, since they were mostly for safety purposes, but few cared. When one exchanged money for sex in a pleasure house, they knew they were under surveillance.
Whether or not they knewJudithwas watching was another matter.
“My condolences on that tiny dick,” she said, propping her bare foot up on the table so she could paint her toenails. The fumes in that room were going to get to her eventually. “Like throwing a hot dog down a hallway for poor Grace.”
She handled it like a pro, though. There was no sound on these live-feeds, but Judith could tell that Grace was putting on the show of her life as she pretended to be enthralled with a client’s pencil dick. It must have worked, because that bozo looked so damn proud to be there, beautiful woman on her knees. It was either watching Grace or Holly, though. They were the only two girls currently with clients, the others out or lounging about as they waited for their appointments.
Who wanted to watch Holly?Not. Me.She was the epitome of over-acting. Lots of clients liked that, but Judith always wanted to roll her eyes until she choked on them.
That was until she saw something that unnerved theshitout of her.
Judith didn’t know the man Holly was with. He was new, from out of town… and beyond, probably. They got lots of clients like that. This guy? Right in front of the black and white camera he backhanded Holly so she crashed to her bed, hand on cheek and not in a hurry to get back up.
Toes half dried, Judith grabbed the keys and hit the panic button on the wall.
Holly’s room was only a few doors down the hall. Judith pressed her ear against the door and heard the muffled sounds of a man threatening to do worse if Holly didn’t do what he wanted.
Why I’m gonna…Judith lightly knocked on the door.
“Go away!” Holly called. She sounded fine. Yeah, right. Judith pulled out her ring of keys and thumbed through them until she found Holly’s.
No one in her business wanted to deal with this shit. Clients like whomever this was already had sexually violent tendencies, and being a woman – no matter how seasoned she was – Judith was at a distinct disadvantage, but nobody was assaulted on her watch, and that kind of “play” was absolutelynot allowed.The man got the boot the moment he laid a rough hand on Holly.
Nevertheless, the next few minutes were tough to digest.
Yelling. Threats. The meeting of an ex-Navy Seal and a heavily pregnant madam who knew every law on the books. Before Holly could cry out again, everyone was in the room, tackling the guy, dragging him around, throwing blankets on top of Holly, and threatening to call police and lawyers. Peter the bouncer was enough to get the guy scrambling out of there. He left behind his wallet, but nobody was in a hurry to grab it and run it out to him. The bouncer offered to chuck it as his head and knock him unconscious.
“Gracious,” Monica muttered. She had stayed at Holly’s side the whole time. Was she grateful? No! She crawled from beneath her blanket, red splotch on her cheek and anger in her eyes.
Anger atJudith.
“What the hell!” she cried, while the bouncer left the room to make sure the guy was gone from the premises. That’s what the backup security team on the outer grounds was for. “I was working! Do I barge into your room when you’re withyourclients?”
Judith’s mouth dropped open. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that wasn’t what I thought I saw and heard?”
“Fuck off!”
Monica got up. “You and I will talk later.” Who was she saying that too? Probably anyone who would listen. “I’m going to check on what’s going on out there.” She put a hand on Judith. “I trust you will take over from here?”
“That’s my job, ain’t it?”
“Fuck your job,” Holly mumbled as Monica left and closed the bedroom door behind her. “What about mine?”
“Yeah, what about it?” Judith turned to her the moment they were left alone. “You want your career to end now… let alone yourlife?”
“It wasn’t that bad!”
“Let me guess… you hadcontrolover the situation.”
“Yeah!”
