Page 90 of The Enforcer
That turned everyone around real fast, because what good was a rave without the treats? He followed them in, and there were three Lost Girls standing to the side, bouncing up and down, arms out expectantly.
Real Lost Girls.
Not the kind Nova fucked—the ones from bad homes with parents who didn’t care like they should.
These Lost Girls didn’t have parents.
Or if they did, they were winners like Frankie, who sold their daughters on the back pages to highline dealers like the Brambinos. Or the Russian mafia. Or the yakuza.
The Morettis were actually unique in staying out of the flesh market. They thought they were better than that, but Tino’s opinion was a bit different. He was disgusted with them for ignoring the problem. It was something too dirty to pay attention to, so they turned a blind eye like the rest of the world. They had absolutely no idea about the inner workings of the underground sex market. They didn’t want to know the details. Just being aware it existed was bad enough.
Even Aldo didn’t know what the band on Tino’s wrist meant.
Which had shocked Tino at first, but he had learned to spot the ones who knew and the ones who didn’t, and he was sure the don had no idea. Just like Nova and Carlo had no idea.
Tino picked up Meilei, who was owned by the yakuza. She worked in Midtown at a place that covered as a nail salon.
She was sixteen.
And she was one of the oldest ones there.
“Protect my backpack,” he said as he tossed Meilei over his shoulder. She giggled and spread out her arms wide over the backpack as a crowd followed him. Tino found a place in the corner that was high enough to let him see the crowd and low enough to be accessible. He set Meilei next to him on the slab of raised concrete, designating her as his helper. Then he shouted to the group of people pushing in too close. “Three feet back. Form a line. Pretty girls first!” He found them in the crowd and pointed them out. “One, two, three. Melissa! Carla! Come on!” The Lost Girls came to the front of the line, and Tino had to practically scream over the music, but he’d learned how to make himself heard. “Pretty boys too!” Tino found one in the back and pointed at him, even though he didn’t know him. “Up here.”
He was beginning to suspect why his brother thought he was gay.
And he was starting to realize how much he didn’t give a shit.
There were a lot of Lost Kids here tonight, part of the magical mafia circle of dysfunction. Use them for money, make their lives so entirely horrible they needed an escape to keep breathing, and then make money off the drugs they bought.
But weren’t the Morettis special for not dealing in skin?
They just sold them the drugs instead.
Fuck that.
“How much?” Melissa asked as she bounced up to him first and then added, “You matter, Tino.”
“Thank you.” He grabbed a glow stick out of his bag. “Free for a hug.”
She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. Against his ear she whispered, “I’ll do something extra for two.”
He wrapped an arm around her back, stealing a second hug and saying, “You matter, Melissa. Two for two hugs. Don’t take ’em both tonight, though.”
“I save mine for work,” she said as she jumped down. “I don’t need a glow stick.”
He handed the plastic baggie of extras to Meilei, because she was trustworthy. “Give her three.”
Then he marked three lines on his arm.
He and Meilei handed out too many pills to too many Lost Kids, and Nova was going to shit if he saw how much Tino had to put in.
So he fixed the problem.
“Why the fuck do they always get it free?” a regular barked at Tino once his turn was up. “That’s bullshit.”
“’Cause I fucking feel like it,” Tino growled back at him and then looked at the twenty in the asshole’s hand. “It’s thirty, motherfucker.”
“What?” he shouted. “That’s bullshit!”
