Chapter Three

“Where were you?”

“I-I was at Amber’s house. She was helping me with some math homework.”

“What was Kevin doin’ over there?”

“He was working with us.”

“Does Joe know y’all were over there?”

“No, sir, but I was going to tell her mom.”

He cut me off, “her mom doesn’t run that household, Joe does.”

“Please don’t tell Joe, I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?” I nodded my head. “Work for me for a night. I got one client whose been wantin’ you for a while now. Are you up to it?”

“You gotta promise not to tell Joe about Amber.”

“Promise,” he reached out and shook my hand. Diamond helped me get dressed before Damon’s ‘guest’ came over.

When the guest got there, I knew how things were supposed to go. He was supposed to just go with me to my room, but he escorted me out of the house. I was shocked when he let me sit in the passenger seat. He took me to some motel where I’m pretty sure nobody knew him.

“You’re such a beautiful girl, did you know that?”

“Thank you sir,” I barely whispered. He made his move when he started taking off my clothes.

“If you do as I say, you won’t get hurt.”

“Sir, what are you talking about?” He pulled out a pair of handcuffs. I slid away from him, “I don’t do this kind of thing. You got the wrong girl.” I reached down and tried to grab my dress. He caught me by the throat.

“Put on the handcuffs and I won’t hurt you.”

“No, please just let me go, I’ll pay you back in full.” He held me up against the wall with one hand, and pulled down his pants with the other. It caught me way off guard, and I could feel the bruises developing on my inner thigh. It hurt as his body kept banging against mine. He covered my mouth to mute my screams. I had been reduced to tears.

“You were so good. I’ll have to visit you again.” He whispered in my ear with his raspy voice.

“At least tell me your name,” I whined.

“Josh but you can call me sir.” He left me in the room with nothing on, but a towel. After taking a shower, I slipped back into my dress. I followed him back to his car. We drove in complete silence until he almost got me back home. “I’ll see you again week after next. Wear something short and tight.”

“Sir, I don’t wanna see you week after next or ever again in that matter. This was a one night thing.” I felt his hand hit my cheek. I was stunned when he grabbed my face.

“I’ll come when I wanna come. You’ll see me when I come even if I have to work a deal out with Damon.”

“How was she?” Damon asked Josh.

“Best I’ve had in a while, but you might wanna teach her some manners before I teach them to her.” He threw me at Damon and reached in his pocket. “Call me if she gets out of line before I can come back.” With that he got back in his car and drove away while Damon held a tight grip on my arm.

“I’m not going back to him,” I spit out.

“You’re going because I told you so.” I tried to snatch my arm away, but Damon held a tight grip. He drug me in the house and to my room. He dumped me on the bed and started taking off his pants. He had me pinned to the bed. “Do you remember the rules?” I thought back to that day in his car.

“Yea,” I croaked.

“Rule four, you’re my princess and you belong to me.” I let out a whimper of pain.

“Leave me alone.” I retreated to the corner of my room and started sobbing. Damon started rubbing my legs in soft circles. He pulled me to his body and laid my head on his bare chest.

“If you listen, it won’t always be like this.” He kissed the top of my head and rubbed my back.

I woke up and felt like a train hit me. I grabbed my mirror out of my bag to check out my face. I had a couple of bruises on my face, but it could have been worse. I looked at my cell and had five missed calls from Amber.

Please answer the phone. Amber wasn’t answering and I needed to talk to her. I slipped into a pair of gray sweats and a white t-shirt and climbed over to her window.

“Amber,” I tapped her window and called her name. I peered through the window only to find Amber face down on the bed motionless. I snuck through the window shaking her body.

“What?” She sat up rubbing her eyes.

“You’re okay,” I said with a breath of air. “You scared the s**t out of me. Why’d you call me so many times last night?”

“At first I wanted to make sure you were okay. I saw you come back with that dude last night, and got really worried. Then I called to see if you could help me with something.”

“What do you need help with?” She slowly pulled off her pajama top. She had a cut that was at least 7 inches long. It was deep enough for stitches, but not deep enough to pierce an organ. “You need to go to the hospital.”

“Daddy won’t take me, but you have background in sewing. Can’t you do it?”

“No, I can get you on the bus and take you to the free clinic.”

“Fine, but at least help me put a bandage on it. You took first aid.” I started regretting all the easy ‘A’ classes I had taken.  I helped tape some gauze from a first aid kit on her side. We slowly made our way to the bus stop heading to the clinic. The thirty minute ride felt like forever in the sweltering heat. When the bus got to the stop, we slowly made our way to the clinic.

“Excuse me miss, but we really need a doctor,” I mumbled to the receptionist.

“So do the rest of these other people here. She probably pregnant any way, or she got some kind of STD.”

“No, what she has is a cut, and if she bleeds out I’m comin’ to get yo’ a*s.”

“You lyin’ let me see that.” Amber raised her t-shirt. “Let me find you a doctor.”

Not too long after we found ourselves sitting in a room in the back watching the doctor give Amber some stitches.

“Miss, can you tell me how this happened?” The doctor had asked question after question on how Amber got that cut.

“I wasn’t there and she doesn’t remember, can you please drop it?” The doctor looked annoyed.

“You two are really young, and I don’t want to see nothin’ bad happen to you two.” She handed me a container of ointment, “keep bandaging it up like you did today, and make sure she puts this on. She’s a little out of it, so I don’t want you to take the bus. Take this money and catch a cab.”

“Thank you, doctor.”  I helped lead Amber out of the building and into a cab. I handed the cab driver all the money she had given us and gave him the directions. When he pulled up, I almost wanted to tell him to keep going, but I had to face reality.

I walked to her front door and knocked. “Mr. Joe, can you help me get Amber to her room. I need to talk to you.” He picked Amber up out of the back of the cab and carried her to her room.

“Where the hell did you two go. I should tell Damon you were out drinking.”

“Mr. Joe, we went to the doctor. Amber was in a lot of pain from that cut in her side. Please don’t hurt her for now. She really has to heal.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“I’ll do anything to make sure she’s okay. I’ll have sex with you if it keeps her from ripping that wound open.” I didn’t think he’d take me up on the offer. 

“I won’t do nothin’ to the girl,” he whispered in my ear.

“Thank you,” I took a step back. “I’ll come over and change Amber’s bandages every day.”

“Well you might get more than you bargained for then.”

“I gotta get home, but I’ll see you tomorrow.” I made my way back to my house, “Damon I’m home.”

“Where the hell have you been? Joe hadn’t seen you or Amber.”

“We went to the doctor to make sure Amber was ok, but I’m home now.”

“So you couldn’t call me? That would have been too easy.”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now. I’m going to my room.” I walked around him and tried to make it to my room.

 “What do you think I’d do if I found out Diamond or one of the other girls left without letting me know?”

“I’m not them, why can’t I just take care of a friend in need?”

“You are them, and you coulda helped her after you let me know.” He wrapped my hair around his knuckles and forced me to follow him to his room. I braced myself for a back hand, but got a fist. “I’m sick of you disrespecting me in my house. I try to take care of you as best as I can. You ain’t nothin’ more than an ungrateful b***h.” I felt around for something to grip after I crumbled to the floor. I could feel the warm sensation of blood trickling on my top lip.

“I’m sorry, I’ll tell you when I leave again.” I threw my hands up in defeat hoping Damon would forgive me.

“Sorry doesn’t work with you does it?” He backhanded me causing me crash into the floor. “Clean yo’ self up, and let me know when you’ve got yo’ s**t together.” He threw a box of tissues at me before walking out the room. I cleaned the blood off my face, checked out the bruise that started to form under my eye, and prayed the swelling in my nose and face would go down.