Nassir’s thumb moved in a lazy circle on the inside of my knee and I saw one of the men gulp as he realized maybe I was more than just the hostess showing them to their meeting or a trophy that sat prettily on Nassir’s shelf. That had been my biggest fear, but every single day he put something else in my hands, some part of the business, some part of his life to make sure I knew how equally invested he was in our future. We weren’t simply partners; we were a team, and sometimes that made me feel like we were unstoppable.
“You come into my town without asking. You bring girls that are too young and have no say in whether or not they want to work for you. You make money off of them and then don’t pay them a dime. You even had the nerve to try to recruit Point girls to work in your flophouses, and you think I’m going to let any of that slide?”
Really, the new skin peddlers had been quiet about what they were doing. If it hadn’t been for one of the young girls they trafficked in escaping and running into Noe and asking her for help, there was a chance we would’ve never known. The young street hooligan had brought the battered and damaged girl to Nassir and I could see that he decided on the spot that hell was going to rain down on everyone involved in the operation. He took over the responsibility of vengeance and I took over making sure the girls got out of the city and somewhere safe. I was finding that for every one girl I managed to get somewhere safe and settled into a new life, three new ones popped up on the streets or on the stage to take her place. As long as there were choices for them to make, I felt like I was doing the right thing, and when I thought I couldn’t love Nassir any more than I already did, he offered to help me fund the project with some of the legal money he made from the strip club.
I turned him down because it was my baby and it was my heart. And honestly I think him and the life he offered were sometimes too tempting for the girls to say no to. I used his contacts and his name when the doors I wanted to open wouldn’t do so, but now that I had his ring on my finger, my own name had almost as much sway as his did, and that did more for the part of me that was worried about my losing my sense of freedom and self than any of the gestures Nassir made to keep me feeling included. I had my own power, and even if a good chunk of it came from being the one and only woman to tame the devil, then so be it.
The first step in Nassir’s revenge plot was making the new operation think he wanted to go into business with them; that’s why these two were here.
These were the moneymen. The men who decided where to set up shop and how much to spend on getting an operation going. They were the ones that paid human traffickers for warm bodies and made the johns pay up when they were done. These were the guys that couldn’t turn down an opportunity to meet with the man in charge of the underground parts of the city when word got out that he might have an offer to make them. Greed made people stupid.
One of the men cleared his throat and in very broken English told Nassir, “We do what you do.”
I felt Nassir tense, and if I could see his face I knew his golden eyes would be narrowed. “No. You force women to have sex and then profit off their suffering. You hold them captive and torture them. I’m simply a man that offers the people in this city a choice.”
The hand that wasn’t resting on my bent leg started tapping on the top of his desk. I knew he was really annoyed if he was allowing himself to express emotion like that. He was usually so calm and still when he faced down an opponent.
“I’m shutting you down and running you out of my city.”
One of the guys threw up his hands. “You cannot!”
The hand that was on my knee lifted and reached for the laptop in front of him. He pushed a button and the monitors behind us lit up. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to know they would show not one but two of the brothels run by these thugs’ bosses being raided by police and immigration officers. As much as Nassir didn’t trust Titus, having a tenuous working relationship with the cop was proving to be beneficial. Titus hadn’t batted an eye when Nassir called and asked him to help get the girls free and the competition out of town; neither did he jump on board without hesitation. It was a well-choreographed dance between the right side of the law and wrong. It all depended on the situation who was going to lead and who was going to follow, but so far both men had managed to navigate the dance floor without stepping on each other’s toes.
“The police, immigration people, and the federal authorities are stripping everything you have down to the bones as we speak. There will be no more girls, no more johns, and no more ways for you to make money off of someone else’s suffering.”
The two foreign gangsters were baffled, and I could see that they literally had no clue what to do. They started to talk to each other in their native language, but the tone was frantic and the pace quick. There were a lot of hand movements and glances flying around the room in panic.
Nassir heaved a sigh and leaned forward in his chair. I reached out a hand and threaded it through his long hair so I could rest my fingers on the back of his neck. It was like petting a panther right before it pounced.
“Enough.” The word wasn’t in English and I saw even more panic and fear start to build in their expressions. “I understand every single word you are saying and understood every syllable when you told your partner that you were going to wait to get my wife alone and show her what a real man can do.”
I knew they hadn’t been talking about my shoes. I shook my head at them and clicked my tongue. That’s right, suckers. WIFE. That big-ass diamond on my finger wasn’t just for show and Nassir didn’t have a weakness, he had a wife that he would kill for without a second thought.