Her Russian Millionaire

Stone forced her into his room and threw her onto the bed. He slammed the door shut and left her all alone. It was the first time she had ever been in his room. The most noticeable thing was the smell: marijuana and smelly feet. Several bottles of pills sat on his nightstand, none of them prescribed to him. An ashtray full of cigarette butts lingered next to a window. She opened it, only to find it was too far of a drop for her to safely make it. She considered screaming for help, but Stone would hear her.

Jalisa rifled through his things, looking for anything that could help her. She mainly wanted a phone, but she would even take a weapon at this point. Among piles of dirty laundry that made her skin crawl to touch, she found several interracial fetish magazines. Images of women like her being tied up and choked filled the glossy pages. She shivered in disgust and threw them away from her.

Under his bed sat another stack of the magazines and an unassuming shoe box. She pulled it out, figuring that was the place he was most likely to find a weapon. Inside were photographs of nude women performing various s*xual acts on Stone. Many of them were a place Jalisa could identify as parts of the bar. Some of them showed Marie in situations that shocked Jalisa to her core. They were all labeled with the women’s’ name, the date, and a few words about why she was doing this. Most of them were ‘Needs money for _____’ but a few of them were tragic. Jalisa figured Stone meant to put her naked body in a box, too.

There was a thump on the wall and Jalisa jumped. She hurriedly stuffed the box back under the bed, all the while glancing over her shoulder in case someone was about to come in and find her snooping. She pressed her ear up to a hole in the wall where the thump came from and was able to hear into the other room. The hole had a strip of duct tape over it that was so worn out it was hardly even sticky anymore. Glancing through it, she was able to see a flash of Marie walking by. Stone had a peephole into Marie’s room.

“You better calm down. He’s not afraid to kill everybody in here, himself included,” Marie said, her voice very muffled but audible.

“Help us. If you’re so afraid of him, then help us.” Nikita’s tiny hand was seen reaching toward Marie.

“I would if I could, baby doll.” Marie sighed. “If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that you can’t fight against Stone. It just doesn’t work. Lord only knows how my life would have turned out if I never met him.”

“Just call the police. Please, I’m begging you.” Nikita grabbed onto Marie.

“It’s no use thinking about that now. Did I ever tell you what my childhood was like?” Marie ignored Nikita’s begging and continued on with her introspection.

The door opened, and Jalisa pushed the tape back over the hole and jumped onto the bed. She tried to look innocent. Stone walked in with a washcloth that was dripping all over the floor. He pressed the warm rag to her face and rubbed it around in rough circles. Her hands dug into the blankets. She could have asked to clean her own face herself, but it was probably best to let Stone do what he wants right now.

“Look, I know you hate me and all, but I promise that I’m not such a bad guy. Marie hated me at first, too, but now she fu*ks me for fun. One day you will, too.” Stone patted the dried beer and blood from her face. “I promise you.”

“I promise you that Marie is broken. She didn’t realize that you’re that bad of a guy: you just broke her.” Jalisa bit her lip after she said it, not knowing how he would react. Anger flared in his eyes before he looked away, jaw tensing.

“You’ll be working tonight.” His voice was ice.

“By that, I assume you’ll have a stranger ra*e me for money?” she asked. Tears pricked in her eyes.

“No. Well, yes. Maybe.” He paused. “If that’s what they’re into. Some of them like the nice and gentle stuff, so you pretend to be a schoolgirl or a virgin or something. Some of them like the sexy in-control type of thing, so become a temptress and a succubus. Some of them like the unwilling stuff, so you play the victim.”

“I’m going to puke.” She put her head between her knees and recited Psalm 23:4. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

“Will you give it a rest?” Stone sighed. “Now, you’re going to be taking half of Marie’s customers tonight. Had you not tried to escape, you would be taking your own this weekend. I had some good guys picked out for you. Simple wedding fantasy. Nothing too rough. But now you went and pissed me off by making my life harder. So, now I’ve got to make your life harder, too. You get that? You see how this is all your fault?”

“I didn’t ask for this.” She untucked her head.

“You’ll be taking Marvin and A.J.” Stone stood up. He walked to the door and paused before opening it. “I hope they don’t go too easy on you. You’ll need a rough breaking-in now.”

Jalisa curled up on the bed and prayed until noises from the other room drew her attention. Stone entered Marie’s room and told her to go and get Jalisa ready. Jalisa prayed for a few minutes for Nikita’s safety until Marie came in, her facial expression as wobbly as her high heels.

“If it makes you feel any better, most of the girls that we have…connected with paying customers have been willing.” Marie paused, looking away from Jalisa’s eyes. “Well, more willing than you. Most of them were addicts who needed a fix.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Jalisa pushed herself into the corner of Stone’s smelly bed.

“I have to get you ready for your first customer.” Marie motioned for her to get up. “Come on, I have to show you how to bathe like a real prostitute does before work.”

Jalisa followed Marie to the bath. She glanced at the door, but Marie warned her to not even think about. There was no telling what Stone would do to Nikita if Jalisa didn’t participate. The women entered the bathroom and Marie shut the door. Jalisa thought about knocking Marie out, but Marie warned her of the same thing.

Jalisa had stripped in front of someone only a few times in her adult life. There was her doctor when she was receiving a physical. There was Nikita when they shared a room. There was Erik when they were making love. This didn’t feel like any of those times.

Marie refused to turn around, saying she would have to get used to her private parts not being so private anymore. Jalisa toed out of her shoes and socks first in a thinly veiled attempt to give herself more time to adjust to what was happening. She folded her socks and put them in the corner. Sadistically, Marie forced her to strip down completely before even plugging up the tub and turning on the water.