13

Crown parked his truck in his driveway and was still furious about what went down tonight at Magic’s. He had his flock of hoes in the back and was upset that he lost out on making money for the night. He turned off the engine and looked at Cherish, who sat in the passenger seat. “Get these bitches into the house and take Chaos down into my room in the basement.”

“Yes, Daddy,” Cherish replied.

She got out of the Escalade and ushered the girls out of the car and into the house.

Crown followed, smoking his cigar with a scowl. He had definitely shown his true colors in Magic’s club tonight, and he knew that the business relationship he had with Magic was either strained or completely dissolved.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind because he had other matters to attend to. Chaos needed strict discipline in his house. He entered the house and called for Cherish. She came running like a trained dog.

“What you need, baby?” Cherish asked obediently.

“You put that bitch in the basement?” he asked.

“Yes, Daddy.”

“A’ight. You tell them other bitches upstairs not to even think that they got a night off. I’m gonna get a few tricks to come over to make us this money tonight.”

Cherish nodded.

“You tell them bitches that they’re gonna fuck and suck niggas tonight, early, a’ight?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Now do what you’re told.”

Cherish strutted upstairs to get Crown’s business in order. When she was out of sight, Crown walked toward the basement stairs, unbuttoning his shirt as he did so.

He descended the stairs and heard Chaos’s cries coming from the room she was locked in. He unlocked the door and saw Chaos seated on one of his couches. She was curled up like a ball sobbing. Crown was furious. “Bitch! Did I tell you to fuckin’ sit anywhere in this room?” he screamed.

Chaos jumped in fear. Crown yanked her by her top and dragged her from the couch. She fell to the floor on her side and Crown continued to drag her. Chaos screamed and fidgeted as her top ripped. The carpet burned against her exposed thighs.

He dragged her to the center of the room and slapped her hard. Chaos cried out in pain and tried to curl into a fetal position to protect herself.

“Bitch, I’m gonna teach you to fuckin’ listen tonight! You need discipline, bitch. What I tell you about even lookin’ at that nigga YB? I want you to think about that nigga while I’m beating your ass tonight.”

He hit her several times, but mostly on parts of her body that weren’t easily visible like the stomach and back. He was angry that he had already blackened her eye and busted her lip because he knew she still needed to make money for him.

Crown panted heavily over Chaos. He glared down at her and commanded, “Bitch, take all that shit off.”

Chaos slowly stood, shaken and weak by the abuse she endured. She undressed in a similar manner due to the pain.

“Bitch, you better hurry the fuck up and get naked before you make me really fuckin’ mad up in this bitch,” Crown warned her.

Chaos quickly came out of her panties and bra and stood butt naked in front of Crown with tears streaming down her cheeks. She shivered and prepared herself for the worst.

Crown smirked and looked at Chaos like she was a piece of meat. She was definitely a money maker for him with the body she had.

“C’mere, bitch.” Crown pulled Chaos toward his special area for bitches who misbehaved.

He handcuffed her to a huge steel pipe and positioned her in the doggy-style position, which left her body open for more abuse. Chaos continued to plead with him and attempted to say that she was sorry, but Crown loved the way she begged for his forgiveness. It made him feel powerful and wanted.

“Bitch, you gonna learn! Oh, you’re definitely gonna learn tonight.” Crown removed his belt.

Chaos was so scared that she felt faint. Tears continued to flow down her pain-stricken face and her naked body quivered.

Crown gripped the thick leather belt and admired her form and backside for a moment. It was making him hard, but before there could be pleasure he needed to let loose some pain.

He raised the belt and swung down across Chaos’s exposed back fast and hard like a bolt of lightning. Chaos screamed loudly. Crown hit her with the belt again and her body flinched. Her tears of anguish continued to flow.

“Bitch, when I tell you to do somethin’, you fuckin’ do it! It ain’t gotta be like this, Chaos. You hear me, bitch?” Crown hit her again.

Her back developed bleeding welts, but Crown didn’t stop. He took it a step further and got right behind her, pulled down his slacks and showed her how hard he was. He pushed himself into Chaos and she cried out. Even as Crown fucked her from the back, he continued to strike her with the belt. He loved this form of punishment. It was his sick way of keeping his chicks in control.

****

Chaos’s painfully loud cries echoed throughout the house. It was something that the ladies were used to hearing. They hated to hear anyone cry like that, knowing that it could easily have been one of them—except for Cherish. She smiled when she heard Chaos being beaten and abused by Crown. It made her feel like the queen bee bitch of the house.

Sweet sat at the top of the staircase and cried for her friend. It was painful to hear, but there was nothing she could do. Every cry that Chaos made caused Sweet to cringe with sorrow.

“Bitch, what you doin’ out here?” Cherish asked as she crept up behind Sweet.

“I’m just chillin’,” Sweet replied.

“Bitch, I know you ain’t being nosey. You tryin’ to hear Crown’s business? You feelin’ sorry for your friend?” Cherish mocked.

“I’m just chillin’, Cherish.”

“Well, go and chill your ass in the bedroom and get ready to make some money for Crown tonight unless you want next downstairs with him. You want me to tell him about you, too? You want me to tell him that you’re disobeying him by not gettin’ ready because you’re tryin’ to be nosey, bitch? ”

“No, I’m good.” Sweet rose from her seat on the stairs.

“You better be good, bitch. Remember, I’m his bottom bitch in this crib, and y’all bitches better not forget that.”

“Nah, Cherish, I know. I didn’t forget.” Sweet looked Cherish in the eyes and could have killed her for telling Crown about Chaos’s earlier chat with YB.

Sweet walked into her room and took a deep breath. She thought about what Chaos had said to her before—about being a prisoner to Crown and leaving for something better. Sweet didn’t have Chaos’s ambition, and she felt that she had nothing left but to turn tricks for Crown. She wasn’t the flyest chick on the block and she had only completed the ninth grade. She felt stuck and was scared to leave what she knew best for something that was unknown. She might end up worse off than she was. Sweet wasn’t qualified to do shit other than prostitute and didn’t have a supportive family to have her back. With Chaos being her best friend and Crown providing her a home and a way of living, she felt that she finally had a family.

Hearing the beating that Chaos received from Crown also made her think otherwise. Was it worth it? Sweet asked herself. She sat on her bed and leaned back against the headboard with a pillow clutched tightly to her chest. Tears of sorrow and pain poured out for her friend.

“It’s goin’ going to be a’ight, Chaos. We’ll get through it, baby girl. I promise. We’ll get through this,” she said out loud to herself.

****

The sun shined into the bedrooms of the women after a rough and brutal night of turning tricks and hearing Chaos’s pain and suffering. Chaos lay in bed on her stomach, trying to recuperate from the hour-long beating from the night before. Her back looked as if she had been whipped by her overseer. The many welts that covered her olive skin were caked with blood and she was still emotionally scarred. Crown had beaten her before, but never this severely. He looked like a possessed man during the abuse.

She still cried at times, but with Sweet nursing her, Chaos felt a little more at ease. Sweet nursed her wounds gently by tending to it with a warm, wet cloth and Bactine ointment.

“That muthafucka,” Sweet muttered in a low tone, making sure no one else heard. “He ain’t have to beat you like this. I mean, all you did was talk to YB briefly. It ain’t like you been fuckin’ the nigga for free or somethin’.”

Sweet continued to gently rub the ointment on Chaos’s back. Chaos cringed in pain at contact with some of the wounds.

“You okay, Chaos?”

“I’ll be better,” she replied.

“I know he don’t expect you to work tonight?”

“He put me on house arrest. Said he gonna keep me indoors until he feels he can trust me again.”

Sweet looked around to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. “It was that bitch Cherish that told Crown about you and YB talkin’ at the bar.”

Chaos let out a deep sigh. She never trusted or liked Cherish because she always made it known to the other women that she was his bottom bitch and she was quick to get a bitch in trouble with Crown just to score some extra points with him. Chaos knew that bitch needed a serious beat down, but now was not the time for Chaos to give it to her.

Sweet said, “Remember what you said before, about leaving here and doin’ for ourselves?”

Chaos nodded.

“Well, I’ve been thinking: maybe you were right. Maybe we need to leave this muthafucka and just do our own thang. I mean, we both know the game, so why we can’t pimp ourselves and keep our own fuckin’ paper? After seeing what happened to you last night, I think we ain’t safe here no more, Chaos. Crown might just end up killing one of us, and you know how his temper is.”

Chaos didn’t respond, but she definitely was listening. Sweet continued to talk while tending to her sore back. She looked at the time and saw that it on one in the afternoon.

“What you think, Chaos? We need to do sumthin,” Sweet said.

“What about Harlem? You know if we run, he’ll send that nigga out after us,” Chaos pointed out.

“I know. I’ve been thinking about him, too. What about your boyfriend, YB? Maybe he can help out with our escape.”

“Boyfriend?” Chaos chuckled. It was the first laugh she had since the beating. “I don’t know, Sweet. If we were caught, I’d hate to think what Crown would do to us. Look at me, and all I did was just talk to YB.”

Chaos was scared. Crown definitely put fear in her heart last night and was making her think twice about crossing him. She also knew that she probably wouldn’t last too long being under Crown’s wicked wing.

“I care for you, Chaos, and I know that this shit can’t go on,” Sweet began. “You remember when I told you that I was used to Crown’s abuse and that I’ve dealt wit’ worse? I lied. Crown is the worst. I’m just scared of being on my own. I never had nothing in my life, and living here felt like I had somethin’, Chaos. Shit, I’m only twenty years old and feel like an ol’ hag in this bitch. I need to leave here, Chaos. I need to go.”

Chaos turned slowly and looked Sweet in the eye. “What’s goin’ on wit’ you, Sweet? Why you sounding like that for? I mean, you ain’t doin’ shit wrong. You making your ends fo’ sure, so what you so worried about? I’m the one he beat last night.”

Sweet took a deep breath. “I’m pregnant, Chaos.”

Chaos was shocked. “You’re what?”

“I’m pregnant. I missed my friend last month so I snuck and took a home pregnancy test. It tested positive, fo’ sure.”

“Oh my God, Sweet.”

“I know if Crown finds out, he’s going to beat this baby outta me. I’m scared. I can’t have this baby.”

“Sweet, relax. You know who the father is?”

“I don’t know. Probably some trick I fucked that got a li’l too carried away and he came in me,” Sweet replied dryly.

All of a sudden, Chaos’s problem was like a traffic ticket compared to Sweet’s. Both ladies knew that if Crown found out, he would be furious. He always told his chicks to strap up and don’t get pregnant. If a bitch got pregnant by a trick, then Crown saw that as a loss of business and he reprimanded a bitch harshly for loss of business.

“A’ight, don’t panic, Sweet. We’re gonna figure somethin’ out. You know how far along you are?”

“No. I haven’t been to a doctor.”

“A’ight. I figure you’re probably about a month or two. So that means we got a li’l time before you start showing. This is kept between you and me so we gonna work somethin’ out. I got you, girl,” Chaos said supportively.

Sweet smiled and replied with, “I don’t know what I would have done if he killed you last night. I probably would have gutted that muthafucka fo’ real, Chaos. I’d be on some real suicide shit up in his crib.”

Chaos smiled. “I got your back and you got mine.”

They hugged each other tightly and knew that they had to come up with a plan to leave Crown. It was now or never for them.