“Is there anything else we’re missing, Maggie? Are there any other people who work for Rock who could come back to bite us in the ass?” Colby asked with a sense of urgency.
It had only been ten days since Seth’s funeral, but Colby and his agency were ready to move on Rock’s businesses. Maggie was feeding into Colby’s energy of eliminating Rock and his pimps and thugs once and for all. Now, more than ever, she wanted her freedom. Maggie wanted to begin her life anew, to make good on the promises she’d made to Seth.
“No, no one else I can think of. Just make sure Juju doesn’t get busted. She knows what’s going down, and I don’t want the police to arrest her for dealing. You’ll keep her out of trouble, right?” Maggie asked.
“Yeah, I have that covered. There’s always ‘special circumstances’ we take into account. Juju wouldn’t normally be one of those circumstances, but I told the agency you wouldn’t talk unless she walked away from this whole thing clean. They gave me their word,” Colby said.
Maggie nodded. “Maybe, when this is all over, we can go on a real date?”
Colby eyes turned mischievous. “Well now, Ms. Maggie. Aren’t you getting ballsy all of a sudden, asking me out on a date.”
A genuine smile broke across Maggie’s face for the first time since Seth died. “Yeah, I guess I am. I’ve lost too much time with all of this bullshit—all of my childhood thrown away and then my teenage years. I’m working on saving my twenties.”
Maggie grew serious. “I went to the free clinic in Center City. I got tested for HIV about a week before Seth died.”
“Oh. Did you get the results?” Colby asked, her sudden somberness making his skin prickly.
“Yeah, I’m clean. I’m happy, but how is it that Seth could have gotten HIV in the few years he was exposed, and I can go all this time and not get it?” Maggie wondered aloud.
“You said they made the men use condoms, right?” Colby said.
“Right. But we didn’t always use condoms for oral sex. Those bastards, including Rock, have been playing Russian roulette with my life, with all of our lives. I see things so differently now. I wish it didn’t take Seth dying for me to stop being scared about what they’d do to me if I rebelled. What they’re doing to me and the others is worse than death. I don’t think they could make us suffer more. It’s time for all of this craziness to stop. I’m taking my life back,” Maggie stated with more courage than she actually felt.
Maggie wanted to have a life, and more than anything, she wanted to be away from Rock. But a seed of fear lay like a brick in the pit of her belly. She wasn’t sure she’d know how to live normally. She may be book learned, but her daily life had revolved around sex.
Colby watched as she clenched her teeth tightly. “What is it? What’s worrying you? Rock will stay in prison for a long time; you don’t have to worry.”
“I’m not worried about Rock. When this is all over, I don’t really know how to start my life. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do,” Maggie confided.
“Don’t worry, Maggie. You’re a smart girl, and you’ll have time to figure things out,” Colby soothed, feeling her angst.
Less than a week later, Colby met Maggie in the lap dance room at Doubles. The two had been careful to use the seats farthest from other dancers and clients ever since Montana overheard them talking shortly after Maggie started working at the club. They sat side by side. Colby had never looked more serious.
“What is it?” Maggie asked.
“Everything will happen one week from today. They’re going to take out all of Rock’s houses,” Colby said.
“Houses?” Maggie asked.
“Yes, we’ve been able to identify eight houses within a twenty-mile radius where Rock keeps girls,” Colby whispered.
“By ‘keeps girls’ you mean prostitutes, right?” Maggie asked.
Colby nodded.
“Why didn’t I know this?” Maggie pondered aloud.
“We followed some of the men you told us about. We discovered that some were johns, but others were really working for Rock. Three of those people you identified led us to these other houses. The information you gave us is going to free a lot of young women, Maggie,” Colby said.
Maggie nodded, but she was stunned by the knowledge that Rock had prostitution businesses all over the city. No wonder he was so powerful, she finally realized. Drugs, prostitution, porn…his empire was bigger than she’d known. Rock was a user of people, and his only goals were to make money and keep his pig of a wife happy. Maggie smiled, knowing that his days were numbered. She hoped that in prison, he’d get butt fucked every day for the rest of his life.
“OK, so this is good, right? You’re happy. All the work we’ve done together is about to pay off,” Colby reminded her.
“Yeah, I’m definitely happy,” Maggie said, and then she paused. “I need to take care of Joey. That means I have to get her away from Thelma before this all happens.”
Colby scratched his forehead. “I was going to arrange for child protective services to be there when we raid Rock’s home.”
Maggie shook her head. “No. She’ll just be placed into another system. Her mother is useless. I’m going to talk to Joey tomorrow. I have an idea.” She looked up at Colby. “An idea I don’t want to share with you right now,” she said firmly.
“S-sure,” Colby stuttered, a little hurt that Maggie wouldn’t share the secret.
Early the next morning, Maggie and Juju met Joey on her way to school. She ran to them, as she did every morning. But they noticed that she was trying not to put weight on her right leg. When she was close enough to them, they saw a fresh black eye.
“Did that bitch do this to you?” Juju asked.
Joey nodded with such bravery that Maggie pulled her over to the curb and sat down.
“Things are going to get better real soon,” Maggie promised.
Maggie needed to be certain about Joey’s mom.
“Remember when we met and you told me your mom traded you for drugs and beer?” Maggie started.
“Yeah, why?” Joey responded.
“Is that really what happened? Or were you trying to protect your family?” Maggie asked. She knew all too well how sex traffickers operated. They made sure the kids were always afraid to run by threatening to kill them and their families.
“Yeah. I hate her guts!” Joey exclaimed. The young girl’s face turned bright red, anger welling up inside of her at the thought of her mother betraying her.
“I hate her guts, too,” Juju interjected, getting angry with a woman she’d never met.
“Why are you askin’ me that now?” Joey said.
“I just wanted to be sure because if a day came when you could go back to her, well, I just wanted to be sure, that’s all,” Maggie said, not wanting to divulge any information that could put Joey in danger.
Later that morning, Maggie made the phone call and held her breath, waiting for someone to pick up the phone.
“Hello?”
“It’s Maggie.”
“Hi, Maggie. How are you?”
“Juliet, I need your help,” Maggie said with hope.