Dede sat by the computer studying the screen. Behind her, Tony dozed in bed, his bare feet resting on a jumble of soiled bedding.
She bent toward the screen and squinted, rereading a recent message. Reaching around, she stroked Tony’s bare foot.
He jerked awake, kicking her hand away. “Stop that.”
“You’ve got a new applicant, Tony. From the Backlist ad. You want to check her out?”
He stretched his arms overhead with a weary moan as he shifted to a sitting position on the mattress. “How does she look?”
Dede shrugged, noncommittal. “Not bad. She’s blond.”
“How young?”
She barked a harsh laugh in response, scooting away from the screen. “Take a look. Here’s the selfie she sent. This girl ain’t no kid.”
Tony crawled on all fours to the edge of the bed. He looked at the screen with an ambivalent expression.
“Tessie from Miami, Oklahoma,” he said. “That could work. She’s not that far away from here.”
Dede scooted her chair back, to enable Tony an unrestricted view. “Her application says she’s twenty-five. Lying whore. That girl ain’t a day younger than me.”
Tony held up a finger to silence her as he scanned the information on the computer screen. When he was done, he crawled back to the headboard and rolled onto his back.
Then he smiled, baring his teeth. “She can’t hook the Daddy clientele, it’s true. And that’s the major score.”
Dede nodded, triumphant. “That’s just exactly what I was thinking.”
“But that old Okie gal don’t need to go out to pasture, not yet. She can hook some hillbilly Bills to get a nut off with her. We’ll go for high volume with Tessie, since we can’t go with high dollar.”
Dede pulled the chair up to the computer and poised her hands over the keyboard. “You want to meet her on Skype first?”
“Yeah. Probably should. Make sure she don’t have three eyes or three tits or something.”
As Dede pounded on the keyboard a tentative knock sounded. It came from the interior door, connecting Room 217 to the adjoining room next door.
Dede rose from the desk and stalked over to the connecting door, unlocking it and pulling it open. In the doorway stood Mandy, her bruises hidden by a thick coating of makeup.
“Am I going out tonight?” she asked.
Dede looked to Tony for direction, but he didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he rolled out of the bed and approached the open doorway where Mandy stood.
“Why are you asking? You got some big old plans?”
Mandy wrinkled her nose at him with an impish face, put a hand on her hip and popped her knee forward. The hand resting on her right hip betrayed a tremor.
She said, “Even if I had a key to this room, I can’t bring anybody back here tonight.” With a voice that betrayed resentment, she added, “Can’t do business in here next to the little blond princess.”
Tony stood within inches of her, but his eyes strayed to the figure in the next room.
Desiree’s blue eyes were wide open, staring at Tony. Through the duct tape covering her mouth, she was trying to speak. Tony bypassed Mandy and walked to the bed. He sat beside the girl, rubbing a hand down her bare leg.
“Hey, Lola. How you feeling, baby?”
The eyes grew wide as blue saucers, and she made muffled noises behind the duct tape. Tony continued to stroke her leg, talking in a soothing voice.
“Those pictures I took of you are selling like hot cakes. As soon as you’re feeling up to it, we’ll do another shoot. You gonna be famous, Lola.”
Her eyes grew wild, and she shook her head back and forth until Tony stopped the movement by grasping a handful of her frizzy hair.
His voice lost its crooning quality as he said, “This is what you wanted, baby. You signed on for this.”
Her legs, bound together at the ankle with yellow nylon rope, began to flail on the bed. Tony raised a hand and gave her a smart slap across the cheek. “Settle your ass down.”
Dede appeared at Tony’s elbow. “Tony, honey. She’s got a big date coming up, don’t forget. You want her to be pretty, don’t you?”
Mandy walked up behind Dede and shoved her shoulder. “That’s real funny, coming from you. You never worried about me.”
The tattooed hand buried in Desiree’s curly hair gave it a vicious twist. The girl responded with an involuntary groan behind the tape, squeezing her eyes shut.
Turning his face to Dede, Tony spoke in an angry undertone. “I am sick and tired of women back-sassing me every step of the way.”
Dede nodded, her chin working like a marionette. “Oh you’re right, Tony. Nobody best forget that you’re the boss here.”
Tony released the fistful of hair he’d been holding. The girl fell back on the bed, breathing heavily through her nostrils. Standing over her, Tony smiled.
“You’ve got a cute way about you. And men gonna think your country accent is sexy when we head up north. You’ll be my little hillbilly Lolita. But we’ll sell that cherry first, for high dollar. After that, we’ll move on down the road.”
Tears seeped down the side of the girl’s face, wetting her hair before they fell on the pillow.