Cat Haus - The Complete Story (9 page)

Fucking bastard. If I ever saw him again, I'd—

Actually, Gus might still be here. Yes, he'd gambled and lost the business in that game, but surely John would let Gus pack up any personal belongings. Would Gus have done that last night? Or would he have to rent a truck or something and come back this morning?

I considered if I should get up and go find out. Did I have it in me to face him again?

Yeah, I think I might. I was mad as hell, and that was good. Anger made a person strong. But deeper inside, past the hardness of the rage was something that felt like a bruise on my soul. Like when an apple falls on the floor and gets that soft, squishy spot. You leave it long enough and it'll start to spoil. The decay had started in one tiny spot, but it would spread until it invaded the good flesh and made the whole piece of fruit rot.

That was why I needed to get out of this bed. Because I couldn't let the damage Gus had caused spread until it consumed me.

Dressed like this, I wasn't ready to party with the guest who'd just arrived, but I was sure as hell dressed good enough to face whatever awaited me in the office and in Gus's wing of the building.

I flipped the sheets back and slid out of the bed. Glancing in the mirror, I decided I needed to do a little bit of damage control before venturing out in public, though it didn't amount to more than brushing my teeth, scrubbing my face, and running a hand through my hair. That would have to do. I was only going to check things out anyway. See if Gus was good and gone. See if I could figure out what plans John had for the place.

Hell, there could be a real estate sign in the front lawn by now for all I knew. After all, what would a man like John want with a brothel? My gut told me he'd want to get what money he could out of the sale of it and go on with his life, which would mean I'd probably never see John again. That would also leave us with another new owner, and possibly without a job if someone decided the property was worth more without the whorehouse on it.

So it seemed as if the only thing that was certain at this point was uncertainty.

What else was new? Life had never been easy around here. No reason why it should start being so now.

Determined to find out my fate, whatever it might be, I started down the hall. I saw the few girls who were awake and dressed already in the parlor, milling around one guy like he was fresh meat, which I guess he was. He must not have chosen a companion yet, which meant he was fair game for each girl to do her best to convince him she was the one he wanted to give his money to. They were so occupied with him I slipped by basically unnoticed.

Sahara did spot me sneaking through and gave me a small wave. As usual, she was in something simple but sexy and looked perfect in all her blond, Barbie-like glory. I wasn't dressed to be seen, so I pressed my finger to my lips with a silent
Shh
and tiptoed on in my socks, through the parlor and all the way to the office.

What I saw when I slid through the office doorway on the linoleum floor stopped me in my tracks. Not knowing what else to do, I said, "Um, hello?"

The woman turned away from the computer screen and glanced over the top of her half-glasses at me. "Yes?" she asked the question as if I were the one out of place.

"I'm Cate. I, uh, work here." At least, I hoped I still did. I glanced around the office. Nothing else seemed out of place, save for the addition of this woman. "I was wondering if Gus was still around. Gus Haus. The former owner."

I added more information since I wasn't convinced this woman hadn't gotten lost and wandered in here by mistake on her way to the library or something.

"Yes, I'm aware of Mr. Haus's situation and no, he's no longer here. It's my understanding that Mr. Hamilton had security escort him with his belongings off the premises late last night."

Security? As in Tito, the guy who cut the grass around here and stood by the front door to scare away troublemakers on busy nights? Or did this Mr. Hamilton come with his own security, which raised the next question. "Mr. Hamilton?"

She nodded. "The new owner."

I frowned. "Do you mean John?" It had to be John. He'd told me last night he was the new owner.

Her brow rose, I suppose at my familiarity in using his first name. "Correct."

Little did she know exactly how familiar John and I had gotten, though I'd never heard his last name until now. It had never come up. We'd been otherwise occupied on our two encounters with each other. The first time, when we'd met a month ago when I'd gone to fuck him in his hotel suite—a damn nice memory I revisited often. The second time, last night, when John had watched the big asshole from Texas fuck me on the poker table in front of everyone. That memory I pushed aside and moved back to the situation at hand.

My little foray out of my room this morning had answered one concern, at least. Gus and his shit were gone for good. But I had plenty more questions, such as who was going to replace Gus as manager for the day-to-day duties around here? Was John going to rename the place now that the Haus family no longer owned it? And who was this schoolmarm on the office computer working away calmly as if there weren't half a dozen scantily clad prostitutes turning tricks down the hall while the rest of the girls slept off last night in their rooms.

I frowned, trying to figure out which question to tackle first when the house phone rang. Amazingly, the woman reached out and lifted the receiver as if she'd worked here forever. "Hamilton Enterprises . . . uh, excuse me, I mean the Cat Haus. This is Mona speaking."

Mona. Good whore's name. My lips twitched with a smile at that thought combined with my amusement over the staunch Mona having to answer the phone by saying
the Cat Haus
. If I could get her to add the line
how may I service you today
I might die laughing.

"Yes, sir. It will take some getting used to," Mona said to whoever the
sir
was on the other end of the line. She paused, listening, before she nodded. "Yes, sir. I've made some good progress. I've gotten through a lot of what's on the computer and so far the recordkeeping looks surprisingly well-organized."

I shamelessly eavesdropped on her conversation. She hadn't asked me to leave so I figured it was her own fault I was still in the room.

"Yes, sir. They seem to be conducting business as usual." Her gaze cut to me. "There is a Cate here now. She was inquiring about the former owner . . . Yes, sir. Hold one moment."

On top of her mentioning me by name, she surprised me even more by holding the phone out. "Mr. Hamilton would like to speak with you."

Mr. Hamilton, aka John my former john, wanted to speak with me? I took the receiver. "Hello?"

"Cate. How are you feeling this morning?" His question and the warmth and concern in his voice inexplicably threatened to bring tears to my eyes. Just like he had done last night when he'd come to my room to check on me after the poker game.

"Fine."

There was a pause before he said, "I’m not sure I believe you. If you need some time off or anything at all, I'll arrange it."

"No, thanks." I didn't know what I needed to feel better about last night, but whatever it was, I doubted John could provide it.

"I hope Mona told you that Gus is no longer an issue. You don't have to worry about him being back."

"Yeah, she told me."

There was another pause where I imagined I could almost hear the wheels in his brain turning. "You're wondering what's going to happen now, aren't you?"

I let out a short laugh as he guessed exactly what I had been thinking. "Yeah, I am."

The damn man was too observant. He knew I was wondering about my future and that of the Cat Haus, but at least he couldn't guess how my heart pounded at the sound of his voice in my ear. Or how for hours before falling to sleep last night I'd imagined John inside me, erasing the memory of the Texan plowing into me on the poker table.

John probably couldn't guess how I'd crafted revenge scenarios for both Gus and his poker buddy, either. My favorite was the one where I paid some guy with a huge dick to bend Gus over the table and fuck him in the ass until he cried like a baby. In my fantasy the big Texan who'd used me in front of everyone last night got the same treatment after being forced to watch Gus suffer it first.

"I wish I knew, Cate." John's voice brought me back to the conversation about the future of the Cat Haus. "Honestly, when I went there for a card game I had no plans of walking out holding the deed."

I let out a short laugh. "If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure Gus hadn't planned on you doing that either."

"No doubt." He blew out a sigh. "I need some guidance here, Cate. What do I need to do to maintain operations until I figure out a plan for the long term?"

"I'll tell you what you need. You need a madam. We had one until about two months ago. A good one too, but she and Gus had a huge fight and she stormed out. Last I heard she'd gotten hired by the competition. Gus had been covering her duties in the office since she left. You know, scheduling appointments, answering the phones, dealing with payments."

Mona glanced sideways in my direction. She was probably praying her boss didn't assign madam duty to her after she was done balancing the books, or whatever.

"A madam." John paused for a good beat or two. "All right. And how do I go about hiring one of those?"

"I'm not sure." I'd only been in this business a couple of years myself, and before that I was an English student at UNLV. I was a little out of my element as far as giving advice on running a brothel, though far less so than John was. "I guess you can try to find a working girl with a lot of years in the business who wants to retire from the floor and move into management."

"Anyone there fit that description?"

"Here?" I laughed. "No. Gus liked his girls young. This is probably the greenest crew in the state. I've been here second to longest and I've only been around two years."

He let out another breath, sounding weary. "All right. I'll see what I can arrange."

"Okay. Until then, we can all take turns in the office if you need us to. And Tito can man the front door and watch the security cameras. He's done it before when Gus would disappear for the night." Gus had been disappearing more and more often recently. Now I knew he'd been gambling away the profits, and hallelujah for that because it led to him being gone now.

"Thank you, Cate. I appreciate all your help and your suggestions."

"No problem." I bit my tongue to keep from asking him if and when he'd be stopping by to check on his new business.

It was crazy. It was stupid. Working girls didn't get attached to the guys they screwed. But we also didn't usually get to spend the entire night sleeping in bed with them, or in the morning have breakfast followed by more sex.

Though I didn't think it was the sex with John that was getting to me. It was his compassion and how he treated me like I was his equal. How he acted as if he needed my advice. In this situation, I guess he did, because I certainly had more experience in a whorehouse than John and his trusty sidekick, Mona.

"And seriously, Cate. Please try and take it easy for a while. Do whatever you need to for yourself." There he went again, being sweet and making me want to cry, which was exactly why I couldn't take the time off he'd suggested. I needed to get back on the horse, or in this case, the penis. The moment I hung up this phone, that's what I'd do.

"Aye, aye, captain." I joked through the tightness in my throat.

He laughed. "All right, I'll leave you be. Can you put Mona back on?"

"Sure thing." I thrust the phone at her. "He wants to talk to you again."

She took the receiver and I left Mona to her business so I could go tend to mine. I was only a couple of steps down the hall when I heard her say, "Yes, sir, she does seem very capable. I'll make sure to go to her if I have any questions."

Even when I wasn't speaking directly with him, the damn man had still said something to make me feel special. I noticed how my pulse was beating faster.

Shit. Hopefully, he'd stay far, far away for a while until I got my head on straight.

CHAPTER 8

A funny thing happened to me starting that day. There was a shift in my attitude. I became a no nonsense, take no shit kind of girl. Everything changed from the way it had been.

No more negotiating. I told the customer the price, if he didn’t like it, he could leave.

No lowering my standards in exchange for raising the price. If a customer asked for something I wasn't comfortable with, I told him sorry, I wasn't his girl but I was sure one of the others could accommodate him.

If a guy didn't want to wear a condom, that was too damn bad. I told him it was the law and to get the hell out if he couldn't abide by it.

My bottom line suffered, and I suppose so did the house's income, but I didn't care. John had said to do whatever I needed to for myself, and this was what I needed right now. I think my new attitude showed, and my reputation as a bitch spread. Some customers avoided me like the plague and went directly for the giggling, baby-talking airheads, but some men came right to me. Once alone with them, I realized they wanted me to dominate them.
 
Needed me to take control over them.