Enforcer (22 page)

CHAPTER 18

Spring

Connor waited on the sidewalk for Dana to pick him up. The April night was unseasonably warm for the valley, and the boys wanted to go raise hell downtown. He’d become a distant stranger to his teammates over the last few weeks. A few had noticed the bruises covering his stomach after Dracul had worked him over, but they had faded into bad memories.

He’d done his part, sticking up for his teammates, trying to keep puck carriers to the outside, even picking up a couple of assists by hustling on a few breakouts that led to odd-man rushes. Connor practiced hard and played harder. He gave his all to the game to forget about Jera, and to try to forget about the lesson she’d taught him.

Dana’s Toyota pulled into the unloading lane a few minutes later. He grabbed his overnight bag and suit bag, loading them into the back seat before climbing into the passenger seat. They leaned toward each other, meeting in the middle for their first kiss in five days. She was studying for finals, he had been on the road in Great Falls.

“How was the ride?” she asked, pulling out onto Front Street and merging into the lane that led to the connector.

“A bus full of half-drunk kids who took three games from the Barons?” he asked. “Somewhat annoying, but it feels good to be on a bit of a winning streak. We’re locked into the playoffs for the moment, so unless we lose the next nine games, we’ll probably be in.”

“If you make the playoffs, how long will that last?” Dana asked.

“If we were to go all the way, probably into the end of May, maybe early June if every series goes long. If we lose in the first round, I’ll be on break the first week of May.”

“I’ll be done with finals by the middle of May.”

Connor put his hand on her leg. “Any idea where you want to go?” he asked.

“I kind of want to travel the coast from Northern California up to Vancouver. I get two of weeks vacation, though I can probably swing a third with some begging and scheduling. I think I’ve earned it after almost five years of serving coffee five days a week.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, squeezing her leg.

Once it was clear that Jera was indeed gone and out of his sight, he’d practically crawled on his belly to Dana. He did everything he could think of to let her know how important she was to him, and that he wanted to continue where they’d left off before the hiccup. She’d begun to spend more time with him, and after a few weeks of being sure that things were back to normal, as normal as they could be for their situation, they’d become a permanent couple.

“We have another week on the road coming up,” he told her as they pulled into his apartment complex. “A whole week in Albuquerque. At least it will be warm.”

“It’s actually a good thing, with my finals coming up. While I’d love to spend time thinking about you and doing things to you, I have to, you know, pass my classes. I don’t think they’ll give student loans to dummies.”

“You aren’t dumb,” he laughed, giving her thigh a squeeze a little further up than before. “Just distracted.”

“Don’t make me wreck into your apartment,” she scolded, the Toyota lurching to a hard stop as his hand found a sensitive spot. When he wouldn’t stop, she slapped his hand away, both of them laughing, both anticipating the rest of the evening.

*****

Connor crawled out of bed and put on a pair of shorts. The knock at his front door had to be Petre. The Romanian was the only one who knocked in a short four-burst pattern. He wasn’t surprised to see his friend standing there when he opened the door.

“You are awake,” Petre said, not asking. He stepped into the apartment without being invited, which was unusual, and made Connor nervous.

“You want some… water or something?” Connor asked, embarrassed that he had nothing more than water to offer the man.

“No. I have come to bring you to Mr. Ojacarcu. He requests to meet with you.”

“What the hell?” Connor asked, his gut clenching a little harder. “About what?”

“I am not told. Only told to bring you. You must get dressed and we must go.”

“Okay, hold on.”

Connor saw Petre’s eyes leave his face and point toward the bedroom before he heard footsteps behind him. Dana had put on one of his extra-large jerseys, using it as a nightshirt since it hung down to her knees, and came into the kitchen to stand slightly behind Connor.

“I heard the door and talking,” she said, her eyes not leaving Petre.

“Good morning, miss,” Petre greeted her, giving a slight bow. “I must borrow your friend for short time.” His smile was friendly, but to Dana, it had a hint of business about it that promised he wouldn’t be friendly if Connor refused.

“Where are you going?” she asked Connor.

“I have to go see the boss,” he answered, wishing she had stayed in the bedroom. He liked Petre, had even begun to trust him again, but he didn’t want the man knowing anything about his personal life anymore. Especially not Dana.

“Okay,” Dana answered as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, turning away to get a glass of water.

Connor didn’t move to get dressed, keeping himself between Petre and Dana. Petre looked at her one last time, then stared at Connor’s face. Dana stood at the sink, drinking water, watching the two men. Finally Petre politely coughed and let them know he would be waiting in the car.

“What was that about?” she asked after the door closed.

“I don’t know. Ojacarcu wants to see me. I don’t know why. It probably won’t be good, whatever it is.”

“I have the entire day off, and you have to run to work,” she pouted, lifting up the jersey to just below her waist, distracting him from pulling on his pants.

“When I get back,” he laughed, refusing to acknowledge her existence until he’d fully dressed. She crawled back under the covers, removed the jersey and tossed it theatrically on the floor. “You don’t play fair,” he complained.

“Life isn’t fair,” she giggled as she pulled him down to kiss him goodbye.

*

Petre gave him a grin the instant he sat in the passenger seat.

“She is very quality,” the Romanian said, butchering whatever phrase he’d heard, and couldn’t remember exactly how it went in English. He pulled out of the apartment complex and headed toward downtown.

“I don’t even know what you are trying to say other than she’s attractive,” Connor said.

“She is your girlfriend? Or hockey skank?” Petre asked.

“She’s just a girl I met downtown,” Connor lied. “By the way, it’s not nice to call them ‘hockey skanks.’ They are lonely girls looking for a night of fun with someone semi-famous.”

“So they are hockey skanks if they fuck you,” Petre said, “and football skanks if they fuck football players, yes? They are plain skanks if they fuck anyone that isn’t athlete?”

Connor laughed. “Did you just learn the word this morning?”

“Skank? I hear it from three boys in line for coffee. School boys barely growing hair. It is hip word?”

“No, we’ve had that word for a long time. It’s just another way of saying whore or slut, except usually more insulting.”

“There is layer of insult to the words?”

“Yeah, a little,” Connor replied, turning slightly in his seat to explain to Petre. “See, a whore is a woman who will fuck anything to get something in return, but not necessarily money. A prostitute always fucks for money or drugs. A whore will usually fuck for something else, but something that has value. Maybe a place to live. Maybe a car.

“A slut on the other hand, she just fucks to fuck. She’ll sleep with anything, for any reason. Sometimes for no reason. She doesn’t want money or cars or dope. She wants cock. But a skank… a skank is like a combination of all three of those things. But worse. She’s kind of underhanded,” he paused to see if Petre understood that word, going on when Petre nodded his head, “the kind of woman you have to be on your toes around. She’ll steal another woman’s man, just to do it. Just because she can.”

“That is a lot of layers,” Petre said, looking lost in deep thought as if contemplating the importance of it.

“It’s just a word, man,” Connor said, laughing again.

“You are teaching me. I will be better English.”

Connor grunted. “Your English sucks, but it has at least one use.”

“My English is great,” Petre said with pride.

“At getting us girls. But that’s about it.”

*****

“Intra,” the intercom speaker commanded.

Petre opened the door and entered, Connor following him into Ojacarcu’s office. Connor froze two steps in at the sight of Jera sitting in one of the chairs. She looked at him for a fraction of a second before she dropped her eyes and turned her head away. Connor moved to the chair next to her and sat down, paying no attention to his boss, his eyes locked on the dark-skinned girl who had cost him a week’s worth of painful solid waste expulsion.

“Ah, good. You two remember each other,” Ojacarcu said with a grin.

Jera finally looked up when the boss spoke. Connor took in her features. Her bruises were gone, she was clean, dressed in new and revealing clothes, her makeup perfectly applied to make her dark eyes stand out even more on her beautiful face. He noticed a collar around her throat and started to feel the anger pulse into him until he realized it was made of black lace with a shiny silver hoop hanging from the center of it. The kind he’d imagined her wearing.

“I have a new job for you,” Ojacarcu said to Connor. “You are to be Miss Gellner’s driver and escort.”

Connor wasn’t sure who “Miss Gellner” was until he realized it was Jera. He’d never heard her last name before, knew almost nothing about her other than he hated her, while at the same time feeling an almost supernatural pull toward her.

“I have to drive her around?” Connor asked, confused.

“Yes, Connor. You will drive her to and from her appointments. You will also make sure her clients are safe for her, and let them know, gently, with tact of course, that they will have to deal with you if they harm her. Unless of course they have paid extra for that right, but still, they are not to damage her.” Ojacarcu looked at him, daring him to protest or lash out verbally.

Connor’s stomach turned into pure acid. He’d done her no favor at all other than to upgrade her living conditions. She was still a prostitute, still someone else’s property, except now she bathed regularly and wore clothes that didn’t look like they’d been stolen from a dead homeless woman.

“You will be given the keys to one of the Lincolns, and the security card for the elevator. I am glad to know you can be trusted to have this responsibility,” Ojacarcu said, giving him a hard look that reminded Connor about the last time he’d crossed the man.

“When am I supposed to do this?” Connor asked, resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to refuse.

“On your days off from hockey, you will escort her from whenever her first client calls to whenever her last client is done.”

“So, whenever I’m not playing hockey, I have to keep her around? Just sit in the car and wait for her phone to tell her where to go next?”

“I don’t care where you go when she isn’t working, as long as she is safe. Clients are not interested in damaged goods. As you can see, Miss Gellner has cleaned up into a very attractive young lady. Possibly the most attractive one I know!” He clapped his hands together, making Jera flinch. “I was going to send her off to work elsewhere, as there simply isn’t enough business here. But then I realized how beautiful she is, and sent another girl off in her place so she could stay. She’s made quite a name for herself since she decided to work for me, so you shouldn’t find yourself with too much of not having anything to do.”

Connor bristled at the implication that Jera had volunteered to work for Ojacarcu. No doubt the deal was better than the one she’d had with Larry, but she was still property. Still had no say in anything unless she wanted to get hurt. Or dead. Connor could easily imagine Dracul murdering her for not doing what she was told. What were whores to a guy like Ojacarcu? He could simply call back the one he’d sent away, or order ten more from Belarus.

“Don’t worry,” Ojacarcu said to him. “You have earned this responsibility. I decided that if you were willing to assure her safety before for free, you would be the best suited to do it as an employee.” Ojacarcu gave him a shark’s grin.

“So I just take her wherever she needs to go, drop her off, wait for her to finish, then do what? Take her to a place she can shower? A cafe to feed her? Or am I supposed to stand there and watch her fuck just in case the guy gets too violent?”

Ojacarcu frowned at him. “You remember when we talked about respect?” Connor nodded. “You should remember a little harder.” His boss nodded at Petre who took two steps toward Connor before stopping. The threat was there, out in the open.

“I don’t care where you take her,” Ojacarcu continued. “She has an apartment where the rest of the girls live. Take her back there to freshen up. You will meet each client the first time. You will collect her fee. You will deliver her payment to the office once per day. You will not give her any money. She receives her pay once per week. Do not attempt to skim the money. Dracul has a special dislike for thieves.”