Soiled Dove (5 page)

Camille DeRossi, Jack’s favorite prior to Loretta’s arrival, stepped out of her room and looked over the banister at the two younger women below. “What’s all the noise about?”

“We’ve been shopping,” Amelia said through her giggles. “Loretta found the most elegant fabric.”

Without thinking, she continued exuberantly. “She can wear it to her first dinner when she starts a new life.”

“What new life?” Camille asked Amelia while staring directly at Loretta.

“Why as the Duchess of What-Not or the Countess of Faraway,” Loretta said dramatically. “Just as soon as we can convince the Duke or Count to sweep in here and take us all away.” She turned her attention to Amelia. “Isn’t that right, my dear?” Impulsively Loretta took Amelia in her arms and began dancing around the parlor. “You mustn’t talk about leaving,”

she whispered quickly. Then she released Amelia and they both made a deep curtsey in Camille’s direction.

“Where did you get the money to buy all those things?” Camille asked.

“Actually, a number of my customers are respected businessmen who gladly give me a discount,” Loretta answered. She knew the answer sounded snobby, but Camille had been watching her every move for the last three years. Since the day Jack abandoned Camille’s bed for hers. Personally, Loretta would have preferred he stay where he was.

“You two can stop playing around. Loretta, you’re booked for this evening. Amelia, Charlotte is ill and you’ll be the only hostess tonight. So get a move on.”

“I’m sorry, Camille,” Loretta said as she slowly pulled her gloves off. “Did Jack die and leave you in charge?”

“Don’t get a smart mouth with me, girl. You’re just another whore who can be replaced,” Camille snapped. She turned abruptly on her heel and slammed the door to her room.

“She’s pissed,” Amelia breathed.

“She’s jealous,” Loretta sniffed.
Not much longer
and she can have Jack Coulter back.
“Let’s get this stuff upstairs.”

LORETTA THREW HER head back and let a deep husky laugh escape from her throat. “Slow down, Cyrus, honey. We got all evening.” Cyrus Langford was a sweet man in his mid-thirties, but had the sexual control of a fifteen-year-old boy. Loretta thought he would make someone a good husband one day, once he learned to control his sexual urges. As minister to his flock, Cyrus always seemed to regret the times he visited Loretta, but it hadn’t stopped him from making several visits each year when church business brought him into the city. He always paid for an entire night and was a welcome relief from the usual men who shared her bed.

“God, forgive me,” Cyrus mumbled as his mouth and hands wandered over each newly exposed part of Loretta’s body. She smiled as she took his face in her hands and kissed him tenderly while he unfastened her brassiere and caressed her full breasts as if they might break.

“You’re a good man, Cyrus. God knows that,”

Loretta said soothingly.

“I’m a sinner, Miss Loretta,” he said with a shaky voice as his fingers spread across her smooth back and slid down to her hips.

“We all are, sugar. Otherwise, there’d be nothing for God to forgive.”

“You’re a smart woman, Loretta. I don’t know why you do the devil’s work.” As Loretta let her hand wander between his thighs, his breath caught. “But you are so very talented at it.” Slowly Loretta lowered her body until she was kneeling in front of the man who was beginning to shake slightly in anticipation.

Staring into his eyes, she unfastened his trousers and began pulling them down at a tortuously slow rate.

“I’ve heard other preachers say that as long as a person calls out God’s name with their last breath,”

Loretta said with a smile as her fingernails raked along the backs and sides of Cyrus’ legs eliciting a groan, “that He would forgive even your deepest sins.

Do you want me to make you call out God’s name tonight, Cyrus?”

“Oh, yes,” the minister breathed. “Oh, yes.”

Loretta felt Cyrus tremble at the feel of her lips moving slowly, tortuously up the outsides of his thin thighs. When he buried his fingers in her hair, she knew it wouldn’t be much longer before he lost control of himself. Loretta always began their nights together this way and he never seemed to tire of it.

She wondered if he had completely forgotten his sermons against lust and the wages of sin.

Unexpectedly, the door of Loretta’s room flew open, startling both of them. Loretta grabbed her discarded blouse as Cyrus’ hands attempted futilely to cover his arousal. Loretta couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Jack! What the hell are you doing?” she asked angrily. Cyrus not only paid for her services, but was a more than generous tipper in an attempt to assuage his guilt.

“Get out, Reverend!” Jack demanded, barely controlled fury filling his dark eyes as he stood in the doorway. “Pick another girl tonight.”

“But I don’t wa…,” Cyrus began, glancing at Loretta.

“If you don’t want another girl, Lydia will refund your money,” Jack said as he glared steadily at Loretta. He shifted his eyes to Cyrus and forced a smile. “Something unexpected has come up. Loretta is not available.”

Cyrus redressed as quickly as possible and slipped past Jack. He nodded a small, embarrassed smile in Loretta’s direction before Jack closed the door.

Still holding her blouse across her chest as Jack approached, Loretta said, “What was that about, Jack?

Cyrus is one of my best customers.”

The reply came as a vicious backhand across her mouth. Her blouse fell to the floor as she brought her hand to her mouth and felt the warm blood that had begun to run down her chin. Before she could react, a second blow slammed into her face and knocked her to the floor. Angry tears formed in her eyes from the pain and she tried to blink them away. Jack grabbed a hand full of thick, light amber hair and jerked her bleeding face back so she could look at him.

“You a lying, filthy, fucking whore,” he spat. “You think you can just pack up and leave.”

Her mind was fuzzy and she shook her head.

“Wha…what are…you talkin’ about…Jack?”

“I saved your ass four years ago!” he screamed.

“You would have starved or frozen to death in a back alley if I hadn’t taken you in! And this is how you repay me?”

Loretta was confused and couldn’t think. “I…I don’t…know…,” she tried to say through her rapidly swelling lip.

Jack dragged her to her feet and shoved her roughly across the room and onto her bed. As she watched through widened eyes, Jack began stripping his trousers off.

“Jack, tell me…what…I did,” she pleaded.

“Amelia tells me you’re planning to leave,” he said calmly. His sudden change from anger to calm sent a terrified shiver through Loretta’s body. “But you’re never going to leave here, Retta. Understand?”

She nodded. “I’m not…going anywhere.”

“You’re goddamn right, you’re not,” he said through clenched teeth. “No one leaves Jack Coulter.”

“Jack, please,” she said as she reached toward her nightstand.

“No!” he said firmly as he slapped her again. “No protection this time.”

She tried to bring her knee up between them to push him away, but was dizzy from the blows to her head. “Jack, please don’t,” she begged as he grabbed her wrists and forced them over her head. Getting a knee between her thighs, he brought it up forcefully into her crotch. She cried out at the pain and tears rolled down the sides of her face and onto the bed.

She had been with many men in the past four years, but had never been seriously hurt. There was nothing gentle as Jack forced her legs apart and drove into her painfully. Blood from her face, mingled with her tears, began covering his shirt collar as he pounded against her relentlessly. He was hurting her and she could feel the tender skin of her crotch tearing and burning as Jack’s sweaty body battered against hers.

It seemed like an eternity before Jack released her hands and withdrew from her exhausted and ravaged body. She couldn’t look at him as she pulled her legs up to her chest and curled into a ball, sobbing from pain and anger. Jack was standing at the end of the bed, panting.

“Nobody leaves me,” he stated again. “No one! I own you!”

She ground her teeth together as she turned to face him. “Nobody rapes me and no one owns me.”

“A whore can’t be raped, you stupid bitch,” he seethed as he reached out and grabbed her legs.

Loretta kicked with whatever strength she could muster, managing to land one well-placed kick that doubled Jack over. When he straightened up once more, he jerked her off the bed, her body landing on the floor with a thud. She groaned as she tried to catch her breath and push herself up. She wasn’t expecting the bone-crushing pain in her side as Jack lashed out and kicked her across the ribs and abdomen, sending her collapsing to the floor. Was this what happened when you die, she thought as Jack continued to kick her body. Please, God, she prayed, hoping what she told Cyrus earlier was true.

Everything around her sparkled briefly before it turned black as she felt the force of Jack’s foot for the last time.

“RETTA. PLEASE WAKE up, Retta. Please,” a shaky voice whispered. Even the gentle movement against her shoulder sent waves of pain and nausea through Loretta’s beaten body and she moaned at the movement.

“Shhh,” the voice said. “You have to be quiet, Retta. Otherwise, Jack…,” the voice said. At the mention of the man who had raped and beaten her, Loretta’s eyes managed to open into swollen slits and she tried to curl into a protective ball once again. But her arms and legs weren’t working the way they were supposed to. Unbidden, tears rolled across her face.

“My God,” a man’s voice said softly. “We have to get her to a doctor.”

“No…no doctor,” Loretta wheezed.

She felt a cool cloth against her face, which felt stiff, especially around her mouth. “Let me get some of this blood off your face, Retta. You can’t leave here lookin’ like this.”

“Amelia?” she managed. “What…”

“Be quiet, Retta. I got Cyrus with me. We’ll get you out of here,” Amelia whispered.

“No,” Loretta said. “Jack will hurt you, too.”

“We’re both gettin’ out of here,” Amelia said resolutely. “Where’s your stash?”

“Loose board. Under nightstand.”

“Cyrus, can you pick her up while I get her money?” Amelia asked as she stood.

“Yes,” the preacher said as he knelt next to Loretta. “I’ll be as careful as I can, Miss Loretta, but I’m positive it will hurt,” he said gently as he stroked blood-matted hair away from her swollen face.

Loretta found the damp cloth Amelia had been using and stuffed it into her mouth. She could barely see the concern and compassion filled eyes of her customer. Cyrus slid an arm around her shoulders, the other under her knees and brought her carefully against his chest. The cloth in her mouth muffled the scream that washed over her from the excruciating pain ripping through her ribs and abdomen as he lifted her from the floor. She managed to bring an arm up and squeezed Cyrus’ upper arm with the strength she had left. A moment later, Amelia was next to them.

“Got it,” Amelia whispered.

Loretta was beginning to shiver in Cyrus’ arms.

“Get a quilt or something to cover her with,” he whispered. “She can’t be out half-naked.”

Loretta felt warmth spread through her body as a quilt was gently tucked around her body. “Wait here, Reverend, while I check the hallway,” Amelia said.

She cracked open the door to Loretta’s room slightly and peeked out. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one. She led them silently down the stairs and toward the back entrance. Amelia held her breath as the back screen squeaked open, but heard nothing from inside the building. They stayed in the alleyways near the brothel as much as possible and didn’t stop again until they were several blocks away.

By then Loretta had begun trembling and moaning loudly enough to be heard through the cloth in her mouth.

“Now where, Amelia?” Cyrus asked as he leaned against the side of a building and shifted Loretta’s weight slightly in his arms, causing another moan.

“I don’t know, Reverend. It ain’t like I’ve ever had to do this before, ya know?”

“Do you have any friends who can take you in, at least for tonight?”

Amelia laughed derisively. “Oh, yeah. Us whores are just eat up with friends.”

“There must be some place,” he sighed. “We have to go somewhere before it gets light out.”

“Just give me a minute,” Amelia said as she took a deep breath. “I could use some of Loretta’s money and find a hotel room, I suppose. Where are you stayin’, Cyrus?”

“The Clarendon, but you can’t stay there,” he said shaking his head.

“Why not?”

“It’s full already,” he said. With a laugh, he continued, “Mostly with other ministers.”

“Wait!” Amelia said. “I might know a place, but I need to go there alone first. No sense in you carryin’

Loretta all that way if it don’t work out. Can you stay here with her for about an hour? I shouldn’t be gone longer than that.”

“Of course, my dear. I’ll take good care of her until you return,” Cyrus said softly as he gazed down at the small battered body in his arms.

“I know you will, Reverend,” Amelia said as she touched his arm lightly. “Loretta always said you were a good man even though you had been sorely tempted.”

“Loretta is a good woman even though she’s had a hard life. Now hurry, Amelia. I don’t like the way her breathing sounds.”

LORETTA’S HEAD LOLLED on Cyrus’ shoulder as he carefully slid down the wall of the building, still cradling Loretta. The movement startled her and she tried to speak, but only mumbled incoherently.

“Shhh, Retta,” a familiar soft voice whispered.

“You’ve been hurt. Don’t try to move. Amelia’s gone for help.”

Cyrus! she thought through the fog that had enveloped her mind. The steady, rhythmic rise and fall of his chest made her feel safe as she floated into a pain-wracked sleep. Later, when his body jerked, fear ran through her again.

“How is she?” she heard Amelia ask, her voice filled with concern.

“Sleeping. At least I think she is,” Cyrus answered quietly.