Winning Texas (17 page)

“
Sure,
”
she said.
“
Is it a bar?
”

“
Kind of,
”
he said.
“
It
’
s actually a strip place in Pasadena called the Texas Girls Club. Ever been to a topless bar?
”

“
Are you kidding?
”
She said with excitement.
“
West Texas doesn
’
t have that kind of place, at least not in the boonies.
”

Her mind was whirling. She knew he thought she was 18. If he found out she was only 16, she didn
’
t know what he
’
d do. She was afraid he
’
d dump her and then she
’
d have no choice but to go back to Marfa with her tail between her legs. She had a good fake ID that gave her age as 21. It had worked for her before
–
she hoped it would tonight.

CHAPTER 16

Behar Zogu drove to the budget motel near his home on the Eastside, his mood swinging between anticipation and dread. The Albanian girls were interesting but unruly, and he wasn
’
t sure he
’
d be able to keep them in line for the next week or two. They reminded him of a basket overflowing with puppies
–
lively and fun to watch, but likely to pee on the carpet the minute you turned your back. The girls were loud, profane, asked a lot of questions he couldn
’
t answer and were already straining at the bit to break out and explore the big city. He was regretting his offer to smuggle them to America with the help of his relatives in Albania.

He
’
d filled the back of his battered pickup with groceries, mostly cheap American foods that would be easy for the girls to microwave in their motel rooms
–
where he hoped they
’
d stay. He
’
d picked up lots of frozen pizzas, ice cream, breakfast bars, Cheetos and other junk he knew they
’
d love. He included some PBR beer, but no vodka. Those women were rambunctious enough without hard liquor.

The meeting with Krause and his girlfriend hadn
’
t gone well. He knew it was a mistake for Juliana to see the girls yesterday when he
’
d just deposited them at the motel, but she
’
d barged in without warning. She
’
d looked at them with scorn and they sensed her hostility. Luckily, he
’
d gotten rid of her quickly, saying the girls needed to rest from their stressful journey as stowaways. Zogu wasn
’
t alone in his dislike of Juliana
–
most of the strip clubs
’
employees couldn
’
t stand her either, and he sensed that even Krause sometimes got fed up with her bossy personality. But Zogu felt relatively secure with his place in the business. In the five years he
’
d worked for Krause, he
’
d taken on increasingly unsavory and clandestine tasks. He felt confident that his services were valued.

He thought about the life he
’
d made since landing in Houston seven years ago with little English and no money. He
’
d quickly disappeared into the Eastside
’
s gritty working-class neighborhoods and cast about for his best opportunity. A small but tight Albanian community had welcomed him and he
’
d fallen in love with Genta, his Texas-born sweetheart from a big Albanian family soon after he arrived. They
’
d married and in short order, produced his beloved son and daughter. He
’
d begun looking harder for a job where he could make more money than the day-laborer shifts he
’
d worked in the past. Luckily, Genta
’
s ambitions matched or surpassed his and she was thrilled when he got work at the Texas Girls clubs. They both could tell that Krause
’
s business was thriving
–
and expanding. He worked late nights and early mornings and showed himself willing to handle any kind of task. Soon the owner was tapping him as a courier and fixer, delivering sensitive packages to different club locations
–
usually drugs, he suspected
–
and looking after girls who
’
d gotten knocked up or knocked around at the clubs.

He felt fortunate, knowing he had a legion of relatives in Albania who
’
d jump at the chance to escape their beautiful but poor country for the promised land of Texas. He
’
d occasionally used his family
’
s connections in the shipping industry to hide people aboard ships bound for the Houston port, where they could slip into the country without papers. Those experiences had emboldened him to propose to Krause a shipment of girls who
’
d become cheap, pliant workers in the topless clubs. His boss, knowing that Eastern Europeans often stood out for their tall, blond beauty, was intrigued. He
’
d paid the necessary money to hide ten girls aboard a cargo ship, and Zogu
’
s brother Bujar made the arrangements in Tirana. As the middleman, Zogu stood to make enough money for Genta to stay home while their children were small.

But now he worried that he
’
d given too much leeway to his brother, who
’
d assembled a motley group he feared wasn
’
t attractive enough to pass muster with Krause and his girlfriend. Some of the girls were pretty enough, but generally they resembled diamonds in the rough instead of the perfect polished solitaires that Krause and Juliana seemed to expect. He knew that these girls came from poor families without much chance to wrest their way up from poverty. If they
’
d been born luckier, they wouldn
’
t have had to risk being stowaways to a new country. He didn
’
t allow himself to dwell on the unfortunate fate of the tenth girl, which nearly had scuttled the whole deal. And now he
’
d have to work fast to get the Albanians ready for the spotlight.

Zogu parked his pickup, started unloading the groceries and knocked on one of the motel doors. Leka, the self-styled leader of the group, answered and his heart sank when he saw her again. Leka was strong and strapping, but she
’
d never be a beauty. She
’
d dyed her hair blonde, but it was a brassy gold that didn
’
t mesh well with her thick black unibrow and muddy complexion. She had a square face and a decent figure, except for thighs that jiggled when she walked.

Still, he liked her because she was smart and sassy, and he sensed that the eight other girls would follow her lead. He would work through her to get them to accept the makeovers he planned before presenting them to Krause.

“
Zogu,
”
Leka shouted, enveloping him in a bear hug.
“
You brought American food for us?
”

“
I brought things that you can cook in the little kitchens,
”
he said, matching her rapid-fire Albanian.
“
Can you go to the other rooms and get all the girls so we can have a meeting?
”

She bounded out and two of the other women, who introduced themselves as Ardita and Edona, took over, settling him into a worn easy chair, massaging his back and bringing him a motel glass filled with Albanian vodka they
’
d apparently smuggled in airplane-style bottles. He hoped they didn
’
t have much of that strong liquor left. The room stank of cigarette smoke, clothes were piled carelessly in a corner and raucous laughter rang through the closed door of the bathroom. He wondered just what they were doing in there.

Leka returned with the five Albanians he
’
d assigned to two adjacent rooms. Again, their appearance filled him with dismay. Though it was early afternoon, no one was dressed for prime time. Two wore jeans with printed tops that looked like pajamas, and the others wore beat-up workout clothes with torn tights. Several looked like they
’
d just gotten up, and one bleary-eyed girl looked like she
’
d been up all night drinking. All nine sprawled on the lumpy double beds with the shabby gold bedspreads, or sat on the floor with their backs to the wall. They chattered about him and the groceries he
’
d brought, though Zogu had signaled for quiet.

Finally, Leka stood up with him and whistled through a gap in her front teeth. They turned silent right away. Leka spoke quickly and persuasively, explaining that Zogu would help them get ready for their new jobs and lives in America.

“
We
’
ll be able to afford new clothes, nice apartments and as much food and vodka as we want,
”
she said.

The girls applauded enthusiastically and Zogu felt better. He promised to bring them groceries every other day and told them that his wife and her friends would start visiting them daily to begin cutting, dyeing and styling their hair and help them with their clothes. Brunettes must dye their hair blonde, he emphasized, because the owner of the club where they
’
d work
–
if they were lucky
–
desired blondes above all.

“
All blondes? That seems strange,
”
Ardita, a petite brunette, said.
“
Doesn
’
t he know that many Albanian girls have dark hair?
”

“
No, he doesn
’
t know much about Albania,
”
Zogu admitted.
“
He thinks Albanian girls look like the tall, blonde Russians on TV in the vodka commercials.
”

“
Will he like us?
”
she said, suddenly worried.

Zogu felt pity for the girls. Who knew what they hoped? Who knew what sort of families they
’
d left behind? He thought they were either brave or desperate
–
probably both
–
to undertake a dangerous trip, hide out in three crowded motel rooms and still be optimistic as they confronted an uncertain future.

“
We will make sure that you all look beautiful when he meets you,
”
he smiled, hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt.

They shouted with pleasure when Zogu said each girl would get one new outfit Genta would help pick out. He asked them if they had questions
–
a mistake, he realized right away.

“
What happened to Arlinda?
”
Edona asked. The image of the dead girl came into his mind. She
’
d been pretty, but not smart or cautious. She
’
d paid for her carelessness.

He shifted uncomfortably, wondering if he should tell them the truth. But he decided that he couldn
’
t chance it.

“
We must never speak of your time hiding aboard the ship,
”
Zogu said, raising his voice dramatically.
“
It would bring terrible trouble from the American police. They could send us all to Texas prisons, where we
’
d probably die.
”

“
Can
’
t you tell us where she is?
”
Ardita said.

“
She
’
s gone, but that
’
s all I can tell you. Arlinda didn
’
t follow the rules and because she didn
’
t obey, she got into trouble.
”

They digested this soberly, their earlier rowdiness gone.

Leka came to his rescue again, stepping forward, clapping him on the shoulder and looking intently at each girl. She had an uncanny way of commanding their attention.

“
Zogu is not to blame for that girl
’
s foolish mistake,
”
she said.
“
Trust him and his wife and they will help us with our jobs and perhaps with finding good husbands.
”