"She had cancer, you see? She was thin and sickly, and she almost never left the hospital … I just couldn't do it to her, tell her the truth … So I sucked it up. I played along," she says, reliving the memory. "Lester never found out how I always snooped around his office whenever he was out, gathering whatever piece of information I could put my hands on. Back then, I didn't know why I was doing, I just knew I had to. I couldn't stand still while that dirt bag was … was doing all that."
"You were very brave," I tell her, speaking in a soothing tone.
"Thank you. But you'd do the same."
"I'm not sure. I'd probably just freak out and pummel him into submission with a fireplace poker."
"I should've have thought of that," she says with a chuckle, and I notice that she has relaxed her hands, her palms now resting easily in her lap. "Anyways, I haven't seen him since my mother passed. The day I came home from the funeral, I just emptied one of his bank accounts and took off. I wandered around New York for a whole day, not knowing what I was going to do … So I just grabbed one of the addresses I had found in his office, and headed there," she recounts.
"I thought it'd be one of the places where they were holding women, but it wasn't. It was just a warehouse filled with street hookers, and I realized then that he was shaking them down so that they could keep working," Mistress Strokes continues. "I talked to them anyway, and one told me that she was actually thinking of leaving the life; she had a son, you see? She wanted to be better. Anyway, she told me she was coming to Python, because the owner had a reputation between the street hookers: if you really wanted to straighten up your act, Austin would help you without asking for anything in return."
"And that was when she showed up in here. Nervous and shaking, clutching a backpack to her chest," Austin laughs, and I finally realize how much he cares for Strokes. She's his protegé.
Mistress Strokes sighs.
"I'm tired of it always being women who get persecuted, Destiny," she tells me and I nod. I'm the same way. Remember? How I said I could have sex with anyone I wanted to? And fuck off if they didn't like it?
Well, while I was going out spreading my legs, Mistress Strokes was putting herself in danger to free women.
We could all be more like her.
"With the information I stole from Lester, and with Austin financing things we started saving as many women as we could and we were making a difference," she goes on. She stops and pauses. "We still are, and Lester wants to stop us at all costs. He's not going to give up."
"Well neither are we, goddamit," Austin says, first looking at me and then exchanging a glance with Strokes. "We can't let him destroy what you've fucking built. Whatever it fucking takes, we'll bring that motherfucker down."
"And how are we going to do that … ?" Mistress Strokes asks him, looking at me.
I see where she's going and I chime in, not sure what Austin is thinking either. "Lester's got the entire NYPD at his fingertips," I tell him making it seem like I'm worried about whatever Austin is planning, but what I'm really thinking of is the child I'm carrying inside my belly.
Is it really a good idea to go to war with Lester when I'm expecting Austin's baby?
"All I know is we're looking at Python right here," Austin grins gesturing to the three of us, the confidence in him making him look as handsome as a movie star, "and Python is where dreams come true, ladies."
He gets up and looks at us before finishing. "Let's make this dream fucking come true as well."
82
Austin
I've been having trouble fucking sleeping since Mistress Strokes told Destiny her story. The horrified look in her face told me something I really needed to realize: Lester has to be fucking stopped.
There has to be a way to do it.
Somehow.
"Austin … ?" I hear Destiny's voice coming from the bed, and I see her head peeking from under the covers. Her hair is disheveled and she has no makeup on but, somehow, I think that seeing her like this just makes me love her even more. Fantasies and mirrors are fun, but I think that the simple things are the ones most worthy of our attention.
And that's right.
I fucking love her. I'm sure of it by now.
I mean, I've been telling you for a few chapters now.
And regardless of what I do next, there's one thing I need to do first.
I need to fucking tell her.
"Yeah, babe, I'm here," I reply to her query.
I'm standing against the wall-to-ceiling windows in my (or should I say our?) bedroom, wearing nothing but boxer briefs. We fucked like crazy when we got home tonight, Strokes coming clean about everything drawing us even closer, but I just couldn't fall asleep.
Even when Destiny drifted off, I remained awake, staring at the ceiling and counting the minutes. Eventually, I just got out of the bed as quietly as I could and came here to the window so that I could watch the city outside.
There's something about New York that calms me down. Which is kinda fucking ironic, don't you think?
This city which really doesn't fucking sleep, it just has a soothing effect on me. Whenever I need to think, New York and its bright tall skyscrapers are what I turn to. Just like that tonight.
"What are you doing over there? Come back to bed," she tells me in a lazy tone, still half-asleep.
"I can't sleep. I'm thinking," I admit. My brain has been working non-stop since I came to the realization that I couldn't postpone a showdown any longer. The game between Lester and me and Strokes might have been a chess match, but now it's time to just kick the board and turn this into a boxing fight.
"Thinking?" she asks, and I roll my eyes. It's not like I don't fucking think. "About what?" She sits up on the bed, staring me. My eyes dart to her naked breasts, and I remember how it felt to feel them under my hands a while ago. My cock twitches inside my boxer briefs, but now isn't the time to be thinking of sex. I'm far too worried for that, which is another first for me, that's for sure.
I drag my feet back to the bed and sit next to her, holding her hand. "I'm trying to think of a way out of all this." I smile faintly but, to be honest, I don't have the slightest fucking clue about what we can do.
Even though we know what Lester is involved in, we have no evidence. Zero fucking proof. He might be a bastard, but he's a cunning bastard. He always does his dealings through someone else, and even his financials are handled through a fucking patsy.
As far as I can make out, the Commissioner is immune to whatever we do. And now he's closing in on us … He even gave Destiny an ultimatum. He wants her back on her side or he's going to go fucking berserk on us.
But there's no way I'm ever going to let go for that talk he wants to have. Unless …
Oh, fuck!
Why didn't I think of this before?
It's so fucking obvious!
"Babe, I fucking got it. We can fight him!" She looks at me with a pale smile, and that isn't exactly the reaction I was expecting. I was looking for some enthusiasm, even some excitement, but all she manages to present me with is a weak smile. What's going on here? "Babe, what is it? We can end him fucking once and for all."
Then, she says something that just hits me out of nowhere. "Austin … Why don't we just leave?" she whispers, lowering her voice so much that I can barely hear her words.
"Leave?" I ask, shocked.
"Yeah. Somewhere else … Somewhere far away from here," she says to me. "Away from all of this. I … I don't know what might happen if we go up against Lester. It's too dangerous for you, for me and for … " She stops, hesitating, and runs her tongue between her lips. "Austin, there's something I need to tell you."
"What?"
She pauses. Takes a deep breath.
I can't wait any fucking longer.
I need to tell her.
"I love you, Destiny Renee," I tell her.
"I'm pregnant, Austin" she says, and I don't know if she just replied or what.
Wait.
What?
I didn't see that fucking coming. "What did you just say?" I ask her in disbelief.
"Never mind me," she says to me. "What did you just say?"
My mouth hangs open as I try to understand the ramifications of what she just told me. Pregnant? As in p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t? I must have heard wrong.
"Austin," she says again. "I love you too."
"Pregnant?" I ask.
She nods. "Do you still love me after I told you?"
Is she fucking joking?
No, I didn't hear wrong. She's pregnant. Pregnant! I jump on top of the bed and hug her so tightly she has to push me away from her.
"I don't even know what to say." I look at her with a dumb smile, feeling so fucking happy.
I wasn't this happy when I became a millionaire for the first time, and I wasn't this happy when I opened Python.