Servant of Lust

Chapter 14

"Mitchie? Wake up, Sweetie."

The words come through my fogged, sleepy head and I open my eyes slowly.
"Are we there, yet?"

"Yeah, we're about to land in Chicago right now..." Scott answers.

I nod and sit up and adjust my bangs. It's been a week since I've arrived back in L.A. and now Scott and I were on our way to get James out of the brothel.

Life back at home is okay for now. I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm back in my old surroundings.
So far we decided to keep my return a secret, at least until I felt better and ready to reveal everything.
Overall I don't feel too good. The first few days I spend recovering my body. The pain is completely gone, but I got scars left that I'll carry with me for the rest of my life. Then there's the thing with insomnia. As soon as I was feeling better physically my brain started to work against me. I spend the nights awake most of the time, only getting the amount of sleep my body needs to not collapse during the day. I basically live off of naps. The rest of the time I am either with Scott or Alex or thinking. A lot of thinking to be honest. I think about how my life is going to be now, how James will react and so on and so forth. And about what the doctor said. Alex made an appointment to get a check-up and to get tested for STD's, of course. I'm clean for now, I got the results yesterday. Yet, I'll need to be tested again in four weeks to be entirely sure. The doctor has put me on medication, just in case and gave me some pills to help me fall asleep at night. I don't take them, though, I'm too scared to become addicted to them.
I thought that once I'm out of the brothel I'd feel better. Different. Not filthy. At the airport I thought that every guy was watching my body. It was as if they knew about what I'd done in the past months. Thankfully Scott was there. I held on to him for dear life.

"Okay. Are we heading for the apartment first and then going there?" I ask. I really want to get the getting-James-out-of-the-brothel - part over with as soon as humanly possible.

"Yes, we both need a little fresh up and some sort of snack, then we're good to go! Did you talk to Jen again?" Scott returns.

"Jep, we're all set up. She tries to get him completely free in the evening so we can get to him without waiting." I play with my safety belt absentmindedly, something that doesn't go unnoticed.

Scott nods and smiles slightly. "You nervous?"

"Of course I am, Scotty. I just hope that everything will work out."

"It will. Alex told us exactly what to do. We'll make it."

I smile and lie my head down his shoulder, loving his optimism.

~

Scott parks the rental car in front of the building I used to live in. For the
first time I can really see it from the outside. And it just looks like a real apartment complex. Neat but not too modern. It doesn't stand out. I sigh and open the car door, adjusting my carefully styled bangs and my make-up in the mirror. I want to look my best tonight, want to show the Boss and everyone that I am living the life again, although I'm not really doing that. But I'm a good actor, so leaving an impression won't be too hard.

"Ready to go?" Scott holds out his hand and helps me out of the car.

"I'll probably never be ready but we need to do this."

Together we go into the building and up to the room where Jen is sitting at a small table.

"You made it" she exclaims and jumps up, hugging me softly.

I chuckle and return the hug. "Of course we did."

She looks at me. "You look good."

I shake my head. "That's just make-up. I'm not feeling to good right now. Anyway, what about the Boss. Can we talk to him about James?"

"Yes, just wait a second, I'm going to announce that you want to talk to him." She gets up and goes to another room to talk to the Boss.

Scott and I, we don't talk. If he's only half as nervous as I am, it's bad.

"You can go in, now." Jen comes back and smiles encouragingly.

I nod and go over to the door she's holding open for us and into the room where the Boss is sitting at a huge desk in a throne-like leather armchair. He's looking over to us and I hold my head up high, trying not to show how much he's intimidating me.

"Mr Grassi. Did you miss being here?" he mocks and grins lopsided.

I ignore this statement and wait for Scott to speak up. We've decided that he should be the one to do the talking since Alex has instructed him on what to say.

"We're here to pay the debt for James, the young guy who works in room 6."

"James..." he chuckles darkly and pulls out a folder. "Let me see..." He looks through the folder agonisingly slow, nodding every now and then. "He's got eight left. But should I let him go?"

"I'll give you ten and we'll take him away."

I look to Scott and back to the Boss, hoping that he'd say yes.

"Ten cash?"

"Of course. I've got the money." Scott pulls out the grey envelope and hands it over.

We both wait as the Boss counts the money. Once he's finished, he nods and takes James's folder, throwing it into the huge shredder next to the desk.

"He's all yours."

I nod and turn around to leave the room. Scott says something but I can only focus on getting up to James.

I run past Jen and up the stairs. I hear that Scott is following me. I stop in front of James's room, pull myself together and knock before opening the door.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know, please don't be mad." James stands up. His body is bruised just like mine was and his body language shows how broken he is.

"James it's okay, it's just me. Me and Scott." I move closer to him and it breaks my heart to see him flinching.

"Look at me, please." I try again.

He raises his head up. "Mitchy? Its really you?"

"Yes and I'm going to take you home with me." I close the distance between us and put a hand on his cheek, looking directly into his eyes, mine filling up with tears as I see in his eyes how broken he is.

"Oh James, I'm going to help you back up" I whisper softly as I take him into my arms.

~~~~~~

A/N: Sorry that you had to wait so long for this.

I'm still so amazed when I see you voting for my stories. Makes me so happy. Thank you so much.

Anyway. I'm tired, it's 11.30 p.m. and I've been up since 5.15 :( but I wanted to finish the chapter for you guys!!