The Cunning

16

"We had a call for Madison today," Benny said, rolling a joint as Jase entered the living room.

"And?" he asked. Benny looked at him as he licked the paper, folding it over.

"He wants to know when he can come and see her." Jase nodded slowly, taking his phone out and feigning nonchalance as he thought on his feet. Benny wasn't as easily placated as the others. He would need a better reason than her explosive temper for why Jase wouldn't have her work yet. That wouldn't bother Benny. He'd have her tortured into submission.

"When she's eighteen," Jase replied. Benny studied him with beady eyes.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his face pinched with pending disapproval. Jase lifted and dropped one shoulder. He had known Benny for years. The mere insinuation of acquiring more money had never failed to grip his attention.

"Unless he wants to pay another twenty bags." Benny's brows twitched with interest. "Think about it," Jase said, "he paid us to get her here, not her services. And he lied about her age. He told us she was eighteen. You know there's more risk taking girls under eighteen. Besides, if he's paid that much for one girl, why not make him pay a bit more? He's eager enough if he's calling us." Benny cocked his head. Jase milked the situation for all it was worth. "We keep her untouched for him until she's eighteen or, he pays more to get her now."

"What makes you so sure she's a virgin?" Benny questioned. Jase poked his tongue in his cheek and thought about Madison. He had no solid evidence or confirmation that she was. It was just a hunch, but they were seldom wrong. Madison simply didn't strike him as a girl that had many interactions with men. Jase shrugged.

"I don't. But nor does anyone else." In a few beats, a wicked grin split across Benny's face, and Jase relaxed.

"You know," Benny said, taking a lighter to the end of the joint hanging from his lips, "it's when you think like that I'm reminded why I took you under my wing in the first place." Jase refrained from scoffing. They both knew Benny needed him. The whole operation would crumble without Jase, and Benny would either be dead or in prison.

He didn't say this.

The promise of money was enough to assuage Benny for the time being, and that's all Jase cared about. Madison would start wearing thin soon enough. Working or not, the environment irretrievably broke the girls. You only had to strip someone of their rights for a good length of time before they stopped seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, ultimately giving up and turning into shells of their former selves. It was a shame for someone like Madison, so much wasted youth, but it was how things were. It was how they had always been. 

*

For those of you that don't know, who do you think the anonymous caller was? Someone we've already met or someone that had yet to be introduced?  Do you think Jase is being to brazen in ensuring Madison doesn't have a reason to expose Jase letting her go previously? Let me know your theories in the comments and don't forget to vote, every little helps :)