The Preacher's Daughter (15 page)

"I guess that'll do," she said as she surveyed the make-up job. "Is it terribly obvious?

"Not so much with all the blush," Claire said.

Naomi stood and picked up the wrap and little silver purse.

"Have fun," Claire said.

Naomi suddenly felt as if she were going to cry. "OK," she said.

She walked out of the room. "Cotton Eye Joe" was thumping from the other room. Candy was doing her cowgirl routine again. Men whooped and hollered. Two more girls, one obviously stoned, walked past Naomi in the hall. They were dressed like cheerleaders.

The room at the end of the room had formerly been an office. Now it was marked "Private."

Naomi took a deep breath as she opened the door. The room was poorly lit, almost dark. In the corner she could see the silhouette of a man sitting in a chair. He was wearing a coat and a fedora. His head was down. She couldn't see his face.

She moved to turn on the light.

"No." His voice sounded odd, as if he was purposefully trying to deepen it. "Leave them off for now."

"Fine."

"What's your name?"

"Naomi."

"The man I set this up with said your name is Angel."

"That's my stage name."

He motioned to a chair sitting about twelve feet in front of him in the center of the room. "Sit down," he croaked.

Naomi stood for a moment, uncertain of how to interpret his strange behavior.

"Please," he said.

She walked to the chair and sat down facing him. He turned on a light beside him. It was a lamp aimed at her. It bathed her in light. She blinked against the harsh brightness of it. She could barely see the man now at all.

"Why do they call you Angel?"

"I have a tattoo of an angel on my back."

"You like angels?"

When I was little I believed in them. I believed I had one watching out for me because my dad told me I had one. He said it was my guardian angel. Later I stopped believing that. I lost that faith. The angel on my tattoo is falling. It represents that loss.

"That's a sad story," the man said. "Did you ever try to get it back?"

"Get what back?"

"Your faith?"

Naomi felt herself growing impatient. "Is this what you wanted? To discuss my spiritual beliefs? Because I was under the impression that..."

"That what? I wanted to have sex with you?"

"That was the implication I got from Jasper," she said.

"Is that what you want?" he asked.

She paused. "No," she said. "I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't have to be."

"What's to stop you from walking away?"

"Fear."

"Fear of what?"

"Not fear 'of,'" she said. "Fear 'for.'"

"You're protecting somebody?" he said.

Naomi fell silent. "Look," she said. "I probably need to stop talking. I'm sure this is all very novel for you, coming in dressed like Dick Tracy with your twenty questions. Who knows, maybe this is your idea of foreplay. If it is, then that's fine. But if it's all the same I'd like to get this over with because I've never done anything like this before and really want to get it over with."

Her voice was shaking.

The man sighed. "All right," he said. He stood up and walked over to Naomi. Slowly. Her heart pounded as he approached. He grabbed her just as he stepped into the light. His hand went over her mouth and her eyes flew open as she looked up into his face.

Her legs went limp with surprise. He supported her gently as he made his way back to the chair.

"Sssssshhhh," he said, removing her hand from her mouth.

Naomi choked back the sob in her throat.

"Eric?" She could barely speak his name. "What? How?"

"Shh," he said again, putting a finger over her lip. "I found your cell phone in your room. I read the text. I hopped the first flight I could. I got in tonight and saw you...."

"You saw me dance." She felt ill. "Oh..."

"Don't. Don't explain. That man. That Jasper. He's a snake, Naomi."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Why didn't you tell me? Do you really think I'd have condemned you for being a stripper?"

"I wasn't a stripper. Not like this," she said. "When I left we were just stripping down to our panties and wore pasties. When I came back Jasper said there had been changes. We were going full, he said and...Oh God, Eric. There's this girl...."

"Woman?"

"Girl," she repeated. "She's barely eighteen and she's scared to death. Jasper's beaten her."

"Has he hit you?"

Naomi looked away. "That's not important."

"Yes, it is!" As he said the words, he took her face in his hand to turn it back to his. Naomi yelped as his hand came in contact with her bruised cheekbone. Eric held her as he rubbed the makeup away.

"Naomi..."

"I'm OK, really."

"No, you're not. Come on. We're getting you out of here." He stood, taking her by the hand.

"No. I can't go without Claire."

"Claire?"

"The girl," she said. "She's in the dressing room. We're supposed to go to her place and spend the night. It's over on Court Street. 347 she said. Let's just all meet over there later."

"Why?" he asked. "Why don't we just all leave together now?"

Naomi shook her head. "Look, Eric. Jasper's dangerous. He wasn't like this before but since I've left he's gone off the edge. If we try to leave here someone might get hurt. It's better to just not arouse suspicion. We'll be over at Court Street in an hour. Just meet us there, OK?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Please!"

He sighed and then hugged her to him. "I just don't want to let you out of my sight, Naomi!"

She hugged him back. "Eric..."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I handled everything so wrong at church. You were right. If you only knew how I've prayed you'd forgive me." He held her away and looked into her face. "Do you?"

"Of course," she said. And she meant it. "I shouldn't have left. I should have tried to talk to you. But I was so mad. But then when I got here and found Claire."

She looked into his eyes. "Eric, do you think God meant for me to come back here. To help her?"

He smiled and tenderly rubbed her face. "Do you think so?"

She nodded. "I do. When I told her I'd help her, I felt closer to God than I've felt in years."

"I love you," he said. "I love you so much."

"Then meet me in an hour at Court Street."

He kissed her. "Will do."

He stood.

"Eric?" she asked as he was leaving. "How much did Jasper make you pay for me?"

"Seven hundred," he said. "If you have any idea how much I wanted to hit him for putting a price on something too valuable to be sold..."

She could see the anger in his eyes and was sorry she'd asked.

"See you later?" she said.

He nodded and walked out the door.

Chapter Eleven

Jasper was waiting in the dressing room when she got back. Claire was asleep on the couch.

"Did you....?" She asked when she saw the girl.

"No, I didn't give her anything. She was conked out when I got here." He walked over and smiled. "So, how did it go?"

She turned away. "How do you think it went. You arranged for me to sleep with a total stranger."

"This should make you feel better, Angel." He dropped a hundred dollar bill on the dressing table. "That's your half."

She wanted to punch him. He'd sold her as a whore and pocketed six hundred dollars.

Naomi said nothing as she picked up the hundred. At least she could give some of Eric's money back to him.

"Want to go out for a drink?"

"No. I'm tired and sore and depressed," she said. "And I'm worried about Claire."

She walked over and knelt down beside the girl. "Claire," she said. "Hey, baby. Wake up. I'll walk you home."

"She looks tired," Jasper said. "Let me give you two a ride."

Naomi felt a surge of fear. Eric would be waiting for them. The last thing they needed was an awkward encounter with Jasper.

"No," she said. "No thanks. I mean, we appreciate the offer but believe me, Claire needs to walk. I've had enough hangovers to know what I'm talking about."

She helped the girl to her feet.

"So you're staying with her tonight, then?" he asked.

Naomi didn't want to answer but felt she had no choice. To deny it would be to invite questions about what she planned to do, or worse, would see Jasper offer lodging for her at his place.

"Yeah. Just in case she needs anything. Can you help me get a place of my own tomorrow?"

He smiled. "Of course," he said. "I'll front you the money. You can just pay me back."

He was still running the same scam. Get the girls in debt so they were little more than indentured servants. Bastard.

"Fine. Whatever." Naomi took Claire's hand.

"Come on," she said.

She could feel Jasper's eyes on them as they walked.

"Did you say anything to him about what we talked about?" she asked as they got outside.

"No," Claire said, pulling her sweater closer to her thin frame. "But he sure asked."

"What did he ask?"

"He wanted to know what I had told you about things at the club. He wanted to know if I'd told you how he'd beaten me. I said it was none of your business."

"Good," Naomi said. "Jasper thinks women are stupid, so playing stupid is the best way to get around his questions. Letting guys like that inside your head is dangerous, Claire. They pretend to care but what they really want to do is find out your weaknesses and fears so they can exploit them."

"Is that what he did to you?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Naomi sighed. "My father's a preacher. He's a hard, inflexible hypocritical man. My mother is weak before him in so many ways. They've tried since I was small to script my life into not what I wanted but into the kind of existence that would make them look good. They picked my clothes, my friends, my music, my schools. It was horrible. In college I snapped. I took off one day and came here, thinking I could join a commune, become a hippie..."

"But you found Jasper."

"Well, he found me actually. He filled my head with all these hopes and dreams of doing commercials, making quick money.."

"Me too," Claire said. "He got me a room, took photos. And before I knew I owed him eight hundred bucks."

Naomi nodded. "That's his M.O." She shook her head. "It works, I guess. The next thing I know I'm dancing at Pinnacle, just like you."

"But you left," Claire said. "I wish I could leave. Why did you come back."

"I fell in love," Naomi said. "I didn't tell the guy everything about my past. I didn't feel like I was good enough for him, really. When I thought he thought the same thing I left."

"Is that how he felt?"

"No," Naomi said. "He loves me too." She stopped and took Claire's arm gently and turned her towards her.

"I've got to tell you something, Claire, but you have to be very quiet just in case we run into Jasper or someone else from the club. The man I fell in love with - he tracked me down here tonight. He wants me to leave with him and I want to go. I would have left with him earlier except for one thing. I want to take you with us."

"Seriously?" The girl's expression was a mixture of deep relief and joy. "I can go?"

"Of course," she said.

"I don't want to go back home, though. My parents were worse than strict. My stepdad, he...let's just say he wanted me to do things...."

"You don't have to. You can come with us if you want. But I'm not leaving you here. My friend, Eric, he's going to meet us over at where you're staying."

"That's great!" They walked faster now, eager to get to the little house on Court Street.

"That's it," Claire said, pointing to a ramshackle one-story structure with a weedy yard. Two men loitered in a side lot. They wore bandanas on their heads and matching wife-beater tees. Their pants hung down past their hip bones.

"Hey, mamacitas!" One of the men called out. "Come smoke with us!"

The younger of the two waved a joint at them.

"Not tonight, guys." Naomi knew from experience that sometimes it was better to politely decline than to ignore some men. Looking down fearfully without speaking ws like asking to be pursued.

"Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Maybe."

They walked faster. Naomi didn't see any sign of Eric, but they were early. Then she heard a car engine and breathed a sigh of relief until she heard Claire gasp.

"Oh no." She looked up. It was Jasper's car.

"Shit," she said under her breath. "Let me do the talking, OK?"

Claire nodded.

He was out of the car and on the porch before they made it up the steps.

"Evening, ladies."

"Jasper, what do you want? I told you I'd see you tomorrow." Naomi asked wearily, trying to make her voice sound as casual as possible.

"I was just worried, you know, wanted to make sure you girls got here OK."

"Well, we did."

He looked at her. "You seem in an awful big hurry to get rid of me tonight, Angel. Why is that?"

"I'm tired, Jasper. I told you."

Claire opened the door but as she went in, Jasper stopped Naomi with a hand to her shoulder.

"You know, Angel. Something about you seems sneaky to me. You've changed since you got back. You aren't the same sweet, trusting thing you used to be."

"I'm smarter now, Jasper," she said.

"You aren't that smart," he said quietly. "You still need somebody to look after you. And I aim to do it. Look what I got.."

She gasped when she saw the handgun.

"Don't be afraid," he said. "This is a rough town, ya know. A lot of things can happen to women here. I thought you'd be relieved to see that I was packing heat. Don't it make you feel good, knowing I'll protect what's mine if I have to?"

She could hear the sound of another car engine now. Naomi caught the glimpse of the taxi from the corner of her eye. She refused to look at it, hoping that Eric would understand something was wrong, that he wouldn't get out.

No such luck. The car rolled to a stop at the curb.

"Dear God," she prayed. "No."