Chapter 16

Billie lay on the old mattress for a few minutes after the boy's left. She slowly removed a rag from her bag and started to clean herself. As she wiggled into her tight clothes, she looked at the girl and asked, "White bread, what be yo' name?"

She realized the girl was still gagged and removed what was left of the straps of her clothes.

"What yo' name?"

No answer. Billie gently slapped the girl on the cheek. The girl pulled out of her horror and whispered something in reply.

"Come on girl, speak up. You just cost me a lot of money, an expensive trick and a lot of dope. Baby that trick hurt like hell, too. Least you can do is tell me your name."

"I'm sorry, mam'. I'm Sally Brown."

"What you do here in the hood dressed like you was?"

"I was in my room at the casino when I found a note that said my cousin was running away. My aunt and I were looking for my cousin and got lost. Someone jumped us and my aunt sent me for help while she tried to keep the guy away from me. She called him Leroy, and he was really mad at Aunt Jamie."

"Yo' got lost? Yo' got lost?" laughed Billie. "Yo' almost got dead. What Billie gonna do with you, white bread? Leroy my man. What I ought to do is turn you over to Leroy and get my drugs back, but in a week yo' be drugged and turning tricks. I can't let someone go through that if I can help it."

"Miss Billie, my daddy has a lot of money. I'm sure that if you took me back to the Casino, he would give you money for your time and to replace your drugs."

"You really think he would give you money? My old man would never give any money for me."

Suddenly it hit Billie. "Your aunt a nigger?"

"No! She's African American and Irish. We don't use the word nigger in my family."

"And she knew Leroy?"

"Sure looked like it. She sounded like she was afraid of him."

"She smart to be scared of Leroy. He nasty man."

"We need to get some help for Aunt Jamie. Please."

"And your daddy gonna give me money?"

"Yes he will."

"y'all gotta get me some money. I start to hurt without my drugs."

"Miss Billy, I have my spending money my Uncle Paul gave me for the trip. If Daddy doesn't give you the money, I will give you the $500.00 I have."

"That's not enough."

"I'm sure Daddy will give you more, but if the $500.00 isn't enough, You can have my jewelry. Its worth money."

"OK, girl. Billie's gonna trust you. You lie to me, I'll steal you back and take you to Leroy. He make you turn tricks like me."

Billie unlocked Sally from the building and helped her stand on her shaky legs. "Come on girl. We gotta get you out of here fast."

"Yes mam, but my clothes."

"Look, white bread, you call me Billie."

"Only if you call me Sally."

Billy reached into her bag and pulled out an old t shirt. "This get you back to your Daddy."

They started walking in silence. "Are you mad at me, Billie?"

"Why you ask that?"

"You quit talking to me."

"My kind don't talk to class people like you."

"Why not? My stepmother was a prostitute when she was a young girl. She saved my life. Just like you saved my life. Thank you, by the way."

"Sally! Where have you been. You've got half the city looking for you!"

"Jeff!" Sally ran to the big man's embrace. "Aunt Jamie and I were looking for Sissy and we got jumped by some guy named Leroy. Jamie sent me for help and I got lost. Billie, here, saved my life."

"Thank you Miss ... Billie? My God what happened to you?"

"What yo' care."

"Billie? What kind of question is that? I loved you before you cut me out of your life."

"You and your boss cut me loose, and Leroy took me in. I have to make a living."

"Cy didn't cut you loose. His stage manager did. When Cy found out what he did, it was the final straw. He fired him. The guy was rippen Cy off anyway. We even talked to Leroy, but he said you had left town to go home. When we couldn't find you in Wisconsin after a month, we finally gave up. We just figured you didn't want to be found."

"I don't trust you," she whispered.

"Muffin, run and get the car. We need to get these women somewhere safe."

"What you mean safe?" asked Billie. "This my hood."

Jeff placed a massive arm around Billie's shoulders. "No Billie, this is Leroy's hood, and you just saved the only girl that can pin a murder rap on him."

Sally turned white. "Murder?"

"Sally, Jamie was pronounced dead about 2 hours ago."

The young girl would have fallen to the ground if Billie had not caught her.

"Jeff, what Billie gonna do?"

"The first thing you're going to do is to stop talking like a getto whore. You have a college degree in dance and a Masters in Stage Craft from the University of Wisconsin. Start acting like it."

"Jeff, it's been a long time."

"I know, Baby, but I'm here now. I am going to help you get through this. Let's get going." He pulled Billie to him and tenderly kissed her lips.

Tiny moved back into the shadow of the alley as waves of anger washed over his body. What the fuck did he just see? Billie is his. He told her he loved her. She swallowed his cum. She let some big white dude kiss her, and what was she doing with white bread? Something was wrong here.

XXXXXXXXXX

Leroy felt good as he surveyed his territory. Did he show that high toned nigger what it was about? God that felt good. He could still hear the impact of his cane on the woman's head. That stupid cracker, he hit her and kept hitting her. She sounded like a watermelon busten'. What a high. He got a piece, a Glock, out of it too. Leroy didn't need drugs to get high.

It was too bad about that little white cracker cunt that got away. Summers would have paid a lot of money for that little piece of ass. She knew how to dress for a man and was in better shape than those bus depot cunts. He might not have to kill this one. He'd need to get the boys to take a look for her before she could tell anyone about what happened. Yes, let them have Billie for a while that'd do it.

"Hey homey!"

Leroy, jerked out of his thoughts and became nasty in a hurry. "You ain't Leroy's homey. You my gang. You work for me. You ain't Leroy's homey."

"Come on bro! After what we gave Billie to give you, you ought to talk better to us."

"What ya' say?"

"We found this high class white "Brittany" looking for some help for some slut called Jamie, so we decide we gonna help her. We was gonna help her with her sex life, but Billie come 'long. Said that she wanted her to give to you as a gift. You know, Leroy, we like for you to be happy. Billie kind of paid us for the cunt, so we let her have her. She said she was bringing her to you.

"You should have had her by now. Maybe Billie wanted to play with her a little before she gave her to you. She fine white pussy."

"I got to have that cunt. You boys go out and find Billie. Bring her and the bitch back now. Tell Billie she can play with her after I say so and only after I say so. Where's Tiny, anyway?"

"Don't know where he went. He got all fucked up when Billie paid us. Said some shit about love and went off by his own. Ain't seen him since."

"Find his ass and put him to finden' Billie."

"I already find Billie," came a dejected voice from behind Leroy.

"So? Where's her black ass?"

"I see her get in car with some big white dude. Billie give him white bread, too."

"What white dude? What you mean give to him?"

"She called him Jeff. She kissed him. My Billie kissed that white dude."

Leroy looked at Tiny and shook his head in disbelief. "Who's Billie?"

Tiny was quickly jerked back to reality. "I mean that when you dump Billie, I'd like to buy her."

"You may not like what's gonna be left of her. No fucken bitch plays Leroy for a sucker. Go find out where she is and get back to me on it. You idiots made a mess of this one. I may cut you up with Billie if you don't make up for it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Paul rushed into the room and pulled Sally to his protective and comforting arms. "Are you OK, honey? Jeff told me you were in some trouble. Can you tell me what happened?"

Sally went through the process one more time to bring Paul up to date on what was happening. "Can you find this place again? We need to find Sissy and this seems to be the best place to start. Your grandparents are at the Bus depot now, but they have not been able to find anyone who recognizes her picture."

"I think so. Uncle Paul, I'm so sorry about Jamie. I should have stayed and helped her. I shouldn't have left her alone. This whole thing is all my fault."

"No Sally," whispered Jeff. "If you had stayed to help, we would have two dead people, not one."

"When you left the alley, did you see anyone else other than Leroy?"

"I think I ran into Leroy, but got away. Then I found a tall fat white guy as I left the alley. I asked him to help Aunt Jamie while I went to look for the police. He said he was the police and grabbed me by the arm. It hurt. I didn't think he was the police. The police I know don't act that way. I got scared and kicked him between the legs. He fell down on the ground and I ran. I was so scared that I forgot which way to go. I just ran.

"Then I ran into this black guy. I thought he was going to be nice and help me find the police, but when we walked past an alley, he pushed me in it. He and two of his friends gagged me and tore off my clothes. They were going to hurt me really bad, but Billy came by and saved me. My God what horrible things she had to do to make them leave me alone. We have to give her some money for saving me. She gave them all of hers."

"I'll take care of Billy," offered Jeff. "We are old friends. Cy has been looking for her for a long time."

"I need to meet this Billy and think her for her help," insisted Paul. "When you help my family, we owe you. Where..."

The door opened and Muffin walked into the room leading a very tired black woman of indefinite age. "Come on Billy. I want you to meet Paul Brown. He is Sally's uncle."

Billy looked at Paul and said, "I was afraid it was you. I'm so sorry about your wife. She was nice to me and I tried to fight her. I was wrong."

Paul's gaze stabbed Billy with pure horror. "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with Jamie's death, and I'll let you out of this room alive. Otherwise, I'll kill you with my bare hands."

Jeff quickly stepped in front of Paul. "You even try to touch Billy, I'll break your arm. She just saved Sally's life. What the fuck's wrong with you?"

Billy placed a hand on Jeff's arm. "Jeff, he has a right to ask. You don't know the whole story. Mister, I swear by all that is holy that I had nothing to do with your wife's assault. I wouldn't do that." Beads of sweat broke out on Billy's forehead as she doubled over with cramps.

Jeff said, "It's beginning. Muffin, call room service and get extra blankets up here. Call Claudia and then get her to bed. We are going to have a very rough couple of days. I'll call Cy and get some help.

Paul looked at the suffering woman with growing confusion. "What's wrong with her? I didn't touch her."

"She used all her drugs to buy me from those boys. She's in withdrawal. We learned about this in school. She needs a doctor. If she comes down wrong, it could kill her."

Jeff moved to Billie's side and pulled her down on the sofa. As he sit next to her, he put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to him. "We're going to get you through this, Billie. You've got all the help you need. Paul, you find the guy who did this to Jamie and Billie. We'll take care of Billie."

Paul knelt next to Billie. "When you get better, I have a whole lot of apologizing to do to you. Give me that chance, honey. Give me that chance."

Bob opened the door and rushed to Sally's side. "Baby! Are you OK?"

"Sure Dad. Thanks to Billie, I'll be just fine. She saved my life, and now she's suffering for it."

Muffin hung up the phone. "Listen folks. Jeff and I are going to be busy for quite a while here. Billie's withdrawal is going to be a trip through pure hell, and she needs some quiet. Can you move to another room?"

"Sure Muff. We're out of here. Bob, Sally, lets go to my suite. Shawn you with us or are you going to help Billie?"

"If this woman saved my stepdaughter's life, we owe her. I've gone through this myself, Paul. I may be of more help here. If you need me, call."

Paul moved the plants off the coffee table and laid out a legal pad. "Before we get started on this, I need to bring up something here. Sally. Were you and Sissy toying around with a movie?"

Sally turned bright red and dropped her head to her hands. Tears leaked down the side of her cheeks. "Doctor Ron said he wouldn't tell anyone."

A strange look came over Bob as he looked at his daughter. "Maybe you'd better fill us in. What did you guys get into, and why is Ron involved?"

Sally started with the accident in the alley and retold the story of her rescue by Kyle and Ron. "For some reason, Sissy thought that she and her mother were going to get thrown out on the street by Uncle Paul. She really wanted to do the movie because there was a lot of money involved. She talked me into doing a screen test for what I thought was a teen movie"

"What made your realize that this was more than a screen test for a teen movie?"

"Dad, I started having doubts when they talked us into taking off our clothes. Something made my mind all cloudy, and I just did what they told me to do. They said that all the movie stars do it, and it was no big deal in this industry. I didn't want to, but Sissy said that she really needed to do this and that they would not take her without me. So I took off my clothes. We kind of kissed each other for a while and sort of played with each other's boobs for a while.

"At lunch, I met two other actors. They told me that this was a porno, and that they were going to use another girl to do the sex scenes and put my picture on them. I told them how old I was and that I didn't want anymore of this. They helped me get Doctor Ron and he brought Kyle. There was some trouble, and Kyle had to fight to get Sissy out of oral sex with a stage manager."

"Sally! I'm gonna ground your for the rest of your life. Do you have some kind of death wish?"