Ace Of Spades (Complete Raw First Draft, Unedited)

Five: The Family

It wasn't like I hadn't done it before. Often, I'd been sent to clubs like this for entertainment, along with some of the other girls. I preferred these places. I could drink or smoke or snort of inject my way into oblivion. I didn't have to worry about what would happen to me, because I wouldn't remember it anyway. I preferred that.

Katy seemed kind of surprised when I nodded and shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm willing to do anything," I told her.

She nodded as well, then tilted her head toward the building.

"Come on then," she said, and I followed her inside. "I'll introduce you to Mum."

"Your mum's here?" I wondered, following her into the clubhouse, which was set up like a bar. There were a few people milling around, drinking, smoking and laughing. The place was even kept quite tidy, not as dingy as some of the places I'd had to go.

Katy laughed and shook her head.

"No, my actual mum's in the slammer again," she told me, rolling her eyes. "Debbie, she's the Queen. She's kind of like everyone's mum."

"The Queen?" I repeated.

"Yeah," Katy explained. "Her old man's the Pres of the Specters, and she's the queen."

I wasn't really following what she was saying, so I just nodded, and followed her through a door at the side of the bar, into what seemed to be a small office.

There was a woman seated at a desk, going over papers, a pen in one hand and a calculator in the other.

"Hey, Mum," Katy greeted her, and the woman, Debbie, I presumed, looked up from the numbers, removing the pair of reading glasses that were perched on the bridge of her long nose.

"Hey, baby," she said, her voice kind, just like her eyes, and I immediately felt at ease in her presence. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Jenna," Katy introduced us. "Jenna, this is the Queen."

"Hello, Jenna," the Queen said, smiling kindly. "Call me Debbie, or Mum. Only the boys call me the Queen. Keeps them in line."

Katy laughed while the Queen sat her pen down.

"She's looking for work, you know?" Katy shrugged.

"Work huh?" The Queen repeated, raising a thin eyebrow. "What kind of work?"

"The paying kind," Katy said, inspecting her manicure.

"Ah," the Queen said, studying me for a second. "This your first gig, sweetie?"

I shook my head.

"You on the run, or something? Anyone looking for you?"

"No," I lied.

"Are you eighteen yet?" She eyed me for a moment, trying to work out my age, I suppose. "I don't want any of my boys going away for getting involved with an underage kid."

"She's eighteen, Mum," Katy put in, and the Queen turned back to me, quizzically.

I nodded.

"I'm actually twenty."

"You look a bit innocent, for twenty," the Queen commented.

I said nothing. I wasn't sure what she was talking about. My age had never mattered before.

"Alright," the Queen made her decision, nodding her head. "She can have a room, as long as she doesn't go crying rape. I'll tear those pretty blonde locks out, if you do that, got it sweetie? My boys respect us girls."

She looked at me sternly over the top of her glasses and I quickly nodded.

"Alright," she smiled, a lovely smile that made her look at least ten years younger. "Welcome to the family, then baby doll."

***

"She liked you," Katy observed, making our way back to the main part of the building. She gave me a tour of the place, showing me the rooms out the back and introduced me to some of the people who were there.

"When do you want to start?" Katy wondered.

"Whenever," I answered with a shrug.

"You want to see if Boomer wants to get a little more acquainted, then?" She suggested with a smirk. "He's scary at first, but he's a gentle giant. He'll go easy on you, if you ask him to."

I nodded and followed her to the bar.

I didn't bother to mention that I didn't care one way or another if he was careful with me or not. I was well accustomed to men who enjoyed hurting me, the sound of screaming, crying and begging like music to them. Eventually, you learn to block out the pain, to separate yourself from your body and just do what you'd learned to do. The quicker you satisfied their lust, the quicker they'd let you go.

It doesn't matter what happens to you, because you aren't even there, anymore.

"Boomer," Katy called to the hulking man by the pool table. "Wanna meet the new girl?"

Boomer eyed me, shrugging nonchalantly, then turned back to the two others, both holding pool cues. "You boys might have finally finished this fucking game by the time I get back."

They both laughed, and I followed Boomer into the rooms out the back, already on auto pilot. My body knew what to do, I didn't even have to think about it anymore.

I didn't think about anything at all.