Alessio did something that both shocked and frightened me, something I never expected. He laughed. Well, if anything it was more of a faint chuckle, but it suspected it was the closest thing to a laugh that I would hear from him.
"Why do these girls come here?" I pressed again. "You know I could just start asking around and putting the pieces together myself."
"You know I could just save both of us the time and expose of you now?"
"If you were going to do that you would have already!" I accused.
"And how do I know you aren't going to talk?"
"How do you know anyone here isn't going to talk?"
"Because they're grateful." He said simply with a shrug.
"Or terrified of you."
"Perhaps. I've never bothered to ask, only to cover my trail."
"So? You know I'm not going to talk. You've totally covered the terrified portion of this thing."
"Fine."
I tried to stop my mouth from gaping open like a fish, but I didn't do so well.
"But nothing I do comes free of charge."
I snapped my mouth shut. "O-okay." I stammered.
Everyone has a price. I remembered from my list of things I had learned.
"You stay, finish out the year. It gets terribly fun around the holidays down here. When midnight strikes, December the 31st, you may leave if you so choose, and to finish I'll grant you the same luxury I grant all of our women."
"Which is?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself. I'll tell you everything, if you stay."
"And what if I don't want to stay?"
"Then you leave tonight."
"How do you know I won't tell?"
He raised a coy eyebrow.
"Okay, okay. So you know I won't tell. How do I know you aren't just screwing me? That I'm going to walk out the door and you just shoot me immediately?"
He laced his fingers together. "And what would you do if I told you that was precisely what I was to do Katherine? Would your predicament change in the least? If I told you I was fucking with you right now would you have any other options or would you be just as against the wall then as you are now?"
Point made.
"We'll be relocating as it is anyway. We don't take unnecessary risks." It was hard to imagine a place this big just picking up and moving somewhere else. How the construction could possibly be done in secrecy, how would they cover up this place? Of course I knew without a doubt I wouldn't tell. If it was just my life on the line I might risk it. But I knew I wouldn't be the first they took down to protect this secret and I wasn't willing to have my family killed for my poor decision making either.
"So I could leave today? You'd just let me?"
"You'd know nothing of course."
"What does my staying do to benefit you?"
His cocky air fell for a brief moment. "I'm curious Katherine. Simply curious."
"You're curious?" I repeated. He didn't say anything, just stared me down. "I'll stay." I decided. I had already lost my job, been missing for nearly a month, if I just walked out today I would have no clue what all of this was for and still be just as lost and possibly in danger as I would be if I stayed. I had literally nothing to lose by staying a few months.
"Anything for the scoop, huh?" He chuckled again and it sent shivered up my spine.
"You're in the mafia aren't you?" I wished again I had a pen and paper now.
"We don't like to use labels. But I am the mafia, tesoro."
(sweetheart)
This threw me off. I was flustered but forced another question out. I couldn't believe he was actually just sitting in front of me totally open to my questions like this. "Okay. So...tell me, why do the girls want to be here?"
"Because they were in trouble. Nearly all have been acquired by a friend. Those who are not a purchase, they have an outstanding debt, an abusive boyfriend, maybe they've become a prostitute and don't know how to get out. They know someone who has the connections to get to me."
"Acquire? Purchase?"
"Human trafficking Katherine."
My eyes widened, he didn't seem the least bit phased or uncomfortable.
"I don't traffic women. Not my line of duty. But I have a friend heavy in it, I bring the girls my way and offer them an out. Work for me and have no rent, no expenses, more freedom than they were granted above, and at the end I will pay them."
"Freedom?" I scoffed. "I would not use the word freedom and...well, this, whatever I want to even label this in the same sentence!"
"Are you familiar with the trafficking industry Katherine?"
"I'm a reporter, my dad is a cop, you tell me."
"Then you should be aware of the living conditions. Women living in a small place with some dozens of others, not receiving proper nutrients, not permitted hygiene privlegdes, not getting medical treatment under any circumstances, along with the obvious darker side to things. Yes, they are granted more freedom here than with the violent and abusive men who have snatched them off the streets and intend to sell them to the highest bidder."
"Uh, point made." I muttered. "What happens when they don't want to work for you?"
"This is usually figured out before I purchase, if they are uninterested, I move on."
"You move on? You just leave them there? With those men?"
He raised an eye brow at my outburst and I quieted. "As I was saying, I move on. Should I make the purchase and they then decide they are uninterested. Well like I said, my girls are free to go at any point but I don't interfere with what happens to them after they go. Maybe they fall back into the same patterns, reconnect with their abusive boyfriend, lose them selves in drugs again. At the point they leave us, we leave them. To an extent of course. They do still owe us their silence."
We fell into a silence for a few minutes as I ran all this through my head. I couldn't decide if he was great, or twisted. "You said...you pay them?"
"We'll sit down, have a discussion, agree on payment and length."
"Tell me more about that."
"It's pretty simple actually." He hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Your roommate, she agreed to three years and forty-thousand. Now, I know what you're thinking, that's not even a minimum wage job." He said holding a hand up to stop me before I could interject. "But they have no bills down here, no rent, no utilities, nothing. Their food, their clothes, everything is provided to them at no cost."
"But once they leave here, won't they just go back to their old problems?"
"In theory they could." He shrugged. "We do everything we can for my girls." He said sounding firm about this matter, whereas before he seemed carefree. "I grant them the decision, where do they want to go? I'll take them anywhere in the United States and we'll help them get back on their feet as best we can. Allow them to stay with one of our men in the area until they get their own place."
"So you think you're helping them?"
"I know I am." He said simply. "And of course, it's cheap labor for me as well. They always make more than what I give them anyway." He shrugged. "They are allowed tips. Though many tip with material goods rather than cash, as they have no need for it down here."
That explained all the goodies Mia had decorating her side of the room and bed. "How do you know they won't tell once they go back?"
"Well, for starters they have no clue where they are sent. This isn't our only location. We have several in the country. They aren't conscious when they are brought here, nor when they leave. So they may have gone to sleep in, I don't know, Denver Colorado and woke up here in New York. They don't know they're in New York, or if they've even left Denver. They would have a hell of a time finding this place or anyone in it."
"Not conscious, are they-"
"Drugged. Yes. But they know they will be before being brought here. If someone wants to take them above ground, they are drugged and taken to another city. It would be nearly impossible for them to figure out where they are actually stationed."
"Even still. No one has ever talked?"
"Oh they've tried." He laughed at this. Actually laughed, a full, open laugh that made me actually shiver. "Let's just say, it doesn't end well in their favor."
I looked down to my lap. "What happens if they change their mind about being down here?"
"Well. This is often more than many are prepared for. So we have a thirty day grace period. If they change their mind within the first thirty days I'll simply drop two grand on their lap and send them back to where they came. If they're here for much longer and decided they don't want to be here I'll still drop the two grand and will, if they deserve it, still relocate them."
"So what if someone was here for two years and had agreed to three, you'd still only give them the two thousand?"
"They're still making out in the deal. Still getting two years free room and board and have been saved from that particularly dirty industry." He shrugged. "Besides, they know all of this coming down."
"And you are, of course, making out very well in that deal." I muttered.
"Of course." We quieted. I had had so many thoughts and questions while under here now that I had the chance to get them all out my mind was failing me. He watched me for another few moments. "Out of questions already?"
"Of course not." I lied. I had so many questions, but none came to me now. This was too much pressure. Would he let me ask him more questions as I was here or was this a one and done sort of deal? "Tell me about the pink ladies."
"That's pretty self-explanatory isn't it?"
I shrugged. It's not like I didn't have time to kill, I had just agreed to three more months down here after all. What else did I have to do with my time?
"They are women who choose to have intercourse while down here. Of course, when this first started I had only wanted a string of attractive women to serve my men while wearing attractive clothing. I suppose you could compare it to a Hooters. But, much, much better of course."
"Of course." I rolled my eye.
"I welcomed the girls, we worked out payment, discussed wardrobe and told them that they would of course not have to sleep with anyone and no one would make a move so long as they were under my protection. One of the girls finally asked, what if we want to sleep with them? I'm a reasonable man, who was I to deny these women their primal, natural needs?" I rolled my eyes and he smirked, clearly pleased with my reaction. "Naturally, I said I would allow it to those who were willing."
"Naturally."
"We developed the idea of the jewelry when we encountered some...problems."
My interest was immediately peaked. "Problems?"
"It became a matter of he said, she said. He said she was willing, she said she was not. It made for a nasty disagreement and quite the awkward spot for me to choose between my men and my women."
I wanted to ask who he chose, but was unsure I would like the answer.
"So now to become a pink lady everyone must go through me first." He shrugged.
I frowned. The idea of asking Alessio permission to sleep with one of these guys...gross.
"Now?" He mocked, again referring to my lack of questions.
"Of course not." I bluffed and we sat in silence as I shifted through my mind trying to find more questions.
"If you think of anymore, you may come to me." He said finally and a second later a broad grin crossed his face. "I'll be like your genie, granting you three wishes." He chuckled again. "You may come to me three more times, la tua grazia."
(Your grace)
"Three more times?"
"Si mia cara"
(Yes my dear)
"You know I don't speak Italian."
"Lo so." He shrugged and I frowned. "Go back to your room. Pietro will show you back." He motioned towards the broad fellow who had brought me back here.
(I know)
I looked back to him once more and nodded awkwardly before following Pietro back to my room silently wondering why I had agreed to staying here when he showed me the door.