I slammed the drink down and poured another one, downing that one as well.
I took a deep breath, looked her in the eyes, and started at the beginning.
This would either be the end of us or the beginning of something I knew deep in my heart I wanted.
“I began selling drugs when I was twelve. My mother worked two jobs and yet we still never had everything we needed. My father didn’t give two shits if our cupboards were empty. Leroy roped me into his gang and taught me how to make money. He also taught me how to channel the anger that was burning holes in my soul. Up until that point, I directed my anger at myself. I fucking hated myself. My father resented my existence, and so did I. Leroy taught me how to fight and used me to take care of his shit. It was bad shit and as much as I hate some of what I did, it forced the anger out of me. Forced me to stop bottling it all up.” I took another breath and watched her reaction.
She poured us another drink, and as she gave it to me, said, “Keep going, baby.”
Fuck.
The softness in her voice fucking slayed me.
Perhaps Merrick was right.
Perhaps she would cope with this shit and accept me.
“I was seventeen the first time I killed someone. That’s how I got my name, Blade. I killed him with a knife. I did it for Leroy. He had us all under his control to the point where we did whatever he said. Even my mother couldn’t break the control he had over me. God knows she tried. Leroy ran drugs and women, but I was pretty much only tied up with the drugs side of his organisation. I only learnt more about the prostitution when I met Ashley. I was twenty-five by then, and she opened my eyes to the evil in Leroy that I’d been unable to see before. He was forcing women into his brothels by getting them hooked on his fucking drugs, and when they owed him so much money they’d have no way of paying it back, he’d force them to work for him. Ashley was different; she didn’t owe him money, her brother did. Leroy tried to force her to pay off her brother’s debt when she attempted to negotiate the payment of the debt with him. Our paths crossed the day she went to see him and she told me everything. I didn’t want to believe her, but hearing her story made me go to the brothels, and I talked with the women there. After some persuasion, they confirmed everything.”
I stopped talking. My heart pumped furiously in my chest as the memories assaulted me, and I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to get my breathing under control. Layla placed her hand on my back and began rubbing it. My eyes found hers and I saw only kindness and concern there.
“Do you want more?” she asked, jerking her chin at the scotch.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Okay, baby.” She kept massaging my back, her touch reaching my soul.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
She nodded and waited for me to continue, her hand never leaving me.
“Merrick and I came up with a plan to deal with Leroy. I’d known Merrick since I was about fourteen. He’d been recruited by Leroy to sell drugs as well, and he’d had enough of all the shit we were involved in. I killed Leroy, and we split his organisation in half. One of the other gang members took the drugs, and we took the women. We shut the brothels down, but then we had the problem that they needed to earn money, and most of them were junkies by that point and all they knew was prostitution. Merrick found a clothing manufacturing business for sale so we bought that with the profit Leroy had made, and the women worked there instead.”
I paused and she asked, “So that’s what you do?”
I realised I’d never spoken about my work with her. “It’s not my main business. We don’t make any profit on that side of our organisation. In fact, that business runs at a loss because we employ more women in it than we actually need. Some of the women who’ve been with us since we split from Leroy now spend their time helping prostitutes, and if any of them want out of the game, we take them on and help them change their lives. We put a lot of money into rehab because most of them are addicted to drugs when they come to us.”
“How do you make money, then?” she asked, looking puzzled.
“Construction. When we pulled the girls from the brothels, I discovered they were living in shit conditions, so we bought a rundown building and renovated it for them to live in. After we took care of Leroy, some of the gang members came with us, and I put all of us to work on the renovation because we couldn’t afford to hire someone to do it. Merrick and I saw an opportunity there; we had the manpower to do that kind of work so we started off small and we’ve worked our way up in the construction industry. We now employ hundreds of guys and have multiple jobs going at once. It’s a dirty industry, though, and we deal with a lot of shit.”
I poured us both a drink. I’d need it for the next part of the story.