They rode through town and Anthony suddenly froze.
“The brothel. Yesterday when the whores came marching through town, she wanted to leave. She became agitated and worried, but I thought she just didn’t like whores. Could that have something to do with her disappearance?”
Wesley didn’t know, but women like Pearl could bring in a pretty penny for a whorehouse.
“Let’s go see the night’s entertainment,” he said.
They walked in the door to tables set up everywhere. Almost every chair held a man, all drinking and waiting on the show to begin.
“They have quite the crowd,” Wesley said, hoping his father was not amongst the men gathered here.
All he needed was another confrontation with the bastard. Right now, he just wanted to find Pearl and leave this town behind him forever.
A man stood off to the side of the stage. “Gentleman,” he screamed trying to get their attention.
Slowly the crowd quieted down.
“Good evening. I’m sure all of you are anxious to see our spectacular lineup of ladies for this evening’s pleasure. All you have to do is signal to a waitress that you wish to schedule time with a particular woman. When your time is available, you will be taken to the back area where each woman has her own private room. Tonight, we have a new lady who will be handling the room for the more discerning gentlemen who like their sex a little rougher.”
The men laughed.
“Are you ready for tonight’s girls?”
“Yes,” the crowd screamed.
“Here they are,” the man said and stepped off the stage.
Wesley scanned the women, searching to see if their woman was there. But so far nothing. After all the other girls had gone, Pearl appeared wearing a dress that revealed almost everything. The men whooped and hollered and Wesley wanted to kick every one of their asses.
Her bottom lip trembled, but she kept her head high as she walked across the stage, not even glancing at the men out in the audience.
“Damn,” Anthony said. “Now what do we do?”
“I don’t believe she chose this for a moment. Why would she ring the emergency bell if she had wanted to leave and join a whorehouse. No, they took her. Someone must have seen her yesterday and maybe even they followed us home. We’re going to save her. We have to,” he said signaling a waitress over.
There were two names on her sheet for Pearl. He scratched them off and then bought all her time slots.
The woman looked up at him in shock. “That will be three hundred dollars.”
He opened his wallet and took out the money and handed it to her. “Uninterrupted,” he told the woman.
“Yes, sir,” she said. When she returned to the sidelines, he could see her talking with a woman in a black dress that had a slit up to her thigh. She nodded.
Maybe he’d gone too far and raised suspicions, but Pearl was not going to sleep with another man tonight. There would be no one but them that she would have sex with. No one.
When their time came, the waitress walked over to their table.
“Come with me,” she said.
They followed her into the back and when they arrived at her door, a woman stood there.
“Gentleman, you purchased her entire evening,” she said.
“Yes,” Anthony replied.
“A few rules. If you try to steal her from me, I will hunt you down and kill you,” she said. “She’s new. But she’s paying back a debt that is owed to me. She’s not going anywhere for nearly two years.”
Wesley’s heart froze and then he smiled at the woman. “Two years? Sounds like she owes you a lot of money.”