“Gianni, Shelby goes to the playroom tonight.” Johnny looked up from his phone. “You have her ready.”
“I’ll talk to her this afternoon. She’ll be ready,” Gianni agreed, folding his hands on the table in front of him.
“Good. We have another House opening up in a few months. Out in the suburbs. We need five men at first, but it’s a big ass House. Eventually we’ll be able to house twice as many girls as we do here,” Johnny explained. “We’ve also purchased a warehouse downtown. It’s going to take some time, but eventually we’ll be able to house up to fifty girls there and use the rest of the space for playrooms and a movie studio.”
“Movie studio?” Costello asked. “We’re going in the movie making business?” He chuckled with a wicked smirk.
Frank grinned. “Plenty of money to be made in the movie business. Especially with our girls. Those who can’t get adopted out will be put in the foster program.” He laughed.
Costello held his playful smile on his lips, but his insides tightened. Frank thought himself so damn clever.
“In the meantime, business as usual. There are ten girls in the House right now. Five more are being brought in next week, so we need to see some movements here. We’ll hold an adoption party at the end of the week. Get some prospective men in and let them play with the girls. Maybe clear up a bed or two.” Johnny tucked his phone back into his inside pocket.
Frank got up from the table, ending the meeting.
“How the hell am I supposed to explain to Shelby she has to go be a whore tonight to those perverts?” Gianni hissed into Costello’s ear after the other men filed out of the room. Costello swiveled his chair around to face him.
“You haven’t brought it up yet?” Frank had told him days ago this was happening. He should have been preparing her.
“I was hoping…fuck.” Gianni pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Don’t tell me you like this girl?” Costello accused with a laugh.
“She’s just innocent is all,” Gianni defended. “Getting her settled with someone permanent is fine, but letting these assholes touch her and use her…” His words trailed off, but the frown tugging on his lips explained the rest.
“You’ve had girls get sent to the playroom before,” Costello reminded him, getting up from his chair.
“Yeah, and I know what they’re like when they get back.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“You’d better get used to the idea.” Costello pointed a finger at him while reaching for the door. “You don’t have a choice. Besides, after one night there, she’ll work harder at the next adoption day. She’ll get placed.”
Costello tried to imagine Ariana being sent to the playroom for a night, but the bubble of rage overwhelmed him too much to keep the picture in his head. She was too innocent for the likes of the scum who frequented the play parties Frank and Johnny threw for clients. Not every asshole wants a girl to keep forever. Some of them just want a girl to fuck around with for a night. Be her daddy for a few hours, get his cock sucked, spank some ass—those dickheads frequented the playroom. And any girl who wasn’t getting adopted fast enough, was sent there to play with them.
“You’ve never had one of your girls sent there,” Gianni pointed out. “It’s harder to train them once they’ve been there. The fear they have of going back to that place nearly freezes them.” He sighed. “I’ll talk to her. Maybe I’ll skip her Lullaby dose this evening, so she has a clearer head.”
Costello stopped at the front door of the House.
“That might work.” He checked his phone. “I have to get across town. We’ll grab dinner tonight, and get away from all this bullshit for a few hours.”
Gianni nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Marco takes the playroom girls around six. After that.”
“Sure thing.” Costello opened the front door. “Have some fun with her this afternoon, some warm up for what she’ll expect tonight.”
Gianni’s lips pinched together. “Obviously.” His serious expression cracked, and a hearty laugh escaped. Even with his concerns about Shelby, Costello knew Gianni wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to get his own fun in while he could.
Costello dropped his keys onto his dresser next to his phone. It had been a long day. The short staff meeting in the morning had only been the start of his afternoon. After that, he’d had to go on a few collection calls for Frank and get across town to supervise a new shipment of Lullaby being distributed. It wasn’t often Frank sent him out of the House for errands, but everyone had to do the job they were given. Costello was no different.
But having spent the day with men all watching out for their own asses and trying to find a crack in the system to make a quick buck, he craved the simplicity of being Ariana’s Daddy. Often throughout the afternoon, he wondered what she was doing to keep herself busy while being stuck in her room.