The Brothel Ch. 06

"Yes."

"I'm glad." He lowered her in his arms and she watched his face as he looked at her breasts. He put his hand on her waist and then looked into her eyes. "I'm proud of you for earlier. I know it was hard."

"Nora was who I talked to. Once I found out she told her friend I didn't talk to her anymore. I haven't told anyone since. I wasn't planning on it."

"It helps me to understand your trust issues.

"I would like to know about you."

"Know what?"

"Everything." She smiled hesitantly, "Whatever you want to tell me about you before you came here, about your family."

That little sigh and a look Gwen couldn't read. He had expected the question. "My family wasn't like yours. I lived in a very insular community. I could walk to school or the store or the park. We knew the neighbors. My dad was my little league coach. I was the third of four boys. My mom called us her stairsteps." He stopped and sighed again and tried to smile. "Derek, my older brother, wanted a bike. My dad had picked up a couple used bikes at garage sales, but he wanted one of the ones that could do the tricks. Dad told him to get a job and so he started with the paper route. We mowed lawns for the neighbors and got a couple more paper routes in nearby neighborhoods. Mom drove if the weather was bad, but otherwise we did it all ourselves."

"How old were your other brothers?"

"Derek was three years older, Sean, two, Eric was two years younger."

"What was your name?"

He paused, "Jacob." His hand trembled slightly as he brushed a stray hair from her face. "Everything revolved around baseball in the summer. Except for on Sundays. Sundays were special. We were brown as indians."

"What did your dad do?"

"Both my parents were teachers. My dad taught high school and coached baseball. My mom taught second grade. She taught at our elementary school. Eric was in her class."

"You don't have to talk anymore if you don't want to."

He nodded and pulled her close. He was sweating freely and his hair was curling above his ears. "The thing that bothers me the most is the pain they must feel because they don't know what happened to me. Julia showed me a picture of my mom holding on to the front of my dad's shirt. His head was down. They both looked so beaten. The headline said 'Glenbrook boy still missing, feared dead'. The article quoted my mom as saying that the hard part was not knowing what had happened to me."

"What did they do to you to beat you down?'

"The training wasn't the same when I came as it is now. I was pretty much just offered to clients. I was raped repeatedly. Within a few months I stopped fighting. I stopped speaking. I would just do whatever they told me. I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't respond to anyone. I was like that for a long time and then John came. He was twenty-six. He asked if he could spend some time with me. He used to hold me all night long. He never did anything to me. He just held me. Finally I just woke up one day and realized where I was. He talked until he was hoarse. He got them to take me out of circulation for a few days. He taught me how to survive. I had to go back, but I hung on to what he said and he stayed by my side every chance he got. I followed him around like a lost puppy after that. It was probably a couple months before I finally even spoke to him."

Gwen touched his face and he looked at her suddenly. His eyes were glassy. "I'm so frightened."

He nodded. "I know."

"Did you ever try to escape?"

"There is no way. I know more about this place than anyone inside except Julia. There is no way."

"What do you know of what goes on outside?"

"John reads the paper everyday, but I am not so interested. This is the world I live in. He tells me the highlights. Things Julia chooses to show me. Things clients mention. The twin towers. War in Afghanistan and Iraq. The gulf war was going on when I was taken."

"Julia has been in charge the whole time?"

Joseph nodded. "For a long time anyway. She ran one of their other brothels that was moved in here in the late eighties."

"She can leave?"

"Yes." He watched the wheels turn and shook his head. "Don't even think about it. The punishment is severe."

"Did she show you anything about my disappearance?"

"She emailed me the articles."

"I want to see them."

The buzzer sounded. Joseph shut things down and led her to a shower. He removed the towel and turned the water on. Gwen saw that his nudity didn't even occur to him until he turned and saw her face. He took her hand and hugged her. He needed her comfort and she knew she needed his. They hugged tightly as the water ran over them. "Is it okay if I wash you?"

Gwen squeezed him tighter and nodded. She was crying again. She stood with one hand on his waist and the other on the showerhead, her cheek near his jaw as he washed her tenderly. "This is a different kind of love, Gwen. Feel the tenderness. It has nothing to do with sex. I need you to remember this kind of love when you don't understand. There will be times when I have to hide myself, but I will always come back." He turned her and washed her back and between her legs. He squatted next to her as he washed her legs and even her feet and between her toes.

There was no arousal in him and she felt only tenderness for him as he stood and looked into her eyes when he finished. He closed his eyes as she touched his cheek and stood for her as she washed him.