. Lying next to her in the bed he's wondering exactly how this is going to work. She's clean and beautiful, an absolute goldmine if she stays this way. She will earn her keep and more besides, if he just plays this right. She needs to understand and cooperate with his plan. He needs to get back to where he was before. Back at Sea-Tac, where she'll grow and prosper in her chosen profession.... His chosen profession....With two of his ladies dead... and one in jail because she was selling drugs he needed more talent. He originally intended on a one night stand. Just to pass the time. This Crystal is so HOT she was just beggin' for it. Now I need to figure out how to get her to cooperate. I don't want another drug addicted bimbo with track marks and sores. I want this one naked and as clean as she is right now. This one they'll pay for, and beg to pay more. Jeff, you just take your time and play this one right, you're lying right next to easy street, one false move and it will all go up in smoke.

"Crystal Honey, you just have to help us get ahead in the world, it won't be long, just enought to help us make a new start" That's what he said to her. Hell, she said she loved him, she ought to be willing to do anything for her man. But NO...the Bitch wouldn't buy that either. Thinks she's too good for that. Well...We'll just see about that.
I ain't lettin' this one get away until she learns to do ANYTHING a man wants, and to do it for money. My way, and if she ain't cooperating...well...there's always the needle. I don't like it that way, but sometimes you gotta do things the easy way. Some bitches just don't know when they got it good.

"Look, I got some business to attend to. I want you to stay here and think about what we've been talkin' about. It ain't going to hurt you any to do it my way for awhile." said Jeff. He's sitting on the edge of the bed preparing to get dressed and an idea comes to him. He needs to find Billy and Lila, last he knew Billy was hanging out at a strip joint on the edge of town. What was the name of that place? He can't think of the name, but that doesn't matter, he knows where it is and how to get there. That's where Billy finds "the girls" as she calls them. Young college girls needing extra money and taking up stripping. When Billy gets done talking she makes the escort service sound like Heaven. Maybe Billy will have some ideas about what to do with Crystal.

"NO you can't go with me. I'll be back at midnight. In the meantime you just think about how you're going to prove to me that you love me." He pushes her away and she falls back on the bed. "Wipe them damn tears off your face or Daddy Man will give you something to cry about." Oh, and I'm takin your clothes. Want you here and waiting for your Daddy Man when he gets back" He's Evil and Crystal is beginning to understand that. She now knows that he doesn't love her, that she's alone and afraid.

Finding Billy was as easy as he thought, but Billy won't let Lila go with him until she's done for the night. Lila has an expensive party that she's attending. It means good money for all of the six girls attending, and for Billy. When Lila comes back Billy will send her with Jeff, with instructions to do anything Jeff asks. In the meantime, Billy invites Jeff to enjoy the show with her until Lila's return. Jeff doesn't have sense enough to stop bragging about how great a deal this girl is. How much money he's going to make off her. Billy runs an escort service, she doesn't hire anything but the best. Looks, and the ability to make conversation. She is known for the quality of her girls.

Billy starts to thinking that if this Crystal is as good as Jeff says, then she's too good for the likes of him. He's in her territory now, and she calls the shots. Maybe she can kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of Jeff, and hire this Crystal for herself. When Lila comes back, Billy tells her what she has in mind and asks Lila to go and check this situation out. See if she can turn this girl their way. If Jeff proves to be difficult, Billy will take care of him, but find a way to get Crystal away from him. Billy will handle everything else. In front of Jeff, Billy tells Lila that she's to do anything she can for Jeff. Lila is tired and wants to tell Billy that she can't, but Billy gave her everything she has and she owes her. She won't let her down. So she gets into Jeff's car and they drive away.

"It took way too long to find you. I told Crystal I'd be back about midnight. Look, I know I'm asking a lot of you under the circumstances, but I need help with her." Jeff said to Lila as they pulled up in front of the hotel. When Lila didn't respond right away, he reaches over and punches her arm."Jesus", she said rubbing the spot where his fist had just been. "I said I'd help you." She was tired, been pulling her share all night long. She wanted nothing more than a long hot bath and some sleep. Billy said she was to help Jeff, and what Billy said went, as far as she was concerned. She knew better than to not pay attention. She knew what was good for her.

Walking through the lobby, Lila thought about the early days and her time at flea bag hotels. When Billy took over, she didn't have to work the streets or the old hotels. Now, her territory was more upscale and she was commanding a better price. Sometimes as much as $500 a trick, thanks to Billy. She knew she only had a few more years where she could command that kind of price. Billy was generous as pimps go, and she'd managed to make a few investments and put some aside for a rainy day. She wasn't about to screw that up now. This Crystal Lynn was going into the business one way or another. She understood the problem, she was in Crystal's shoes once herself.

Outside the door to 502 Lila placed her hand on his arm, "Look Jeff, I'll talk to her, I will tell her how easy this really is. I will show her how much money you can make at this, but any rough stuff, any drugging, you will have to do it." He nodded as he placed the key into the lock, and opened the door.

The only illumination came from the streetlight on the corner that shone through the filthy windowpanes. It was the fifth floor of a cheap hotel that had delusions of grandeur. Called itself the King's Rest. Just the usual rundown dirty hotel found in the urban jungle of every big city. Inhabited by winos and streetwalkers too old to make a living at the oldest profession in the book. If you can stand the smell of the carpet in the lobby long enough to sign the book, you get a room with a view, no questions asked. Windows covered with soot and faded red drapes of some heavy material that is so old it's no longer recognisable. Chair, table, bed with threadbare sheets, nightstand and a lamp. All the amenities. Just don't turn on the lamp. Looks better this way.

She moved to the window, drawing aside the drapes to get a better look at the street below. There still was no sign of him and it was getting late. He said he'd be back before midnight and it was now 3 a.m. She didn't know what to do. There wasn't anyone she could call to ask, and she couldn't go back home. All she could do was wait, and hope he'd be in a better mood if he did come back. She supposed it should be when he came back, not if. She knew he'd come back, she was all he had. Just like he was all there was for her. Get some sleep, and when he came back she would try again, and again, until there was nothing left. Just the ashes of her dreams.

What did she do so wrong that this nightmare became her life? Her family hadn't liked Jeff. They felt that there was something missing in him, something that he was hiding. Her sister felt that he was too glib, too easy with the answers for everything. Momma refused to let him in the house. She couldn't abide snake oil salesmen and she wasn't letting one into her home to spread their oily charm. She was forbidden to have anything to do with him, but he made her feel so special. No one had ever paid the least bit of attention to her before. So she snuck out of the house at night to meet him. They would drive in his expensive car to the Overlook and talk and make love until it was time for her to sneak back in and get ready for her job.

She quit school the year before and had to go to work to help support her Momma and her sister. It wasn't much, counter help at the local diner, but the tips were good and meant that she could contribute to the household and have a few dollars left for herself. That's where she met Jeff. At the diner during the breakfast rush, what feels like years ago, but was really only a few weeks. He said he was a talent scout for a modelling agency. They were looking for a new face for an upcoming campaign for some big cosmetic manufacturer. She had the perfect face and figure. He wanted her to go with him to try out for the campaign. She believed him, she was so sure that her Momma and Sis were being selfish. They just wanted her to stay and work to take care of them. They didn't want her to have a life, they couldn't see how much more money she'd make as a model.

"Crystal Lynn, if you leave with that man,. don't you never come back. I won't have no slut in my house. This here's a christian house and don't you go forgettin it. " So, here she sits, waiting for Jeff to come back. No money to get away, no friends to help her, no family to go home to. Just the way he planned it. Real fancy car, real handsome man, too bad he's a pimp and she's going to get added to his stable when they get to where they are going. "You like it with me, you'll like it with any man, especially since your going to get paid. All beautiful women want is money, and you got the goods to get it" That's what he said to her, and then he left.

She's tired of fighting, tired of trying to tell him that it's different with him. Tired of telling him she loves him. "Prove it", that's what he said. "Prove that you love me, do what I tell you to. I need you to do this for me Baby, just until I get back on my feet." She doesn't think she can do it, she always thought making love was just that. What you did with someone you loved, somehow even doing it with Jeff is making her feel cheap. Very cheap, now that she knows what he is. She can't even cry anymore, last time she did it made it worse. She had no idea that anyone could ever be treated this way. Momma always told her that men were no good. Crystal thought that it was the way Momma was that made Daddy leave. Now she's not so sure.

Maybe if she continues to say no, he'll leave her. She can get a job, maybe the diner across the street need help. She was a good counter person, her boss said so. Maybe she could convince Jeff that she could support them that way, that she doesn't need to turn tricks to make money. She just wished she knew what to do. It's so lonely here without Jeff. Why doesn't he come back? Why doesn't he love her the way he said he did? How could he do this to her? If only she could leave this awful room, but Jeff took all her clothes with him when he left.
"Can't have you running away from me , no, we can't have that, can we? Need to have my Crystal Baby right here where she belongs when her Daddy Man gets back."

She sits in the chair, staring at the tenements across the street, now visible in the dim gray light of dawn. Ugly broken brick buildings with boarded up windows. Only those inhabited places have windows open to coax what passes for a cooling breeze to enter. Someone set a flowerpot on a windowsill. An attempt to make their otherwise dreary existance more attractive? A gift from an admirer? Don't know, doesn't matter. It isn't going to make her life any better. It isn't going to change a thing. She still is locked into room 502 of the Kings Rest Hotel, naked and alone, waiting for Jeff and trying to figure out what she needs to do. At the corner, a red Cadillac turns onto the street and the girl in the chair sobs. One lonely tear escapes and trickles down her cheek.