The Superiors by Lena Hillbrand Read Free Book Online Page B

inspector. I didn’t catch your name.”
    “Draven Castle, sir. I’m glad I could be of assistance.”
    “I appreciate it. If I can ever repay you, just let me know.”
    “I will do that, sir,” Draven said, knowing full well that he would never do such a thing. Just calling a Second Order Superior by name gave Draven a little rush, like he had done something forbidden and daring.
    “If you would like to join me here tomorrow night after work, I’d like to speak with you further about your observations inside Ander’s restaurant. We’ll be building a case against him,” Byron said.
    “Of course. Anything I can do to help.”
    “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Same time, same place.”
    Draven glanced at the sky on his way out. His eyes hurt a bit at the brightness of the blue morning. He didn’t have time to pay Cali a visit that night. He would have to pop by Estrella’s the next evening before his meeting with Byron.

 
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    Ander’d be damned if he was going to just stand there and let the government steal his property. So he ran an illegal business—big deal. If people didn’t want the services he offered, he wouldn’t offer them. The government could shut down as many sapien whorehouses as it liked, and more would spring up in their place. What they should have been doing was making it legal. That would save everyone a lot of money and trouble.
    Ander went back to 28 Flavors only once, and he didn’t go inside the restaurant. He went out back to the one-room trailer where he kept his saps. Someone had bolted up the door to keep him out, but he’d expected that. Wasn’t the first time he’d gotten in trouble with the law. He cut the heavy lock and went inside. He came out with four saps and put them in the car and went back for Nina.
    Nina had turned out to be his prize bloodbag and top earner. She’d paid off the extra amount he’d lost in her purchase and then some. She hadn’t been so well-behaved at first. The first client he’d put with her had come out asking for a different sap. The next man didn’t much care what she wanted, so she’d scratched his face. Ander couldn’t have his whore maiming his clients, so he’d had a little talk with Nina.
    Ander himself liked her, and she was a good-looking kind of sapien. Some of the men who came looking for a hot-blooded lay picked the girls whose sap appealed to them, and some of them were too nervous to care, pretending that’s not what they came for even as they left with a sap. But a lot of them liked the pretty girls, and Nina was his best-looking sap for damn sure. Ander didn’t beat on his whores, even when they didn’t follow his orders. Soon enough, they all fell in line.
    Ander had called in a few prescriptions for Nina after the scratching incident. A muscle relaxer, an anti-anxiety, and a painkiller. He doubled up her dosage on all three, and she was good to go. That’s when he found she had another gift besides her good looks. She had a knack for knowing exactly who her clients wanted her to be. If the client dragged his feet and got jittery, one of those who didn’t admit even to himself that he got off on saps, Nina ran the show. After all, the poor man had been seduced—he couldn’t help himself, and he left feeling alright about what he’d done. And a man who left feeling alright was a man who came back.
    If a client wanted an obedient girl, she’d cower like the lowly sap she was. If he wanted a feisty sap so he’d feel a little more dominant when he got her subdued, well, she played that part as well as any other. Nina had a brain in her head, too, and she started charging customers extra if they liked to rough her up a little, wanted her to fight back. Ander let her keep the extra anyas she charged for the service. Sometimes she gave him the money to get her some wine to go with her painkillers. He didn’t even take a commission on the extra she earned. He ran a business, and he took care