I shook my head.
“You’re too young for me, Billie,” I said.
“I’m twenty years old,” she said.
“The hell you are,” I said. “You want to stay with me on the couch?”
“Yes.”
I fished my room key out of my pants pocket.
“You want to go up now?”
“No,” she said. “I want to stay with you.”
I nodded.
“Wolfson won’t like that so much,” I said. “I’m pretty sure he wants his whores working.”
“I can’t work any more tonight, Everett,” Billie said. “I just can’t.”
I nodded.
“Mr. Wolfson says something, you tell him it’s okay,” Billie said. “He won’t go against you.”
“Sure,” I said. “Get a chair. If there’s any trouble, stay out of my way.”
“Yes, Everett,” she said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
7.
Wolfson joined me for breakfast.
“One of my whores is sleeping in your room,” he said.
“Yep.”
“Meals here are part of the deal,” Wolfson said, “but not the girls.”
“She’s just sleeping there,” I said. “I ain’t employed her for anything.”
“If you ain’t fucking her,” Wolfson said, “why’s she sleeping there?”
“One of her gentleman friends threatened to cut her,” I said.
“Didn’t you throw him out the other night?”
“Yep.”
“You think he’ll come back?” Wolfson said.
“Nope, but she does.”
“She’s scared,” Wolfson said.
“Uh-huh.”
“And she ain’t working,” he said.
I shrugged.
“I hired you to help me make money,” Wolfson said, “not lose it.”
“He cut her up, what would she be worth?”
“Nothing to me,” Wolfson said.
“If she run off, what would she be worth?”
Wolfson nodded.
“So you’re letting her hide in your room.”