Before the guys could awaken, Kat shook Goldie and Tender, and they eased out of the suite. They got a cab and went back to their hotel. Kat couldn’t wait to count up the loot.

Back at their hotel, Kat pulled out the wad of bills. Tender was waiting to see if she’d do right by them. She broke off a few hundred dollars each for her and Goldie—chump change. Tender accepted her share and said nothing. She felt a stab in her gut.

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER
10

THE NEXT DAY, the sun had reached its zenith, and the girls still weren’t up. Their internal clocks were set to rise in the evening and nighttime. The air conditioner hummed steadily, sending mass doses of man-made Arctic chill throughout the hotel room. Tender lay curled up in the bed, underneath the covers. She never slept so well in her life.

The first thing that came to her mind when she woke up, though, was the stunt Kat had pulled. What happened to that three-musketeers ideology that Kat ran down, “All for one and one for all”? What happened to the idea of being free from pimps?

Tap! Tap! Tap! There was a light knock at her door.

Tender looked through the peephole. She hoped it was Goldie because she could use her company right about now. As she moved toward the door, she could feel the cold air on her nipples as they poked through her nightgown.

Tap! Tap! Tap! The knocks came again, this time a little louder. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Relax! Hold ya horses! I’m comin’,” Tender shouted. There stood a heavyset young black man on the other side of her doorway.

“Yo, it’s Jay-dub,” the guy quickly said. “Tender, right? Ya peoples, Kat, sent me up here. She said you’d know what it is …”

Kat had gotten up early and gone down to the hotel’s lobby, pool area and bar, to solicit business.

“What? Shit!” she whispered to herself. “I’ll be damned.” Kat had some nerve, she didn’t even holler at her to let her know what the deal was. At least she could have called her to let her know she was sending someone up to her room. Here she was, fresh out of bed, and face-to-face with a stranger. Could be the police for all Tender knew. She didn’t want to open the door. But she did. She was here to make money.

“Aiight, I comin’,” Tender said, stepping aside to let him by. She managed to muster up a fake smile. The guy looked around curiously, to make sure this wasn’t a setup or some police sting. Secure in the fact that it wasn’t, he relaxed, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.