Decker looked away and shook his head. “You’ve done some marketing research, Chris?”

“We’re living in sophisticated times. I’m in the experimental stage right now, from the advice columns to impregnating the pages with the right aromas. There is a load of money to be made doing young meat legally. By the time I reach thirty, I want to own half of Harlem. So yeah, my girls do me favors, but I’m not ruthless. And that’s the God’s honest truth because if I wanted to, I could work my bitches day in and day out, twenty-four/seven. After September eleventh, more than a few New Yorkers had midlife crises: guys who saw those mother-fuckers crash into the WTC and felt that the end was at hand. But they survived along with their cocks, and getting pussy, especially fresh young twat, placed high on the to-do list.”

“Funny, Donatti,” Decker snarled. “I saw heroes, not degenerates.”

“We all see what we’re searching for,” Donatti countered. “And what I know is demand is high right now. In this economy, a quick lay is still a cheap thrill. So maybe my girls are doing me a few more favors than usual, but slavery is illegal in this country. None of my girls are forced.”

“That depends on your definition of forced.”

“The kids are free to leave. But if they leave, they can’t come back. If they feel equipped to take on that big bad world out there… well, more power to them.”

“Nothing a little intimidation won’t take care of.”

“It is a scary world out there, Decker. If some of my stories make them a little cautious, I can live with that.”

Decker smoothed his mustache. “And you’re not worried about loose lips?”

“My kids don’t talk. So far, I’ve got a one-hundred-percent compliance rate because I’m very persuasive.”

“And if they did talk?”

Donatti shook his head ever so slightly. “Don’t go there.”

Decker exhaled heavily and turned away. Abruptly, he slammed his fist down on the table.

“I know,” Donatti said. “You want to beat the shit out of me. You want to pound my good-looking, arrogant, motherfucking head into a bloody pulp, and lop my oversize cock off because I’m in the driver’s seat. There was a time when the tables were turned, and I felt the way you’re feeling now. But we’re both adults now. You’ve got to swallow, Decker, just like I swallowed for eight years. If you were honest with yourself, you’d realize that I’m being big about this. You ruined my life.”

Decker’s laugh was mirthless. “You recovered pretty quickly, Chris.”

“You don’t know dick.” Donatti turned ugly. “I had my uncle convinced. I had her convinced. I could have owned her—body and soul—if you hadn’t fucked it up.”

“Women aren’t chattel anymore, Donatti.”

“That’s what you think,” Donatti spat back. “I was this close!” He pinched off an area between his index finger and his thumb. Then he sat back and sighed. “You know how it is… always obsessed with the one who got away. And I was obsessed with her to begin with.”