Madame Luxe: A Brothel Story

1997

Janice tossed her head back and let it lie on the side of the bed as she relaxed. She was with her favorite client, Dade. Dade was a fourty-year-old country redneck from Alabama who came to visit her every time he and his wife were in town on vacation. Dade treated Janice well. Well as l as one could be treated for a whore that a man snuck to see a few times a year. He sent her allowance once a month and sent her love letters a few times a week. Dade promised to leave his wife for her one day soon, but Janice knew he never would. Which was more than fine with her.

She pulled on her joint as she peeked up to watch Dade kissing her inner thigh slowly. He worshiped her body and Janice loved to watch him work. She laid her head back down and relaxed as she felt his tongue slowly slide from her inner thigh and make its way to her pussy. Janice felt her thighs suddenly tighten as she felt Dade’s tongue glide over her clit that sent waves all over her body. She instantly began to squirm under the wrath of his tongue and reached down to keep his head in place.

“Don’t you move,” he demanded as he pushed both of her thighs down roughly on the bed.

“Yes sir,” Janice purred as she grabbed her left tit and began to play with her nipple as Dade sucked on her pussy.

Janice let Dade go at it for a few more minutes before she put the rest of her blunt out and sat up on her elbows to look back down at him.

“Come here baby,” she said as she grabbed his face and pulled it up to hers.

“Rule #1, don’t ever kiss these men in the mouth,” she heard her older sister say in her head.

Janice rolled her eyes at herself as she changed her mind and pushed Dade back on to the bed and yanked his pants off of him. Dade loved to do two things when with Janice: 1). eat her out and 2). To be rode like a horse.

She reached into her end table and pulled out a purple condom, took it out of the wrapper, placed it in her lips and slowly rolled it on to Dade’s hard dick with her mouth.

“There’s my girl,” he said as his pink dick jumped in her mouth in excitement.

Janice smiled and stood up on the bed before slowly gliding Dade’s little dick into her pussy.

“Ahhh,” they moaned in unison as she began to bounce up and down.

Janice pulled out all of Dade’s favorite tricks. She rode him while on her knees, before laying her breast on her chest as she slowly grinded into him.

“Oh babe, you drive me crazy,” Dade moaned as he grabbed her left butt cheek and began to cuss in her ear.

“Shit,” she whispered as she felt herself near orgasm too.

She was surprised, she rarely came from any of her Johns, but she was sure to catch this one before Dade finished. She jumped to her feet and began to bounce on him more vigorously as she felt her orgasm creeping up.

Just as she felt herself climaxing and felt the familiar shiver in her thighs, she heard a bang at her bedroom door.

“BUSY,” Janice yelled irritated that her journey to ecstasy was being ruined.

The banging persisted and was soon accompanied with a wiggling of the doorknob.

“What the fuck!” Janice yelled as she jumped off of Dade and ran butt naked to open the door.

She swung it open to see Carla, one of newly hired girls, standing in the doorway with her niece Josie on her hip.

“What the fuck Carla?” Janice asked confused.

“Yea what the fuck is right! I just found your niece walking around outside in the front yard. She almost walked out into the street for God’s sake!” Carla yelled as she tossed Josie over to Janice.

Josie began to cry and wipe roughly at her face that was covered in sweat and dirt from being out in the heat.

“Where is Jo?” Janice asked looking for her sister as she cuddled her niece to try to get her stop crying.

“What the hell is going on out there Janice? I ain’t got all day!” Dade yelled from the room.

“Shut the fuck up Dade,” Janice snapped back as she looked down at her niece’s face.

Josie was beat red and her curly hair was plastered to her face. She felt hot and after Janice put a hand to her forehead she could tell she had a fever.

“I don’t know what kind of mother leaves a two-year-old all by themselves. Your sister isn’t in her room, I went there first,” Carla said while still ranting and lighting a cigarette, “listen, I can’t work like this. It’s bad enough you got a kid in this house but I can’t have a screaming kid scaring my clients off. Then before you know it Child Protective Service will be knocking on the door!”

“Janice!” Dade yelled from the room.

“Janice, what you gonna do?” Carla snapped simultaneously.

Janice sighed and looked back at Dade before looking down at her crying niece who had now buried her face into Janice’s bare bosom.

“Carla, finish my client off for me--”

“What? I’m off the clock!” Carla said agitated.

“Well this is my house and I say you’re on when I need you to be. He has already paid, and I will give you my cut,” Janice said handing back Josie to Carla as she grabbed a nearby sundress and put it on.

Janice was only nineteen years old but had the mentality of someone much older. At a young age she and her sister took over the house and became business owners. Eventually, due to Jo’s love for life, Janice became the main one in charge. By the time Janice turned eighteen she had about six women working underneath her. Therefore, six mouths she was responsible for feeding- nine if you included herself, her sister and her niece.

“Where the fuck you going darling, now I ain’t got all day,” Dade protested as he watched Janice get dressed.

“I know you don’t Dade, that’s why Carla here is going to take good care of you for me,” she said nodding at Carla as she grabbed her purse and keys.

“Now you know I came out here for you. I didn’t pay for this--”

“Listen, Dade, I’m having a bit of a family emergency,” she said as she took Josie back into her arms, “Carla is going to ride your ass like a stallion. She’s one of my best girls and I am leaving you in good hands. Carla, ride that man and don’t stop until he’s foaming out the mouth. You hear me?”

“Noted,” Carla said as she went into work mode and sauntered into the room.

A few hours later Janice and Josie arrived back home from the ER. Josie was fighting off a severe ear infection that left her with a high fever and delirious. It didn’t help that she was also severely dehydrated from the sun exposure. After a few hours of lying about her sister’s whereabouts in order to lower any child-endangerment suspicions, Janice was finally able to bring Josie home.

Janice gave Josie a long bath before feeding her some of her beloved applesauce and reading her to sleep. When the two had arrived home, there was still no word on the whereabouts of her sister. What was once anger, quickly turned into panic. It was now eleven at night and no one had seen Jo. It wasn’t anything new for her sister to disappear for a few hours. Usually, she was either chasing after some man or chasing a high. Yet, she still always made her way back home and would never leave for long without telling Janice. She also wouldn’t leave Josie like that without someone looking after her.

The house was packed and into the full swing of the night with clients in and out. Janice headed to their front porch in attempts to get a moment to herself. She took a seat on the porch swing and lit another joint while she looked out into the night.

Janice was beginning to get scared and didn’t know what to do. As soon as she got Josie to bed she called a few of Jo’s friends and favorite clients and no one seemed to have heard from her in days. To be honest, Janice hadn’t seen her sister herself in a few days even though the two lived in the same house, only a floor a part.

Just as Janice pulled out the cordless phone to call another friend to inquire about her sister’s whereabouts, she saw a patrol car heading down the driveway with its lights off. Seeing a patrol car at their house was nothing new. Some of their best clients were the men and women who served on the Nevada’s police force. And since prostitution was legal in Reno, she figured it was just another client coming to get their rocks off.

“Hey Janice,” Rick said as he slowly got out of the car.

Rick was actually a family friend of she and her sister. Rick was always that big brother figure for her and remained that way until she dropped out of high school a few years ago to take over the family business. By that time, Rick was already in the police academy and their lives had gone on separate paths. Despite their history, he rarely stopped by the house and the look on his face instantly made Janice’s heart drop down to her stomach.

“Hey Rick…” Janice said shakily as she put her weed down out of respect.

“Nah, don’t stop on my account,” Rick said as he climbed the stairs and took a seat next to Janice.

Rick was handsome, sweet and comforting. He was one of the few Black kids that they grew up around. His parents were immigrants from Haiti and Janice and Jo’s mother gave them a place to stay for a few weeks. Though Janice and Jo were mixed themselves, they often got passes due to their European features and fair skin. Rick on the other hand was often bullied for his dark skin and coarse hair. That all stopped one day though when he finally got fed up with the racist jokes at his expense and began to whoop all of his bullies’ asses.

Janice always believed that that was what made Jo look at Rick differently. Once he began to not take shit from anyone, Jo became obsessed with him and crushed on him hard. The two were just a few years older than Janice, but once they hit puberty, Janice was often kicked to the curb so that the two could go off and mess around. There were even rumors that he was Josie’s dad; Janice never confirmed or denied it.

Janice re-lit her joint and took a few puffs before handing it over to Rick out of habit.

“Fuck it. I need it tonight,” he said as he took a few puffs before handing it back.

“So, what brings you here?” Janice asked.

Rick continued to look forward, unable to meet her eye. Even in the night, with the moon as their only source of light, Janice could see his eyes begin to water.

“What is it Rick?” she asked again as her voice began to tremble.

“It’s Jo, Janice,” Rick said now looking down at his hands.

“Do you know where she is?”

“I do,” he whispered as a tear rolled from his eye and down his nose.

“Where is my sister?” Janice was now crying and finding it hard to breathe.

“They found her body an hour ago…”

2010

“You think you’re the only one with dreams? Do you really think I chose to be here? To deal with your disrespectful ass?” Janice yelled as she chased Josie through the house.

The two were having one of their notorious fights. All you could hear were the shriek screams of Janice yelling at Josie as she followed her throughout the house.

“Josie you are fifteen!” Janice yelled exasperated once she reached Josie’s room.

Josie ignored her and continued to open her dresser drawers and pull out clothes before tossing it in her bookbag. She was giving her aunt the silent treatment. One of her most common coping mechanisms.

Josie had come home, after being gone for two days, and told her aunt that she was leaving and going with her twenty-two-year-old boyfriend across the country. Naturally, when Janice heard this news she lost her cool.

“Josie, please! Just stop for a second and talk to me,” Janice pleaded as she gently touched her niece’s shoulder.

“Janice, I can’t stay here. I can’t live like this. I have dreams, dreams bigger than you can imagine.”

“No one is saying you can’t chase your dreams while being here. Josie that man is not going to give it to you—”

“So, would you rather me chase my dreams while laying on my back like you? Or should I chase a high like my mother and get killed on these streets?” Josie spat.

Janice was taken aback from her words and sat down defeated on the bed. She was hurt and never heard Josie speak to her in that way.

“I’m sorry Janice. But I have to go,” Josie said softening her tone, “I want to be a writer. I can’t do that here. Not in this town! Not while I’m connected to this house. Do you know how much I get teased at school? Boys come to me all the time and ask ‘how much?’” Josie said.

Janice felt a sting behind her eyes hearing that her niece was experiencing the same thing she had in school. She knew how it felt to be the “whorehouse kid’.

“Josie I just don’t want you to make a mistake,” Janice said placing her hand on top of Josie’s.

“The only mistake I will be making is if I stay here and fall next in line to run this place. This place is cursed Janice and you know it! Every woman that owned this house was murdered, including my own mama,” she said looking her aunt in her eyes.

“It won’t happen to you or to me though--”

“You’re right, it won’t happen to me,” Josie said snatching her hand back and zipping her bag closed.

A beep was heard outside and Janice and Josie paused both knowing that it was Calvin, Josie’s boyfriend.

Janice was defeated. I mean what could she say? Josie wasn’t lying. Every woman had been killed in some way or another either due to this house or the life that it brought them into. She loved Josie as if she were her own and she didn’t want that life for her, hell she didn’t want it for herself. Janice once had dreams of being a singer and had a voice as beautiful as the best of them, but once her mother was gone, she had to fill a spot and feed the mouths of the women they were responsible for.

“I’m sorry auntie, but I have to go,” Josie said affectionally as she threw herself into her aunt’s arms.

The two held each other close and cried as they rocked back and forth.

“I love you, you little brat, you know that?” Janice asked while trying to smile through her tears and holding Josie’s face in her hands.

“I know. I promise I’ll call every day. I promise I’ll be okay, and once I get myself together I’ll get you out of this shit-hold, I promise Janice. This ends with us. We will not let history repeat itself,” Josie said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

This time, a longer and more aggressive beep came from outside.

“I gotta go, we have a long drive and Calvin says we are already late,” Josie said walking out the room.

Janice followed her down the stairs and stood on the front porch as she watched Josie skip down the stairs and hop into Calvin’s car without looking back. Janice lit a cigarette and gave her a tearful wave off as she watched the car make its way down their gravel driveway and down the road.

Janice knew she could have made Josie stay if she really wanted her to, but she didn’t have the heart to stop her. Josie was right. The house was cursed, the women in her family were cursed. Janice stayed up each night wondering how long it would be before she died herself and left Josie a real orphan.

Unbeknownst to Josie, Janice had recently decided to make a change and to get them out of the brothel game for good. She knew she was taking a major risk, but fuck it. She refused to let this house end Josie’s life like it had done the women before her. Hell, like it had done to her.

Janice flicked the butt of her cigarette and whipped out her cellphone. She dialed the familiar number and stood leaning in the doorway until the call was picked up.

“Hey… yea it’s me… yea I know, I know… listen I thought about it, and I’m in.”