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Three nights had passed since Alamo met his maker. Maddy was initially incredibly relieved. The heavy weight on her chest of Alamos implications just moments before, in the bull room at the Silver Slipper, had vanished in an instant once he stopped breathing on the outdated brown carpet.
She crashed into her deep blue pillows and sheets that night and slept longer and harder than she had in a long while.
She hadn’t slept right since that night though.
Maddy flopped over in her satin sheets and checked the time on her phone. It was 4:54 in the morning. This would be the third full day without any lingering fear or worry that Alamo would hurt her. She grumbled out loud from only having been asleep for 2 hours.
With an awakened and anxious body, Maddy hopped out of bed and went towards her en-suite bathroom to get herself ready and put her day face on. Her dress of choice for the day had been one Alamo bought. The vintage inspired clothing he had purchased and tailored for her couldn't go to waste despite the circumstances.
The mansion was always static and eerie in the early hours of the morning. The girls Maddy had living in Cassie’s mansion, including Cassie herself, were all sound asleep until well after 9am on most mornings, sometimes later in the afternoon if their live streams went on past midnight.
Maddy often used the quiet morning hours to plan her escape from Alamo, always coming up short of a solid plan by the time her phone rang. Alamo never failed to call in the morning.
The silence hung low in Cassie’s spectral mid century home as Maddy descended the curved staircase. Once she reached the kitchen, she rested her palms on the kitchen counter and closed her eyes.
Maddy wasn't the type of girl who meditated. She just got shit done and continued on with her day. Yet, she stood at the counter and took a tantalizing, deep breath. She held it in for roughly 5 seconds and released her exhale. Maddy did those same deep breaths a handful of times before opening her eyes.
“What the fuck?” Maddy baritoned to herself into the empty air. Her phone was ringing and there was no reason for it to be ringing that early in the morning. Alamo was dead, and he’d be the only one calling her around this time.
She didn't want to answer it. She didn't recognize the number and she really wasn't in the mood to tell a telemarketer or an AI robot to fuck off and add her to the do not call list. Maddy ignored her phone and peddled to the fridge to make herself a yogurt parfait for breakfast.
She was adding blueberries to her yogurt bowl when her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen and noticed she had received a voicemail from the number that had just called. Maddy fumbled with the buttons on her phone screen in one hand while she added a few sprinkles of granola onto her breakfast bowl.
Maddy’s nerves were on fire as she pressed the play button. She didn't know who would be leaving her a voicemail. Nate was dead, Alamo was dead, and Cassie was asleep upstairs. The only other person Maddy had was her mom. With those conclusions, Maddy thought maybe she had just missed a business call. She would receive them from time to time to book the girls to do public shows or privately hosted events.
The voice that Maddy heard through her phone speaker was not someone trying to book the girls for an event.
“Good morning, Madeline Perez,” Bishop's voice stated monotonously. “I hope you are doing well. I'm calling because I have some information to share with you and would like to drop by if you have no other plans this morning. You can call or text me back any time. Hope to hear from you soon, goodbye.”
“Well damn,” Maddy spoke aloud. She was not expecting a call from Bishop in the slightest.
When he dropped Maddy and Kitty off at Cassie's a few nights ago, Maddy thanked him and that was that. He did linger in the circle drive, patiently waiting in his classic Dodge Charger R/T for the girls to enter the house. Maddy was too shaken to think about the kindness of his protection, but she did notice his blacked out 69 as she closed Cassie’s front door that night.
Maddy ate her breakfast in silence, scrolling through scene and set ideas the girls had texted her the night before.
The cam girls were always so creative. They would meet before and after streams, during photo shoots, and between meals to discuss new sexy ideas and bring them to Maddy enthusiastically. Maddy had a never ending list of props, furniture, clothing, and toys to buy so the girls could rake in as much cash as possible.
Maddy scraped the edges of her bowl and licked the last of her yogurt parfait off of her spoon before finding her recent calls to send Bishop a text message.
It had only been roughly 12 minutes since Bishop called Maddy, but he replied to her text almost immediately.
M- Hey. I'm free all day, swing by whenever.
6:17am
B- Ok. In the area already. Be there in 20.
6:18am
Maddy wasn't used to her freedom yet. It had only been a few days but she still kept herself at home. If Cassie, Kitty, Magick or any of the other girls needed anything throughout the day Maddy would always place an online order for delivery.
It was her way of keeping herself safe from Alamo. If she never left the house, he wouldn't have any reason to punish her or get back at her behavior. She still felt stuck, as though Alamo had more men ready to steal her up and take all of her money.
Maddy filled her Amazon Business cart with items the girls needed or wanted while she waited for Bishop. Her mind was swirling with possible reasons Bishop needed to speak with her. She had no clue. She couldn't remember if she had left anything of hers at the Silver Slipper or Alamo’s House the night he was shot.
A knock echoed against the French doors of the mansion. Maddy realized it had been exactly 20 minutes since Bishop sent his text message.
“Punctual mother fucker,” Maddy huffed out as she stood up from the posh modular conversation couch across from the foyer of the home she had been living in for a few months now.
Maddy opened her front door and met eye to eye with Bishop. He didn't look like his normal self. The bags under his eyes were evident. It was a reminder that even though Alamo was dead, there was still unfinished business to clean up and deal with.
“Hey,” Maddy spoke dryly. “Come in.”
Bishop crossed the threshold in a single step and waited beside Maddy while she closed the front door with a soft clasp.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Maddy questioned to Bishop, emphasizing the letter K at the end of the word.
“No thank you,” Bishop replied flat. He was looking Maddy directly in the eyes as he spoke, as always.
Maddy had spent the recent months in Bishop's presence. When she wasn't at home, Alamo forced her to bounce around between the club and his house. Bishop had been Alamo’s right hand man, so he never left Alamo’s side for too long on any given day. This forced a silent connection between Maddy and Bishop.
In the beginning, Maddy was under the assumption Bishop was just as brutal and disgusting as Alamo. Time, and eye contact told another story.
There were many moments Maddy could remember Bishop staring at her when Alamo’s back was turned. He always had an unreadable look. A combination of disgust, maybe frustration, but with an intensity behind them that Maddy couldn't gauge.
He didn't speak often, and when he did it was always something Alamo didn't even seem to fuck with. The words that Bishop seldom spoke were heavy and clearly had deep thought and meaning behind them though.
Maddy broke her gaze from Bishop's and stepped down from the foyer steps to enter the main living area. Maddy gestured for Bishop to follow her as she sauntered towards the faded yellow conversation couch she had been sitting on before Bishop's arrival.
Maddy sat on the far end of the couch and crossed one leg over the other facing Bishop, who chose to sit in the middle. He was facing forward, looking straight towards the front door.
“So, what information do you have to share with me?” Maddy got right to business. That was what she did. Maddy Perez got shit done.
Bishop turned slightly with his hands clasped together in his lap and his head hung low. He looked at Maddy with that aggravated intensity she had seen before, especially the night of Alamo’s death.
Maddy was worried. She had tried to avoid the anxiety of the situation the minute she found out it was Bishop who called her by scrolling Amazon on her phone and thinking about her business.
“Maddy,” Bishop started but paused a moment to turn slightly more her direction. He swallowed his saliva before continuing his sentence.
“I have been cleaning up the mess Alamo left in his wake since I dropped you off here a few nights ago. I found something in his home office last night that pertains to you. May I show you?” Bishop's voice cut through the air calmly but his eyes were not placid looking at Maddy.
Maddy nodded to Bishop. She didn't know what Bishop found, she was about to find out, and she was terrified because Bishop looked concerned.
Bishop palmed the edge of his jacket and opened it up to pull out a manilla envelope that was hiding underneath. It was wound tight but Bishop unwound the string swiftly. He carefully pulled out the contents within the envelope.
“In my hands right now is a passport with your name and face on it, and a printed list of emails and text messages between Alamo and a group of Indian men living in Dubai,” Bishop breathed out low.
He was enraged on the inside. It took everything he had not to spill his anger into his voice at that moment. Bishop’s gaze turned shrouded and dark, looking at Maddy.
Maddy looked down at her own hands in her lap, trying to find the right words to say. What Bishop just admitted to her rocked her to her core. She knew. She knew she was on the road to being lost forever under Alamo's capture.
“What do the texts and emails say?” Maddy replied coldly, not wanting to show just how nervous she was. She was seconds away from shivering due to the anxiety building up in her gut.
“From the footnotes I gathered and printed…, Maddy…, Alamo sold you to these men weeks ago. He sold your future children too,” Bishop whispered, still hanging his head low. He was disgusted. He was ready to murder Alamo all over again if he could.
“Are you fucking serious?” Maddy questioned angrily. Her eyes widened and her teeth were bared. She looked like she was ready to kill someone as well.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do with this information Bishop? What the hell does this mean?” Maddy spat. She uncrossed her legs and immediately stood up and began to pace back and forth in front of her huge moon shaped couch. Her heels softly tapped the shag carpeting with each frustrated step she took.
Bishop lowered his head even further and stared at the ground for a long moment. Long enough that Maddy raised her voice at him a second time.
“Well? I'm waiting. Surely you must have something else to say. You can't just drop a mother fucking bomb on me and ghost,” Maddy’s voice thundered at Bishop.
“I don't know,” Bishop stated with an empty cadence. “They will come looking for you Maddy. It's only a matter of when. Alamo made millions of dollars from this deal. He was going to keep you until you birthed 4 of his children and then ship you and the children to Dubai, to the mother fuckers who bought you.”
Bishop looked defeated, like a master of chess that had been bested for the first and only time in his career. This was something he couldn't un-do. The type of men who traffic women in the United Arab Emirates wouldn’t accept a cash trade for Maddy back. There was no use trying.
“They are going to know Alamo’s dead soon aren't they,” Maddy stated into the hushed air surrounding her agitated body. “Fuck.”
“Probably, I would imagine so,” Bishop replied in his normal dry monologue.
“Shit. Is there anything you can do to fix it? Can we just pay them back with interest or something?" Maddy pleaded towards Bishop.
She had stalled her pacing and stood directly in front of Bishop with her question. Bishop stood from his seat in the center of the couch to look directly at Maddy with his single dejected reply.
“No.”