Page 60 of The King's Boy

Spencer grabbed the whole stack out of my hand and carried it over to the woman who had answered the door. "Here, Candy, this is for you and your friends. Our way of saying thank you."

Oh, that was much better than what I thought he was going to do with it.

I pulled out one of my business cards and handed to the woman as well. "This is my phone number. If you get into any trouble because of all of this, give me a call. I'll make sure you are okay."

Candy gasped when she read the card. "You are Angus King?"

"I am."

She quickly tried to hand the card and cash back into my hands. "I can't take this."

"Yes, you can," Spencer assured her.

"No, you don't understand," she insisted. "I'm already working off a debt to my pimp. I can't afford to have another one. I eventually want to get out of this life."

My eyes narrowed. "What debt?"

"When I ran away from my abusive father, he loaned me the money to get the apartment and then paid the rent for the first six months until I could start making money. I've been paying him back a little at a time, but the interest is killing me."

"Eddie who?" Malloy asked.

"Eddie Frazer," Candy replied. "He runs all the girls here in Little Jamaica, and some of the boys."

"I'll handle it, sir," Malloy said.

I nodded, knowing that Malloy would make sure Candy didn't owe Eddie anymore money. I wasn't against having working girls in my territory. People deserved the right to earn money however they wanted to.

What I was against was someone exploiting them to do it. I had no doubt that Eddie was charging Candy an exuberant amount of interest. She could work for the next five years and still owe money.

"Take the money, Candy," I ordered. "You won't owe us anything. This is our way of saying thank you for helping Spencer and keeping him safe until I could reach him."

Candy looked at the money as if she desperately wanted to keep it. "Are you sure?"

"I am," I replied. "The money is yours, no strings attached." I would never penalize someone for helping Spencer when I couldn't.

He was more important than anything.

Chapter Nineteen

~ Spencer ~

I was thrilled to death that King had decided to reward Candy for her help, but I was done talking about it. I wanted to go home, I wanted to make sure that Boden was okay, and then I wanted to go to bed and snuggle with King for an entire week.

I was done.

Fried.

No longer able to compute.

"Can we go home now?" I asked.

"Of course, baby." King's arm wrapped around my shoulders, and he started leading me toward the door. I had the distinct feeling he was not letting me go anytime soon.

I was okay with that.

I waved to Candy as we walked past. "Thank you for all your help."

"No." She grinned as she held up the wad of cash for a moment before pressing it to her ample chest. "Thank you."