Prologue
Three years ago...
May in Colorado is a pretty amazing time of year to me. I was driving down the road, the windows open in my beat up pickup truck and blaring a random Spotify playlist as I drove back to the house I was renting. Back home in Miami, I’d be sitting in a puddle of sweat if I tried doing that, but it was the perfect way to drive here. Even after a long day of running electrical wire in a new home, the weather helped keep a smile on my face. I’ve been here for about five years now, and the weather was easily the biggest difference. Oh, and the mountains.
Miami didn’t have those.
I pulled into the driveway of the house, parking and getting out with a slight sigh. Wiring didn’t make me as sore as some of the other jobs I did, but my shoulders tended to cramp up a lot by the end of the day. The little house I was renting wasn’t much, just a three bedroom place that I rented from my construction boss. I was a good renter, paid on time, and I renovated several of the rooms as part of the payment.
And he didn’t mind that one of the bedrooms became a filming studio for my Only Fans page. Well, he didn’t exactly know that, but it paid the bills a lot more than the construction did, so I wasn’t in the mood to stop. Besides, you never knew when an emergency was going to strike, and you’d have to run. With my past, I was all ready for it. Looking back on things, I was long overdue for one, I just never expected the source.
“Hey Jamie!” I heard Cody call out as I stepped into the house. “Welcome home!”
That put a smile on my face, as it was always nice to come home to a horny brunette. Knowing her, she’d be ready to film something tonight, because she was perpetually in the mood for the camera. “Hey! I...” My voice died as I rounded the corner into the kitchen and saw Cody sitting at the table with two older men that I didn’t recognize. I looked over at them with a frown, not knowing that my life was about to be completely upended again, though I could feel the tendrils of fear crawling up my spine. Neither of the men was my stepfather, so that was the only good thing I could say about what I was seeing. “What’s going on?”
Cody offered up a tentative smile, then gestured to the two men. “Jamie, I know you’ve always said no to going into adult films, but these two gentlemen make a really good point. I think you should give it a listen.”
I dropped my head to my chest and breathed out heavily through my nose, trying to control my anger. I looked back up, and I could see Cody ashamed to look me in the eye. “I told you no already. You’ve been asking for months, and I already said no to porn every time you brought it up. Honestly, what we’re doing now I never expected to keep doing, so there is no way I’m going to expand it. I don’t want to have sex with people I don’t even know, I need to have feelings for them. I don’t work that way.”
“It’s an awful lot of money,” the older of the two men said with a smirk. He was balding, with an ugly golf shirt that showed a complete lack of taste. “We’re talking millions.”
I snorted at that, not caring about the money. I was already sitting on millions from doing what I was already doing. With the number of paid subscribers I had, I was making almost a million every two months, and while some might consider my channel porn already, I thought it was a little more than that since I was only with a woman I actually knew and liked. “I don’t want money like that. Besides, I’m not an actress. As much as I appreciate the offer, I think I’ll pass.”
“Five million up front,” the man clarified. “Before you ever shoot a scene, you get that, and then you’ll get a salary and a piece of the distribution. You could retire in two years. With the number of followers you have, you’d probably be able to get into Hollywood too. An intersex action star could be a new genre. I bet the world would be ready for that.”
I just shook my head, trying not to get upset. Cody had been pushing this for almost a year, but this was by far the hardest she’s pushed. Hell, she got a lot of money already from my channel, so I didn’t understand what she’d gain, unless she got a finder’s fee or something. Considering we were supposed to be exclusive, I didn’t get the temptation. Was I not enough? I thought our relationship was solid, even if love was never mentioned, but maybe I was mistaken.
“I really am sorry, but I’m just not interested in that. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve had a long day and I’d like a shower.” I gestured to the door, and the men stood up, nodding in resignation.
I don’t know what I was hit with, I just know that as they were walking past me to leave, the silent man hit the back of my head, and I blacked out for a bit, only waking up when a glass of water was splashed in my face. I sputtered loudly until I realized I was in my kitchen chair, my wrists zip tied to the back but my fingers free.
The older man smirked, holding a contract out while the silent one had Cody in a tight grip. “This is your last chance to sign, otherwise it’s going to get ugly.”
“You know that a contract signed under duress isn’t enforceable, right?” I told him. Seriously, did they plan on beating someone they wanted to make money on?
He just grinned at me in a way that I didn’t like, then nodded to the other man, who dragged Cody into the other room as she started to scream. “Last chance.”
“If you do anything to her, you’re never getting my signature. I’ll make sure you both rot in jail!”
“You’re sure?” he asked again.
“Fuck off!” I screamed. I had no idea what the hell they were playing at, but I started wriggling in the chair, hoping the zip ties weren’t too secure.
“Do it!” he yelled. I heard one last scream from Cody, and then two muffled gunshots.
Holy shit! No!
The silent man came back wearing surgical gloves, and wiped off the gun he was holding. “What the hell did you do?” I asked frantically. “You didn’t shoot her, did you?”
“You needed motivation,” The older man said. He walked behind me, digging his thumb into my wrist until I opened my fingers, and then he wrapped them around the grip of the gun, before he pulled it away and placed it into a plastic bag. “Now you have some.” He put the contract on the table in front of me. “Sign this tonight or the body and the gun will be given to the police in the morning.”
I just sat there, tears running down my face as they dragged a tarp out of the bathroom, a limp Cody covered in blood on it. I was just glad I couldn’t see her face, but her shirt was soaked red. I could hear them struggling with her body in the foyer, then the door opened, and they were gone with their grisly cargo.
