Free Crush by Phoef Sutton Page A

left it to me.”
    â€œI thought you said she was the Money, Franklin,” the naked man said. Rush was starting to feel sorry for the guy, everybody ganging up on him.
    â€œI’m family!” Franklin insisted to Amelia. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
    â€œLook, are we gonna do this thing or not?” asked the naked man. Rush had had about enough. He seized the guy by the scruff of the neck and propelled him out the door and into the cold water of the canal. Then he turned to the remaining model.
    â€œOut,” he said.
    The tall woman shrugged and headed out the door, pausing to say to Franklin in heavily accented English, “You owe me money.”
    â€œThat much English you know!” Franklin said. The door slammed shut on her, and Franklin turned to confront Rush. “What the fuck do think you’re doing?”
    Rush was a big man, and when he looked at you in a certain way, he got even bigger. He looked at Franklin that way.
    â€œJust asking,” Franklin said, backing down. “Not disrespecting, just asking.”
    Amelia did the introductions. “This is my bodyguard. They call him Crush. This is my brother, Franklin. He makes porn. In our mother’s house.”
    â€œHey, Mom had faith in me!” he said, going around the room, switching off the lights. “Now what am I going to do? I got no content for the website. My subscribers are gonna be pissed. I got responsibilities!”
    The conscientious pornographer. Rush looked at the website logo on the call sheet.
    â€œC.F.N.M?”
    â€œClothed Female, Naked Male. It’s the new kink. You gotta keep up with the new kink.”
    Amelia was shoving furniture back in place. “You messed up my stuff. Get out of my house.”
    Rush was tired of the playacting. “Knock it off and go ahead and talk to him, Amelia. That’s why you came here, right? Sneaking out in the middle of the night. Kind of dangerous, don’t you think?”
    â€œI figured you’d follow me. That’s what I’m paying you for, isn’t it?” Rush’s sentiments exactly. Smart girl, he thought.
    â€œWhat would she want to talk to me about?” Franklin protested.
    â€œThe Russians,” Rush said.
    â€œI don’t know any Russians.”
    â€œThose girls weren’t talking Chinese.” Rush was getting angry.
    Franklin seemed to understand that it wasn’t a good idea to get Rush angry, and he conceded the point. “Okay. All the best performers come from Eastern Europe these days.”
    â€œUh-huh,” Rush said. “And Tarzan Ivankov runs the Russian whores in L.A.”
    â€œThey’re not whores, they’re actresses!” Franklin whined. “I’m a filmmaker. I’m learning my craft.”
    Rush picked a bullwhip up from the floor. “This isyour craft?”
    â€œFuck you, that’s for atmosphere.”
    Amelia was in his face. “And whaddya mean, calling me the Money?”
    â€œYou bought the camera.”
    â€œThat was for when you were going to film school. Remember that?”
    Franklin made a face. “Those hacks.”
    â€œSome Russians jumped me tonight,” Amelia told him. “In the parking lot of the Nocturne. Know anything about that?”
    â€œNow I’m supposed to know about everything every Russian does in L.A.” He started gathering up his things. “Maybe they just wanted some pussy, did you ever think of that?”
    â€œI did. And fuck you.”
    â€œFuck you too,” and he was gone, out the front door.
    â€œNice family you got,” Rush said.
    â€œFranklin’s all right,” she said. “We stick together. I’d do anything for him, except he’s throwing his life away.”
    â€œAnd you’re not?”
    She shrugged. “I’m just a kid.”
    â€œSo this house is yours?”
    â€œYeah. Mom used to party with her boyfriends