2 Last warm bed

The Longpork hotel is the last warm bed for many before you hit the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. It doesn't sit at the foothills, which would make it too vulnerable to attack. Instead, it is about 150 miles from the border. There are other places to stop between the Longpork and the foothills, but none offer the amenities. It was probably the last place to get a cold beer and warmed bed that wasn't infested with bed bugs.

The Longpork was a large square two-story building. Its wooden facade was painted white with little gray accents on the edges. The girls insisted on working in a clean looking place. So Ramon kept it cleaned up and painted. The back of the building was painted in a good thick coat of black.

The front of the building had one long porch across the front. Covering it was a small roofline and one sign in the middle. It read "The L.P. Hotel. Beds, Breakfast, Bacon". The fact that it was called the Longpork had been kept an inside joke by Ramon when he opened it. A few of the working girls knew what it meant. They kept the secret. Most guests loved that you could get fresh bacon year-round.

The upstairs was all rooms, there were 30 of them up there. Only the 10 fanciest rooms were occupied full time by ladies. The other 20 were either bunk style rooms or singles. The rooms were kept clean by the house madam who managed and protected the safety of the upstairs.

The downstairs part was made up of Ramon's living quarters in the far back corner. A kitchen made up the other corner. The Hallway that led to the basement was in Ramon's living space. The rest of the front of the hotel was a lounge and dining room.

It was late afternoon and people were starting to come into the hotel and find places around the bar to sit. At the far end of the bar three young women were sitting around a small table they had pulled up at the edge. A young girl sat between two older young women. They had a blanket wrapped around the smallest one and kept pouring cheap whiskey into a glass as the young girl drank it.

"Just breathe," The girl on the left said while rubbing the back of the little one. "What happened wasn't your fault and he got what he deserves."

The small girl was Telilah. She was the one who had just nearly been brutalized. To her left was Augustine, a darkly tanned woman with platinum blond hair. She was a runaway from a home in the Republic of Texas. To the right of Telilah was Juniper, she had jet black hair and bright blue eyes. She was an escaped slave from the Panama Regime. She had escaped just to make her way as far north as she could.

Her money had run out when she made it to the Castle of Wichita. She had been sold as a slave again to a group of men heading to California to sell her to Traders headed to Asia. Latin and American women sold for a fortune in brothels across the ocean, if they survived the trip. Ramon and Liz had rescued her in the night when they heard the man that purchased her beating her in the hotel one night. He had disappeared and she was then free again. She had stayed at the hotel after that. She knew she was safe here.

"Everyone get's rescued eventually." Juniper sipped on her own whiskey. The sound of the near-rape had reignited some old feelings of her own. Telilah slammed her glass down on the table and watched as Augustine poured another glass.

"I told you, Liz doesn't take no shit from anyone," Augustine said still rubbing the girl's back. "This is the safest place for girls like us. Ramon and Liz respect us here."

"Are they married?" Telilah slightly slurred the words. The whiskey was slowly having the desired effect and she was calming down.

"No, not even a chance. Ramon won't touch us even if you beg!" Juniper said with a smile. She put her hand on Telilah's and patted it. "He's the one man we never have to worry about."

"But he is a man isn't he?" Telilah looked from face to face.

"He won't touch us." Augustine sighed. "He won't talk about why either. He just takes care of the hotel and feeds us and gets rid of the trash."

They all looked at each other. In the back of the hotel, Liz was closing the door to the basement. It was in what could be called Ramon's living room. His bed and bath were in a room behind it. This room had a desk with papers spread across it on one wall. Across from that wall were a couch and bookshelf. The bookshelf was next to the door that led into the basement. If you need. the bookshelf could slide across the door, hiding it from prying eyes.

Liz walked over to the couch and sat down. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she leaned back. This was the nicest couch in the whole hotel. It was oddly out of place in this room that was dominated by masculine trophies. Books about war and finances sat around the shelves along with cookbooks and recipes. A few old photos hung on the wall from before the world changed. The couch sat by itself, a soft floral pattern in light blues and pinks.

She reached under a cushion and pulled out her revolver. She slowly wrapped it around her thigh and strapped the buckles up. She stood up and found her corset that she had taken off earlier. She pulled the corset around her midsection before tightening it up. She pulled her brown work shirt up to billow around her breasts and tucked the pants inside of it the bottom. She pulled two soft shoes out from under the couch and kicked the boots under the couch.

She slid her shoes on and ran a hand through her hair before walking towards the door. A mirror hung by it and she checked herself before she walked out. She used the edge of her shirt to wipe away the lone speck of blood that had landed on her when Ramon had removed the man's appendage.

"For someone so caring he can be such a brute." She whispered. Ramon kept to himself. She wished she knew more about him but right now she was glad that they could take care of each other. She was also glad he wouldn't lay a hand on the girls.

Liz stepped out of the room and walked through the kitchen. Cheffie was an old salty black man who Ramon paid handsomely to cook up southern comfort foods. He made all the fried foods in heated bacon grease. It gave everything in the menu a taste you couldn't get anywhere else. It was part of their claim to fame.

As Liz rounded the corner she waved and hollered, "Morning Cheffie! Making anything good?"

Cheffie clanked his spoon on the table and scoffed, "You making fun of me? When have I ever made anything you haven't eaten?"

Cheffie was the only other person who knew the full extent of what went on below. And that was probably because he was the one who served it to the passing strangers.

Liz smiled and pulled a slice of bread from the box by the door. "You might make something gross one day. Then I have to fire you."

He threw the spoon at the door. It landed with a thud and a small particle of food hit the wall. "Get out of here before I serve you to someone!"

Liz ducked under the spoon and walked into the bar area. She saw her three girls sitting at a table not far from the door. She walked over and could smell the hooch in the air. She reached between them and pulled the bottle from Augustine's hands. "That's enough comfort for you three! Get her upstairs, Juniper you spend the night with her tonight. Make sure she doesn't have any terrors."

This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Liz tried to stop it before they got to this. But after an attack, that first night's sleep could be deeper than anything you had ever known, or the worst terror ever as your mind lived through it all. For Liz, she had slept like a baby.

The first time she had killed a john in self-defense she had felt a sense of power. Her body was her own and no one had rights to it. She used her position to protect others. It gave her a high and euphoria. She knew it was wrong, but she loved to punish those who couldn't keep their hands to themselves. If it wasn't for the pesky rules about evidence and court she would have made a very efficient lawman.

The girls nodded and got the highly drunk young woman up from the table and led her upstairs. Juniper would entertain her until she passed out. Liz tried to keep her girls from facing this but she couldn't be everywhere at once. She was the enforcer.

She reached up with the bottle and put it on the shelf where it belonged as he heard another voice behind her. "You sure know how to find a fight don't you girl?" The old voice belonged to the House madam. Everyone just called her "Ma'am" but her real name was Karen. She hated the name.

"Why can't you just kick them out normally. Do you know how hard it is to clean blood up?"

"Yes Ma'am I do." Liz turned to look at the matronly woman. She had gray hair tied up under a hat and a long black dress. She tried to look the part of the hotel staff. Most of the girls wore what you would expect a working girl to wear. Ma'am figured this was just her costume, her days working were long since gone for all but a very few clients.

"So stop doing it then. Call me next time and I will help you rough him up outside the house. Getting beat by a woman usually keeps them from coming back."

"He was going to kill her if I didn't. He was too rough to be up with her. We really need to get a bouncer at the stairs again." Liz pulled a glass and a pitcher of sweet tea out. She poured herself a glass and took a sip. She needed to get some kind of water in her after being down in that salty mine below.

"You and Ramon disposed of the body?"

Liz just nodded. No one asked questions, the law could never pin anything on anyone here. So they just stayed quiet and let them work. It was safer for everyone involved. "It's being taken care of. Can you watch the bar for me while Ramon is out?"

Ma'am just nodded. "Of course honey. You go upstairs and change, you smell awful."

Liz drained her glass and put it in a bin of bleach water behind the counter. "Yeah, I think I will. Dinner smells good tonight." She looked out at the crowd, the sun was headed towards the horizon. There weren't a ton of people in the bar tonight so maybe they would have a peaceful evening. When the man had tumbled down the stairs only a few regulars had been in the bar, all they had seen was Ramon and Liz carrying a drunk down and out the back. More than one town drunk had been tossed out the back door before. It all looked above board.

Ma'am walked around the bar and stood by the register. A stool sat back there and she perched herself up on the seat. "Now go. Get some rest and I will see you later."

Liz nodded and walked towards the front of the hotel. She nodded to several regular visitors and excused herself upstairs. She headed towards the stairs in the far edge away from the front door. She walked up the steps and stopped only to wipe up one tiny dot of blood on the stairs. "She missed one," she said before heading to her room. A bath was going to feel good after all this.