"Another drink, Miss?" Audrey's thoughts were interrupted by the bartender picking up her empty glass.

"Yes...please." Audrey forced a smile as her thoughts wandered again.

"I...I don't want to be here anymore!" Audrey cried as she pulled away from Frank.

"I don't think you understand, Audrey...you don't really get a say in that." Frank said as he grabbed her by the arm and swung her clear across the room. Audrey toppled onto the floor, her body hitting the nightstand.

Frank knelt in front of her and forcefully kissed her. Audrey felt her tears falling from her cheek as Frank continued kissing her. She didn't respond to his kiss, but she was too afraid to push him away.

"Oh Audrey..." Frank said with a sweetness in his voice as he stroked the side of her face. "I don't like treating you this way....you know I don't, but when you misbehave, I don't have any other choice." he said.

"You could let me go." Audrey said looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Please, Frank...I just...want to go home."

Frank's face turned cold and he dropped his hand from Audrey's cheek. "The home you so desperately wanted to get away from?" he asked. "Didn't you ask me to help you get away from that house? Isn't that what I did? Didn't I give you a home here with me...and everything you could possibly want?" Frank replied upset as he got to his feet. "You ungrateful little bitch."

"Frank...I know what I asked you...and I do appreciate everything you've done for me....everything you've given me, but..."

"But what?"

Audrey looked at Frank, absolutely terrified. She wanted to tell him that he wasn't the man she thought he was when she first met him. That she didn't know who she was getting mixed up with...that she couldn't be with someone who'd have another human being killed...but she was too afraid for her life to say that.

"...I don't want to stay here anymore." Audrey said softly.

"Oh...you don't want to stay here anymore." Frank said as he violently pulled her to her feet so she was standing in front of him.

"Frank...I..." Audrey stumbled on her words.

"No....I get it...you want to leave...go back to your old life, is that it?"

Audrey nodded.

"Okay." he said.

Audrey's eyes widened, a sense of hope having returned to her.

"There's just one thing, sweet Audrey." Frank said with a cynical smile on his face. "I've spent too much of my time and money on you to just simply...let you go. So....if you really want to go, you're going to have to pay me back every.. single...shilling I spent on you."

"I will, Frank...I can get a job and I promise to pay you back everything..." Audrey said.

Frank chuckled. "Yes...you'll need a job, Audrey....one that pays very well...and I'm going to help you out with that."

"You are?"

"Yes..." he said as he once again leaned in to kiss Audrey, this time soft and gentle. "Oh Audrey...I never wanted you for this kind of work...when I first saw you, I wanted you for me...as my woman...but seeing as you don't want that for yourself...then you might as well be one more of the bunch...." he began as he caressed her neck and shoulder with his hand. "...one more girl who uses her body..." he continued taking his hands down to her waist "in order to get ahead in this business...." Frank pulled Audrey close to him. "..this body of yours...which has brought me such pleasures will now become community property...but not before I enjoy it one last time." he smiled as he pushed her onto the bed.

Audrey shook her head, trying to rid her mind of the awful memories of her past- a past that had caught up with her and was ruining her present. She had another glass of whiskey before she felt somebody sit down next to her. She was just about to glance over to see who it was until she heard his voice call the bartender over.

She sighed, gulping the last of her drink before turning towards him.

"Two of what she's having." John told the bartender. "I thought you might be here." he said turning towards Audrey.

"Yeah...I needed a drink." she said, her voice giving away it had been more than one drink.

The bartender returned with the two whiskeys and John pushed one over to Audrey.

"Don't worry John...I assure you I will still sleep with a man without the need of him getting me drunk." she said with bitterness in her voice.

"Audrey...that's why I came looking for you...I want to apologize to you."

"There's no need, John. You told Ringo the truth....there's no need to apologize for saying the truth."

"No...it wasn't the truth. That's not you anymore. You're not that girl anymore."

Audrey chuckled before taking a sip of her drink. "John...once you turn into 'that girl' you can never get away from her. You can't get away from your past. It follows you...tortures you...fucks up your future."

"I don't believe that."

"You'd marry someone like me, then?" Audrey asked, challenging him.

John didn't respond.

"You'd want me as the mother of your children? You wouldn't...and that's the truth."

John looked at Audrey. The truth was that he liked Audrey; he got along lovely with her. She was sweet, funny and very charismatic. Had Ringo not expressed interest in her from the very beginning, he would have probably gone after her.

"It's not a very fair question, Audrey..."

"Why not?"

"Because of everything going on. Because of Frank and the fact that he wants to kill me and you're his link to me." he said.

Audrey suddenly felt guilty. Here she was feeling sorry for herself for the life she had brought on to herself by her poor decisions and blaming John for it, while his life was on the line and she was supposed to bring him to Frank.

"I'm sorry, John. I have no right to put any blame on you for any of this."

"Well don't be too quick to take the blame away." John said as he finished his drink. "I obviously did something that brought me into this whole mess...I just have no bloody idea what it was."

"You really don't know what it could be?" Audrey asked.

"Audrey, I've thought long and hard about it...and I don't ever remember meeting him...let alone doing something to him...I'd remember that much."

"And he hasn't wanted to tell me either."

John sighed. "Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens, eh?" John said.

Audrey nodded.

"John..."Audrey began after a few seconds. "I have something to tell you...about last night." she said.

"Ringo went up to see you..."

"How did you know?"

"He told me he was going to last night...something happen between you two? Is that it?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you...sleep with him?" John inquired.

"No...we just fooled around." she confessed, making sure to leave out Ringo's initial behavior. "I know it was a mistake..." she said looking down at her lap. "I was supposed to keep him believing I wasn't interested...you know, to keep him safe."

"Audrey, you didn't let me finish telling you what Ringo and I talked about last night..."

She looked up. "Okay..."

"Look, last night I tried to paint a picture of you to Ringo...and yes, I tried to disappoint him...disillusion him...but frankly, it didn't work. He was adamant about his feelings for you. And he was rather upset with me for having said what I said. That's one of the reasons I was keeping away from you two this morning. He said he didn't believe me and that I was only saying that so that I could keep him away from you. On top of that, he couldn't understand why I would mess around with you knowing he liked you so much. I made it out to be like you were just any other girl who was just there for the taking...I'm sorry Audrey....I didn't know what else to tell him. I just wanted him to see you as one of the many other girls we fool around with...as if you weren't anything special...but you are."

"To Ringo."

"To both of us. I care about you too Audrey...not in the same way as Ringo does, I suppose, but...I am afraid of you being so close to Frank. I'm afraid of what could happen to you if he finds out you've turned and are working with the police."

"Why? If I am the one who set you up to begin with?"

"I know you wouldn't have done it if you weren't forced to, but honestly, I'm rather glad Frank went looking for you...because I have a better chance now of coming out unharmed because he chose you." he smiled.

"You two wouldn't think I'm special if you knew everything I did, John...everything I witnessed...everything I...let him get away with." Audrey said as a tear fell down her cheek.

"It's alright...Audrey." John said as he tried to take her hand, but she pulled away.

"It's not." she said as she pulled some money out of her pocket and put it on the bar. "You have no idea who I am, John. I don't even know who I am anymore...maybe I never did." Audrey said as she walked out of the bar and towards the elevator.

John didn't follow Audrey. He watched her walk away. He knew she was hurting. Everything was so complicated and at this moment, John didn't see how it was going to sort itself out. He too was worried about what was going on with Frank, even if he didn't let himself show it. He was worried about Cynthia and Julian, wanting to tell Cynthia to leave the country for a while, but Brian and the cops had convinced him not to do anything out of the ordinary. They couldn't let on that he knew what was going on in case Frank and his people were watching them...it would be too much of a risk.

When Audrey got back to the room, she was thankful it was empty. She laid down in the bed, trying to clear her mind, but it was impossible.

"Michael tells me you're one of our most requested girls." Frank said sitting on the bed.

Audrey was holding onto a pillow and didn't even bother to look at him.

"I can't say I'm surprised..." Frank continued amidst her silence.

"What do you want Frank?" Audrey finally asked.

"You should be nicer to me Audrey." Frank said a bit amused. "I'm here to offer you a career move."

Audrey glared at him.

"You were always a feisty one." Frank laughed. "That's what I like about you, Audrey...and that's why I think you'll be perfect for what I'm about to propose to you. Besides, if you're serious about getting away from this life, this will bring you more money...unless of course, you're happy where you're at."

"Don't patronize me. What is it you want me to do?"

That's where her downward spiral had begun. Frank had convinced her to work alongside him, which she thought would be an improvement from what she had been doing; she figured nothing could be worse than prostituting her body, but she was deceived again, this time not only selling her body, but being assigned to romance and seduce men to extract any information that Frank was after. Due to those assignments, Audrey got a first hand look at all of the dirty work that Frank designated to be done after he had no more use for a person.  

It wasn't until a few months after she started working alongside Frank that she witnessed the first act of violence against one of his victims.  Typically, Frank would have her leave or his men would take away the poor bastard she had tricked, but that time, she remembered just how angry Frank had been at this man. 

"Hold him down..." Frank said as he went over and took the baseball bat from one of his men.

"Now, I'm not much of a baseball player myself...that's the sort of thing I'd leave for those Yankees..." he told the man looking up at him with fear. "But you've really got me upset, Jim."

"Frank...I promise it wasn't me!  I didn't snitch, Frank...I-"

Audrey heard herself scream as she saw Frank strike the man with the bat across his legs. But the screams of both Audrey and Jim didn't seem to distract Frank from what he was doing.  He brought the bat back again and hit him once again, this time across the ribs.  Audrey brought her hands to her mouth and turned away.  She could hear Jim yelling for him to stop as Frank continued hitting him.  Audrey began crying, trying to muffle her cries with her hands. 

It must have been less than a minute later when Frank stopped, but for Audrey, it felt like a lot more.  She had her eyes closed, not wanting to open them.

"Finish him off...you guys know what we do with snitches." Frank said as Audrey heard the bat hit the floor.

Audrey could hear Jim moaning in agony.  She suddenly felt Frank's arm around her waist, guiding her out of the room.