That was her third night working at that nightclub in Morlana One and, were not for her pressing need for credits, she'd have told those people where they could stick that job into.
At least it was significantly better payed than other similar posts in even shader watering holes she'd worked in, and up to then the nights had been uncrowded to the point that no clients had requested her company yet, to her immense relief. Though she couldn't exactly tell if the lack of demand of her services was due to the low number of patrons those last days or that somehow they were smart enough (what she highly doubted) as to sense that she was more trouble than she was worth spending credits on.
Either way, she didn't believe that reprieve was going to last for much longer. The club's owner didn't pay her just for waiting tables, after all. She was fully aware of that when she'd asked for the job. And besides, as she had recently found out, clients weren't the only people she had to worry about. The local authorities were even worse, in the sense of corruption.
It wasn't her first time working in a brothel. Or prostituting herself, for that matter. She'd learned that the fastest way to earn a good amount of credits without resorting to theft (and thus risking more being caught by the Imperial authorities, something she avoided like lothcats avoided water) was selling her body to someone willing to spend half or more than their monthly income on young anonymous flesh. That afforded her a few weeks of relative respite while she searched for a less sordid means to earn a living, or at least a means which didn't imply allowing strangers to invade and use her body.
Not that she had resorted to prostitution often, just a handful of times since Saw had ditched her. But whenever extreme necessity demanded it, and only as a last resource, she gritted her teeth and endured the task. She'd learned to detach herself from the unsavoury acts and perform on autopilot convincingly enough, or so she thought. So far no client of hers had complained. A pair of them even had payed her extra after the sessions (she always collected her fee in advance, in case any of those chaps had funny ideas.)
All in all, she had ended up in that brothel in Morlana and, if things continued to go on the way they currently were for a couple of weeks or so without everything fucking up, by then she could be able to bugger off with her pockets decently full and search for a more dignified occupation which didn't entail fucking, giving blowjobs to whatever bodily organs were designed by nature for such acts or agreeing to play small sexual fantasies which didn't require much imagination. She had little patience or endurance for intricate performances. In her estimation, the best clients were those who demanded quick and fast.
She was using the fake name Gani. It had popped up into her mind when asked for an alias for her post. In those places, no one knew the others' true identities, of course. Much safer that way.
She'd buried her true identity beneath layers and layers of lies since she'd lost her parents. Saw had been the only one to know. Well, until he realized that a couple of members of their cadre had started to suspect who she truly was, and therefore she was left behind.
That had been the definitive and most hurtful reason to bury her real name.
Gia, one of her working partners, came close to her. "Gani, they're here. You know what to do," she said with her eyebrow sutbly raised.
Jyn huffed in irritation. That couple of corrupt corpos were proving the most difficult part of her duties in that place. They hadn't demanded her sexual services yet but, according to a few of her mates, that was only because they were measuring her, regarding their approach as a sort of foreplay, like a spider around a prey. In a matter of a night or two, she'd have to attend to them in ways which required much more than serving their drinks and putting up with banal conversation. And what was more, they seemingly had the habit of having threesomes, both of them together with one girl. Jyn seriously considered that, were not for the amount the brothel was paying her nightly, an amount she desperately needed in order not to keep on starving, she would quit right away and tell those two pieces of scum to go fuck themselves. Who, in addition, never left tips for the girls they used for their pleasure, abusing their position in every way they could.
Jyn was already hatching a plan to give them a lesson right before departing from that Force-forsaken planet in a couple of weeks.
The moment she crossed the door to the main lounge to deal with the two bullies, she spotted a lean, dark haired man talking to the madam of the brothel. It was blatantly obvious that he wasn't a regular patron, if he'd ever visited such a place before. He sported a restless air around him, like an animal afraid of suddenly finding himself caged or trapped. Either way, he didn't look like a potential client. He was very urgently after something and that something wasn't sex for money or casual company, Jyn noticed. She'd been honing her observational skills since she was eight and thrown into an extremely hard life where one could easily die if they didn't learn quickly how to watch attentively their surroundings.
His eyes turned to her, and she instinctively felt a pull toward the stranger. That surprised her, because she'd never felt that for anyone.
"Hey, girl, we were here first," the oldest corpo complained, pulling her out of her sudden trance. "Are you having funny ideas about that scrawny guy?"
And then, before Jyn could retort, they began to harass the newcomer, who evidently was barely restraining himself from openly confronting the thugs.
Jyn locked eyes with him from afar, conveying an urgent message: Please go asap for your own safety.
The stranger returned a look which clearly asked: Are you okay with them?
She nodded firmly and gestured briefly for the entrance door.
He gulped down the last of his drink, left some credits on the bar and, addressing one last questioning (and unsure) glance at her, turned to leave.
Immediately Jyn knew that her current companions weren't done with the stranger. Despite her efforts to distract them, they seemed to have found a new target to harass.
She had to do something.