What would I even say to him at this point?
He bought me tits and a marriage license, and then he bailed. He didn’t just leave me homeless; he made sure I had no job prospects. I’d been forced back to Flynn.
At first glance, Flynn was all business and manners, but I knew better. I met him the night I arrived in Springfield. I was alone, afraid, and down to just a dollar or two.
He bought me a soda and pretended to be my friend.
Flynn wasn’t anyone’s friend. He was the vilest motherfucker I knew.
I almost didn’t get away. I was younger then, and naive. That was what I told myself when I came back to his club with my tail between my legs and mascara running down both cheeks.
I was young then; I wouldn’t let it happen this time.
Who was I kidding?
In the last year, he’d slapped me, pulled my hair, and almost forced himself on me. If the security detail hadn’t knocked to collect a paycheck, I don’t know what would have happened.
I’d picked myself up, dusted myself off, and looked for a different job each time, but Jay was right. Anthony, and his Steel Disciples had made certain that nowhere else in town would take me.
To hell with them.
They could have Springfield.
Tonight was it. I already went and had my check cashed during my break. I’d done great with the tips this week. Cindy sold me her Taurus last payday. It wasn’t fancy, but it would get me to Joplin and then carry us to Texas.
The money showered me and the stage by the time the song ended, and I was never more grateful for it. I hadn’t told a soul that I was leaving. I was terrified Flynn would do something to jeopardize my great escape.
I loved the other girls, and it sucked not saying goodbye, but at this point, I didn’t trust anyone. Even Etta had eventually faded from my life, after driving me down to Swanwick during that first week of devastation. She showed me the empty club that Anthony had boasted about. It was run down; and the parking lot was empty and full of potholes. There wasn’t even a sign out front.
He never intended to open that place. Who knows if he even truly owned it?
I swallowed the bitterness of his lies as I tipped the doorman and made my way to the car with him. He stopped a few feet away and watched me get in, raising his hand in that silent farewell that he always did.
I returned the gesture and drove off the lot of Flynn’s Oasis for the last time.
Everything I owned was in the trunk of that Taurus, which wasn’t much. I wasn’t sure of rental prices in Texas, so I’d sold what I could. I wanted to have my bases covered. It was one thing to hope and pray I landed on my feet when it was just me, but having Joplin with me would be different.
She was still underage. If things weren’t right, someone would take her from me.
I sighed and tried to focus on the first problem at hand, rather than what ifs.
I had four hundred-dollar bills folded up in my pocket. It wasn’t a large sum, but I was banking on it being enough to convince our mother to let her leave with me.
My lower lip was dry from the gnawing on it and my thoughts. I’d kind of zoned out a little, but the Swanwick city limit signsent a wave of anxiety through me that left me gripping the wheel and focusing on my breathing pattern.
I tried to concentrate on everything around me. Anything, really, to pull myself back to the moment.
The distance between driveways. The color of the shutters. I took it all in and exhaled purposefully.
The sign ahead was tall, and neon.
I knew it was where Anthony claimed his club was, but my mind just couldn’t grasp the words that stared back at me.
Steel Cages, it read in big, bronze letters.
A horn screeched, ripping my soul half out of my body.
I jerked the wheel away from the sound and barely missed a collision.
