“Okay,” I agreed, not caring which way I got out of the place, just that I got to Milo and got us both undressed as quickly as possible.
I turned to walk back toward the side of the bar, pushing through the hidden door that brought me right into the long, dark, windowless hallway system that made up the back of the casino.
I’d been avoiding the whole area, coming to work fully dressed and made up, ready to get on stage and get the job done. No more silly romanticism about the process.
Everything felt shabbier than I remembered. The faded paint, the random junk lining the walls.
I turned up the small hallway to get back to the main one.
I was distracted.
I was so busy thinking about how I might be able to sneak into the hotel without being seen that I didn’t notice the shadows moving, didn’t see them closing in.
I didn’t know anything until it was too late.
Until a hand slapped over my mouth as another wrapped around my waist. I was dragged off my feet, my legs pedaling in the air as a scream muffled against a man’s large hand.
My blood whooshed in my ears.
My heartbeat thundered in my chest, my neck, my temples.
I couldn’t think.
I just… flailed, grabbed, scratched.
But whoever this guy was, he was huge, solid. Even if I were on my own two feet, I didn’t think there was a way to get away.
That didn’t mean I didn’t keep trying. Even as he carried me like I weighed nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum through the inner workings of the casino.
He turned down a hall I’d never been in before as my belly flip-flopped, as bile rose up the back of my throat.
I didn’t know whether to choke it back down or get sick all over him. I remembered advice about being as disgusting as possible when a man tried to take you. That sometimes that alone was enough to make them drop you and run off.
But before I could even make up my mind, my attacker was kicking an unmarked door.
Then we were moving inside.
If I thought I’d been afraid before, it increased tenfold when the door slammed shut behind us.
Because until then, I was able to think this was just a simple opportunistic crime, that some guy saw something he wanted and set to taking it.
But it was worse.
It was so, so much worse.
There was hope when it was just one guy with bad intentions.
But inside the small, windowless room with a thick black security door, was not only another large man.
It was Frank.
And worse than that by far… it was the pit boss.
She was sitting on a metal chair, her face bruised, swollen, and bloody. There was an alarming amount of red in her strawberry-blonde hair. Like she’d been hit hard in the head.
But that blood?
It was starting to dry.
