He took me at my word. The next thing I knew, he was holding out a small black smartphone.
“I should’ve thought of this sooner,” he said. “It’s a burner phone and a basic model. But it’ll do until we get you something permanent.”
I stared at it for a second before reaching for it. This was something nice and something real. The phone coupled with the room, the job, and the medical care, loosened something in my chest. Maybe it was like Dr. Harper said and the Slayers really were different. I wanted to believe that so badly. My fingers closed around the smooth plastic. It was warm from his hand and apparently all mine. Real.
“Cassandra said you didn’t have a phone,” he said by way of an explanation. “Now you do.”
“Thank you,” I choked out, feeling hope bloom in my mind for the first time since my father sold me to Viper.
For a moment, I stayed where I was, holding the phone and trying to make sense of everything. I had expected more of the same from Fuse and the Dark Slayers and was getting generosity and caring instead. It was a lot to wrap my head around all at once.
Fuse nodded once, like that settled it, and stepped aside to give me room to move past him.
“I need the restroom,” I said, needing space to think.
Fuse gestured down the hallway. “It’s the second door on the left.”
I walked away before he could say anything else. My head was spinning. I found myself walking faster and faster, to thepoint that I was rushing in what felt like a mini panic attack of some sort.
The restroom was empty when I stepped inside. I locked myself in a stall and sat there for a moment longer than necessary after I finished peeing. Staring at the burner phone in my hand, I couldn’t get my head around how everything seemed so impossible until Fuse stepped up and now everything was falling right into my lap. There had to be a catch. I just wasn’t smart enough or experienced enough to find it.
I shoved the phone into my pocket, wiped, and forced myself to stand. I stood in front of the sink looking at my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t beautiful by any stretch of the imagination. I’d never had a date, much less a relationship. Why were they treating me so well?
Turning on the water, I soaped up my hands, deciding that I probably shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe life wasn’t meant to make sense. It could be that me being here was the luck of the draw. If that was the case, I was going to make the most of this golden opportunity. I wondered if that girl from Kentucky still existed or if she’d been left behind somewhere along the way.
The door opened behind me, and another club girl stepped in. She was dressed in a black bustier and black leather skirt. Unlike the others, she looked like she’d seen better days. Her long black hair was streaked with bleached highlights and her nails were chipped.
I gave her a halfhearted smile when she moved to the sink beside mine. First, she checked her makeup in the mirror and then spoke to me.
“It wasn’t fair what happened to Charity,” she said quietly.
I froze with my hands still beneath the running water. “What do you mean? Didn’t she break the rules?”
Her face took on an expression that looked almost like regret. “She’s messed up from all the things the brothers have done to her over the years. She shouldn’t have said those things to you, but she was trying to warn you.”
My stomach tightened. “What was she trying to warn me about?”
She handed me a paper towel. I realized the sink was backing up from all the water I was running, so I shut it off and dried my hands.
“What they’re doing to you,” she said gently. “It always starts like this.”
I frowned, “What are you talking about? They gave me a job,” I told her. “They’ve been nice to me.”
Her expression didn’t change. “Yeah, I know it feels that way at first. That’s how all of us got here,” she said. “A brother finds you when you’re in trouble. They always act like heroes. They treat you really good in the beginning. They find out what you want and make sure you get it. They know how to make a woman feel safe but once you start to really trust them, it all changes.”
A sick feeling swirled in the pit of my stomach. “Changes how?” I asked, dreading the response.
“They just do that to reel you in, then the favors stop being free. You start earning them on your back.”
Her words ripped through my mind so hard that I had to grip the edge of the sink to steady myself.
“I’d leave if I could,” she said quietly. “But I don’t have anywhere to go. None of us do.”
“That’s not what Cassandra said,” I whispered, scrambling for the only piece of hope I had left.
She gave me a sad, dispirited smile. “Cassandra’s a doctor. She provides medical care to the club for free. The patched brothers only choose old ladies that can contributesomething valuable. She may not even realize that’s why she was chosen.”
Her gaze drifted away briefly before returning to me. “The rest of us don’t have degrees. We don’t have skills they need outside of being club girls.”
