“How does it feel,” the reporter pressed, moving closer, “knowing most people still think you did it?” intrusion.
Audrey froze.Impossible.
The clerk leaned toward the window. Other customers glanced Audrey’s way, their thoughts moving through the space like a current.
That’s her…
She killed…
Look at her…
Every thought made the situation feel like it could get out of hand. “Turn it off,” Audrey snapped.
“Especially now,” the reporter pushed, closing distance, “that sources say someone’s been?—”
The woman’s voice grew muffled as a tremble moved down Audrey’s spine. She shot a look over her shoulder. Across the street, the man in the hoodie stood under a rippling awning. She shoved past the reporter, making the woman stagger.
But when she looked back, he was gone.
Of course.Ignoring the thought, she rounded the corner and banged her fist against the club’s back door. “Open up.”
No answer. All she could hear was the pounding bass and voices muted by the walls. She knocked again, but the bouncers still ignored her. Her heart thumped. She hated feeling exposed. If the reporter returned…
“Forget it,” Audrey mumbled, heading for the main entrance. A group of men lingered outside, drunk, watching everything that moved.
She didn’t slow. “Move.”
One of them hesitated, then stepped aside. Inside, it was hot. Noise and sweat crashed into her.
“Look who made it,” Erik said from the bar. He didn’t smile, and Audrey kept walking. A hand caught her sleeve and pulled her back. “Don’t get smart,” Erik said, fingers stroking her cheek. “Later. You’re mine.”
His aura pressed in. It was dark and possessive. Audrey didn’t fight him. “Yeah,” was all she could muster. Erik owned her, and all the girls atSarai, yet Audrey was the only one he tortured on a regular basis.
He held her a moment longer, then let go. Audrey pulled away.
After she entered the dressing room, Skyler stumbled in after and dropped onto the couch, already half-gone.
“Chloe off?” Audrey asked.
Skyler laughed weakly. “No one’s off.”
Before Audrey could reply, she bent forward and vomited.
Audrey paused for an instant, then dropped next to her friend, turning Skyler onto her side and holding her steady. Foam formed on Skyler’s mouth as her body shook.
“Stay with me,” Audrey said, grabbing the Narcan from her purse. “Come on.”
The medicine went up her nose, and a breath dragged back into Skyler’s lungs. She coughed. Audrey exhaled.
“Shit,” Skyler rasped. “I took too much.”
“Yeah. You did.”
The room teemed with laughing and talking voices, so routine it almost made the overdose feel like a hallucination.
“You should try some of this new stuff,” one of the girls said.
Audrey shook her head, still a bit shaken from Skyler’s brush with death. “I’m good.”
