“Why? Because you’re so trustworthy?” I inhale deeply to catch my ragged breath. “I don’t remember the last time I was this angry. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been this angry.” Then I remember the last thing I saw. “My phone! Where is it?”
Jesse nods to the nightstand next to my bed. There it is, my black brick with a crack shaped like a k cutting through the center. “It was a precaution, Drew.”
“I have half a mind to tell these doctors what you did. Who you are. You’re, you’re, a monster.”
“I warned you,” he says, tone a hushed whisper. “You wanted to proceed with our business partnership anyway.”
This is what I get for putting a fraction of trust into another human. When I was young, it was easy to take everything at face value and accept my life because I didn’t know anything else. Then I grew up and the casualties of life begin carving out pieces of my heart one by one. I never trusted my grandma, the woman who raised me. How could I when one of my favorite hobbies was guessing how many beers, she’d had by the time I got home from school? I shake off the memory when I came home and found her face down in the apartment kitchen, rats crawling over her back like she was a corpse.
“I’ve lived through hell once, Jesse, and I won’t do it again, not for any amount of money.” Treacherous tears prick my eyes. “I don’t even know you and you want to change me, so you can take your cash and shove it. I’d rather live in the motel for the rest of my life than work for a piece of slime like you.”
“So, the princess has teeth?” Jesse says, squeezing my hand once, hard, before letting go. “I don’t want to change you. What part of this is me wanting to change you? Let me help you.” He holds his arm out. “When is the last time you’ve had a checkup? Hell, when is the last time someone else cared about you?” I bristle. “Admit this isn’t a bad thing.”
“It’s not a legal thing,” I fire back. He’s right, though.
“And you’re worried about keeping things on the up and up?” he says, pulling a chair over to the bed to sit closer to me. “Illegal should be your middle name.”
I grit my teeth. “I chose this life for myself. It’s my decision. This was not my decision, this was coercion. What did you get out of it?”
“You already know what I got out of it, Drew. You’re a smart woman.”
“Smart? Wouldn’t say that. I followed you into your apartment today. Dumbest mistake of my life.”
“A bit dramatic given your past. No mistakes larger than that?”
I narrow my eyes. “What do you know of my past?” I throw up my hands, but cautiously as I still have a needle in my arm. “It doesn’t matter, Jesse. I don’t care what you know because this is over.”
“It hasn’t begun yet,” he counters, eyes turning deadly.
“Is that a threat?” My heart is pounding. I half expect the monitor next to me to start buzzing.
Licking his lips, he smiles. I hate that I notice their shape. The bow on the top of his lips is pronounced. There is a jagged scar on his bottom lip, but that top lip… it’s full, perfect, and infuriating as it twitches into a bigger grin. “You’re safe.”
He didn’t say it wasn’t a threat, though. “I’m STD free, that’s what you wanted to know, now what? Not about sex, my ass. If you think I’m going to work for you, you’re crazier than you already seem. I’ve been on my own for a long time and I’m not about to be someone’s bitch.”
One brow rises. “You think I want to be your pimp?”
“Why else would you care about blood tests and pelvic exams?”
He stands, and the nurse comes in and starts unhooking wires and tubes from me. She asks if I’m ready as she swaps out my blanket for a warm one. Jesse leans over when the nurse crosses to the other side of the room to dispose of something in the sharps bin.
He whispers, warm breath on my neck, “Because I might want you for myself.”
My stomach sinks and floats at the same time. The look he gave me makes me feel all the things I shouldn’t. He’s a monster. He’s evil.
He’s poison. But he might be the kind I want.
Crap.
Chapter Four
Drew
Callie thinks I’ve lost my mind. I didn’t even tell her about the hospital or felonies Jesse committed and she still is berating me for firing my Johns and quitting at the motel for a single cleaning gig. I can’t tell her everything or how much I’m making. It feels almost dirtier than hooking. I know what kind of man Jesse is and I’m diving in headfirst anyway.
I didn’t think this wild plan all the way through though because the front desk at Mountain Aire Motel slipped an invoice under my door this morning. It’s for next month’s rent on my room, and it’s high. I really pissed off Marty. Only because finding another girl to clean for a small, ratty room in this shithole will be next to impossible for him. I can’t afford to pay for this room hourly. I’ll have to find another apartment. Callie is still popping off about my decision when she spots the invoice on top of the mini fridge. She holds it up. “What the fuck, Destiny. How is cleaning an apartment going to pay this?” She jabs a long neon colored acrylic at the bottom number. I wonder how much she paid for those nails.
Sighing, I shake my head. “I’ll have to move. This place isn’t worth that price, we both know that.”