“Where will you go?” Her accent is thick when she’s angry and as comforting as I used to find it, the same lilt now makes me uncomfortable. I want to hide that part of myself, like Jesse does. “I’d let you crash with me but that’s bad for business, babe. I’m worried for you. What are you going to do? I don’t know what’s gotten into you. You don’t even know how safe this guy is.”
I keep my face aimed at my bed. “I’ll be okay. I’m always okay. He has a past like ours and he genuinely wants to help me out of this situation.”
“Because you cleaned his apartment one time? How does that make any fuckin’ sense? He’s playing you, babe. This is a game and I hope you finish alive. People with money don’t fuck with bitches like us for real. They fuck us. Then they fuck us over. If we’re lucky, we don’t end up fucked underground.” Every insecurity about my life can be rooted in what she’s saying. I’ll never be good enough to have a life being proud of. I’m not good enough. Pretty enough. Smart enough.
“This is my chance to have something different,” I say, careful not to say anything that might offend her. “I can’t do this forever. I want… I want… more.” It’s the first time I’ve said it aloud.You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit,my grandma would say. Callie’s straight face bores into mine. “And it would be fine if I did live this life forever, but don’t you ever think what it might be like to live like everyone else? All the options and choices they have. This might just be a cleaning job, but he’s paying enough, and it could lead to something more.” It makes me sick the way I’m quasi defending the man who kidnapped me, but it shows how desperate I am. I choose this enemy because at least I know he can pay.
“I get it. The lure is strong. I won’t try to stop you. You know how fuckin’ stupid this is. I’ll even be here for you when it doesn’t work out.”
It reminds me of Jesse’s other offer. “What if it works out? Like really works out and it’s good, steady moneyandnothing shady is going down. Would you follow me? Would you work for him, too?”
Callie floats her finger around the top of the empty vase. “How much money are we talking?” She’s already asked me three times how much he’s offering me. Standing from the bed, I dig in the back of my closet for the wad of cash and show her. “He gave me this for one cleaning and asked me to be a full-time employee.” Well, he told me.
“Jesus, Destiny. Who the hell is this guy? What does he do?” I glance at my alarm clock. It’s Saturday and it’s time for me to go over to get ready for his art show.
“Art… I think. Maybe something else, but I need to see this through. This is too big to not try.” Her gaze hasn’t strayed from the cash in my hand. It’s more than she’s probably seen at one time in her whole life. I stuff it back into the dry wall hole and move my clothes to conceal my hiding spot. She’s still staring at my closet, this is why I made her ask three times before I showed her. Money changes people. She might be my best friend, but she also turns tricks for a living. She doesn’t live paycheck to paycheck. She lives trick to trick.
“Send me your schedule for tonight?” I ask, trying to distract her.
Smoothing her glossed lips together, she nods once. “When you find out what that man really does, let me know.”
I agree, and she sends me her schedule before she leaves. Even if I can’t make sense of it, someone else can. I know she will come back for the cash. It is more than she can make in a month. Who needs a trick when you have a cash cow in a hole in the closet of your best friend. I also know she will toss the whole room when it isn’t in the hole I have hidden it in. I have bring it with me. I had Callie cancel my entire night’s appointments via text message this morning. I’m only worried about the response with one man. The one I’m always worried about. I saw that he read the message, but he didn’t reply. I stuff some clothes in my duffel and shove the cash stacks in, pushing them to the bottom. On my way out, I pay a few days rent from the monthly bill. The girl at the front desk is new and won’t know Marty left me an hourly bill for a month’s worth of hours. Not yet at least. She takes the money without breaking bitch face and writes something on a notepad.
“I need a receipt,” I tell her.
She snarls, upper lip curling. “For what?”
I widen my eyes. “To prove I paid. With cash. Obviously.”
With a scoff, she rips off the top receipt from the notepad. She signs it after I tell her to, and I stuff the paper into my bag. I know a fight from Marty is coming, but my hope is I don’t have to live here much longer if Jesse keeps paying me in wads of cash. I rush out into the cool day, keeping my gaze on the building next door. No one is waiting for me this time, so I push into the grand lobby and gaze around. There’s a front desk, but no one is there so I make my way to his apartment the same way I came the first time.
Since the hospital incident, I haven’t heard from Jesse. He dropped me off in front of the motel and left without a word. I wonder if that’s why my stomach flips as I approach his door. There’s trepidation. There’s actual fear. There’s curiosity. Has he been keeping track of me? I press the big round doorbell and hold my breath. It takes a while for him to open the door. He’s shirtless, wet, a towel slung low around his sculpted hips. A scorpion tattoo wraps around his left hip. It is huge. “I’m up here,” he says.
My gaze immediately rises to meet his. “I… I’m sorry.” I look at my watch. “I didn’t think I was this early.” I gesture to his state of undress.
Jesse smirks. “You’re right on time. Come on in.” He opens the heavy door, turns sideways, and leaves such a small gap that he forces my body to touch his as I pass by. He’s hot—skin radiating heat and the scent of soap clings to the air. Another flip of my stomach. “There’s another bedroom. The door is on the right before you get to the walk-in closet in my room.”What?How didn’t I notice that when I cleaned this place top to bottom?
“A bedroom inside a bedroom,” I ask, swallowing down some of my nerves. “Why?”
“Bedrooms add value, Drew. Chaz is in that room waiting to do your hair and makeup. The black dress is in there, too. As soon as you’re ready, find me. I’ll give you a rundown on what to expect.”
The place looks amazing. It truly resembles a studio. The artwork is all over the walls and lighting illuminates each piece. It makes me nervous. I don’t belong here, even serving drinks. There’s a kitchen full of people cooking and organizing, and I have to breathe to stop the panic attack. He’s going to tell me what to expect. I remind myself of that as he follows me into his bedroom and closes the door behind us. I spin, clutching my bag to my chest.
“Bedroom inside a bedroom,” he drawls, voice low and sexy. Jesse points to the closed door I missed completely. “She’s waiting,” he adds, as my stupid gaze lingers on his perfect midsection. His abs are wet. I lick my lips. “Chaz,” Jesse growls.
I scurry into the room and slam the door behind me. It locks from Jesse’s side, becauseof course it does. I’d call this strange, but everything about Jesse is a damn mystery and nothing he does can surprise me. It was good he got the drugging and medical kidnapping out of the way first. That way, there’s nowhere to go but up. Chaz is at least six feet tall, with a huge blonde wig, and a black skirt so tight if she bends over, I’d see all her goodies. She coos when she sees me, but I’m preoccupied with admiring the space. The room is larger than Jesse’s, with a monstrous bed that has shiny, black fabric draping down from the canopy. From my window at the motel, this isn’t visible. It’s another surprise. Black plush carpet covers every inch of the bedroom. There’s another bathroom, and a fireplace with a black leather table in front of it. I can feel my pulse in my neck.
“What. The. Fuck,” I whisper.
“I know you’re a lucky bitch,” Chaz says, and the crack in her voice lets me know Chaz might have something different under her skirt than I first thought.
“This isn’t my room,” I say, setting my ugly bag down on a chair, and lightly touching the black dress hanging on the closet door. I’ve never worn a dress this nice before. “I just started working for Jesse,” I explain. “Cleaning, but tonight I’m serving drinks.”
Chaz furrows her perfect brow and calls me over to a vanity that looks like it was ripped from a Gothic mansion. It’s ornate, and modern at the same. The black bulbs glow and light up my face. I stare at myself for a few beats, trying to remember who I am and what exactly I know about the man I’m working for. “Well, that’s unconventional,” Chaz says. “Put on this robe so we don’t mess up your face and hair after.” I take it from her and undress slowly, aware that I’m being scrutinized. “I see why he picked you,” she says, as I expose my body in a bra and panties. “You should change into these. Do you need to shower first?” Chaz extends lingerie to me.
“Shower before serving drinks and working all night?” I ask, raising one brow. “I showered before I came here,” I add, to quell an argument. “What exactly do you think I’m doing here? Maybe that’s the question I should have started with.”
“Riley is coming back tonight, so I just… assumed. Anyway, I’m sorry if I upset you.”Riley?Who? I get more confused every single second that passes in this upside-down world. I take the underwear and robe to the bathroom, eyeing the straps on the leather table as I pass, and change quickly. The floors are bright white. The shower is black, and the claw-foot tub is in front of a floor to ceiling window that overlooks the buildings on the other side of the warehouse. It’s unreal how he gets this beautiful view so close to the shithole that I live in right next door. There are a million thoughts running through my mind as I sit back down at the vanity and listen to Chaz talk about my cheekbones and eye color as she sews five pounds of hair into my head. She curls, weaves, sprays, until I’m sure she’s gone through a bottle of product. My makeup is next and luckily that doesn’t take long because Chaz says Jesse told her to keep it lighter.