“You knew?” Asher asked, surprise clear on his face.
“No, but I’m not surprised. That guy gave me the serious heebie-jeebies,” she replied, her eyes zeroed in on me. The concern in them was painful. “Bex?” she probed, like she needed to know that I wasn’t fucking men for money.
My blood was ice. My best friend, the only one who ever saw whatever sliver of light that was left in me, still needed reassurance that I hadn’t descended further into sin.
“I said no,” I stated quickly, hating everything about the moment. I swallowed thickly.
Get your shit together, Bex.
I had to play my part. Build up my shell so it wasn’t transparent how broken I was. You couldn’t display weakness in front of sharks or horses. Or bikers who sniffed it out and would make it their life’s work to protect said weakness.
It worked for Lily and Asher.
Not for me.
Not for Lucky.
So I had to fake it.
“Or I may have used more colorful words than a one-syllable response, just to get my message across.” I grinned, hoping it didn’t look as forced and painful as it felt. “I thought that was the end of it. Obviously not.”
“That’s why those thugs were here? To bully you into prostitution?” she surmised.
As soon as the words left her mouth the air became heavy with two sets of alpha males emitting their own brand of fury. From the corner of my eye, I could see Lucky’s entire form stiffen. Could taste the bitter fury in the air.
I had no idea how to claw my way out of this clusterfuck.
“Thing one and thing two came knocking at the door, trying to intimidate the little female into letting them in or they’d huff and puff and blow my house down. Didn’t count on the fact I’d seen way worse than them. And I had bigger, badder wolves on speed dial,” Rosie spoke for the first time, and I could have kissed her at that moment.
“I don’t get it.” Lily frowned at me. “Carlos may be an asshole, but he can’t expect you to go back to work there after that. What did he have to gain from it?”
I shrugged, holding onto my mask with a death grip. “The fact I’ve got nothing else. That I need to eat.”
She gaped at me. “You’re not going back there, are you?”
No, I was not going back there. I couldn’t stomach even the thought in my newly lucid state. I didn’t have much self-respect left, but I had my pride. It was broken and tattered and in a sorry state, but it was still there
“Since I’ve been sick”—I emphasized the word, in order to make sure the biker searing me with his gaze wouldn’t cotton onto the ugly truth—“I’ve obviously been missed. My ass is the only reason that place makes anything. That and my boobs.”
My two greatest assets, as Carlos himself had stated. All I had. And they were melting away with the weight.
“So you’re going back?” Even Lily couldn’t hide the judgment in her tone.
I had been about to reassure her that even I wasn’t that stupid when someone beat me to it.
“She’s not fuckin’ setting a toe in that shithole’s direction,” Lucky growled, his cold stare intent on me.
The moment he spoke for me, took away my choices and control for himself, was the second my back went up. “I am,” I snapped. Of course I wasn’t going back, but the very fact that he thought it was his decision to make made me want to do it just to make sure I was in control.
He tried to stare me down but that time my resolve was rock solid.
Lucky sighed and shook his head. “You wanna take your clothes off, show the world that sweet ass, you’ll be doing it at our club. Where I can keep a fuckin’ eye on that ass,” he declared. “And where no one puts a hand on you, trying to sell that ass,” he added roughly.
I scowled at him, searching for an argument where none existed. I could go back to the club where drugs were aplenty and the boss had me beaten up to try and get me into prostitution, or I could work for a club that had zero tolerance for drugs and were well known to pay the girls well and treat them with respect.
It was an opportunity to try and wrench myself out of the hole I was in. Only I wouldn’t be doing the wrenching. Someone else would be doing it for me. The chains would tighten and I’d be even less likely to release myself.
So I had the opportunity for redemption. The only price was my pride.
“It’s a good idea,” Lily said gently. She knew what this was for me, knew my past and how I had just been tossed about by fate, unable to grasp the reins.