Holly never came back.
She didn’t show up at Stanley’s at all during the week after I saw those suited men loading her and another dancer into the back of that van in the alley.
Stanley’s was only one of the several clubs that the owners had all over the city. Sometimes, dancers would be moved from one location to another. Stanley’s was the “best” one, with the most rooms and the best clientele, so I never understood why a dancer would need to be moved to another one. Maybe they could be demoted. I hadn’t ever asked where women went, and in this industry, we experienced a fast turnover rate of strippers and dancers. I was one of the longest-standing employees, like Nevaeh, but I was that “dedicated” only because of my debt.
“Where do you think Holly is?” I asked Nevaeh when we showed up for another night of work. It was the twentieth night in a row that I’d worked, and I was running on the last fumes of energy. She had a few nights off, though, so I figured it was safe enough to bring up the other dancer. Enough time had passed between that night I saw Holly be taken away and now. No one would remember that incident but me.
“I heard from Joceyln that she moved to Florida with her sister.” She shrugged, putting her bag on the dressing table. “Why? What’s it to you?”
I furrowed my brow, feeling caught. Another street-smart rule I’d learned far too young in the system was to mind my own business. Not to stick my nose where it didn’t belong. Not to ask questions that weren’t anything I had to get involved with. Sure, I was curious about where Holly was. But I was also concerned about how I saw her protesting Lenny’s order for those men to take her. And how she couldn’t get away.
I had. I was grateful I escaped Lenny and those men that night.
But will I the next time?
“Nothing.” I didn’t make eye contact.
She huffed. “Or maybe she found a sugar daddy and could quit. I’m glad she’s gone. That bitch took too many of the good guests.”
Nevaeh had always harbored a level of envy and jealousy, but I couldn’t blame her. There were only so many men who’d come in the club on any given night, only so many wallets to empty. And sometimes it seemed like there were too many dancers for us all to get the amount of cash we were after.
It was that kind of a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog world here, and I’d be wise to stay out of all drama.
Just work. Go home. Try to sleep. And repeat. For fucking forever.
I sighed, moving on autopilot as I put my bag on the table next to hers and started thinking out the colors of what I’d use for my makeup tonight. That was the only deviation from every single night on the stage being the same as the one before. I had to rely on some variety with my appearance so the regulars wouldn’t be bored with me.
When I glanced up, I spotted the change on Nevaeh’s face. “Holy shit.” I gaped at the bruising around her eye. “Is that why you took a few days off this week?”
“Shut up.” She scowled. “It doesn’t look that bad.”
I handed her my heaviest concealer. “Sure, it doesn’t look that bad,” I replied sarcastically.
She took the tube and sighed as she started to apply it. “Nicky was in a mood.”
“About what now?” I refrained from laughing dryly. She’d try to make it sound like she had it made, dating a loser like Nicky. But nothing would tempt me to hook up with a guy like her dumbass boyfriend when I’d only be smacked around. After Derick, my vibrator would always be good enough for me.
As if I have the energy to want an orgasm.
On cue, I yawned, unable to perk up yet.
“He was late for his car payment.”
“Oh, the one he expects you to pay?”
She shot me a dirty look, probably ready to remind me that I didn’t know what it was like to have a man to want to cater to. I never would.
“I gave him the money for it, but he blew it all on booze before the payment date.” Biting on her lower lip, she turned at the sound of Lenny’s intoxicated, slurred voice in the hallway as he made his usual pervy walk through the backstage area here as we got dressed for the night.
I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say. She’d be annoyed if I nagged and no matter how much I pointed out that he was using her and abusing her, she’d reply with some stupidity about how I didn’t “get it” and would never understand that being so in love with a man meant making sacrifices.
Yeah. I’m never sacrificing anything for a man ever again. I was paying for the “sacrifice” of not locking up my credit cards before Derick got them all and put me in debt hell. I’d spent the one hour of “free time” before coming in here to pay the bills, and I hated that I only had twelve bucks to my name now.
“And,” she said, lowering her voice as she paused in applying the concealer, “he’s going to kick my ass again if I don’t have enough to pay it all, plus the late fee, after tonight.”
I shook my head, at a loss for what to tell her. She wouldn’t benefit from my pity, and I wasn’t feeling generous enough to give her sympathy. I was tired of telling her to ditch him.
“Please, Sloane. Please help me.”
I raised my brows at her. “Are you kidding? I have nothing to give you.”
“No, not money.” She was aware of how much debt I was in. “But do the private event with me tonight. Please.”
I gawked at her. “What? No. Hell no.”
“Please.” She scrunched her face in a full pout that couldn’t have felt good with that black eye. “Please, Sloane.”
Still shaking my head, I didn’t cave at all.
“On the way in, Joceyln said they’ve got a VIP party in the back rooms.” She smiled quickly as she tried to cajole me. “It’d be good money. More than enough money for me to handle Nicky’s car payment.”
“No, Nevaeh. Absolutely not.”
As a rule, we both avoided those special events and VIP parties because criminals and powerful sleazeballs went to them. She wasn’t a fan of them any more than I was, but in light of her telling me that dancers weren’t just moving on and quitting but being sold into trafficking rings, I knew better than to consider a private event. So soon after Lenny tried to force me into those Mafia men’s vans, I just wanted to keep my head down, do my job, and get out unscathed.
“Hell no,” I repeated, debating whether I should’ve told her about witnessing Holly and that other woman being taken. If she’d think twice about whining for me to do a private event with her after I told her that Lenny almost forced me to go with those Mafia men.
“I know it’s risky. But that’s why I’m asking you. Me and you can stick together.”
“Nope.” I didn’t look at her as I worked on my eyeliner.
“We can stick together and keep an eye out for each other, okay? The buddy system.” She moved to get more into my line of sight as I avoided facing her. “And just think about how good the money would be.”
No amount of money would be worth being sold or taken by men I vowed to avoid. “No.”
Just then, Lenny paused in his walk. He stood at the open doorway to this small dressing room that Nevaeh and I shared. And with his awful stare up and down us, I shuddered. Recoiling from his having a chance to approach me at the end of the night, I wondered if Nevaeh had a point.
He snickered as he walked away, and that sound was too sinister and ominous for me to want to be near him at all.
Nevaeh and I could stick together. We’d make sure the other was all right and not taken out of the private party. Out here, on the general stage area, Lenny was in charge and he could very well pull another stunt of trying to force me to go with those men and toss me into the back of a van. He wouldn’t be in charge near those back rooms.
“Please?” she begged.
I set my eyeliner down and faced her soberly. “Listen.” I glanced around to check that no one was listening in. All the other dancers were too busy getting dressed and ready to pay us any attention. “Lenny almost forced me to get in a van for one of those Mafia men last week.”
Her brows spiked up. “The Bratva?”
I shook my head. “I think they were speaking in Spanish.”
“The Cartel?” She narrowed her eyes.
What difference does it make? They were all bad men who’d sell us to a worse fate. “No. Italian, I think.”
She grimaced. “Ugh. They smell so bad. Too much garlic.”
“Neveah. I was almost taken away. Like… like Holly was.”
Her expression remained the same, hopeful and pleading despite what I told her.
“Yeah, I could use the money, but I’m too nervous to risk being near the kind of men who could take me and make me disappear too.”
“Sloane, come on. I told you. We’ll stick together.” She tipped her chin up in the direction of the hallway as Lenny’s slurred voice sounded louder. “Besides, Lenny’s already high as a kite. I bet he’d try to do something like that again tonight. And if you’re with me at this private party in the back, you won’t have to deal with him.”
She had a point. Yet, the more I started to consider her idea, the more that nagging voice of reason warned me not to go along with it.
“Trust me,” she insisted. “We can stick together. The buddy system. Just this one time, for tonight.”
I cringed, trying valiantly to ignore the temptation for extra money. It would be nice to have a tiny bit of cash available for decent groceries for once. And I could pay the utility charge so my apartment could be air conditioned again, since the landlords were assholes to keep those fees high and separate to better price gouge the tenants.
I sighed.
Whatever. One time.
“Okay.” I pointed at her and gave her my sternest stare. “Just this once.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tonight.” She grinned, happily resuming with the concealer to erase the evidence of her black eye.
“Don’t make me regret this,” I warned.
“You won’t. We’ll rake in so much money, you won’t regret it at all.”
I was still skeptical and nervous. It was bad enough that I felt like I was selling my soul to be a stripper and dancer at all, but for those VIPs? It felt like I was handing my soul to the devil.
“I’ll only do this if we stick together, like you said. The buddy system.”
She nodded at my reflection in the mirror and winked. “I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine.”
I wasn’t sure she believed that. I’d tried to look out for her and watch her back already. When I told her to leave Nicky and point out how he was taking advantage of her, she never, ever listened. So how could I trust her logic about our sticking together for the risk of dancing at this private event?
I steadied my breath. Just tonight. One time.
Hell, maybe I could make enough extra money that I could justify taking tomorrow night off and try to sleep more than a few hours for once.
