Page 12

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.Hellno.”
“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 Icouldstick 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 smellsobad. 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.