Page 29
But either way, he gives me good shifts dancing, which I make pretty good money from.
I look in the mirror and spray my face with setting spray. Those lights get hot, and dancing around a pole isn’t as easy as it seems. The last thing I need is my makeup melting off on stage.
I put one last spritz of hairspray in my hair and take a look at the final product in the mirror.
My cat eye liner, my dark eyeshadow, and black lipstick portray my very goth look.
Standing up, I adjust my skull corset and thong.
I fix my tits in the corset, for when I tear away the openings in the front to expose them.
“You’re up, Chanel,” a voice booms from the doorway.
I see the security guy, Trey, standing in the doorway. He gives me a nod, and I head toward him, hearing my music start up, the beginning of Sex Metal Barbie by In This Moment.
As I step on the stage, I start my routine. Moving to the music, losing myself in the sensuality, the rhythm. As the music kicks in, I find the pole and start twirling around it.
Right as the chorus fades out and the music ends for a moment before kicking back in, I lean up against the pole with my hands on my chest.
The men in the front are throwing money onto the stage. I turn myself toward the special party, I can barely see them with the smoke and lights. But I can feel their eyes on me. At the beat of the music, I rip open the corset along my breasts, letting them free from their cage.
With that single act, more money flies onto the stage. Watching the special guests, I drop to my knees and seductively crawl toward them. All five of them come into view.
And then I see him.
I let out a scream.
He was there. The guy who took me was there . I remember his face as clear as day. He was watching me.
“Rae!” Drew’s voice yells out from my room. In a flash, a figure is standing before me in the bathroom.
I look up to see Drew’s panicked face. He opens the door and shuts off the water, grabbing the towel off the bar of the shower door. He leans in the shower, wrapping it around me.
It’s then that I realize I’m on the floor of the shower.
Somehow, I go from the bathroom to my bed. My body starts to shake, and I’m not sure if that’s from the cold or the realization of my memory.
He was in New York. The monster who took me.
“Rae, baby. Look at me.” Drew’s voice has my eyes snapping to him. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s happening. What happened in there?”
My lips tremble as I speak the words I have been keeping to myself. “I remember.”
Drew lets out a gasp. “Y-You remember? What do you remember?”
I swallow hard over the lump in my throat. “Can I get dressed first?”
“Shit. Yeah.” Drew helps me up, and I cautiously walk into my closet.
After throwing on some clothes, I return to my room. “Um, can we do this out in the living room where there’s more space?”
“Sure. Yeah, wherever you are comfortable.” Drew leads me out toward the living room, and I see all the guys there. Shit.
Tristan takes a few giant steps toward me as he looks me over. He lets out a sigh when he sees I’m okay.
Asher helps lead me to the couch, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Let me get you something to drink,” he offers.
“Here. A Coke Zero for you.” Kayce steps in before Asher can, handing it to me and then sitting down next to me on the couch.
Cam, of course, sits at the kitchen counter, messaging away on his phone. He looks annoyed and bored.
So sorry my problems bore you, asshole.
I look out at the table in front of me for a moment before making eye contact with Drew. “I remember where I’m from. I-I’m starting to remember a lot of things before I was taken. The kidnapping is still a blur. But I know it happened, obviously.”
Everyone stays silent for a minute, until Kayce speaks up. “Okay, I’ll bite. Where are you from?”
“New York.” I let out a sigh. “I lived in the city. I-I remember going to school there, Central Park, my life before, and I even remember working and partying. I remember a lot of it.”
I look up and see Cam roll his eyes, but I ignore his bullshit.
“Did you have a family? People who may be looking for you?” Asher rubs my back comfortingly.
I look down at the ground. “I don’t know who my biological parents are. I was taken in by a woman who found me in a homeless encampment. Or at least that’s what she told me. Her name was Jessica. She also went by her stage name, Trixie.”
“She could be looking for you.” Tristan purses his lips.
Shaking my head, I frown. “No. I doubt it. Once I started stripping and got my own place, I pretty much didn’t hear from her again.”
“Ha!” A laugh from across the room draws all of our attention. I look up and see Cam bent over in hysterics.
“What’s so funny?” Drew turns around with a glare.
Cam smiles like the cat that got the canary. “No one else finds it just hilarious that our little princess here was a stripper? She was literally a whore for a living!”
“Fuck off, Cam.” Kayce stands up, fists clenched at his sides. “And for the record, not a single one of us found that funny at all.”
“Well, that’s odd, considering you’re the funny man of the group. I figured you would find humor in her being an actual slut and pussytizing each and every one of you assholes.”
“Get out,” Asher growls from next to me. Asher, who is usually calm and level-headed, looks like he wants to rip Cam a new one.
“Of course you take her side. Look, just ship her back to New York, and we can get on with our lives. She can go back to selling her pussy, and we can get back to playing ball.” Cam shoves his phone in his pocket.
“A slut?” I seethe. “Are you that upset that I won’t fuck you that you are resorting to calling me a slut?” I get up from the couch and stalk toward him.
Cam crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the counter, offering me a faint smile.
“My pain, my life, is not something for you to tear apart and joke about. I was drugged. I was raped. I have no fucking clue how I landed out here. But me being up on that stage? Dancing? I never, ever touched any client in that place.” Tears start to pour down my face.
“I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask for this life. ”
“Rae.” Drew comes up behind me. His hand softly touches my shoulder. “You don’t owe him an explication.”
“Let her give me her sob story. It won’t change my mind. She was on the streets, and you idiots took her in like she was a lost puppy. Look at her. She’s living it up in here.” Cam shrugs.
“Shut the fuck up, Cam. You are insufferable right now. Is your heart completely black? She just figured shit out a bit and you are acting like she’s become a squatter in my house.
I’m perfectly happy with her staying as long as she wants.
” Drew turns back to me. “Like I said, you don’t owe him anything. ”
I shake my head. “No, I do. Because he needs to hear this. I didn’t choose this life, Cam.
I didn’t ask to be kidnapped and held captive.
Every minute of the day I am scared out of my mind.
And that incident in the bathrooms confirmed my fears.
And you sit here and laugh at me? You sit here and make jokes about my pain? Why?”
Cam doesn’t say anything. He just stares at me.
“You sit here and joke that I’m a slut, a whore. Except you are missing one key piece of information, Cam.”
He frowns. “And what’s that?”
“It’s really hard to be a slut, to be that whore you think I am. When before I was kidnapped, I was a virgin.”
Table of Contents
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- Page 28
- Page 29 (Reading here)
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