Page 26 of Cold Foot Revenge (Wreck’s Mountains #7)

The police were here. The police were here!

It was seven thirty in the morning when Grave pulled them into the parking lot of the Rabbit Hole, and there were two police cruisers parked right out front.

Grave seemed unconcerned as he pointed to the big sign up front. Nick was standing under it with a long pole, replacing the letters up there. “Your name looks good up there, doesn’t it? You’re the star of the show now,” Grave told her.

A hollowness filled Roxy as she read the sign.

New Bombshell Front Stage Dancer.

Roxy the Coyote Shifter.

Discounted Lap Dances This Week Only.

Come On In and Live Out Your Wildest Fantasy

“You put my animal out there for the whole town to see what I am,” she whispered.

“You aren’t ashamed of your coyote, are you?” Leech asked from the back. “Grave gave you a gift. Act like it.”

“I’m going to make you a star, baby,” Grave said, but there was an edge to his voice that said he didn’t care about that.

He just cared about her suffering. Discounted lap dances would have her running ragged with them, and at no benefit to her.

Grave would take all the money she’d made.

He’d said it. “Ready for your first shift, Front Stage Dancer?” Grave asked, his attention on her face.

“Now? It’s not even eight in the morning.”

“We’re open twenty-four hours a day. You know that,” Leech said.

Grave had parked and was just watching her face. Whatever he saw there painted a sadistic smile across his lips. God, she hated him. Hated every single thing about him.

Roxy checked the clock again. Only four and a half hours left to warn Dylan to get the hell away from this territory.

The police officers were stepping out of their cruisers, and this was her chance.

“Be cool,” Donnie warned her from the seat directly behind her, but she had big plans to be absolutely not cool.

Grave waited for her outside to get out, and then beside him, she approached the officers.

I need help , she mouthed to the one looking directly at her.

He frowned. Officer Cunningham, his nametag read. Please help me!

“What’s that?” Grave asked, eyed on her.

Desperate, she sought sanctuary. “I need help. I’m being held against my will. These men have taken me and are forcing me to—Aach!”

Grave’s hand on the back of her neck paralyzed her into stillness.

“That’s enough,” he murmured near her ear, and then released her, and wrapped his big hand around hers, crushing her bones.

“Officer Cunningham, Officer Lange, I asked you to park your cruisers out back when you come here. Police presence is bad for business.”

Wait, what?

“Oh, we hear you, but last night was messy. We have to let the businesses on this street think we’re taking it seriously.” Officer Lange nodded toward the door. “Shall we?”

“After you,” Grave said in a friendly tone.

What. The. Hell.

Leech laughed as he passed her by to follow the officers inside. “You thought they were here to help you?” He turned and walked backward through the open door. “They’re with us.”

Her hand was aching under Grave’s crushing grasp, and he yanked her toward the door so hard, she gasped at the shock of it.

“You’re asking for it,” he said in warning, his eyes flashing with fury. “I’m going to have to work harder and spend more time training you, aren’t I, Pet?”

“I’m not your pet—”

Her air was cut off with his hand around her throat.

He’d been fast about it, moving in a blur, and she couldn’t breathe in an instant.

He drove her directly back to the wall inside and slammed her against it, then kissed her hard and bit her lip while she struggled to loosen his hand from her esophagus.

She couldn’t breathe! Strangled sounds escaped her, and she kicked and flailed, pleading with her coyote to Change. She couldn’t even feel her right now.

Time slowed as the door opened beside her, and Nick walked in, carrying the pole he’d used to put her name up in lights. He stopped and looked at her.

“Help. Me!” she wheezed out, barely a sound escaping her.

Nick looked down and kept walking.

Nick, the bartender who had been nice to her over the years. The guy who showed her the resumes and told her about the Turn Doses in the office. Nick, her only ally here. He just kept walking.

Grave released her and she fell to her knees on the floor, gasping to fill her burning lungs with oxygen. It was hard to breathe even now, as if he’d crushed her throat. Tears streamed down her face, but it wasn’t from the pain. It was from the anger.

This wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay! It wasn’t okay to treat someone like this, and the whole Crew—her Crew!—pretend it was okay or deserved!

“Hey, Nick,” Grave called.

“Yes, sir?” Nick asked, turning around.

“Go find our little star something to wear for her shift. She’ll be the only dancer this morning, but she’s looking a little…used up.

Her bag. She needed her bag. Her phone would be in there. “My bag,” Roxy croaked out, reaching for him to stop him from leaving. “I have clothes in my bag.”

Nick glanced at Grave, and then back to Roxy. “There are outfits in the dressing room. Come on.”

He was telling her no to getting her bag? Why? Why was he being like this?

Feeling more and more alone, she struggled to her feet and tried to hide how badly she was shaking as she walked past Grave.

“Bring her to room two when she’s ready. Let’s go ahead and do the surprise for her.”

Dread filled her belly, and she closed her eyes as chills rippled through her body. She didn’t want to be in a room alone with Grave. Not at all.

Okay, exit points—front door, back door down the hallway past the private rooms. The dressing room had a door to the outside, but it stayed locked.

Weapons—the coyote was completely silent, and she felt human-as-hell right now, so she couldn’t be depended on.

Glass liquor bottles, that pool stick someone had set against the wall near the dressing room door.

There was a box cutter under the bar top for cutting open boxes of liquor.

She’d seen Nick use it a dozen times. There was a knife he also used for cutting up limes and it was laying right on top of the bar by a cutting board.

Plan—find her bag with her phone in it. That was her only way of contacting Dylan.

Her lip was bleeding. Grave had bitten it right where he’d split it last night.

Never before had he laid a hand on her, but now all of a sudden he was so comfortable with causing her physical pain?

He was snapping. He was changing. He was going over the edge and she was the one taking the brunt of it.

And the Grit-Bron Crew was just going with it!

They’d been questionable men before this but now?

She was starting to see them in a different light.

These weren’t quality men. They weren’t honorable.

They were trash, for so long she’d thought this was where she belonged. That she was like them. That she was a part of this Crew, but that had been a slow thing. A gradual descent into a life she wouldn’t recognize if this were five years ago. A life she would never guess at.

It had been baby steps into getting here.

A this-is-fine, everyone-is-doing-it here.

A might-as-well-do-this, because-I’ve-already-done-that there.

It was breadcrumbs into being in dark woods she didn’t recognize, and now this was her life.

And the only thing that had changed her feelings about it was Dylan.

He’d come in and showed her the other side. Showed her it didn’t have to be like this, and now everyone here felt so different. So wrong.

Nick led her into the dressing room, and there was a girl in there. She had to be in her early twenties. She was sitting in Roxy’s normal spot at the make-up mirrors.

“Oh, hello,” she said in a friendly tone.

Roxy looked at Nick, who took a seat in a chair next to the door, and then she gave her attention back to the girl. “Hello. Are you on the morning shift?” Roxy had never seen her before.

“Hopefully!” she said in a chipper voice. “If everything goes well today. I have an interview.”

“Oh.” Roxy frowned. This girl seemed so friendly, and upbeat, and there was an aura of positivity that was filling the room. “Um, are you sure—”

“Roxy,” Nick warned.

“Shut the fuck up, Nick, you fucking traitor,” she snapped. The fury from watching him ignore her being choked out was back. “I have to control everything I say, but not in here. I’m a person!” She jammed her finger at the girl who also didn’t belong in a hell like this one. “She’s a person too.”

“I’m…I’m sorry, I don’t understand what’s happening,” the girl said softly.

Roxy knelt down in front of the girl.

“I’m going to get Grave,” Nick murmured.

“Go on then you tattle-taling fuck,” she gritted out. “My life is over either way and you know it.” She gave her attention to the girl. “You should get out of here. This place is not like you think.”

“Are you…are you Roxy?” she guessed. “Some of the guys said you’re going to overwhelm me and act a little crazy. I don’t mean to be rude. I’m not saying you’re crazy, but if you’re protecting your spot on the front stage, it’s all yours! I’m good with stage two. That’s what I’m interviewing for.”

“Why are you here, doing this? Can you find something better that won’t steal your whole life?”

“Something that pays better than this place? Lady, I’ve been dancing for two years, and everyone says the same thing—get to the Rabbit Hole. They picked me to interview here. I’ve been counting down.” There was this pitying look in the young woman’s eyes, like Roxy really was crazy.