Page 13 of Hitch

It would be nice to justbuymy mom a brand new car. She raised me to be frugal, but maybe it’s okay to buy something new. Especially if your daughter buys it for you as a birthday present.

“How much are we talking?” I ask.

“What’s fair?”

I smack my lips together, pretending to be confident, when in reality, it’s an out-of-body experience. I’m watching myself make one of the biggest decisions of my life.

But I’ve done this kind of thing before. If you know you’re not going to get hurtandyou’re going to get paid, who cares if you meet a customer outside of the club?

But this time is different. Iknowhe’s dangerous.

“Five thousand an hour,” I say.

He whistles. “Do you drive hard bargains all the time, or just with me?”

“It’s the same rate you’re paying right now.”

His jaw ticks as he presses his lips together, his eye contact intense. It’s a lot of money—more than I’ve ever charged—and more than I made as a sugar baby. And it’s a way for me to getoutof this arrangement without bringing up the Halloween prop again. He’llneveragree to an amount like that. There’s just no way.

“All right,” he says.

All right?

“You’re okay with that?” I ask.

“Let’s start with every other day.”

The farm owners around here have a lot of money, and they like spending it on us at the Double Take. But that’s twenty grand a week.

For sex.

There has to be something more to this. Ithasto be a trap to kill me on his own property.

“People will know where I am,” I say. “Todd will know. I’ll tell my mom too.”

Duane stares at me vacantly. “As you should.”

My stomach hardens with anxiety. I’m not sure whether to be glad that he’s okay with people knowing my location, or if I just put my mom and Todd at risk too.

“How did you find me here?” I ask. “Have you known this whole time?”

“Not many strip clubs in Stockton, is there? Or in the Central Valley, for that matter,” he says.

Heat floods my nervous system.

“Are you stalking me?” I ask.

An evil grin swarms his mouth. “Like I said,Reggie.I like hunting, especially when the prey is particularly hard to catch.”

My thighs snap together as a chill runs down my spine.

How does he know my real name?

“My name is Secret,” I say.

“That’s right. They call you Secret around these parts.”

Saliva gathers in my mouth and I swallow it down. Duane’s eyes flick to my throat. I gnaw on my lips, concentrating on what I know.