Page 44

Tina

“H ere.” Rosa places a USB drive in my palm.

Confused, and still reeling days later from what happened at the club with Dustin, I stare at it with the same fogginess I’ve done everything lately. “What is this?”

She waggles her eyebrows. “It’s the recording from your room at Ropes with Dustin.” I gape at her over the kitchen counter. “Every room gets surveyed and recorded for safety purposes.” She leans closer, looking both ways as if checking for spies. Ridiculous, since we’re in the kitchen at Dustin’s. “If you ask me, it’s purely for spank bank reasons, but you do what you want with it, I just thought you’d like a keepsake.”

I set the drive aside so I can remove the pot roast from the oven. After placing the potholders down, I face her again. “How did you get it?” She gives me this look like I should already know the answer. I’m beginning to feel like I don’t know the answers to anything anymore. “What am I missing here?”

“How much time do you have?”

I know she’s joking, but I check the clock on the oven anyway. Dustin took the Vegas employees to the airport today and we only have so much time before he returns. If I don’t get Rosa talking soon, I’ll have to wait until much later. I cross my arms over my chest. “Spill.”

She bounces on her toes and claps her hands. “Okay, but you have to promise not to share what I tell you.”

“Deal.” I clearly have a problem with throwing that word around.

Her smile is sinister. “I stole the USB. That’s not even the good part,” she adds when I gasp. “Hold on to your panties, bitch.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry, I get carried away sometimes.”

“Sometimes? Need I remind you of a certain someone you nearly lost your virginity to against the gym wall?” She gazes off into the distance with a blissful look. I’d let her be, but we’re on a time crunch and all. “You were saying?”

“Oh, right. So, we’ve established I’m a virgin.” She holds up her hand when I open my mouth. “Don’t interrupt, I’m on a roll.” I shake my head. “Anyway, Lucius promised years ago I could have access to all the back rooms at Ropes as long as, one, I never go… you know, too far, and two, I only participate with his permission.”

I stare at her in shock. Picking up the USB, I hold it out like evidence. “ You’re the waxed woman?” She nods and my face heats. “Who was the guy?” She shrugs like she has no clue. How is that possible? Then I remember they both had head coverings and even I didn’t know it was her, despite how close we are.

“Whoever he is, Lucius must trust him, because he’s the only other person he lets play with me.”

“There’s so much to unpack here, I don’t even know where to begin.” I can’t believe she does things like that. I drain the potatoes and set them aside while I get the rest of the ingredients out of the refrigerator. I’m playing the night over in my mind, still trying to puzzle it out. “I never would’ve guessed.”

“That’s the point, silly.”

“Yeah, but now I’ll know.”

“You can’t tell anyone. If you do, Lucius might stop letting me do it and I’ll die, Tina. I swear I will. I can’t live off self-love forever.”

I laugh at her sulky expression. “You do realize you can do whatever you want with your body, right?” Using the potato masher, I begin smashing the steaming vegetables. “If you want to have sex with Mystery Guy outside the gym… not that I’m advocating that bag of nightmares, but if you want to, you most definitely can.”

She’s already shaking her head before I even finish speaking. “Have you met Lucius? Look, I know it sounds lame, but I just have to trust him.”

“To what end? It’s been six years. That’s a lot of trust, if you ask me.” But what do I know? I’m basically in a slave relationship because Dustin paid off my loan shark. Jesus, even in my head that sounds so unreal. It hasn’t escaped my attention he never said he wouldn’t break my heart. “Aren’t we a pair?”

She taps the USB I set back on the counter. “Watch it. You’ll feel better about your choices when you do.”

“Watch what?”

At the sound of Stacy’s voice, I turn my head towards the doorway so fast my neck gets a crick. I’ve really got to stop doing that. After Vegas, she and Colin settled back into the house in Heaven with no talk of finding their own place. With them here and Rosa mostly camping out on the couch since we’ve been back, it’s been a full house. I love it so much, I’ll be sad to see it end.

She heads straight for the roast, inhaling deep. “God, this smells good. I could smell it all the way upstairs.”

“Hey, girlfriend,” Rosa says like we were just having a normal conversation. “How’s married life treating you?”

Stacy blushes at the simple question. Would her head explode if we all watched the recording together? After listening in on her and Colin, I know she’s not innocent, but is she Ropes level?

“Have you ever been to Lucius’s club?” I ask her as I plate the roast, scooping the mashed potatoes around the perimeter.

“Nah,” Stacy says. “I’ve heard talk about it though, especially from Frankie and Charlotte.” We all laugh, knowing those two have little in the way of a filter.

Rosa glances at the clock and I know what she’s thinking. I cover the roast and slide it in the oven to keep warm, swipe the USB off the counter, and run to my room where my laptop is with my friends close behind.

When the screen goes black, I look around at the other two women. Stacy is staring at the blank screen as if waiting for credits to roll and Rosa is checking her fingernail, which tells me she’s watched it already. She catches me staring. “What? I had to check to make sure it was working, didn’t I?”

I sit back and cross my arms over my chest. “How many times?”

Her voice is considerably lower when she answers. “Five. Maybe seven times.”

Shaking my head, I study Stacy. “Are you okay? Too much?”

She blinks a few times. “You guys looked like performers.”

I know it’s an option to be viewed and even participate in group sessions (whatever that entails), but could we pull it off? The thought of a repeat performance has crossed my mind a few times since. Which usually results in me hunting down Dustin and working the edge off in creative ways.

A dog barks outside, and I rush to peek out of the bedroom window, both women flanking me. There in the dark is the same truck I’ve seen repeatedly.

Stacy peers over at me. “I’ve seen that truck all week. Do you know who it is?”

“No,” I say, “but I have a feeling I know who does.”

Rosa and I exchange a look before I fill Stacy in on all my baggage, including the loan shark and my deal with Dustin. Come to find out she knew the last part already. She was quick to inform me she and Colin did not approve.

“But it doesn’t make sense,” she says as we all take a seat on the bed. “If Dustin paid the loan shark off, why would they have someone watching you still?”

Good question. One I intend to find the answer to even if I have to get it straight from the shark’s mouth.