Page 4 of Sizzling

• two •

I had to be at the beck and call of a man.

Briar

Seven Months Later

Sliding the slab of hardwood back over the floor under my bed, I reached for the area rug and pulled it back into place. Fifteen thousand five hundred forty dollars in cash wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t enough. The pay and tips at Highwater, the bar I was currently working at, were good. The best I’d ever done at a bar, but Jameson Chester’s payoff not to tell his fiancée about our fling would be worth it, and he hated me working there. Funny how that always happened. The jealous, controlling ones were always the cheaters. I was going to have to quit Highwater. This wouldn’t be the first time I had to give up doing the one thing I loved because of a man.

That wasn’t what was important though. I had my priorities. Cash flow wasn’t an option. It was mandatory.

Standing up, I walked over to the floor-length mirror and stared at my reflection. This was all I truly had in power. How I looked. That and my ability to lie.

Shaking my head, disgusted with myself, but unable to change the way my life had played out, I turned to look out the window of the apartment I’d moved us into six months ago. Always on the go. Never getting to stay long and set up roots.

Getting attached to any one place was a luxury we couldn’t allow. Netta wouldn’t spend her money on looking for Roger. She’d assume he skipped town on her. But it was Dovie, her daughter, I worried about. If Netta ever put it together, which would be a stretch since the woman was an idiot, then she could take Dovie away from me. I wasn’t even her real sister, and Dovie was only fifteen. She’d have to find us first and then get past me, but she wouldn’t make it out alive. She’d already proven she couldn’t be trusted to protect her own child.

Roger had moved from one foster mother to the next until he met Netta. A waitress at a bar who had a ten-year-old daughter. When I went to find him and make him pay for what he’d done to me, I found Dovie instead. Alone, dirty, terrified in a run-down trailer. I didn’t get my revenge like I’d planned. But I took Dovie. That had been four years ago.

They hadn’t even searched for her. No missing person report. Nothing. It was the only way I had kept her with me under the radar. She couldn’t attend school and stay hidden. I was doing the best I could to teach her. The day she turned eighteen, I would have the money to get her the help she needed. Until then, it was on me to help her with what little education I had. Thankfully she read. I figured there was a lot to be learned from books. It didn’t matter the genre.

Which was why Jameson was picking me up in three hours and taking me to some private party for the evening. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but we needed the money. I’d said I was done with this kind of thing two years ago, but unfortunately, money was growing short again after our last move, and I refused to touch the savings I kept put back for Dovie’s future. Using men was the fastest way to get money.

So far, Jameson had given me a pair of diamond earrings and a bracelet that was appraised for over twenty-five thousand dollars. A Louis Vuitton purse would sell for over five thousand, but letting it go was going to be painful. The dresses and shoes that he had bought for me would make a pretty penny too. But I had to wait to sell them off until this thing with him was over.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, snapping me out of my thoughts. Slipping my hand inside, I pulled it out to see Jameson’s name on the screen. He was already texting me his orders. His issue with controlling me wasn’t new. I’d dealt with it before. Wealthy men craved power, and all seemed to require my submission. It wasn’t always easy to do with my personality, but for the money I’d get in the end, I could deal with it.

Wear the silver Dior gown with the satin Jimmy Choos I sent you last week. Style your hair up, and I’ll have your jewelry when I pick you up.

Gritting my teeth, I glared at the phone. I had planned on wearing exactly that. But having him tell me was annoying.

As long as it’s fabulous.

I added a kissy face emoji, then hit Send, and rolled my eyes before walking back up the stairs. Being a gold digger was exhausting. In truth, the whole thing disgusted me, but I would do whatever I had to in order to make sure Dovie was taken care of. I couldn’t look any deeper into what I was doing. When I did, I got into a dark place that was hard to get out of mentally.

I headed across the hall into Dovie’s room to find her lying on her bed with a book in her hands. She lifted her gaze to mine and smiled. I had bought a book on sign language and downloaded an app that helped teach you sign language shortly after I brought her home with me. We had learned it together so she had a way of communicating instead of writing things down all the time. She could hear just fine but she couldn’t speak, at least not anymore.

“How does pizza sound for dinner?” I asked her, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

She took her dominant hand and made two circular motions over her stomach.

“Yummy, huh?” I replied with a grin. “Okay then, I’ll order pizza and make sure it gets here before I leave. Hopefully, I won’t be out too late, but you know how he is. Make sure the alarm is set and the door is bolted.”

She pointed at her chest, then the side of her forehead.

“I’m aware you know, but I am just reminding you,” I said, leaning over and looking at the book open in her lap. “Fantasy? That’s new. I thought you were into romance.”

She shrugged, then signed, “Curious about the hype.”

I laughed and stood back up. “Let me know if it’s good. I’ll try it next.”

She raised her eyebrows, then signed, “Since when do you read?”

“All right, smart-ass. I read sometimes.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

I reached for the throw pillow in her round powder-blue lounge chair and threw it at her. “Don’t judge me, missy.”

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