Page 31 of Trailer Trash

I stared at him in disbelief, and damned if tears didn’t burn my eyes. “You don’t know my past.”

“And it might be better if I don’t know, seein’ as we’re about to muck around in it. I might have to beat a few faces in, and I’m not sure you have enough money to bail me out.”

I smiled in spite of my tears. “Why are you so nice to me?”

“Because you’re worth being nice to. I don’t think you see what I see, Neely Kate.”

“And what’s that?” I asked against my better judgment.

“I see a woman so fierce she’d take on a man twice her size without a second thought. I see a woman who is willing to risk anything and everything to help her best friend. I see a woman so desperate to hold on to the few people who love her she’s willing to risk her life to keep them.” He gave me a sad smile. “I see a woman who deserves love more than anyone I know. I’m irredeemable, but I can help you.”

I stared at this man who felt as lost and hopeless as I did. I slipped my arms around his back and pressed the side of my head to his chest. “You’re not irredeemable, Jed.”

His arms tightened around me, but this embrace was different than the one at the train station. This one was about comfort and strength.

Maybe we could save ourselves together.

Chapter 10

We arrivedin Ardmore around ten p.m. Jed suggested we get a motel room and start in the morning, but I shook my head. It was time to start my investigation. Maybe all my investigations with Rose had been practice for this.

“We need to go to Slick Willy’s.”

His brows lifted and he asked in a dry tone, “Slick Willy’s?”

“It’s a strip club west of Ardmore. Just outside of Wilson.”

He gave me a long look, then said, “Tell me how to get there.”

I gave him directions, and about fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the half-full parking lot. My stomach was in knots, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.

“Are you looking for someone in particular here?” Jed asked.

Pulling down the visor, I checked my appearance in the mirror. I grabbed my lip gloss and swiped my lips. “No. I just thought you might enjoy the show. You know . . . compare it to the Bunny Ranch. Maybe get a lap dance. My treat in exchange for the bus tickets.”

His eyes narrowed.

I closed the tube, dropped it in my purse, and then fluffed my hair, careful to not disturb my stitches. I knew he deserved the truth, but he’d figure it out on his own soon enough. Of all my friends and family, Jed was the person I would probably feel most comfortable bringing here with me.

Rose and I had gone searching for my cousin at Gems, the other strip club in Fenton County (until it burned down), and there’d been no mistaking the look of horror on Rose’s face the entire time we were in the club. That look had told me she couldn’t know the truth about how I’d learned to dance on the pole. I’d come up with a lie about my cousin teaching me in her garage, when in truth,I’dbeen the one to teachher.

But picking a companion to come here with me felt a whole lot like picking a body part where I wanted to be shot. Any location would hurt like hell, but some were less fatal.

I stuffed my phone and some cash in my jacket pocket and got out of the car, leaving Jed to follow.

“I take it you’ve been here before,” Jed said in a dry tone.

“A time or two.”

“What should I expect inside?”

“It’s Wednesday night, so it will be pretty tame. The church crowd.”

I half-expected a response to that, but one, he had experience with Skeeter’s strip club, and two, I suspected people were pretty much the same wherever you went.

We were greeted in the small foyer by a bouncer, a guy who tried to look tough but shrank a bit when he saw Jed. I didn’t recognize him, not that I was surprised. Turnover was understandably high. I slipped him a twenty to cover both of us, then headed inside before Jed could protest.

A couple of men were at the bar, but several more were sitting at the tables in front of the stage. On the far side of the room, a man and a woman sat facing the door. They were both well-dressed and totally out of the league of everyone else in the room. Interesting. But I’d temporarily caught the eye of the unaccompanied men, and they were practically ignoring the dancer gyrating to a Lady Gaga song. Her bra was already off, and there were several bills stuffed into her G-string.

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