Page 10 of Small Town Beast

“I—uh,” she choked. How much was her virtue worth?

“Come on, girl, I’m at your mercy.”

“Four hundred,” she said recklessly, the shame coming fast now, at last.So it’s come to this, Tanya?Haggling over her own body. She was the worst kind of woman in the world; she was disgusting.Only for Amari. It’s only for my baby, and then never ever again. He’s rich, going off that watch, unless it’s fake…

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when the man opened his wallet and started counting out bills.

“That’s five hundred,” she said when he stopped and flipped the wallet shut. Her hand closed fast around the money and put it in her purse.

“I know.” He pinched her chin and wiggled it. “Now you won’t stick that little knife in me.”

“How do you know about my knife?”

“It jabbed me when I picked up your purse.”

Five hundred was half of what she really needed but more than she had expected to get. But there was still a problem. It seemed Mister Bailey had the same thought.

“I’ll talk to Eugene,” he said, reading her mind.

“Talk about what?” she said breathlessly. In a fucked up way this was all working out perfectly.

“How much did he ask you for? Twenty percent?”

“Forty.”

“Don’t worry about him,” the tall man said. He cupped her chin again and Tanya could have sworn she saw kindness in his eyes.

“Why are you really doing this? Don’t take offense but you don’t seem like the type.”

She pushed his hand away. Getting soft on a “trick” was how a girl got played. “I’m here for a good reason, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“You should have a man taking care of you,” he said. “You’re telling me you can’t find a man to keep you from a place like this?”

“I don’t need a man to keep me anywhere. I don’t rely on anybody but myself. I’ve lived in hell and the only thing that got me out wasme.”

He pulled on her lower lip gently. “What’s an angel doing in hell?”

“Surviving.”Stop talking so much.

“You have a kid?”

She raised her chin. “Yeah.”

He watched her close. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy,” she whispered.

“Your son is home right now, waiting for you.”

“No,” she said. “He’s actually not.”

His eyes shuttered. The change seemed to come out of nowhere. A dark mood swallowed the man up and suddenly he was retreating. Some honorable instinct, or maybe he just wasn’t feeling her anymore, whatever it was it spelled DANGER for her plans. Though she had the money.

Half the money.

“You should be with your boy,” he said.

He couldn’t know that Amari wasn’t waiting at home. If he was, she wouldn’t be here at all.

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