Page 13 of Seducer

A foretelling of the future.

The masked man was rooted himself in my life and only when he was ready would he reveal himself.

By then, I feared it would be too late.

When the lights dropped, I unfurled my body, rising to my feet. The high-level energy continued to pulse in the room even as I made my way to the back of the stage. For some unknown reason, I knew I should fear the man, but I was far too intrigued. The why didn’t matter at this point.

The thrill of the unknown was intoxicating, almost macabre in design.

But I’d never felt so exhilarated in my life.

My friends called my fascination with danger and death disturbing, which amused the hell out of me. Especially since by day I was mild and meek.

The quiver in my legs continued and I stopped at the outskirts of the stage long enough to glance back toward the audience. Few men had ever drawn my attention, not one to date obtaining anything from me.

Not a conversation.

Not a phone number.

Certainly not a private dance, which far too many of the girls succumbed to for money. I needed the cash and security, but I wasn’t interested in being pawed to obtain a higher goal. I had integrity, an attribute I refused to ignore no matter how much of a financial crunch I was in.

But the one man sitting in the front row had called to me. That sounded odd as I rattled it off in my mind. Why? Yes, from what I could tell when the lights had floated across his torso, he was a handsome man. No, not just handsome. Fucking gorgeous.

Dark hair.

Broad shoulders.

Impeccable dresser.

Okay, so I hadn’t seen any of his features, but I hadn’t needed to. The draw had been all about his hypnotic eyes. If the lights hadn’t deceived me, they were the deepest and most enigmatic blue I’d ever seen.

Of course, I could be fantasizing about my dream man again since the real ones were snakes with attitude.

As I hovered in the shadows, I allowed myself a few seconds of imagining being a normal girl with typical desires, instead of the freak living in the darkest reaches of my mind. My guess was the sexy man in the Phantom of the Opera costume was some rich dude living the kind of life I’d dreamt of for far too long.

He’d never be interested in a girl like me.

As soon as I turned, resigned to ignoring the deep desires, I bumped into something hard. “What the hell?”

“Sara. Don’t let him get you.”

“What?” I had to blink three times to clear my vision it was so damn dark in the hallway. “Gina. Who are you talking about?”

“There’s a man in the bar. He was asking about you. I told him nothing. I swear to God.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

Gina had been working here for years, much longer than I had. As of late, her behavior had gotten completely paranoid. I didn’t know her very well and the fact she was warning me was as bizarre as the rest of her actions.

She backed away, the dimly lit corridor unable to hide the extreme fear in her eyes. “Don’t fall into his trap. Just watch yourself. They know.”

They? I had no idea what to say. She’d been the star of the club for years. She had men literally offering to purchase her a condo. Maybe one of them had gotten out of hand. But what did I have to do with it? A cold shiver remained. “Gina. Talk to me. If someone is threatening you, we need to go to the police.”

“No. No!”

I couldn’t grab her before she raced out the back door leading to the alleyway. The girl was weird, but this was off kilter even for her.

A part of me wanted to run after her, but I sensed whatever demons were living inside were close to winning.

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