Page 38 of Savage Cravings

Soon.

7

MILA

My first night working was…unexpected.

For one thing, I know for a fact I made more in tips than any of the other servers for the night, and it was all thanks to the brothers, who had left me more than five hundred dollars on the table for their food.

It more than made up for Annette and her friends, leaving me a measly two dollars and eight cents as a tip. Something I wouldn’t have thought too much about, had the number not been so random. A five-dollar tip or no tip at all would have just been careless, something I could have forgotten about once the night was over. But a whole two dollars and eight cents? That was fucking ridiculous.

I knew better than to let someone I didn’t know get to me, but Annette had been terrible to me from the start.

I checked my surroundings as I pulled up outside of the motel.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and slowly, I peered behind me as I got to the front door.

Maybe I was being paranoid, but it felt like there were eyes on me. However, all I was greeted with was the stillness of the night.

I shivered as a cold wind blew through, then quickly unlocked the door and got inside.

My nose wrinkled as an undefinable smell entered my nostrils.

I didn’t know where it was coming from, and I had tried to clean up the motel room as best I could when I first arrived, but it was still there.

I tried to ignore it and moved to where I kept my stash.

Keeping so much money here made me feel insecure, but the alternative was to bring it with me to work, and that sounded like an even worse idea.

I didn’t know what my next step should be, though, so for now I was hanging around, in limbo.

Once I counted the money and ensured it was all there, I headed to the bathroom and took a hot shower, trying—and failing—to feel clean.

I brushed my teeth in the shower, and scrubbed away the day’s dirt, going through the motions.

After my skin was rubbed raw, I stumbled out of the tub, ignored the tiny little cockroach I found on the floor by the tub, and fell swiftly into bed.

I was exhausted but found I couldn’t sleep.

Why couldn’t I just sleep?

I stared up at the blank ceiling in the dark, feeling… wired.

Three sets of eyes haunted me for the rest of the night, and I didn’t know what to make of it all.

My eyes sprangopen when the alarm on my phone went off.

Heart pounding, I took in my surroundings and reminded myself I was safe.

I was no longer at the clubhouse and was no longer under Daniel Hayes’ thumb.

He was probably dead right now.

I should feel sad about it, shouldn’t I?

I felt nothing.

Even when he wasn’t here, he was still able to remind me just how badly he had fucked me up, and the scars he left behind would be something I carried for the rest of my life.

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