Page 60 of Property of Prowler
Throughout her entire shift, she felt like someone was watching her, but she couldn’t see anyone creeping in the crowd. In fact, the whole crowd was pretty tame for once.
It felt like the shift that would never end, but thankfully, it did.
One of the small pleasures in life was getting out of her skimpy outfit and putting on a baggy tee and comfy sweats after a shift.
But pulling off her heeled boots was downright religious. After getting dressed, she stood.
“These sneakers feel way too good. My dogs were barking.”
“Same, sister, same,” one of the new girls said. She didn’t know her name, nor had she realized she was in the room.
“Right? Nike is missing a huge market by sticking to athletes. They could market to waitstaff and dancers, really any working-class girl on her feet all day in heels, and they’d double their profits.”
“Preach.” New girl closed her locker and turned.
“Oh, I’m Taylor, by the way. We haven’t officially met.” She shouldered her bag and extended her arm. “Welcome to the Himalayas.” Taylor did Yeti’s voice from Monsters. Inc, but her coworker seemed puzzled.
“It’s from a movie. I’m a little weird like that, sorry.” Taylor dropped her hand.
Way to make it awkward. For some reason, the exchange had her holding back tears. Cass would’ve got it, rolled her eyes, but then laughed. Maybe even made an old lady retort.
“Oh, I know that. I’m Nikki. I just thought you said your name was Taylor.”
“Yeah, I did. See.” She pointed to the masking tape with TAYLOR N. stuck to the front of the locker behind her. “That’s me.”
“I thought it was Makayla. That guy must’ve made a mistake.”
Taylor’s blood ran cold. Fucking Travis was at her work again. It had to be.
“Guy?”
“Yeah, some guy tipped me a hundred dollars and asked about you. Called you Makayla.”
Alarm bells were going off in her head. Travis knew she had changed her name to Taylor and wouldn’t need to ask about her unless he was trying to send her a message.
“What else did he say?”
“I don’t remember to be honest. It was loud, and up close his breath stunk of beer, so I kept leaning back. But he did mention something about how you looked different from when he knew you.”
Her breath locked inside her lungs. It couldn’t be Billy. No way he would’ve found her. Maybe one of his buddies found his way to Vegas again, that’s all. Those guys fall out all the time. Billy got rid of his friends for any minor infraction.
That’s all it was.
Or at least that’s what she tried to convince herself of because the alternative was unthinkable.
She put on her happy face like she’d learned over the years, no matter what turmoil was going on under the surface. “Ready to head out?”
“No, you go on. I’m going to grab a bite.”
Taylor nodded and opened the door. As expected, security was right there waiting to walk them out.
“Nikki’s not coming just yet.”
“Cool,” he answered and followed her to the garage and all the way to her car door. She was not making the same mistake as last time.
“Be safe, Taylor.” He tapped the roof of her car and walked off before turning back. “Oh, and avoid the Charleston exit. Just heard there’s an accident that has it backed up.” With that he waved and watched her back out.
All the way to her rental house, paranoia had her in a death grip. Every car that pulled in behind her was surely following her. In Vegas, that was a lot. No street ever seemed completely void of traffic.
