Page 72 of Cruelly Fated
Bartenders and dancers began trickling in. I was crouched beneath a larger table with a vacuum when someone tapped my back. I startled, banged my head against the table top, and whipped around.
Larry's personal security guard pressed the vacuum’s off switch with his heavy boot. “Boss wants to see ya.”
I winced and crawled out, wiping my hands on the back of my shorts. After Larry’s silent outburst earlier today, I dreaded speaking with him. I hoped he wasn’t firing me, but having a security escort didn’t bode well.
Striding forward, I glanced over my shoulder. The guard was right on my heels. A couple of girls warming up on the dance floor shot me curious, questioning looks. I shrugged in response. Even they seemed to think the security detail was overkill.
My gut twisted. My job was as good as gone.
I stopped in front of Larry’s closed office doors, but the guard nudged me forward.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Boss is downstairs.”
Downstairs? Private dance rooms and dressing areas were located there, hardly a suitable place to discuss my job performance. Maybe he wanted to humiliate me in front of theother girls with some dramatic speech about how he’d saved my mother and me… I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore. I picked up the pace, eager to get this over with.
It was awfully quiet and dark once we descended into the corridor. This part looked nothing like the girls’ area—maybe the two sides didn’t connect? The dancers used the staircase on the opposite end of the building, so…
I wheeled around, eyes wide. “I’ll wait in Larry’s office,” I said as coolly as I could manage, then attempted to brush past the guard. He sneered into my face, gripped my arms, and shoved me into a small room, slamming the door in my face. I yanked on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Did you think that I’d forget your betrayal?” Larry’s voice oozed condescension and fury. He stepped into the narrow beam of light streaming from a tiny, blacked-out window near the ceiling. An unlit cigar dangled from the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t betray you. My boyfriend showed up unexpectedly. He’s coming to the club today and will be looking for me,” I fibbed, my chest heaving.
Larry let out an ugly, mirthless laugh. “Liar, liar, soul on fire,” he recited. “Who knew a face that pretty could spit such garbage? The dragon prince wouldn’t spare you a second thought. He and his vampire pal passed you around, sharing you like a bottle of good wine. You think you’re special? You’re just one more girl in a city overflowing with options. This is Avari, baby doll, the crown jewel of the kingdom. And trust me, I’ve supplied entertainment to the Voltaires before.”
He waited for my reaction, which was total shock.
“Wh-what do you mean,supplied?” I asked. Was Larry the kind of man who prostituted women? Did the girls here work on both sides of his operation? Prostitution was illegal in Avari. He’d have to keep that kind of business buried deep underground.
He grinned, displaying his yellow-stained teeth. I jiggled the handle behind my back again—still nothing. He wasn’t going to answer. But the implication hung heavy.
“You’re making a mistake,” I said, forcing my voice to steady. “Kyon will come looking for me. And when he finds out you’re holding me against my will, he’ll rip you apart.” Kyon’s dragon form flashed in my mind, his snapping jaw, razor teeth, and glowing eyes. He’d nearly killed me when he lost control over the beast.
Granted, I’d left him this morning without saying goodbye. And we were…on a break, technically. But he would come for me. Eventually.
Hopefully, before my body turned up in the river.
Larry’s smirk faltered, scowl replacing his confident expression. “Hmm. Hehasbeen acting like he’s obsessed with you.” He paced back toward the window, and I dared to breathe. Perhaps my bluff worked.
“I need to act faster, that’s all,” he said, fishing out his cellphone.
A wave of dizziness crashed over me, my vision blurred, and my knees nearly buckled. I gripped the door handle for balance, then spun around and pounded against the locked door.
“Let me out!”
The guard stepped back in, arms crossed and chest erect like an immovable wall. He left the door cracked open, but I wasn’t getting past him. I backed away, keeping both him and Larry in view.
“Your new owner is on his way,” Larry said with a smug grin, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a crumpled black handkerchief he’d pulled from his suit pocket.
“You can’t sell me. I’m not one of your possessions.”
“Ahh, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said, his tone dripping with scorn. “I own everything and everyone who works inside these walls. No one leaves without my say-so. Your mother understood that well. And yet she chose to disobey. Look where that got her.”
I seized the next breath as if someone had punched me in the gut.
“My mother was murdered, drained to death while working a side hustle. She didn’t leave your precious club.”
