Page 32 of Roulette Rodeo
She looked at me, one eyebrow arched in question.
"What?" I tried for innocent, but my voice came out breathless.
A slow smirk spread across her face.
"I have the perfect outfit for you."
"Briar," I whined. "What do you have up your sleeve?"
She shrugged, the picture of innocence if you ignored the mischief in her eyes.
"Who knows? Could be a magic trick."
I shook my head but couldn't stop the smile. Briar had kept me alive in this place, had taught me to see the angles, and play the long game.
If she had a plan, it was better than no plan.
"I'll get the details," she said, already moving toward the door. "You just look extra hot tonight. And Red? The really red lipstick. The one that looks like you've been eating cherries."
"Fine." I turned back to my vanity, reaching for the special occasion lipstick. "What's the worst that can happen?"
The question hung in the air, heavy with possibility.
Truthfully, what was the worst that could happen?
I could be chosen in high tides, sold to some pack of alphas who'd use me until I broke. I could disappear like Giselle, Diana, and all the others who'd thought they'd found a way out.
Or…
A green-eyed alpha with gentle hands and a possessive streak was about to walk through those doors with enough money to buy my freedom.
I thought about the way he'd held me, like I was precious but not fragile. How he'd smiled when I'd slapped him, like mydefiance was a gift rather than an insult. Or dare envision the way he'd said he'd find me, not like a threat but a promise.
A sinful vow for an Omega that has nothing left to lose…
"All I need is your name.”
I'd given him more than that.
I'd given him a clue, a challenge, a reason to come looking.
The question was whether he was smart enough to solve it, brave enough to walk into Marnay's web, and rich enough to buy his way out with me in tow.
I applied the lipstick with steady hands, watching my reflection transform. The deep red made my skin look like porcelain, my eyes darker, more mysterious. I looked like what Marnay sold—temptation wrapped in innocence, danger dressed in lace.
But underneath, I was still just Red.
The girl who'd learned to box from a male omega with navy hair. Who saved tips in a broken compact. Who'd been kissed for the first time in a storage closet and left her panties behind like a calling card.
"Five minutes, ladies!" The floor manager's voice boomed through the dressing room.
Five minutes until we walked onto that floor and found out which one of us would be free by morning.
Freedom being a relative term—traded from one cage to another, but at least it would be a different cage.
Hell, could be lucky to be one with unlocked doors.
I stood, smoothing down the standard crimson dress that would soon be replaced with whatever Briar had planned.
