Page 10 of Ravaged
He straightened again, ready for the next step. “Let’s meet outside of here. I’ve got a fantasy I want you to fulfill.”
“The coordinators are skilled at making those fantasies come true,” I said. And we weren’t allowed to leave the property anyway, not without Dahlia’s approval. I had a car, but for those of us who lived on-site, she never let us go far from her grasp. “The coordinators can change these rooms into anything you want.” For the right price, of course, but he knew that.
He shook his head. “What I want is more subtle. I’ll pay you ten times the price.” Ten times my hourly rate? My eyes widened. Did he mean it? “I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll text you the GPS coordinates.”
GPS coordinates? What kind of weirdo fantasy was it? “You want to screw in the woods or something?”
He lifted a brow, looking down his nose at me. “Something like that.”
He swiped through his phone, then a ding came from mine. He had added half of the amount to my account.
“You’ll get the rest when you come,” he said. “In cash.”
Cash meant that I didn’t have to give any to Dahlia. I could save it under my bed for the next time Dad needed it. I had been through plenty of weird kinks at the Dahlia District; what was one experience outside of the walls? Especially if I got that much money in such a short amount of time.
I walked him to the main floor, our arms linked. A few of the club members and servers watched us, but I kept my eyes focused. This was about him, not us.
“You should get out of here,” he said, motioning around to the walls of the Dahlia District. “This place isn’t good for someone like you.”
Was it good for any of us? I crooked a smile. “I’ll make a note of it.”
“I mean it,” he said. “Get away from here. Before it’s too late.”
Not quite the knight in shining armor’s typical motto, but a warning. I had been at the Dahlia District for seven years; it’s not like I could leave. Dahlia had the Adlers, and the Adlers would go after my dad, and then me.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Really.”
His eyes lingered on mine, but then he turned away. I watched as he made his way towards the exit.
Iris came up beside me and rested a hand on her hip. “Still don’t trust him,” she said. “He’s up to no good.”
“He invited me out,” I said. The door swung shut behind him.
“Seriously?” she groaned. “What is with these men?” Iris hated when the club members tried to get us to break the rules.
“I think I’m going to do it.” Her jaw dropped wide open. “Come on. Don’t give me that,” I shoved her shoulder playfully. “He’s paying ten times my regular rate!”
“Shut up.”
I opened my phone and showed her my account’s recent activity. “He paid half in advance.”
“Fine, fine, fine,” Iris said. She flicked her hand at me. “Money is money.”
“You know what’s funny?” I asked. She tilted her head.
“Hm?”
“He didn’t tell me his last name.”
Iris went to the reception area. The staff member ‘went on a break’ while Iris looked through the computers. Because she was close with Dahlia, Iris was the only server given access to the files.
“Yeah, that’s weird,” she said. “His last name has been blanked out.”
“Maybe he wants to stay private?”
She crossed her arms. “Or maybe he’s a suspicious bastard who is up to no good. Like I said.”
He might not have been the evil man that Iris thought he was, but there was something off about him. It wasn’t the way he disregarded the term papers or was aggressive with me—I kind of liked all of that. Really liked it, in fact. But it was strange that he actually thought I was talented. He hadn’t forgotten about my music after we had sex; he had even asked about it again. Like he actually cared. And it was the way he warned me about leaving the club that left an eerie tension in my stomach; it’s like he knew there was something coming, something horrible, and he wanted to give me the chance to run away. Maybe he was the kind of club member who wanted to save our poor, whorish souls, but I didn’t think that was it. There was something else.
