Page 75 of Devoured
CHAPTER 21
Iris
The walls of my old dorm room in the Greenhouse still had a few of my toys on display—a single tail, an old fluffy whip meant for sensation rather than pain, a Wartenberg wheel—but the room itself was empty. A bare mattress. An empty dresser. A barren closet. It was strange to think that this was mine. This room. This building. This property. I had wanted, hoped,dreamedof owning the Dahlia District since I had first laid eyes on it over a decade ago. All I wanted was to give my club sisters a place that they could proudly work in, a place where they could be safe. Any time I had mentioned the idea of owning the Dahlia District one day, Dahlia had denied me, saying that the most I would ever do was manage it. She had said that she trusted me and shewantedme to have it, but once she retired, she planned to sell it, and she knew that I could never afford what it was worth. I had proved her wrong.
And now it was mine. All mine. Yet that knowledge didn’t give me comfort. Instead, it made me feel like my body was buzzing with bees, like I couldn’t stop shaking because of everything that had to be done.
Wavy blond hair passed in front of the open door. I perked up and went to the hallway.
“Kendall,” I said. She turned and sneered at me.
“What, bendy bitch?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I said the words as calmly as I could manage, “Come in here for a second.”
She stomped into my old bedroom, sitting on the bed with me.
“Better make this quick,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I haven’t got all day.”
“The Dahlia District is going to be changing soon,” I said, watching as she gawked at the empty hooks on the walls. “But in some ways, it will stay exactly the same.”
She chewed on her tongue. “I already talked to Roland about being a cocktail girl.”
“But what if hedidn’tmake it into a nightclub?” I asked, holding my breath, “Would you be willing to stay?”
She blinked her eyes. “Wait. Excuse me?”
I shrugged. “You’re actually a really great server.” I hated to admit that, but it was true. She was good at charming club members, especially new ones. She knew how to keep them back in the Terrariums for hours at a time.
“One of the best,” she said, looking down her nose at me.
“I agree. One hundred percent,” I said, the words painful my chest. “But I need a gauge of how many of us will be left. Say you were given your freedom—” I bit my lip, hesitant of these next words, “—would you be willing to stay? Continue to serve? All of that?”
Her eyes softened the longer she studied me. “You want to protect this place?” she asked.
“Yes,” I sighed. “I don’t know if you heard, but right after I ran away from the group home, I did street work for a while, and I—” I shook my head, thinking about the man who had broken my nose when I asked for payment on one of the rare nights I had actually given a blow job. “I don’t want any of us to have to go back to that. Not if we don’t want to.”
“But cocktailing,” Kendall said, her voice low, “Roland said he’ll give us jobs doing that. Waitressing. Bartending. Whatever.”
“You and I both know that we won’t make nearly as much as we do in the Terrariums.”
The silence mellowed between us, Kendall measuring the truth of my words. She leaned in, curiosity dwelling in her expression. She wrinkled her nose, then leaned back and softened again.
“I’ll be honest,” she said, sitting up. “Belly dancing. Having sex. Everyone here is great.” She gestured around us. “Except you.”
“Of course,” I said.
“And I like the protection.” She tilted her head. “I did street work too. Well, not exactly. I set up appointments online. It’s a bit different, but I get what you mean.”
“Did you run into trouble too?”
She nodded. “Once I heard about this place, I begged Dahlia for a job.” Just like I had. Kendall looked up at the ceiling. “All I want to do is save up enough for my own house. Once this debt is gone, I can save up, get my dream house, maybe get myself a little savings, then retire—”
“The debts are gone,” I said. “Roland got rid of them once ownership transferred.”
Her jaw dropped. “No shit?”
I cocked my chin towards her phone. “Check your account.”
