Page 70 of That Girl is Trouble

Quietly listening to each other breathe.

It’s a quiet I hope Kat doesn’t mind too much, and one I don’t want to break. Calm. Peaceful. Skin on skin, her hands moving over my body, even though they shouldn’t.

It’s a quiet I could fucking live in.

20

As expected, getting this weekend off is a no-go. Tomorrow isn’t a problem. I switched my Friday shift with one of the girls to help Axe with his little covert-op cell phone mission. But everybody works on Saturday.

“You know the rules, kiddo,” Rayna says, her focus on the computer screen in front of her. Her office is a small windowless room with severely outdated decor. The walls are wood-panelled, the heavily worn chairs upholstered a burnt orange. Old beige filing cabinets line the back wall, and Rayna’s light-wood-topped desk is dead centre in the room. Walking in here from the main bar area feels like walking into a different century.

“I know. It’s just… something came up.” I shift against the scratchy material of the ugly chair. The skin of my ass screams, so I move forward, searching for a position to relieve the pain.

The chafe of what Axe did to me last night is a sweet reminder that I finally got a taste of him. His arms around me in that way—possessive, hungry. His eyes holding mine as his fingers skated across my skin. All the harshness he keeps locked in his face melting into something softer. The depraved sounds coming from his mouth as he claimed me.

It’s all I can think about. And despite how it ended, that I made him leave, I’m craving another hit.

“What kind of something?” Rayna asks.

“Something important.”

I’m about to be caught in my lie, and I’m not ready for that. I don’t want to see the look on my sister’s face when she realizes how close I’ve been all this time. When she discovers that I dropped out of school and didn’t tell her. And also. The whole dancing half-naked for strangers while they shove twenties into my skirt thing.

“Two weeks’ notice, Kat. Unless someone died, you put in your form two weeks before your requested time off.” She looks up from her screen, the frames of her cat-eye glasses at the tip of her nose. “Unless… did someone die?” Her eyebrow arches high on her forehead, her look making it clear she knows that isn’t the case. But maybe if I craft a really good lie, she’ll let me have this.

All this lying is getting exhausting though, and I don’t want to keep track of another one. Besides, who could have died? Rayna knows Triss is my only family.

I sigh and slump against the back of the chair. “No.”

“Then there’s your answer, hon.”

“Fine,” I snap.

She ignores my tone and focuses her attention back on her screen. Rayna doesn’t have an ear for attitude. The woman’s unapologetically abrasive, her baseline personality a mix of aggression with a side of I don’t give a fuck. Match it, and she barely notices. I kind of love that about her.

“It’s… it’s okay,” I concede. “I shouldn’t have asked. I gotta leave early tonight though. You good with that?”

She shrugs. “It’s slow out there. You do what you gotta do. But I expect that cute butt back here on Saturday night.”

Pushing up, I nod a goodbye, then head back onto the floor. Tonight, the music is low, the already small crowd of men scattered across the bar dwindling as we get closer to midnight. The stage is empty, the pocket in my skirt feeling lighter than usual for a Thursday night. On my way to the dressing room, I pass Lola. She’s sitting alone at one of the tables, her feet up, a bored expression on her face as she taps her thumbs against the screen of her phone.

I’m a foot from the door when I’m yanked back by my arm. Startled, my immediate response is to break the grip and pull away, but the hand around me tightens. I turn, balling my free hand into a fist, but freeze when I discover who’s invading my personal space.

“Mr. Rossi.” My stomach drops. Does he know what I did? That I took his phone on purpose? Or is he here to take what he said he would? And I will be fucking you.

“Katherine.” My name rolls off his tongue in a way that makes my skin crawl. I can feel it now, the danger that floats around him, the threat of him. Last night, I was too caught up in trying to get that phone to notice. Too immersed in the game because I was feeling a little reckless and needed an outlet.

This guy’s a different breed than what I’m used to. The Sinners are dangerous, and if I said I always felt safe around them, I’d be lying. There were times I wasn’t safe. Times I got the same vibe from one of them that I’m getting from Mr. Rossi now. What saved me before was the threat that the last time a man tried to force his way between my legs, Graves took his life.

I clear my throat. “It’s Kat, actually. No one calls me Katherine.”

He hums in response, his eyes dropping to my tits, the thick smell of his cologne hitting my nostrils. He’s in a suit again, white shirt with the top buttons undone. The crispness of it is out of place among the rest of tonight’s clientele. “I like Katherine better.” He cocks his head, much like how a predator sizes up his next meal. “You look upset.”

“I… yeah.”

I scan the room, spotting Rayna across the bar. She pauses outside her office and narrows her eyes at me, then shifts her focus to Mr. Rossi, to his hand still wrapped tight around my arm. “Some family stuff came up,” I tell him. “I was hoping to take Saturday off, but it’s not happening. I’m actually about to head out though, Mr. Rossi. So it was nice seeing you, but—”

“I’ll talk to Rayna. It’s no problem.” He rubs his thumb in circles over my skin, and the hairs at the back of my neck perk up.

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