AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I told you I’m at Jerzy Girls for family issues. My dad . . . got in deep with some bad people, and he was having my sister Lola handle it. I didn’t know, and she didn’t tell me. In her own way, she wanted to protect me, too. I think, to Lola, if one of us got to live free, she’d rather it be me. But we were both so caught in this mess that we didn’t know what the other was doing. I didn’t know about the debt until something happened and Lola almost got hurt.”
“So you took over?” I nod.
It actually feels good to talk about it to someone not involved in this.
“She thinks it’s done, settled. I want her to think that, that it’s done and she can live without that stress. Without that anger. But I knew that it wouldn’t be done and over unless one of us took it . . . further. And honestly? I-I’m mad. I’m angry. There’s more to it, stuff with my mom, but I’m . . . It’s my turn to take over and let Lola live in peace. She gets the pretty, sweet life now.”
“And you?”
“I had that for 26 years. Now I get to make things right. Things happened when I was young, made it so I didn’t get to live up to my . . . full potential.” I tiptoe around the identity of my father, of the throne he wanted me to sit on. “I want that chance back. I want the people who fucked with my family to pay.”
“That’s a lot for one woman to do.”
“I can. I will,” I say, more determined with his all-knowing eyes on me.
“I have no doubt you will,” he says softly, lips pressing to mine.
Twenty-Seven
-Lilah-
“Mind if I sit with you?” the thick voice asks the next day while I’m eating my lunch at work, and when I look up, Marco is towering over me where I’m sitting in the back room next to the Big Boss’s office. I still haven’t seen the man, still haven’t even been able to understand if he’s even in the building most days, but according to the girls, once in a blue moon, he’ll come out and say hi.
But according to the girls, he’s also always watching.
A shiver runs through my spine every time I think about it—about being surveilled by some all-seeing Big Boss while I work.
I wonder if there are cameras in the private rooms?
Or in the poker rooms.
That seems like messy business, allowing illegal activities and then recording them.
But Marco? I know Marco. I like Marco. He’s always kind to the girls who work here but also respectful. He never looks below a shoulder, always asks you how your day is, and genuinely seems like he’s here to work—not to check out women as a perk of the job.
Now that I don’t work on stage, I find myself eating in the general break room more often, sitting in a corner and scrolling my phone, texting my sister so that she doesn’t start asking too many questions again, or typing coded notes in my phone of things I’ve heard, hunches I need to follow. The back room for the dancers always has a heavy haze of perfume and loud chattering, and in this loud place, I’m always craving some peace.
But today, it seems I have company,
“Yeah, sure,” I say, scooting over with my peanut butter and jelly and making room for the brawny man.
“How’s your day, princess?” he asks, and something about that always makes me smile, too—the nickname he gave me. If only he knew the history of my being treated like a princess hidden away from danger or the fact that, in a way, I am a princess, but to a family who doesn’t know I exist.
My Rapunzel existence.
“Can’t complain. I’ve been in the back room on games today. What about you?”
“Been in there with you, girl,” he says with a smile.
“Really? But Roddy was taking me to get drinks today, not you,” I ask.
“Yup.” He pops the p and then unwraps a sandwich from the shop down the road. “Hide in the shadows, and no one asks questions. Boss wants eyes on any girls back there at all times.”
“The boss,” I say under my breath. “Is that Paulie?” I know the answer, but I came to this club with a plan and haven’t done much in the way of making headway. This is as good a time as any to get more insight, I think.
Marco laughs.
A deep laugh, his head tipping back, dark skin gleaming in the fluorescent lighting.
