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Ava
Miami, Florida
Two Weeks Ago
Just breathe.
I repeat the words over and over in my head while I’m stuck working a VIP room at three o’clock in the morning when my shift was over an hour ago. At least the constant shouting from downstairs is drowning out the incessant grunting behind me. I have no idea what’s going on, but the DJ’s solution is to crank the music up louder to see which of the three can give me a headache the fastest.
I’m pretty sure he’s winning.
“Do you like that, baby?” John groans. I have no idea if that’s his name. I call him that because I don’t care to know any different.
I nod. “Mmmm-hmmm.”
To be honest, I’m not sure what he said. I’m too focused on a crack I found in the wall. It’s not a big one, but to me, it might as well span from one side to the other and have a circle drawn around it in scarlet red lipstick. The more I stare at it, the more it looks like the letter S.
S for slut.
“That’s it, just like that.”
S for sacrifice.
“You love it from behind, don’t you?”
S for secret.
“This is just between us.”
A crack in a wall seems like a dumb thing to notice when there’s a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound guy pounding me from behind, but over the years I’ve found that focusing on small details is the only way to survive. It allows me to check out without slipping underwater.
Although drowning would be easier than pretending I’m enjoying anything that’s happening right now.
I close my eyes as the grunts behind me get louder. Locking my elbows, I brace my palms and drop my head as he pulls me against him and drives in hard.
“Shit, I can’t hold back anymore!”
I roll my eyes at the ceiling and let out the breath I’d been holding.
After grunting like a pig, he braces one sweaty hand on the wall beside mine. “Nobody gives it to you this good, right, baby?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Finally getting the hint, he stops talking and turns to dispose of the condom. As he makes his way back, the door rattles, and we both freeze. Only three people have keys to a VIP room at any given time: the girl, the customer, and Dmitry.
And Dmitry would never interrupt anything that makes him money.
I let out a yelp as the first blow hits.
“What the hell is going on?” John frowns, shifting a glance up at the security camera.
I shake my head, unable to speak as the door takes hit after hit. I can’t run—where the hell am I going to go? This isn’t the movies. There’s no secret passageway to an underground tunnel. Whatever’s on the other side of that door is coming in, and we’re going to be right here when it does.
One more kick and the hinges break away from the frame, sending the door crashing inside the room. Three men in blue police uniforms stand there with guns pointed straight at my face.
A man in a three-piece suit steps in front of them and lands a hard gaze on me. “Ava Chernova?”
“Hold on a damn minute!” John pipes up from behind me. “You can’t just break down a door like—”
