Page 1 of Dancing With Lies

Prequel

Chloe To Roxie

1

Ten Years Ago

New York City, New York

“You think this is a game?!” She heard the man with the neck tattoo say as he threw a punch into her dad’s stomach. She ducked and hid beneath the window as he turned around to scan the backyard.

She was supposed to be on her way to dance class when she noticed the car that was parked across the road from their house the days before their porch got vandalized. She had told her dad about the suspicious vehicle that was positioned outside all day, but he dismissed it like it was nothing, as if she was making things up for no reason. When she spotted the same car again today, she decided that she had to sneak back into the house, figure out what was going on, and prove her dad wrong.

“Please, I don’t know anything.” The voice was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time - the sound of her dad pleading, begging for the two muscular men to stop hurting him. What had he gotten himself into?

“Either tell us what we need to know or pay up.” The other man laughed as he flung a few more punches. “You’re running out of time, old man. Don’t make us wait.”

The sound of things shattering followed: one by one, further and further away, surely the strangers leaving the yard and a path of destruction on their way out.

Chloe crawled out of the kitchen towards the front of the house, so she could make sure that the men had really left before she came out of hiding. She snuck out, like she snuck in, and made her way to dance class like it was a normal day – like she hadn’t just witnessed her father being beaten by two scary henchman-types.

In the evening, her dad pretended nothing had happened, and claimed the busted lip and slightly messed up face of his were caused by a silly fall down the stairs, a foolish moment of absent-mindedness. When she inquired about the broken pot plants, all he said was that it was caused by some kids and refused to say more about it.

She knew better than to push her dad further, not today anyway. Maybe she could bring it up again in a few days, after things had calmed down.

* * *

“Lolly, come on,” June called out, her voice broken up by giggles as she watched Chloe dance around the room. Chloe’s slim but muscular feet were a blur as she moved from balance, to pirouette, to arabesque with such speed that it nearly took June’s breath away. “Let’s go play with my new iPhone.”

“In a minute, I have to get this right.” Chloe breathed out as she came to a halt, her golden curly waves a sudden disturbance in her eyes. They had fallen loose from the tight bun she kept her hair in when she was in her studio. The studio was a large room with walls painted the palest shade of pink, with glass mirrors lining two sides so that Chloe could observe how well she performed the various movements involved with ballet.

Her toes ached, but even at 18 years old, she knew it was the price you had to pay to be a good ballerina. She had developed a love of dance throughout her childhood. Her mother’s decision to start her daughter in ballet classes early was a good one, one that had swiftly become all the girl could talk or think about when she wasn’t at school.

June didn’t understand how much Chloe loved ballet, but Chloe allowed her into the large studio that could have hosted an entire class but was for Chloe’s use alone. June could come in, but she didn’t like ballet, although she did like to watch Chloe practice. She’d sit there until she grew bored and then she’d want to do something else in the mansion that Chloe called home. June lived in her own mansion, but it was usually crawling with people and her much larger family, even though her older brothers had gone off to Ivy League universities now.

“Or we could dress up as princesses in your tutus and tiaras.” June’s eyes wandered to the open closet where Chloe had a variety of costumes to dance in. “Like we used to do when we were little girls.”

That was one of their favorite games, even as teenagers - playing princess - and Chloe decided, as she pushed her hair back up into a tight bun, that maybe she’d practiced enough today.

“Okay, but I’m not changing, I like the outfit I have on now,” Chloe answered at last, gazing at the blue, diaphanous skirt she wore over a silvery blue leotard. She was an ice queen, ready to take on the evil witch that threatened her kingdom. Or the trolls, as she and June had always called June’s horrible older brothers, Liam and Lincoln. They weren’t invited into Chloe’s studio, nobody but June ever was, so they couldn’t come in but the girls had imaginary battles with them in the room.

And Liam wasn’t such a troll now, not since Chloe had discovered how much she wanted to kiss him.

The music ended on the sound system that filtered music into the room and Chloe went to pick up the remote to hit replay, but a noise outside caught her attention. It sounded like a loud bang, so loud that June even jumped and screeched a little. Chloe’s soft, barely-there amber eyebrows came together and she stared at the door to her studio, barely cracked but still open.

“What was that, Lolly?” June asked as she rushed to Chloe’s side, her thin pianist fingers grabbing at Chloe’s bare bicep in fright.

Chloe glowered at her friend in a most perturbed way before she spoke. “It was probably Aunt Katie. She must have dropped something.”

Aunt Katie wasn’t really Chloe’s aunt, but the maid had been with the family since long before Chloe came along, and it was what her parents called the woman, so Chloe had continued to use the term without question. Besides, there were some weeks she spent more time with Aunt Katie than she did with her own parents, since they sometimes went off on romantic trips all over the world.

“Should we go check on her?” June asked, her dark eyes full of anxiety.

“No…” Chloe started to say but then the sound of breaking glass filled the air. She must be having a very bad day, Chloe thought as she walked to her studio door and peered out.

Aunt Katie had very bad eyesight that only grew worse as the years passed, but she wouldn’t spend the money on new glasses, as she always said she would. Chloe had asked Aunt Katie why she didn’t have glasses, but the kind, plump woman with gray hair and was always helping others before herself. Her son had needed tuition money and Aunt Katie spent her Christmas bonus on that instead of glasses. When her parents gave her a raise, Aunt Katie’s nephew had a sudden crisis that she’d helped him out with. At least, that’s what Chloe’s mother had said to her father in a way that left no doubt in Chloe’s mind that her mother resented these other people taking Aunt Katie’s money. It wasn’t very nice of them, at all, Chloe thought, especially when the poor woman could barely see.

June clung to Chloe’s back, her fingers scrabbling at Chloe’s shoulder, but Chloe didn’t mind. She walked out of the studio and in the direction where she’d heard the sound of breaking glass. The sound of angry male voices made her slow down and creep along the edge of the hallway until she got to the corner. With her breath held, Chloe peered around the corner and saw two very big men, both showing a lot of tattoos on their bare arms, one had a tattoo on his neck as well.