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I squeezed one last time. Tight, until he gave up the fight, his body went limp, and the life drained from his watery eyes.
It took all my effort to pry my fingers from the lifeless fuck who’d thought nothing of ruining a young girl’s life. Taking his wasn’t even close to making amends for the trauma she’d experienced.
As silently as I’d come, I turned and crossed the room, using the sleeve of my black hoodie to open the door so my fingerprints wouldn’t be found on it.
I slipped from the rectory and started the long walk home.
I waited for it. The guilt. The realization I’d killed a man.
But when I stepped into my own church, up the dark aisle, and dropped to my knees at the altar, the words that came out of my mouth weren’t the ones I’d expected.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned…and I don’t think I care.”
1
LYRIC
“How much for a private dance?”
I dropped into a squat, spreading my knees wide, winding my hips provocatively in time with the beat of the music. Scooping up the few bills that had been thrown onto the stage, I considered the man’s request.
It was late. Or rather, early. We’d close the club at five when the sun started its morning rise, so there were only thirty minutes until my shift was over. I was tired. My feet hurt from wearing impossibly tall heels for hours. I wanted to go home and sleep for a week.
But like too many other nights lately, my wad of cash was thin. I’d danced my damn ass off, putting everything into my performance. It had all fallen flat. The men had all been regulars, and they’d seen my act dozens of times before. They threw single-dollar bills instead of fifties, talking more amongst themselves, or drowning their sorrows in the bottom of a glass, rather than really paying attention to anything I was doing.
The man waved a fifty in front of my face enticingly. It was the biggest bill I’d seen all night.
“Seventy-five,” I countered, giving him a flirty wink that was all for show, because I certainly didn’t find him attractive.
He was older, probably in his early fifties. His pot belly hung over his belt, and his arms were covered in thick, dark hair. He had a baseball cap pulled low on his forehead which just screamed, “I’m balding and wearing this to cover it up!”
But money was money when you didn’t have enough of it.
When you had people counting on you to pay the bills.
He ponied up the extra cash I’d requested, and I plucked it from his hairy fingers before he could try to shove it in my G-string. I straightened and then strutted off the stage, motioning for the man to follow me.
He did, a little too eagerly for my liking. His breath warmed the back of my neck, and I gave a slight shudder of disgust. “You need the cash, Lyric. It’s twenty minutes, just get it over with,” I mumbled to myself.
“What was that?” He took the opportunity to move close enough for his beer belly to brush the small of my back.
I pasted on a fake smile, glancing over my shoulder at him. “I just asked if you have any special requests?”
The private rooms at the back of the club were designed to look like intimate living spaces. Couches, lamps, rugs. A mini refrigerator for refreshments that might want to be purchased. A speaker system where the clients could choose their own music, since the rooms were practically soundproof and whatever was playing in the club only barely filtered through the walls.
I held the door open for the man and motioned for him to walk in ahead of me.
He did, gazing around the room while he strolled to the couch. He turned and sank down into it, spreading one arm along the back, letting his gaze roll over my body.
I shut the door behind me, switching the lock to engaged so the others would know not to try to come in here with one of their own private clients. “You can choose the music. Or a drink…”
He held up another fifty-dollar bill. “I have requests that don’t involve music or drinks.”
I fought the urge to wrinkle my nose at him. I had a pretty good idea what at least one of his requests would be and I wouldn’t do it. But I could really use that extra fifty. It would go a long way to saving what had been a pathetic night. Maybe he would accept a compromise. “I take requests. Within reason.”
“I want you fully naked.”
I nodded. That was already assumed when you paid for a private dance, but clearly, he was new at this, and I wouldn’t correct him. I’d seen him at the club before, but he’d never asked me to take him back to a room.
