There was commotion up and down the hallway, and I kept my tears as muted as I could. Never in my life had I been so scared, and I knew that if I was caught they’d kill me on the spot. Hell, Chops already knew that I wore a wig, and if I couldn’t find a way to play that off I’d be up shit creek without a damn paddle.
Then again, I was already up shit creek.
“Cole, if you can hear me, please say something. Anything,” I whispered.
I pulled my earpiece out to check and make sure the damned thing was even on. I flipped the little switch a couple of times before I slipped it back into my ear and tried saying his name again. I used our code word. I cleared my throat. I did anything that I thought might catch his attention.
But there was only silence on his end of the line.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” I hissed.
After about fifteen minutes, the footsteps rushing up and down the hallway slowed to nothingness. I crept out of the musty closet in the abandoned room and pressed my ear against the wall, wondering if it was possible to hear someone standing outside. I didn’t hear anyone panting for air, or walking around, or even sighing as they stood there being bored out of their minds.
I kept my eyes trained on the crack beneath the office room door, watching for any shadows that might pass by.
And after ten solid minutes of nothing, I took a chance.
I crawled over to the door and picked myself up. I drew in deep, silent breaths, girding myself for whatever might be out there. My hand reached for my right thigh-high and I pulled out my gun, ready to shoot my way through this damned place if I had to.
Then, I ripped the door open and stepped out into the hallway.
I looked both ways, twirling my gun around as I tried clocking everything in all directions. And I’d be damned if the hallway wasn’t completely cleared. I looked up at the security camera trained on me and I cursed beneath my breath. Someone had to be watching me from that fucking thing.
So, I booked it down the hallway with my gun in my hand.
I knew it wasn’t smart to go back out into the main room, but if these guys had any sense in their brains at all they’d be perched in the back hallways looking for me. And that made things more difficult. I tried to step as lightly as possible and slipped into office rooms by using the key I had in my left thigh-high if I heard voices or possible footsteps coming in my direction.
But neither Cole nor Archer emerged.
And that worried me.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I whispered.
I passed by a corner I didn’t see and a chuckle resonated behind me. “‘Fuck’ is right, you slimy little cunt.”
I whipped around at the sound of his voice and Chops immediately wrapped his hand around my throat once more. He slammed me against the wall, causing me to lose my breath as my gun dropped from my hand. It clattered to the ground and he quickly kicked it down the hallway, where a man stepped out of the shadows and scooped it up.
Then, Chops leaned in so close that I smelled pain killers on his breath. “You’re a slippery one, aren’t you?”
My lower lip quivered. “Just let me go. I won’t say a thing if you simply let me go.”
He grinned. “When I’m done with you, I just might. But I’m not nearly finished with you yet.”
“Yeah, well I’m done with you.”
I went to throw my knee into his already-injured groin, but he backed away. Without even moving his hand from my neck, he stepped back into position and drove a wedge between my legs with his knee. He slid me up the wall with his grip tightening around my throat and I tried crying out for help.
But either people couldn’t hear me, or they didn’t care enough to respond to such a call.
“No one can hear you scream back here, Butterfly. If that’s really who you claim to be. That’s why we are outfitting all of these rooms back here for our V.I.P. clients. You know, those clients where rules sort of slip out the window, for a price?”
I felt sick to my stomach. “Let me go. My shift is over.”
He reached between us and started fiddling with his belt again. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I run this fucking joint, then. Because now, your shift with me is only beginning. And it’ll help if you stay still for this. It’ll go by quicker and hurt you less.”
I drew in a deep breath. “Somebody! Anybody! Please, help me!”
My feet barely touched the ground. Chops’ maniacal laughter as he stroked his cock forced tears down my cheeks. I tried balling my hands up into fists and swinging them as hard as I could, but another man came out of nowhere and pinned my wrists above my head. My feet dangled as Chops shoved my skirt up. I bucked against him, trying to knock him off balance as his hand slapped my inner thigh.
“Stop. Moving. Before I choke you out and do what I need to do myself,” he growled.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
In a flash, Chops was on the ground and I fell to my feet. I gasped for air and tried to get my bearings as Summer’s violent howl filled the hallway. The shadow man charged me, his arms stretched out to grab me. And even though I ducked, he still managed to grab a fistfull of my hair.
And yanked my damn wig right off my head.
“I knew it!” Chops exclaimed.
He threw Summer to the side and quickly stood to his feet. “I knew I fucking recognized you.”
The shadow man balked. “That’s the girl, boss. I fucking told you I knew her from somewhere! She’s that bitch that got mouthy with us a couple of weeks back!”
My eyes widened as Chops approached me slowly. “What did you think you could do? Take us all on at once? Get revenge without us noticing? We keep tabs on every girl when they’re inside these walls. We know what steps you make, who you talk to, what your dances look like. We even hack your fucking phones that you think we don’t know about.”
I swallowed hard, trying to abate my fears. “You don’t scare me.”
He cocked his head. “Oh, really? Then, tell me, why are your eyes watering right now?”
I cleared my throat. “My head hurts.”
He chuckled. “Want to know what I think?”
“Not really.”
He loomed over me. “I think you’re going to die tonight.”
Then, Summer yelled at me again. “Josie! Catch!”
I heard something sliding across the ground, but Chops was quicker than me. He kicked the object off to the side, and it wasn’t until a small speck of light from the flickering hallway ceiling lamps caught the gun metal that I realized what it was. In the blink of an eye, I lunged for it. I threw my entire body into reaching that gun as Summer continued fighting the shadow man in the background.
But Chops was quicker. “Oh, no you don’t.”
I slid across the ground and barely had the fucking thing in my hand before he ripped it out. And after he pressed his boot against my chest, he cocked the gun and aimed it at my face.
“No!” Summer shouted.
“Say goodnight, bitch,” Chops glowered.
“Pineapple!”
Gunshots rang out as Summer scurried over to me. Chops pivoted and pulled the trigger on my gun as she helped me to my feet. Cole’s voice echoed off the hallway walls and relief flooded my veins.
I wanted to know what the hell had happened to him, but I took solace in the fact that he had finally showed up.
“Cole!” I exclaimed.
He shot me a look as he reloaded his gun. “Run, Josie. Both of you, run!”
Summer tugged me along. “Come on, girl. He’s got this.”
“No! Cole!”
Chops charged him, taking him to the ground as he continued to yell. “Just go!”
Summer pulled me around the corner and the two of us took off. As we held hands, racing down the hallway, gunshots continued to ring out behind us. I heard people screaming somewhere, probably the main room. And as we blazed a trail by the back door of the dressing room, I saw a couple of new dancers—girls I still didn’t recognize—running for the back door.
“All of you, follow me now!” Summer roared.
My mind spun in twenty different directions. Where the hell had Chops been? Was he all right? Was Chops dead? What happened to that shadow man that had pinned my wrists to the wall? And where the fuck had Summer come from?
Archer.
“I have to call Archer,” I said.
Summer tugged me outside. “Girls, follow me. We have to get out of here.”
I wrenched away from her. “I have to call Archer! I can’t leave Cole!”
I turned around and ran back for the door as Summer yelled at me. “Bitch, are you crazy!? We gotta go!”
I waved at her as I pulled out my cell phone from my tits. “You take the girls and get out of here. I have to find Cole and Archer first. I can’t leave them behind!”
And as I raced back inside, tearing up the carpet with my heels as I rushed back into the dressing room, I rifled through the girl’s things. Trying to find anything I could use to defend myself.
Before I reached for a baseball bat that sat off in a corner.
“This will have to do,” I murmured.
Then, I hunkered down in a corner and scrolled through my phone, finding Archer’s number so I could call him.
I had to warn him.
I had to let him know what the hell was going on.
If anything, so he didn’t get here and take a bullet to the chest out of sheer misinformation.
