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As soon as I’ve finished the fifteen minutes required for the twenty-dollar floor dance, I retreat, heading back to the dressing room. I have a black trenchcoat-style dress hanging by my table that I throw on over my lingerie, buttoning it up quickly and belting it before I slip out the back door to the alley behind the Rosebud.
Lorenzo isn’t there yet. For a moment, as I lean up against the brick wall and look out at the hazy, warm night, I wish I smoked. It would give me something to do with my hands, which are starting to tremble a little.
And then he comes around the corner, and the trembling spreads.
Why does he have this effect on me? Out here in the alley, he seems even sexier, that dark, quiet mysteriousness amplified by our surroundings.
“Miss Ilenya.” He stops a foot away from me, his gaze still carefully on my face.
“You can call me Mila.” I bite my lip.
“I think the formality is a good idea between us.” He doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t have to ask what he means. It’s the first inclination I’ve gotten since he ordered me to my knees in his office, that he feels the same pull that I do.
I nod slowly, even though I find it hard to imagine calling him Mr. Campano in seriousness, rather than ironically, or with sarcasm. “Do you have it?” I ask quietly, and Lorenzo nods.
“Twenty percent,” he reiterates. “Which is a high share, I hope you realize. Of the profits, I’ll remind you, not the total sales. And I’ve already given you an advance. That will come out of your first batch of sales.”
“I understand.” My voice quivers a little, and I hope he doesn’t hear it, but I feel sure he must have. He doesn’t seem like a man who misses very much.
“This is how it works.” Lorenzo looks down at me, his bearing stiff and businesslike. “You will move this product as quickly as you are able—while being careful to avoid carelessness. If you’re caught, I will do what I can for you, but there are no guarantees. Once you have finished selling what I give you tonight, you’ll bring me the full amount, and I will pay out your cut of the profits. Don’t even think about cheating me,” he adds, his voice taking on a sharp, warning edge. “I know what these pills are worth, and I know what you should be bringing me when you’ve sold them all. If you’re short, there will be consequences.”
I feel something tight clench in my belly as he hands them over, an odd sort of resentment flooding through me. Alfio held almost all of the power over me during our arrangement, but there were moments when I could recognize that I had some too—the barest amount, the power that a woman has when a man wants her. The power that I feel up on stage, here at the club. It’s a fragile and delicate power, one that a man like Alfio can shred in an instant—but here, in this moment, I have no power at all.
Lorenzo has it all. What little bit I might have had, if we’d made the same arrangement I had before, isn’t present in this deal. And I realize as he looks down at me that I resent it.
I tuck the bag of pills into the pocket of my dress, feeling fear mix with it, coiling into a heavy lump in my belly. I look up at him, blinking flirtatiously, forcing a sweet smile onto my face. “You could come back inside,” I murmur, taking a step towards him. “Come back to one of the private rooms for a dance. If there’s anything else you need to tell me, you could do it there.”
“You’re telling me the owner doesn’t have those rooms bugged?” Lorenzo clicks his tongue disapprovingly. “Very naive of you, Miss Ilenya.”
But I can hear the way his voice thickens, darkens, just for a moment. His gaze stays fixed on mine, but I can see him remembering the way I looked in nothing but a pink bra and thong, leaning over him in the neon-glazed darkness of the club. I can see him trying to push away the idea of what it might be like to be alone with me, to have me in a room where I might let his hands wander.
He takes a step back. “As tempting as the idea is, I’ll have to decline, Miss Ilenya. I have somewhere to be.”
The formal stiffness in his voice makes it impossible to tell if he’s lying or telling the truth. It doesn’t matter either way—he turned me down, and I know that’s for the best.
Out of the two of us, he’s behaving more wisely, and my cheeks burn a little at the thought. I’ve never been someone to be foolish over a man. Now isn’t the time to start.
“Here.” Lorenzo reaches into his pocket and holds out something else. It takes me a moment to realize that it’s a pre-paid cell phone. “A burner. Call me on this, when you’re ready to bring me the money. Better not to have a record of our conversations that can be tracked.”
“Of course.” I take the phone from him, and my hand brushes his, ever so briefly. The heat that lances down my arm from the touch makes my stomach flutter, and I clench my teeth, frustrated with how easily he makes me react.
I’ve never known anyone who could make my heart beat faster and my skin heat with nothing but a touch. I feel that resentment again at the idea that it’s him, out of everyone in the world, it could have been. This man, who holds so much power over me now, who turned me down and offered me something more dangerous, no doubt sensing that I couldn’t refuse.
This man, who is the worst possible choice I could imagine for someone to want in my bed. Especially now.
Lorenzo nods. “Until we speak again, then.” He turns away without another word, leaving me standing there as he strides away.
And not a moment too soon, because he’s barely disappeared around the other side of the building when the door swings open, and Jewel spills out.
“Mila!” She says my name like she’s been looking for me. “Dick asked me where you were. He said he saw you do one dance and then disappear. I told you he was looking for someone to be pissed at tonight.”
“I’m going back in, don’t worry,” I tell her absently. I see the confused look on her face, and I wiggle the hand in my dress pocket, brushing my fingers against the bag of pills. “Jewel?—”
“What?” She puts a hand on her hip, closing the door behind her as she takes another look at the expression on my face. “You alright? You’ve been off all night, baby girl. What’s going on?”
I wonder if I should tell her or not. But I have to start moving these pills through the club, and I’ve never sold drugs before. I know for a fact Jewel sells weed out of her apartment, and I’ve wondered from time to time if she’s pushed harder stuff, too.
I have no idea how to even broach the topic. So, instead, I tug the corner of the bag out of my pocket, just enough to let her see a hint of the contents. Her eyes widen.
