“You know ballet. Not dance. I need a dancer.” His tone is final, not up for further debate.
“F-for what?” I’m almost too afraid of what he’ll say, but I have to know.
I need to.
He looks up at me then. “Private affairs.”
My heart stops as I feel myself sway from his words. I lock my knees to keep from toppling over.
My mouth falls open, ready to say what I said last night. I won’t sleep with someone for money. I can’t. I don’t think I can handle it. I’m weak in many ways, strong in others. I know this about myself. And that… that would break me. More than I already am.
He shakes his head and looks back at his phone. “Not for that. I need someone to dance when I have private meetings. To tease and distract while I talk.”
Pocketing his phone, he grabs his cup with both hands and brings it to his lips, speaking once more before drinking.
“To strip.”
A distraction. To use my body, but only to be seen and not touched. To be part of some game that I won’t understand.
I shake my head in confusion. “But I… I don’t know how.”
He nods. “I know. You made that clear on day one.”
I should feel offended. Appalled. And a bit of me is. But another part is happy that I don’t look like a stripper. Don’t act like one. Because I’m not. I’m a ballerina. That was the goal. The dream since I can remember dreaming. It was torn from me, but it’s still a dream I wish for. One I hope is the reality, and the rest of this is just a nightmare I haven’t woken up from yet.
“Why not use someone else?” Like Trixie.
I don’t know why I don’t say her name. The part of me that finds joy in him looking over my nearly naked body clamps my mouth shut at the thought of the other woman. She would know how to seduce. To use her body in a way to get something that Tommy wants from whoever or whatever he needs.
He tilts his head, not looking down at my body but at me. Into my eyes. Reading me. I swear he can see and hear my thoughts. Feel my heart beating frantically from the way he looks inside me.
“They might know how to dance, but there would be no way for me to guarantee they won’t use what they learn to their advantage. I need someone in the room with me. To listen, hear, but not speak about it unless it’s with me. To notice things I might not see. I’ll be watching them, and Ineedto be watching them. I cannot get distracted and watch the girl as well. That’s why it will be you.”
I flinch at the fact that I’m not even something for him to be distracted by. A fly on the wall might be more appealing. It hurts more than it should.
“Because unlike the rest,” he continues, “I own you. Everything you are is now because of me. And you alreadyknow not to disobey me. To go against me. You might think you have nothing left to lose, but we both know that’s not true. Unlike them, you’re desperate enough to not fight me on this.”
He’s right. Iamdesperate.
I stayed up almost all night looking for a way out of this.
The same thing I did almost every night before someone told me about the Kings. Then I was foolish enough to think things would work. The small breathing room they gave me was just enough to make me think I could go back to the dream of a ballerina life. Till it was ripped out of my grasp before I could cling to it once more.
Starting at the club gave me something back. Not enough to feel good, but enough to breathe just barely above sea level. Till that was also taken from me with the attack.
And now this.
Tommy.
I know very little about him. The Leone family is a whisper in the wind. A name spoken in dark corners along with other words.
Dangerous.
Deadly.
Mobster.
Between him and the Kings, I don’t know who to fear more. But I do know that getting involved with him is worse than being involved with the Kings.
