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My clutch was making an indent on my belly, the clasp automatically shut as soon as I grappled it against my stomach and scuttled out of there. As I straightened, I clicked it open and yell-whispered, “Cassie.Cassie, Cassie, Cassie!”
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said to Rebecca. “Thank you. For helping me out of there.”
“Of course. That man…” Her eyes slid to the side and down. “He’s not very nice.”
“You know him? The one who just walked in?”
“Yes,” was all she would say. “He’s one of Drea’s regulars, but she quit abruptly and now I’m pulling shifts every night.”
I raked down her body, as if I could x-ray through her clothes and detect any bruises. Something chewed on my brain. I asked, almost off the cuff, “You know someone named Drea?”
Her gazepingedonto mine. “I thought you were saying the name Cassie.”
“Yes, but now I’m thinking of Drea. You know her.”
“I—no. I do not.”
She turned, and I clasped her elbow. “Rebecca, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not,” she said, avoiding my eyes again. “I’m afraid ofhim.”
“Did Drea work here? Was this a side job of hers?”
“I can’t be gone for too long. They’ll notice.” She started to walk away.
“I used to be one of you. The exact same. A cocktail waitress at these underground houses,” I blurted to her back.
She stilled.
“I know what it’s like,” I continued. “I was even stupid enough to fall in love with one of them. Is that what Drea did? Did she fall in love with Trace?”
“I’ve told you—I don’t know who that is.”
“Youdo,Rebecca. I can spot a tell a mile away. And you know how I learned it? By being a server to these men who think that a hot chick in a sexy costume just for them is too stupid to notice how poker is played. Or who’s behind the cards.”
Her shoulders slumped. She spun on her heel to face me. “She wasn’t here very long.”
“But Drea worked here.” My mind flicked through memories as I attempted to find the right one. “Was there ever a man here named Mel, or Melrose, who played as a horse for someone else?”
Rebecca’s brows furrowed. “I really can’t stay here and discuss this with you. I’m the only one on the floor—”
“Tell me one more thing. Please.” As soon as I saw the hesitation in the flicker of her lashes, I barreled on, “Was Drea hooking up with Trace?”
She sighed, licked her lips, then said, “Yes.”
Trace was a regular here.
This was a trap.
“Now please, I have to leave,” she said, and this time, when she trotted away, I was too frozen to stop her.
Drea was a liar. Those bruises—her cuts and swells, the tremble of her lip—were all real. Trace did beat her, but was it with her permission? Did she love him so hard and fast she was willing to be crushed near-to-death in order to please him? No. I couldn’t envision any woman who would submit to that. She loved him, yes, but his cruelty wouldn’t have come through while she was falling. It was only when he heard his brother was looking for him that he’d switch to that beast inside him, both crafting a plan and submitting to his yearnings at the same time. Drea was a pawn—she had to be. There was no way that girl looked me in the eye, her cheekbones cracked, her brain barely back to its regular size, and deliberately led us here as lambs.
Theo.
I snapped out of it, fumbling for my phone. When I found it, I pressed it to my ear. There was no connection. Theo would have hung up as soon as I yelled out the danger-word. I tried to unlock it with my fingerprint, but either I was too sweaty or trembly or all of the above, because it wasn’t working.
