Page 36 of Cruel Promise


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She nods and quickly looks away, back at the brightly lit makeup mirror, and continues applying her eyeliner. “Yeah. I figured as much,” she says in response to my silence.

“Why are you here? Are you being held against your will?” I ask.

She glances over at me, her brows furrowed like my question confuses her. “Aren’t we all here against our will, on some level?”

She has a point.

Taking a magazine, she fans it over her face, presumably to dry the mascara she’s applied. She moves to the seat next to mine at the long table covered with all sorts of makeup, wigs, cheap costume jewelry, and other trappings of this strange profession that’s been chosen for me.

“Look, Charleigh, is it?” she asks.

I nod.

“I can walk out of here any time I want. But I don’t. I don’t because I can’t, when it comes down to it. I need to earn a living to support myself and my kid. There’s no baby daddy in the picture. You know that old story, told from the beginning of freaking time. And I earn more here than I would anywhere else. So yeah, I’m stuck. I can leave, but I can’t leave, if you know what I mean. You could probably leave too, if you want. It might not be recommended. I mean, I don’t know a damn thing about you. But if this place is that bad for you, just bail.”

Her eyes are wide, sincere in a way that shocks me, it’s so unexpected. How does someone so open and honest end up in this world? And remain in it?

I feel a lump growing in my throat, and I swallow it down, hard. My voice cracks anyway. “Fact is, Stacey, Ican’tleave. I mean, I guess I could, but some very bad things will happen.”

As time has passed, I’m less concerned about my father. My younger sister Evie, on the other hand, is never far from my thoughts in spite of the teenage rebellion that has her acting like she’s possessed by the devil.

“Oh. Right,” Stacey says, looking back in the mirror to avoid my gaze. She knows something.

“What?”I ask. I need her to tell me everything she knows. If I can get her to.

She clasps her hands in her lap and looks down at them. “Well, if you can’t leave, like there’s just no way, that means… that means they have special plans for you.”

It feels like someone is punching me in the gut. But I inch closer to her so she senses my desperation, and I lower my voice. “Special plans? What arespecial plans? Are they going to… make me a stripper or something?”

Stacey giggles. “Oh no. There’s nothing special aboutthat. Just look at me. I strip here five, six days a week. That’s just a regular gig for this club. They have other… placements—”

She gasps as the dressing room door violently bangs open, and Dominika charges in, her bosom pushed up so high, the tops of her breasts jiggle as she storms toward us.

Stacey jumps to her feet.

“And what are you two ladies whispering about?” Dominika demands, propping her butt on the table right next to me.

All I can focus on is her overpowering perfume. It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t overdo it, but this isn’t the kind of woman who embraces subtlety.

“Nothing, Dominika,” Stacey says in a shaky voice. “We’re just… chatting. You know.”

I nod. “Stacey was showing me how she does her… makeup. I was thinking I ought to get good at it.”

Dominika looks between the two of us and rolls her eyes. “Good. We can’t have you going around like such a plain Jane all the time, can we?” Her head drops back and she cackles with her mouth open, revealing the gaps where she’s missing teeth.

She glances at her watch and glares at Stacey. “You were supposed to be on three minutes ago. Stop flapping your gums and get to work,” she snaps.

Stacey high-tails it out of the room and Dominika turns her attention to me. I shudder to think what she wants.

“You,” she starts, “come with me. It’s time for your exam.”

* * *

CHAPTERTHIRTY

Charleigh

Oh my god. Is this really happening? I hoped she was just cruelly joking.

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