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Slouching back on my chair, I fold my arms over my chest and huff. “As thebossof this establishment, I don’t have time to clean. I need to… you know…work.”
Selene rubs her hands together to remove the dust and wanders around the room, looking at random things. “I thought you might have been my protégé in prison…” She stops and looks back at me. “Did you know that?”
“Yeah, I figured. Why else would you stick your neck out for me?”
“My husband, Trap, he’s been a part of the Bachelors for as long as I can remember. He was willing to talk to the boss and bring you into the fold…” Her nostrils flare with her heavy exhale. “Did you knowthat?”
I let out a scoff. “So I could work in the parlor as one of their topless waitresses, servicing the Bachelors when they need me… um, no thank you, Selene. I amfarmore useful at Defiance.”
Selene lets out a small laugh. “Oh, we know, now. But back then, when I took the fall foryou,you weren’t as capable as you arenow.”
Scrunching up my face, I sit taller, placing my fisted hands on my desk, and look her in the eyes. “What are you getting at? Because I can’t read between the lines here, Selene.”
She saunters up to my desk and sits casually on the edge, looking down at me, a sinister glint in her eyes. “I saved your ass. We were both about to be let out of that hellhole. You stabbed an inmate, injuring them, but I took the fall and got another three years added to my sentence.Three yearswhile you walked and got thisfaaancylife you’re living now, without even so much as an apology, let alone any visits from you. You. Fucking. Left. Me. There. To. Rot. And I took it for you and let you be because I thought you’d be out in the world floundering like you were in jail. ButnowI see you out here living your best life because of the personI made you… so no, this doesn’t sit right with me, Maxine. Where’smyjustice?”
My stomach rolls as I see the hateful venom in her eyes firing back at me, so I stand and walk around to her. “So what? You want money? You want compensation for your suffering?”
Selene lets out a belly laugh, throwing her head back dramatically as she stands, meeting me toe to toe. “No, Maxxy. I did three years for you. Now you’re going to give me back that time.”
I jerk my head back in confusion. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“You’re going to come and work for the Bachelors as my apprentice for three years, as my right-hand woman. It won’t be the horticulture and paperwork you do here, but honestly, it was only a matter of time before you upgraded to something a little harder,wasn’t it, honey?”
I snort out a laugh, shaking my head. “What in yourright mindmakes you think I am going to leave Defiance and come work for you for three years? That’s crazy, Selene.”
She leans closer, so close I can smell the alcohol on her breath. A crooked smile lighting her face so villainous it makes the Joker seem like a teddy bear. “Because I have the guard’s footage from the prison of you, and itclearlyshows you stabbing Alina in the fight and me taking the shiv from you.”
My mind begins to fog, my head swirling as my breathing becomes fast and frantic. “What? Then how the fuck didn’t I get charged, and they let you take the fall if there is video evidence of me? I call bullshit!”
Selene raises her brow and draws her cell out from inside her bra. She swipes the screen and pulls up some footage, showing it to me. My eyes widen as the footage takes me straight back to that day. The black and white image from the camera in the yard. I swallow a lump in my throat as the fight breaks out. I feel the color drain from my face as Alina rushes to me with the shiv in her hand. The entire fight plays out as if in slow motion.
It’s been years since I’ve relived this scene in my head.
But there it is in black and white, reminding me of the worst day of my life.
Alina drops on top of me, we wrestle, and I stab her in the chest. Selene blocks the guard’s view of the shiv as she reaches around, grabbing it from my hand, but this camera’s angle catches every move.
There’s no way the warden didn’t see this footage.
It just goes to show that the Bachelors have power in high places, and Selene took the fall for me that day out of the goodness of her heart.
Then I left her there.
Without ever looking back.
A cold sweat invades my body, and a chill runs down my spine as the color drains from my face.
Selene chuckles, bringing her palm to my cheek and caressing it. “There she is… the scared little ladybug I know and love. Honey, the Baton Rouge Bachelors have people everywhere in the system. Judges, police officers, wardens. The list goes on. As the wife of a Bachelor, I had pull in that place. Why do you think we always got extra rations? You had an easy ride in there when you were put in a cell with me, Maxxy. I took care of you…now… you have to pay your dues.”
All the oxygen is sucked from my lungs as I drop my ass to the desk, exhaling heavily. “You’re blackmailing me?”
Selene shrugs. “I see it as placing a bet on a sure thing. You don’t want to go back to that hellhole and to make sure that won’t happen, you’ll do anything. The price for ensuring you don’t go back inside is coming to work for me.”
“My life is here, Selene. The people I love… my home—”
“Then you have a choice to make, my love. Because honestly, if you choose to stay here and be withthem,they’ll be visiting you from behind a Plexiglass wall anyway. So…” She shrugs matter-of-factly as I glare at her.
“Let me ask you this… why would you want me working for you when it would be reluctantly?”
