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Without another thought we head toward my apartment building. Being that the drive is short, we arrive to my building within minutes.
“Want to come in for a drink before you head home?” I ask Summer.
“I better not. I should go home and check on my kid. Thanks, though.”
I smile. “Sure thing. Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem.”
She pulls out of the parking space once I make it to the door, I offer a wave and head up to my apartment. Inside, I reach for the cash that was left for me. Counting it out on my kitchen island, I stare blankly at the amount a stranger would leave. It’s ten grand. Who throws money around like that? I put the money back into a stack and make a mental note to make a bank deposit tomorrow.
“How was your shift?” Livia, my best friend, asks coming out of her room. She was putting diamond earrings in her ears. But she stops when she sees the money.
“It was busy, and someone left me a lot of money. My manager gave it to me at the end of the night.”
“How much?”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
Her eyes bug out of her head. “Must have been some dance you put on. Maybe I need to get a job there.”
I laugh. “Where are you off to?”
She smiles. “I’m meeting Lorenzo at his apartment.”
“Well, have a good evening. I’m heading to bed.”
She lifts her eyebrows. “Don’t wait up.”
“Goodnight.”
“See ya.”
Chapter Two
GENEVA
What a day, I mutter, exhausted as I head home from the county jail, where I work as a nurse. Every day on the job is different. Today, there was an all-out brawl between a group of guys. Of course, they had cuts and scrapes that needed tended to. And I am exhausted.
Luckily, I live in an apartment building right in the city, so the walk isn’t long, maybe a few blocks at best. It’s walkable on a good day. Sometimes, I regret walking because by the end of my shift I am done mentally and physically. Of course, I can hail a taxi or call an Uber, but I just don’t have the energy to do it.
The one thing I look forward to is having a nice long bath to relax in before I transform for my part-time gig at Heaven’s Door strip club. My nursing job didn’t pay shit, but it was a lucrative career to have, and working at Heaven’s Door, I was able to pay for nursing school. With the extra money I made there, it provided me with a nice two-bedroom apartment I share with my roommate, Livia. The apartment view overlooks the city that I moved into nearly two months ago.
Being the only child to two loving parents, I have grown to be super independent. If I needed something, I made it happen. Case in point, when I was putting myself through nursing school, along with stripping at Heaven’s Door, I would also take extra shifts as a cocktail waitress on days I wasn’t scheduled to strip. Both jobs paid very well. Eventually, I wanted to move permanently into cocktail waitressing, but right now, it wasn’t feasible. I needed the extra money stripping was giving me.
Granted, I know my mom and dad would gladly step in if I needed them financially. But I like earning things by working for what I want and need. My mom has always relied on my dad to provide for her and the family. And they are happy to do so. Maybe I get my work ethics from my dad because he was always working. It seemed like he was working twenty-four-seven. I know he has slowed down compared to his earlier years.
Just as I was about to walk into my building, I hear the screech of a black SUV while someone exits and grabs me, throwing me in the back.
“What the fuck?”
“Settle down before I tie your ass up,” I hear from a booming voice next to me.
I straighten myself up. “Who the fuck are you?”
“That is not important right now, love.”
Love. I am not his love. Looking to my right, I see a well-dressed man, blue-black hair, long enough that it needs to be styled and the darkest eyes I have ever seen. Are they the eyes of the devil? Yes, yes, they are, I tell myself.
