Page 52 of Lie with Me
“All right, all right!” He puts his hands up in surrender and lifts onto his toes. What a little punk. “She’s a whore! She’s a whore! I paid to sleep with her!”
I freeze mid-twist.
“What?”
“The club,” he splutters. “It’s a front. They run this service. It’s like a monthly subscription. You pay a fee and can sleep with any of their girls you want, as much as you want.”
My blood turns ice cold. “How do you know which girls are which?”
“The wristbands. The girls with the red wristbands. There’s a new code word every night. Just whisper it to them, andthey’ll take you into the back. There are rooms.”
I’m shaking by this point with a vice grip on the guy’s cock.
“What’s the word?”
“I can’t. If you’re not a member! These guys are bad news!”
I squeeze, and the guy actually screams. Good thing it’s loud as fuck in the bathroom. The bass is literally vibrating the stall.
“You should have thought about that before you bought pussy. Now tell me!”
“Buttercup!” He gives it up.
I release the guy’s package, and he slumps onto the toilet, gasping. “Give me your wallet.”
He glares up at me. “Fuck off.”
“Oh, now you grow a pair?” I grab him by the throat and pull him to his feet. He’s not very tall or muscled, and sort of reminds me of a wet noodle, tight jeans and all. I snatch his wallet from his pocket and pull out his license.
“Insurance.” I throw the wallet back in his face. “Tell anyone about this conversation and I’ll kill you. Fucking slowly.”
“Like I have a death wish,” he spits at me.
I storm out of the bathroom and back into the club, looking for the doors to the back room the kid spoke of. That’s when I spot her, standing unassumingly by the bar with her back turned to me. Stealthy, I creep up behind her, uncontrollable anger boiling in my chest.
“Buttercup.”
“BUTTERCUP,”SOMEONE HISSES IN MYear. I actually sag. This is my third John tonight. I want to cry. I don’t turn around immediately, taking a moment to find the energy to put up another front. Being here is eating me alive. I want to run, but I have no choice. Nino’s threat keeps ringing in my ears. He reminded me again tonight. He’s keeping me on a short leash, and I hate it.
I finally turn around, fake smile and all as I come face to face with the one person I never expected to see.
Tears immediately well in my eyes.
“You don’t look happy to see me, shortcake,” he says just loud enough for me to hear. “What’s the going rate for a subscription call girl these days?”
His tone is as sharp as a blade that effortlessly slashes me wide open. I don’t respond because I have no words.
“Let’s go.” He grabs my arm tightly—so tightly it actually hurts. “Show me what all this back room hype is about.”
I nearly burst into tears. He pushes me, and I walk reluctantly to a hidden door in the back that is painted black, same as the wall. It’s virtually undetectable unless you know it’s there.
I push it open while CJ keeps a firm grip on my arm. We walk down a short corridor where there are more doors, each leading to a private room.
I find one that’s open, and we slip inside. The room isnothing spectacular. It’s small, with a mattress on the floor and a couch against the wall. The lighting is a shitty dull yellow that enhances nothing. The nicest thing I can say about it is it’s clean. Whore is definitely the name of the game. Guys pay to be with a girl they could never pull in real life. That’s the niche. A jacked-up fantasy fuck. That’s why my hair is over curled, my makeup is too heavy, and my skirt is too short. My worlds blur together at the irony. CJ wanted me to be his fantasy girl, and here I am, in the fucking flesh.
CJ backs me up against the wall with rage burning in his eyes. He doesn’t utter a sound, and I think the silence scares me more than anything. I would prefer him to yell. Confirming what a god-awful person I am. But he just breathes erratically, like a raging bull.
“I’m sorry,” I squeak out, not knowing what else to do or say.
