Six

MONICA.

“Someone’s looking rough,” is the first thing I hear when I walk into the girls’ longue.

Needless to say, it pulls me back down to earth. I look around to see which one of the girls said that, but only one of them is laughing. I roll my eyes. Of course it’s Elvira. No one else will hate me more than this woman does.

Actually, I don’t know her real name. In fact, we don’t really know each other at all. We got hired around the same time and that was enough for her to start a rivalry with me. Every time we get out there, it’s always a competition on who gets to earn more. It gets vicious too. I remember her almost smashing a glass on my feet because she was so mad I earned exactly a hundred dollars more.

Why’s it been like this? I don’t really know. I don’t think anyone here does. Elvira just hates my guts.

She’s ironing her long black hair now, staring at me through the mirror. The other girls are silent, backing away into the corners. They don’t exactly like her, but they’re all too scared to say anything in her presence. I don’t blame them.

“It was a long night last night,” I just say pleasantly, taking a seat next to her and doing my makeup. She might be catty towards me, but I think the only reason why she hasn’t crossed a line is because I never gave the same energy back. “How about you? I saw you last night and they loved you.”

To my surprise, she slams down the straightener and glares at me. “Don’t patronize me. You were the highest earner last night. Some idiot tipped you twenty grand, remember? What, you’re trying to flex on us or something?”

My mouth falls open. How did she come to that conclusion? Deciding it’s not worth it, I just focus on putting on my falsies.

But Elvira isn’t done with me. She gets up and shoves me, almost knocking the tweezer straight into my eye. The girls in the room gasp, and it takes all my willpower not to grab the straightener and smack her in the face with it.

We stare at each other. I can tell she’s daring me to do something. I know I look stupid just sitting here and saying nothing after what she just attempted.

Elvira sits back down and smirks as she continues to fix her hair. “Did you let him fuck you? Or did he make you eat your own shit to earn that money? I bet—”

“Stop it,” I whisper.

My voice is low, but even I’m surprised at the hint of danger in it. I can feel a strange cold energy coursing in my body, like a burst of strength that’s making me believe I can throw her across the room if I wanted to.

Tension floats into the air. Even Elvira heard the difference in my tone. The girls are staring at me with fear now, something that I was never really able to elicit from anyone.

And it makes me feel… abnormal.

With shaking hands, I gather my tools and get up. I’m about to head out to the bar and flirt with the clients when I see a familiar face in the crowd of men at the counter.

Manny.

I know that balding head like the back of my hand. His gold chain glinted from the bit of his hairy chest exposed by his tartan shirt. His beady black eyes find me immediately, and a smirk stretches across his face, showing his cigarette-stained teeth.

Manny isn’t a client in any type of way. He’s the guy I turned to two weeks before my mom’s death. I met him here at Original Sin. About half of the girls here owe him money. I happen to owe him six hundred thousand, interest included. I’ve been paying for two years and I still can’t chip it off into five digits.

I know why he’s here now.

“Monica Redding,” he mutters as I approach. “Beautiful as always.”

I don’t say anything, even though she called me by my legal name. Manny isn’t your typical loan shark. He doesn’t try to intimidate you, probably because he doesn’t need to. He runs a deep, dark business here in New York, and those who can’t pay him turn up dead with no connection to the killer whatsoever.

He always compliments me, but he never expresses interest in other ways. He never asked for any sexual favors. Sometimes I end up wishing that he just did.

“Any news?” he asks gently. “I heard that you made it rain here last night, but our account didn’t even feel a light drizzle, did it? Tell me what went wrong, Monica.”

I swallow hard, but I keep a smile on my face so I can still attract the men who are glancing over at me. “I haven’t deposited it yet. I haven’t had the time, but I will do it first thing in the—”

“You better make sure.” Manny grins at me. “I know you don’t want to leave me waiting. That’s never been you, right? You’re not the kind of girl who disappoints me.”

His tone is smooth, but his eyes are saying an entirely different thing. He’s mad. I’m supposed to pay him every morning after my shift here, but between what happened last night and how I reacted to it… I just forgot.

“It will never happen again,” I mumble. “It’s just this one time. I promise you.”

“You very well know that we don’t just forgive and forget. Tomorrow, I need thirty thousand dollars in our account. Got it?”

My heart drops right onto the floor, beating and folding into itself with dread. Thirty thousand. That’s everything I have right now, and that would mean I can’t pay rent or afford groceries for the rest of the week. The club is not exactly filled to the brim tonight, and I don’t think I can make even a thousand.

“I… I don’t have that much.” I swallow hard. “Please, Manny. I’ll give you twenty-five. I need some money to survive the week and I—”

“Listen here, you fucking bitch.”

Suddenly, Manny’s tone is harsh. His hand moves quick, grabbing my upper arm and yanking me towards him. My side collides against the side of the table, making me gasp in pain. With eyes welling up with tears, I look up at him, shaking my head to signal that he should stop. But he doesn’t. He just squeezes harder until I can feel my skin bruising.

“We have a fucking agreement,” he growls. “If you want to end up dead in a ditch, just say so. I will arrange that for you—”

“What’s happening here?”

A deep male voice comes floating seemingly out of nowhere. I catch a whiff of a familiar scent and my pulse just stops. Manny releases me, and I stumble right into the man behind me, the source of that voice.

The source of that familiar scent.

Somehow, I just knew it even before I turned around to look.

The man from the private room last night.

He’s back.

And he’s glowering at Manny like he’s ready to kill him.