Chapter 7: Roses from the Shadows

Juliet walked out of the lecture hall with the note still crumpled tight in her fist.

Stay away from Knight or everyone learns who Luna really is.

She shoved the paper deep into her bag and kept moving. The hallway was packed with students laughing and talking, brushing past her like nothing in the world was wrong. She kept her face blank, counted her steps and breathed.

Her phone buzzed and when she checked, it was a message from her best friend, Mia.

Mia: We need to talk. For real. After class?

Juliet stared at the screen for a second, then typed back fast.

Juliet: I can't tonight, I'm sorry I have to work. Probably tomorrow?

Mia: This can't wait forever, Jules.

She put the phone away without answering. Mia would have to wait. Everything would have to wait. Right now the only thing she could think about was the note and whoever had left it, and what they knew, and how much time she had before her whole life came apart.

The rest of her classes were a blur. She sat in the back rows and stared at the front of the room without seeing any of it. Adrian's voice kept playing in her head from the debate earlier. The way he looked at her when he talked about crossing lines. Like he already knew exactly where hers were.

Marcus had already texted her twice about tonight and about the VIP booth and double pay. She needed the money because her mother's hospital bill didn't care about her feelings.

She typed back before she could talk herself out of it. "Fine. I'll be there."

She regretted it the second she hit send.

Backstage at Midnight Eclipse smelled like perfume and cigarette smoke and something sweet underneath it all, like burned sugar. Girls moved around each other in the small space, laughing loud over the bass thumping through the walls. Juliet changed into her silver corset in the corner without talking to anyone.

Lila appeared beside her, a tall redhead with sharp eyes and a mouth that never stopped moving. She pressed a lipstick to her lips and watched Juliet in the mirror.

"You heard about the VIP tonight?" Lila said.

"Marcus mentioned it," Juliet said.

"Black suit, and gold watch. He's been here again three times asking for you specifically." Lila clicked her lipstick shut. "He told Marcus he can take care of you and big money, he said."

"I don't want his money."

Lila laughed, short and dry. "We all say that. Then the bills get bad enough." She looked at Juliet in the mirror, and her voice dropped a little. "Just be careful with this one. He doesn't hear things he doesn't want to hear."

Juliet zipped the corset and stood up straight. "I'll be fine."

Marcus pushed the door open without knocking, the same way he always did. He pointed at Juliet without looking at her properly.

"Luna. VIP is already in the booth. It's the same guy in the black suit, and gold watch. He wants you after your set and don't make it complicated tonight."

"I told you I don't do private dances," Juliet said. "I've told you that a hundred times."

Marcus rubbed the back of his neck. "He dropped a thousand dollars just to sit in that booth. He says if you say no again he's going to the owner. You want to lose your spot?"

"I dance on stage," she said. "That's what I do. Tell him that's all he's getting."

"He won't hear it from me." Marcus looked at her the way people look at a problem they don't want to solve. "Just go out there, do your set, and smile. We'll figure the rest after."

He left before she could say another word.

Juliet stood there for a second with her hands still. Then she turned back to the mirror and fixed her hair. Her fingers were steady. That surprised her.

When the announcer called her name, the crowd was already loud. She stepped into the lights, pink and purple washing over her skin, and felt the stage take over. It always happened that way. The noise and the heat and the beat pressing into her chest, and then something inside her just shifted.

She wrapped her hands around the pole and started moving slowly at first and then harder. Her body found the music the way it always did, like a language she didn't have to think about. She dropped low, spine arching, hips rolling. The crowd got louder and she barely heard them.

Adrian's voice filled the space behind her eyes instead.

The moment you choose it, you accept the consequences.

She gripped the pole tighter and spun. The heat in her belly wasn't from the lights. She pressed close to the metal and let herself imagine different hands and steady ones with dark eyes watching from somewhere in the dark and a low voice saying her name, not Luna, her real name, like it meant something.

The song ended and applause hit her like a wave.

She walked offstage and the fantasy dissolved. Just sweat and noise and Marcus waiting with his arms crossed.

"Good set. Now go to the booth."

"No," she said. She kept walking.

He followed her. "Juliet."

She stopped. He never used her real name and she turned around slowly.

"He's serious," Marcus said, quieter now. "I need you to handle this one."

"You need to handle it," she said. "That's your job."

She turned back and walked toward the dressing room.

He didn't follow.

The VIP was already there when she pushed through the curtain.

The Black suit and Gold watch man. The smile he wore was the kind that had never once taken no for an answer.

"Luna, baby." He said it like they were old friends. "You can't keep running from me."

Juliet crossed her arms. "I've told you and I've told Marcus. I don't do private dances. Find someone else."

He took a step closer and not threatening exactly but just certain. "Everything has a price. Tell me yours. Ten thousand? Twenty? I can make things disappear for you. Bills, problems, all of it. Thirty minutes is all I'm asking."

"I said no."

His smile didn't move. "I paid a lot of money to be here. I don't think you understand what kind of man you're talking to."

"I understand exactly," she said. "The answer is still no."

Something moved behind his eyes and the smile stayed but turned into something colder underneath. "You're making a mistake. I don't forget when people embarrass me. Especially not girls who shake their ass for fifty dollar bills."

Lila appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Juliet's arm. "She said no. Step back."

The VIP looked at both of them and his jaw tightened once. Then he straightened his jacket.

"This isn't finished," he said. His voice was perfectly calm and that was the scariest part. "I always get what I want. One way or another."

He walked back through the curtain. Marcus went after him, talking fast and low.

Juliet let the breath out of her body slowly. Lila handed her a bottle of water.

"You okay?" Lila said.

"Yeah." Juliet took a long drink. "Thank you."

"Anytime." Lila sat beside her. "You stood your ground. That's not nothing."

Juliet nodded. But she didn't feel proud. She felt tired in a way that sleep wouldn't fix. The note in her bag. The VIP's parting words. Mia's unanswered texts. Everything pressing from every direction at once.

She stood up to change out of her costume and that's when she saw them.

On the small table beside her bag, a dozen red roses. Deep red, almost black at the edges. The kind that cost more than a stage tip ever would. She hadn't heard anyone come in and she hadn't seen anyone leave them. They were just there, sitting perfect and still against the noise and chaos of the room.

Her hand moved on its own and picked up the small white card tucked between the stems. She opened it and it read;

You were made for sin, Luna. Can't stop thinking about you. A

She read it twice, then three times.

That A. Bold. Slanted. The same sharp angle she had seen on the first day of class when he handed her essay back with his name written at the bottom of a comment.

The exact same handwriting.

Her heart hit her ribs so hard she had to press her hand flat against her chest to breathe.

Adrian Knight knew who Luna was or someone wanted her to think he did. And she had no way to know which one was worse.