Page 82 of Shattered Veil

“What?” he returned with the slightest of smiles. “Didn’t seem like y’all were gonna say it. Big guy needs to know.”

Liam’s mop of blonde hair cocked to the side, and he incredulously laughed out, “No-no…Cas, um…” He hesitated as he looked to his sister, saw that she had the face of someone who was bracing for an upcoming impact, and deflated as he groaned, “Are you fucking kidding me, Cassandra?”

Chapter 16

“Imake a lot of money!”

“Made a lot of money,” I corrected Cassie quietly. “You said you wouldn’t even give two weeks if you were quitting.”

Cassie quickly held an index finger so close to my face that she almost struck me with it.

As I flinched backward, she snapped at me, “Not now.”

“You make a lot of money by taking your clothes off,” Liam whined.

“It’s just a body, Liam!” she exclaimed. “Who gives a shit?!”

“Just a body? Cas—”

“Stop!” Zoey exclaimed. “Cassie, no one gives a shit if you strip.”

Liam chastised, “Zoey!” at the same time as Cassie began to say:

“Thank you, Zo—”

“But ya kept it a secret even when you heard through the goddamn grapevine that dancers are going missing, and now you’re giving your brother a fucking. Aneurysm,” she trilled. “You two need to can it for now. There’s a lot going on.”

Liam sank low into his chair, arms crossed over his chest while he chewed on the inside of his cheeks, and Cassie mimicked him.

I muttered down to Cassie, “That went well.”

Her dark eyes rapidly shifted up to me, holding the smallest of smiles, but her lips remained irritatingly puckered as Zoey admonished me with:

“Don’t get me started with you. Enabler.”

I retorted, “What was I supposed to do? Out her? I was sworn to secrecy.”

Liam’s face contorted as if he had just now realized that I had, in fact, seen his sister working. I found myself making the same expression while I shifted my line of sight to anywhere but him.

“So…” Colton spoke slowly, and Cassie rolled her head to view him as he noted, “That was fun. Delaney?”

Cassie sighed. “Yeah. Knew her when I first started working there. She stopped coming in…I dunno, two months back? Maybe?”

He gave her a mournful frown. “Sorry.”

She shrugged. “’S’okay. Thanks.”

“Did you two talk much?”

“No.” Cassie shook her head. “But, um…there were other dancers that stopped coming in, too.”

I heard Claire groan, “Oh, God,” but I kept my eyes on Colton as I watched his brows flicker up and then lower back down.

“Figured. Do you have their names?”

Cassie’s head bobbed backward. “All of them?”

“Um…yeah. All of them,” Colton replied, matter of fact.

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