Page 18 of Plunge into Obsession

Then we came to work at Decadence, Gabriel’s strip club, and met three of the four girls who were living in the house now. One had been living with an abusive boyfriend, one was homeless, and the other was living in her car.

We offered them the house I had been living in, and I moved in with Kaia. We sometimes helped them out with the little things.

That house was like a safe haven for them, and we found Cami a few months after that, sifting through the trash can for food near the strip club.

We got her a job as a busser, and she had been living with the girls ever since.

She looked better than she had, and I—

I shook my head.

Cami liked to think she was a badass who could tell the good from the bad in the world, but she was young and impressionable, and I had no doubt Corey could convince her to dance.

I didn’t think there was anything wrong with working as a stripper for a living, but I also didn’t think it was the kind of decision that should be made when Cami had just barely graduated from high school.

“Bianca, are you listening to me?”

I blinked. “Do you think we can talk to Cami before Corey can get his claws into her?”

Even as I asked the question, I could hear how naïve it sounded. Kaia heard it, too.

We weren’t anything to Cami besides friends.

Would she even listen to us? And what if Corey threatened her job like he did mine? Would she panic and agree just to have the security of it?

I didn’t know.

And even if we could talk Cami out of agreeing, there was no way to ensure he wouldn’t target the other girls.

He would make good on his threat and fire me, and I wouldn’t be able to protect them from him then.

Just like I couldn’t protect Luc—

I shook my head.

It wouldn’t be good to think about Lucinda now.

It took me a moment to realize Kaia was talking, and had been for a while now. I caught the tail end of her conversation. “… tell her it’s something she really needs to think about—are you even listening to me?”

I grimaced. “Sorry.”

She took a deep breath and sat beside me on the couch. “What are you going to do?”

“I think… I think I’m going to do it.”

“Bianca—”

I shook my head. “It would be temporary. Until Corey finds new dancers.”

“And you think it’s going to stop there?”

No, I really didn’t.

“We’ll figure that out when we get to it,” I said.

She looked like she wanted to say more, but I shook my head and wrapped my arm around her. “It’ll be okay. It’s just for one night.”

“But Saturday is our busiest night of the week. The bastard couldn’t even start you off easy.”

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