Page 69 of Savior

What the fuck is he doing here?

Sure, I knew he’d find me. In the back of my head, I knew. But never in my wildest imaginings did he show up in the middle of a set with his clerical collar on.

He’s seen me naked. That’s not the issue. It’s the fact he came.

I’m staring at myself in the mirror backstage, trying to decide what to do.

“Did you see the man in the front? Jerry said that’s Ardesia Ricci!” Cherry says to Pearl.

Pearl whistles. “No. I was looking at the silver fox he brought with him. Cherry, do you know who he is?”

Cherry shakes her head as I listen to them banter back and forth.

“You think he’s a real priest?” Pearl asks, voice dropping lower as if Luca can hear through walls.

“I don’t know, but if he is, what a fucking gem, right? Any girl in this club would love to defile him until lightning struck them down. I know I would ride him until Lucifer himself dragged me to hell.”

Pearl laughs, and anger rises in my chest as my fists ball on the table beneath them.

“What’s gotten into her?” Pearl asks Cherry if I’m not standing in the same room.

Cherry rolls her eyes and turns around on the bench as she straps her heels. “Some bitches can’t take a joke. She’s one of them.”

It’s not the first time she’s pointed out my serious nature, but I’ve had to keep my wits about me my entire life. The one time I let them drop, I got kidnapped.

The girls move back out into the club as my new phone rings. It had taken me all day to get my phone and get the bank dealt with. Gio told me to take a few days to myself, but dancing clears my head, and my head is a muddled fucking mess.

Myra’s number pops up. It’s a number I’d know in a pinch. One I could recite to the cops if I was arrested and had only one phone number to dial.

“Hello,” I answer.

I called her earlier, but she screened the call and didn’t answer. I thought she’d have called sooner, but Myra has always done things on her terms.

“Girl, I just got time to check your message! Are you okay? I’ve been worried sick since you went missing.” Something that churns in my gut says otherwise, and I don’t know why.

But I’ve honed my skills at listening to my gut my entire life.

“I’m fine. Back at work now.”

“How the hell did you get away? I assume someone took you, right? Who had you?”

Something about the question throws me off-kilter, and I want nothing more than to hang up on her. “I was, but I got free. I don’t want to talk about it. I just…” I sigh, looking over my body in the mirror. A hundred-dollar bill sticks out of my panties thatI’d missed, and I snatch it out and toss it onto the table with the rest.

Ardesia’s wife had paid me a small fortune tonight. Not that I’m not thankful.

“Alright. Well, I’m just glad you’re safe. You at work?”

“Yeah, Gio, let me come back, thank God.”

The mention of God sends a shiver down my spine, and I shake it away.

“You were busy today when I called?” I ask her.

She sighed in exasperation, and everything to her was about the drama. “Yeah. I started the new job at the record label, and I had so much to learn and work to catch up on that the previous girl wasn’t doing.”

Myra and I were unlikely friends. Her father hit it big as a songwriter, and she moved out of the slums, leaving me behind.

But we always stayed close.

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