I let out a sigh of relief that I am no longer alone with her when I pull my phone out of my back pocket. I frown when I notice I had a text from Blane earlier this evening. Opening it up, I bite my inner cheek when I read it.

Blane: I know what you did. I went and spoke to Mr. Binsen today. He wouldn’t come straight out with it, but he didn’t have to. I figured it out.

Fuck!

TAYLOR

I walk into the house and toss my purse on the couch then I plop down beside it. Why do I care that Case almost fired me tonight? Why does it bother me that Rachel obviously hates me? Does she hate everyone? She just seems like the chick who doesn’t care for anyone but herself. Well, maybe Case. Do they have a thing? Did they once have a past? I sigh.

How in the hell am I supposed to give the club a confident woman? I’ve never really been anyone who was insecure. Maybe it’s the fact I don’t know what in the hell I’m doing. Or that I don’t fit in there.

“How was work?” I look up to see Savannah coming down the hallway, wrapping a sash to her robe around her waist. Her green eyes are heavy, but a small smile plays on her face. No doubt, she’s been waiting up for me to see how my first night went. I’m thankful she allowed me to borrow her car.

“I almost got fired,” I inform her.

“What?” She sits down beside me. “What happened?”

I fill her in on how I spilled all those drinks and how I couldn’t get anything right. “It will just take some time,” she says softly. “It’s new to you. You’ve never been one to go to clubs anyway.” She shrugs.

“He said I wasn’t confident enough.”

She tilts her head to the side as if she’s thinking that over. “I can see that,” she finally says.

My mouth drops open, and I shove her jokingly. She just falls back on the couch and laughs. “You have to have an image in a place like that.”

“And what kind of image is that?” I ask dryly. “As if I’m baked on coke?”

She laughs. “Being baked means your high on weed,” she informs me, and I just wave her off. She looks me up and down and then gets a big smile on her face. “When do you work next?”

“Tomorrow night. Well, it’s past midnight, so technically tonight.” Maybe I won’t go. I could call in sick.

She stands from the couch and starts to walk back down the hallway. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to leave,” she hollers over her shoulder.

“Where are we going?” I ask before looking down at my phone. “It’s past three in the morning.”

“Walmart is open twenty-four-seven.”

I lie back on the couch and let out a puff of air. So much for taking a shower to wash all the alcohol off and then passing out. “At least let me change,” I say before I get up and head to my room.

***

I sit on the side of the bathtub in my bathroom. I have a Red Bull in one hand and a cherry sucker in the other. “How much longer?” I ask awfully cheerful for it being five in the morning.

Savannah looks down at her cell phone. “Five minutes,” she says happily then tips her Monster back and chugs what she has left.

“I don’t understand why this couldn’t have waited until after I slept,” I mumble with my sucker in the side of my cheek.

She rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to be at work until ten tonight. As soon as we are finished, you can pass out and sleep all day.”

“I don’t even know why I let you talk me into this. I’m gonna get fired tonight anyway.” I’m not gonna know anything different tonight than I did last night. Rachel really wasn’t much of a teacher. I just know Case is gonna fire me after my shift. I’m preparing myself for the worst.

“No, you’re not.” She looks down at her phone again. “He said you needed confidence. This will give you confidence.” She looks at the shower cap that covers my hair. I blame it on the lack of sleep and the horrible night that I had. But I let her drag me to Walmart and talk me into buying a box of blue hair color. As soon as we got home, she dragged me to the bathroom, sat my ass on the toilet, and dyed sections of my hair blue. And honestly, I’m not really that worried what it will look like. I’ve highlighted my hair before, and I’ve darkened it, but I have never, ever dyed it any other color. I’m kinda excited.

Savannah told me that the blue would show up under the lights of the club and that the men would see me coming. She said my brown hair made me invisible. I had no choice but to believe her since every person there last night ran into me as if I wasn’t there.

“It’s time,” she says excitedly as she jumps up from the toilet. This is what she does—hair. This is what she is good at, and she loves it.

I set my Red Bull down on the tub beside me and place my sucker on the countertop before I kneel beside the tub. She turns on the water and removes the shower cap before rinsing my hair. I close my eyes and enjoy the warm water. I could almost fall asleep like this with the soothing warm water running down the side of my face and neck, along with her massaging my scalp. This was a good idea after all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

CASE

I shove the glass door open to my shower as I hear my phone ring. I take a deep breath as I see Blane light up my screen. “Let me explain,” I say to Blane in answer.

“I understand why we are lying to her, but why in the hell are you lying to me?” he demands.

I reach over and grab the towel I had set out. “I’m not lying to you.” I knot it around my hips. “I just chose not to inform you of the truth. Big difference,” I say as I bare my teeth in my bathroom mirror to check them.

He snorts. “You should have told me that you threatened Mr. Binsen and made him fire her.”

I sigh. “I haven’t even had the chance to talk to you about it,” I say truthfully. I reach over, grab the washcloth that sits on my countertop, and run it through my hair a few times.

“Well, you have the chance now. So explain,” he orders.

I do owe him that much. I can’t tell Taylor the truth, but I can let him in on one of my secrets. “I went and saw her up at the coffee shop the day after you told me your house had been broken into. I figured since I was going to be around, she and I needed to be on good terms. Especially since she thought I was the one who did it. I offered her a job, and she turned me down. She said I was just some drug dealer. I mentioned someone using drugs who worked at her coffee shop. She thought I was referring to another woman who worked there when really it was her boss. Then the next day, she called me when her car broke down. I saw an opportunity and took it. As soon as I hung up with her, I called her boss. I threatened to expose him and told him to fire her. He likes to have a hit every now and then.” I shrug to myself. “I needed to get her into Seven Deadly Sins, and that was my in,” I say simply.

He sighs heavily. “Do you always bend people's will to get what you want?”

“Pretty much,” I say matter-of-factly.

He’s quiet for a long time before he finally speaks again. “I wish you would have told me. I don’t like her working in your club. I just see it ending badly for her.” He’s worried about the wrong thing here. The club can’t hurt her. I’m the one who can hurt her. I’m the one filling her with lies and making up this fake life for her in order to keep her close to me. What will happen when she finds out the truth? ‘Cause the truth will come out and I’m gonna have to face her when it does.

“I told you that you have nothing to worry about,” I say trying to sound carefree. But in all honestly, we both have a lot to worry about.

He chuckles. “So you say. But so far, you haven’t proven that to me. All I do is worry about her.”

She’s so lucky to have someone like Blane. Someone who is always there for her. But sometimes even that isn’t enough. “And the less you know, the better,” I add. “Do you really wanna have to admit to her that you knew about everything I did when the shit hits the fan?”