Guilty in Sin City (Sin City #1)

Prologue The City That Never Sleeps - Avery

“Why Vegas?” the bartender asked as he shook up my espresso martini.

No one could seem to understand why I’d trade the perfect weather and life near the beach in Southern California, for the scorching heat and nightlife in Las Vegas.

He had no idea yet, but I was about to become his newest regular.

As of this exact moment, what I had pictured for my life when I moved here a few months ago, and what I knew of my life now, both were vastly different.

What was supposed to be a lavish lifestyle and fresh start with my boyfriend—well, technically, ex-boyfriend—in Las Vegas, quickly turned into bumming it in a RV park in my fully decked out VW van next to Connie and Earl who hot boxed their old Winnebago every night.

So, when a bar offers five-dollar-you-call-its, there was no way I could deny myself a few drinks and the desperately needed buzz.

I took a sip of the coffee flavored drink before answering, “The lights. The ability to feel alive. People from all around the world come here. Who needs to travel around the globe when every corner of it comes to you?” The bartender looked me dead in the eye as if he could see right through each and every one of my twisted lies.

“Touché.” He nodded, now polishing a set of wine glasses.

While all of it was true, it wasn’t the exact reason that pulled me here. What was supposed to be a new adventure moving a state away, turned into a life I couldn’t wait to be freed from.

With every day that passed, and no clue how to get out of this mess, the shackles only became tighter.

“It’s the city that never sleeps.” The rich warmth of the coffee and vodka flavors hit my tongue. The bartender may be intuitive, but hopefully with the help from my drink, I’d come off the slightest bit truthful.

“Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure that title belongs to New York City.” He flung the rag he was using just moments ago over his shoulder, placing both hands along the edge of the bar.

“Well, they’ve never walked a day in my shoes in this city.” Hence, the espresso martini.

I was fucking exhausted from spending most nights tossing and turning on my shitty mattress, trying my best to figure out how the fuck I got here in the first place.

“Relatable. I’m going on hour ten, and I’ll probably get off work and meet up with friends for a drink. Who needs sleep when you live in a city buzzing as much as this one does?”

Ten hours.

My mind traveled to the second job I didn’t yet have but desperately needed.

Currently, I worked as a pool girl. Sure, the money was good.

Good enough to live. But it wouldn’t be good enough to live and pay for the mess I’d somehow found myself in.

Between school loans, credit card debt, and …

life, bills were piling up, and I didn’t have nearly enough money to keep my head above water.

In Vegas, there were many types of people with one major thing in common. Money.

You either had it, or you were desperate for it.

If I was going to cut it in Las Vegas, I couldn’t stay on the side of the scale that was desperate for it.

The Strip was full of people willing to spend money on anything, even more so if they were influenced by a drink or two.

A huge population of locals who lived here made up the percentage of service workers.

We lived here to have job security that was fueled by the influx of tourists.

It didn’t matter what day of the week it was—there would always be someone here either passing through or celebrating something, willing to hand out the cash in their wallets.

Whether you were a show girl dressed to the nines in full makeup and feathers, offering to take pictures with sightseers passing by, a flashy bartender, a street performer drawing art or selling your craft, or maybe a pool cocktail waitress like me, we were all here for the same reason—to make a fuck ton of money.

“What’s your name, babe?” the bartender asked, jolting me from my thoughts.

“Oh, um, Avery,” I answered, clearing my throat.

“You say that like it’s a question. Are you trying to throw me off by telling me a false name because you think I’m hitting on you? If that’s the reason, no need to worry. While your legs are a solid twelve out of ten in those heels, I’m about as gay as they come, honey.” He winked.

“No, no. Sorry! I’m just inside my own head tonight. My name is Avery, nothing fake about it. What about you? I feel like I’m going to need to know your name if I plan to be here every few days for cheap drinks and an expensive tip.” We both laughed.

“My name is Colton, pleasure to officially meet you.” My mouth parted just as I was about to tell him the pleasure was all mine, but instead, the commotion of two girls walking into Bluff City Bar turned my head.

With their arms linked, two of the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen stumbled up to where I sat at the bar.

“Ladies.” Colton smirked at the women like he’d known them forever. “Meet my new friend, Avery.”

“Hi. I’m Avery.” I offered a gentle wave, feeling a strike of nerves travel through my veins. “But you know that already, obviously, since Colton just mentioned my name and all,” I mumbled.

I sipped my drink for liquid courage.

Meeting people had never been my forte, and it didn’t help that these women were stunning. They radiated confidence and power—everything I wished I could be.

“Andi.” The redhead stuck out her hand with a beaming smile.

“And I’m Peyton,” the blonde followed.

“Well, ladies, what will it be?” Colton filled his shaker with ice, ready to make a cocktail.

“We’ll have what she’s having!” they said in unison.

Andi and Peyton looked at each other and laughed as they pulled up a seat to join me.

I didn’t know anything about these girls, other than their names, and that they looked like they were probably models for a living.

But when they took a seat right next to me, they had no idea how desperate I was for a positive distraction.

I was freshly twenty-one years old and living in a new state where I knew absolutely no one—except for my shitty ex-boyfriend and a few co-workers. If I was going to make it in this city, I was going to need a couple of good friends to make life worth living here.

“Drink up!” Colton placed matching espresso martinis on top of the bar with black cocktail napkins underneath.

Andi and Peyton picked up their drinks, turned toward me as if it had always been the three of us, and gestured their glasses toward mine for the first cheers of what I hoped would be many more to come.

As I peeked over the rim of my glass and watched these two strangers sip their drinks, I had a light bulb moment. They were cool. Kind. Fun. The type of women I’d always dreamed of being friends with but struggled to connect with.

In order to put my past behind me, I needed to build a new future. Call me crazy, but there was something about Andi and Peyton that made me want to put myself out there.

When I looked down at my drink, it was nearly empty, something Colton was privy to.

“Can I convince you to have another?” He toyed with the corners of his mustache, grinning at me as if he already knew what my answer was going to be.

“No convincing needed.”

“Looks like we are getting drunk tonight!” Andi singsonged.

“Are we?” The words slipped from my mouth, and I bit the inside of my cheek in hopes that my question didn’t come off rude. I was genuinely shocked that I’d somehow been roped into their night out. We were strangers, yet I felt more included than I had in a long time.

“Hell yeah, we are!” Peyton joined in.

“Avery is new here. Give her the lay of the land or whatever.” Colton served up my second drink before sauntering off to help his other bar guests.

“Welcome to Sin City!” Andi raised her glass, offering yet another cheers.

Joining our espresso martinis, I smiled at her comment, because it was truly the first time I had felt welcomed.

“So, how long have you been here? What do you do? Give us all the details!” Andi rested her chin in her palm, giving me her full attention.

“Jeez. Slow your roll, babe. You’re going to scare her away.” Peyton flicked the back of Andi’s head and all I could do was chuckle.

“No worries. I’m an open book.” Except I really wasn’t. I never had been. But what did I have to lose? I didn’t have a damn thing here for me.

I tipped back my drink, swallowing half of it all at once before clearing my throat.

“I’d love to say I came here because I’m newly twenty-one and couldn’t wait to gamble and drink, but that would be a lie.

” Shaking off the nerves, I bit down on my lip and flipped my hair over my shoulder.

“The truth is, I moved here with my boyfriend—now ex—a few months ago. We had this whole new life planned. We both got jobs, me as a pool girl, him—well, that doesn’t really matter—and just when life was getting cozy, I walked in on him having an orgy.

” The alcohol must have started to hit me because I couldn’t stop the words from slipping out one by one.

I tipped back the remainder of my drink.

“Oh, and that’s not even the worst part. He’s blackmailing me, and now I need to pick up a second job and make a shit ton of money. The kind of money you can’t make as a cocktail waitress by a pool.”

Normally, I would assume this would be the part where the two sets of eyes staring back at me would scream, ‘this girl is crazy,’ instead, they were laced with concern.

“Who the fuck is this loser?” Peyton scoffed.

“Honestly, sounds like you dodged one hell of a bullet. Granted, the breakup sounds messy as hell, but this could map out to be a real blessing in disguise.” Andi sipped her drink and glanced over at Peyton. They looked like they were doing some sort of witchcraft and reading each other’s minds.

“I think we can help.” Peyton’s lips curved into a sweet smile.

“How would you be able to help? Do you know a hit man or something?” My eyebrows dipped in curiosity.

“Not exactly.” Andi looked back at her best friend.

“We work in the entertainment industry,” Peyton added. “And if you’re looking for work, and are open minded, I think you’d be perfect for what I have in mind.”

Entertainment industry? I knew they had to be models! But what gave them the idea I was even close to being able to do the same thing?

“I can be open minded…” I answered, the words slipping out of my mouth in discomfort because there was no way that whatever they did in the entertainment industry would be remotely interested in taking me on. They were so put together, where I… wasn’t.

“Great! Because I have a connection with a guy at work who is looking to add another girl to his escorting service.”

My heart sped up in my chest, and suddenly, the two drinks I consumed felt like four. I was way off in my assumptions, because … did she just say escort?

I angled my glass back, only to come up short, remembering I had no liquid left in my drink, and my throat was drier than a fucking camel on a Tuesday.

“Jesus, Peyton. Way to go. You just about scared the girl off,” Andi said through gritted teeth, elbowing Peyton in the ribs.

“Sor—”

Peyton started to speak before I cut her off.

“What exactly do you two do for work?” I asked, only slightly on edge.

“Colton! Bring us all another round!” Andi hollered across the bar before getting down to business.

“Well, I’m a cam girl. It pays really fucking good and I get to make my own hours. I work from home most of the time, sometimes at the studio,” Peyton answered, only confirming that she wasn’t the type of model that I thought she was.

“And I’m a dancer.” Andi smirked.

“Dancer?”

“Well, stripper, if you want me to be honest. But I take pride in my work. I work at the best strip club in town. The kind only the richest men walk into. Where even on the slowest night, I’m raking in the kind of cash people could only dream they’d win at the blackjack tables.”

Colton stopped by with three fresh drinks, one of which I immediately took a drink of.

I don’t know what it was about this information that shocked me. It could be because I wasn’t used to being so immersed in the life of Las Vegas yet, or because I was genuinely curious to learn everything I could in one night over a few cocktails.

The offer was tempting. It felt like I’d been slapped across the face with a sign—an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.

After a beat of silence and a couple more sips of liquid courage, my walls came crashing down.

Even shocking myself, I responded, “Tell me everything.”

My two new friends smiled at each other, then back at me.

“Cheers! To friendships, cheap drinks, and the city meant for sinning!” Andi stood up with her martini in the air for one last cheers.

With nerves rushing through me the size of a tsunami, I lifted my glass to join theirs.

“To making a fuck ton of money.” I smiled behind my glass, thanking my lucky stars that this was the bar I walked into tonight.

When I stumbled into this bar a couple hours ago, I never would have guessed that I’d leave with the phone numbers of a couple of girls that would become my lifeline, and a bartender that made this place feel a little bit more like home.

After graduating college, my eyes were big with excitement.

Moving out of state to a new city with my boyfriend of eight years was the future I had always dreamed of.

My feelings for him ran deep. So deep that I envisioned the white picket fence, a nine to five job, and the whole world ahead of us.

Everything my childhood dreams were made of.

He only allowed us a few joyful months here, living in paradise, before that one dreadful day where I realized he wasn’t who I always knew him to be, and my whole world flipped upside down because of it.

I walked out on him as a lone ranger, forced to figure out what to do next all by myself.

Needless to say, single, sex work, and living in my van wasn’t the direction I imagined my life going.

To most, Las Vegas was known for its city lights, gambling, parties, and nightlife. But to me, the glamorous life of Las Vegas turned into a dark web of blackmail, heartbreak, and moments where I truly feared for my life.

I could only hope that Lady Luck would be on my side for once, and this new life I was building for myself would work out, changing my path for the better. No matter how hard or uncomfortable it might be, I saw a glimmer of hope for the first time in a while