Chapter 2
My back was killing me, and my feet had their own damn pulse.
All that, and I hadn’t even started my workday.
It was going day. I could feel it in my bones.
Bones that felt a lot older than my twenty-eight.
I waved at some of the girls I worked with as I rushed into the locker room, where housekeeping dressed and got ready for their day.
Opening the door, I shoved my purse in and started to get undressed when I heard the clip-clapping of all-too familiar heels.
“Gomez, you’re late.” I winced at the sound of my manager behind me. Mary Morales was pretty chill as long as you were punctual and kept your head down.
Coincidently, the two things I was not.
“Sorry, boss!” I called out over my shoulder. “The traffic was insane,” I used as an excuse, but we both knew it was just that. An excuse.
“Hmm,” she grunted and sighed. I glanced at her and watched as she took a seat on the benches that faced the lockers. I wasn’t fazed by this. It was just her way. The woman probably walked about thirty thousand steps a day working here, so I just kept getting dressed.
“I have you back in the VIP rooms,” she said, breaking the silence just as I buttoned up the top of the uniform dress. My fingers lingered on the top button.
“Mary.” I took in a deep breath and turned around. “You know that Pope isn’t going to want me back there after—“
“That member was handled,” she cut me off with a no-nonsense tone she was great at. I swallowed and stared down at the woman just a couple of years older than me.
“Mary.”
“He won’t be an issue,” she repeated, her back a little straighter than before. My lips pursed as I wondered if she even believed that.
“I know, but even if he isn’t there and was… handled, there are still the men he works with.”
“Those members have been warned. By Pope himself.” I blinked at her. “They won’t be an issue.”
“Okay.” I rolled my shoulders and started to pull my long dark wavy hair in a ponytail so I could pin it into a tight bun. If I was going back to the hotel area of the casino instead of the clubhouse, I’d need to have it up and out of my face.
“One more thing,” she said, and when I looked at her, I knew I wasn’t going to like what she was going to say.
“What’s up?” I braced myself. There was something in Mary’s dark eyes that made me feel like I was holding my breath.
“They’re going to have Stone come in and talk to us. About being more… discreet.” I could tell by the look on her face she was trying not to wince.
“Discreet?” I gaffed. “Wait, they want us to be discreet when it comes to things like what happened—“ The look Mary gave me made whatever other words I was going to say die on my tongue.
The knots in my belly tightened.
It’d been four days since the night a member had cornered me, and I’d kicked him in the balls. Anger heated my veins. I’d known the casino was run by the Steel Sinners, a motorcycle club with their hands in all sorts of things. Some good and some not so great.
And while they weren’t squeaky clean, I’d always thought they were good guys. Stand-up men who wouldn’t stand for assholes being assholes with women. But now I wasn’t so sure. Especially after what Mr. Monopoly, as we liked to call him, had said to me.
“I guess when what happened, happened, one of Mr. Monopoly’s associates found out and must have leaked the story. No press picked it up, of course, but… other members heard.”
“From us?”
“No, but now the members worry things aren’t as discreet and quiet as they’d like.”
“But they want us to keep our mouths shut and what? Just stand there and let one of their overly privileged members think it’s okay to—“
“Marty,” Mary warned and looked around. “I just know you, and I wanted to give you a heads-up so you could keep a … cool head when Stone comes down here.”
“A cool head.” I laughed humorlessly. “Me? You would think I had some kind of anger issue with this heads-up, Mary?”
“Marty.” She sighed, and I could see just how tired the woman was.
“And if some other guy tries to get fresh with one of us, we’re just supposed to what? Turn the other cheek and let them? Because men like that are allowed to get away with it and get whatever they want?”
“That’s not what the Steel Sinners want,” she said quietly. “You did the right thing. Pope was proud at how he found Mr. Monopoly hunched over,” she whispered. My eyes closed.
The memory of being at the end of my night shift that day was clear in my head.
I’d been ready to go home. The last call before clocking out had irritated me, but it was the job.
With a smile on my face, I’d headed to one of the VIP hotel rooms. A member of Elysium had partied a little too hard and needed someone to clean up a mess.
Nothing out of the ordinary for the rooms where the rich and famous stayed. But when I’d shown up, Mr. Monopoly, the jerk who had always creeped me out, opened the door. It was obvious he was on something. Drugs or booze, I wasn’t sure. Not that it mattered.
He’d opened the door with nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips, leering at me like I was a thick, juicy ribeye while he was on a KETO diet.
Again, nothing out of the ordinary. The guy was a creep.
Not the first I’d had to deal with and not the last. I went in, minding my business, to clean up a mess, and when I slipped into the bathroom, the asshole cornered me.
The guy had pressed his body against mine and caged me in while asking how much I’d charge him for the night.
Gross. It had been a while for me, but there wasn’t enough money in the world for me to take the guy for a spin.
He hadn’t liked when I’d, as politely as I could, turned him down.
Men like him never liked being told no.
Thankfully, his phone had rung, and I’d used the distraction to slip out of the bathroom.
I tried to escape, but he was faster. He pushed and pinned me down on the bed.
I’d be eternally grateful that whatever he’d been on wouldn’t let him get hard enough to do anything.
But the fucker had been handsy while he said disgusting things.
Shit about knowing my place and going on about how the Steel Sinners would soon be making us wear dirty little maid outfits because at the end of the day, the maids were no better than the sex workers on the Strip.
And if he wanted to, he could get Pope, the president of the Sinners, to whore us out at his request.
And when Pope made the call, I’d be the first one he’d buy, and he’d make sure I wouldn’t earn one cent off of it.
I had no idea how the hell I hadn’t thrown up all over him.
I should have.
Instead, I’d kicked him in the balls just before he tried to slip his hands under the skirt of my uniform and rolled away. When I’d stood up and stared down at the disgusting man agonizing in pain, I will admit, anger got the better of me.
The right thing would have been to run out.
To go get help and report what had happened.
But I would never be accused of being the sharpest tool in the shed.
Instead of running, I’d hit him, three times, before rushing to get out only to find a Steel Sinner at the door wondering what the commotion was about.
Onlookers behind him were murmuring things.
I’d known how I looked—slightly disheveled but for the most part unscathed.
Especially when compared to Mr. Monopoly, who was still hunched over on the edge of the bed, groaning in pain.
“This job isn’t for everyone, kid,” Mary said, snapping me out of the memory.
“I’ve been here for the last three years,” I reminded her, hating how defeated I sounded. Three years. I’d worked here for three years and didn’t have any idea of how the hell to leave. Other casinos didn’t pay as well as the Steel Sinners did. Still… “Maybe I should—“
“Don’t finish that thought,” Mary warned. “You know if you say what I know you’ll say, I gotta start looking for someone to take your spot.” I glanced at her, and her own gaze settled on mine. “I hate having to train new girls,” she complained. My lips twitched.
I knew that no matter how much of a hardass Mary could be, she had a soft spot for me. It was why she hadn’t written me up once for being late when she totally could have. And that’s why whatever was said at this stupid-ass meeting, I’d find a way to keep my mouth shut.
“I’ll behave,” I begrudgingly promised, hoping that my face would keep that promise, too.