she shook her head, I knew I lost her and something in me slowed. I’ve always wondered if I’d fought harder, pushed harder, if maybe I could have saved her. maybe. I’ll never know, and I suspect the answer is no.
She was too close to the edge of the cliff and there was nothing I could do. She didn’t even have to jump. She simply stepped off the edge like she was walking on a path in the air. Then the girl I loved was gone.
She killed herself because of what her bastard stepfather did to her.
Amelia was in trouble and never told me until it was too late. Things had gotten out of hand and her family made it worse. They called her a whore when she told them he’d been raping her for years and the child in her stomach was his. She was seventeen.
I sigh and shake my head, shaking away the memory again.
I have to get my act together today.
Definitely in regards to Lilly.
That trouble I sensed in her is the kind that I should probably stay away from myself. it’s deep rooted and warns that I shouldn’t try to save her, because maybe I can’t. At the same fucking time do I want someone else booking her and having her?
That’s what’s going to happen, and what should happen. That was the plan.
Unknown to her, over a hundred men booked her between last night and the night before. There would have been more but we have a cut of point so we can manage the selection. When I came up with the idea of getting her, I didn’t think she’d get so many men worked up over her. It was just an idea, but like most of my ideas I hit the jackpot. I just didn’t know I’d land myself in the trap too.
The starting bid was two grand and people could bid in increments of five hundred upward. I call the shots as an owner and if I want a woman, I’m having her. In the same breath I can’t upset people who are my loyal patrons by being a dick.
So, I outbid the whole bunch of fuckers winning my time with her fair and square.
My phone buzzes on the floor interrupting my thoughts. I’m almost grateful for the interruption because I don’t know what to do. Reaching down for the phone I pick it up and answer straightaway when I see it’s Kirk.
“Yes,” I say, feeling hopeful he has something for me.
“I got a number, Boss. From one of the dead guys. Found it in his apartment,” Kirk says.
I sigh with relief. “You sure it’s linked to Falcone?”
“Said his name on the piece of paper I found,” he answers. There’s a smile in his voice that makes me chuckle. “Those dumb fucks. Good for us though. it’s a lead.”
I nod even though he can’t see me. “Thanks man, message it to me.”
“On it.”
He hangs up and the number comes through seconds later. I get my ass off the bed, and get dressed. Today I’m upping my game and taking things up a fucking notch. There’s a lot I can do with a phone number. I just hope I can use it to find Falcone and sort this shit out today. I won’t rest until I do.
Chapter 12
Lilly
I hover my finger over the screen of my phone, reread the content of the email I’m about to send and press send.
The message goes along with the attachments I linked to it, straight to the admissions department at The Aurora.
That was it. My first real step toward getting my life back on track.
Yes… the whole financial aspect of it comes into play too. It absolutely does because I can’t do anything without money, but there’s no sense imagining getting myself back on stage and dancing with the Aurora Dance Company then not doing anything about it. Applications to join the company opened today and I just applied.
Last year I’d just missed the deadline for applications when Rosie and I got back to the states.
I was sad but not too sad because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind then to do anything. I wasn’t even practicing or thinking about dancing. As time went by, I slowly got back to that place in my mind where I knew I had to find my way back to the stage. The date was saved on every calendar in the places I stayed at since and my phone. And in