A Night With A Stranger novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Her Own Way

Bree sat on the edge of the sofa with her hands between her knees.

Evan stood by the window with his shirt buttoned wrong and his face carefully empty.

I stayed on my feet in the middle of the room.

"Say it all," I said. "Start at the beginning."

"Six weeks ago I owed the club owner six thousand dollars." Bree's voice shook. "I'd borrowed it for my brother's rent and I couldn't pay the interest."

"You never told me."

"I was ashamed." She wiped her nose on her wrist. "Dennis found out. He said he'd clear it, all of it, if I did him one favor."

"What favor?"

"A glass of wine. At the end of your shift. He gave me a little bottle and said it was a sleeping pill. He said you'd get sleepy, he'd drive you home, and you'd finally stop saying no."

The room went very quiet.

"You knew what he wanted," I said.

"I knew." She started to cry. "I told myself he'd just talk you around. I told myself you'd wake up in your own bed."

"And then you put me in a cab that didn't exist."

"I watched him help you into his driver's car. I lied the next day because I couldn't breathe."

Evan took one step from the window, and I put up a hand without looking at him.

"Don't," I said. "This one's mine."

I crossed the carpet.

Bree looked up at me with her swollen eyes, and I hit her across the face as hard as I could.

The sound cracked in the room.

Her head turned, and she did not lift a hand to her cheek.

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