Ruthless King

Really, who would even think of telling Margaret or her mother?

But she still kept her identity a secret. It had been ingrained in her to not bring attention to herself since she was young.

Although she didn’t think that her mother quite had this in mind . . .

As she strode toward the back alley, she felt this weird sensation. Something like awareness ran up her spine. As though she was being watched.

Moving quicker, she shook it off. But she hid behind the large garbage dumpster and drew out her mask, setting it over her face and ensuring the hoodie fully covered her.

She entered the code into the key pad and stepped inside.

Music was pumping but things wouldn’t get busy until around ten. Her first set was ten-thirty so she had plenty of time to get ready.

She walked down toward her private dressing room. If you could call it a dressing room, considering it was the size of a shoe box. But it had a locker to store her stuff. A mirror. And best of all . . . a lock on the door.

The other girls weren’t happy that she got special treatment. But, really, it was a glorified storage cupboard. Not that glamorous.

As she reached the door to her room, she realized it was slightly open and there was . . . giggling coming from inside?

Normally, she’d step back and walk away. Jilly wasn’t a fan of confrontation.

Which was part of the reason Lowell had managed to walk all over her.

However, she didn’t want to go into the main room to get ready. All of her stuff was in here.

So she pushed the door open and squared her shoulders. She might not be able to tell Margaret what she thought of her. And perhaps she couldn’t tell Regent how she felt about him.

But she was determined to kick out whoever was using her dressing room as a hookup place.

Knocking briskly, she stepped inside.

“Hello? Who’s in here?”

A gasp. “Oh, Nyx! It’s you.”

Her eyes narrowed as she took in Kimmy. She liked Kimmy well enough, but this wasn’t cool.

And why was she acting so shocked that she was here when she had to know that Jilly was working tonight?

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t think you’d be here so early.”

That might be true. Jilly came in early because she was always worried the bus wouldn’t be on time. And she needed plenty of time to prepare herself.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Jilly muttered, glancing up at Kimmy, whose top was down around her waist. Her bare breasts bounced as she moved away from the man she was with.

It wasn’t okay, though. And she didn’t know why she’d just said that.

“We needed somewhere private to go,” Kimmy whispered, not bothering to cover up her breasts.

Jilly tried to keep her gaze away from them, but it was hard when they were right there.

“My apologies,” the man said smoothly. He was older but handsome. She certainly understood the appeal of an older man, although Regent was far more attractive than this guy. “I don’t get into town often, and when Kimmy said she had to work, I thought I’d stop by. I’ve missed my baby.”

Kimmy giggled, and Jilly barely managed not to cringe as he slapped her ass.

“Right. Cool. But I’ve kind of got to get ready.”