When I walked out of the bathroom, Jed and the baby weren’t in her room, but I heard Stella’s voice in the living room.

“You look mighty fine bouncin’ that baby on your leg,” she said in a seductive voice. “If you ever want a real woman, leave Neely Kate and let me take care of you.”

“I’m pretty happy with what I have,” Jed said in a tone that made his stance clear.

“You and half the men we ever met,” she spat out.

I stopped in the hallway.

“Is that why you hate her so much?” Jed asked flatly.

“It’s hard to compete with someone like her. The men at the club loved her because she had that whole innocent vibe. Branson figured that out pretty quick and decided to use it to his own advantage. Did she tell you about that part of her life?” she asked with a leer in her tone.

“No.”

She laughed. “I won’t lie; he was taken with her too, but it wasn’t long before his friends and clients also noticed her. He knew a gold mine when he saw it.”

I nearly burst into the room to stop her, but something held me back. Her version wasn’t far from the truth, and this way I wouldn’t have to tell him myself. It was the chickenshit way out, and I knew it, but I closed my eyes, leaned back against the wall, and let her go on.

“And what did Branson do?”

She laughed again, this time with more genuine merriment. “What did she even tell you about all of us?”

“Enough to know you were like a cancer to her.”

She chuckled. “And I thought you said you were here because I meant something to her.”

“That’s what makes what you did even shittier. She trusted you, and you hurt and used her.”

“Bullshit,” Stella said, getting angry. “She was the one all the guys wanted. I was tired of competing with her. I was prettier than her! I only got her a job because I felt sorry for her. And then that backstabber betrayed me.”

“Betrayed you? Because men could see the witch you really were beneath your shiny exterior? Men are easily fooled at first, but it doesn’t take long for the smart ones to see through the glitter. You saw the goodness in her and tried to kill it. But guess what? Neely Kate’s one of the sweetest, kindest people I know—you didn’t defeat her. She has a good life with friends who love her and support her. And you’re the worthless, dried-up bitch with no one but this poor baby, who deserves a much better mother than you.”

“Get out.”

“Gladly. Just remember karma’s a bitch, Stella, so maybe take a good hard look at how you got here.”

“Neely Kate!” she screamed, and the baby started crying.

I braced myself and walked into the living room.

Stella was livid—more so than I’d ever seen her. “Get the fuck out!” she screamed, pointing to the door. “Get out of my house!”

Jed tried to put the crying baby in the crib in the living room, but she wrapped her small hands around his arm, clinging for dear life. His jaw clenched as he pried her off. He stood there for a moment as if to gather himself, then turned to stare down at Stella. “There’s a special place in hell for people who mistreat defenseless children, and I suspect you’ve already got your place reserved.”

“Get. Out!” she screeched. “And don’t you come back, Neely Kate!”

Jed moved to the door and opened it, waiting for me to exit. I didn’t say a word to Stella as I headed outside, trying to shake loose from the desperation and hopelessness that had soaked into my soul. Jed followed, closing the door behind him. I expected him to slam it shut, but he seemed more controlled now that we’d left Stella’s hellish den. He was reaching for his phone and tapping on the screen before we even reached the staircase to the parking lot.

I didn’t say a word as he placed his call, an anonymous tip about a mother neglecting her baby, giving Stella’s name and address. Then he got into the car and grabbed the steering wheel.

I got in next to him, slightly unnerved by the rage he was suppressing. I waited for him to back out of the space after he started the car, but he didn’t move, just watched the door with narrowed eyes.

After a minute or two, some of the tension eased out of him and he turned toward me. “I’m sorry. I blew it in there.”

I shook my head. “No. You didn’t.”

“I did. Now I’m worried she’ll run before the authorities show up.”

“No,” I said. “She won’t. She wouldn’t dream of me doin’ it. She thinks I’m too weak. And you . . . she would expect you to defend Crystal with your fists, not by calling Family Services.”

“That’s sick and twisted.”

“And yet that’s her life.”

He kept his eyes on the door. “It used to be yours.”

“Until I left. But I lived through a lot of shit before I left, Jed.”

He didn’t answer, and I started to get nervous.

“How long do you plan to stay here?” I asked.

“Long enough to make sure she doesn’t bolt.”

“I never asked her about Kate,” I said. “I don’t know if Kate found her.”

“We found Stella in less than half an hour. If Zelda talked about her, then it’s a safe bet that Kate found her too.”

He was probably right.

His body was so tense it was practically twitching, but he relaxed slightly as he turned to face me. “What did he make you do, Neely Kate?”

I swallowed, my fear rising.

He shook his head, turning back to stare out the windshield. “No. You don’t have to answer that.”

“Do you want to know?” I asked.

“I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.”

“Because I disgust you?”

He gripped the steering wheel and squeezed. “More like I’ll want to beat the ever-lovin’ shit out of someone, and it sounds like Branson’s already dead, which means Stella might be next on the list. What about Beasley? Where does he fall in this mess?”

What Jed had said earlier was true. I had family and friends. I had a good life. I was scared that if the truth about my past started oozing out, it would poison everything I had now. Could I risk it? But Jed had been dealing with this piece by excruciating piece, and he’d finally put voice to the question he must have been asking himself all along. It wouldn’t be fair of me not to answer.

“When I first started working at the club . . .” My voice came out so soft I wasn’t sure he could hear me, but he went stock still, so I guessed that he could. “I was scared spitless, but I’m a quick learner and, like I said, Kitty was someone else, definitely not me. I’d been working there a few months when Zelda got sick. She had a cough that wouldn’t get better, and they kept giving her medicine that cost more and more money. They gave her a prescription that would cost her three hundred dollars. After all the other medicines she’d bought, she was flat broke. She couldn’t afford it. I tried to get Stella to help me cover it, but she said she didn’t have the money, even though she raked in fifty dollars in tips on a good night. So . . . I took Stan up on an offer.”

“Sex?” he asked in a dead voice.

“Yeah. Everyone knew I was a virgin. It was kind of Stan’s thing with me. It was a big draw.” I paused to let the wave of self-disgust wash over me. “So there were quite a few regulars who offered to pay to be my first.”

“You sold your virginity to pay for Zelda’s medication.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yeah.” I took a breath and clasped my shaking hands together. “Two hundred dollars.”

“And what was Stan’s cut?”

“He got two hundred too.” I turned to look out the side window, too embarrassed to look at him. “Stan wanted me to sleep with other customers. It was illegal, of course, but somehow he got away with it. A lot of guys requested me, but after that one time, I swore I would never do it again.” A lump filled my throat as I remembered that night . . . the fear, the shame, the pain. “So I kept saying no, which only made them more intrigued.”

I snuck a glance to Jed, but he was still clutching the steering wheel.

“Do you want to hear the rest?”

“I want you to tell me what you feel comfortable telling me,” he said, but his voice was tight and far from comforting.

Would he really look at me the same way after I told him everything? Did it matter? I was guilty of everything I’d done. If he was revolted by me after this, I deserved it.

“I met Branson after I’d been working at the club for a little over a year,” I said. “Stella had hooked up with his friend. He had these boy-next-door looks, and he didn’t mind that I worked at Slick Willy’s. Sometimes he’d even come to the club and watch me dance. I thought he was different because he was paying me so much attention, and we weren’t even sleeping together yet. Just hanging out, and sometimes he’d kiss me.” Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back. “I thought he was different, so I finally slept with him, and while it wasn’t awful like it had been with the guy who won Stan’s auction, it wasn’t anything like Zelda’s romance novels either,” I said. “He wanted me to be Kitty when we had sex, not Neely Kate.”

“And you stayed with him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Stella told me I was makin’ too much of nothin’ and that was the way men were. Besides, he was nice to me at first, and he had money even though he only had a job at the loading dock. But sometimes he would disappear for an hour or so and come back with a wad of cash. One night, I was with him when he made a run.”

I’d never told anyone this story, and a quick glance to Jed made me question whether I should continue.

“Drugs?” Jed asked.

“Yeah. Meth. Crack. And some pills I didn’t learn about until much later.”

He remained silent.

“I stayed in the car while he made his trade, but the guy noticed me and told Branson he’d pay to screw me. When I told the guy I wasn’t for sale, he laughed and told me everything was for sale. Branson didn’t contradict him.” I stopped. I’d already come this far. I needed to finish the story. “A couple of nights later, I had a night off, and Branson was being unusually nice. He told me he wanted to take me out. He told me to dress up from head to toe, including sexy lingerie and my stiletto heels. I didn’t think much of it since it wasn’t unusual for him to ask me to dress like that, and besides, he was takin’ me out, something he didn’t usually do.”

“You don’t have to tell me the rest, Neely Kate.” His voice was thick.

“I do. I need you to know.”

“Okay.”

“So we went out to a club and we were dancing. Strangely enough, I’d been thinkin’ about breakin’ it off with him and movin’ back in with Zelda, but I decided to give it one more chance. And I was happy,” I said in a pathetic voice, clogged with tears. “All I ever wanted was for someone to love me, and Branson was finally makin’ some kind of effort, you know?”

“Yeah,” he said softly.

“But then the guy from the drug deal showed up. I got uncomfortable and told Branson I wanted to go. He said fine, but we needed to have one drink with this guy or Branson would offend him, something that would be bad for business and his personal well-being.” I closed my eyes. “So, like an idiot, I agreed. My last memory of that night was drinking with them while the guy undressed me with his eyes. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in bed the next morning. Naked, sore, and with a terrible hangover.”

“Branson roofied you.”

I swallowed and looked down at my lap. “Yeah.”

“Did you realize what happened?”

“No. Branson told me that I’d gotten drunk and we’d gone home early. I’d asked him for rough sex, which was why I was so sore. That sounded so unlike me—all of it—but I never dreamed that Branson would let some guy screw me for money. Not even when he had a new used iPhone later that day.”

“It happened again?” Jed asked.

“Yeah, two weeks later, only Branson didn’t even try to fool me by takin’ me out. He invited some friends over for a party. I hadn’t had a drink since my blackout, but Branson convinced me to try some moonshine punch. Sure enough, the next day was the same.”

“You didn’t figure it out?”

“I know I sound like an idiot, but I mentioned it to Stella and she told me not to worry about it. That she’d seen me drinking cup after cup of punch. She said I’d practically dragged Branson into our room to screw him while the party was still goin’ on.” I shook my head. “But that wasn’t me. It wasn’t adding up. So I asked Beasley what was goin’ on—and he buttoned up tighter than a clam. He was usually talkin’ ninety miles a minute, so I knew something was up, yet I still couldn’t let my mind go there. I thought maybe Beasley was embarrassed by my behavior.

“Branson started having more parties after that, and always on my nights off. Sometimes nothin’ would happen, but other nights I would black out again and there would be bruises on my arms or legs I couldn’t explain. And not only that, Branson had more money than usual and Beasley would hardly look at me, which made it awkward since we were all living together. Everything changed the night I refused to drink anything except from my water bottle. Branson got pissed and accused me of being a nagging bitch—which made no sense since I’d sat in a corner and kept to myself. When I pointed that out, he told me that I was bringing down the party, and I needed to get with the program and quick.”

“He had someone who didn’t like waiting,” Jed said as though he was talking about the weather.

“Yeah, and Branson got so pissed when I still refused. He backhanded me and told the guy that he could have me fully conscious since he liked it rough. So the guy dragged me to my bed and screwed me. He didn’t care that I was screaming and clawing the whole time—” My voice broke. “He loved every minute of it. All while Branson was filming it from the corner.”

Jed remained completely still.

“When he was done, he got up and tossed Branson several hundred-dollar bills. He said he’d pay extra if he could have me like that again.” I paused. “After he left, I told Branson I was going straight to the police, but he laughed and said he had plenty of videos of that guy and others screwing me without any resistance. Besides, he said, who were the police gonna believe? A stripper who had sold herself for sex before or a man who was the foreman on a construction job? And I realized he was right.”

“Neely Kate.” His voice sounded strangled.

“I left. I packed up my stuff and headed to Zelda’s, but he followed me and beat the shit out of me in Zelda’s front yard. He told me he owned me. From that moment forward, he said, I couldn’t so much as take a shit without his permission.”

“Zelda let him get away with that?” Jed asked, incredulous.

I released a tearful laugh. “She’d gone to visit her sister, Stella’s mom.”

“And Stella . . . ?”

“She told me I was lucky to have a man to take care of me.” I swallowed my tears. “Branson left my car at Zelda’s and told me that he would be driving me to and from work from then on, and when I was home without him, he’d lock me in our room, dead-bolting it shut.”

“And his brother still lived there?”

“Yeah.”

“And he still sold your services, I presume?”

“He didn’t drug me after that, but I wasn’t so sure being conscious was any better. Some men just wanted to screw. Others wanted me to role play. Some wanted to rape me, and every single time someone screwed me, Branson was there filming it all. All the while, Branson kept getting richer and I felt more and more like dyin’.” My mouth lifted into a soft smile. “And then I met Carla.”

“At the club?”

“Yeah. She saw something was off . . . She told me I had dead eyes, and then she met Branson and guessed he was the cause. When she saw how controlling he was, she offered to help me leave him.”

I snuck a glance at Jed, who seemed like a solid statue.

“She knew Branson liked to watch me dance, and Stan gave him the schedule so he would know when to expect me on stage. That gave me a window of about five to ten minutes from when I left my hostessing duties to get changed in the back to when I went up on stage. Carla came up with a plan that she would give me the keys to her car as soon as I went into the back. That would hopefully buy me a good ten minutes to get away before Branson figured it out. She said she’d loan me a hundred dollars for gas money, and the plan was for me to take off for my granny’s house in Arkansas. She’d stay behind and cover for me. We agreed that I’d figure out how to get the car back to her later.”

“It didn’t work?”

“I found out I was pregnant a week before we planned for me to leave.” I shook my head. “Or rather Stella figured out I was pregnant. I was viciously ill, just like with my last pregnancy. Branson was pissed because I was too sick to entertain, and I couldn’t dance on the pole without losing my lunch. So Stella got a pregnancy test because I couldn’t shop on my own. Sure enough, there were two pink lines.

“The last thing I needed was a baby tying me to Branson—or one of those horrible men—but I wasn’t so sure Carla’s plan would work. I suspected Branson would track me down to Henryetta, and if he found out I had a baby, there’d be no escaping him. So when Stella suggested the abortion, I decided it was my only chance to save my baby from the hell I’d lived through, as sick as that sounds. One day, when Branson was going fishing with his friends, she got me out and drove me to a doctor in Oklahoma City. There’s a waiting period, and Stella knew this was a one-shot deal, so she found someone to do it off the books.”

“How’d you pay for it?” Jed asked.

A single tear slid down my cheek. “Stella paid for it.”

“What’d she get out of it?”

“Her shot at Branson? She was sure he treated me like he did because I was weak. She believed she would be different. I just wanted out. But a few days later, I was still bleeding from my procedure and Branson told me he had some big deal in the works and that he needed me to do something special. He said if I went along, he’d give me part of the money. I knew right away that this had to be big. He’d never offered me anything before other than the promise not to beat me. It was a ridiculous offer. I never went anywhere to use money, and he kept every penny I made at the club, but I asked him what he wanted me to do.”

“Neely Kate. You don’t have to tell me.” Jed’s voice shook. “I already heard enough from Stella.”

“No. You need to know it all. We’re close to the end now.”

He gave a small nod.

“He said he had a rich customer from Dallas who’d heard about me. Branson said he wanted to buy me for one night, but I had to sign a waiver promising not to press charges. Well, that perked my fear right up. No one else had ever been worried about such a thing. Branson saw my hesitation. He played down the agreement, saying it was no big deal. The guy had a reputation to maintain, and if word got out that he was into something kinky, it could ruin him. I said I’d think about it, then told Carla I needed to leave sooner. The guy was coming the next night. He was going to watch me dance; then I was supposed to leave with him. Branson would come pick me up after six hours. That was when the guy would pay him. But I had to sign the agreement. If I didn’t, the guy would leave and neither of us would get anything.”

“So what happened?”

“I didn’t give Branson an answer, but he took my silence as agreement to go through with the deal. In the meantime, Carla had scraped together gas money for me. We had a plan worked out, only Stella was working that night and knew something was up.

“When it came time for me to escape, I got in Carla’s car, but Branson was waiting for me. He told me that I was still going with the guy, but I wasn’t gettin’ a dime. When I told him I refused to do it, he threatened to hurt Zelda.”

“You agreed.”

I couldn’t tell what he thought of that. “I had to. I could handle his fists, but she was frail . . . I couldn’t risk it.”

A car pulled up next to Jed’s side, and a woman got out. She looked to be in her forties, and the expression on her face suggested she didn’t take shit from anyone.

“Family Services?” I asked.

“I suspect so.” He put the car in reverse but didn’t back out.

Sure enough, the woman marched up to Stella’s door and knocked. As soon as Stella answered, Jed backed out.

I hadn’t finished my story, but now that Jed knew someone was going to make sure the baby was okay, his whole demeanor had changed.

“Where are you going?” I asked, worried about where I stood with him.

“We’re going to find Beasley.” The look in his eyes suggested Beasley should be very afraid.