“Look, I know him.” Hands in my pockets, I resisted the urge to toy with my hair, the v-neck of my t-shirt, all the old flirty tricks I knew would work. But I wasn’t looking to score with the bouncer or trying to get him to point me toward the dealer inside that club—such deals would probably net him a kickback fee, and he’d already done all the typical things somebody in his position would do—he’d checked for tracks, done a slow look around for a cop.

If it wasn’t for my past, I’d probably make a right good cop at this point.

I knew, though, that no matter how much I’d changed, or how much good I did, the past would still be there. But that line of thinking wasn’t going to get me into the club. I couldn’t use a ticket, either, because they were sold out.

“I don’t even want to see the show. I could stand right inside.” I tried once more, smiling a little this time, trying to show I could be nice. And I could. I was just tired and frustrated, and I wanted to talk to Jacen, and I damn well knew he was performing here tonight.

“Sure.” He rolled his eyes, interest already fading.

“Oh, come on. Please? What will it hurt?”

“Well, it could cost me my job,” he said sardonically.

“Oh, and that junkie who rubbed against you a few minutes ago…was she seated in the VIP section?” If he was going to be a hard-ass, so was I.

His eyes narrowed. “What was that?”

“Hey, I don’t care how you make extra money, but don’t act like everybody who gets in has a ticket.”

“They have a ticket,” he said in a low voice. “Me. Now…you need to move on along. You think you’re the only cute little honey to come along and claim to be from Melbourne or wherever just to have a few minutes with the Casanova of Queensland?” His sneer was interrupted briefly by his own amused smirk.

“I’m impressed,” I snapped out. “You learned how to string together a few words in an alliterative manner. Too bad you struck out on geography. We’re from New South Wales.”

But all he did was laugh. Apparently, he’d decided just because I suspected he was helping junkies get inside didn’t mean I was there to cause trouble. “See, I knew you were a fake. Wales is in England. Jacen is from Australia.”

Okay, no, he was just a moron.

“You’re an idiot.” I should’ve just shut up. I knew it. But I felt half desperate at this point, and talking with Jacen would’ve been a welcome relief. He’d always known how to handle things. At times, it had been frustrating, that cocky arrogance of his, but I could use some of that brash certainty now. “Try googling New South Wales, see where it is. I’ll give you five bucks if it’s in England. Oh, and Wales isn’t in England, either. It’s part of Great Britain.”

He finally figured out I was insulting him. “Look, sweetheart…”

“Look, sweetheart.” I snorted. “I hear that line all the time.”

He wadded up the phone number I’d passed him and tossed it on the floor.

Rude asshole.

He nodded at somebody as they passed by, then looked back at me, eyes dropping briefly on the neckline of my t-shirt. “Trust me, I know Jacen. You’re not his type.” A faint smile quirked his lips. “Of course, if you wanna hang out later, maybe you and I could have a drink. You could get to know me. I might pass a number on…after a while.”

I balled my hand up into a fist. The thing was, if Jacen had wandered by just then and caught what this blowhard had been saying, and realized who I was? He’d kill him. No, first he’d call Kaleb. They’d discuss the best way to do it. Then Jacen would kill him.

I almost wanted to see it, but I knew it would mean letting Kaleb know I was in Vegas. I had considered, for a minute, calling Kaleb right now and putting him on the phone. While my brother wasn’t famous, he had been this company’s top dancer for a while and no doubt he would know who this jerk was. The asshole’s name tag said he’d been serving the ladies here for ten years.

Serving. My ass.

Ogling and leering was more like it.

“Look, I’m a friend of Jacen’s from Australia. I’m in town,” I said. “Can’t you just pass a message on?” I wasn’t going to sink so low as to flirt with this guy, but I managed a polite enough smile. “You don’t have to give him a phone number. Just…”

Shit. I wasn’t going to tell this guy the name of the hotel where I was staying.

But it wasn’t necessary because he was done. He cut me off, tone bored now that it was clear I wasn’t going to play his game. “The tickets are all sold. We get this shit all the time, you know. Somebody comes in with that phony Aussie accent. I haven’t heard an accent that fake since Olivia Newton-John was in Grease. I’m surprised you haven’t thrown a G’day, mate at me.”

“Oh, really.” I was so mad I couldn’t see straight, but I drew in a breath, held it, then another. The way he was smirking at me only pissed me off more. Phony accent my ass. G’day, mate? And… “You’re a fuck-stick, you know that, mate?” I gave him a simpering smile before focusing my attention on my phone. “Samson—” Yes, I’d nicknamed my phone Samson. “Where is Olivia Newton-John from?”

The bouncer frowned at me, already shaking his head as he asked, “What the fuck are you up to?”

Ignoring him, I watched as the phone processed the request, then, turning up the volume, I flipped it around toward him as the masculine voice recited off the data.

“Olivia Newtown John was born in Cambridge, England but she was raised in Melbourne, Australia. She is best known for playing—”

Silencing the phone, I shoved it into my pocket. “Your ear for accents sucks, considering you work a job where you run into people from every part of the bloody globe.”

“Get the hell out,” he snapped, pointing at me. “Now, or I call security.”

“Are you any better at that than customer service?” I fired back. “When I tell them you were willing to maybe pass on my number if I spent a little one-on-one time with you because I’m clearly not Jacen’s type?”

His mouth went tight around the corners.

I was going good now. “Like I said, you’re a fuck-stick. Unless Jacen went and changed an awful lot since I knew him in Sydney, the only type he ever had was female, breathing, and willing.” Tossing my hair back, I gave him a dismissive look. “I’ll get in touch with him, even if I have to call my brother. You might know him, Kaleb Hastings.”

His eyes widened as I said my last name, and his face paled. Yeah, he knew Kaleb all right. “Hey, just…hold up a minute.”

But I realized I’d crossed a line and turned on my heel. Tossing my hair back, I said over my shoulder, “Have a good night.”

* * *

“What were you thinking?” Hands gripping the rail, I stared out over the pale, glittering waters of the fountains in front of the world-famous Bellagio hotel. Some part of me was already thinking I should just swap out my return ticket and get ready to go home. I’d failed to do what I’d come here to do. I might as well go home and be a failure.

If that bouncer contacted my brother…

Would he be that stupid, though?

The bouncer, like most bouncers, was big, but big didn’t necessarily add up to much, and this fuck-stick had gone and made comments like he had… no, he wouldn’t go running to Kaleb.

But that just meant I’d gotten lucky.

Groaning, I dropped my head and stared at the ground.

That was when I noticed the shiny black shoes on the ground just a few inches from mine.

I didn’t leap away instinctively, although I wanted to. Instead, I slowly, calmly, lifted my head. I was on the Las Vegas strip at ten o’clock in front of the Bellagio. What all could go wrong?

Then I thought about the time I’d lived here and all the things that had gone wrong.

Turning, I focused on who was standing next to me and then shrieked, jumping backward without evening thinking.

The mime did the same thing, clapping his hands over his mouth as I collided with someone solid.

A pair of hands steadied me, gripping my arms. “Oh, shit. A mime,” the guy behind me said. “You okay?”

I glared at the mime. “No. Go away.”

The mime echoed me. No. Go away, he mouthed.

“I’m okay,” I said uneasily to the man I’d practically toppled. He let my arms go, and I sidestepped to the right.

So did the mime.

“Stop it.”

Stop it, the mime mouthed.

“What do I have to do to make you quit?”

In response, he reached into an imaginary coat, and with a flourish, he presented me with a real rose. Out of thin air.

It was…charming. Unsettling, because he was a mime. But charming.

“Okay, that was…nice.”

The mime beamed at me then held out his hand. Calmly and patiently.

With a sigh, I pulled out a couple of ones and pushed it into his hand, careful not to touch him. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I knew how these things started. People like this around here were like the trolls under the bridge. You had to pay the fee to pass in peace.

* * *

Lying in bed, holding a rose from a creepy mime, I brooded over the exchange with the bouncer.

I could’ve handled that so much better.

Like…in two thousand ways, I could’ve handled it better. Other things I could’ve called him on. Should’ve called him on, maybe.

Like the way he’d been leering at me. What gave him the right to treat me like that? To talk to me like that?

You’ve got to rebuild your confidence. Your sense of self-worth. The calm, gentle voice in my head was Astra’s.

Piety’s voice was much less compassionate. When people treat you like that, kick them in the teeth. Maybe not literally, but you don’t have to standby like a doormat. You’ve got spine. Show it.

“Like I’d shown the mime.” Laughing a little, I lifted the rose to my nose and breathed in the scent, then closed my eyes. “Knock down a stranger, shout at a mime, then pay him off. All will be good.”

The idea had me sighing and I opened my eyes, staring at the rose.

“Kick them in the teeth,” I muttered. If I’d kicked that bouncer in the teeth…

That image, abruptly, had me cringing with remembrance.

I’d done that before—kicked somebody in the teeth. And not just somebody. But Jacen.

Although to this day, I still wished he hadn’t been on the receiving end of my bad temper. I really, really wish it had been that manky ex of his. I’d told him she was cheating on him, and he hadn’t believed me. Not until I’d proven it.

* * *

One of these days, Jacen was going to notice me. Maybe I was only thirteen, but I was practically a woman now. I’d definitely treat him better than Chatty Cathy who had already slept with three other guys on the football team. She only liked Jacen because he was the captain. Even Kaleb knew it, but he’d told me it wasn’t any of my business and I needed to let it go.

The only one who understood was my brother’s sort-of girlfriend, Lara. Of course, even she thought of it like some childhood crush, but that was okay. I knew what was real.

And even if he didn’t even love me like I loved him, I was done watching Cheating Chatty Cathy treat him like shit.

I’d left Kaleb a note, telling him I was spending the night at a friend’s. He and Jacen were at a movie, because Cathy had one of her girl things. I’d already figured out the code. I’d been at the mall the first time she’d had one of her girl things—and she’d been with Bryant, another guy from the football team. He’d seen me. She hadn’t. Later, he’d told me he’d take me out for ice cream if I wouldn’t mention it to Kaleb. I’d taken the ice cream, but I hadn’t made any promises about not telling Jacen.

My uncle Stewart had already been in bed by the time I’d left, so all I had to do was figure out a good reason for being late when I went back home. I could’ve always tried to find a friend to spend the night with, but I hadn’t made many friends at the new school.

And most of my old friends…

They didn’t know what to think of me now. They wanted to talk about my parents. I didn’t. They wanted to ask how I was. I was fine. It’d been two years. How long were they going to keep asking?

But I was happy enough. Why wouldn’t I be? Stewart let me stay up as late as I wanted, and I didn’t have a curfew. He’d said he didn’t want me dating yet, but I doubted he’d care much if I did start. He worried about my grades, but I kept them up so he and Kaleb couldn’t complain.

I didn’t sleep too good, but that was just because I had so much on my mind. Lately, I’d been swiping cigarettes to help blow away the clouds in my brain. Between that and coffee, I thought maybe I was getting a grip on things and doing okay.

I could use a cigarette now, that was for sure. I kind of hated how I got all twitchy and nervous when I didn’t have one after a while—and it happened a lot. It wasn’t all that easy to get cigarettes when you were thirteen. I mostly had to steal them. I’d lucked out earlier when I’d swiped an entire pack from Cheating Chatty Cathy’s purse.

She’d left it on the porch at Uncle Stewart’s where she’d been trying to dig Jacen’s tonsils out of his throat with her tongue earlier today. It just looked…uncomfortable, the way she kissed him. She couldn’t be that good at it. I’d be better.

I’d been watching from just inside the door, and I’d gone outside, unable to stand to watch him kiss her. I’d walked straight over to where her purse had been, boosted myself onto the railing, and the bright pink bag had fallen down into the flower bushes.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”

She looked like she wanted to hit me, but she’d never touch me with Jacen around. I’m smiled sweetly as I picked all her stuff up and stuffed everything except the cigarettes back inside the purse.

I’d already been furious, because I’d heard her talking to a guy a bit before. She was meeting him at Jacen’s house of all places. Right across the street, while Jacen was at a movie with my brother and I was here.

That’s when I knew I had to do something.

So…I was.

Right now, I was working my way around to the backyard where Jacen’s mom had a hot tub. It had been a ‘girl gift’ she’d bought herself last year when she’d gotten a nice bonus check. I was so jealous, but she let me climb in with her whenever I wanted, as long as I didn’t stay inside more than ten minutes. She was overprotective like that. But in a nice way, kind of like my mom would’ve been.

And that made me even madder when I saw that bitch climbing into the hot tub with somebody who definitely wasn’t Jacen. The guy was too tall and too bulky.

Swallowing nervously, I eased my camera up and snapped a picture.

It sucked.

There wasn’t enough light to get a decent one of the guy. The glow coming from the window showed her, but it wasn’t enough for the guy. What if she’d been in the hot tub with Jacen before and she could use that as an excuse? I hadn’t been hiding in these stupid bushes for over an hour just for this to not work.

Slowly, I slid out from the bushes and moved closer to the car. I could hear the usual night sounds around me and focused on them to calm my nerves.

It was all good. I’d just get this picture—

“Who is that?”

I froze.

A moment later, a light shone in my face, and I realized there was more than just one guy here.

Bryant.

Shit.

Gulping, I backpedaled just as he said my name.

“Fuck me!” he half-shouted, voice dropping to a whisper at the end.

Cathy’s voice rose up. But I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I was already bolting for the house across the street.

I’d get inside, go to bed.

No. Get inside, throw away the note, go to bed—

“Get her, dammit!” Cathy shouted.

“Leave her alone,” Bryant said. “She’s just a kid.”

Another voice cursing.

Something caught me, knocked me down.

That was when I got scared. Really scared.

Whoever it was flipped me over, and I gaped up at a big man with a face uglier than anything I’d ever seen. He leered down at me. “What do we have…”

A car engine interrupted him and headlights shone across his features, highlighting a deep brow and jutting jaw, a mouth that was too small for his face and eyes too wide.

“Hey, what are you doing in my…Camry?”

Jacen’s familiar voice had me screaming.

Kaleb and Jacen came running just as Cathy appeared from the backyard, sobbing.

Dumbfounded, I listened as she tried to convince Jacen that the big guy—she called him Tool—and Bryant had kidnapped her and brought her here. They were going to rape her and do terrible things to her, and then when I’d shown up they’d said they’d do it to me too.

“She’s a liar!” I shouted just as Jacen shot Bryant a look, not sure if he believed any of it.

“She’s upset,” Cathy said, sniffling. “She’s just a little girl, and she’s upset.”

“You’re a…slut!” I shouted it and in the back of my mind, I heard my mother’s voice scolding me for that word. Sad, disappointed. But it wasn’t a lie. “She’s been having sex with the guys on the team, Jacen.” I jerked away from Kaleb and glared at him. “Ask my brother. He’ll tell you.”

Kaleb was looking at Tool like he wanted to make him into one, but when Jacen slid him a look, Kaleb shrugged. “Guys talk. You know how it is.”

“You little…”

Cathy lifted a hand to smack me. I jumped on her, but Kaleb caught me and pulled me back before I had a chance to do more than hit her once.

“I’m going to knock the shit out of that brat!” she shrieked, lunging for me.

I kicked, snarled, swung my arms.

And then I could see Jacen looking down at me.

What? I wanted to scream it at him. What did I do?

His eyes were so sad. Desperate, I wrenched at Kaleb’s hold, jerking and bucking. Jacen looked away again, shaking his head, and I tried even harder to get free. I pulled my legs back and kicked them forward...just as he turned back.

And I kicked Jacen right in the mouth.