Chapter 43

Mia

When I told Andy to have fun at work yesterday evening, when he’d kissed me on the forehead fondly and said, “See you tomorrow then,” I thought of nothing but the fact that yes, I’d see him again tomorrow. It’d be just like our life previously, when we used to live together, going about our daily routine. We’d been poor and struggling financially, but at least we were free and content.

How naïve I was.

I was still green in this cutthroat, dark, and dangerous world I’d just entered when I had decided to come here to the West Coast of America, first to Los Angeles and then Las Vegas. It was the world of James Maxwell, my brother’s creditor and, more recently, my master and lover.

At first I had no idea why I suddenly awoke. I was a light sleeper, always waking up in the middle of the night, my eyes wide open as I stared at the ceiling in the dark, my mind alert and my body tense. It was hard to change old habits, especially when fear played a huge part of your daily life. When your