“She was hired to be an escort.”
“For you?” Her eyes grow wide.
“No … not for me. But the company she was going to work for is contracted with us.”
“And you came to her place because?”
“Because we test all the girls out that way. Make sure they show up, do as they are told. A trial run, so to speak. A lot of men in Vegas use escorts, and if my brand is going to be connected with any company, I want to be sure we’re sending out high-end products.”
Emmy shakes her head, takes another step back.
“Did you just call my sister, the one dying in twelve hours, a high-end product?”
“Actually, no.” I snort, frustrated at this line of questioning. “I met Janie a week before the crash, if I have my dates right. And after the trial run, I told her boss she wasn't up to par.”
“Ohmigod, Ace, you did not just say that.”
“Would you rather I lie to you?” I ask, my voice loud, because now I am getting fucking pissed. “I thought that was the problem, you not trusting me. Now you can. Now you know I wasn't the monster driving the car.” I'm yelling now, and it’s pushing Emmy away, but now I’m fired up and I’m not stopping until she knows the absolute truth.
“Okay, then, I believe you. If Grotto is getting called in for questioning … maybe it was him. I don't know. I don't know anything,” she cries, her hands splayed in front of her, confusion written over every inch of her skin. “I thought I did, but then every time I see you … you make everything I think I know … blurred.”
“Then let me clear it up, Emmy Rose,” I say, my voice cutting and clear. “I never fucked your sister. I wouldn't have touched her with a ten-foot pole. She wasn’t the kind of girl I'd have hired to clean my fucking toilets, let alone touch my motherfucking cock.”
Emmy slaps me across the face, so hard it stings. She slaps me with the sort of strength I knew she possessed, the sort of strength I'd like to see more of.
The sort of strength that only exists because she has been refined by the fire—the fire she has inside her because she was born from a place of addicts and no money, and broken homes and broken dreams. She came from something burning to the ground, but this woman has risen from the motherfucking ash.
She's a phoenix rising and she's beautiful when she flies.
I pin her to the elevator wall, her arms above her head, her eyes alive, her eyes on mine.
She can't move. She doesn't want to.
All Emmy Rose wants is me.
“I told you I love you and I motherfucking meant it.”
I kiss her hard, sealing myself to her mouth, her heart. I kiss her hard and seal myself to her goddamned soul.
EMMY
I left the elevator after he kissed me. My entire world broken and alive.
He kissed me and told me he loved me, and I believe it.
When his lips pressed against mine it was as if a flood of truth washed over me.
Janie is dying, and that’s tragic and incomparable.
But maybe her death is allowing something else to be brought to life.
Maybe her death will allow Ace and I to live.
Is that crazy? Is it the flawed logic of a lonely girl grasping for sense in a screwed-up world?
I don't know and I don't care, because right now I need something that makes sense.
I change out of my uniform in the locker room, pull on my leggings and my flats. Yank on a tank top and a jean jacket. I shove my fishnets and pleather in my tote bag and get the hell out of here.
I'll see Ace again. Of course I will, because he’s all I have left.
I leave Spades Royalle and get a cab for the hospital.
Ace offered to come with, so I wouldn’t be alone. But I told him no. I see texts from Claire and Tess, asking WTF is going on—apparently word travels fast—and asking if I need their support. But I dash off a message saying thanks but no thanks.
Right now I need to be alone so I can say good-bye to the person who has known me longest in the world. So I can say good-bye to the story I wanted to be mine and Janie's … pages of redemption and happily-ever-afters.
That won't be our story … but maybe—just maybe—it will be Ace's and mine.
I've never been the sort of person who believed in Go—shit, I was in the chapel this week wondering where the angels were, where the Saints had gone—but maybe there is a God.
Maybe he's been looking out for me, making sure I won't have to be alone. Maybe Ace came into my life at the perfect moment. Maybe he arrived when Janie was leaving so I would never be truly alone in this world.
I get to the hospital, check in with the nurses and take my seat beside my sister.
I hold her hand all night. I don't let go because soon enough I'll be forced to walk away.