Not likely, she thought as she pictured Chris. The next chapter of her life felt more promising than the one she was closing. After Malibu, she wasn’t feeling unworthy of him anymore.
As she shook her breasts in the face of the large black man she was doing a lap dance for, her mind was elsewhere. She had learned long ago to fake enthusiasm at times like this. His hot breath moved across her breast to her nipple, which he closed his mouth around.
“No,” she said, moving back. “No touching.”
“Come on, you’ve got me all hot,” the man said.
“Well, it is a lap dance.”
He scowled at her and Abby reached for the twenty he had given her, tossing it on the table and walking away. She didn’t care anymore.
She spent much of the night in the back room, talking to the other dancers and killing time. She would miss seeing them, and she hoped a friendship between her and Charlotte would develop to make up for losing all her friends her age.
Though she usually stayed until the very end of the night, she decided to leave at two. It was slower by then, and she was anxious to go see Chris. She packed her bag for the next to last time and headed to her car.
As she was about to open her door, she was distracted by a sound she couldn’t place. She strained, waiting for it to return, and realized it was a woman moaning. She frowned, looking around to see if another dancer was outside having sex with a customer. It had been known to happen.
She walked toward the noise, crossing the parking lot and reaching the woods that bordered it. The sound was in there, but it was fainter now. Abby wondered if she should just go. But it worried her to think of a dancer alone in there with a strange man. Which of the girls had been stupid enough to go in there with someone?
She sighed, walking into the line of trees. As she got closer to the sound, her skin prickled with the awareness that it did not sound like the moans of sexual pleasure. Someone was in pain. Abby picked up her pace, dialing Mickey’s number on her phone as she struggled to find the voice in the darkness.
“Yes?” Mickey clipped in answer.
“Mick, get out here! Someone’s hurt! In the woods, by the parking lot. I can’t find them.”
Abby gave a gasp as her cell phone sailed from her hands. She momentarily wondered what had happened before her head struck the ground, hard. Had she tripped? As a fist made contact with her face, she knew she hadn’t.
For a second, she was too stunned to even think. The pain was intense, and she was still breathless from the blow to her head when she’d hit the ground. As her eyes focused, she made out the outline of the figure standing above her. The lights that glowed bright from the parking lot cast just a little light this far out.
A heavy foot delivered a sharp kick to her stomach, and she howled.
“Mickey!” she cried. What was intended as a scream was barely audible because she was so breathless.
She turned over, getting on all fours in hope of crawling away. The foot dug into her side this time, and she sprawled out as her body dropped flat into the ground. She stayed perfectly still, hoping to avoid another kick so she could catch her breath, and her eyes focused on something nearby that was familiar. It was red…what was it?
Her eyes widened in horror as she realized it was Amber’s hair. She was crumpled on the ground, immobile. Abby couldn’t tell if she was dead or alive.
“What have you done?” she mumbled into the ground.
“What she deserved,” a cold male voice said. “And now it’s your turn.”
Terror flowed through Abby’s veins as she curled into a ball. Amber was probably dead, and she would be soon. She thought of Audrey and Sara, wishing she could tell them she loved them more than anything.
She couldn’t just let this happen. At the very least, she had to try to get away, or fight back. She got to her hands and knees slowly, pulling herself up.
As she raised her head, she made out the face of her attacker. She hadn’t expected to recognize him, but she saw Amber’s least favorite customer leering at her.
“Ron!” she cried. “What are you doing?”
His lips curled into an evil smile as he delivered a punch to her face that made the world spin for just a second before it all disappeared in a flash of darkness.
The sting of an icy wind gust hit Abby’s face, and she picked up a faint noise. It was a rumbling. As she felt a quick bounce, she realized she was moving.
“Here, I’ll take it,” a woman’s voice said. Abby wanted to open her eyes, but she didn’t have the energy. She was scared, but she couldn’t remember why. And she was so tired.
The noise intensified suddenly, and she felt the body heat of someone standing over her.