Body Shot (Tapped Out) Read Online Free PDF

kidnapped, Mia had fought hard to keep Mama’s memories alive for me.
    So many things had changed the day my sister had been taken. My dad, before he’d passed shortly thereafter from a heart attack. Mia. Me.
    I’d always been the strong one, the one who had everything together. I’d had a counselor after Mia came home again, until it had been decided I was so well-adjusted that I didn’t need one.
    Yeah, not so much.
    “You should watch ‘Pretty Woman’,” I told Mia before realizing what I’d said. It was my sister’s favorite movie, and one we’d watched together a million times, but right now the idea of the hooker with a heart of gold struck too close to home when girls were getting paid for blowjobs a few feet away.
    Not that I would ever do that. But I might do something else. Like…dance.
    “I’ve seen it so many times I can recite the lines myself. Besides, you’re not here. I usually wait to watch it with you.”
    Was I imagining things or was that really a whine in her voice? She probably sensed I was in a place I didn’t belong in. One that might push me closer to an edge I hadn’t realized I’d been tiptoeing on forever.
    “You sound like you need the feels. Go ahead and start it,” I said, forcing myself out of the corner I’d disappeared into. It was so much easier to hide. To do what I was told. But I was eighteen now, and it was time I made my own way.
    Dancing would be a hell of a lot better than pushing salads on people all day. I’d make twice or three times the money in half the time. Then I’d quit, armed with the experience.
    At least I would’ve had some.
    “I’ll be home before Edward climbs onto the fire escape,” I promised Mia, hanging up before she could guilt me into heading home without finding out what it would be like.
    If I hated it, I could quit. I’m sure women quit here all the damn time.
    Somehow I made it down the spiral staircase, with my palm pressed flat to the wall beside me to help with my balance. Dizziness swarmed my head, blurred my vision. Laughing faces in front of me wavered and bled together, turning into one taunting mass. Maybe I really wasn’t capable of handling an atmosphere like this. I was meant to stay in my apron behind my chopping board, making food for people without ever truly finding a place to belong. Shadows like me clung to corners. I’d never been the one to dominate a news story. Never been the one that a man would risk his life to have. I was destined to hide away in the kitchen while the party raged on down the hall.
    Unless I took steps to change that. Tonight. No backing down.
    Taking advantage of Giovanni being occupied upstairs, I pushed my way through the crowd until I was in the hallway where we’d talked earlier. He’d manhandled me, but he still hadn’t been too rough. His intention wasn’t to hurt me, just scare me off. I’d seen the truth of that in his eyes.
    But he’d failed on both levels. I was hurt, and I wasn’t going anywhere. I was going to see this through. Not because he spent time here. Or not only because of that. Something was going on with him beyond his search for no strings sex acts, and I needed to know what.
    I found the office the guy at the door had directed me to and knocked. Knocked again when there was no response. Anger and humiliation and something darker and twistier had propelled me to this point. This seedy club should’ve made me flee into the night and never come back. But for some reason, I was…lured.
    Just like Giovanni lured me. There was a mystery to both, more that lurked beneath the surface, and I wouldn’t find out just what if I went home to my safe, chaste little bed.
    No, fuck that, I didn’t even have my own bed in my sister’s apartment. I couched it. She shared the bed with Fox when he stayed over. My sister and I couldn’t live crammed together like sardines forever. Once I had my training, I’d have to work my way up as a chef.
    Here, I’d start at the top