Only Forever Read Online Free PDF Page A

Occasionally. Not everyone. Never me. ” I blink, dumbfounded. I don’t condone prostitution—but to each her own. But maybe I was wrong—really, really wrong. “That’s it. Right?”
    Gray’s head shakes slightly. “Don’t think so, baby.”
    Move over, stomachache. A surge of nausea hits me. “But I know the girls here. No one was forced.” Or maybe they were? I was always different, and no one ever stuck around long.
    Ryan shifts in his chair. “Looks like it’s airing out a couple of dirty cops, too. I don’t know. No one’s telling this rookie cop shit.”
    “I’m not stupid…” I can’t comprehend this. “I am so stupid. Oh, God.”
    “You’re not, baby.” Grayson’s placating voice doesn’t make me believe him.
    “I didn’t know. Until today—oh, God. The girl on the stage. Did they—” I’m not sure what to ask. Was she… sold without her consent? I knew it was wrong. Bad. But it didn’t occur to me that she was like—I don’t know— stolen and forced. “I’m going to be sick.”
    Quickly as I can, I’m out of Grayson’s arms and running toward a bathroom. I hover in the stall and wait to throw up. But I can’t get sick. It’s just an overwhelming, disgusting hold on me that I can shake.
    “What the hell!” I hit the divider wall as hard as I can but don’t feel better. I kick the door, and it slams shut just to bounce open again. “Ahhh,” I scream then collapse on the toilet seat and completely lose it.
    I sob into my hands, unable to breathe for how hard I’m choking. For years, I thought I had everything so under control, and now, under my nose, this is happening. It’s disgusting, and those women didn’t have a choice. I can’t imagine how scared or angry or fucked up they have to be. Drugged? Blackmailed? Kidnapped? I cannot wrap my mind around it.
    Knock. “Emma?” Ryan asks tentatively from the bathroom door.
    “Go away.”
    Minutes of crying pass, and there’s another knock. Footsteps that I know are Grayson’s come to the stall. “Ems, baby, you okay?”
    “Please just leave me alone.” I sniffle. “Please.”
    He ignores me and knocks on the stall door. “I’m worried about you.”
    “Don’t be. Just go away.” I don’t think I’ve cried in years, and this—no, everything—is just too much to keep in. I want to be alone.
    He bumps his fist against the door twice. “Alright, but I’m right outside the door if you need me.”
    “’Kay.”
    He leaves me, thank God. I hate how naive I’ve been. Traffickers? I’m so, so stupid.
    Finally, I slump. The motion-controlled lights turned off long ago, and the room is eerily quiet—until the damn door opens again, and the lights click back on. “Go,” I choke out, “away.”
    “Can’t do it, sweetheart.”
    Sarah. Oh, God. The stall door swings open, and there stands my best friend—in her pajamas and sneakers. Faster than I can thank her for showing up, she pulls me out of the stall.
    “Ryan called, and I met Grayson. So, we have a lot to talk about. But first, are you okay?”
    Tears burst out. “No.”
    She wraps me into a hug that I feel down to my toes. “Okay, it’s okay.”
    “I’m so stupid.”
    “No. You didn’t know. And you’ve been running yourself a thousand miles an hour. The only thing you focused on was Cally, not investigating the ills of the world.”
    “I should’ve known. I turned a blind eye to a lot of things.”
    “You can’t be the moral compass to everyone you meet.”
    I bite my lip. “I don’t know anything anymore. Grayson was dead, and now he’s not. Bruno’s a dick, but really, he’s a sex trafficker ? I mean, come on. Who misses stuff like that?”
    “Sweetheart. Stop.”
    “I feel like the stupidest person alive.”
    Sarah shakes her head. “Cherry danced here. No red flags. Ryan said something about an Internal Affairs investigation. So cops must have been in on it. There are beefy military dudes here who were undercover, so I say lots