Scarred (Book 1, #1) Read Online Free Page B

gone. Chloe could hear the set that was playing when she came in still playing outside. That meant she had about ten minutes to change before those girls came off stage and filed in to the dressing room.
    She slipped off her blouse and then the kami she had underneath. She left her bra on and slipped off her pants next. She was always nervous when she changed in the dressing room. There were no private dressing areas so it was pure luck that not many people had caught her naked so far. The scars across her back were plentiful and could have even passed for those of someone who had been publicly flogged.
    She’d been flogged all right, more times than she cared to remember. By the only two men in her life that was supposed to protect her. Jesse was always really good at keeping the scars and bruises where no one would see them underneath her clothes. He used to like telling her that if she was ever stupid enough to try and cheat on him, any other man would be sickened by the sight of her without her clothes on. That didn’t matter now. She couldn’t even imagine the day when that would happen again.
    The scar that ran itself from the top of her breast down her side, along her ribcage was the last one he’d given her. It was the last one any man would ever give her. It was the one that she let her fingers play across sometimes to remind herself how far she’d come since that night. She was lost in her thoughts and slipping into her shorts when she suddenly heard voices. She tried grasping for her blouse before they got close enough to see her, but it was too late. Two of the girls had walked into the dressing room and stopped dead in their tracks.
    “Oh my God, Chloe! What the fuck happened to your back?” Delilah, who had just turned old enough to dance in the club and still had some of her baby fat, wanted to know.
    “Jeez girl, if your man did that, you need to get his ass charged.” That was Margo, an African-American beauty who refused to tell anyone how old she was and nobody could tell. She looked about twenty-seven, but she’d been dancing already for ten years.
    Chloe took a deep breath and turned to face them, buttoning the shirt she said, “I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
    Margo gave her a “fuck-you” then look, but Delilah wasn’t mature enough to realize when to keep her mouth shut just yet. “I wondered why you didn’t strip. I thought it was a moral thing or something. Chloe, if someone is hurting you, we should tell Roxi. She can help you. She kicked my tweaker ex-boyfriend out of the parking lot last week without even taking the bouncers out with her.”
    Chloe knew that this kid had no idea the kind of memories that even thinking about the scars brought up, much less talking about them. That didn’t serve to make her any less pissed off however as she said, “Listen, Delilah. I asked you once to mind your own fucking business, okay? I’m not going to ask nicely again.”
    Margo looked over at her and said, “Why are you being such a bitch? The girl was trying to be nice.”
    “What’s going on?” Roxi walked in to the room and as she did, she looked her up and down. “Chloe, aren’t you on in five minutes?”
    “Yeah, I was trying to get ready...”
    “Then she had to stop so that she could act like a bitch,” Margo said.
    “Roxi, Chloe has terrible scars on her back like someone’s been cutting her,” Delilah the rat said.
    Chloe glared at her as Roxi said, “You two go get something to drink and mind your own damn business.”
    When they had scurried out Roxi looked at Chloe and said, “One of these days, you’ll have to talk about it to someone. When you’re ready, you know where to find me. Now get your ass dressed and get out there. I just saw Derek Stark walk in.”
    “Okay, thanks.” She left and Chloe hurriedly finished dressing. She glanced in the mirror long enough to fluff her long brown hair and reapply her lipstick. She slipped on her