Chapter 10

10

H adley | Sacramento, California | Early 2000s

"This is the big one, Hailey," Grant said excitedly. "I've never had one of my girls get invited to an event like this. Do you understand what they are paying? This is for high-class escorts, true women of the night."

"You make it sound like they want a vampire," Hadley chuckled, lounging on the couch in Grant's garage.

"This is a sex party for the wealthy on Halloween. These people have nothing better to spend their dirty industry money on. Everyone there will be either beautiful or powerful. You, darlin', must be both," Grant instructed, pacing around the carpet in front of her, eyes on his feet while he ranted. "If we can get in with this crowd"—he stopped in front of her, hands in front of his face to emphasize his point—"then both our lives will change forever."

"I will not let you down, General."

"Smart-ass," he said, rolling his eyes .

The side door to the garage opened, and the sharp sound of stilettos hitting concrete echoed through Hadley's ears.

"Ah, here's my star," Grant said, arms stretched out wide to greet the terrifying yet petite dominatrix. The temperature was in the high nineties, but she still wore tight leather leggings and an overly intricate corset top that gave her just enough cleavage to raise an eyebrow.

"Thank you, thank you, for agreeing to help," Grant said, kissing her on the cheek before pulling her in for a hug.

"You can let go now," she said in a sing-songy voice that had Hadley smirking at the pair. They were such opposites, and yet they got along so well.

"Exactly what is it that we are doing?" Hadley asked.

"You are not getting thrown to the wolves tonight without any prep. We are going shopping. Masquerades require a special aesthetic," Reign said, looking Hadley up and down, assessing. She pursed her lips at her and frowned slightly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Chop chop, little Hailey," Reign continued, clapping her hands together. "Today is Halloween after all, I've got a full book of clients to attend to tonight."

Hadley stood up, feeling inadequate compared to the woman she was to go shopping with. Her hair was thrown into a messy braid that trailed down over her left shoulder as if she were in elementary school. Her attire was baggy jeans, flip-flops, and a very fitted black t-shirt that showed off a hint of her midriff. In no way was she prepared for an elegant adult event. Shopping was essential, but Reign was slightly terrifying.

Hadley waved goodbye to Grant and followed Reign out of the garage. The two walked down the driveway to where a beautiful candy-red Mercedes sat. A pair of neighbors who were out walking their aggressive dogs eyed it without shame—the wealth of the car stuck out far too much in this neighborhood.

"Nice car," Hadley said, popping into the passenger seat.

"It is, isn't it? I traded my tired old blue one just yesterday."

Loud bass-driven dance music attacked Hadley's ears as Reign pushed a button to start the vehicle. She threw the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway a bit too fast. The rest of the ride went similarly, and they pulled into a mall parking lot twenty minutes away.

"We can go in through the department store," Reign instructed as they exited the car in a flat parking lot. "Unless you wanted a pretzel."

"That sounds pretty good." Hadley smiled.

"I was kidding," Reign said, shutting down any hope of bonding.

The pair walked through the double automatic doors of a large boxy building and were immediately hit with twenty or so different scents of perfume and store clerks walking around wearing witches' hats or cat ears.

"I feel like I should be wearing something like that," Hadley said, pointing at the store clerk who had donned a pair of bunny ears. "Paired with some overly complicated set of lingerie, of course."

"No." Reign put her hand on Hadley's back, weaving them through the perfume and designer purses until they reached a chair in the makeup aisle. A bored middle-aged woman with overbleached hair and caked-on makeup in orange tones walked up to them.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked, giving Reign's fierce outfit an extra side-eye.

"Yes, we need a complete makeup look on my friend Hailey here," Reign said.

"What's her costume?" the clerk asked Reign.

"It will be an elegant dress. We will be buying that next upstairs. I want to avoid silly costumes and highlight her as a mature damsel under a mask." Reign said, making a rainbow with her hands.

"That I can do," she winked at Hadley. "Will you be buying products or paying for a makeup look?"

"We will buy the products," Reign said to the makeup artist and turned to Hadley, putting her hand on her shoulder. "Today is my treat."

The makeup clerk turned to go up and down the different aisles, grabbed multiple items from the different brands, and displayed them to Reign for her approval.

"She needs more of a blue tint in that red lipstick. Corals won't work well on her since her cheeks are so naturally blushed," Hadley heard Reign say.

Hadley rolled her eyes, although she was secretly enjoying this. She hadn't had a girls' day since her mom was healthy and maybe that wasn't what this was exactly, but it was close enough.

Thirty-five minutes later, the make-up clerk applied setting spray to her face and then turned to Reign to swipe her black metal credit card.

"Ready for the big reveal?" the makeup clerk asked, picking up a medium-sized hand mirror and urging Hadley to take it.

Hadley had never felt that heavy makeup looked appealing on her. She peeked into the mirror and wasn't surprised. She had been transformed into a joke. Her heavy eyeliner curved down the inside corner, almost spilling onto her nose. Her lips were overlined, making them seem too big for her face. The contouring along her jawline was overdone. She felt fake. She felt like she wanted to hide.

"What do you think?" the makeup clerk asked, doubtful from Hadley's utter silence.

"She looks perfect," Reign interjected, pulling Hadley out of the chair.

Reign handed Hadley a small decorative bag filled with makeup and beauty products and thanked the clerk as they turned and walked away. Instead of going to the next area, Reign pulled Hadley down one of the branded makeup aisles, searching until she found what she was looking for.

"This is an old theater trick. It's not great for your skin though, so we only want to do this when there could be a lot of acrobatics involved in the night," she smirked, holding out a can of hairspray towards Hadley's face.

Hadley raised her eyebrows and took a small step back.

"Close your eyes," Reign commanded, and Hadley's eyes snapped shut as if they were never to open again. Reign pressed down on the hair spray sample as it shot out of the bottle, landing on Hadley's skin. She scrunched her face, feeling sticky and stiff .

"Alright, now you're set for your super secret fancy masquerade sex party," Reign winked with no shame of anyone overhearing.

"Am I expected to just . . . do it . . . with any random guest who walks up to me?" Hadley asked in horror. She hadn't thought that far ahead. If that was what the big leagues meant, maybe she wasn't ready.

"I think you are expected to mingle with guests when it seems right," Reign said, putting her forehead to Hadley's. Hadley grabbed Reign's hands.

"How do you get through all this? Sometimes I feel so guilty. I think my mom would be horrified if she saw what I am doing to get by right now," Hadley asked. She bit her lip to hold back tears welling in the corner of her eyes.

Reign pulled her head away and looked at Hadley, her mouth a straight line, her eyes unreadable.

"Even if it feels like you don't, even if it feels like you're all alone, you always have a choice, Hailey. You don't have to go tonight. You don't ever have to see me again. You don't ever have to see Grant either. I know you can forge another way if you try."

Hadley tried to slow her breathing, tried to push the guilt away, and tried not to overanalyze the weight of Reign's words. She straightened up, letting her hands slip away, holding them to her heart.

"Where do we go from here? What's next?" Hadley asked, pushing those thoughts, those feelings, back down inside her.

Reign's face remained unreadable for another second, and then Hadley saw the flicker that turned on the act that she wore in front of the world. Reign smiled, showing all of her meticulously white teeth.

"Next, we will find you a dress."

After two escalators traveling up, the pair reached the woman's formal section. Hadley felt like she was shopping for prom with all the glitter and pale blues that were hanging proudly from the mannequins.

Reign hit the rack on the very far right of the section, obviously knowing what she was looking for.

"Vixen, vixen, vixen," Hadley heard Reign chant as she passed over dress after dress, the hangers clanging together after a metal slide on metal.

"Found it!" she exclaimed, victory on her face as she held a garment above her head. Hadley examined the black fabric adorned with shoulder feathers, a plunging neckline down to the belly button, and a transparent lace skirt.

"Is that a dress or lingerie?" Hadley laughed in disbelief.

"Why don't you just try it on?" Reign rolled her eyes and walked toward the fitting rooms at the back of the store.

"This must be the goddaughter; sexy dress," the overly enthusiastic woman running the fitting room exclaimed as Hadley approached.

"That sounds like me, I guess," Hadley responded, unsure why that detail was a part of their ruse. She pointed to herself with both index fingers and, once again, felt that she was pretending to be a grown-up. Hadley walked to one of the three dressing rooms that lined a mock runway area set up with a full-length, four-paned mirror.

"Do you need help getting into this?" the attendant asked, hanging the dress up for her in the furthest of the rooms as Reign made herself comfortable on a chaise lounge right outside the privacy curtains.

Hadley mouthed a polite "no thank you" and began the challenge of undressing without wiping a face full of makeup off onto her fitted shirt. After some light gymnastics, Hadley managed to pull only the muscle in the left side of her neck, stretching to accomplish the task.

"Shit," she whimpered, frozen in light pain.

She replayed Reign's words from earlier, imagining what she could do from here. She could find another part-time seasonal job as the holidays came around. That seemed to be the only time a company was desperate enough to hire a teenager with no skills.

She could try to go to community college. Maybe there was a scholarship she could get for English, for writing, even. She hadn't considered college. She wrote it off as a future she could have had if her mother hadn't passed away. She wasn't sure how that would solve her more immediate needs of continuing to pay rent, though.

"Are we doing okay in there?" The bright voice of the attendant came through on the other side of the curtains, snapping Hadley's shoulders back down as the muscles around her neck relaxed.

"Almost done," she lied as she pulled the dress off the hanger. With the grace of a neurosurgeon, Hadley pulled it over her head and wiggled it down over her body. It hugged her hips tightly. She found herself grateful for the depth of the neckline, making it much easier to avoid sliding the fabric over her face.

"Okay, I'm coming out."

Hadley pulled back the curtains and stepped out from the dressing room onto the runway. Reign stood up, and the attendant was beaming.

"We'll take it." Reign smirked and turned out of the dressing room. "Hang on a moment. I'll be right back."

Hadley turned to face the large full-length mirror, and, at first, didn't recognize herself. Between the dress and the makeup, she was a completely different person. This person, this woman who stood before her in the mirror, was someone to be intimidated by, someone who knew their worth.

The dress itself looked more complex than it did on the hanger. The sequins and beads were now highlighted, stretched into forming constellations that gleamed like distant galaxies. Delicate straps, adorned with motifs straight from the night sky, crisscrossed over the open back, adding an extra layer of mystique. The feathers, as ridiculous as she thought they originally looked, made her waist appear phenomenally tiny. Hadley suddenly had a full hourglass figure. She truly embodied a vixen, a queen of the night.

Too bad you can't grow fangs.

Minutes later, Reign stomped back in, holding a pair of nude open-toe heels that matched the height of her own, and a simple yet lovely black lace mask.

"I think we should do some light curls, add a little volume to your hair, but other than that, I'd say we are ready to go," she announced, walking straight up to Hadley and grabbing her ankle, trying to force a heel on her foot.

"I'm not wearing these," Hadley said with an authority that surprised her. "I cannot walk in heels, and I think I look just fine without them."

She happily grabbed the mask from Reign, holding it to her eyes to test it.

"You really should consider learning to wear heels, Hailey. They're a power move," Reign said.

After fluttering her lips, Hadley sat across the velvet green chaise and allowed Reign to put the heels back on her feet. Hadley stood and gazed at herself again in the mirror. She did feel powerful. She did feel beautiful. She felt a little dangerous.

Reign and Hadley drove back to Grant's garage. Pulling a bag from her trunk, Reign was armed with heated rollers, combs, hair oil, and hair spray.

"My friend would freak out if he knew what kind of party he was missing out on here. Maybe I can start getting him to drive me to jobs. His car barely runs but I'm sure soon I'll be able to buy something," Hadley said, mostly to herself, letting her guard down while sitting on the couch as Reign held large tufts of her hair.

"Hailey," Reign started after continuing her work in silence. "I was curious if I've ever met your mom. What was her name?"

"Where would you have met my mom?" Hadley turned her head and winced, her neck hitting the heat of the curling iron.

"Sorry about that," Reign said. "Tell me your mom's name."

Hadley sat up straight instantly, pushed under Reign's command, unsuspecting.

"Allienna. My mom's name was Allienna Kin, the same last name as me," Hadley answered. Reign paused for a millisecond but recovered, keeping her hands moving as her suspicions were confirmed.

"Did you know her?" Hadley asked, suddenly feeling insecure and small again, under Reign's intensity.

"I did not. I was thinking of someone else," she said before moving out from behind the couch .

"You will not tell anyone you work with your real last name. Okay, you're ready, and now it's time for me to go to my appointments for the night. You're going to do great," Reign said, opening her arms and hugging Hadley quickly before taking off.

Once she heard Reign's new car back out of the driveway, she pulled her phone out of her purse, laid down on the couch, opened up the camera, and began exploring the best angle to capture the entire ensemble.

Once settled on above her and slightly to the left, she sent a selfie to Hector.

My boss is hosting a Halloween party tonight and I got to get ready with his other assistant.

Wow, you look amazing. This isn't a filter?

Only if a couple of pounds of makeup counts as a filter. I'll be home pretty late tonight. I assume you have plans?

I will not throw a Halloween rager at my best friend's apartment tonight.

Hadley's eyes widened, not sure if he was joking or serious. If he was serious, should she care? How much trouble could he get in?

Before she could type back, Grant burst through the garage side door, his mouth hanging open but smiling.

"Holy shit," he said, eyes bulging out of his head, "if this look doesn't get you a permanent position in this elite . . . society, then I don't know what else would. You look super fly. You sure I can't entice a friendly blow job out of you still?"

Hadley bit her bottom lip and grimaced. "I'm still going to pass."

"Alright, fine. Let's go. You're supposed to be over there around eight."

Grant waved his hands towards the door, and Hadley stood to join, ready to get in the most beat-up car she had ever ridden in while looking the most glamorous she had ever looked .

Twenty minutes later, they were wrapped in the grandness of the homes in East Sacramento.

"This is it," Grant announced, pointing at a large mansion. He pulled over and parked on the street while many other people around them were doing the same, stepping out of their cars in various attire ranging from straight lingerie to food service vests to other adult Halloween costumes.

Grant and Hadley walked up to the mansion, a veritable architectural opus, standing amidst a meticulously tended garden and a large, freshly mowed lawn. That was the truest sign of wealth in this city: green grass. It was so opulent and wasteful in a state like California that lived in constant drought.

Bathed in a warm glow, the cream-colored exterior reflected the sun setting beyond it. The white Corinthian columns reminded her of a Roman colosseum. Dormer windows punctuated the roof, and the mosaic of earth-toned roof titles harmonized with the property's lush garden surroundings.

Grant and Hadley walked the winding pathway behind other guests through an oversized driveway. Several black luxury SUVs waited with their drivers standing guard, getting ready to settle into place for the evening. Hadley counted three statues and two small fountains lining the main entrance as she approached the double-door entryway to find a small line.

A security guard with warm tan skin and dark hair pulled into a tight bun was checking in every guest, a clipboard in his hands. The couple who stood before them was granted access inside, and the security guard, wearing an all-black button-up shirt and tie, moved his attention to Hadley.

"Name? Guest or vendor?" he asked, his utility belt on his hips swaying and highlighting out the two handguns he had accessible. Hadley's nerves kicked into high gear.

"Vendor, I guess. Hailey Rabbit should be on your little list, there, cowboy," Grant answered and winked at the entirely unamused guard. He scanned his finger down the clipboard until stopping a few pages in .

"Because that sounds like a real name. I've got something for you and then you can join the other girls inside," the guard said to Hadley, and then pulled out an envelope under the very last page of his guest list before handing it over to Grant.

"You know where I'll be, darlin'," Grant winked at her, tucking the envelope in his back pocket.

The guard stepped aside to usher Hadley into the manor. She took a breath, nodded her head, and put her mask on before walking inside.