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under this man’s oppressive black stare. “Haley,” she found herself saying, as if she knew better than to disobey any command.
    His fingers closed around her tiny hand and he brought her fingers to his lips. “So lovely to meet you,” he said in a soft voice that reverberated over her taut nerves like a charge of electricity. Even worse, he didn’t release her hand immediately. He took a seat beside her, his muscled thigh rock solid next to her bare leg.
    Haley met Billy’s eyes, and he seemed just as concerned by the man’s reaction as she was. “We don’t mean to take up much of your time, Mr. Isbecky,” he began, but their host silenced him with a cool stare.
    “Nonsense,” he said, as his fingers trailed over hers. “I always have time to make new friends.” Those cold, dark eyes slid back to hers. He pulled back her curtain of flaxen hair to reveal the ugly green and yellow bruises along her cheek. “Would you like to be my friend, Haley?”
    Tammy piped up at last. Haley could hear the fear in her voice. “You’ll have to forgive her,” she said, moving closer to Haley. “She’s new.”
    Isbecky chuckled low in his throat. His hand felt like a snake against her skin. Suddenly Haley would have done anything to rewind the clock twenty-four hours so she could spend her money on some rat-infested motel room. Billy seemed positively harmless in comparison.
    “We were all new once,” Isbecky declared. “Good thing you brought her to me first.”
    Haley could tell by their shared glance that this was exactly what Billy and Tammy had hoped to avoid, but neither dared to challenge him. In fact, when the man turned to Tammy and instructed her to take Haley upstairs, she was quick to comply.
    “What’s wrong?” Haley wanted to know the minute they got out of earshot.
    “Remember when I was telling you that you have to do whoever and whatever you have to do to survive?” Haley nodded. “Your education starts tonight. Whatever he wants, you give it. Don’t argue. Don’t fight. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to leave of your own free will.”
    Haley grabbed her arm to turn her around. “What are you saying?”
    Tammy glanced back toward the outer deck, where Billy and Mr. Isbecky were now conducting business of their own. “Look around you, baby,” she said, still avoiding Haley’s given name, as if saying it would make her more real, more human. “You think that guy came across this kind of wealth playing by the rules? He’s a dangerous man with equally dangerous friends. Girls come in here and they’re never seen again. You either work for him or you run from him. And those who escape never get too far.”
    They entered the master bedroom, where a king-size bed faced a wall of windows with an eye-popping view of L.A. “There have been stories about people who get on this guy’s bad side. Some even managed to make it all the way back home. Within months their family homes were burned to the ground, with the family still inside. He likes fire,” she added, her mouth in a grim line. “Like the devil.”
    Haley glanced around the bedroom, which was decorated with statues and masks and ornate candelabras. An ominous goat’s head rose from the wall above the large platform bed, the last fitting piece to make it every inch a dark, foreboding lair. Tammy navigated it with ease. She went right to a tall chest of drawers and pulled out a wispy pink dress. “I think this will fit you,” she said as she walked back over to her. “It fit me last time I was here . . .” There was a tremor in her voice as her sentence trailed off.
    Haley shuddered. “Tammy,” she began, but before she could protest Tammy was tugging her to the adjoining bathroom. It featured a sunken tub and a 180-degree view.
    “He likes cleanliness,” she told her. “So bathe thoroughly. Don’t miss an inch, because he sure won’t. You don’t have tattoos, do you?” she asked abruptly, almost panicked. “He