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misfits.”
    Julie felt irritation rise up in her. “Can we try and not be nasty to one another? Like it or not, we’re in this together. We need to help each other and band together.”
    “Who made you the boss?” Lisa asked.
    “No one. I’m not the boss of anyone. I’m stating simple facts. If I were you, I’d be working at becoming part of the group instead of alienating yourself. If we don’t work together….” She let the sentence die. Julie didn’t have a good feeling about this. Not at all. “I was fired last week and kicked out of my apartment this morning for not making rent. I’m essentially homeless. It’s been one hell of a day.” She felt her cheeks burn. It sucked that she couldn’t stand on her own two feet.
    Candy sniffed and Julie could hear her shuffling around. “I’ve been trying to get out of the business for a few months now but Ellis… my boss… he owns Kitten Escorts, wouldn’t let me go. At first he upped my rate, then he let me work less, then he started threatening me.” She sniffed again. “He wanted me to go and see a new client. He insisted on driving me himself… he hit me when I refused to get in the car. It isn’t the first time he’s done it. Truth is, I would’ve left months ago but I’m afraid of him. I only started working at the escort agency to save enough to go to med school. I never planned on having sex with anyone but one thing lead to another.” She sucked in a big breath. “Ellis wanted me to meet with this new client and I kept insisting that I wanted out. Kind of my luck as of late, one minute Ellis was hitting me and trying to get me into his car and the next, I was abducted. A dragon swooped down out of the sky. A dragon.” She huffed out the last like she couldn’t believe she was saying it.
    The new girl whimpered loudly. “Oh god. Please help me.” She moaned. “It can’t be true. It can’t.”
    “Hey. Try and calm down.” Julie used a coaxing voice. “Did you get taken by a dragon too?”
    She whimpered. “Yes.” Her voice was thick with emotion.
    “What happened?” Candy asked.
    “My parents both died in a car accident last year. I’ve been struggling to keep up the payments on the house and eat. I work at the Titty Twister bar on 2 nd Avenue.”
    “Oh god!” Lisa groaned. “Another sex worker.”
    “It’s not like that. Not that I would ever judge,” the new girl added. She sniffed a few times. “I’m a bartender. I wear tiny hot pants and a bikini to work, which is humiliating enough. A lot of the ladies that work at the club are awesome. They are single moms or, like you, Candy, working at the bar to put themselves through school. They are not all sex workers,” she half growled. “You shouldn’t judge like that. I wish I had more guts, I’d totally do it. Anyway…” she sighed. “The bank foreclosed on my house. I got the letter just yesterday. It’s been such a struggle. I was about to lose everything.”
    There was a definite common thread between them.
    She swallowed hard before continuing. “My boss sent me home for looking so glum on the job. Also, I snapped at one of the customers and called him a pig. He grabbed my ass. He totally was a pig.” She huffed out a breath. “Apparently he was one of the high rollers and I’m supposed to just let him put his hands on me. No way! I was lucky he sent me home with a warning though.” Then she whimpered. It sounded like she was trying not to cry. “Or at least I thought it was luck… It came down from out of nowhere. One minute I was walking to my bus stop and the next I was flying up, up. A dark winged beast had me in his talons. Literally. It didn’t hurt or anything. I couldn’t see very much when I got here. Wherever the hell here is. One minute there was a dark shape looming over me and the next there wasn’t.” She paused for a moment. “It was weird. In its place was a guy who told me not to be concerned. He said I was safe. I was so afraid,