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tease Kaylee was, and how she’d only gotten exactly what she’d been asking for.
    Her mother said nothing, as usual.
    Kaylee knew better than to go to the police for help. Until she was eighteen in a year and a half, she’d be put in foster care, or worse, a group home, and no way in hell was she going through that again.
    Everyone was always telling her how pretty she was, with her waist length blond hair and blue eyes. She’d figured if she could just get to Los Angeles she’d be set. Once she got there, she figured, even if no one wanted to offer her an acting or a modeling job, at least she could find work as a waitress. Then maybe a producer or director would discover her, just like Natalie Portman had been discovered by a modeling scout at a pizza parlor.
    But it hadn’t exactly worked out that way. Kaylee only had enough money to get herself as far as Sacramento, and she had spent the last several days begging change, trying to avoid cops, and other panhandlers who thought she was trying to move in on their turf.
    She was ready to admit defeat and call her mom to beg for bus fare back home when she met Ericka. Kaylee was sitting on a park bench next to her beat up duffel bag when Ericka plopped herself down next to her. Unshowered and in the same clothes she’d worn for three days straight, Kaylee squirmed self-consciously next to the woman who was skinny and beautiful enough to be on the cover of a magazine.
    She’d introduced herself as Ericka and struck up a conversation. In the course of about ten minutes, Kaylee knew that Ericka had moved there two years ago from Portland, was half Korean, and worked as a model. “You know, you’re really pretty,” Ericka said, studying Kaylee with dark eyes that tilted exotically at the corners. “I don’t know if you’d be interested, but I can introduce you to my manager. He’s always on the lookout for new talent.”
    Kaylee’s jaw nearly hit the concrete. Could she seriously see through the days of street grime enough to think Kaylee had any kind of potential? She couldn’t do anything more than nod and mutter, “That would be great,” as her heart pounded and her mind raced with the thought that this could be it!
    Kaylee had heard stories about people posing as photographers to take dirty pictures of girls, but Ericka looked legit, and she was a woman, and she seemed really nice. She’d even offered Kaylee a place to sleep and shower once she learned how Kaylee had spent the last several nights.
    When Kaylee woke up that morning, Ericka had barely given her time to pee before she said they had to go. They were going out for breakfast, she said as soon as she did an errand.
    Now it was almost noon, and there wasn’t so much as another car around, much less a place to grab breakfast. Ericka slowed down a little and did a quick sweep behind her, almost like she was worried about being followed. A battered mailbox listed to the right of a cracked asphalt driveway that was lined with trees. Ericka followed the long drive and pulled up in front of a wood frame house.
    Kaylee would have been impressed by the sheer size, but the white paint was peeling in sheets and the front porch was propped up on one end by cinder blocks. The drive continued past the house and seemed to get swallowed up by the brush and trees.
    Ericka got out of the car and motioned Kaylee to do the same. The dread Kaylee had tried to quash as the miles passed returned in full force. Ericka hadn’t said much on the drive, and Kaylee worried that she regretted offering to help Kaylee out. Now she looked back at Kaylee with an expression so cold it reminded Kaylee of the snakes that sometimes slithered out of her mother’s garden.
    Telling herself she was imagining things she followed Ericka up the crumbling front steps. Instead of knocking Ericka whipped out her phone.
    “I’m here,” she said to whoever answered.
    Kaylee heard the sound of several bolts sliding free and a slither of