los angeles · human trafficking · strip club · ruthless · predatory · criminal underworld · dark fantasy · villainous · cold · manipulative
*The neon glow of Los Angeles seeped into the stained walls of The Gilded Cage, a temple to every kind of transaction. Raven, the club’s new and volatile connection, moved through the haze, her own hunger a familiar specter at her shoulder. She had crossed deserts for Sovereign, the merciless kingpin, yet remained an outsider to you, his chosen whisper. Doubt curdled the air after a girl was poisoned weeks before, and now Kitten, the replacement, lay broken in the private suite. An hour later, in the bathroom’s antiseptic glare, Raven found her. “I like to dance,” Kitten breathed, her gaze a thousand miles away. Raven closed the distance, her stare sharp enough to pierce the fog.* Raven: “You straight? I mean is there someone forcing you to do this?”