Chapter 1

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"This dress just screams rape me," I muttered as I stared at myself in my favorite full body mirror. Located right outside the bathroom, it was perfect for catching yourself right before a speck of wind undid an hour of hard work.

I was wearing a glittering gold skin tight dress that hugged everything my mom and her husband, Paul, worked for. Meaning when we first moved in, they purposefully filled our kitchen and fridge with sugary snacks and processed foods to sabotage my body. And while I did gain a couple pounds, it was at least in the right places. I am not the stick thin runner I was back in high school. But thankfully I didn't put on the freshman 15 either.

My phone rang. I quickly glanced away from the mirror to see who it was, but upon seeing my mom's face, I promptly hit decline. It had only been a week since I had moved in. I needed my first night in the city without talking to her stupid face telling me how expensive the apartment was and not to screw it all up or she'd disown me forever.

Like that will actually happen. She's already lost Seth.

I returned my attention to the mirror. Even though the dress was a little extra, I felt like I deserved to be extra for a night after playing the suspiciously innocent studious daughter all six years I stayed in San Diego.

After putting a brush through my hair one more time and fixing any stray specks of makeup, I reluctantly left my spot in front of the mirror in search of a clutch. When I found it, I was ready.

I left my penthouse within the hour to make my way downstairs. Even though the club was only a few blocks away, I had decided against walking and to take a cab. My self defense classes weren't on the schedule for another week, so until then, I could manage one smelly cab driver who overcharged everything to take me places.

I climbed in the taxi. "Hey."

He grunted.

I grinned. I'm practically a native.

Once settled in the cab, I told the man the name of the club and he set off for it without plugging the location into the GPS. For me that meant that I wasn't his first trip to the club, and I wasn't going to be his last.

I stared out the window, up at the buildings that housed some of the biggest businesses in the world. Soon, after turning a corner, I found what would eventually be mine. My mother worked as a CFO for one of the biggest luxury car brands in the world. While the National Headquarters was stationed in San Diego, the international headquarters was built here in NYC, and they were the ones offering one of the best internships I could ever land right out of college.

The cab dropped me off just around the corner of the bar. That short distance I didn't mind because I wasn't ready to act like a big shot by getting out right in front of the club and waltzing straight in. Instead, I was okay with bypassing the line of people and letting them see just who was more important than them.

Thanks mom for making me more important than them.

"Alexa Baker," I told the bouncer when I walked up.

He flipped through a couple lists, and then took a pen and scratched something down. "You're good," he said gruffly. "Is this your first time?"

I eyed him for a moment before slowly nodding. Why did that matter?.

He paused for a moment before leaning in and lowering his voice.

"Alright, well listen here and listen good and if you listen hard enough you may make it out of this club with your legs still working," the bouncer growled. "This club is for the ultra rich. That means all of the executives of New York young and old come here to take advantage of prissy little daddy's princesses with daddy's credit card."

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