Hot Pink Heels (The Street Series)

In memory of the greatest grandma a girl could ask for, Laura Brunner. I still miss you!

~Little A

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Epilogue

Amanda closed her eyes, wishing for a bed and food, in either order. Who was she kidding? Sleep was always the priority. Give her a horizontal surface of any sort and she’d be out in less than a minute.

Her mouth was dry and gritty, a reminder that it had been hours since her last drink. Her eyes popped open as she realized she was drifting off.
Can’t have that happen again
. Amanda’s thoughts drifted back to three nights ago.

“I can’t believe you fell asleep,” said Billy. “Sleep on your own time! This time is my time!”

“I know, I’m sorry, I’m just so tired,” Amanda admitted, hanging her head. “It won’t happen again Billy, I swear!”

“You’re just lucky you didn’t fall flat on your face,” Billy sneered. “I don’t like my girls
wasting
my
time like that. What guy is going to stop and pick up a snoozing tramp like you?” He moved closer, backing Amanda against the wall of the alley, cold, rough brick rubbing against her bare back.

“I said I was sorry, I don’t know what el—“ stars exploded behind her eyelids
as Billy grabbed her shoulders and slammed her against the brick wall, her head banging just after her shoulders hit.

She heard a scream and recognized her own voice, thick with tears, begging Billy to stop. How could she have been so fooled by him? How could she have fallen for that smooth voice promising to help her out, do her a favor?

“Now, get your ass back out there and make an extra $50 tonight, ‘cause Billy’s girls don’t sleep on the job!” Billy’s face was close to hers and to the passerby they might have been just a couple sharing an intimate moment. Amanda was still pressed against the wall, her ears ringing from the blow to her head.

He lifted her chin with his fingertip, raising her eyes to meet his. “Now Mandy, you know you’re my favorite girl, right?” Billy whispered, crooning the words and slipping into that sweet voice that had nabbed her from the start. “Maybe you can come on up to my plac
e later and make up that extra fifty a different way, huh?”

His other hand came up and grabbed her scantily clad breast, squeezing in a way that once
might have made her beg for more. Now all Amanda felt was disgust mixed with terror. She’d had the so-called “pleasure” of being with Billy more than once and it certainly did not live up to the hype.

Tears
sprang from her eyes and were running down her face before she could stop them. Billy hated it when his girls cried. She looked away quickly before simpering, “I’ll get the extra money, Billy, I promise.”

“That’s my girl,” Billy
smiled, giving her breast one more squeeze. “I knew I could count on you, Mandy.” She pushed past him, pulling up the strap of her sheer top. Her head was pounding, but she knew Billy was watching her, so she put a bit of extra sauce in her step as she walked away. “Hell yeah girl, you know what they like.”

The tears were still falling but she
brought her head up when she reached the mouth of the alley, wiping her face carefully after turning the corner. Gingerly, she felt the back of her head, touching the raised lump that had formed there. Feeling no blood, she sighed with relief. That was one thing about Billy, he might mess her up, but it wouldn’t show. He wouldn't normally leave marks on his precious girls—he left that to the monsters that picked them up.

Amanda
had
worked extra hard that night, making up more than the $50, but she didn’t tell Billy about the extra twenties she’d hidden in her stash. She knew a lot of the girls had a secret stash they were working on, trying to build up enough cash to get out of the system, but it was never enough.

Billy or one of his
slimy thugs would find the cash, or their only pair of stiletto heels would break and have to be replaced or even worse, they would get sick. Amanda was determined to stay healthy and to keep her stash well hidden. She had to get out, especially now. She couldn’t afford to lose a single precious dollar from that stash.

The sound of a car’s throaty purr snapped her back to reality. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Whitney moving toward the car, but Amanda knew she needed that car. She needed every car.

She kicked her heel off the wall behind her, launching her body toward the car. She threw in the saucy step Billy had complimented several nights ago and watched the driver’s eyes zero in on the bottom of her miniskirt.
Bingo
. Amanda let a smile slink onto her face, act one of her little performance already halfway through.

Bending over to give her potential client a glimpse of the merchandise, Amanda sent him a flirty smile. He was gorgeous and so was his ride. She had a flashback to a
scene from her favorite movie, and she let out a derisive chuckle.

The man mistook the chuckle as a laugh at him, when really she was wondering how she had slipped into the
seedy lifestyle she had once idolized as a young girl. He smiled hesitantly, his dark grey eyes sparkling. “Don’t worry, I
am
driving my friend’s car, but no, I’m
not
lost.” He bit his lip as soon as he said it, but Amanda burst into a real laugh, her first in ages.

“If I had a nickel for every time a cute guy pulls up in a nice car…” Amanda trailed off as she got her first good look at him. She realized he was much younger than she had first assumed
, maybe late twenties. “Ok, I’ll bite. What’s a hottie like you doing out here in this area of town?”

Leaning farther into the car, Amanda tried to angle her body to give him a better view of the goods, but her favorite pair of four inch hot pink heels chose that moment to slip out from under her, sending her toppling into the car head first.

“Whoa! You okay?” A strong hand caught her around her upper arm, attempting to help her back up, but Amanda was already struggling back to her feet, her face the same shade as her heels as she silently cursed her clumsiness. She felt her shoes touch the sidewalk again.
Probably ruined this deal
.
Way to go, idiot
.

Her stomach heaved from the
flip-flop into the car and her head pounded from the still tender lump she’d received from Billy the other night. Although she was grateful for her long, dark hair, Amanda realized she was seeing stars again.

“Hey, hey, hey!” She heard the man yelling at her, but his voice sounded tinny, like he was at the end of a tunnel.
She saw the ground rushing up at her and heard Whitney shout her name and then there was blackness.

Amanda moaned and opened her eyes, but the bright light
had her squeezing them shut again. She turned her head to the side and tried to raise her arm to block the light but found it trapped by her side. Panic had her opening her eyes again as she struggled to move her arm. Looking down, she saw a strap across her chest and one across her legs.

The scene came rushing back to her, and she looked around for Whitney or the man from the car. Both were standing there
, as well as two people in uniforms, one of which held the flashlight that was pointing at her face. Whitney had a look of fear on her face and the man was on his cell phone with his back to Amanda. When he heard her moan, he turned quickly and spoke into the phone, “I gotta go. I love you.”

He’
s married
. Somehow, with everything else that was going on, those three words were the ones she caught. She knew a lot of the men that stopped were married, but somehow this one really irked her. His pleasant voice on the phone sounded believable as he declared his love for the woman on the other end of the line.

Struggling against the straps, Amanda wiggled and tried to speak, but the oxygen mask was firmly in place. Whitney moved up close to her and whispered in her e
ar. “Mandy, I’ll cover for you,” she said. “I won’t rat you out to Billy, but if he hears about this, he is going to freak out,” said Whitney.

Amanda closed her eyes again. Just when she was starting to get ahead, this had to happen. When she realized the stretcher was moving, she frantically tried to get the attention of one of the emergency personnel pushing the cart. A gloved hand moved the mask so she could speak and the words started pouring out.

“Whitney, you can’t let them take me! HEY! Buddy, c’mon man! Dammit, I can’t do this right now,” Amanda pleaded. “I’m fine, really, I just slipped and I am
not
going anywhere with you.” The stretcher stopped moving, so she increased her efforts, pleading now with the man from the car. “You saw it, right? I just slipped while I was walking down the sidewalk.”

“Ma’am, you hit your head pretty hard and it’s amazing you didn’t open up a gash,” said the attendant
who was examining the new bump just inside her hairline above her temple. “You were blacked out for almost a minute. We can’t just let you go, plus you might’ve twisted your ankle when you fell. We’re just around the corner from the hospital, we could be there in 30 seconds.”

“You’re lucky we were already pulling onto this street when we saw you greet the sidewalk with your forehead,” said the woman at her feet.

“Listen, we were arguing and she twisted her ankle in those ridiculous shoes,” said the grey-eyed man. “Honey, don’t I keep telling you not to wear those shoes? She doesn’t listen to me. She hates being so much shorter than me.” He turned toward the attendant with a shrug.

Amanda’s eyes widened, but she kept silent, sensing the attendant’s hesitation. The
woman at her feet addressed the grey-eyed man. “Sir, is this your wife?”

“My wife?” He looked at Amanda, his gaze silently questioning her. Her eyes begged him to agree, but she remained silent. “It was four years yesterday, as a matter of fact,” he
said, grinning at her shocked look. “We’re celebrating how we met at that little bar just down the street, and she’s had a little too much wine, right honey?”

The female attendant at her feet looked at Amanda. “Ma’am? Is this true?”

Amanda let a sheepish smile cross her face. “Yeah, it’s silly, really. We were fighting about whether it was three or four years, but he’s always been the numbers guy,” she grinned, sending her surprise hero an impish look. “That’s why he makes the big bucks,” she said, nodding toward his Camaro.

“That’s right, ma’am,
she’d had her limit so we were walking back to the car and she twisted her ankle and just went down,” said Grey Eyes, as she was dubbing him for now. “She insisted on wearing those shoes with this outfit. She wanted to recreate the whole night we met. Of course, I tried to catch her, but I wasn’t close enough,” he laughed, winking at Amanda.