“One night, they’d both been drinking heavily. My mom was passed out. I had become complacent. Rick didn’t seem the least bit interested in me. He was a truck driver, on the road regularly. He would be gone for a couple of days and then home for a couple days and they would go on their benders. I left my door unlocked… mistake. I guess I was unlucky and that he was sober enough to get up and come after me. Luckily for me though, he didn’t have great reflexes and was a bit wobbly on his feet. When he came at me, I was able to grab my bedside lamp and hit him with it. He went down and I hit him again.”

“Did he…?” A soft, menacing growl. “You know?” His voice cracked.

She lifted her eyes. Torrent looked angry. Actually angry wasn’t strong enough of a word. His face was red and his muscles bulged.

She shook her head. “No, but it was close. Too close. I packed my bag and left. Ellis found me the next day, I’d been on the street for all of twenty-four hours. I was hungry and cold and more afraid than I ever thought possible. I didn’t trust Ellis at all but what choice did I have? I couldn’t go back home. I went to his place and crashed in his spare bedroom. He drove a fancy car, wore fancy clothes. He told me he was going to help me, that we were going to help each other. It took a while before I started to trust him. It was one hell of a mistake.”

You can do this, Candy. You can do this.

“Ellis owned his own business. It was a dating agency. An escort agency is the right term. He offered me a job and I leapt at the opportunity. He bought me beautiful clothes and dresses and all I had to do in return was go out on dates with, mostly, wealthy men.”

Torrent frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It might be a human thing.” She huffed out a breath, struggling to find the right words. “I mostly dated elderly gentleman or young rich guys who needed a date. Guys who needed a partner for functions and didn’t want to go through the hassle of finding someone to attend with them. Guys that had lost their wives and weren’t interested in going through the motions again. Or men that were tired of money grabbing women.” She pictured Charles. “They didn’t want the hassle, so they’d call Kitty’s and organize themselves a date.”

“Let me see if I understand this correctly, human males would pay money to go out with you. To spend the evening in your company? Am I correct?”