Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

“Don’t even think about it,” Lana warned.

Nikki knelt down so she was eye level with Evangeline where she was perched on the vanity stool. Where she’d spent the last hour being fussed over by her friends. Her sisters. Her expression was gentle and understanding.

“Listen to me, honey. You need to do this for yourself. Not for us. Sure as hell not for Eddie. Not for anyone else but you. He took something from you and you need it back. If you let him get into your head and you start believing that shit he fed you, then he wins. And you cannot let him get to you that way. Because what he said is bullshit. It is not true. And I won’t have you believing it. So get it out of your head now. You have fifteen minutes until the taxi gets here to take you to the club, so get yourself sorted out. Do whatever you have to do, but do it for you.”

Evangeline blinked furiously to keep tears at bay. Her friends would kill her if she ruined her makeup. They’d have to start all over and she’d be way late to the club and it would only give her added incentive to back out. And Nikki was right. This was something she needed to do for herself.

Eddie had taken something from her and not just her virginity, which, by the way, was vastly overrated. Sex was overrated. He’d stripped her of her dignity and what little confidence she possessed. He’d left her with nothing but humiliation and no sense of self-worth.

No man was worth that, and it pissed her off that his words still stung. The sex? Completely unmemorable. But the words she’d never forget. They’d burned a hole in her brain and caused a wound she wasn’t sure could ever be repaired.

If tonight would give her any part of the spine she so desperately lacked, then it was worth walking into a crowded, popular club alone and riding it out.

Her friends hadn’t wanted her to go by herself. Not at all. But Steph had only been able to get her hands on one VIP pass, and VIP passes to Impulse were rare and precious, reserved for beautiful people. Rich people. Important people. Evangeline was none of those, but what would it hurt to pretend for one night that she did fit into that world?

Why couldn’t she be Cinderella for one night and maybe get back a little of her own by flaunting in Eddie’s face what he’d thrown away? Because Evangeline might not have had the most self-confidence in the world, but she did have confidence in her friends’ abilities to make any woman look hot.

Tomorrow she could go back to being boring, quiet and mousy Evangeline. Working late nights at a bar where the tips were good and the owner looked out for his girls and she could put Eddie behind her for good. Not to mention swearing off men for good. She wasn’t here to find a man, to date, or even to have a sex life. She was here because her family needed her support, and for them she could and would put her life on hold indefinitely.

Sure, she had dreams and goals. Things she wanted out of life that didn’t include waitressing in a pub wearing a skirt that barely covered her ass and heels that had her feet screaming for relief at the end of the night. But for now her job provided what she and her family needed. There was plenty of time to pursue her own path. She was only twenty-three. She’d work four, maybe five more years. Stockpile enough money so that her mother didn’t have to worry about finances.

She’d made a promise to herself that by the time she turned thirty, she’d do what she wanted. Make a life for herself. Have a life she could be proud of and surround herself with good, solid friends like Steph, Nikki and Lana.

She wanted to go to school. Learn a profession. She wanted to be more than a waitress barely scraping by. Her parents hadn’t been able to afford to send her to college. She’d only managed to finish high school by gaining her GED because she’d been forced to get a job as soon as she was old enough to work so she could provide for her family.

She had no regrets. She’d do anything for her mother and father. But that didn’t mean she would live this life forever. Someday . . . Someday she’d have better. She wanted a husband and children. A stable relationship. Just not now.

“You ready?” Nikki asked, bringing Evangeline abruptly back to the here and now.

Evangeline huffed in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and looked at herself in the mirror. She did look pretty. She wouldn’t go as far as to say hot as her friends had described her, but she wasn’t ugly. She was even above average, even if she owed it all to her friends’ magic touch with cosmetics and doing hair.