***Thanks for the reviews, you guys are awesome :) This one is a little jumpy but just need to set some things up. Hope you like it.***

"Shit girl, wake up!"

Sage groaned as she felt someone poking her. But panic set in as she realized where she was. Her eyes opened wide and she quickly shot up in bed, scrambling to straighten herself out.

Niki laughed at her, "Girl you better get your ass up and out of here."

"I can't believe I fell asleep, what time is it?" Sage asked the woman who looked very amused at what she was seeing.

"Seven."

"Seven? No…."

"Yeah, don't worry though, he left you this." Niki said, handing Sage a wad of cash. Sage looked at her, confused.

"He gave it to you?"

"Yeah, well, he was leaving and I was in the hallway. He made it very clear what would happen if I pocketed it. He also told me he didn't want anyone bothering you, but I couldn't let you sleep forever."

"What?" Nothing made sense. Why couldn't someone have woken her up? How did she fall asleep? All she remembered was closing her eyes to block him out, she must have just slipped off with her eyes closed so long. "Collette's going to kill me."

"That depends, what exactly did you do for that amount of money?"

Sage looked back down, noticing how fat the wad really was. Surely there was enough there for the rent. Part of her felt relieved that she didn't have to worry about that, the other part felt guilty he would give her so much for doing nothing. Maybe he was so drunk he didn't even know what he gave her, that thought only made her feel more guilty. But thinking about what Carlos would do to her if she didn't come back with that money was enough to chase that guilt away.

"Nothing."

"Yeah right, girl you better spill, every woman in here wanted to be you last night, including me. What I wouldn't give to be with his toned body instead of Fat Eddie Unibrow, blech." Niki said as she made a wretching sound.

Sage smiled slightly at that, "Seriously? How pissed is Collette?"

"She's really pissed, but she left a couple of hours ago. None of us think she could handle knowing you two were in here together."

"Well at least that gives me some time to prepare my case before I have to see her again."

"She's not going to fire you Sage, you bring in too much business. Your ass is her little cash cow."

"Wow," Sage said heading towards the door, "Thanks for that."

"You know what I mean, now get out of here, but you better come back with details for me tonight!" Niki yelled out as Sage was already halfway down the stairs.

She made it to her car and pulled the door closed, finally alone with time to think. She pulled the money out and counted it. He had paid her more than she needed. She looked up and out the window in front of her. Now was her chance, with all of this money in her lap she could just leave. Gone, forever, she smiled at the thought. Thank you Jax Teller. She looked back down at the cash and gently formed it into a pile.

Knock, knock, knock….She jumped as someone was banging on the driver's side window. Carlos.

He stared at her, motioning her to roll down the window. She rolled it down as the pit of her stomach seemed to sink beneath her seat.

"Been waiting on you."

"I told you I was staying til 8."

"So why are you in the car at…." He glanced at his watch, "7:22? Somewhere to stop on your way home?"

"No, I just left early because I had already made rent."

"Well you could have made more if you stayed until 8." He said trying to argue with her.

"So I'll go back in then."

"No, I need you at home, I have Daisy watching the kids because I have to go in early. But don't think I'll forget about this little stunt." He said as he reached his hand in the window and grabbed all of the money from her lap before turning around and just walking away. All of the shit she had to do for that money and he just took it.

Kate felt like crying but she pulled herself together. Maybe this was the life she deserved. She went home to relieve her neighbor Daisy from the duty of watching Carlos's kids. Daisy was a little old lady and she wasn't even sure she could see her own hands, much less watch two hyper children.

The rest of the day went like any other. Watching his kids as they ran around and didn't listen. It was summer time so she had the pleasure of being with both of them all day. She was suddenly extremely thankful for the sleep she did get, knowing that without it she would be running on empty. Carlos came home around 7:00 just in time for her to be able to get in the shower and go back to work. She slipped into their bedroom when she heard him pull up, she wanted to avoid him and make herself seem busy. She went through her closet, trying to decide what she was going to wear that night and settled on something a little low key. After the night before, she needed to slow things down and give herself a break. She pulled out a plain black tank dress and slipped it on.

"There's the little whore," Carlos said, coming up behind her and blocking the exit to the closet.

"Hey Carlos, how was work?" She said, trying to sound happy and avoid his attempt to start an argument.

"Pretty shitty, I couldn't stop thinking about where you were off to this morning."

Kate knew this was only going to go bad, but she did her best to diffuse him, "Baby, I was just coming home to you, I thought you'd be happy with how much I made for you." But she could see from his face he had a plan and he was sticking to it.

He came towards her and pulled her hair, spinning her around. He pushed her face first into the wall still yanking a fistful of hair back so she was looking at the ceiling.

"When I find out who he is, he's a dead man."

"Carlos, there's no one else."

"You're my whore got it? No one else would want you for anything but a nasty fuck." He pulled her dress up and did what he always did. Kate cringed at the pain that came from the unwelcome intrusion. His grip on her hair got tighter as he did his thing causing Kate to bite her lip in an effort to stop from screaming out. He had no regard for her body either as he was pushing her harder and harder into the corner of a shoe rack with each movement. He was always careful not to leave bruises or touch her face, but he still managed to cause her a great deal of pain. She closed her eyes waited for him to be finished so she could get the hell out of there. But where was she running to? Collette?

"You better not shower," He ordered her as he zippered himself up, "You're mine and I want everyone to know it."

He backed away and soon she could hear him yelling at the kids to move from his view of the TV. She leaned against the wall to pull herself together. She couldn't be late for work. As terrible as a job that it was, at least she was away from him.

She went into the bathroom and was careful to clean herself with only the sink. She splashed water on her face before heading out the door.

Things seemed to be pretty steady when she walked into work. Men were everywhere, leaving only one or two women trying to get each of their attention. She went towards the back room to put her things down when Niki ran up and pulled her into one of their "work" rooms and shut the door.

"I couldn't wait for you to show up," She said, completely out of breath.

"Why what's going on?" Sage answered, a little amused that running down a hall would have such an effect on her.

"First, Collette's been looking for you, asking when you're coming in and where you're at. Not just to me, but a few of the girls."

Great, she thought. One thing she knew for sure, if she was getting fired, she was kicking Collette's ass for it. She would much rather go to jail than face Carlos and the bitch deserved it. "Ok," she answered her, wanting her to continue.

"Second, a cop is here."

"What?"

"A cop, some lady cop is here. She wanted to talk to Collette. The girls think she wants to talk to her about Tara's death. Maybe she's a suspect or something."

Sage usually didn't listen to what the girls said, they liked to blow things out of proportion for the shock value, but this time it was good. "You don't think…"

"Actually it makes sense. She seemed really desperate last night as he was taking you away upstairs. Maybe she can't handle him being with anyone else."

"So how long has she been talking to her?"

"About 45 minutes or so."

"Huh," Sage answered. It was very interesting. But maybe she was here for other reasons. Maybe she was looking for a payoff to keep Collette's "legit" business off the radar.

"So, you going to give me the details or what?"

"Nothing to tell." She answered the eagerly awaiting woman.

"At least tell me if it lived up to the hype."

"No really, nothing happened. You saw how drunk he was."

"Damn," Niki said thinking, "No, I don't believe you, I saw what he paid you. But I do think he swore you to secrecy. And I will find out." She grinned at Sage mischievously.

"You're too much," Sage answered, "I guess I better face the boss, this should be interesting."

"That you better tell me about!"

***Let me know what you think, or what you think will happen, or what you want to happen...Will update soon!***