Harry brought something out in CJ, a courage and resolve she didn't know she had. She felt good about herself for stopping Skinny from killing Harry. She knew he would not have hesitated to stick that knife in him, and if she hadn't been there, things definitely would have ended up differently.

She remembered the first time she saw the big hotel. It seemed immense compared to the places she had lived in her short life. Trailers, mostly, and once overlooking the California coast – that was nice. Her mother went to jail, and she ran away to Reno and met Skinny.

She thought about the first time he molested her—her old man. The pig. It was hot all the time. Seemed as if they lived in Hell. He always sweated all over her. It was hell.

The cockroaches were as big as the mice and there were scorpions, too.

Arlene, her big sister, had been getting it for some time and would confide in CJ. She told her about how their father would come into the room at night and take her out back to the truck behind the trailer. It was usually late, and Momma and the neighbors were all asleep.

"He told me," she said to CJ, "that it was all right, that I would be a woman soon." She was only 12. When she turned 14, she ran away. CJ was just 11. Her father told her that Arlene would be proud of her and that she should not say anything to Momma or something bad would happen. He began by having her sit on his lap and touching her gently under her dress. She was scared. She remembered Arlene telling her how it hurt at first, but after a while, it didn't, and how his breath stunk like shit and alcohol.

He liked to have friends over to watch games on TV while Momma was out. The first time it happened, he showed his friends what a good little girl CJ could be and had her prance about naked in front of them. They whistled and hooted. John, his one friend grabbed a hold of her with his big rough hairy hands and forced her to have oral sex with him. They all did it – over and over until she could not stand it anymore and ran out of the house.

The police brought her back a week later. She was outside of town looking for her sister, sleeping in bushes, starving. Her Momma was worried sick about her and locked her in her room. Momma suspected something, and came home early one day only to see it all going on. She was mad, and the old man's friends left. He beat her badly that first time for interfering.

They found Arlene a month later in a dry riverbed, the next town over, with her throat cut from ear to ear. After that, Momma was too frightened to say anything. If she did, he would beat her until she passed out. She lost her job at Big Mart. After that, it became easier.

She would sit in the back room while he raped CJ and ignore the protestations. They both began drinking heavily, and the old man even gave CJ some. She liked that even though she threw it all back up at first. It made things more bearable at home and made the experiences tolerable.

After Momma lost her job for the last time they lived on disability from the old man and whatever they could make on selling CJ out. When she turned 16, she dropped out of school and ran away to Reno. She was working the streets for tricks, making only enough to eat and sometimes get a room. One of the older girls took her in and let her stay for a piece of the take. That is how she met Skinny.

He came along and took over a lot of the activity in town. He just muscled his way in. The streets were an open playing field then. Most of the casinos had their own business and never considered the streets. However, there was a lot of money on both sides, once Skinny figured out a system. He made a deal with the local mob by offering them a piece of it all.

Then, one day Skinny left Reno in a big hurry, taking CJ and some of the girls with him.