by Hadley Knox
“So nothing else?” I asked in one last-ditch effort to learn something.
Lucas stood to his feet and motioned for Ryan and me to get up as well.
“Lana, with all due respect, I will have to ask you to leave. But feel free to stick around for the show.” He looked down at the nice, expensive watch on his wrist. “I think that Adam’s show will start in a few minutes, so I’m sure you’ll be able to catch it.”
“I think I’m good, but thank you,” I said. I gave him a nod and then walked towards the door. Something inside me said that Lucas was going to say something. This was the time in the movies when the real bad guy gave the good guy one final warning. But Lucas didn’t say a word. I stepped out into the hall, and Ryan followed me. He shut the door and then we made our way back towards the club.
I tried avoiding Ryan’s gaze, and I knew that he was watching me, trying to find the right way to ask what he wanted to ask. Just before I got to the door that would lead into the loud, annoying club, he grabbed my arm and whirled me around.
“No, you don’t just walk back out,” he said.
“I need to get back home.”
“You promised me some answers,” Ryan said. “Now what was that in there? You work with gigolos?”
“It’s complicated,” I said. “But if I tell you anything, you have to promise not to tell anyone else.”
“Okay, just Edward.”
“No, not even him. You have to promise.”
“Okay, okay. I won’t say anything.”
“I don’t want to get into this here,” I said. “It’s a really long story. Do you want to meet up tomorrow or something?”
“No way,” Ryan said. “There’s that breakfast place that’s open twenty-four hours a day. We’re going there right now.”
“What about your bachelorette party?”
Ryan chuckled. “Something tells me that this is going to be a lot more exciting.”
I couldn’t believe what I had just done. It wasn’t the first time I considered telling him, but the moment had arrived where one of my family members would learn of everything I had been up to. I couldn’t help but feel my desperate attempt to make money to support my family was now catching up to me.
Chapter Sixteen
When I arrived at the little café that Ryan had indicated, I found him standing outside waiting on me. I could see the suspicious look in his eyes along with the thousand questions. He didn’t ask me anything until the hostess had shown us to a table.
Fortunately, she gave us one that was out of the way and nearly twenty feet or so from the nearest patron. We ordered a coffee and water and she disappeared into the kitchen.
“So what the hell is going on here?” Ryan asked. “You work with gigolos?”
“Okay, let me explain,” I said.
“So it just dawned on me,” he said before I could say anything else. “Were all of those gorgeous guys at the party gigolos?”
“Wait,” I said firmly. “I’m going to start at the beginning.”
“You better,” he said.
Maybe telling him had not been the best idea. He was being a little harder on me than I thought he would have, but I was hoping that his reaction was mostly from the shock.
“Okay, so as of a few months ago, I was going broke,” I explained. “I don’t make enough editing to take care of the mortgage and all the bills and everything else the kids need. I was draining the savings account fast. I probably had another few months before I was in serious trouble.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Ryan asked.
“You know I can’t do that. I’m the baby of the family, and I feel like everyone is just waiting for me to screw up.”
“Only mom and Pam feel that way. Dad, James, or I would have helped you without judgment.”
“But I didn’t need just a little sum of money. It would have been different if I needed one chunk of money and that was it. I was in a position where my monthly expenses were draining my account. I checked to see if there were any cheaper places to live that would allow the kids to keep going to their same school, but I had no options if I wanted to keep them there.”
“So what happened?”
“So one night, I was out with Betsy and Pearl. They kept telling me that I needed to get back out into the dating world.”
“Which I’m sure you did.”
I ignored the comment. “So they saw this guy at the bar and made me go talk to him. We had the most wonderful time. I went back to his place and spent the night with him.”
“You whore,” Ryan smiled at me.
I chuckled. “Well, that term applied to the man that I had spent the night with.”
“Wait, the guy you slept with was a gigolo?”
“Yes. You met him that night at the party. Greg.”
“What? Did you know he was a gigolo?”
“Of course not. He mentioned that I owed him money the next morning, but when he realized that I had not been aware of his profession, he told me that I didn’t have to pay him. But I couldn’t do that. I called him later and met up with him to pay him.”
“That was nice of you.”
“During our lunch conversation, I started asking him about the business of escorting. He mentioned that he didn’t like the administrative side of it, and I jokingly said that he needed a pimp.”
Ryan gasped. “Lana, you didn’t?”
“Yes, after some thought, I agreed to be his pimp, only I prefer the word Madam.”“Oh god,” he said.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds. Once I started representing him, I found all these other guys in my life who were short on cash, and I wanted to help them. So I started taking on additional guys.”
“How many do you have now?”
“I’m up to seven guys now,” I said.
“Wow,” he breathed. “This is a lot to take in.”
The waitress returned and set our waters and coffee down on the table. I waited until she left before continuing.
“Judge me all you want, but this side business is getting my bills paid.”
“I’m not judging you,” Ryan said. “I just need a minute to let this sink in. It’s a really big deal.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Do Jake and Mallory know?”
“Hell no,” I said. “Those are the last two I want to find out that their mother is pimping to pay the bills. Plus, if they found out, they would try to convince me to move them to another school in an affordable neighborhood.”
“Have you considered doing that?”
“I considered it briefly, but I wouldn’t feel right. The school they are going to has an amazing track record and their chances of getting into a good college is better there. They have their friends from school and in the neighborhood, and if there’s some way I can maintain that for them, then I want to do it.”
“That’s commendable.”
“This is temporary though,” I said. “Very temporary. In fact, I’m going to meet with all of the guys so that we can all get on the same plan for getting out of this line of work.”
“So you’re saving money?”
“I’ve saved a little. Recently I took Pearl on to answer calls, so that’s a big expense that I’m covering. But hopefully we can start increasing the number of appointments, and I can recoup those losses.”
“Dad would be proud of your business approach.”
“Except he wouldn’t be so pleased at the type of business.”
“He’d probably get over it,” Ryan said. “Now, Mom and Pam are a different story.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that would be enough fuel for them to last the rest of their lives.”
“So I take it that you and Pam don’t talk much.”
“No way,” I said. “Every time I talk to her, she treats me like crap.”
“She’s jealous.”
“Of what? My life is insane.”
“But you’re happy. No matter how crappy your life was, you always kept
a good outlook. Even days after Frank abandoned you and the kids, you still had a bright disposition.”
“Did I?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “We all talked about that behind your back. Although Mom and Pam said that you were just suppressing all your negative emotions. But James, Dad, and I agreed that you were just good at handling bad stuff.”
“So what’s she jealous of?”
“Because she is miserable. I don’t know why, but she just is. And the more that Pete tries to make things better, the more that she resents him. It wouldn’t surprise me if one day he just up and leaves too. Except, I think he would take the kids.”
I leaned up in my seat. “Really? What makes you say that?”
“Because he spends more time with the kids than she does. He’s the one that takes the kids to all of their activities and she sits at home and stews about how miserable her life is.”
“As much as I would like to see Pam get what she deserves, that would be awful if it happened. Nobody deserves that.”
“She’s just like Mom, except she wasn’t lucky enough to marry someone like Dad.” Ryan shook his head. “Hold on, you can’t get me side-tracked with a tangent about Pam. Let’s get back to this whole gigolo thing.”
“So what else do you want to know?”
“So you don’t sleep with all the guys or anything, right?”
“I’ve slept with two of them.”
“What?”
“Well, I told you that Greg and I slept together. Before I started the business, I slept with Derrick, who is my pool boy.”
“You slept with your pool boy?”
“Yes.”
“That’s hot.”
“I actually just learned that he is bisexual,” I said. “He’s going to start catering to the random male clients that call in from time to time.”
Ryan smiled. “That’s enterprising of him.”
“He’ll make a lot of money doing that,” I said.
“And by association, so will you.”
“That’s how it works,” I nodded.
“Okay, so why were you at the Steel Hammer? What were you and Lucas talking about?”
“You know my boyfriend, Adam? Well he’s a stripper in the show at the Hammer.”
“Oh my god,” Ryan said, putting his hand over his mouth. “This just keeps getting better.”
“We met one night when a bunch of us went to the Steel Hammer,” I explained. “He was off that night, and I didn’t know that he was a dancer there. I didn’t find out until after we had spent most of the weekend together. By then, I had started to develop feelings for him and couldn’t just dismiss him because of his occupation. I mean it’s not like he sleeps with women that come to the show.”
“He does look like a stripper now that you say it. He’s very good looking.”
“Yes, very good looking,” I smiled. “One of the guys in his show wanted to make some more money, so he came to work for me part time.”
“That’s the Hugh guy that you were talking about?”
“Yes. He came to work for me and then a few nights ago, he was found murdered in his apartment.”
“Oh no,” Ryan gasped.
“I still haven’t figured out who did it. But Hugh had one of the cell phones that I had issued to all the guys. For a few days, I spent every minute worried that the police would find the phone and then I’d wind up in jail, but somebody mailed it to me.”
“Somebody? You don’t know who?”
“No, it was anonymous. But it has to be somebody who was doing it to protect me.”
“So someone found his dead body and took the cell phone and mailed it to you. It sounds like it was the same person who reported the body.”
“Or the murderer,” I suggested.
“That means you would know the murderer.”
“Exactly why I’m stressed out about this.”
“Do you have a list of suspects?”
“Yes, and none of them are good. It could be any of the guys that work for me or one of the guys at the Steel Hammer. Some of them have been over lately to hang out, so maybe they were trying to help me.”
“What about Adam?”
“He’s a suspect, too,” I said.
“So you’re dating a stripper who might have murdered another stripper?”
“Basically, yes.”
Ryan sighed. He didn’t say a word to me, and instead just stared across the table at me like I were some sort of exhibit at the zoo. He wasn’t the type who judged, but I knew that I had laid more than enough on him just now that judgment would be warranted.
“So how can I help you?” he asked finally.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“That’s all you have to say about everything I just told you?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know. I just assumed that you would tell me what an idiot I’m being.”
“Look, Lana, you’re doing what you have to do for your kids. I think that’s commendable, because most people just lay down and take the lumps that life gives them. You’ve taken fate by her tits, and that’s awesome.”
“Lively expression,” I said.
“It’s true though. I agree with what you said before in that you need to have a plan to work yourself out of this business. There’s a lot of potential danger in doing this, and I don’t want you to get hurt, but I’m confident that you can take care of yourself.”
“Thank you, Ryan.”
“It’s nothing. This is how supportive family should be of each other. So how can I help?”
“I just need to work through this. It’ll be good to know that I can call you now and talk about stuff.”
“Anytime.”
“But enough about me. How’s everything with you and Edward?”
“We’re great,” Ryan said. “We haven’t told anyone yet, so don’t tell Mom or Dad or anyone else. Edward and I started filling out paperwork to begin the adoption process.”
“That’s great!” I said, and then realized that I said that a little too loud. A few other patrons in the restaurant turned their heads toward us.
“Well, there’s a lot of red tape to go through, so we’re not there yet. We have to submit the application, and then do a home study. After that, we’ll go through the whole process of trying to get matched with a birth mother.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of crap to go through.”
“I know, right.”
“I hope it works out for you two. I think you’ll be fantastic dads.”
“Edward is over the moon about it. We both want a child very much.”
“How do you think mom will take it?”
“Oh, she’ll do the usual routine. She’ll freak out on me and yell for a while and wonder out loud why I couldn’t be more like James. Then she’ll hang up on me, spend the next few days stewing in silence, before I finally get a call from her. She’ll ask if she can plan a baby shower or something in an attempt to act as if the previous conversation had never happened.”
We talked for a while until the second pot of coffee had run dry. I hated to leave his company, but I really needed to get home to get some sleep. We walked out to our cars together and he gave me a kiss on the cheek and a hug before we went our separate ways.
Chapter Seventeen
I never heard from Adam that night. Not a text, a phone call, nothing. By the time I got home, it was just past midnight and the kids were already in bed. I didn’t bother trying to contact Adam, knowing that he might still be on his final number. So I just rolled back the sheets and climbed into bed.
The first thing I did when I woke up the next morning was check my phone. There were no text messages or missed calls from Adam’s phone. That caused me just a little worry. Before this whole Hugh mess had started, I would have worried that something bad had happened to him. But in the more recent climate of our relationship, I was more worried that he had learne
d of my actions the night before.
I started the coffee pot brewing and then went into the office. Pearl would be arriving soon, but I figured I’d help her by clearing out the overnight e-mails. It was a Saturday morning, but Pearl insisted on coming over to man the phones until early afternoon. Saturday mornings had started getting very busy for us lately.
After returning the four e-mails in the inbox, I went back into the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee. I heard Pearl jiggling the keys of the front door, so I retrieved another mug from the cabinet for her.
“Hey, girl,” she said as she walked into the kitchen and set her purse down on the counter.
“Hey,” I said.
“You look tired,” she noted. “What did you do last night?”
I pursed my lips and fought back a smile.
“What? I know that look,” she said.
“I went to the Steel Hammer.”
“You did what? Why did you go there?”
“I needed to talk to Lucas.”
“Oh no. Does Adam know?”
“If he does, he hasn’t bothered telling me yet.”
“He’s going to be pissed, girl. You better hope that Lucas doesn’t tell him.”
“That’s not the worst thing.”
“What else happened?”
“My brother Ryan caught me at the Steel Hammer.”
“What did you tell him?”
“He went with me to meet with Lucas. Afterwards, he and I went to get some coffee, and I told him everything about the Madam business.”
“You did? What did he say?”
“He was supportive, just as I knew he would be. But I could tell that he was a little uneasy about my choice of business.”
“Well, he wouldn’t be a good brother if he wasn’t. You think he can keep a secret?”
“Ryan can definitely keep a secret. You, Betsy, and Ryan are the three people in my life that I know I can trust with anything.”
Pearl smiled. “You can trust me with anything except maybe watching your pizza while you walk out of the room.”
“So I don’t know if Adam is going to go back to ignoring me or it was just a coincidence that he didn’t call me last night.”
Just then, the Madam phone rang in the office. Pearl grabbed her coffee and her purse and headed towards the office. I still wanted to talk to her more about what had happened the night before, but the line continued ringing. That was definitely a good thing for the guys and my bottom line, but at that moment, I needed someone to talk to about all of this.