by S. Nelson
“What happened after you told them you didn’t know him?” I asked, bracing myself for the answer. All three of them shared a look, one I didn’t understand, other than that I was sure it was nothin’ good. The Reapers were amping up their shit. First it was the fire, then shooting at Jagger, grazing Linc’s temple in the process. There was no doubt in my mind he’d rough up some of our workers, or worse.
“They didn’t believe us,” Raven answered. “The one with the face tattoos hit me twice before knocking me to the ground.” I stepped closer, and it was then I saw the makeup she applied to cover a black eye.
“When he was done with her,” Jaz said, “he grabbed me from his buddy and threw me on the ground, kicking me in the side hard enough that it hurts every time I move a certain way or try to take a deep breath.” Her brows pinched in when she tried to demonstrate.
My attention swung to Skye. “What did they do to you?” A simmering rage burned through me they’d been in harm’s way just because they worked for us.
“The big one with the shaved head pushed me against the wall and tried to rape me. It was by the grace of God that two of the bouncers from the club happened to be walking around the side to take a piss. I don’t remember too much of what happened afterward because everything got crazy. As soon as the bouncers charged the three of ’em, we took off.” She fiddled with her chestnut-colored hair, which I suspected to be a wig. Skye gave off the appearance of indifference, but I saw the glassy sheen of her brown eyes and the slight tremble of her chin. She was scared. They all were. Fuck. I was for them. There was no guarantee those bastards wouldn’t find them again and do something much worse.
“What are we gonna do if they come after us again?” Raven asked. “They didn’t believe we were tellin’ them the truth. They think we know somethin’ we don’t.”
“We’ll protect you,” I said. “Just lie low for a while. Don’t go back to that club. Come here and go home. I was gonna say if you go anywhere else make sure you’re there with other people, but I guess that doesn’t matter.”
“I know,” Jaz whispered, linking her arm with Kaden’s. If they hadn’t been through such a scary ordeal, I had no doubt that he would’ve pushed her away. “I’m really scared.” She batted her eyes at him, then looked at me. “What if they come here lookin’ for us? They know we work here.” I didn’t bother to ask how because it’d be pointless.
“Why don’t you ladies take a few days off?” I made the suggestion without clearing it with Carla or Marek. Then again, the girls were my responsibility, so if I thought they should stay home until we could get a better handle on everything, then that was my call, wasn’t it?
“I can’t afford to do that,” Skye practically shouted, more from fear than anger.
“Me either,” the other two chimed in.
“We’ll figure something out,” I promised, nodding, the strained grin on my face making my cheek muscles ache. “I’m gonna talk to Carla. Don’t worry about it.” My eyes fell on Jaz. “You should probably see a doctor to make sure you don’t have a cracked rib.”
“I will.” She looked to the other two women before disappearing back inside. Raven and Skye followed shortly afterward, walking several steps behind me and Kaden as we entered the club.
Because it was late morning, the club wasn’t anywhere near capacity, and with the fire impeding full access of the space, there were even fewer dancers than normal. We’d seen a dip in profits, and while we wanted to get back on track as soon as possible, the money loss wasn’t drastic… yet.
“I gotta talk to Paul.” Kaden walked ahead of me and toward the hallway. “Prez is gonna wanna know when everything is gonna be finished.” Jaz stopped him before he turned the corner. I watched him mouth something, shake his head, say something else, then drop his shoulders. If I had to bet, she tried to take advantage of his kindness for her situation. The chick had it bad for my boy, shamelessly flirting with him every time he came here, but he didn’t want anything more to do with her. He fucked her once and he wasn’t gonna do it again. Even if he wasn’t with Riley now, he still wouldn’t touch her a second time. He told me right after it happened that he knew it was a mistake, that he had an inkling she wasn’t gonna leave him alone. And he’d been right. If she wasn’t such a good employee, in high demand for private dances, he would’ve been able to easily convince me to get rid of her, maybe find her a job at another strip joint.
My eyes scoured the area looking for Carla, appreciating the facelift the club got a few years back. The place didn’t look bad before, it just looked better now, different-sized booths lining three of the four walls, numerous tables and chairs positioned in the center of the space. Smaller stages surrounded the focal one, allowing multiple strippers to perform their acts simultaneously.
When I didn’t catch sight of Carla, I assumed she was holed up in her office, given the time of day. But then I remembered her office was located in the back of the club, close to where the fire broke out. Two storage spaces along with the security room and one of the VIP areas were damaged in the blaze, mostly smoke damage but enough to make the spaces temporarily unworkable.
I was halfway down the hall when the door to one of our private areas opened. Tommy, one of our security guys, walked out, grumbling about something.
He jerked his chin in my direction. “What’s up, man?”
“Same shit.”
“You got that right.” He started to walk past me, but I stopped him by stepping in front of him.
“You know where Carla is?”
“In there.” He pointed toward the room he exited. “You in the mood to get your balls handed to you too?” Sounded like Carla was dishing out tongue lashings again, which had become the norm as of late. She had a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders and needed to keep everyone in check for this place to run as smoothly as it did. And now, she had to deal with renovations on top of everything else.
“What’d you do?” Carla wouldn’t randomly chastise anyone unless they deserved it.
For a second, Tommy looked like he was gonna lie but then must’ve thought better of it, knowing damn well I’d get the full story from her as soon as I walked in there.
“I went to take a piss without telling anyone and one of the regulars got handsy with one of the girls.”
Because the security room was temporarily shut down, our guys had to walk around the club and visit the private booths often. Luckily, nothing bad happened; otherwise, we’d be having a different kind of conversation.
“You won’t make that mistake again, will ya?” I gave him a half smirk, knowing his talk with her hadn’t been pleasant.
Tommy hung his head. “Nope.”
I slapped him on the back and chuckled before walking in to see Carla. She sat behind a folding table, two monitors sitting on top. The click of the keys ceased as soon as she saw me enter.
“I’m assuming you heard about what happened to Skye, Jaz, and Raven.” She pushed away from her makeshift desk and crossed her legs, her skirt rising to expose a bit more of her thigh.
Carla was probably close to forty years my senior, and while I didn’t dig older chicks, she was attractive for her age. She kept herself in shape, thin yet curvy. Standing at only around five foot five, her large personality made her seem much bigger.
Most of the security guys had been reamed out by her at least once, and while all these men towered over her, they didn’t dare talk back or get mouthy. Whether it was respect or fear or a bit of both, they knew not to overstep or she’d hand them their ass. For as fierce as she could be, she was also compassionate and nurturing when the situation called for such traits, mostly with the dancers. She’d been running this place for decades because she had a good head for the business. She was smart, savvy, and kept the patrons in check with her stern, no-nonsense tone. Whoever didn’t abide was kicked out and banned from returning.
“I did. That’s what I wanna talk to you about.” I leaned against the nearest wall,
clasping my hands in front of me, preparing for the fallout of our impending conversation. “I told the three of them to take a few days off. They said they couldn’t afford it, but we can’t afford for them to be here right now. They need to lie low for now. That being said, we need to pay them at least seventy-five percent of what they would’ve made working the next three days.”
I thought for sure she was gonna start yelling at me, an experience I wasn’t looking forward to but would take because this situation was a necessary one. But instead, she shocked me with her compliance.
“Okay. I’ll figure something out and let them know.” She leaned back in her chair, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Is that enough time to figure out”—she waved her hand in the air—“whatever it is to fix this?”
“I dunno,” I answered honestly, not having the faintest idea if any of our issues with the Reapers would be resolved anytime soon. Maddie had been with us for a bit and still we hadn’t heard anything from them about her. My gut told me somethin’ was brewing, but I didn’t know anything for sure.
“At least you’re honest.” She tucked herself back beneath the table, averting her attention to the computer once again. “Can you send the three of them in here to see me?”
“You got it.” I tapped the edge of the table twice, then walked out, spotting all three women at the bar. “Carla wants to talk to you,” I half shouted so they could hear me over the music, which was kept at a midrange level for now. They shared a look before hopping off their stools, brushing past me and into the room I’d just come out of. The door was closed, as was my involvement with that issue.
9
Every time the bell above the door chimed, or my phone made any sort of noise, my heart leapt into my throat. I’d never been so nervous about communicating with a guy before. Only this wasn’t just some guy. It was Ace. And he’d given me an ultimatum. Either shit or get off the pot. Okay, he didn’t use those exact words, but the sentiment was the same.
Instead of focusing on my issue, I tossed aside all thoughts of the gorgeous and sexy biker, or at least tried to, and zoned in on my best friend. Although she hadn’t been staying with me for very long, I’d miss her like crazy when she left.
“When are you gonna tell Kaden you’re movin’ in?” I moved around my client, Rose, checking all angles of her new hairstyle. She’d gone from waist-length hair to hitting at her shoulder blades, long chestnut layers cut into the style to give her more depth. She was thirty-two and had never colored her hair before, and when I tried to talk her into a few highlights, she politely refused, telling me she wanted to have virgin hair for as long as possible. I didn’t argue, jealous because I didn’t even know what shade my natural hair was at this point.
I started coloring my hair the shade of blonde it was now back in high school. Of course, then it’d been trial and error until I figured out what I was doing. One time my hair came out orange, and I acted like the mistake was intentional. Since then, I’d always played with different colors on the underneath of my strands. Right now, I had pink, but soon I wanted to try a cool shade of royal blue.
“The first chance I get. He’s been so busy dealing with club stuff, I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning.” Riley swiveled her chair to face me and leaned back. Her customer was under the dryer and wouldn’t be done for another ten minutes. “I hate the mixed feelings I have, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m excited to see the look on his face when I tell him and I know I’ll love living with him, as long as he doesn’t hog the remote, but I have to hide it from my parents because my dad will flip out. I don’t want to cause any more issues than there already are.”
“Then don’t tell ’em,” I offered, winking at her when she gave me a “duh” expression. “Once your dad comes around to the idea of you two, and he will, eventually, you can spring it on him then.” Trimming an errant strand of Rose’s hair, I swiped away the fallen piece from her shoulder and unclipped her black cape. “All done. What do you think?”
“I love it. My husband is gonna die when he sees me.” She beamed at her reflection and I didn’t blame her. The new style highlighted her almond-shaped hazel eyes as well as her cheekbones.
“You should swing by the shop two doors down and pick up some nice lingerie. You know, for the full effect.”
“Not a bad idea.” She stood and grabbed her purse, strolling across the salon with a renewed confidence, glancing into each mirror as she passed. Rose had struggled with depression for a long time until her doctor finally got her on the right meds. This haircut was the final piece to uplifting her spirits.
Plopping down in my chair, I checked my phone but there were no messages. After placing my cell facedown on my thigh, I turned back to Riley. “You might be able to get hitched before you ever have to tell hotheaded Daddy you’re livin’ in sin.”
“Livin’ in sin?” Riley laughed. “Does anyone even say that anymore?” She played with a strand of her hair, twisting her chair from side to side.
“Old people do.” I flashed her a smile before leaning forward and studying my eye makeup. I tried a new liquid liner and so far, so good. After receiving numerous compliments about my amber-colored eyes, I’d grown to love them as one of my better assets, although my breasts were a close second. Re-applying a layer of gloss to my lips, I was midswipe when the alert of the door chime sounded.
My first inhale of air was normal, but the second one stuttered, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. I didn’t even have to look toward the entrance to know who shared the same space with me.
“Hey, babe,” Riley greeted, hopping out of her chair. “What are you doin’ here?” Her feet propelled her toward Kaden, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the moment she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“We had some time before heading back to the clubhouse, so I wanted to stop and see you. You’re still comin’ over later, right?” The hopefulness in his voice was endearing, as if he hardly ever saw her, which wasn’t true at all. They saw each other all the time and would be seeing even more after she finally told the poor guy her plan.
“Of course. And there’s somethin’ I wanna talk to you about, too.”
Continuing to face forward, I stared at my reflection, careful not to look toward where he stood. My ears pricked at every sound made in anticipation of hearing his voice, to which I internally chastised myself for reacting at all.
“What is it?”
“We’ll talk later. My client’s almost done under the dryer.”
“Is it somethin’ I’m gonna be pissed about?” He wasn’t gonna let this go until later. No way that happened.
“No,” my bestie replied.
“Then tell me.” His voice took on a harder edge.
“Kaden.” Riley’s tone tried to mirror his. “Later.”
“Oh, just tell him already, woman,” I blurted, tearing my gaze from the mirror, and twisting my chair to face them. I gave Ace two seconds of visual attention, raking in his sexiness before going back to ignoring him. “You’re gonna make him think something awful. You know how he is.”
“Yeah. What she said.” Kaden pointed toward me before snatching Riley’s arm when she tried to move back. “Just tell me what it’s about. That’ll be good enough for now.”
“It’s about movin’ in together.”
“What about it? You gonna tell me no for the hundredth time?” His teeth played with the corner of his bottom lip, and because I knew him so well, I could tell he was becoming annoyed with the subject matter, thinking she was going to refuse his offer again.
Riley didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped into him, then shook her head.
“Does that mean you don’t wanna tell me or that you’re not gonna say no?”
A brief quiet stole over the space between them, and because I was an impatient person by nature, I snatched her thunder. The aftershocks, anyway.
“She’s deserting me and shackin’ up with y
ou. So, you better make sure I have space to hang out when I come over to see my girl.”
Kaden’s eyes flicked to me, his lip popping free from the imprisonment of his teeth. Then he stared at his woman, his mouth curving into the biggest smile I believed I’d ever seen. He beamed, and even though I ruined her surprise, his reaction was priceless.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but why did you change your mind?” He wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her closer, if that was at all possible.
Keeping my eyes on them was the goal because I didn’t have anything to say to Ace; therefore, I didn’t even want to look at him. I mean, I did, but nothing good would come of me giving him attention right now.
The way he left my house this morning was… shitty. Laying out an ultimatum like that, then expecting me to have an answer in just twenty-four hours was a dick move. Was I mad because I hadn’t given him one first? No. That couldn’t be it because I wanted to keep things as they were, but apparently, he didn’t. Simply contemplating what was gonna happen made my temples start to throb. I was confused about what to do and the short timeframe only made things worse.
“Other than wanting to get you to stop asking me?” He nodded, that smile still plastered on his gorgeous face. “I thought it was too soon after getting back together, and the whole issue with my dad weighs on me, but what am I waiting for? You’re stuck with me forever now, so there’s really no difference if we move in together now or a few months from now. Besides, I’m tired of lugging some of my stuff between your place and Chelsea’s.”
“Whatever the reason, I’ll take it.” He kissed her, and what started off as a happy peck turned swoon-worthy seconds later. But their embrace was interrupted when Natalie strolled through the door, scoffing when she saw Kaden and Riley’s show of affection. Her attention drifted to Ace, but she didn’t flirt with him like she normally did. In fact, she looked downright miserable.