Black Light: Valentine Roulette (Black Light Series Book 3)

by Livia Grant

  Enough was on the docket, but here they were arguing over a single employee. Again. Jaxson already had a headache. He was glad Emma and Chase were not there to see his bad mood today. And he was equally annoyed they were not there to ease his stress once the meeting concluded.

  The Valentine Roulette party was the biggest event Black Light had attempted, and it was happening in a week. Lists needed to be discussed, staff, security, background checks, continuing to build word of mouth in the community, and it was almost impossible to get his team to focus on the task at hand.

  Klara. They were endlessly arguing about Klara.

  Spencer had sat silently through Maxine’s meeting, but now it was his time, Black Light’s time, and he was having no more of this mess. “I saw her with Martin Goodchild last night. She practically mounted him atop your bar, and was seen leaving with him. The last thing I need is Klara’s face in the papers with a string of Runway VIPs or angry boyfriends storming in to cause trouble.”

  Maxine flat out laughed, the idea completely ridiculous. “One? She doesn’t have a boyfriend. Why would you think she did? And two, who cares?”

  Speaking over her, Spencer refused to back down. “The guests downstairs need to have faith that our staff is discreet.”

  Eyes sparkling, roving over Spencer’s greying temples, Maxine teased. “Let me guess, she shot you down. Too bad you’ve been such a hardass. Klara’s always had a thing for older men. You’d have been just her type.”

  Spencer’s face grew an angry shade of red from the jab. “It’s inappropriate for her to be seen leaving Runway with celebrities. She’s an employee—.”

  “Not of Runway!” Maxine defended her friend, sneering. “And it’s a bit hypocritical for you to be commenting on her sex life. If she wanted to sleep with any patron or performer from my club, that’s her business.”

  Spencer looked ready to lay into her.

  Before he might blow his top, Jaxson banged his hand on the table. “If Klara is not working out, Spencer, that’s your call to make. I can’t have you two in here arguing over one member of staff every single time we sit down.”

  The look in Maxine’s eyes when she turned to her boss... it was as if he’d sold her out.

  She had no choice but to try and smooth it over with Black Light’s Dungeon Master. “You need her, Spencer. Don’t blow it because she’s focused on her job and doesn’t kiss your ass like the other girls. Your numbers have improved dramatically. I know your guests must like her. Everyone does.”

  It had already been decided. Spencer’s eyes were unforgiving, his voice gruff. “She can be replaced.”

  “What’s your plan? Gonna take out an ad on Craigslist for bar manager, only submissives need apply?” Maxine was not above looking at him like he was crazy. “This is about you and me. Leave Klara out of it.”

  That’s not at all what it was about. “I’m firing her tonight, Maxine. It’s a personality issue. She doesn’t fit in with Black Light.”

  There was no reason for her to sit in further on their meeting. Not when she was tempted to lean over the table and strangle Spencer Cook with her bare hands. Rising from her chair, Maxine sneered. “You’re a prick.”

  Chapter 5

  The light was on in his office and the door sat ajar. With Black Light open for business, there was absolutely no one who should have dared enter that room. Even Spencer rarely ventured off the floor during business hours, but today he’d arrived downstairs after dinner with Jaxson at a later hour than usual.

  Only to find this...

  Ears pricked, he listened in on Klara.

  Her muffled tone was as abrasive as usual, the woman speaking on the phone. “Did you really think you were going to get away with it? I can’t believe you would even consider pulling this kind of shit with a new business. Your markup is ridiculous.”

  A pause and she continued. “Yeah, well fuck you very much, Jamal. You are going to give me everything I’ve asked for, and throw in a case of good champagne, or I’ll see that this account is transferred to Carroll. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to rake in the easy commission.”

  There was another moment of silence, and then Klara giggled. She actually fucking giggled. “If you think taking me out to dinner is going to get you back in my good graces, you better pick a pretty spectacular restaurant. And, I’ll be expecting one or two good bottles of wine. The expensive kind.”

  The grumble of a male voice hummed through the other end of the receiver before Klara agreed, “Yeah, maybe a movie too. But, not tonight, I’ll be getting off too late.” She added sweet as pie, “I’m free tomorrow, you conniving motherfucker.”

  Both participants in the exchange were laughing until Spencer shoved open the door.

  Klara lost her smile, eyes almost wide as her boss stalked forward to loom over his desk.

  She said one more thing, “Alright, eight o’clock,” then hung up.

  Before her, spread out on the desk were invoices from their main liquor distributor, several lines marked with red pen.

  She knew what he was looking at, and cut him to the chase. “Why haven’t you been showing me these? Jamal has been taking you for a ride. Don’t worry. I fixed the problem.”

  That was not Spencer’s greatest issue at the moment. On the desk, to the right, under her elbow, was a manila folder with a sticker placing it as one Klara Eriksson’s background check. There was a discarded newspaper over it, but if she’d been snooping, there was no possibility she had not found it.

  Like most days, Spencer had been looking through it earlier and had not thought there was a need to put it back in the locked filing cabinet.

  She must have seen it. She must have seen it on his desk, noticed how the pages were creased from having been handled repeatedly. Had she seen the photograph Jaxson’s PI had taken? The one where she was smiling and comfortable? The one where she was in a polka dot blouse with sunglasses on her head? Had she opened that file and seen his notes?

  Spencer wanted the conversation to be focused. He wanted her eyes on him. “Is that how you talk to our liquor reps?”

  “I’ve known Jamal for six years. I know everyone at Nation Wine & Spirits. Believe me, that conversation was tame.” She seemed proud of herself, less cold, more temperate. “Meanwhile, I got two-hundred bucks knocked off our next order.”

  “And a date for tomorrow night?”

  “Uhhh...” She seemed unsure how to answer. “Taking out a client is pretty par for the course.”

  “What about going to the movies? That par for the course?” Spencer rounded the desk and walked right up to where she sat in his chair, staring down at the little growing wrinkle between Klara’s blonde eyebrows.

  Just as he’d intended she turned in the chair, and met his hard stare.

  The file was at her back, nowhere near her line of sight when he asked, “Are you sleeping with him?”

  He’d pushed too far, Klara snapping. “Are you sleeping with Shandra, and Adele, and Margaret, and Ling? Yes, you are. You are sleeping with your entire female staff.”

  Crossing his arms over his chest, deeply thrilled to see her ruffled, and equally pissed off at having found her in his office, Spencer said. “I don’t sleep with them.”

  She snorted. “Call it what you want.”

  Spencer smirked, certain she was not at all welcome to sit in his chair and use his things. “What are you doing in here?”

  “This is the only phone on this floor. Where did you think I placed the orders from, my apartment? That would violate your very thorough NDA.”

  So she’d been in there before. How many times had he left her file out? How had he not noticed the smell of her perfume? “I come to work to find we have a packed house and you are in here chatting on the phone? Considering your complaints against your coworkers, that seems ironic, Klara.”

  “If I had called Jamal before nine it would have gone straight to voicemail. After seeing these invoices, I knew I’d need to corner hi
m. Otherwise there would have been weeks of back and forth while he milked your business on each transaction. And can you really compare my behavior to theirs? Shandra slipped away mid-shift last night and came back half an hour later with cum in her hair. I had to remind her to wipe it off and wash her hands before she touched anything!”

  She’d buried herself with that last comment and now Spencer had more than enough ammo to get what had to be done, done. “Those invoices were in my locked file cabinet.”

  Honey eyes hardened. “It wasn’t locked.”

  “It always is. You’d have known that since you’ve used my phone previously without permission.”

  Klara confessed. “I asked a friend at Nation Wine & Spirits to send me your backlog. Without bothering you it was the only way I could do my job.”

  Spencer had relished every second of catching miss perfect in a lie. It would make the next part so much easier. “You’re fired, Klara.”

  He’d thrown her for a loop. An array of subtle reactions passed through her expression moving from shock, a moment when she looked like tears were possible, and straight into anger. Lips thin, nostrils flared, Klara asked, “What? Why?”

  “You are not a good fit for Black Light.”

  Hoisting from the chair, unwilling to push it back to make room, she stood close enough they were almost touching. Lip in a sneer and her breath coming hard, Klara gave him a nonverbal fuck off. “Goodbye, Spencer. Have fun running this place into the ground.”

  She marched out and he gave her the courtesy of not calling security. Once she was gone he picked up her background check, the file with every one of her completely untawdry secrets, and dropped it in the trash.

  Chapter 6

  “He made her cry,” Emma said, demure in her approach towards the table where Black Light’s owners, and her lovers, Jaxson and Chase, had just settled in. “I don’t know why Spencer’s so hard on her.”

  Jaxson cracked a wry smile, having seen the woman in question throw her purse over her shoulder and leave moments before. He knew she’d been fired, and it was probably for the best. “Women like Klara don’t cry.”

  Men could be so oblivious, even Emma’s sweetheart. “I heard her in the bathroom. She was in the stall, but I know it was her. She’s the only girl who wears tennis shoes inside Black Light.”

  Emma was obviously upset, so Jaxson crooked a finger and called her to his lap. When she settled in, he took her face in his palms and kissed pouting lips. “I know you liked her, but Spencer made a call to let her go. I have to trust him.”

  “It’s a pity.” Chase had his own view of the issue, the man thoughtful as he said, “I’d never seen Spencer so focused on one woman. I thought with time he’d figure it out.”

  Jaxson could see that neither of them were happy with this alteration, but could not help but think they were mistaken. “You can’t honestly imagine Spencer was pining for Klara. He’s disliked her from day one.”

  Lashes downcast, tucking her head under Jaxson’s chin, Emma dared to softly disagree. “I think you’re wrong, sir.”

  This was another complication Jaxson didn’t need right now. He’d come here to relax and it was becoming more obvious lately that owning Black Light brought more stress than it relieved. That had been his whole motivation to allow Spencer to manage as he saw fit. Jaxson didn’t want to micromanage the club, he wanted to play here.

  Patrons enjoyed the scenes. As a Dungeon Master, Spencer was unparalleled, but the service staff had one complication after another. Obviously the DM could not be two places at once. Waitstaff needed a manager—training them, directing the front of house—and Klara had failed that task.

  Caressing the soft skin of Emma’s upper arm, Jaxson thought it over. Maybe he should have become involved before it came to this. Deferring to his DM’s judgment, he’d given Miss Eriksson a wide berth, disinterested in participating in Maxine and Spencer’s tug of war. And yes, he had noticed a few of the girls backtalk to Klara and pout when she called them out... the same subs Spencer liked to play with.

  “I’m never going to win the bet now,” Emma said, her fingers toying with the hair at Jaxson’s nape.

  She was cute when she was forlorn, Jaxson couldn’t help but smile, kiss her nose, and ask, “What bet?”

  Chase answered for her. “We made a friendly wager on how long it would take Spencer to ask Klara out.”

  An amused, chesty laugh came with Jaxson’s scoff. “He doesn’t date his subs.”

  Chase raised his glass to him. “But Klara is not a sub... at least she isn’t one yet. A woman like that, I’d imagine she’d enjoy learning to give up the power and let it all go. Or she would have if given the chance.”

  Emma sighed again. “I feel bad for Klara. She doesn’t understand what’s going on. And I feel bad for Spencer because he’s totally blind.”

  Humiliated, angry, Klara sat on her couch, the television flashing some action movie her brother had chosen, and glared down at the laptop warming her thighs. There was a wineglass on the coffee table where she rested her feet. Beside it sat an empty bottle. Having downed the whole thing, she wasn’t exactly the best role model for her brother Elias. But, heck, he was almost fifteen. He was probably already sneaking sips when she was at work.

  “Come on, Sis, you’re not even paying attention to the good parts. You love Die Hard.”

  She wasn’t paying attention because she was too busy staring at the splash page for Black Light’s Valentine Roulette party. Spencer had not yet revoked her membership and online access when he’d fired her, and for three days Klara had considered... doing something crazy.

  The day after she’d been fired she’d gone straight to Jack Varens and begged for her old job. That bridge had been burned when she’d jumped ship with no notice. He didn’t want her back. In fact, one look at her, and he’d blacklisted her from the nightclub.

  Rent was due, Elias’s tuition was due, the electric bill, cell phones... she had to work. Even if it meant going to some stale Irish pub full of twenty-one-year-olds who couldn’t hold their liquor and gave shit tips. But instead she was sitting on her couch, drinking, and very worried she’d blown the whole fucking shebang.

  Glancing towards her baby brother she put on a brave face. She’d raised him since he was three, working two, three jobs, whatever it took. Through all of it he’d never known how hard it had been for her to keep all their shit together. She’d never been mommy material. Elias deserved better, and none of this was his fault.

  God, she loved that kid. “Don’t you have homework?”

  Elias offered his best teenage eye roll. “It’s Friday night. Sheesh.”

  “I stand corrected.”

  Valentine’s Day was Tuesday. Klara was running out of time to decide. In fact, it was probably already too late to register for the Roulette party. She had to choose.

  Fingers flying over the keyboard, she filled out the application for submissives, ready to make a statement that might win back her job.

  And because she was still pissed and could not wait to see the look on his face, where the form gave the option for a sub’s chosen safeword, Klara typed Spencer.

  Chapter 7

  “Before you is the final guest list.” Jaxson motioned for Spencer and his team of Dungeon Monitors to look over the paperwork. “As you can see, there have been a few last minute alterations on the page of submissives participating this evening. Mina Wu has been replaced with Chelsea Jones, and—”

  All these changes Spencer had already approved, the information old news until his eyes scanned down. He choked on a breath. “Why is Klara Eriksson’s name on this list?”

  And why the hell had she listed her safeword as Spencer?

  There was no overt reaction to his friend’s shock. Jaxson calmly explained, ready to move on. “Klara’s application was submitted Friday. After speaking with her Saturday afternoon, I decided she was an interesting addition.”

  Nearby, Chase sat with a silent Emma
. As Master of Ceremonies he was already making notes, everyone acting as if the monumental adjustment was normal.

  Spencer, cynical to the core, glanced back and forth between them. “I’m asking you not to do this.”

  Jaxson met his friend’s eyes, direct and expecting answers. “Why?”

  “I’ll be distracted. She’ll need more looking after than the rest.”

  He could lead a horse to water but Jaxson couldn’t make it drink. “All of our participants have differing levels of experience, but several of them have yet to visit Black Light. Klara has at least experienced the club. She’s talked to the guests. There is nothing she hasn’t seen. I don’t believe she’d sign up on a whim.” If he had to strong arm his friend, he would. “Now that she is no longer a Black Light employee, there is no conflict of interest on her end. We’re short on subs and she wants to play. Everyone wins.”

  The Dungeon Master disagreed. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.”

  Dismissive, Jaxson said, “If it’s too much for Klara to handle, she can safeword. After working here for almost six weeks, she’s seen enough scenes to have a general idea what to expect.”

  Spencer, hardass ex-Navy Seal Spencer, looked nervous. “I would consider it a personal favor if you were to find someone else. The waiting list...”

  Jaxson shook his head, cutting off his Dungeon Master’s protest. “Half the subs on the waitlist are staff. Tonight will be busy. Everyone is expected to be on the clock.”

  The almighty Spencer adjusted his tie, glaring at the paperwork as if some miracle on that page might relieve his discomfort. “I fired Adele. She could step in.”