Saving Sky

by Natasha L. Black

  But it felt dirty. I didn’t like stripping – or, as I should say, exotic dancing. I knew what it was, and I hated it. There were plenty of other girls in the club who loved what they did for a living, and they wanted to make a career of it for as long as they could.

  I didn’t, however. I had started at the club out of sheer need, and it was a decision that was coming back to haunt me. It didn’t matter what I did to try to get out of there, the same thing happened. Rocco would threaten, he would yell. He would make sure I knew the day I walked out those doors for good would be the day I would disappear.

  My mother wouldn’t have wanted this for me. She would have been sad to know how I was getting the money to help her. I told her I was a bartender. As a former alcoholic, I knew she wasn’t going to set foot in a bar to see if it was true, so she bought the story.

  She was sick. Cancer. So young for it to steal her away, and too poor to do anything about it. She was all I had in the world, so I wasn’t going to watch her die a slow death and do nothing about it. I had to figure out a way to help.

  And working as an exotic dancer seemed like the best way to do that.

  At first, I couldn’t say things were great. Rocco was a lot quieter about asking me for favors then. It was still clear that he liked me, but it was only after my mother died and I tried to quit the place that his true colors came out.

  I’d no idea he was in the mob. And, from the sounds of things, he was pretty high up in his ranking.

  “Strippers go missing all the time. No one cares,” he’d remind me. “I could make you disappear, and who would come looking? It would be a tragedy for the club, but we’d get through it. There’s always another girl out there. But, don’t you think you can walk out of here and away from me.”

  I sighed as I reached my apartment. It was so depressing to come home to nothing at night. It was a rundown place in a rundown side of town. Affordable, but all I could manage. I was saving my money, telling myself I would get out and far away someday.

  He won’t come after you. If you’ve got enough in the bank, you can buy a plane ticket to nowhere and forget about this place. Just get as far from Chicago as you can, and you aren’t going to have to think about any of this again.

  It was a risk, I knew. There was a chance he’d be able to hunt me down, and I didn’t want to think about what might happen if he caught me. But I also knew that I couldn’t stay. Things were getting worse at the club, and I was sure he was going to start pushing for us to do illegal things with the customers sooner rather than later.

  I was already living with the memory of how I got by before. Stealing anything I could get away with, trying to make ends meet for my mother. I didn’t care what the risk was. If I could get it in my pocket and sell it down the street, I would do it in a heartbeat.

  More than once, I’d nearly been caught. I was sure my name was in the system. I hated what I’d done, and I wished there was a way I could go back and fix it. But, I couldn’t. All I could do now was move on and try to survive the life I’d built for myself.

  I unlocked the door to my place and slipped inside, pulling the door and locking it, then flicking on a light before I entered. I didn’t mean to be so paranoid, but with the feeling that I constantly had to look over my shoulder, it was hard not to be. I had heard stories of men following women home from the club, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.

  The place was silent. The sound of traffic on the street outside and a man shouting down the street were the only noises that reached my ear. I often told myself I should get a cat. It would be a lot less lonely to come home to an animal than to be alone.

  But a cat would be more money, and it would be hard to leave if I was ever ready to make the leap.

  My dream in life had been to go to veterinary school. I wanted nothing more than to help animals that were in need, healing them when they were hurt or sick. Ever since I was a little girl, I’d loved all animals, but especially cats. There was just something about the thought of being a vet that filled me with excitement. But life got in the way, and I had to give up on that goal.

  I did my best to help my mother. There was little I could do day to day besides take her to her appointments and give her the money that I earned for medicine. I did my best, but it hadn’t been enough.

  It was discouraging, but it also took away my confidence in being a veterinarian. If I couldn’t help her, what could I do for an animal that was in need?

  Then, I found I was trapped at my current job. There wasn’t any way in hell Rocco would let me go to school and leave his club. He had me by the throat, and he knew it. I had to just deal until I had enough money put away to make a clean break and get the fuck out of dodge.

  I took a hot shower, washing away the sweat and perfume of the evening. It was a familiar smell to me these days – the smell of getting off work from a gentleman’s club. At first, I’d found it rather exotic. I could talk myself into hating the situation less.

  But now, I just hated it all. I didn’t want to smell that when I took a shower. I didn’t want to smell that way at all. Yet, it had now become my life, and there was certainly no changing it anytime soon. I’d go to bed, I’d have nightmares off and on, and I’d get up to do the same thing again tomorrow.

  I tried not to think about what Rocco had told me that night. I wasn’t going to do it, there wasn’t any way I would whore myself out to the customers. But he was the boss, and he didn’t like being told no. I dreaded thinking about what was going to happen when I had to stand up for myself.

  I had to draw the line somewhere, and prostitution was definitely off the table. It wasn’t happening, I didn’t care who he was.

  It was a vicious cycle, and I was at the center. I could try to fight it, but there wasn’t any point. Rocco called the shots in my world, whether I liked it or not. He was the boss, and I was little more than a slave doing his bidding. Payment or not, I didn’t want to be there, and he wouldn’t let me go.

  So what choice did I have?

  3

  Jack

  I took a deep breath, watching the back door of the club. The idea was crazy, that was for damn sure. Perhaps not the craziest thing I’d ever done, but it was pretty close. What the fuck was wrong with me?

  I hadn’t been able to get that girl – Sky – off my mind. What she did to my body was just too amazing. I had been fully clothed, but even just her body hovering over mine was enough to make electricity run through me.

  But there was something else about her that put me on high alert. There was a sadness to her, almost a palpable fear in her demeanor. She had to be hiding something.

  All my training as a cop taught me how to read people, and I read her like a book. As hard as it was to concentrate on anything but what she was doing to me, I could still see right through her smile, and I couldn’t say that I liked what I saw.

  I knew it had to be difficult for a girl to be working at such a place. I would hate it if my mother or sister had taken this sort of career path for themselves. I knew a lot of women liked doing it. Hell, they made a lot of money, that was for sure.

  Yet, there was something about the way that she moved – something in her face as she got off of me and went back to the stage – it made me think she didn’t want to be there. I didn’t know why I felt that way or what was putting it in my mind, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.

  Or the need to do something about it.

  The feeling had been nagging me all day. It had distracted me more times than I could count during my shift – something I couldn’t let happen when I was on the job. Being a police officer in Chicago was no joke. Especially since we were often patrolling some of the darker sides of town.

  I couldn’t afford in my own mind to not be paying complete attention to what I was doing. I couldn’t say that I didn’t mind spacing out from what my partner was saying, but I knew I had to be on high alert at all times in order to be safe.

  So, I told myself I’d come
back to the club and see her when my shift was over. I could then let Welsh babble on about how epic the night had been, how he’d also managed to get a lap dance, and how glad he was I’d gotten one, too.

  “You okay, bud?” he asked me more than once during the day.

  “Yeah, just thinking about last night,” I replied.

  “Oh fuck, me too!” he laughed. “That was more fun than I’ve had in a long time. I wish we could get everyone together to do it again.”

  “I don’t think Cap is going to be coming with us. He’s getting married tomorrow,” I told him with a smirk.

  “Shame. He seemed to be having a good time, too,” Welsh lamented. He was the sort of kid to live in the moment, never really thinking about what was happening tomorrow. We’d talked about it several times, and he told me straight that he couldn’t afford to stress about what tomorrow may bring when he didn’t know if he was going to make it through the day.

  And he was right. We officers were shot at often. It was rare for any of us to be killed on the job, but it certainly did happen, and none of us could promise we’d be around to see our next shift.

  It came with the job description, and we all knew it. It wasn’t anything we could worry about, or we’d fuck up our duties.

  But now, there I sat, back at the club and waiting for the girl to return. I didn’t know what I was going to say to her when I did see her. It was likely she wasn’t going to be overly talkative to someone like me. Hell, for all she knew, I could be some creep who had come back to the place to stalk her.

  That was part of the reason I hadn’t gone inside. I knew the bouncers were observant, as were many of the women who worked there. They didn’t want the girls harassed on the job. Though, in my mind, the job itself was harassment.

  This is absolutely crazy. Do you want to get your partners called on you? Or maced? She might well be armed for all you know – if she’s going to come out of the place at all.

  I glanced at the clock in my car. I had been sitting there for nearly an hour as it was. Someone was bound to notice the car just sitting out in the parking lot with someone inside. Yet another way for other cops to get called on me. That would figure.

  The last thing I wanted was to explain to my comrades why I was sitting outside the strip club the day after we were hanging out there. Welsh would likely think it was funny, but I wasn’t so sure about the others.

  I got along with most men on the force, but there were still those few who didn’t see eye to eye with me. I could tell them I was just patrolling the area, but I knew it was unlikely any of them would believe that. Hell, even I thought I was being suspicious.

  What would anyone else think?

  Alright, this was a bad idea. You need to get out of here before you get yourself in trouble in one way or another. You don’t need that shit, and it’s just going to blow up into a huge thing down at the station.

  You don’t know that girl, maybe she’s just fine and that’s just her face. Fuck it. Go home.

  I knew I should get out of there, but as soon as I put my car into drive, the back door of the club opened, and Sky came out. I immediately went on high alert, assessing how she was acting. It didn’t take long for me to see she was in trouble.

  She strode out of the club with her hands shoved in the pockets of a hoodie. I almost didn’t recognize her with clothes on, her wavy hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was also wearing a baseball cap pulled rather low. But that figure, I knew it was her.

  And she wasn’t happy.

  Almost immediately after she stepped out of the club, a man emerged behind her. He was walking aggressively. Her body language was full of attitude – defiance, I guessed. He, on the other hand, was full of dominance and aggression. I wasn’t about to sit in the car and let him do anything to her, so I immediately got out.

  They weren’t paying any attention to me. She said something to him that I didn’t make out, and he responded by grabbing her throat and shoving her against the side of the club. She hit her head hard against the wall, her hat nearly falling off in the process.

  “Hey!” I barked. He ignored me, but she turned her head slightly. I wasn’t as worried about talking to her as I was getting him off of her, so I repeated myself. “Hey!”

  As soon as he turned his head, I recognized him as the owner of the joint. Rocco.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked. I tried to keep my cool, but I already wanted to slam my fist right into his face.

  “It’s none of your business,” he snapped.

  “Get your hands off her,” I ordered. “You never touch a woman that way.”

  “I touch my girls how I please,” he replied. “Now fuck off or there is going to be a problem between you and me.”

  “Get your hands off her,” I repeated. “I’m not going to ask you again.”

  “And I’m not going to tell you again. Unless you want your face smashed against the pavement until no one recognizes your pretty boy features anymore, you better get the hell out of here. No one asked you for your opinion,” Rocco snapped.

  “Are you alright?” I turned my attention to Sky. She didn’t have the chance to answer. Rocco had reached the end of his patience, and he now released her, swinging his fist at me. I was ready for the blow, knowing that he wasn’t going to take much more of my interference without striking.

  I dodged his fist and hit him with my own, right under the jaw. I knew how to put a violent man to the ground, and though I didn’t often resort to using punches, I was pissed off enough at seeing the way he was manhandling Sky. He was lucky all I did was punch him in the jaw.

  He fell with a thud and I yanked out my badge. Showing my gun and flashing the badge at him, I started talking before he could launch into a tirade. “Chicago PD. If you swing on me that’s assault on an officer, and I’m sure you don’t want to deal with those charges. If you touch her or any other woman like that again, you’re going to deal with me. You keep your hands off them, or I will arrest you!”

  Rocco sized me up as he rose from the ground. He could clearly see the gun I had concealed in my pants, and he glanced at the badge with disgust in his eyes. He debated whether it was worth the charges to take another swing at me, then changed his mind.

  “You better be back tomorrow,” he said to Sky, then he headed back inside the club. I turned to her.

  “Are you alright?” I asked in concern. “You can file a report against him for putting his hands on you.”

  She seemed stunned for a moment, then she quickly shook her head. “No, I don’t want to do that. I’m fine.”

  She started to walk away, and I sighed. I wanted to talk to her, but I was starting to piece together what might be wrong. If that’s how she was treated when she was outside that place, what did he do to her when she was behind closed doors? I felt the fury bubble up in my gut.

  “Do you need a ride?” I called after her. Her hands were back in her pockets and she was walking quickly up the sidewalk, away from me. She turned for a brief moment, walking backwards as she declined my offer.

  “No, thank you. I’m going to take the bus. Appreciate the help,” she said.

  I nodded and she turned quickly back around, walking about as fast as she could without running. With a shake of my head, I turned to walk back to my car. I was glad that I’d come, I’d hate to think what would have happened to her if I hadn’t shown up when I did, but I was still pissed.

  I hated to see men abusing women, and I knew it happened a lot in this industry. It wasn’t right, and I would fight until my dying breath to put an end to all of it. But I also couldn’t get Sky out of my mind. I had to find a way to talk to her.

  But how?

  4

  Sky

  I strode to the bus stop with my hands in my pockets. I wasn’t sure where I was going, just away from there. I had to hurry. There was something in me telling me to get out of there as quickly as I could.

  My mind drifted to how the day had gone, and I wa
sn’t sure how I’d show up the next day without Rocco finishing what he’d just tried to start.

  Things had been rather ordinary throughout most of the afternoon. I always showed up around two and stayed until eleven. I got an hour for lunch, though it was rare for me to take one. Rocco didn’t like it when we had what he called ‘a gut.’

  We were allowed water on shift, and maybe something light from behind the bar. That was it. I hated it. I was always starving by the time I got off work, though the extra hour did enable me to make more tips.

  The dinner rush had gone much like it always did. There were plenty of men coming in who’d just gotten off work. They came from all walks of life, that was evident by the clothes they wore. Some looked like they came right out of a construction zone, and others looked like businessmen from banks or law firms.

  They all shared the same desire. Throw money at us and let us crawl all over them. Rocco was right. I was one of the favorites of the bunch, and most of my money came from the lap dances I gave when I should have been on lunch.

  I thought it was just going to be a normal night. I hoped it would be, anyway. I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to get through the shift and get home. But, right after dinner Rocco cornered me in the hall leading from the dressing rooms to the stage.

  “I need you to be more physical with the clients,” he announced.

  “I already told you, that’s not going to happen,” I shot back.

  “You need to be more handsy. Rub on them more, make them come in their pants if you must. Hell, I’d rather you took them to the back room and blew them!” He was in my face as he spoke, and I fought the urge to shove him out of my way. I could smell the alcohol on his breath, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with his proposition.

  “Never going to happen,” I replied. “A lap dance is done how we are comfortable doing them. You can’t ask more of us than that, and neither can the clients.”