Men in Charge: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by Natasha L. Black

  His only problem was cash. By the time he got through the drinks, there wasn’t much left for the strippers. He refused to believe they were only on him for his money and would often try to convince them for free favors.

  Often without any luck.

  “Boys! We made it!” Captain Markel walked in and sat in the middle seat. He poured himself a pint of beer and sipped on it, also turning his attention to the stage. It wasn’t long, however, before we were approached by a man in a dark suit.

  “And it looks like the party’s all here!” he said. His accent had a faint Italian flavor that was barely detectable over the sound of the music, but his darker skin and face shape betrayed his nationality.

  “Rocco Andretti,” he extended his hand to the Captain and smiled at the rest of us. “Welcome to my club. Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I can make your evening most enjoyable.”

  “Nice to meet you. Love how you cleaned up the place, but curious to know why you didn’t change the name,” Cap replied.

  “My father was Smitty. I keep it for him,” Rocco said.

  The name never struck me as Italian, but I said nothing. I lost interest in the conversation as another dancer came out. Rocco continued to chat with several of the other guys, but I was suddenly transfixed.

  The woman on stage was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. She had a dark complexion, made darker by the lights. Her pink, short dress left very little to the imagination, and her dark hair fell in waves over her shoulders and down to her ample breasts.

  She lifted herself onto the pole, swinging around with all the grace of a swan. The sound of the music faded as I stared at her, completely numb to everything else around me.

  “Jack! Earth to Jack!” Welsh was saying in my ear. Rocco’s laugh was filling the moment, and I suddenly realized they were talking to me.

  “What?” I asked, my eyes still on the girl.

  “You like Sky? You want her to dance for you?” Rocco asked. I halfway glanced at him but didn’t have the chance to reply. He motioned for her to come forward, and she obeyed.

  “This gentleman would like a dance. Be a good girl and do that for him,” Rocco said. She gave me a small smile as she straddled me, moving over me like a goddess. I couldn’t believe what she did to my body; how electric she felt.

  All the other men around the table faded into the background, and for a moment, it was just the two of us. Hell, I almost was able to forget we were in a club. I was surprisingly lost in the moment.

  I wasn’t sure how long she spent dancing over me, but it seemed to be over in an instant. All too soon she got off me, giving me another smile before turning and heading back to the stage to finish her dance.

  Another dancer was on the pole now, and they were soon dancing together, much to the delight of all the men in the room. It was hot, I’d give them that. But I was still transfixed on the one Rocco had called Sky.

  By the time she headed to the back room behind the curtain, I knew no other girl would measure up to her. I stayed a while longer than I intended, hoping she’d come out again. I just wanted to see her one more time. Those eyes – the color of the sky.

  No wonder they called her that.

  But she didn’t reappear, and soon enough I was ready to head home. I did have another long shift ahead of me, after all, and I needed to get some sleep.

  But I knew I’d be dreaming of her.

  2

  Sky

  I wandered through the dressing rooms, eager to get out of the barely-there costume and into my day clothes. The chilly Chicago night called for my jeans and hoodie, and far less makeup than I currently had on.

  I sat down in front of the mirror at my station, taking my time washing off most of the makeup with a towelette. I never took off everything. I wanted there to be some form of protection for me if I were to leave the club and one of the men who frequented the place saw me.

  It was part of the reason I chose to use my nickname as my work name, too. If I told someone I was Sky, there wasn’t any way for them to find me. Susie Blake, the twenty-five-year-old woman who was just trying to get through another shift.

  The club would be closing in an hour, but I always left before it did. Some of the other girls would stay right up to the end, and they often told me that’s when they got the biggest tips. I didn’t want to think about all the things they might be doing for those tips when people weren’t looking.

  Men weren’t supposed to touch us, and we were supposed to make the experience erotic for them, but still keep their hands in the right places. I knew several of the girls working for Rocco had asked him, however, if they could do whatever they pleased with the clients, to make as much money as possible.

  Rocco walked over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. I shifted so they fell off. “Please don’t touch me.”

  “Why don’t you come over to my place?” he said soothingly. “It would be fun.”

  “No,” I replied flatly.

  I could see the agitation in his face, but he merely cleared his throat.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking you ought to stay later. You’re really popular with the guests, and I think they’d enjoy your company,” he said.

  “I can’t stay any later than I do,” I replied flatly. “And I don’t enjoy their company.”

  “Maybe you should learn,” he replied. “You could be making a lot more money than you already do.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I nearly spun around in my chair, and gave him a defiant look. “I’m not getting more physical, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Never say never,” he replied. He gave me one of his sadistic smiles and headed back toward the stage, leaving me feeling sick to my stomach. I hated that the other girls would do extra favors to make more money. And I hated that he allowed it.

  I wasn’t going to get involved. I was already showing men my body, grinding on their laps. I wasn’t going to be a prostitute on top of it.

  Rocco didn’t care. As long as he got a cut of the pay or didn’t have to give them as much salary, he was fine with them doing whatever. After all, with a reputation like that circulating around, the place became much busier in the last two hours of the night.

  After finishing with my face, I pulled my hair back, styling it as I often did when I wasn’t on shift. I’d pull it into a ponytail, brushing most of it away from my face except for a few bangs I let hang loose. It was an attractive look, but far different from the Sky who was on stage in front of all those people.

  Other girls told me I wasn’t even recognizable when I was in my street clothes and normal makeup. And that was just how I wanted it.

  After changing into my much more practical shoes, I grabbed my tips off my dressing table and shoved them in my purse, not even bothering to put them in my wallet. I’d be walking home anyway, there wasn’t any need to stop along the way. I didn’t want to spend any money I didn’t have to. It was going to be my ticket out of there one day, and I’d have to save every penny.

  I slipped out the back, just like I always did, eager to be gone from that place as soon as possible. More than once Rocco had cornered me on my way out the door, always with the same proposition.

  “Why don’t you come over for a nightcap? You know it would be fun,” he’d say.

  “No, thank you. I’m tired after the shift and really want to get home,” I’d reply.

  More often than not he’d get angry. He’d threaten me in subtle ways, trying to get me to cave in and sleep with him. He’d been interested in me since the day I started at the club, and he hadn’t done much to try to hide it.

  And that’s still a day you regret with everything you have in you. What were you thinking? Why not have just gotten a job at a grocery store?

  I knew why. Because I was desperate for fast, easy money. I knew dancing was the way to do it, and I had been right. From the first day I started on the job I was making more money than I ever thought I woul
d.

  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 co
me 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.