Ruffles & Beaus

by Carina Adams

  “Who’s China?”

  No beating around the bush. I liked it. I adjusted in my chair to get more comfortable.

  “China Dahl is a problem,” I answered. “I met him when I was a teenager. He choreographed a show I was in and we became friends almost instantly. It was a rough time for me. My parents wanted me to follow a different path in life and demanded I give up dance.

  “China was my sounding board. Dance was life to him, so he understood. He went to colleges with me and Reid to look at the dance programs. When my parents made the decision to cut me off if I followed my heart, he was the second person I called.

  “He had a dance studio that often received contracts to work with local high schools and competitive dance teams. When he offered me a job, I took it, desperate to prove my parents wrong. Reid followed. We were a hit with the teenaged girls and their parents.”

  “Of course you were,” Cady’s annoyed tone and irritated expression made me chuckle.

  “China also owned an exclusive members-only burlesque club and a private party business, although I didn’t know it at the time. One day he asked me if I’d work the door at the club. I was dancing there within a month. Then next step was Belle Reve, the private party side. I met almost everyone now at Soiree either at the club or at parties. It was great money. Life was good for a little while.

  “I tolerated a lot because when you need to pay bills, you turn a blind eye. There were things I did I wasn’t comfortable with because it was expected of me, but I never hurt anyone and I never broke any laws. Not all my co-workers can say the same thing. Reid had a lot of concerns, but I just wanted to keep my head down and work. I had a plan to get through school and move to a big city with Brooke.

  “I wasn’t completely in the naive, though. I knew the club was a front and the only people allowed in were his high-profile clients and the people he answered to. The girls came to work with bruises, but I chose to believe they were from their home life. Guests at some private parties thought they were entitled to a little more and the dancers were expected to provide.

  “I don’t think it was one specific thing that made me open my eyes, but lots of little things. I loved the idea of a burlesque private party company, but I wanted it to be more about the experience and the dance than about the sex. I told Reid. He suggested we move home and start our own. That’s what we did.

  “China didn’t take the news well. We took some of his employees, so he went after our clients. He started taking his frustrations out on my friends that stayed with him, who weren’t involved in me leaving, so I called in some favors and his club was raided and shut down. It’s been back and forth ever since. I never know what he’s going to do next, but I’ve learned there is nothing he won’t touch. I have to always be ready to strike back.”

  “That all sounds very Godfather-ish.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “It’s pathetic. I stay open because I know my employees are safe as long as they work for me.”

  “Should I be scared of him?”

  “No.” I shook my head and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “You don’t have to be scared of anyone. Ever. That’s my job.”

  “Is he dangerous?”

  “I think he knows too much about everyone. And information is power. Power can be deadly. So, yes. To certain people, like me, China is very dangerous.”

  “Is he a physical threat or just a financial one? I mean, is he going to break your legs or bankrupt your business?”

  That was a hard one. “I know that he uses physical intimidation on his dancers. He’s hurt some of them before. And there were some girls who just stopped showing up and we all assumed they’d gotten a break, maybe gone home, but there is no way to know if that’s what happened. The police have a theory that he made them disappear permanently. So, to his dancers and competition, like Reid and me, yes. To the average Joe, like you, no.”

  “I’m an average joe?”

  His eyes traveled over me slowly. “Not at all.”

  “Then why were you so scared for him to meet me?”

  “Because he wants me destroyed. He’s not above using the people I care about to do it. I didn’t want him to know who you are. He could try to poach you. Or worse, find your weaknesses and convince you to stop dancing for me.” Or show you the kind of man you work for.

  “That wouldn’t be that big of a deal,” she argued. “I thought we were talking matters of life and death here.”

  “It would be a big deal to me.” My fingers itched with the need to touch her, to hold her hand. I drummed a beat on my thigh. “I paid for your training, your costumes. You’re just staring to gather a fan base. Losing a dancer within a month after she starts is detrimental.”

  “He took Livie,” Cady clutched my arm as if she’d just remembered. “How do we get her away from him? Get her back to Soiree?”

  “We don’t,” I shrugged. “Livie was out once. She chose to go back. And he would never hurt her anyway.”

  Cady didn’t look convinced. “You just told me he was dangerous. Yet, you know without a doubt he wouldn’t hurt Liv? What in the world makes you think that?”

  “Because she’s his niece. He’d kill anyone who laid a hand on her.” Which was why he hated me so goddamn much. That was a secret I wanted to take to the grave.

  Twenty-Seven

  Cady

  I loved the new honesty pact I had with Roman. I’d had my doubts, worried he’d still lie to me, or ask me a question I didn’t feel I could answer, but it hadn’t been like that at all. If I had questions about something, all I had to do was pull him aside and ask. If we weren’t together, I called and he always picked up.

  There were some topics, like Brooke, that hadn’t come up yet. Some, like Livie, I’d left alone because I felt like I had enough pieces to put the puzzle together on my own. Other times, I wasn’t ready for the answer yet.

  It wasn’t just my friendship with Roman that had improved, either. My comfort level around him had grown, and with that, my dance skills. When Rome critiqued me, I asked different, more in depth questions, and was getting better with every routine.

  While the relationship with Roman was moving in a positive direction, the one with Reid had come to an epic standstill since we’d gotten back. I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed, if anything, but it just felt different. I didn’t get to see him unless we were working, but we talked every day. Sometimes about nothing more than how busy our schedules had gotten or how we should plan to hang out soon, but at least we connected daily.

  I’d managed to avoid Livie, not because I didn’t want to see her, but because I didn’t know what to say. I’d been so busy with work and school that Frankie never questioned the fact I disappeared every time Liv was around. Two weeks after I’d returned from Boston, I decided it was time for us to talk and tracked her down at the library.

  When I sat at her table, her mouth fell open and her eyes bugged out of her head. “Cady.”

  I gave her what I hoped was a warm and welcoming smile and offered her the coffee I’d picked up for her on the way over. “Frankie said you were here working on the project so I thought you might need a little pick-me-up.”

  Her eyes filled with gratitude as she dropped her highlighter and reached for the cup. “Thank you so much. I’m dying here.”

  I turned her text book around so I could see what she was reading. “What did you get?”

  She groaned. “You mean our product? Or which part of the research is mine?”

  “Both.”

  She inhaled slowly and let out a long sigh. “A new energy drink called Peppy. I’m on the product and packaging. What about you?”

  “Victory running shoes. I’m on price. It’s utter bullshit.”

  Max, our Business Presentations professor, had assigned each group a new product our fictional company had just created. Our job was to figure out how we were going to market it using the Four P’s, and each member of the group had been assigned one sp
ecific aspect. We would have to present the final product in both a group and an individual PowerPoint to the entire class. I hated it just as much as I’d hated our first project.

  “How are you?”

  “Okay,” she dragged out the word, very slow. “You?”

  “I’d be better if this wasn’t so damn awkward.”

  She smiled. “It’s pretty uncomfortable. It feels like a lot happened in a very small amount of time and we haven’t talked about any of it.”

  First it had been her dislike of Brooke, then the odd interaction at Sway, and then weeks of avoiding it all together. I had a few answers, courtesy of the new honesty pact with Roman, and had a pretty good guess why Liv didn’t like Brooke, but I didn’t want to focus on any of it. I wanted to move on.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She let out a relieved sigh. “No, I’m sorry. The whole thing was stupid and then I was going to apologize, but I felt stupid about it. Then Sway happened, and there’s so much history there.”

  “I have an idea,” I waited until she met my eyes before I continued. “Let’s put up a Chinese Wall between our personal and professional lives.”

  “A what?”

  “An information barrier. Companies use them to prevent communication that could cause a conflict of interest.”

  “And work is a conflict of interest for us?”

  “Not just work, but topics that come up when we talk about work. Roman. Reid. Brooke. Soiree. Belle Reve. All of that is off limits I’ll pretend you go to your grandfather’s to help out every weekend, you can pretend I work wherever, and when we’re together we’ll focus on regular stuff. Frankie, school, boys.”

  “So, we just pretend it’s not happening?” I nodded and her smile widened. “I like this. It’s a good plan.”

  I agreed. I pulled out my laptop and got to work on my own project while Liv filled me in on the gossip I’d missed. It felt like old times.

  As Fall hit our little New England town, I settled into a comfortable schedule. Every free moment I had Tuesday through Friday was spent at Soiree perfecting my routines and working on new costume ideas with Randy. Saturday nights I traveled for work. Sunday and Monday, though, were my days off from dance altogether.

  Sometimes I went home to visit with my Nana and Hunter, others I caught up on school work or just vegged with Frankie. The only person from Soiree to contact me either day was Reid, and we never talked about work. Roman respected my decision to find a healthy work/life balance.

  Which was why I was surprised to see Soiree’s number pop up on my phone one Sunday afternoon in the middle of October. I answered on the second ring, a smile still on my lips. I’d had an amazing visit with my family. Hunter was on track to make the honor roll, again, and he’d just started Driver’s Ed. I’d even snuck my nana an extra three-hundred dollars to tuck away in his account. It’d been a good day.

  “Ruffles McGee,” Randy’s voice was tight, odd from the man who was typically warm. “You need to come in.”

  “Right now? I can’t. I’m on my way back, but I just left my grandmother’s.”

  “Yes, right now. It’s urgent. We need to see you today. The others are all here. How long will it take you to get here?”

  The insects that had been missing from my stomach for over a month, invaded. “An hour and a half, tops.”

  “I’ll tell Roman. Come right here.”

  “I will, but…,” the line went dead before I could finish.

  I worried the rest of the drive. Roman would have told me if I was doing something wrong, something bad enough to get me fired. At least I thought he would. It didn’t make any sense.

  I rushed straight to the office and crashed through the door. Roman and Reid were sitting in chairs on opposite sides of the desk and both stopped talking as soon as they saw me. Reid, ever the gentleman, stood and offered me his seat.

  Roman greeted me in a professional manner I’d never experienced from him. “Cady, good. Thanks for coming in.”

  Reid smiled and moved to stand next to the desk.

  Their behavior unsettled me. “Are you firing me?” Out of breath from the sprint into the building and up the god-awful stairs, the words came out in broken pants. “Please don’t fire me.”

  They exchanged a glance I couldn’t read. Reid sent me a confused stare while Roman frowned. “What are you talking about, crazy girl?”

  “Randy said it was urgent and I needed to get here ASAP.”

  “And you thought that meant I was firing you?”

  “I can’t think of any other reason to have a meeting.”

  “Performance evaluations. A change in employees. An important company announcement.” He ticked each off on a fingertip. “If I’m going to fire you, I’m not going to have Randy call you in for a meeting.”

  “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “What’s so important?”

  Reid moved across the room and lifted a chair that looked like it weighed more than I did. When he put it down next to mine, then dropped into it, I grinned at him and ran my fingertips over his peck. He winked back.

  Roman cleared his throat and I reluctantly slid my attention back to him. “Homecoming weekend, the fraternities at UCM join together to host an invitation-only costume party. Every active member and alumnus of all eighteen charters is invited.” He paused and I nodded to let him know I was paying attention, even if I was starting at Reid’s muscles. A girl could do both. “They want to hire us.”

  “To do what?” I asked lamely as I glanced at Rome. “Run security?”

  “To entertain.”

  “Entertain?” I gaped at him. “I’ve seen the cars line the street for that party. There’ve got to be three-hundred people.”

  “They typically invite over a thousand, but this year expect five-hundred. Lucky Chance is a senior and they feel the football game will be a big draw.”

  “Five,” I stumbled over the word. “Five-hundred?”

  Roman nodded.

  I couldn’t wipe the astonishment from my face. “They want us to dance for five-hundred people?”

  “First they want you to work the room, mingle. Then, dance.”

  “Soiree doesn’t work big events. We’re small party entertainers.”

  “When it’s one or two of you, yes. You were at Sway. The Mistresses of Mayhem worked a crowd bigger than that and there were only five of them.”

  He had a valid point. However, they were also professionals.

  “It’s a frat party. They can’t hold it in any public area, and all the meeting rooms are part of the college. There’s not a private space big enough to house a party that size on campus. Not and give us the room we need to dance.”

  They exchanged another glance. Roman clicked his pen. “Last year they rented the old amphitheater. They’ve reserved it this year, as well.”

  “Oh.” It was a gorgeous space. Overwhelming to me, yes, but it would work well.

  “We actually worked the party last year. So, we know what worked well and where the potential weaknesses are. If the weather is bad, they’ll have to break the party up into the various houses.”

  I opened my mouth, but closed it again. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to say. “So, why’d you call me in?”

  “Because it’s all hands on deck. It’s a huge party, bigger than last year. I won’t take the job unless I know everyone is in.”

  “You schedule my gigs. I go where you tell me to go.” I’d never been asked about a job before.

  “I do. Only because I never book you close to home. If someone local requests you, the decision is yours whether we take it or pass. This is your school. These are your classmates and friends. I can’t make this decision for you.”

  I’d never thought of it that way. I started to tap out a beat on my knee when Reid’s hand shot out and grabbed mine. He gave me a gentle squeeze.

  “Nothing to worry about. No one will recognize you. You’ll be in costume,” he whispered.

  “I’m al
ways in costume,” I smirked.

  “It’s a Halloween party. Every single one of us will be in costume,” Roman interjected with an irritated snap.

  “You and the rest of Soiree’s dancers will have on almost the exact same mask, to distinguish you as a performer.” Reid gave my hand another squeeze. “And your mask won’t come off until after you leave the party. It’s a rule Rome writes into the contract to protect our employees.”

  “There will also be a private security firm there monitoring the party and guests,” Roman added. “My only job will be to stay with you. I’ll be your shadow, on your six constantly.”

  “So, other than my stage fright, there’s no reason to say no?”

  “There’s also a quick turn around to consider. Their party is Friday night. You have another on Saturday that’s been booked for weeks. Add the fact you’re going to be exhausted to your stage fright. Other than that? No.”

  “What about the other girls?”

  “All agreed earlier.”

  I swallowed and gave in. “I’ll probably regret this, but okay.”

  Neither of them responded happily.

  “Did you not want me to agree? What am I missing?”

  “There’s more. We have an employee who is also a student at UCM. Up until now, there hasn’t been any overlap in your schedules, so we didn’t need to tell either of you.”

  “I know everyone here. None of them go to UCM, so I’m really confused.”

  “You haven’t met all the security-staff yet. His name is Grover Mitchell and he works exclusively with Myra but fills in for Peaches.”

  I would have laughed if they hadn’t looked so serious. “Grover works here?” I bit the edge of my bottom lip in an attempt to keep my laughter to myself. “Grove and I have had classes together for the last three years. We’re friends.”

  “That’s good to know,” Roman assured me.

  “He signed the confidentiality agreement so he can’t tell anyone you work here,” Reid added. “But, we don’t want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable. We’re all going to be on prep duty so you’ll probably run into him. If not before, definitely the night of. We will do our best to make sure he is back stage while you preform so he doesn’t see you.”