by Zaire Crown
Dresden smiled. “Misinformed, huh? Hey, sometimes those things happen, but would you mind if me and my partner took a look around anyway? I promise to be quick.”
Little-dick muthafucka, you damn sure know how to be quick! Tuesday thought to herself. It was odd to her seeing him front like he was such a professional, even trying to be charming. It irritated her that this sadistic piece of shit could so easily hide behind this fake persona.
“Do you have a warrant?” she asked defensively.
“No, I do not,” he confessed. “But I can make a phone call and park myself right here on your doorstep until one gets here, in, say, two hours. This is going to involve calling and waking up a lot of people who are going to be very upset. And then me and twenty or thirty of these upset people are going to spend the entire day going through your club, and because they’re going to blame you for the inconvenience, I can promise they won’t be gentle. They’re gonna overturn every table, tear through every wall, and don’t think for a second that the city is going to reimburse you!” Oddly enough, he was still speaking with a pleasant tone, saying this as if it were a fact and not a threat.
He continued: “Or you could save us both a lot of trouble by just giving me five minutes to look around. I see everything is cool and we’re gone.”
The black guy hadn’t spoken, as if he’d been told not to or was just used to deferring to the ranking officer. Dresden added, “Ma’am, you really would be doing yourself a favor if you cooperated.”
Although the girls were standing behind her, Tuesday could imagine the looks they must have worn on their faces. She could feel their nervousness and was worried that Dresden and his partner might pick up on it too.
A lot of the tension Tuesday felt was her own because she honestly didn’t know what to do next. If she let him in and Dresden ran across Tank’s body, she couldn’t be sure how he would react. He had allowed them, even helped them to rob this nigga, but murder was a whole other issue. He might play it by the book and slap the cuffs on her right there. Or the dirty lieutenant might fear Tuesday snitching on his involvement and decide to silence her before that could happen.
But on the other hand, if she didn’t let him in, the place was going to be swarming with cops in two hours. While she could certainly use that grace period, it wouldn’t do any good with him right outside watching the place like a hawk. Plus, Face was due to show up at any minute and if he saw the police there when he arrived, that was going to create a whole other problem between him and Tuesday.
Unable to think of a better solution, she stepped aside and let them enter. As they walked past Tuesday, Brianna’s wide eyes quietly asked her, What the fuck are you doing?!
She responded with a look that said, Bitch, what else can I do?
The two detectives stopped in the lounge area and surveyed the room. “Nice,” Dresden said as if he was impressed. Because The Bounce was a small club located in a strip mall, many people were surprised by how elegantly it was decorated, so Tuesday wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not.
“Excuse me, miss, but I never caught your name.” Like he didn’t already know.
“Tuesday.”
“Pardon me?”
“Tuesday! Tuesday Knight!” she spat with an attitude.
Dresden smiled. “That’s a very interesting name.”
“I guess my mother thought it would be funny!”
The black cop, Bates, asked, “Were you at least born on a Tuesday night?”
She put on a fake smile for him. “Actually, it was a Friday morning. Like I said, my mother was on some bullshit.”
Dresden stood in front of her. “Ms. Knight, do you own this establishment?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You have a very nice place. It has a sophisticated feel.”
“Thank you.” Tuesday didn’t bother to put on a phony smile for him. She was as much annoyed by this Officer Friendly act as she was with him being there.
While Bates looked around the stage, Tuesday noticed that he cut his eyes at Jaye more than a few times. At six in the morning on a night when she’d had no sleep, Jaye was still fine enough to turn heads. With a look Tuesday let her know that the square was feeling her and that they might have to use that to their advantage if the opportunity arose.
Just then Tuesday got a text message from DelRay. He was on his way back from Coney Island when he spotted the unmarked police car parked outside the club so he just cruised by. He had her Caddy parked down the street in the lot of a Home Depot that was still closed. He was wondering what she wanted him to do.
“Everything okay?” Dresden asked, eyeing her and her phone suspiciously. “People usually don’t text you this early in the morning just to ask how you’re doing.”
Tuesday sneered at him. “Just a friend I was s’posed to meet for breakfast. He wanted to know if we were still on.”
She put the phone away. Tuesday had an idea but couldn’t text DelRay back with the details while Dresden watched her. She also needed to fill in Brianna, Jaye, and Baby Doll, but couldn’t just call a huddle right in front of the detectives. It would look just as bad if all four of them tried to slip off to the ladies’ room at the same time. She had to be subtle and hope that the girls caught on.
“You look familiar,” Tuesday said to Dresden’s partner. “I think you’ve been here before.”
“Oh, no!” He shook his head with a nervous little smirk on his face. “I think you’ve mistaken me for somebody else. I don’t go to gentlemen’s clubs!”
“Why not?” Tuesday asked in a cute, pouty way.
“Two reasons. One: My wife would kill me!” he said, pointing to his wedding ring. “And two: My wife would kill me!”
Bates let out a goofy laugh as if he’d said something clever and Tuesday joined in. “Well, I still say you look familiar. Doesn’t he look familiar, Jaye?”
“I was just thinking the same thing before you said it.” Jaye stood in front of Bates, then looked him up and down. “You have been here before,” she said, playing on what Tuesday had already set up. “In fact, I just danced for you the other night!” This was a lie because neither Jaye nor any of the other girls, except for Doll, had to stoop to dancing since becoming members of the team.
Dresden laughed. “So all that straitlaced family man stuff you’re pulling at the station is just an act. I knew it!”
Bates was now blushing from embarrassment. “Lieutenant, I’ve never been here before in my life. I’m a Seventh Day Adventist and a happily married man.”
Although Tuesday had set this in motion, she didn’t quite know where it was headed. All she knew was that as long as they were standing there talking shit, they weren’t searching the back rooms of her club. The problem was that she knew they couldn’t keep this up for long.
As risky as Tuesday’s plan was, she couldn’t see any other way out of this situation for them. She needed to send a quick message to DelRay and Face—who probably would be showing up at any second—and get them working together. She figured if she and the girls kept the cops distracted, that would give the fellas a chance to get Tank out the back door. The upside was that DelRay already had keys to the club because she and Tushie often left him to lock up.
The downside was that Face might not be down with a move so dangerous. He was a man who had a lot to lose, and even though he and Tuesday went back, sneaking a dead body right under a cop’s nose might be asking too much. It was bad enough that she didn’t have the money to pay him in the first place. Tuesday didn’t think Face would go for that even if she let him suck the toes of every single chick who took a shift at The Bounce.
Another problem was that in order for the boys to pull off their part, the girls would have to keep Bates and Dresden distracted for a long time. Tuesday had an idea on how to do this but couldn’t be sure that Jaye, Brianna, and Doll would be up for it.
Tuesday asked, “Jaye, you sure this the same dude you danced for the other night?”
Tuesday was almost unable to keep a straight face. “But this nigga say he don’t remember you. Evidently you didn’t do yo thang!”
Jaye now understood why Tuesday was geeking shit up but Brianna and Baby Doll were still just standing there looking lost and scared.
“I guess I didn’t do my thang then if he just straight-up forgot me. I feel some type of way about that!”
“No, no, no!” he said, waving his hands. “Trust me, if I ever saw you dance I would remember it for the rest of my life. What I’m saying is that I’ve never been here before.”
Tuesday came and draped an arm over his shoulder. “My girl takes a lot of pride in what she does—she’s not just a dancer, she’s more like an artist. So when you sit here and say you don’t remember her performance, it’s like an insult to her.”
“No, I’m not trying to insult—”
Tuesday cut him off. “I think it’s only one way to fix this. Doll, go hit the music. Jaye, make sure you give him something that he never forgets this time.”
As Baby Doll headed for the deejay booth, Jaye gave Tuesday a look that said Dirty bitch. A few seconds later Trey Songz exploded out the system with deafening bass. While Jaye slowly began to move to the rhythm, Tuesday sat Bates in a chair so he could watch her more comfortably.
Bates’s eyes got wide as Jaye began to strip out of her shirt and Dresden was locked in too, just as Tuesday had hoped. He was so focused on Jaye’s slow and seductive movements that Tuesday was able to slip out her phone and send a text to Face telling him to meet DelRay at the Home Depot down the block. Then she sent one to the bouncer telling him what the plan was.
Face must’ve been close by because he called back two minutes later, and luckily the music was so loud that only she heard the phone. By then Jaye had come out of her jeans and Dresden was so entranced with how she moved in the purple boy shorts that he didn’t even notice Tuesday slip away to take the call. She went inside the deejay booth and ducked low behind the equipment.
“Bitch, is you crazy!!” were the first words Face said when she answered.
“Where you at?” she asked with her hand cupped over the phone to muffle her voice and drown out the music.
“I’m standing down the street with two of my people and yo mans right now, looking at the hook parked outside yo joint. You got the po-po on deck and yo boy talking ’bout you want us to sneak through the back door? Bitch, you out your mind!”
“Don’t worry ’bout that. We gone keep these niggas busy and they ain’t gone never see y’all. You and DelRay just gotta hurry up and make y’all move!”
Face explained something to her. “I don’t know if you know the law but that’s called ‘Accessory to Murder After the Fact’ and that shit carry as much time as killing a nigga. Tuesday, you my girl, and I hate to leave you hanging, but I’m not about to get a hundred years fucking with you!”
For fear that Dresden would notice she was gone, Tuesday quickly explained to him that they were close to taking down a major D-boy for nothing less than seven figures and offered him a hundred grand if he helped her out. Doubtful, Face fired a whole bunch of questions about the lick but Tuesday convinced him that she was on the level, and that they could pull this off without getting caught.
“Face, trust me, this is my bread and butter,” she said, speaking urgently. “I know how to keep a man’s attention focused on me. Pull up in the alley round back. We gone dance and put on for these niggas while y’all creep through the fire door and take the shit up outta here. But you gotta hurry up, though.”
Face was quiet for a long moment and Tuesday peeked over the counter to make sure that Dresden was still watching Jaye and not looking for her.
Finally Face said, “I want three hundred G’s and the CTS! And tell yo girl Brianna since this is all her fault, I’m gone need that Camaro too.”
Tuesday exploded. “Three hundred racks and two cars! Goddamn, nigga, you shittin’ on me!”
“Look at what the fuck you asking me to do!” he fired back. “Three hundred ain’t shit if y’all ’bout to hit for what y’all say. That’s what it is or I can bust up right now and leave you to deal with the problem yo’self.”
Tuesday didn’t have the time nor was she in the position to negotiate with him and Face knew it. Brianna’s bullshit was gonna cost her three hundred stacks and her whip, and that’s assuming they got away with it. If they got caught, it might cost all of them the rest of their lives in prison.
“All right, nigga!” she said, biting down hard on her lip. “Just hurry the fuck up!”
She got off the phone just as Gucci’s song was going off. She put on a mix tape full of club shit that the girls could get loose to, then went back and joined the others.
Everybody was still standing around watching Jaye and it was obvious that Dresden hadn’t even peeped she’d left until she switched songs. She pushed him into a chair and started dancing for him, then shot looks to Brianna and Baby Doll telling them to get in on the act. They paired off, with Brianna taking Bates with Jaye while hazel-eyed Doll partnered up with Tuesday to entertain Dresden. Within minutes all four girls were down to their bras and panties—Tuesday was just glad that she happened to have on a matching set.
Square-ass Bates had his eyes and mouth wide open looking like a kid who was sneaking to watch his first porno. As much as Brianna tried to push her big titties into his face, he was still more into Jaye than he was her.
Dresden’s attention ping-ponged back and forth between Tuesday and Baby Doll’s thick, pretty bodies. The same type of bodies that the racist bastard claimed disgusted him so much had him mesmerized like cartoons did children. As they danced on either side of him, he had a hand running up and down each one’s inner thighs.
Tuesday had made sure that Bates was seated in a spot that didn’t give him a direct line of sight down the hall with the rear exit or the changing room. Not that it mattered—he was too hypnotized by Jaye’s gyrating body to notice even if the entire roof was peeled off the club.
Tuesday was most concerned about Dresden, but she knew how to deal with him. She waved off Baby Doll to go triple-team Bates while she took Dresden by the hand and led him to her office. Not only would this make sure that he didn’t see Face and DelRay, but it would also let them talk in private.
Only Dresden caught her off guard, because the second she pulled the door closed, he slapped Tuesday hard across the face. Then before she could respond, he pinned her to the wall with a hand on her throat.
“I don’t know what this little dog-and-pony show you’re pulling on Bates is all about, but don’t think that I’m stupid enough to buy into this bullshit. Just tell me what the hell happened here last night and thank your ugly black ass I was on duty when the call came in at the station.”
Tuesday’s gray eyes were beaming hatred. “It’s nothing!” she spat through clenched teeth. “Two guys got into it, one of ’em pulled a gun. Nobody got hurt.”
He looked skeptical. “Well, if nothing happened, then how come your little team of sluts is out there throwing their tits in my partner’s face?”
Tuesday sighed and let some of the anger melt from her face. “We’ve got a couple guns here and a little bit of weed. I didn’t know what the deal was with yo mans. He looks like the Supercop type!”
“He is!” Dresden said, letting go of her neck. “But as you can see, he’s also gullible as fuck! Just like every other nigger I’ve ever worked with, show him a little bit of skin and one of your fat jungle asses and their brains turn to mush. It’s pathetic.”
She didn’t bother to remind him that he never took his eyes off Jaye either. Tuesday didn’t let all this Klan bullshit faze her because she’d heard it so much that she was immune to it.
Tuesday stood there rubbing her cheek standing in almost the same spot where she’d smacked up Brianna several hours earlier. Karma was a bitch and it was the second time since last night that she had seen it come back on her.
“So if I turn this place upside down, all I’m gonna find is a few guns and some marijuana? Nothing else?”
She shook her head. “I never do dirt in the same place where I eat, sleep, or get my money!”
The dirty lieutenant seemed satisfied with her answer. He went behind Tuesday’s desk and flopped down hard in her favorite chair. When he realized how comfortable it was and how perfectly it supported his back, he looked it over then gave her a thumbs-up. “Nice.”
Tuesday smiled to hide how pissed she was that he was sitting there, but she needed to keep him in her office a while longer to give Face and DelRay enough time to take out the trash. Basically just trying to stall, she said, “I know it’s early but if you want, I can run out to the bar and get you a drink or something.”
“Never while I’m on duty.” Dresden smirked at her and beneath the veneer of his Nordic good looks Tuesday saw something with reptilian ugliness. “But after watching your little performance out there, I’m actually more interested in giving you a drink!”
He unzipped his pants and summoned her with a finger. Tuesday rolled her eyes because once again she was going to have to take one for the team.
She came around to his side of the desk and got to her knees.
It sickened Tuesday to give him head but worse was the fact that she had to purposely go slow just to keep him in there longer.
But just like always, Dresden was too quick on the trigger. Even though the technique she used was designed to make a man last, he still busted way too soon. He then spent a little while leaned back in her chair with his eyes closed, either resting or just enjoying the moment.
Tuesday kept a toothbrush in her bag and immediately rinsed his taste out of her mouth with a mini tube of Colgate and bottled water.
She had hoped to keep him occupied for at least a half an hour but it wasn’t fifteen minutes before they came from her office. Tuesday could only hope that they had already come and were gone but knew it didn’t leave them with much of a window.