“Oh no!” Keys managed to usher Quickshot closer to the door and away from my boiling wrath.
“Shit,” Quickshot huffed out. “He’s got a real hate-on for women right now thanks to his ex. I’m really sorry about that, JoJo.” To his credit, Quickshot seemed sincere before Keys manage to get him all the way out the door.
“Can you believe that guy?” My voice came out a bit more high pitched than I would have liked. Hell, the truly sad thing was that the bastard made me go all squishy inside when he winked at me. He was definitely a large and in-charge manly man.
“Yeah, sorry about Mr. Clean.” Keys joked. “First time I met him too.” She noticed the flush in my face. “Too bad he was an asshole, because that voice of his alone could melt the panties off a woman.”
“Just my luck, right? Hot mechanic, biker, and single, yet he turns out to be a woman-hating asshat.” I took a moment to sip in a few calming breaths. “So, Vegas?” I asked, because after that encounter I felt the need to go be free for a weekend and forget the fact that my life was about to implode.
“Hell yeah! We’re gonna go cut loose and forget our troubles for a bit.” Keys took note of her cell phone. “Tash just confirmed Angel Girl is going too.”
Chapter 2
What do you mean it’s not open yet?” Keys whined to our hotel concierge. “Well, there has to be another place around this town with male strippers.” She gave the young, male concierge a knowing look. “We’re desperate!”
I joined Tash and Angel Girl in laughing at Keys’ expense. “What she means is we had hoped for entertainment tonight.” I growled at Tash as she put her foot just as far in her mouth as Keys had. The poor concierge was fighting to keep a straight face.
“It’s okay to laugh at them. I’d like to say they’re both suffering from recent head trauma, but sadly they really are clueless.” My words tipped the scale and the man laughed. “I grabbed Tash’s arm then and pulled her toward the elevator that Angel Girl was holding for us. “We’ll leave you two to sort the evening's entertainment. Keys, try not to embarrass yourself,” I called out as a parting shot before the door closed us in the moving box of death.
When we got upstairs to the suite Keys had us in I was suddenly struck by an awareness of how completely weird and out of sync my life had been lately. I knew even if I didn’t have the garage anymore I would always have employment with the club. My life wouldn’t end, but the garage was a legacy passed down to my father from his, and my great-grandfather started it before that. I was the fourth generation to own the garage and be a grease monkey. I did it because I honestly loved the work though. Now, I was about two weeks away from losing the legacy, in Las Vegas, and trying to find male stripper entertainment with my friends to ease the pain of my impending loss. Life was definitely strange.
“I need a drink,” I finally said as the hotel room door shut behind us and I, once again, took in the lavish living room area of the suite we were staying in. There was an exceptionally well stocked bar off in the far corner that most definitely was calling my name. “We should have had Jordan come with us to play mixologist for the weekend.” Jordan was one of the bartenders we employed at our club Paramour.
Tash made a weird noise, sucking at her teeth to show her distaste. “Jordan has his hands full with the girls at Paramour these days. Actually, he’s been making me a little edgy with how closely he’s been watching some of them.”
“Really?” I questioned. “Jordan never struck me as the skeezy type.” Tash just shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know. Just an observation. Come on, I’ll whip something up for you.” Tash downed the drink she just made for herself and then asked the question on everyone’s minds. “So what are we doing tonight?”
“We have entertainment coming to us tonight. I figured after the flight we’d be easily wiped out so I organized a little male review in the room,” Keys said with glee as she brushed her hands back and forth together in what looked a whole lot like greedy anticipation.
“Male review?” Angel Girl asked her, not having heard Keys trying to convince the concierge to order us some strippers.
“Who knows?” She asked the room. “Maybe one of them will be willing to marry our JoJo and save her garage. Then we can watch him work while she works.”
I had just been taking a sip of my Jack and coke that Tash had made me and it ended up being spewed everywhere. “You’re trying to marry me off to a stripper?”
“We’re members of an MC, one of us might as well live up to the stereotype.” The girls all laughed at my expense then.
“Jesus, Keys. Why do I have to be the one to meet your stereotype?” I chuckled when I thought about it a minute picturing some hot as hell dude, shirtless, bent over a muscle car, and sweating until his body shined and glistened under the garage lighting. “Although,” I added quickly after that thought, “I will reserve judgment until I see him.” Everyone continued laughing at my expense, but this time I joined in with them.
“Tash, give me a hand?” Keys called out and both of them left me alone with Angel Girl.
“Jo,” I held my hand up to curtail whatever she was about to say. No doubt, it had to do with how she treated me at her wedding since I refused to be a part of it.
“I know what you’re about to do. Don’t. You had a stressful day and I disappointed you. I had my reasons Angel Girl, and I didn’t think you needed to be burdened by them while you were planning a wedding and getting married.”
“For all the good that did,” she pouted, no doubt dying a little inside because her marriage lasted exactly half the length of their honeymoon before she was hightailing it back to Georgia looking for a shoulder to cry on.
“Listen,” I started to tell her, and waited until I had her attention before continuing. “I know y’all are going through something right now, but it will pass. You’ll figure it out. It’s obvious that you both love one another. Right now, you just need to figure out what’s more important: your hurt pride or communicating and getting everything out in the open to air out all the doubt. Honey, that doubt is drowning you. You’re still sinking in it, even here in Vegas. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”
“No, a mechanic will do just fine.” She grinned.
“Damn straight,” I answered back.
“I really am sorry. I want you to know something else.” Angel Girl went on to tell me about how I looked so much like her childhood best friend, Marisol. She was the woman who had initially sent Jamie running from her family and from her fiancé at the time. The woman had lied and told her that she had lost her virginity to Sweet in some crazy attempt to keep Angel from staying behind instead of going to UCLA with her in the fall. I was stunned to realize that was why Angel and I had always had a weirdly strained relationship.
I was saved from having to really dig in deep on those thoughts though as Keys and Tash came back with more drinks in hand. We were all two and three drinks in by the time we heard a knock on the door. Of course, the phone rang at the same time. Angel girl moved to answer the door while I picked up the phone. “Yeah?”
“This is Byron, the concierge. I just wanted to let you know that Joe and the guys will be up in about fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, I think they’re already here. Someone just knocked.”
“No, they’re down here getting ready.”
Well, damn. “Okay,” I drew out hesitantly. “I guess we’ll see the guys in a few minutes then. Thanks Byron.” I hung up the phone as I heard Keys talking to someone.
“This is supposed to be a girl’s weekend, what are you doing here?”
“Aw, come on, I couldn’t let my baby come to Vegas without me. What fun would that be?” My heart sank as I recognized Quickshot’s voice. If he was here, then Sweet probably wasn’t far behind to collect Angel and try to make up for whatever he’d done.
“Oh my God, what did you do?” Keys hissed as the door to the suite was pushed open and three large
bikers moved into the room. “We’re here for JoJo,” Keys went on reprimanding Quickshot as Sweet moved to be near Angel Girl.
“We haven’t met,” I heard as the third man held his hand out to Tash.
“Charmed.” The word was acidic at best, because clearly she was just as unhappy with the intrusion as I was.
“What? Did you two get the only non-frigid chicks in their club?” Steel’s voice grated on my nerves as the words found their mark and set my temper to full-tilt bitch mode.
“Who in the hell are you calling frigid, you poor excuse for a cue stick?” Tash’s response nearly had me laughing, but I managed to hold onto my anger, because they were invading my last weekend of being a business owner, a woman who had it all going on. When I thought about the fact that he was waiting in the wings to snatch it all out from under me, I suddenly felt the reflexive need to kick him in the balls.
“Why is he here?” I finally demanded.
“Quick and I talked about coming for Angel and Keys. Figured we’d bring Steel along to help him get used to us and take his mind off other stuff.”
“And you thought it would be a good idea to have him around me, on my last get-away and de-stress weekend before I lose everything?”
“JoJo,” Sweet was going to attempt to make sense of that decision? Really? No, no the hell he was not. I was fed up with men thinking they could dictate my life, interrupt it, and cause me nothing but grief.
“I’m so fucking sick of men ruining everything. First my dad and his fucked up stipulations, then my asshole greedy brother, and now I can’t even have a fucking girl’s weekend to try to forget the fact that my life is being snatched from me because I don’t have a dick!”
“JoJo!” Sweet’s voice barked out at me as if I would bow down to his fucking orders.
“No!” I yelled at him before blowing out a frustrated breath. “I don’t get to fall in love with someone and work my way to marriage. If I choose that for myself, I lose my business that’s been in the family for four generations. If I marry some asshole, I could lose my business anyway, because my father won’t even allow for a prenup. So, excuse me if my inability to ever have a bit of happiness for myself seems so far out of reach that they,” I gestured indicating the women around me, “are the only thing I’ve had to look forward to since my dad died. Now, you guys show up, and you bring the fucking prick who told me he’d buy my business out from under me through my even bigger prick of a brother when I lose it all?”
The anger abated with my words as I lost steam along with all the hope for a different future. They were going to win, and I knew that before I set out on this weekend. The men ruled everything, and trying to deny it was only making my heart hurt worse. It was in that moment that I truly resigned myself to my fate and gave in. My body slumped in on itself with the weight of my reality before I finally addressed everyone again. “Why don’t you guys all just go and enjoy Vegas. I’m really not in the mood anymore.”
Keys stopped and glanced between Quickshot and JoJo. “Jo, we’re supposed to…”
I didn’t let her finish.
“We were supposed to do things, but obviously everyone’s plans changed, so just go.” I picked up my drink and knocked the rest back then. “I’m really not in the mood for company anymore anyway.”
“Well, I don’t have an asshole attached to me who is crashing our girls weekend. So, they can go off with theirs and we’ll have a great time just the two of us.” I glanced noticing Angel and Sweet looked like they were about bail as Tash tossed an arm around my shoulder. A knock at the door startled everyone. “I swear,” she laughed out. “I don’t have a man!”
Quickshot answered the door since he was standing closest. When he threw it open to a masculine deep, and slightly confused voice on the other end. “You ordered um, Vegas Vinnie’s Room Service?”
Tash and I both burst out laughing at the disgusted look on Quickshot’s face. Our elusive strippers had finally arrived. “What the fuck?” Quick huffed out.
“Oh, um, plans changed last minute,” Keys stammered to the men outside the door. She pulled her wallet out and produced a few bills before handing them off to the men. “We no longer require your services.” Keys looked anxiously over at Quickshot then.
“No problem, Sweetheart,” the man said with a smile in his voice. “Hope you ladies have a lovely night.” I wish I could have seen the guy as he spoke, because his comment seemed to rile up Quickshot. When Keys closed the door, he started in.
“Please, tell me they were just dancers. And why the fuck are you ordering male dancers anyway?”
“Yes, they were dancers, and we’re all heterosexual women, of course our strippers are gonna be men!” Keys indignant reply made me laugh, but only on the inside.
“I’m glad we showed up when we did,” Quickshot huffed out with a frustrated sigh.
“Thanks again,” I mumbled before turning and walking towards the bedroom I was supposed to share with Tash. Now, I wondered if Tash and I weren’t put into a room together because Angel and Keys had been expecting company in theirs all along. That pissed me off further. So, I ended up turning around and picking up the phone to call the front desk. “Could you tell me if you have any singles available for the night?”
“What are you doing?” Keys asked on a shocked breath. “I booked this suite for us for the whole weekend.”
I placed my hand over the phone as the front desk clerk checked availability for me. “Yeah, I appreciate it, and no offense, but I’m not down to listening to other couples banging all weekend in the suite when I don’t even like men right now. I’m just going to get my own room, and probably head back to Georgia in the morning.”
“No,” she pleaded with me while tossing a glare at someone over my shoulder. “Please, don’t do that, JoJo. I didn’t know the guys were going to show up. I swear. They can all get their own rooms and do their own thing. We came here for a reason.” It was obviously Keys was being sincere, but judging by the shifty looks being passed between Angel Girl and Sweet as they moved to leave the room, she was likely the only one who felt that way.
“Look,” I started. “Thanks for getting me out and trying to take my mind off of my crazy shit, but really I’d rather be alone right now. Besides, I have an old friend out here working over at Apex Tattoo. I’ll probably head over and catch up.” It was true that a guy I’d once dated worked there. He did his apprenticeship with a parlor in northern Georgia. Unfortunately, my dad got sick a few months after I started seeing Eddie. When he got the offer to head out west I was knee deep in learning how to run the garage business and taking my dad to treatments. I told Ed to go, and he didn’t hesitate to take the out. I didn’t really want to see him. Obviously, I wasn’t very important to him to begin with, but he made a mighty fine excuse.
“Who do you know at Apex? I got some work done there a month ago,” Steel piped up.
“She used to date Ed Warrick,” Tash answered for me. Eddie may not have been the most loyal boyfriend, but he had been a sexy, inked-up badass.
A grunt answered Tash’s proclamation, but she just grinned and continued on. “Hey, maybe he’d be the answer to your marriage issues.” Tash followed up her comment with a suggestive waggling of her eyebrows.
“Doubt it since his very pregnant wife came in to see him while I was there getting inked.” At my questioning look, he smirked. “Eddie Warrick inked this for me.” He pointed at the newer looking tattoo on his inner forearm. It had a 1950s style pin up girl straddling the notorious skull the guys in Aces High use as their mascot. Only instead of the cards sitting in front of the skull, the pinup was holding four aces in her hand.
“Looks like he’s stepped up his tattoo game since I last saw him. Vegas has done wonders for his art.” I was truly impressed with the tattoo. It had a level of detail Ed wouldn’t have been capable of two years ago when I last saw him. My smile felt wrong even though it was real enough. “Maybe now I’ll trust him to ink me.”
>
“I hope you didn’t break his heart,” Steel spat out rudely. “No telling what he’d ink you with.”
I just smiled as I spilled another hurtful layer of my own miserable life story. “He bailed when my dad got sick and Vegas was calling his name. If anyone were to have hurt feelings, it would be me, and I don’t. I think it’s awesome that he found his happiness.” I reached into my pocket then and pulled out a cherry flavored Dum Dums, unwrapped it, and popped it in my mouth. “Okay, seriously, you guys have better things to do in Vegas, and I apparently have to go congratulate an old friend on his work finally being acceptable,” I chuckled around my lollipop. Just about everyone in the room looked weary and afraid to leave so I took the initiative, snatched my little mini backpack style purse off the couch and walked right out the door.
I was waiting on the elevator at the end of the hall when he called to me. The doors dinged open, and I slipped in as his voice rang out again. “Hold the door, damn it!” I snickered as they began to close. No way was I holding the door for the newest Aces High asshole. Unfortunately, his palm slapped down sideways on the edge of the door causing them to spring back open while he slid his bulky frame inside. “Thanks for holding the door,” he managed to get out with all the sarcasm possible.
“Sure, anytime,” I deadpanned right back to him.
“I told Ed I’d stop in and let him get pictures of my tat once it healed, so I figured I’d go with you. We can save on the cab by riding together.” Steel smiled over at me victorious, obviously thinking he’d already won some prize.
“Whatever floats your boat,” I answered before tacking on a muttered, “asshole.”
“Contrary to popular belief neither my given name or road name are actually asshole. I’m not sure why people keep getting them confused.” I’ll admit, my lip twitched while trying not to smile at his dumb comment. He must have seen the minute movement though, because the smug look plastered to his too-chiseled face was one of pure satisfaction. Those steely eyes of his all but twinkled at me from their sockets. Neither of us spoke again until we were both seated in a cab.
JoJo (S.H.E Book 2) Page 2