Fever

by Carnal, MJ

  “Hey, Angel.”

  “Hey, Sid.” I gave him a half smile as I walked into The Lion’s Den, the gentlemen’s club I work at.

  Do I like working at a strip club? No. Does it pay my bills? Yes. The second I walk in the door at the club, I’m no longer me. My brain shuts off and my body takes over, the same way it used to when I was growing up and my mom forced me into pageants. I’m accustomed to being on display and used for my appearance. I wish life were different, but it is what it is.

  Some people complain about being overweight or having acne; I hate being beautiful. I know it sounds stupid. I mean, why would anyone complain about being attractive, right? Here’s why: Men see me as an object and women see me as competition. No one is ever willing to give me a chance. They all judge me by what’s on the outside, never taking a second to find out even the smallest detail about who I am.

  I know I’m a walking cliché. I hate being beautiful, yet I work in a business where I put myself front and center to be viewed and judged.

  The difference? For the first time in my life, when I get on stage, it’s my choice; no one is forcing me to do it. I get up there to earn the money so I can change my life in order to never be objectified again.

  “Tired?” Sid questioned, following me. I have worked for Sid for the last three years. He is a friend of sorts; he’s also my boss.

  “Yeah. I can’t wait until my clinical hours are over and I can start working at the hospital full time instead of having two jobs.”

  “I don’t like that I won’t see your face all the time, but I know you need to move on,” he conceded.

  “Some other girl will come in and you will forget all about me.”

  “Never, Angel.” His eyes moved over my face and he shook his head. “You’re working VIP tonight.” He followed me down the hall towards the dressing rooms.

  “Sure,” I agreed, already exhausted. I needed a shower and a bed, but I knew I was going to be there for at least eight hours, so I might as well suck it up.

  “The guys coming in are important, so you need to make sure they’re happy the whole time they’re here.”

  “I have done this before,” I reminded him, stopping outside the dressing room door to frown at him.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t say anything—you know that. But I gotta go get on a plane, so I won’t be here to check on them.”

  “I’ll make sure they’re taken care of,” I assured him.

  “Thanks, Angel.” He kissed my forehead like he often did before walking away.

  I watched him go for a second before pulling myself together.

  “Oh! Look who’s here,” Tessa said as soon as I entered the dressing room.

  I ignored her and tossed my bag into my locker before pulling my scrubs off. Tessa was a bitch; she was just like the girls I used to compete against in pageants. To her, life was a competition, and she was determined to come out the winner, even if she had to throw everyone else under the bus on her way to the top.

  “Mick said I could work VIP tonight,” she said to one of the other girls in the room.

  I ignored her again, knowing better than to tell her that it wasn’t happening. I was sure Mick had told her that…after she’d taken him in the backroom and given him something to convince him.

  “Pixie said the guys coming in are some big-time land developers, so you know the tips are going to be outrageous. Thank God, because I need to have my tits redone, and that shit is not cheap.”

  I rolled my eyes and headed for the shower room. I had met a couple of nice girls during my time here, but most were just like Tessa—a whole lot of hair, tits, ass, and not much else.

  I stood in front of the mirror and put on a coat of red lipstick before standing back, looking myself over. The VIP dress code was different than the rest of the club. The required outfit consisted of a sheer, black overlay bra, black silk panties, a black garter belt with sheer hose, and black heels. My long, naturally red hair was pulled back on one side by a large flower; the rest was loose and wavy, flowing down my back and over one shoulder. My creamy, white skin, red lips, and smoky eyes made me look almost like a sexy vamp.

  “You ready, Angel?” Sid asked, pounding on the door.

  “Showtime,” I whispered before opening the door.

  “You look beautiful. I’m going to take you in there and introduce you before heading out.”

  “Sure.” I followed him down the hall to the club.

  The Lion’s Den is well known in the area for its exclusivity. The walls are painted a dark brown, and the booths are designed into the walls, making the space feel intimate. The stage is in the center of the room, with a single spotlight shining down on it. Every booth has a girl assigned to it, and VIP has two girls. We aren’t allowed to interact with the customers without being asked directly to do so.

  The club is less of a strip club and more of a place for men to hang out and drink while having beautiful women tend to them. If they choose to, they can watch the girl in the center of the room put on a show. I have been on stage several times in the three years I’ve worked here. I haven’t told Sid that I don’t like it up there, but he normally put me in VIP or assigned me to a booth for the night.

  “Why are you so worried about these guys?” I asked Sid.

  “They’re thinking about opening up a Lion’s Den in one of the new casinos they’re building.”

  “That’s huge! Congrats, honey.” I squeezed his bicep and gave him a smile.

  “One day, Angel, I’m gonna take you away from this place. I wanna see that smile every day.”

  My heart did a little thud. Sid is a very attractive man, but he’s not for me. I don’t want or need a man. They get you all discombobulated, filling your head with a bunch of lies and then expecting you to follow them around. I did that once. I thought a man was going to save me from the hell I was living in. I gave him my virginity and my heart, and he gave me a child I wasn’t allowed to keep and a heart so broken that nothing or no one has put it back together again.

  I looked through the two-way mirror at the men around the table in the VIP room.

  “All right,” Sid said from beside me. “The man in the center at the table is John Barbato. He is the owner of three of the largest clubs in the city. The guy there on his left is Steven Creo. He’s some bigwig on Wall Street and has backed more than half the new clubs and casinos opening on The Strip. The guy to the right of John has a location they’re interested in purchasing.”

  “Got it. Who’s working with me?” I asked him.

  “Tessa. Mick said she would be the best out of the girls we’ve got on the schedule tonight.”

  “I’m sure he did,” I mumbled, looking back into the room. “What other bouncers are on tonight?” I hated when Mick and Craig worked together. They were both more concerned about hooking up with the girls than what was going on out on the floor.

  “Link’s here now.”

  “Good.” Link was a good guy and a close friend. He also took his job seriously.

  “All right, let me introduce you quickly before I head out.”

  “Sure.” I followed him into the room. The men’s heads turned in our direction, and they were smiling.

  “Guys, I want you to meet Angel. She’s gonna be your girl for the night. You need anything, you ask her and she will make sure you’re taken care of,” Sid tells them, gesturing to me.

  “Nice to meet you,” one of the men said, smiling while the others nodded.

  “Nice to meet you too.” I smiled back.

  “Angel will be right back. Give me a minute, guys.”

  “Sounds good,” the one who’d spoken before said.

  As Sid and I stepped away, I heard from behind me, “Do you think the curtains match the drapes?” and they all laughed. I hated that saying, and I’d sworn that, once I was free of this lifestyle, I would kick the next man who said it in the nuts.

  “Okay, I gotta head out. I won’t be back for two weeks,” Sid sai
d once we were standing in the hall.

  “Have a safe trip.”

  His eyes searched my face. His mouth opened and closed like he was going to say something, but instead, he shook his head, kissed my cheek, and walked off down the hall, muttering something under his breath.

  Tessa came around the corner a couple of seconds later with a smug smile on her face. I hated to admit it, but she was beautiful. Her skin had a natural glow that made her look healthy and youthful. Her hair was black and thick, reaching the top of her ass. Her eyes curved out at the corners, showing off her Asian-American heritage.

  “You ready?” she asked, looking at me from head to toe.

  I avoided rolling my eyes at her before stepping into the room behind her.

  After we took the first orders, we stood back while the men talked. I learned a long time ago to zone myself out. We were there as eye candy and nothing else. There was a knock on the door, and I knew the drinks had arrived. Tessa answered it, opening the door wide, and the man who brought the tray in was someone I had never seen before. He looked to be mid-thirties, and he had long, shaggy, black hair and brown eyes.

  When he set the tray down on the table in the corner, he turned and did something odd that had me watching him more closely. His hand went to his back as he looked over at the men, who were still busy talking. When his eyes came to me, he smiled before walking out of the room. I looked at Tessa to see if she had noticed anything strange, but she was busy handing out the drinks and flirting with the men at the table.

  We stood to the side again once the men had their drinks. Every once in a while, they would ask me a question about the club, and I told them what I knew. About thirty minutes after they had their first drinks, I called and had more ordered. This time, when the guy came in, he did the same thing—hand at his back, looking at the table. I had no idea who he was, but I planned to find out as soon as the men left.

  One of the men received a phone call and stepped out of the room, and when he returned, he had another man with him. They all sat down. This time when they called me over, they wanted a bottle of Chivas Regal Royal Salute Scotch. One glass of the stuff cost close to six hundred dollars, making it over ten thousand dollars for a bottle. I placed the order and waited for it to be delivered.

  When the knock sounded on the door, I opened it up, and the same man from earlier came in and set the tray down. I watched to see if he would do the same thing he had done the previous times. Sure enough, his head turned towards the table and his hand lifted behind his back, but this time, he lifted his jacket, pulling out something black.

  It took a second for me to realize what it was, and by that time, it was too late. He let off four rounds in rapid succession then turned and fired another round, hitting Tessa. I screamed as he turned the gun on me, and before I could think, I ducked down and ran as fast as I could out of the room. I felt a bullet whiz past me as I turned the corner and another as I entered the main part of the club.

  I spotted Mick. Right away, his eyes got wide, and I yelled at the top of my lungs, “HE HAS A GUN!”

  Everyone started screaming and running in every direction. I ran into a solid wall, and when I looked up to see that it was Link, he wrapped an arm around my waist, turned, and pushed me behind the bar. I stumbled in my heels, falling to my knees and hitting the ground hard. I crawled under the counter and curled myself into a ball, shaking out of fear for my life. I listened as people screamed but didn’t hear any more gunshots. I don’t know how long I stayed like that, but it felt like forever until I heard police sirens.

  “Autumn,” Link called, using my real name, snapping me out of my terrified huddle.

  I peeked out from behind my hands as he crouched down in front of me. “Did you get him?”

  He shook his head, putting out his hand for me to take. I shook my head no. I was safe; I didn’t want to move from that spot.

  “Come on, Angel. He’s gone.”

  I shook my head again.

  “Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise you’re safe.”

  I swallowed against the lump in my throat, squeezing my eyes closed. “Tessa?” I asked him. His eyes closed and his head dropped forward. “No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “No.”

  “Sorry, Angel,” he said quietly.

  “Why?”

  “Not sure, but the cops are here. I need you to come out of there so you can talk to them,” he told me gently, holding out his hand again.

  I nodded, reluctantly taking it. Even though I didn’t like Tessa, she didn’t deserve what had happened to her. None of the people in the room deserved what had happened to them.

  “I should have tried to help her.”

  “Nothing you could have done,” Link said, and my eyes went from to the floor to his. He shook his head, wrapped his beefy arm around my shoulders, and walked me over to a barstool.

  I sat there until the cops came up a few minutes later and told me that they needed to talk to me at the station.

  “Can she get some clothes on?” Link, who had given me the shirt off his back and hadn’t left my side, asked one of the detectives.

  “Sure,” the guy mumbled.

  I slid off the barstool and dazedly walked to the dressing room. When I walked in, all the girls were there huddled together and crying. I didn’t know what to say to them; most of them had been friends with Tessa. I felt horrible that they had lost their friend, but I was unsure if they would want me to express my condolences.

  I walked to my locker and started to pull off my stockings when one of the girls came up to me, wrapping her arms around me. Shocked, I hugged her back, and more of the girls gathered around me. We all stood there silently for a few minutes. Most of the girls were crying while a couple mumbled about how everything would be okay. I wasn’t sure anything would ever be okay again; I’d just watched five people die and was lucky to still be alive.

  “I have to go with the police,” I told the girls when it didn’t seem like they were going to let me go.

  After a second, they all started breaking away from me one by one, giving me reassuring hugs. “Call me if you want to talk,” one of the girls, Elsa, said, handing me a business card with her personal information on it.

  I looked at it for a long second before nodding. I had never really been friends with any of them. Maybe that needed to change.

  I went to my locker, pulling off my clothes before slipping on a pair of jean shorts, a black tank top, an oversized, grey sweater, and a pair of black flip-flops. I grabbed my bag, shoved everything from my locker into it, and left the room without a backwards glance.

  Link was waiting for me outside the dressing room door, his back against the wall, his head tilted back, looking at the ceiling. I’ve known Link since I started working at The Lion’s Den. He’s a nice guy, with blond hair cut low to his head, tan skin, blue eyes, and a Southern drawl that made women fall to their knees. He used to flirt with me when I first started, but when I didn’t return any of the banter, he laid off and became a friend. He is one of the only people who knows about my past and the things I’ve gone through.

  “You didn’t have to wait for me,” I told him, pulling my bag across my body.

  “I’m not letting you go through this alone.” He pulled me into his side.

  I could feel tears stinging my eyes, and I fought them back. I wasn’t going to cry until this was all over, when I could do it alone while hiding under my covers with my face stuffed into a pillow…like I always did.

  “Thank you.”

  He gave me a squeeze, and I felt his lips at the top of my head.

  ~~*

  “I don’t understand why I have to leave the state,” I told Link, putting another pair of shoes in my bag. I had no idea how long I would be gone, and Link had made it sound like I wouldn’t be able to come back to Vegas for a long while.

  “I hate to remind you, but you’re the only witness, and from what the cops said, the guy is a killer paid by the Mob to
do hits on people.”

  I sighed, looking around my house. I hated that I was leaving, but I knew it was for the best. I’d been at the police station for over eight hours, going over what had happened. Then I’d sat with a sketch artist. Somehow, the guy who had shot Tessa and those men had avoided every camera in the club. The cops had informed me that I needed to be extra cautious. I was the only witness, and they were concerned that he would come after me.

  When Link had found out what they’d said, he’d made a call to one of his friends from back home in Tennessee and asked if he would be willing to let me stay with him until the police caught the guy. The man, Kenton, had agreed, telling Link that I would be safe. I hated that I was leaving my home, but if my only options were either death or moving, the choice was begrudgingly clear.

  “I hope they get the guy fast,” I mumbled.

  “Me too, but until then, you will be far away from here and safe.”

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to have me stay with this guy? I mean, how well do you really know him?”

  “We were best friends growing up. He’s a good guy. You’ll be safe with him.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded before going into the closet to get another suitcase. Might as well pack enough stuff to last me. Once I was all packed and ready to go, we got into Link’s SUV and headed for the airport. I was nervous the whole way, feeling like something crazy was about to happen…

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re about twenty minutes out from our arrival destination. The weather in Nashville is mostly clear and sunny. The temperature is eighty-five degrees. The pilot has now turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. Flight crew, please prepare for landing,” I hear through my sleep-ridden state and lift my head from the wall where I was resting it.

  The memories of what happened yesterday leave my head as I wipe my mouth with the sleeve of my sweater before looking around to see that everyone is putting their belongings away. I make sure my seatbelt is secure before sitting back. My leg starts quickly bouncing up and down, and I rub the tattoo behind my ear, trying to think about something other than the plane landing.