Shameless shook his head. “I wish you had been around longer to know the dynamics at play here. Carol was already on the way out, because she’s been unfaithful to Iceman. Not to mention she tries to pull shit with the other old ladies and BRATs on a regular basis. There’s a lot of history behind how he behaved with her. I’m not going to tell you we’re all angels or that we’ll be perfect all the time, but you won’t get that anywhere, as you well know.” When he glanced back up at me his eyes were glassy and pleading. “I don’t think I can lose you again, sweet girl. I had to say goodbye once when you were all dresses, bows, and pigtails. Having to say goodbye now too would kill me.”
“Shame, I didn’t plan on going far away. I just don’t think I should stick around here and watch…”
“I swear, I’m going to kill that fucker when he sobers up,” Shameless grumbled.
I waved his comment off. “I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be feeling plenty of pain tomorrow all on his own, and it’s whatever. We weren’t anything anyway.”
“Now, that’s a load of shit,” Shameless scoffed. “We all saw it. Iceman even called him out on it and told him he better step to it and lock you down as quick as possible.”
“Mmm, and the same night he gets blitzed and fucks around with some glitter-bomb wielding whore. So, like I said, we have nothing. Even if we were working towards something,” I swallow hard. “There’s nothing left now. He destroyed any chance of that tonight. I forgave him the first time, and gave him the benefit of the doubt that it wouldn’t be how he would react every time something bothered him, but tonight proves I was wrong.” I anxiously twisted my fingers up in each other.
“Sweet girl, I wish I could fix it for you. The one damn night I turn in early, and shit goes down that defies fucking logic. I don’t get it. He had no reason to act out of jealousy or anything again. So, I just don’t get it.” I gave Shameless the look that said I didn’t care for the speculation game. He raised his arms in surrender. “Okay, I’ll get out of here and leave you to it, but please, know you are loved and wanted here, baby girl. Don’t let stupid shit run you off.”
I nodded and gave him a weak smile. He gathered me up in his arms and hugged me tight. Just as quickly he released me, gathered up the nasty, glitter-infected sheets, and left quietly. I moved to go throw the lock behind him when my door slid open once more. “Did you forget the pillowcase?” I asked thinking it was Shameless. To my surprise Spinner stood there.
“Spinner?” I questioned. He quickly moved into the room and shut the door, locking it behind himself too. It was the first time since our first meeting that I’d been nervous around the man.
“I need you to sit down and listen to me for a minute. Rabbit came to me wanting to kill Rage. I had to explain to him what I’m about to tell you, and if you don’t believe me I’ll take you down to see the video Rabbit and Iceman are going over now. Carol wasn’t the only one who didn’t realize we’d installed new cameras recently. Rage was set up, Charlie. He was drugged, made to look like he cheated, and then brought to your room. We know who did it, and I think there may be more to the story than just the setup. I think it was done to make you run from us.”
“To make me run?” I asked. “What in the world for?”
“We’re working that out, but what I can tell you is that I think some of the people who were recently removed from our club have gone to the enemy.”
“The enemy?”
“Josh and whoever he’s working with to find you, and kill you.”
“Son of a…” I started to say. Spinner nodded, but then cut me off.
“I don’t have all the details to finish playing connect the dots, but from what I’ve seen, it looks pretty obvious to me. I won’t know more until we finish going through all the footage, but now we’ll know who we should have been watching all along. I just wanted to let you know something so that you wouldn’t…”
It was my turn to cut him off. “So I wouldn’t run like they wanted me to?”
“Exactly.”
“I was never going to do that.” I sighed. “I’m not stupid. I may have been uncomfortable here after what happened with Rage, but I’d rather be uncomfortable than dead.”
Spinner smiled widely then. “I’m happy to hear you’re thinking with your head instead of letting your emotions rule your actions.”
“Don’t give me too much credit. I just told Shameless that I wanted to move out of here as soon as my issues are cleared up.”
Spinner’s smile disappeared. “I hope you’ll rethink that now that you know it was a setup.”
I frowned at him. “You can tell me it was a setup, and you can even show me the video, but it’s going to take some time to forget what I woke up to tonight. They had a solid plan considering how things went down with Rage and that skank bitch the last time. It automatically made the whole scenario they cooked up easier to believe. It’s… well, I need to wrap my head around everything. This world, my world, it’s all so crazy right now that I honestly don’t know how to process everything that keeps being thrown at me.”
Spinner nodded. “If you need to talk,” he started and sighed. “I know you have a friendship with Rabbit, and Shameless is like a father figure to you. I haven’t been around as much, because I’m trying to keep Ruby’s on track after we had a shitty manager in there we had to get rid of for lining his pockets with club money that didn’t belong to him. I need you to know though, if you need someone else, I can be there for you too.”
“Thanks, Spinner, I appreciate that.”
“Well Showgirl, my brother’s an idiot on the best day so I figure you’ll need a friend with a brain eventually.” He worked his magic, and did what he intended, making me laugh.
“I think you’re more like your brother than you like to admit. That sounds just like something he’d say about you.”
“Yeah, but in my case it’s the truth though. With him it’s all lies!” He chuckled as I laughed again.
Chapter 11
Sweat poured down my back as I spun out, kicked high, and dropped straight into a split. The girls from Ruby’s who had been brought over this morning, more than likely as a distraction for me, started clapping. “Holy crap, that was insane,” Mel told me as she tossed her hand out to help me up.
“It’s a really simple combo, just fast paced. It will be perfect for some of the hardcore music you ladies dance to.” One of the women scoffed at my statement. “What’s the matter?” I asked, calling her out.
“You keep referring to us as ladies,” she stated evenly.
“And?” I asked not seeing what the problem was.
“We’re strippers, sweetheart. That’s just about as far from a lady as we can get.”
I marched right up to her, and while she was shorter than me I managed to look her in the eye anyway without acting like I was looking down my nose at her. “You are dancers. You earn money showing off your beautiful bodies and your amazing moves. There is no part of that says you can’t also be a lady. Even if you go out with your man afterward and have the wildest, kinkiest, dirtiest sex in the history of sex that does not mean you can’t be a lady. You deserve respect for being a human being. You deserve it for taking the initiative and doing what you have to in order to survive, get by, or get ahead. So, don’t let anyone tell you that you are defined by the job you do, the clothes you wear, or the things you like. The only thing that defines you is how you allow others to make you feel. Today, you are all ladies, because that is what I see. Either keep the title or feel free to show me why you deserve something with less respect. I’ll follow your lead.”
Her eyes were glossy, but she just tipped her head in respect and moved back to her position instead of arguing with me. Mel, on the other hand, ran up and gave me the biggest hug I think I’d ever received. In fact, her legs were wrapped around my waist as she hugged the absolute shit out of me. That is the position we found ourselves in when the guys came out of their meeting.
“Ho
t damn! We’ve been missing out on all the action!” Rabbit called out from across the commons.
“What in the absolute fuck?” Someone else asked.
“I’d like to be the cheese in the middle of that sandwich,” Flint shouted. Then, “Ouch, motherfucker!” Someone had apparently slapped him in the back of the head. When I glanced over I noticed Rage was standing right behind him. He glanced away quickly when he noticed I was looking at him though. It made me wonder if he had really been drugged or just seduced, because that was definitely the reaction of a guilty man there.
Mel climbed down off of me. It didn’t hurt that she was only 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighed next to nothing, so her jumping up on me was like getting attacked by a small child. Although, she had more boobs than I did, which was why the guys were drooling so hard. “Okay, ladies,” I emphasized the word, “I think we can wrap this up for now. Practice tonight and tomorrow, and then when we meet up the day after we’ll work on nailing the whole thing down.”
“I’d like to do some nailing, myself,” one of the guys muttered as he passed by us to hit the back hallway to the main kitchen area. The girls giggled and flounced their wares as they gathered all their things together.
“It must be really cool being able to live here with all these sexy beasts,” the girl who called herself Star said to me as she stuffed her extra clothes into her bag.
“It’s interesting, I’ll give you that,” I told her not really knowing any of these girls well enough to reveal any of my ongoing drama.
“Rage!” Sasha, the woman who questioned me for calling them all ladies yelled out when she saw him. She ran over, squealing like a stuck pig, ready to pounce on him when Rabbit stepped in the way to block her. She stopped mid-run, and pouted at being shut out that way. “Aw, baby, come on. You know one of these days you’re going to give in, and forget the rules so we can finally get together.”
“I’m taken,” Rage said as he sidestepped both her and Rabbit.
“Since when?” She asked indignantly.
Rabbit chuckled. “Since that one showed up and swept him off his feet with her sweet as sin smile,” he announced pointing at me.
Jaws dropped. Sasha narrowed her eyes at me. Then she flounced back in Rage’s general direction. “Her teaching us new routines makes her an employee of Ruby’s too. So, if we’re off limits, she is too.”
Rabbit laughed. Rage just stared at her like she was stupid. Spinner came over and stood directly in front of Sasha though. “Stop while you’re ahead. Charlie is family first here, and she doesn’t work for Ruby’s. She’s doing me a favor by helping you girls get some new material to liven the place up. I’m warning you now, you give her any shit at all, and you will be the one finding yourself gone. No questions asked.”
Sasha poked her lip out in an even more exaggerated pout before turning back to the stage Mel and I were still standing on and coming to grab her shit. She didn’t even make eye contact with me, so she must have been at least a little smart. Once she walked away, Mel snagged my attention. “Don’t worry about Sasha. She’s been crushing on Rage forever, and he’s never once reciprocated, so don’t think, because she acted all familiar that he has. That’s just wishful thinking on her part.”
“Thanks, but Rage is not mine, so it doesn’t matter,” I stated simply.
Mel’s eyes grew larger as she stared at something over my shoulder. “Might wanna tell him that then,” she whispered as she grabbed her stuff and hauled ass out of there. I knew who I would see when I turned around, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to face him.
“Can we talk for a minute?”
“I have to clean up out here, and then go get a shower.” I started to tick off a much longer list, but he stopped me.
“The prospects will take care of this mess,” he said as he looked around taking in the nothing that cluttered up the stage now that the girls had taken all their belongings with them. “Go get your shower, if you need to. I’ll wait, but we’re talking as soon as you’re done. We should have talked after the first incident, and it’s my fault for blowing it off after what happened with Beaver. We will have that chat now though. I won’t knowingly make the same mistake twice.”
I sighed, not really having a choice since I lived and worked in close proximity to him. I glanced around the room, but no one looked like they would be on my side either. Too bad, because honestly, I could see the black and purple hickey ridding up from under the collar of his shirt and it was making me sick to my stomach. Instead of trying to find someone to help me out, I just nodded my head and took off up the stairs toward my room. I had the feeling I was about to take the longest shower in the history of showers.
Thirty minutes later I realized I couldn’t actually stay in the shower any longer. First of all, the water had started to go cold. Secondly, I was pruning up worse than an old lady left in a swimming pool too long. Thirdly, well, avoidance had never been my thing. Granted, I’d been on the run from my murderous husband for nearly a year, but that avoidance was actually considered self-preservation. His cousin was FBI, his close friend worked for Vegas PD. I really didn’t feel I had anyone I could trust to turn to for help. At least, not until I was reacquainted with my estranged motorcycle family. That thought brought me back around to the man I was avoiding still. As I towel dried myself, and started drying my hair I thought about our situation.
We really weren’t anything other than touchy-feely sort of friends. Even if he had gone out and fucked someone last night, I couldn’t be mad. We never had a talk about being together, let alone being exclusive. Sure, it was assumed in a way with how he was so intimate with me and how the other guys assumed he’d want me for his old lady. The fact was, those words never came from him though. They were just that, assumptions. We’d never been more intimate than me sitting on his lap fully clothed, or him laying half naked with me in my bed while I was drugged up and healing from being attacked. We had never even kissed, so I was definitely confused about why I felt the way I did. Just because I wanted more with him, just because I felt like my world was on fire when he was around, didn’t make it a something real.
Knowing all of that didn’t help take away the hurt and betrayal I had felt at finding him in my bed the way I did. It certainly didn’t help to add in the confusing layer that it was something that had been done to him, and not something he’d set out to do himself. Then, there was the added layer of guilt I carried over being mad at him, because essentially, he’d been a victim. I couldn’t even imagine how he was feeling about that right now. He had to be ashamed, angry, hurt, and a whole slew of other emotions just knowing someone incapacitated him and did things to him he couldn’t control, and probably didn’t remember. Ugh.
Finally, I tossed open the door to my bathroom, heading into my room for fresh clothes, when I noticed the man sitting on my bed staring at me slack-jawed, eyes wide, and unable to look away from my very naked body. As soon as I got over the initial shock, I screeched, threw myself back through the bathroom door, and grabbed one of the large bath sheets with my shaking hands. Holy hell, Rage had just seen every little piece of me. How in the hell had he gotten in my room? I could have sworn I’d locked my door.
A knock sounded on the bathroom door then. “Charlie?” He called out.
“What are you doing in my room?” My voice was definitely pitchy as I squeaked out the question.
“I came to talk. You said you were showering first, but you left the room unlocked. I assumed you wanted me to wait here. I’m sorry. I can… um, shit.”
I wrapped the bath sheet around myself. It was a long, fluffy slice of heaven that stretched above my boobs down to my knees like a good towel should. Once I had everything tucked in place I opened the door again. “I wasn’t expecting you to be waiting in my room, and I’m not sure why the door was unlocked,” I told him as I moved to get around his bulk. I moved to the closet, and pulled out an outfit, some underwear, and a bra before scurrying back into my bathroom to ge
t dressed.
Rage had been scowling at my door, as I’d done a moment before, and it made me wonder. How in the hell had my door been unlocked? I knew for absolute certain that I’d thrown the lock. I could hear Rage through the door talking to someone. “Check the cameras and let me know. If someone tampered with it, we need to move now rather than later. I won’t put her at risk anymore than we have to in order to ferret these bastards out.” He was quiet for a moment, then “the cabin, maybe. Only if I have to though, because I still think she’s safer with all of us around.”
I opened the door and stood watching him. He didn’t shy away or try to hide his conversation from me. “Yeah, just let me know who did it. If it’s someone different, we’ll have another person to question. If not, maybe that’s a good indicator that our infiltration is on a smaller scale than we thought.” Rage glanced at me, his face a mask of whatever emotions were boiling below the surface. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be in Charlie’s room for now. Come find me when you know.” With that he clicked off the conversation he’d been having, then turned his back, walked to my door, and threw both the regular lock and the bolt lock on my door. “I want you using both from now on while you’re here. You got me?”
“Yeah, I will. What happened? Did someone unlock my door? Were they in my room?” I asked suddenly nervous about what they could have possibly been doing in there. “Oh God, I was in the shower for a long time. How long were you were out there?”
“Just five minutes or so. When you didn’t come back out right away, I came to find you.”
“What was someone doing in my room during that time? Nothing here is mine, or at least not before I got here. I have nothing to steal. I have…” Then my whole body froze just before the trembling started. “You just saw me naked.” I rasped out as the tremors in my body grew.
“Hey, now. If it makes you feel any better, once we get our shit straight I plan on being the only one who ever sees you naked again. And baby, I will be seeing you naked again. Every damn day of our lives, if I get a say in it.” Normally, his proclamation would have been a balm to my frazzled mind, considering I’d just been fretting over whether I was anything to him, but the implications of someone having been in my room was too much to bear.
Dancing With Danger Page 13
