Saving Sky

by Natasha L. Black

  “Candy and Ruby do it,” he snapped.

  “Then why don’t you tell them you want them working more?” I said. “If they want to suck off strangers for extra cash, that’s on them.”

  “So that’s it. You think you’re better than them,” he laughed.

  “I might dance, but I’m not going to stoop to that level,” I said with a flip of my hair.

  “Oh, you’re going to. I’m going to make sure of that. Also, we’re going to change the policy a bit about how much the customers can engage with you. I think it would be more fun if they were able to handle the merchandise,” he shrugged. “Effective immediately.”

  “I don’t believe you. That’s direct violation of our protection in this club. You wouldn’t dare do something like that. What if a cop came in and saw what was going on?” I asked.

  “You don’t believe me?” he pulled me forward. I could see through the curtain behind the stage Ruby on the lap of a man, and he was being far too handsy with her. “Then what do you make of that? They don’t have a problem with it, Sweetheart, just you. And you are part of a team, which means you’re going to be playing along.”

  “Not anymore I’m not!” I shot back at him. I was so mad, I was seeing red. “I quit.”

  He looked at me for a moment, then burst out laughing. “How many times are you going to try that on me? I don’t fucking think so. You’re my property, and that’s the end of that.”

  “Watch me,” I said flippantly. “I don’t belong to you.” I didn’t wait for him to start yelling. I was sick of the threats, and the last thing I was going to do was let some complete stranger put his hands all over me. It was hard enough sitting on half the men I gave lap dances to. The fact that they couldn’t reach out and grab me was my only solace.

  Now that he was changing those rules, there was no telling what the men would get away with. Hell, what would the bouncers do? Would they even step in and help if someone was out of line? Would there even be a way a guy could get out of line in there now?

  Rocco stared at me for a moment, clearly calling my bluff. The only problem was, I wasn’t bluffing. If he really thought I was going to go along with that plan, he had another thing coming, that was for damn sure. I turned on my heel and walked right back to the dressing room, ignoring him as he followed me.

  I didn’t care I was wearing one of my lingerie costumes. I was set to go on stage next. But I wasn’t going to do it. I didn’t give a fuck what he had to say. He had crossed the line for the last time, and it was high time I stood up for myself.

  He gave Candy and Ruby a lot more respect because they were doing what he wanted, but that’s not how I worked. If he couldn’t respect my personal boundaries and only cared about lining his own pockets, then he could kiss my ass.

  I walked straight back to my station and grabbed my tank top, hoodie, and jeans. I wasn’t going to take my bra off in front of Rocco, so I just put them on over the top. They were mine anyway. He had made me buy my own outfits when I first started at the place, telling me he would supply them when I proved I was good on stage and even better on a lap.

  Of course, he’d only come through with a couple of things, and they were costumes I never wore. I wasn’t about to go on stage in something that was entirely mesh, though he wanted me to many times.

  After I got dressed, I grabbed my purse and pushed past him.

  “You don’t really think you’re going to get out of here, do you?” he asked. “I’m going to come for you, and you’ll wish you never crossed me. Shit, you’ve gotten so many chances in this place, how dare you think you can walk out on me now?”

  “You aren’t in control of my life. You write my paychecks, and that’s it! And they aren’t anything to brag about at that!” I snapped. He tried to get in front of me on my way to the side door. I hadn’t even bothered to take off my makeup. The only thing I did before walking out was pull my hair back into the ponytail that I always wore on my way home.

  I didn’t think he was really going to follow. He was plenty abusive to me when we were behind closed doors, but he’d always had some self-control when we were in front of the customers. It was the image he wanted to portray, and it made me sick to think that they fell for it.

  If they knew the kind of man he really was, they wouldn’t want to have a thing to do with his club. I was sure of that. But then, I’d seen some sleazy things go down in the place, and I wasn’t sure how far anyone in there would let things go.

  He said something else as he came out the door, and the only words that came to my mind came flying out of my mouth before I could even think.

  “Fuck you!”

  Still, I was shocked and surprised when he grabbed me by the throat, throwing me against the side of the building. We were in broad daylight. The sun was just starting to set, but he was still out in the open. Anyone who was passing by could see what he was doing.

  His arrogance was beyond what I even thought, and for a brief moment, I was truly terrified of what he’d do to me. He had the money to cover up my disappearance. Hell, he was in the mob. He had the connections to get rid of me if he really wanted to, and I had a feeling he was going to right then behind the club.

  Then, that stranger had come out of nowhere, taking him down like he was nothing. I was shocked someone would step in like that – clearly, he didn’t know who Rocco was. Then again, maybe he was a good man who was acting out of instinct.

  No. It quickly became evident why he chose to step in despite Rocco’s reputation. He was a cop, and he knew what he was doing in a fight. I’d never seen Rocco so shaken before. The look in his eyes made it clear to me how pissed he was, and I was glad that stranger was there.

  Until he turned to me. For the first time I got a good look at him, and I was shocked to see he was the same man I’d given the lap dance to the day before. I’d given a cop a lap dance, and I’d loved every second of it. There were few times in my career that I’d actually enjoyed the act, and he was one of them.

  Instinct took over, and I did the only thing I could do. I ran. I got out of there as fast as I could. I didn’t want anything to do with a cop. Not even a ride home.

  As I got on the bus, I avoided all eye contact. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, didn’t want to look at anyone. I just wanted to go home and forget about the entire thing. I couldn’t help but be a little rattled by the thought that that guy had been out there. Had he been waiting for me? Was he just another creeper? But worse; a creeper with a badge? The anxiety was building faster than I could keep up with, and I nearly had a panic attack right there on the bus seat.

  Breathe. Just breathe. If he wanted to talk to you, he would have stopped you when you walked away. Don’t think about him anymore.

  I had enough shit on my plate I had to deal with, I couldn’t think about the hot cop. It was a bad idea to fantasize about any of the people who walked through the doors of the club. If he found out what Rocco was doing, I could be dragged into the middle of a mess I wanted nothing to do with.

  No, no matter his reasoning for being there, no matter how instantly my body had responded to his presence, hot cop was off limits.

  5

  Jack

  “What are you even staring at?” Welsh asked me as the two of us sat in our cruiser.

  “Sorry. I was just thinking,” I said.

  “You’ve been doing that a lot lately,” he replied. “Like, a lot.”

  “Don’t you?” I asked. “Or is that brain of yours just an endless loop of tits and ass?”

  “Fuck you. I think a lot, and not just about tits and ass,” he shot back. “What’s on your mind?”

  I shook my head. “A lot, but really nothing I can talk about.”

  “You keeping secrets now?” he asked. “I’m hurt. I’m your partner, you should tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “It’s not that I can’t tell you, it’s just that I don’t have anything to tell just yet. I’m trying to put together a plan, and it’s
not really working for me,” I admitted.

  He gave me a look with raised eyebrows, and I shrugged. “I don’t know what else to say.”

  “You could give me an idea of what this plan is about,” he said. “You going rogue?”

  I laughed. I was straight laced and hated the idea of corrupt cops. Hell, the mere thought of a corrupt cop was enough to make me want to go rogue and hunt them all down. We were the people the public was supposed to be able to trust, we weren’t the people who should take advantage of that.

  “No, I’m not going rogue. I might go undercover though,” I said. “You’re being too cryptic for me, man. You need to tell me plainly what’s going on or I’m going to go insane with curiosity,” he shook his head. “I hate it when you do shit like this and leave me wondering what the hell is going on in that brain of yours.”

  I laughed again. “If what’s going on in my head is going to make you that nuts, you might need a hobby dude.”

  “Listen, we sit in this damn car all day long, I gotta entertain myself somehow. It’s not like you’re a great conversationalist,” he pointed out.

  I sighed and rubbed a hand over my short hair. “It was that girl at the club,” I finally said.

  “I knew it!” he clapped his hands a single time in triumph. “I knew as soon as I saw you staring at her like she was something out of a movie you were going to be pining for her. But then, you’re always the one telling me strippers just want your money.”

  His face changed as he spoke, and I sighed. “It’s not that. I mean, that was one hell of a lap dance, and I wouldn’t mind another, but I think there’s something wrong with her.”

  “Like she’s also crazy?” Welsh asked.

  I shook my head again. “Like she’s in danger. I went back to the club yesterday –”

  He cut me off. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “No, I didn’t think I needed to tell you my whereabouts at all times. Are we dating and I didn’t get the memo?”

  “Dude, shut up. Now what are you going on about?”

  “I didn’t even go inside. I wanted to see if I could catch her on break or something and ask if there was something going on. Something she didn’t think she could tell anyone else about that maybe I could help her with, you know?” I looked at him and he leaned his head on the headrest with a groan.

  “Man, she’s a stripper. Of course she’s going to have issues. They all do. Why do you think they take their clothes off for money?” he asked. “You aren’t going to save her from herself. Trust me. My cousin has stripped on and off since we were barely out of high school.”

  “That’s got to be weird for you,” I said.

  “I don’t go in if she’s working,” he shuddered. “I’ll ask the bouncer before I even go in the door and if she is, I head off to another joint.”

  “I’m not sure I want to have this conversation with you,” I said with a disgusted look on my face.

  “I don’t go in!” he insisted loudly. “Forget it. Anyway, what do you think’s going on with this girl? Did you talk to her?”

  “I didn’t get the chance. I was just about to leave the place when she came out through the back door. She was dressed in jeans and a hoodie, and was clearly distressed. I thought that was my chance to see what was going on, but before I could even get out of the car a man followed her outside,” I explained.

  “A customer?”

  “No, that guy who was at the table the night of the party. Rocco,” I said.

  “He’s the owner. Maybe she fucked up or something and he was setting her straight,” Welsh suggested. “Like Cap does to us. We’ve all been through a good reaming.”

  “Some of us more than once,” I said as I gave him a look.

  “So, this guy comes out of the club and what happens?” Welsh turned the conversation back to my problem.

  “He grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the side of the building. He was holding her there, threatening her. Obviously, I had to act,” I said.

  “You put him down?”

  “Down to the ground and pulled out my badge. Told him if he came after me or her or any of the other women in the club like that again, I was going to arrest him,” I announced.

  “How’d that go over?” Welsh asked. “He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would take kindly to threats no matter who they’re coming from.”

  “How does he strike you?” I changed the subject. It had been something that was on my mind all day, and I couldn’t shake it. I wanted to know more about this guy, but there wasn’t much on him in our data base. He had only a couple of traffic violations when he was younger, and that was it.

  There wasn’t a criminal history, at least nothing that we were aware of. There could be more records in New York or Los Angeles or wherever else he had been in his life. I’d only had the means and opportunity to check Chicago’s database.

  “I don’t know. Moody. A dick,” Welsh said. “Not the kind of guy I would want to go around pissing off.”

  “That’s what makes me wonder. Why doesn’t she just quit if he treats her that way? I would walk out in a heartbeat and not look back if I were her,” I mused.

  I was talking more to myself than to him, but Welsh answered anyway.

  “You know, there are some girls out there who think that they need that job. Like, it’s the only thing they can do to make ends meet. You know it’s not cheap to live here, so maybe she’s just trying to get by,” he suggested.

  “But that’s not the only strip club in the city. And, when I tried to ask her if she was alright, she brushed it off and all but ran from me. I also heard him threaten her,” I sighed. “If I could just talk to her, I could get a lot of these questions answered.”

  “So why don’t you?” Welsh said with a shrug. “Go back in there, get a lap dance, and ask her what’s going on while she’s grinding on your dick.”

  I thought it over for a second. It wasn’t a bad idea, but after being there in that alley the day before, I didn’t want her to think I was some creepy stalker. But I wasn’t sure how else to get through to her. I knew in my gut something was off and I felt obligated to help. I told myself that the fact that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen didn’t even factor into it.

  “Or you could just give her your number. I’m sure they get that a lot, but if you said something about wanting to help her out, she might be more susceptible that you just showing up in the alley like a weirdo,” Welsh suggested.

  I liked that idea a lot better. “That’s not bad. This entire situation is so baffling, I’m not sure what to do about any of it, really. I just want to make sure she’s alright, you know?”

  “Then you’re going to have to talk to her. I’ll see if there’s anything else I can dig up about that Rocco guy, and we’ll go from there. Check in with other major databases. There has to be something that he’s done in the past that would give us a clue about him,” Welsh said. “You don’t become a strip club owner with a Harvard education and a Boy Scout badge.”

  “Thanks Welsh, I appreciated the assist,” I said. “Now, I’m starving. Let’s get lunch.”

  “Same,” Welsh agreed. He let the topic drop and I was happy to let it slide as well. There were a lot of unanswered questions that I was trying to figure out, but there wasn’t anything else we could do about it until we had more info.

  If he got on the trail of figuring out who Rocco was, and I somehow found a way to get Sky to talk to me, then we’d be getting somewhere. For now, we could only get lunch and move on with the rest of our shift, driving around and seeing where we were needed.

  But no matter how hard I tried to push Sky to the back of my mind, she still took center stage.

  6

  Sky

  I sat straight up in bed, my panties soaked and my heart racing. I didn’t often have wet dreams, but that one was incredible.

  The entire bus ride home the day before I had fought daydreaming about the cop. He’d be
en right there, so hot, so fearless. I couldn’t see his tattoos, but I knew he had them. I’d seen them when I had given him the lap dance.

  He looked different in uniform, though I knew it was him. Tall, dark, strong. Muscles all over. It was enough to make any girl swoon. I went back and forth with myself, between telling myself it was alright to fantasize about him and telling myself it was a waste of time.

  When I got back to my place, I felt a mix of overwhelmed and turned on. What if he came back to the club? Would I go back? I sure as hell didn’t want to, but then, he had told Rocco to leave me the fuck alone or he was going to be arrested.

  If Rocco continued to harass me, I could go to the cops and ask to make a police report with that particular officer. God, I wished I knew his name.

  As usual, I’d fallen asleep quickly, but I didn’t expect the dream I had. We weren’t at the club, we were in some sort of apartment. Maybe mine? I didn’t care. All I cared about was taking all the clothes off that sexy stranger and having my true way with him.

  So much more than just a lap dance. I wanted all of him.

  When I woke, I was on fire with need. I’d never felt that way about anyone who had come into the club before. I’d never let myself. But with the hot cop, I couldn’t help myself. He was too sexy for me not to notice, that was for damn sure. And boy, was I noticing.

  I sighed. Laying back in bed and trying to decide what to do. I didn’t want to go back to the club, but I felt somehow safer by Officer Hottie’s threat against Rocco. I thought maybe, just maybe, he’d lay off if he thought the guy might be waiting in the wings, watching. But I also knew that Rocco wasn’t one to be easily intimidated. Maybe I should run after all.

  My alarm started blaring.

  “Fuck!” I said aloud. I flew out of bed and hurried for the shower.

  My thoughts had been interrupted the day before by an old woman on the bus. She looked me over from head to toe, clearly judging me. With the amount of makeup I’d still had on, she probably thought I was a prostitute. I wasn’t sure why it still bothered me what people thought, but it often did.