by Rissa Brahm
On the other hand, with one hundred and forty thousand for three months, and a prayer to God in heaven that she could puppeteer her boss, Dr. Nora Lance, to hold her spot so she could seamlessly resume her position at the hospital, on her team, and in her chosen life, she would be golden. One-forty, three months. That would get her out of this hell practically unscathed, financially speaking. Well, her savings would still be fucked, maybe credit card limits, too. But if she could keep her clothes on at that number, or close to it, then she’d make it out emotionally and psychologically. She’d be okay. Yeah, she could pull it off.
She shifted her eyes to Johnnie, who had a slight smirk on his mouth as if he liked watching her squirm. He was a flirt and an instigator, and he was forcing her to play his game.
Shit. His fifty to her one-forty. One-forty was based on stripping—clothes off. She didn’t want to insult him. Okay, think. Fifty, and remember the commission. Maybe he really believed she’d make such a difference in the quality of the dancers and, therefore, the volume coming into the club that she’d rake in the cash with the commission aspect.
But then a separate doubt surfaced. Would she actually create that much of an increase in the club’s revenue stream to make up the gap of what, ninety grand? Even at a five percent commission, she’d have to help bring the club’s revenue up like $1.8 million. She really didn’t know how much a club brought in, but the cover charge was twenty dollars per head, plus drinks and VIP add-ons. She figured she only needed…seventy thousand more covers? Seventy thousand more heads in the door in three months? Jesus.
Okay, so Johnnie was definitely pushing her against the wall. He was toying with her, and she was in no state right now.
“A hundred and fifty,” she blurted, then covered her mouth, shocked at herself. But then she remembered her own calculations and sat up straighter. She had stripped for nearly eight years, damn it, and he didn’t really know how badly she wanted to keep her clothes on. “Instead of consulting for the three months you’re asking for, I could dance somewhere else and I’d make upwards of a hundred and forty. So, I figure—”
“Done.” He smiled, standing up and coming around his desk. “But I’ll throw in a bonus if you prep some of the higher-end girls to train more girls at our other clubs. My father will flip. This will be the game changer,” he said, holding out his hand to her. But she could only stare at it.
Hold it. Okay, so, she was getting the best of both worlds, but it didn’t seem like he was getting anything more out of her than the chance to impress his father? Maybe for a young rich guy who had it all, this was all he wanted.
Or maybe he was paying in now to call in a favor later. She’d seen it before. Being under a sugar daddy’s thumb was not going to happen to her. She knew that he, or rather his family, had the overwhelming cash to spare. What was the likelihood that he was helping her out while being careful not to insult her pride? Or was he really banking on her, depending on her to create the cash flow to more than pay her salary? In only three months? But what if the girls didn’t respond to her? She was older now, an outsider at this point, and they could probably smell it from a mile away. The more desperate and insecure girls she’d known had always shown a jealousy-based passive-aggression toward women in general, but to a strong professional woman in a higher position specifically. They’d try to claw her eyes out, forget about listening to her.
Jana had an education behind her, a career now. They’d know.
The promise of more money lining their G-strings was her only hope, but it seemed like a hopeless Catch-22. They’d have to respect her first, then maybe they’d listen to her.
Shit! What was she getting herself into?
The sudden pressure she felt on her shoulders was crushing. And hell, did she just make a three-month commitment? What happened to one month? Or “six weeks tops”? How could she know if Nora would save her spot? What the fuck had she done? Did she already agree to this thing? Holy hell.
She was fighting back tears and nausea when her phone buzzed from inside her purse.
Oh God, thank you for this interruption.
She needed oxygen to reach her brain fast because she felt faint and insane and a few breaths away from keeling over.
She pulled from the depths of her being an obligatory smile when all she wanted to do was cry. “It might be the hospital, please excuse me.”
She took her cell out and glanced at it. It was her brother. She stared. And pondered. The fucking nerve. No, you know what? She would bite the bullet. Again. Because, fuck him!
Her thumb hit decline on the phone, then she looked up at Johnnie Demonte. “When do I start?”
CHAPTER 13
She took the man’s hand to shake on their new arrangement. He held it for a moment longer than she expected and then slowly let her hand slide out of his grasp.
“As soon as possible. I’ll get you a separate phone so we can reach each other, and you won’t have to carry the cell expense. And I’ll get you a company credit card for gas.”
“I don’t actually have a vehicle. I don’t drive, never learned, never needed to.” She smiled, hardly embarrassed because most people who lived in NYC drove. And as for how she hadn’t learned to drive before moving to Manhattan, growing up in the Jersey suburbs, well, she wouldn’t go into it with Johnnie. She was already too flustered and busy ignoring her feelings about what the hell she was doing there to think about her father refusing to teach her to drive while he’d jumped to teach Dane. Her dad had even bought Dane a car, which her brother had wrecked after a month. But, no worries, the replacement car was nicer than the first.
“No car and you don’t drive,” he said, thinking out loud. “Hey, can you wait a quick minute for me?” He moved back around his desk to pull out his digital tablet. A minute later, he closed the cover of his device and came back around with his arm extended. “Come with me, Ms. Winter Snow—hey, what’s your real name, now that we’ll be working together and all?”
She wanted to keep with ‘Winter,’ but she had to tell him to do this deal. She had to just trust the guy. “Jana Park—Jana.”
“Perfect. Come with me, Jana Park—Jana.” He very naturally and confidently took her by the hand and led her out of the office. And her exhaustion, hypertension, and inner confusion let her surrender to his hand taking hold of hers. However unlike her, she was strangely relieved that he was taking the lead.
*
He stared at his phone, willing it to ring. Jake, call with a bite, man. Please.
Because now with the goddamn divorce papers mocking him from the tidy surface of his desk, he not only needed more driving time to distract him from that entire topic, but he needed that influx of cash to get him the hell out of here, back home to where he belonged. Back to Vallarta. Faster now.
And when his phone rang him out of his low, Jake’s number showing on the screen, he hit accept after the first ring, not caring how anxious it made him seem.
“Hello, Jake?”
“Tone, hey. You okay, son?”
God, did he sound beyond anxious, did he sound desperate?
“Yeah, Jake, I’m good. Well, no. Michelle served me papers. Got me twisted up, I guess.”
“Fuck man, sorry. I know how it goes, too. But good fuckin’ riddance, that’s what I say.”
“Right, of course. For the best.”
“Exactly. If it makes you feel any better, I gotchu, son. What you needed. It’s not the gig for my father; you gotta deal with my piece o’ crap son instead…but it’s around the clock for three months. That what you had in mind?”
“Jake, man. Yeah, yes!” He was almost speechless. A three-month gig, seven days a week? Immediate numbers running through his head that would undoubtedly put him at his target. Actually, well over his target, and then he’d be done. Only three months more, and he’d finally return home to start his life in his piece of paradise: Puerto Vallarta.
“You there, Tone?”
“Yeah, Jake, I�
��m here, sorry. Just—I appreciate it. Really, man. It’s just what I needed. Should I call Johnnie for the details?”
“Yeah, best do that. Gotta run here. But listen, don’t let that little shit give you any lip. Oh, one second—yeah, this one, but bigger nipples—sorry, looking at signage. Oh, yeah, I picked the name of the new club: ‘The Hot Spot.’ You gotta stop in when I get it open next month.”
Antonio smiled. Jake asked almost every time they spoke if he’d check out one or another of his clubs. But he of course never did. Jake may have thought Antonio was gay for all he knew, but it didn’t matter a damn. They had a mutual respect running, so it seemed, and Antonio didn’t feel obligated to enter one of Jake’s pseudo-whorehouses to keep their rapport going.
“Good name, Jake, good name. And best of luck with the opening. So, I’ll give Johnnie a shout, on the same cell number?”
“Yeah, same one, but actually go down to the club to talk to ’im now. He’s waiting there for you—fuck, Janice, I said wait a goddamn minute!—sorry, son. It never ends. Will talk later.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you soon. And thanks again, Jake.” But Jake had already ended the call.
*
All the sacrifice, the hyper-focus on his business, and the extreme lack of focus on all else, had been for his future family. His true life-partner, whoever she may be, and their children would have all the security and resources that he’d never had. And they’d have it in his glorious home country of Mexico.
So what, he’d have to deal with Jake’s prep-boy, a piece-of-shit son who used his daddy’s money without warrant? That was nothing. He’d done a few jobs for Johnnie before, usually driving a hooker from the Avenue or a girl from one of “Daddy’s” clubs to Johnnie’s little Jersey-side fuck pad. But at least Johnnie was somewhat manageable, and his whores were respectful enough. The setup made him slightly ill, but he’d had worse with the months of Jocelyn Carlson, and it wasn’t any of his business anyway.
He remembered his motto: “Keep your eyes on the road and drive.” And as he headed toward the club to meet Johnnie Demonte, he repeated the words like a mantra.
*
How was this even possible? His fantasy woman was in his employ, in-hand, in his grasp. Fuck yes.
At the bottom of the stairwell, he slid his hand from hers and placed it at the small of her back, escorting her out of the club. He caught his bartender’s narrowed glare and he gave her a satisfied grin in return. Fuck her, that jealous bitch. Winter, or Jana rather, was different. She wasn’t just competition for Erin or any of the other girls there he’d slept with at the club. No, Jana was the one.
And he’d accomplished his goal; he’d let Jana come up with something she was comfortable with, on her terms. Or so she thought.
He opened the main door for Jana to leave in front of him, the sunlight a shock to his eyes, but it highlighted the curves of Jana’s tiny, yet toned frame. When she saw the limo parked there in front of them, she turned to him with a disbelieving look, head cocked, one eye smaller than the other. Skeptical and fucking sexy as hell.
“Well…you’ll be working with me every day, seven days a week to start. You’ll need transportation. So, Tony here”—he motioned to the driver to come and open the car door for her—“will be at your service, door-to-door, to your house, to the hospital, to the club, or wherever else you need to go. My dad’s known Tony forever; he’s more than trustworthy,” he reassured Jana in case she felt nervous for her safety.
And he knew Tony was trustworthy and loyal…to his father. His father spoke so damn well of the brown-nosing cunt that Johnnie wanted to throw up half the time over it. And the fact that Tony, the good fucking Samaritan, had pulled him out of the path of a drunk driver in the Vallarta club parking lot when Johnnie was like nine, didn’t make Johnnie the least bit hesitant about using the guy as his beck-and-call boy. His father had made Johnnie promise not to tell his mother about the near car-crushing, but he’d never made a promise to lick Tony’s asshole over it.
So now, with Tony and the sleek limo, Johnnie could more than impress Jana. It was perfect. It endeared her to him. Johnnie was easing her mind, and that would give her mind, and body, more room to think and focus on, well, Johnnie. “Tony, this is my new business consultant, Jana Park.”
Johnnie looked at her as he made the introduction. The look of awe on her stunning face, assumedly over the full-service, no-holds-barred extravagance he’d lined up, made him hard. Rock-fucking-hard all over again.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Park,” Tony said with a polite and subdued nod.
“Jana. Jana is fine, please.” She looked at Tony then turned to Johnnie. “Is this really necessary? I mean, I can just take the bus or a cab. Wouldn’t a cab be less—”
“It’s necessary, and it’s already done.” Johnnie displayed a close-lipped, non-negotiable smile, and ushered her into the back seat, then knelt down. “This is going to be a whirlwind for you, so I aim to make it as convenient, as doable as humanly possible. Let me do what I can, okay? You’re probably doing everything for your family and nothing for yourself. And we have a pretty high goal set for the club, you and me, and such a small window of time to reach it. Just call these things, these amenities, an investment,” he said as he handed her a small silver key.
“What’s this now?” she asked, shaking her head.
“My family has a studio apartment five minutes from here. I only crash there when it’s a slammed weekend and I’m too tired to get to my loft in the City.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
“Really, it’s all yours. The last time I was there was New Year’s Eve, more than six months ago. Seriously, it’s so you can save yourself some precious time, get some extra sleep, have some peace. I mean, with your father in the hospital, the financial strain, and our new project together….” He forced the key into her hand. “Tony knows the address.”
“You know I won’t use it, but thank you…for thinking of me.” She smiled. “So…tomorrow, what time?”
“Let’s have Tony bring you to me by five. We can have dinner, go over details and all. Then I’ll introduce you to the girls if you feel the time is right, or if you’d rather observe and lurk to start, get your strategy formulated first. A busy Friday night will be great for that anyway.”
“Lurking sounds like a perfect plan,” she said, nodding with a slow blink of her spellbinding eyes. Then she grabbed a huge breath in. “Okay, dinner at five. And Johnnie, thank you. So much.” She gave him a genuine smile, a bashful glow radiating from her eyes.
God, he could have attacked her then. Just tear her clothes off her fine little body and penetrate her ever-loving pussy. The driver being there made it all the more enticing. He was kinky that way. And he’d bet so was she, even if she didn’t know it yet.
But, instead, he took her hand in his again, kissed it, and backed away so Tony could shut the door. As the door closed, he handed Tony the wad of bills he’d had in his pocket and then nodded goodbye through the tinted window at Jana as the limo pulled away.
CHAPTER 14
A key to his nearby apartment? And Jesus, a limo? Aside from the horrible association from only two days ago, almost being killed by a limo, a Jersey limo nonetheless, Jana was completely uncomfortable with being provided any and all of this by Johnnie Demonte. Because, what did he really want in exchange?
Jana Park was totally unaccustomed to anyone taking care of her. Other than Luly, and that woman would have done more if it weren’t for the many small people at home dependent on her. And Char was like that too. But, God, in her entire adult life, she’d never even had a man really dote on her, besides her regulars at the clubs. And that was, of course, different.
There were a few fleeting relationships through nursing school, but nothing ever lasted long enough to result in a caring, meaningful interaction. Her off-color night job—its schedule or its nature—usually got in the way before she’d even get to a point with the guy for him to r
eally give a damn.
No one had made her swoon by any means, and none of them had really even tended to her basic needs, outside or inside the bedroom. In all honesty, the apathy was mutual. She’d always only had her nursing goal as her top priority. And, of course, her family.
Johnnie, though, he had it down, at least on the surface. All bases covered, from bottled water to a spare apartment if she needed it, not to mention the deal he just offered her—the one she’d accepted, which made her completely uneasy and unbelievably relieved at the same time.
And then this personal around-the-clock limo service? Raw guilt flooded her veins over it. She didn’t deserve this. And even if she made financial miracles happen for the club by getting this tremendous influx of business, she’d never felt comfortable wasting money on such luxury. Even if the money wasn’t hers to waste, that wasn’t the point.
And the stretch limousine was definitely the utmost in luxury. She laughed to herself at the irony, realizing that although she’d almost been hit by one, she’d never actually ridden in a limo before. After all the offers that too many club patrons had extended her in past.
But there she sat, centered on the plush leather bench seat, with too much room to know what to do with. She looked straight ahead through the center partition so that the road ahead was within her field of vision, ready to keep her motion sickness in check. She’d just die if she got sick all over the fine leather interior. She’d absolutely die.
