by Kailin Gow
“Roz?” I ask.
“Oh, that girl sure knew how to work it,” says Julie, her eyes twinkling. “That girl sure knows how to work it. I had to hide in the closet or get caught when I snuck in, but she had her guy promising her all kinds of jewels and pretty things. She was sucking him off something fierce and he was calling her all this shit: my baby, my love, saying he wanted to make her his one and only. An exclusive. But that never happened, as you know. That girl sure knew how to work it. Well, knew.” She smiles wickedly, sending shivers down my spine. “I bet that’s what happened to her,” she says, “I bet Roz got greedy. And then she ran into someone who gave Roz her just reward.”
I try to keep my disgust to myself. “So, Roz getting close like that to her patron is a bad thing?”
“Maybe not for her,” Julie rolls her eyes. “But for the Blue Room as a whole. After all, when you’ve got a generous patron like that, nobody but the girl he wants wants him to get a one and only and get his name taken off the Blue Room client roster. We all want a chance with a patron like that, so…”
I have goosebumps, watching this girl who’s pretending to tell me a story: as story that’s turning slowly into a threat.
“My patron’s coming,” I say. “You should go…”
“All right,” says Julie. “I get it.” She rises and goes to the door. “Now you know the story, maybe you’ll think twice about my offer. If you know what’s up with hogging a patron, you’ll take my word for it. It isn’t nice not to share.”
She walks down the hallway, swaying her hips, giving me just enough of a wicked smile to get me worried.
That was a warning. Start sharing, or more than the Blue Room staff will be out for my blood. And then I’ll end up like Roz.
Chapter 7
I close the door. I lock it. Not that it will help me much, I think grimly. If what Julie says is true it’s incredibly easy for anyone to force their way into my private chambers, regardless of whether I lock it or not. The lock just gives me a false sense of security, that’s all. A hotel with maid service. Anyone with a master key. The illusion of privacy at the Blue Room is just that. And I don’t feel safe staying here any longer. Maybe I can find a private apartment off site, I wonder. Either that or just get used to that constant feeling of terror. I stand agog, trying to decide what to do, when I hear a knock at the door.
I peer through the peephole to see a gorgeous man standing at the door.
It’s Terrence.
He looks sexier than ever, in a black leather jacket and tight jeans which suit his devil-may-care personality better than his pseudo-businessman suits ever could. I want him.
Even more than that, I want to get information out of him.
I open the door. I throw my arms around his shoulders, pulling him in, closing the door quickly behind us. The last thing I want anyone to see is another valued “patron” making his way to my room. Julie and her friends are a dangerous bunch, of that much I’m sure. I lock the door behind him and then pull Terrence into my living area and push him up against the wall, kissing him, letting my passion and my desire for control both govern my movements. And Terrence seems to like it.
“Staci!” He’s smiling a wicked smile. He’s out of breath. “Wow. Staci. You’re sexy when you’re dominant like this. I know you want me but…wow. You’re pretty hot when you’re in charge.” He fixes me with a lusty stare. “You have absolutely no idea how much I want you, Staci. I’m hard for you.”
He kisses me hard. I kiss him back, at first, sinking into him. Then I remember my mission, my plan. I pull away. “Not here,” I say. “It isn’t safe here. Not here or in any of the other rooms at the Blues Towers.”
He furrows his brow. “Why? I want you here, Staci. I want you now.” He sounds like a child that’s been denied a toy. “What’s wrong?”
“It isn’t safe here, Terrence. Anyone can come right on in. That’s what happened to Roz, after all.”
Terrence’s eyes grow wide. He’s wondering if I’ve come in upon a secret. “Roz? What do you know about what happened to Roz?”
I bite my lips. I have to be careful here. I don’t know how far I can trust Terrence. For all I know, he could be the Blue who got too close to Rita. And I remember Rita’s letter. Beware of the family. The Blues? The Tannenbaums? All of them combined?
“Staci?” Terrence is walking closer to me. And then, suddenly, he’s frowning, and I detect a certain strangeness in his voice I have not known before: a tone I have never previously heard him use. It’s some kind of warning in his tone. Even a little threatening. It’s like the day we interrogated one another between thrusts. Something is up with Terrence.
I back down. I don’t want him to think I know too much. “I was there with you when it happened, remember?” I say. “I don’t know a lot. I just know someone was able to get into her room…somehow…I don’t remember how….” I swallow and give him my best innocent doe eyes. “I just got the sense Roz probably wasn’t what everyone thought she was, that’s all.”
Terrence raises his eyebrows. He’s still wary of me. He’s still suspicious. “Oh?” he says slowly. “How do you mean?”
“I just mean…” I stammer. “I bet she probably wanted a lot. She wanted more out of her patron. Maybe even more than what he was willing to give her.”
“I thought she loved her patron,” Terrence says, looking down at me with a dark and glowering frown. “Or at least, that’s what I believe somebody told me. Roz was said to truly love her patron. To the point where she even wanted to become exclusive to him…or to leave the Blue Room so she could be with him as a real girlfriend. Maybe even a real wife. That’s all I know.”
“So who could have wanted to kill her?” I ask Terrence. Wishing he had the answer, wishing he could tell me the truth.
“Anyone,” says Terrence. “Anyone at all. That’s what’s so baffling to me. The whole time I was looking into her case, wondering. She was this sweet girl, this beautiful girl, this sexy girl – she had no agenda. She had nothing in mind. She just wanted to be happy. I don’t understand why anyone at the Blue Room, anyone in the whole world would want to hurt her.”
Something in his voice makes me suspicious of him. I raise an eyebrow. “Sexy?” I ask. “You found Roz sexy?”
Terrence’s grin is slow but sure. “Of course I did,” he says. “I mean, we don’t exactly hire un-sexy girls at the Blue Room, do we? We have certain specifications for the services we provide and sexiness is just about top of that list. Along with discretion, of course,” he adds hastily.
He’s avoiding meeting my gaze. Maybe he has some information he’s not sharing.
“Did you ever sleep with her?” I ask, all of a sudden. I’m not sure why I even want to know. It’s not like it’s any of my business, after all.
Terrence looks down for a second and sighs. “She was beautiful…” he says softly. “And I admit it, I found her sexy. When I first came on board here, as a manager, she was already here. She showed me around. Showed me the ropes here. We kissed a couple of times…and one time…things went a little far. She tried to seduce me once – and succeeded at least part of the way. We were both drunk one night, so drunk. I was a bad boy, Staci. I was a playboy. I liked girls. I liked fucking them. Back before Clarence made me manager here, I was a patron, just like the others. I was an arrogant prick. I’m not proud of it, but it’s part of who I was. Who I am. I can’t deny it, no matter how much I want to.”
I frown. My mouth falls open. Terrence – just a patron.
Terrence takes my hand. He’s so slow with me, so gentle, so tender. It’s so easy to believe him. It’s so easy to want to believe him. “I’m not proud of my past before I met you,” he says. “I can’t change what I did back then. Before I got all these responsibilities I was a bad boy. I didn’t care about a lot of things. I didn’t care about love. I didn’t see girls as people: just girls to fuck, to have a good time with.”
“Girls like Roni Taylor.” I don�
��t look at him.
Terrence shakes his head. He looks positively dejected. “Especially Roni,” says Terrence. “I was ashamed of myself for that. I hated her as a person. I thought of her as a warm body, nothing more. She was convenient. She came onto me. That was all. I was pretty heartless to her – I mean, she was a real witch, but I was pretty bad too…”
“You never had any feelings for her?”
“I told you, Staci. She’s a real witch. She doesn’t have a lick of human feeling for me or for anyone else except herself.”
“What about Roz? Did you have feelings for her?”
“You’re jealous, aren’t you?” Terrence’s smile is slow and soft. “Yes, I cared about her. She was a friend. She showed me what the Blue Room was all about. But we really were just friends, that’s all.”
“She showed you what the Blue Room was really like…” I say. “So she knew a lot?”
“She was one of the few smart ones,” says Terrence. “She knew more than she should have known. And more than she should have let on she knew.”
“So you can think of a reason she might have been killed after all?”
“Could be,” says Terrence. “Like I said, the more I know about her, the more I think anyone could have done it. Anyone at all.” He looks at me and his eyes grow dark, even threatening. “A girl who knows too much, a girl who asks too much, can find herself in quite a predicament.”
Again for a brief moment I wonder whether Terrence is telling the truth, or whether he’s lying right to my face. But I have to ask everything, anyhow. I have to get to the bottom of things whatever way I can. I’ve risked too much already. I’ve already come this far.
“And Rita…or Virginia…whatever happened to her?” I ask. “She was the friend you were worried about, wasn’t she? A Blue Girl, too.”
At the name “Rita…or….Virginia…” Terrence turns white. I can see him clench his fists into tight little balls. I’ve hit a nerve with Terrence, apparently, upon mentioning Rita’s name. Whatever his relationship may be or may have been with my friend – dead or alive – it’s affected him deeply. I can’t help it. I’m a little jealous.
I try to put together everything I know. Roz had a crush on Terrence before she died. Roni enjoyed having Terrence as a sex toy, a boy toy, and maybe a potential meal ticket after the bank of Clarence ran dry – or Clarence got tired of her antics and divorced her. Both Roz and Roni might have had a reason to be jealous of Rita, who seemed closer to Terrence than all of them. Hell, even I was jealous of Rita. But would it drive Roni or Roz crazy enough to hurt Rita? Could that have been what happened?
“I’m sorry, Staci,” Terrence says at last. “I didn’t know you knew Virginia, too. Or Rita, as you called her. If I’d known you cared for her, I would have told you the whole story.”
“I’m here because of her,” I say. I am laying all my cards down on the table. “She was like a sister to me. I came to the Blue Room to find her.”
He can’t hide his surprise. “I should have known,” he says. “I mean, it should have been obvious to me. You never seemed like the kind of girl who normally wants to be a Blues Girl. I mean, we constantly receive hundreds of applicants from all over who think they’re trying out to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. They’re all gorgeous, pretty enough to be Playboy centerfolds, but these Blues Girls fit a certain type, you know, and you – like Virginia – didn’t fit in at all.”
“So now you know,” I said. “I wanted to tell you before…”
“But why are you still here?” he says. “Now that you know what happened to Virginia.”
“I don’t know what happened,” I say. “I don’t know who hurt her, who caused her death.”
But that’s not the only reason, I think. Deep down, I have to admit it to myself. How could I tell Terrence that I understood what all those candidates wanted, despite the fact that it was so taboo, so frowned upon? I love being the object of a man’s desire. I love having that power, that influence over men as powerful as those at the Blue Room. I love spending time with men like Terrence or Xander. I love dominating them with my body and my power. Outside the Blue Room, I would have never even realized that this side of me existed.
There’s just so much I can’t explain.
I look up to see Terrence in front of me, his eyes dark with desire, want, longing.
“Does that reason have anything to do with me?” he asks me, his fingers cupping my cheeks before he pulls me into a deep kiss that melts my body against his.
My body responds to his again, the way it always does, as I moan when he reaches underneath my jeans, pulling down my panties, sliding his fingers into me, hitting me right on my most sensitive spot.
He presses up against me. I wrap my legs around his waist as he pushes me up against the wall. I can hear him unzip his fly. Then he is hot and ready against me, inside me. With a quick thrust he enters me and then I am meeting each of his thrusts fast and hard until we both come. I am almost screaming.
Then I hear another knock at the door.
Shit. I think. Xander.
I go to the peephole. I look through.
It’s Danny Blue.
Chapter 8
“Shit,” I say. I’m in shock. What’s Danny Blue doing here? What could he possibly want? “Shit – Terrence – you need to go hide…”
Terrence hardly looks bothered by the news that his half-brother is right outside the door. Instead, he saunters over with a grin. “I guess I’ll just head to the bathroom,” he says. “Have to get freshened up.” He winks at me. “Got a little sweaty there, huh?”
He leaves me alone to gather my thoughts. What on earth is Danny Blue doing here? Could he be a patron – here to see me? That couldn’t be. He was always with Neve: obsessing over her, fawning over her. I’d never seen a couple so in love. Could he be cheating on her with prostitutes? The idea sounds absurd. But then again: if there’s anything I’ve learned at the Blue Room, it’s that nobody can be trusted. Nobody is ever truly safe from getting hurt. And men have needs they might never even share with the ones they love the most. Men who go to prostitutes to share the fantasies the women they love never so much as guess at. How strange, I think. How sick.
I open the door. Danny Blue looks awkward. He doesn’t even look me in the face. His hands are in his pockets and he’s staring at the floor.
“Uh…” He bites his lip. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I say. “Can I help you?”
“Look – Neve doesn’t know I’m here…” He is shuffling from one foot to the other. “But…”
My mouth all but drops open. Not Danny too! Him – a patron – just like all those other asshole patrons, with their wife or girlfriend who wouldn’t satisfy whatever dirty fantasy was in their heads, coming to the Blue Room to get his rocks off in the manner of his choosing. Sickening, I think, just sickening.
But after all, it’s my job now.
But Neve’s always been so nice to me, so sweet. Supportive, even. How could I sleep with her boyfriend?
“Look,” I say. “Neve’s my friend…” I cross my arms. “Maybe you should go see Julie, down the hall. She might be more your style.”
Danny looks confused. I can’t help it – even disgusted by him, I find him strangely attractive. He shares Terrence’s bright blue eyes, but brings to them a soulfulness and a melancholy that Terrence, with his sparkling wit and gaiety, has never really displayed.
“No…” he coughs. “No, no, no, you misunderstand me. Or I’ve been unclear. I mean, I only meant…Neve doesn’t know about what I want to talk to you about. Not yet. And that – I don’t want that. I would never – not to Neve…”
“Then why are you here?”
“Can I come in?”
I nearly roll my eyes. What is with the constant parade of visitors today? Why is everyone so excited about coming to see me?
“I have some things I have to talk to you about,” Danny says. “May I come in please?”
; “Um…my room’s kind of messy…” The sheets are undone, and Terrence is in the bathroom.
“What I’m about to discuss with you can’t be said in the hallway,” Danny says. “Others might overhear.”
I look back into the room. Terrence has closed the wall between the sleeping and living portions of the suite. Thank God.
“All right,” I say. “You can come in for a little while. But I’m pretty busy.”
I let Danny in.
He sits down on my living room sofa. He looks around.
“It’s a nice room,” he says awkwardly.
“It is. I mean, I think it is.”
“Looks like you’ve settled in a bit. I hope you’re enjoying it.”
“What?”
“This. The Blue Room.”
“I can’t complain,” I nod. “The room is nice. Good view. The food’s good, too. I’m well taken care of. I have no complaints.”
“The patrons?”
I’m embarrassed by the terse, businesslike way Danny is conducting this conversation.
“They’re fine,” I say. What does he want?.
“And my brother?”
My face flushes hot red. “Excuse me?”
“Terrence,” Danny says. “He managed the place. He trained you up. Did he treat you well?”
“Uh…yeah…” I say, still confused. “Terrence was fine. What’s going on?”
“Look – there’s been some concern about the management of the Blue Room. I’ve come on board to change things around. To make this a legitimate business. Or, at least, as much of one as I can. And I know Terrence’s…personal qualities…seem to have attracted some notice among the staff here.”
“That’s why he was kicked off the board, right?”
Danny looks surprised. “How did you know about that?”
I blush harder. “Oh, um, I, uh….I hear things.”
“Look, Staci…” Danny says. “I don’t know if you understand what the Blue Room is really like. As a singer, you’re probably insulated from some of the…darker side of the business here. And in many ways the Blue Room cabaret space is a great place to perform. But this place, it has its secrets. Secrets even Neve doesn’t know about. And sooner or later you’ll come across them. I don’t want to pass any judgments. L.A. is an expensive place, and we all do what we can to survive. But me, Neve, the other bandmembers – we all like your sound. It adds so much to the quality of our band as a whole. And Neve, I know, wants to take a break from touring. She and I want to spend more time together. And that’s hard enough, working as hard as I am for Blues Records. I’d like to see her more often when she’s not touring. It’s the price I had to pay in order to stay with her – living up to my responsibilities as my father’s heir. And now – the Blue Room. When I came on board I didn’t understand the…nature of the club. I put Terrence in charge to help him mature, in the hopes that the experience he gained here would help me run Blues Enterprises in the future. But what I’m seeing at the Blue Room, both during and before his tenure worries me. Our uncle has stepped in to help, but I’m still concerned. He’s only on the board temporarily – though he’s put in a request to be here permanently, goodness knows why, with the state this place is in…”
