Chapter Seven

Marco reluctantly agreed to let me come back and try again, but he had warned me that this would be my last shot. So, as promised, I was standing off stage, ready to go as soon as he gave the word the next night. I had arrived early to give myself time to apply my make-up and get dressed with the other girls, hoping that a little extra time to get comfortable backstage would help me relax on stage. It took a ton of concealer to make myself look even presentable, the stress and lack of sleep showing in the lines and dark circles under my eyes. I was running on fumes and adrenaline, hardly able to get any sleep the night before. Trudy’s words kept looping through my mind, haunting my fitful dreams as I tossed and turned.

The clock on the wall showed it was a quarter to eight. Fifteen more minutes and I would be called for my performance. I stood against the wall and watched as the other girls got ready together, laughing and talking. I hadn’t seen Trudy backstage yet, and I was kind of glad. I had appreciated her support last night and it had been good to get some of the shit off my chest, but tonight I just needed to focus on doing the job. I didn’t want to catch a glimpse of her pitying eyes and come unraveled again.

This had to work.

Everything depended on it.

My eyes watched the clock, ticking away like a countdown. My nerves were starting to set in, but I kept it together, and did my best to mentally distance myself from the situation.

“Allie Cat!” Marco’s voice squawked over the pathetic excuse for a sound system, and the music started pumping.

Allie Cat, I repeated to myself. I’m Allie Cat. Allie Fucking Cat.

I took a final deep breath and got into character, sashaying through the curtain and out onto the stage. I watched the crowd for a couple of beats, waiting for my music to come on. When it did, my body took over, muscle memory kicking in, and in the blink of an eye I was slinking around the stage, shaking my ass and smiling for all the men in the crowd. My veins were flooded with adrenaline and the catcalls and cheers were all the motivation I needed to burrow deeper into my new alter-ego.

I threw out winks and smiles to nameless faces, most of them lost under the bright lights, making it a skin-colored blur of people as I took a twirl on the pole that was rooted at the center of the stage. My hands skimmed over my body, and I relished in the feeling of my smooth curves. I was getting a sort of high, knowing that I was touching what all of them wanted, but couldn’t have. This was a look, but don’t touch situation, and that gave me the confidence to start to slowly strip off the red corset-style top and reveal the black, see-through bra underneath. I tossed the top to the back of the stage and continued to dance, grinding against the pole and touching myself.

The crowd got even louder as I ran my hand between my legs and I made a circle around the edge of the stage, leaning forward and squatting down for tips. Most of the men pinned cash under the waist of my g-string. A few of them let their fingers linger and my concentration was briefly rattled, but I watched the money stacking up and kept going. I backed away from the crowd and continued to dance, the pace of the music cuing me to get to the finale. I spun around and slowly stripped off the bra, letting my breasts fall into my hands.

“Come on baby! Show us what you got!”

A roar of approval went up from the crowd and I smiled, loving the power of being able to tease them all. I removed my hands and wiggled and jiggled, gyrating my hips and playing with my own nipples—laying my head back and acting the part.

Suddenly, the lights shut off.

The music shifted and in the pitch black, I felt a body pass me. When the lights went back up, the next girl was on stage and ready to dance.

I gathered up the remaining money on the ground and walked off stage, slightly confused at the abrupt ending.

When I stepped backstage, I was met with an all too familiar voice.

“Allison.”

“What the—” I said, finding myself face to face with Cooper.

“Get dressed. We’re leaving,” he said.

“I’m sorry, Allie, but he paid me more than I’m going to make all week to shut this down,” Marco said. I hadn’t noticed him standing behind Cooper. Well, that explained my early curtain call.

“Cooper, what the hell are you even doing here?” I asked. My voice was frantic as I searched the room for something to put on, feeling all too exposed standing in front of Cooper in nothing but a g-string stuffed full of cash.

“Allison, I told you to get dressed. It’s not open for discussion,” he repeated, crossing his arms as if dealing with a difficult child.

His condescending tone was only pissing me off more than I already was. I grabbed a robe off one of the back of the chairs and wrapped it tightly around myself. “There, happy? Now, tell me, right now. What the fuck are you doing here?”

“That’s really a better question for you. What are you doing here?” he asked, turning the tables on me.

“I’m working! It’s what we poor people do when we need money. Not everyone was born with a full bank account, Cooper. Some of us—hell, most of us—have to do whatever it takes to pay the bills. And so that’s what I’m doing.” I stalked away from him and went to my locker. “I can take care of myself. Now get out! And don’t ever come here and interrupt my show again.” I turned back and cast him an icy glare, daring him to argue with me.

“Obviously, you can’t take care of yourself if you’re slumming it at this piece of shit place,” he fired back, crossing the room in two steps and getting within centimeters of me again.

“Hey!” Marco said, obviously taking offense to the description of his club.

“Get out!” Cooper growled, not even bothering to direct his attention back to Marco. His eyes were staring at me, darker than I had ever seen them before. “What were you going to do out there, Allison, if I hadn’t put a stop to that? How far were you going to go? Were you going to take one of those pigs back here and give them a little special attention?”

“Are you calling me a whore?”

He backed off and punched one of the lockers, the sound of crunched metal echoing in the now-empty dressing room. “Fuck! Allison!”

I didn’t know what to say. Watching him lose his shit was actually terrifying. Not because I thought he was going to hurt me, but because he was always so controlled and put together. I wasn’t sure what to do with the out-of-his-mind version of Cooper.

“You’re coming with me. And you’re not ever going to be here again. Understood?”

He was back at my side, close enough to smell how his cologne and sweat mixed together in an intoxicating scent. His body was warm, radiating waves of heat as his anger and frustration rolled off of him.

“Cooper, I don’t know what you thought you were going to accomplish tonight, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want, or need, your help. So, just go away.”

“Not an option,” he said. In one movement, he scooped me right off my feet. I struggled against his grip as he adjusted me, throwing me into a fireman’s carry, careful to pull my robe down to cover my ass, before he turned and hauled me out through the club. I was protesting and pounding on his back, but no one seemed to even bat an eye. They probably just thought I was some drunken girl who was getting out of control and needed to be put in a cab.

Either way, no one stopped us or listened to my cries as Cooper carried me outside and set me inside a waiting SUV that was parked along the curb in front of the club.

“Cooper! What the fuck? This is ridiculous. Let me go back to work,” I yelled, trying to scramble around him and get out of the car.

He ignored me and shut the door. There were people outside the club, watching the scene unfold, and I wondered why none of them were doing anything. I mean, really? A girl gets hauled out on some guys shoulder, thrown into a black SUV with tinted windows in a seedy part of town, hardly wearing any clothes, and no one stops to make sure I was all right, or that I even knew this person.

Although if they’d asked, I would probably deny it.

Cooper slid into the driver’s seat and looked over at me before starting the car. “You good?”

“No! Cooper, I’m not good.” I crossed my arms and looked away from him, staring out the window instead as he pulled away from the curb and started down the road. “Where are you taking me, anyways? This isn’t the right way back to my apartment.”

“I realize that. We’re not going to your apartment.”

I looked back to him, trying to read his face, but he was steely and staring ahead at the road. “Are you going to tell me anything?”

“No.”

“So, this is basically a kidnapping, then?”

He laughed, but it was short and sounded strained. “No, it’s not. Here,” he said, digging in his pocket. “You want my phone? You can call the cops if you want.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored him, looking back out the window as we merged onto the freeway, headed south. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Allison, I had to get you out of that place. And I knew you weren’t going to listen to me and just hop in my car willingly. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Why did you have to get me at all? I was doing just fine. I probably made half my rent money in ten minutes. I would have made the rest tomorrow night, but I have a feeling I won’t be welcomed back. You know, assuming I don’t end up murdered and dumped in the woods somewhere,” I said, watching as the city started to fade as we sped down the road.

He laughed again and this time it was a genuine laugh, the melodic, deep sound taking the edge off my irritation just slightly. I uncrossed my arms. “Seriously, though, how did you even know I was there? It’s not like I broadcasted my whereabouts.”

“I have my ways. It’s not really important.”

Irritation prickled in the back of my mind and I wondered why he always had to be so cagey. Why couldn’t he just tell me what the hell was going on?

“Well, if you have a team of super spies on retainer, you would be better off having them track down whoever sent those pictures to Rita instead of following me around town,” I said.

“Trust me, there are people doing just that,” Cooper answered, without a trace of humor in his voice. “I want to find out just as much as you do. You might think that those photos only impacted your life, but think about it from my point of view. I’ve trusted Spotlight with almost all of my ad accounts over the years, and now, because of this scandal, I am no longer able to work with them and have to fight to get out of my existing contracts and find a new ad agency.”

“What? They won’t work with you anymore?” I spun in my seat to watch him.

“No, I refuse to work with them. They’re losing millions and millions in revenue over this whole thing. Rita is bending over backwards to get me to stay on as a client, but I find her unprofessional behavior to be repugnant and I won’t do business with her anymore.”

I thought back to what Bryce had told me, about how he had received a demotion and was working as Rita’s bitch because of the fallout. No wonder. A new pang of guilt hit me but it was quickly overshadowed by the idea of Rita scrambling to kiss Cooper’s ass.

A small victory.

My mind was busy processing what Cooper had just told me and I missed which exit we had taken, but within minutes we were driving down another highway and then taking a sudden right turn down another street. I had no idea where we were. I hadn’t left LA at all since moving from Kansas, so I was completely disoriented. There were tall trees all along the road as we drove and one more turn took us up a small hill. As we neared the top, a huge house came into view.

“Where are we?” I asked Cooper, breaking the silence that had settled between us.

“Home,” he answered.