Slade
I pull up outside of Vixen and park on the same side of the street I always do. I approach the club with caution. These guys have seen me before, and if Noah is here and recognizes me, I may be screwed. “Hey, I have a VIP room tonight.” I give the guy the name of Scott and he lets me in. I never use my real name here. I’m worried they’ll know it from Logan’s place, and I’ll be busted. The hostess comes to the door and escorts me back to one of the small rooms. I don’t have my boys with me tonight because this was something I wanted to do on my own. I didn’t want to chance them getting hurt if we were caught. I have a plan, and if it all works out right, I’ll be in and out of here in no time.
When we get into the room, the woman hands me the menu and asks me what I want. I tell her I want a scotch on the rocks and that I want the girl I had last time. “The curvy one with the long, light brown hair. I think her name is Sapphire.” She smiles and nods, knowing who I’m talking about. She exits the room and music starts to play as I take a seat on the couch. A girl comes out, but it’s not the girl I requested.
“Sapphire is on stage, but she’ll be in shortly.” The girl continues to work the pole as I sit and watch. I narrow my eyes at her, trying to remember any details in case I need to recognize her later.
The waitress walks in with my drink. I hand her a five for a tip. She licks her lips. “I’ll come check on you in a bit.” She strolls out of the room. I take a very small sip of my drink. I’m not a scotch drinker, but I wanted to order something in a glass, not a bottle, and since it’s not beer, I won’t drink too much of it.
When her routine is done, she struts offstage toward the couch I’m sitting on. I place my glass on the table and she straddles my lap. My cock doesn’t even budge. Don’t get me wrong, this girl is pretty, but my cock wants no part of it, knowing it’s not my girl. “Can I be of service to you?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m good, thanks.” I lift her off of my lap and slip a twenty into the string of her bottom and she walks off in a huff. I guess I pissed her off.
I’m checking my phone messages when I hear some heels walking onto the stage. This time it’s my girl, Sapphire. I smile and watch as she begins her routine. She’s improved since the last time I was here. She’s gained some confidence and she’s really working the pole. I cross my legs at my ankle as I continue to watch. I glance around the room to see if I can notice anything different from the last time I was here, but nothing stands out to me. I take another small sip of my scotch. This shit tastes fucking horrible and burns my throat as it goes down. I don’t know how the fuck anyone drinks this shit.
She finishes her routine a few minutes later and struts offstage just like the last girl did. She too walks over to straddle my lap, but unlike the last girl, she’s nervous. I can feel her body trembling as she sits on me. “Can I be of further service to you?” She smiles at me.
“Why are you shaking?”
“I’m not.” She tries to lie but fails miserably, because it only makes her body tremble more.
“Do you remember me?”
She nods her head. “I’m good at remembering faces.”
“Good, so you know I won’t hurt you, right?”
She nods again. “Good. Are there cameras hidden in this room?” She smiles and nods. I smile back. “Pretend you’re giving me a lap dance.”
She laughs. “I’m not very good at it.”
“Honey, I don’t need you to be good at lap dances. I need you to be good at pretending.”
She bites her lip. “There are no microphones in here, just video. I can pretend.” She starts rolling her hips on my cock as she leans back on her hands shoving her tits in my face. “Why are we pretending?”
“Because I want information, and if you call this pretending, I hate to see what you do when you’re doing it for real.” All this woman needs is to believe in herself. If she only realized how sexy she truly is, she would kick ass at this.
“What do you mean, you want information?” She leans forward, pressing her breasts to my face.
“I know Higgins is selling drugs and sex out of the club. Can you tell me anything else?” I slide my hands up her legs, encouraging her. She smiles at me and stands, swinging her leg over my head and sits back down on my lap so her back is to my front. “Like the fact he takes money from his girls?” She presses her back to my chest and whispers into my ears.
“Yeah, stuff like that. Do you have any proof he’s selling drugs?”
She chuckles. “No, some of the top girls do though, I’m sure. From what I’ve heard some of them use with clients.” She leans forward on my knees and bounces her ass on my cock as if she’s riding me. “I’m willing to bet they’re far too scared to sell him out, though.”
I wrap my hands in her hair and gently pull her back to me. “Does he threaten you?”
“This girl Platinum is the head dancer. She does the threatening for him. You either agree to shut up or you end up seriously beaten. I heard one girl was nearly killed.”
I pick her up and spin her around so she’s facing me again. “Why aren’t you scared?”
“Oh, I’m scared. I’m actually trying to figure out how to get out of this place without getting myself killed. I have a kid at home and am more than halfway through med school.” She licks her lips seductively. Now that she’s in the groove she’s stopped trembling. “I heard this was a great way to pay for school, and it is, but it won’t mean shit if he kills me. I happened to pick the wrong club.”
“We’ll help you. Finish up your dance, and when you’re done, I want you to contact Detective Cooper. Tell him who you are, and that we spoke, and what you know. He’ll help you out.”
“Are you sure?” She climbs off my lap.
“I’m positive. By the way. That was an awesome lap dance.” I wink at her and she blushes.
“Why, because I gave you the info you wanted?” She looks at the floor. I stand and step up to her.
“I’m not sure why you lack so much confidence for a girl in this field, but you need to believe in yourself. That was an awesome lap dance.” I stick forty bucks in her string and she chuckles.
“You know he’s going to take that. You’re better off keeping it.”
My brows furrow. “He takes it all?”
She licks her lips and looks down. “Sixty percent.”
“Bastard. I’m going to nail this fucking guy.”
“I hope so.” She walks out the door. My time in the room is up and I don’t want to get her in trouble, so I walk out behind her.
When I get out of the room, the hostess is there ready to prepare the room for the next person. I thank her for taking care of me and walk into the main club. That’s when my night goes to shit. Noah is standing in the club with Higgins, and he spots me. “Fuck,” I whisper, trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to get out of here. He taps Higgins’ shoulder and points me out. I’m so screwed. A creepy grin spreads across his face. I start to move into a crowd of people. I need to get the fuck out of here and now. I’m about to make it to the door when two guys grab me, pinning my arms behind my back. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” one of them growls in my ear.
“Home. I’m a paying customer. I paid for my VIP room, paid for my drink, and tipped everyone.” I shrug. “It’s time to call it a night.”
“Yeah, well, Mr. Higgins wants a word with you. That means he decides when you can call it a night.” They drag me off toward the back of the club. I could probably take these guys, but God only knows what they’re carrying, and I don’t want to get attacked by too many of his goons at once. We head down a dark hallway at the back of the club. They open a door to a small, empty room. There’s a chair in the middle of it with nothing else. “Welcome to our very own private VIP room. This is where we get to treat you the way we feel you deserve to be treated.” They shove me down into the chair, zip-tie my hands behind my back, and my legs to the legs of the chair, and tell me to relax while I wait for the boss. The room looks like a secret room. The hall leading to it was extremely dark. I’m so fucked there’s no way anyone is going to find me here. I need to focus. I need to figure out how the hell I’m going to get myself out of this mess. Not that it matters, Kara is going to kill me when she realizes I’ve been caught.
After what feels like forever the door opens, letting in a beam of bright light. It’s so bright I can’t see who’s walking through the door. A dim light turns on and the door closes, revealing four people walking toward me. Two guys I recognize from the club, Higgins and Noah. “Hey, man, help me out. Tell these guys I’m just here to enjoy the girls.”
Noah looks at Higgins. Higgins grins and nods at me. Noah steps forward, and as he does, I can see his eyes are dilated and glazed over. He’s high as a kite. “Fuck you.” He backhands me. I lick my lip, tasting the tang of my blood.
“You hit like a pussy.” I laugh as he shakes his hand, pissing him off more. I think he hurt his hand more than he did me. I don’t know what I’m thinking, antagonizing this fucker. I’m about to get my ass kicked, but I can’t help myself.
“What are you doing in my club?” Higgins steps closer. I study the floor and say nothing. He’s not happy with my lack of response. He grabs me by what little hair I have and yanks my head back so I’m forced to look him in the eye. “I said, what are you doing in my club?”
“Enjoying the show?” my tone expressing that it’s common sense.
“Bullshit. I know you were Miranda’s body guard.” Fuck, the dude remembers me. My expression must give me away. “Yeah, that’s right, I remember you. You and your boy were in my club with Stone and Miranda. How’s my sweet piece of ass doing? I miss her.”
I growl and fight against my restraints, causing them to bite into my wrists. Fuckers tied them tight. “Fuck you. You’ll never get to her.” I turn to Noah. “And you will never have Kara again, she’s mine now. You had your chance and blew it.”
“I don’t know about that. It seems we have the upper hand in this situation.” Higgins laughs. “If we make you disappear, I’m willing to bet Kara’s going to be pretty upset, and when Noah is there to pick up the pieces and take care of her, she’ll be his again.”
“Not a chance in hell. She’ll blame him for me disappearing and she’ll want nothing to do with him.” I see a hint of panic flash through his eyes. It was a quick slip, but it was definitely there.
“You’re a liar. We have it all worked out.” Noah’s voice is a bit shaky despite the fact he’s trying to be tough.
It only makes me laugh harder. “You sound very confident in your plan, Noah.”
“Fuck you,” he spits.
“Calm down, Noah. Our boys here are going to show him what happens when unwanted guests make an appearance in our club, and then we’ll set our plan in motion.” Higgins puts his arm on Noah’s shoulder, trying to calm him down.
“So, you’re going to escort me out.” I have laughter in my voice but he doesn’t find it funny.
“Fuck no. We’re not pansies like Logan and his boys. You fuck with my club, you fuck with me. This will be a great message to Stone and the rest of the crew at Heat.” He pauses. “The only thing I haven’t decided yet…” he trails off for a second, “…is if I should kill you or send you back to them beaten within an inch of your life.”
I say nothing as Higgins and Noah walk out the door, because now I have two guys in front of me. One is about my size, and the other is larger in height and bulk. “Maybe if you tell us what you know, he’ll spare your life.” The bigger guy cracks his knuckles.
“All I know is Club Heat has way sexier dancers.” Bad idea. That cost me a nasty punch to the side of my face. Fuck, that hurt.