Chapter 1
“I want to see King,” Colton told the bouncer standing in the doorway. The impassive bouncer talked into the headphone in his ear.
“Corner booth.” Backing up, he let Colton through the doorway.
Colton could see that King had changed the décor since he was last there. The booths had been replaced with leather couches and tables, leaving one booth to remain in the room; the one in the back corner.
Passing through a maze of tables, he ignored the faces of King’s customers, all focused on the stripper dancing on the stage. Colton kept his eyes from her. As soon as he left here, he would make a few phone calls until he found a woman willing to take care of the need driving his body. Colton, who had begun having sex when he was thirteen and had a ready supply by the time he was sixteen, had just suffered through the last three years with nothing. It had been torturous.
“King.” Colton stood in front of the table, facing the man who had helped him save Tessa from jail time. He wasn’t looking forward to paying back the favor. King had waited three years for his repayment; fucker wasn’t even giving him a day of freedom before calling in his marker.
“Colton, have a seat.” King sat with a whiskey in front of him. “You look good. I thought you would look half-starved.”
He had actually gained a few pounds in prison, using his free time to work out and sculpt his lean frame into pure muscle.
“I heard you didn’t have too hard of a time,” King queried.
“You know I didn’t. You kept me loaded on the commissary so I could trade for shit. Even heard that you put out the word not to touch me.” Colton let King know he was aware of how big a debt he owed.
King shrugged, neither admitting nor denying the rumor.
“What do you want King?” Colton decided to come to the point.
King’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back in the booth. “I need you to watch over a woman for me.”
“Why do you need me to do that? You have enough men working for you that are more capable than me,” Colton looked pointedly around the room at King’s men. Hell, the bouncer at the door would be the only protection anyone would need.
“It’s the dancer on the stage.”
Colton’s eyes reluctantly went to the stage. Under the lights he saw a brunette woman that had him gripping the table. She was fucking gorgeous with her long, shapely legs and perfect breasts under the see-through, black, flimsy dress that stopped at the top of her thighs. The dress was completely sheer, allowing every man in the room to see her luscious breasts. A tiny black patch over her pussy was the only thing hidden from view. She turned her back to the audience, showing an ass that made his already hardening cock thicken behind his jeans.
“Who the fuck is that?” Colton could already envision himself driving his dick into her pussy while those long legs wrapped around his waist.
“That is Vida, she’s Goldie’s daughter.”
Colton’s cock deflated. “Fuck.” She was younger than she looked on the stage. The lights and heavy make-up made her appear older.
King took a drink of his whiskey, satisfied with his reaction.
“She old enough to be working for you?” Colton questioned.
“She’s twenty-three; a senior at WLU, getting a computer science degree.”
“Why is she working for you? To pay her tuition?” Colton asked in disgust. Not for the young girl, but towards King for hiring her.
King’s lips thinned further, his hand tightening on his glass.
“Watch yourself, Colton. I’m giving you a certain amount of leeway because I want you to do this favor for me, but as you said yourself, I do have other options.”
Colton bit back his retort. “What is she shaking her titties for then? I would think that even you wouldn’t want Goldie’s daughter on that stage. She would turn over in her grave if she knew her kid was working for you.”
“I agree. That’s where you come in. I can only offer a certain amount of protection when she’s not at the club. When she is here, I can’t show favoritism among the women. She is expected to perform the same jobs as the other women. If you take her, then she will be safe without having to use me as protection and as you said, stop shaking her titties.”
Fuck, Colton looked back toward the stage at the young woman dancing. She looked like her mother except for the hair. The natural sultriness that she had seemed to inherit in spades was driving the men nuts. Goldie had been one of King’s strippers when he had first started in the business. Colton had been a randy twenty-year-old when he had seen her on the stage. There hadn’t been a man breathing who could look at Goldie and not want her, she had been that gorgeous. She had earned her stage name because she had a heart of gold. Anyone who said that strippers were cold-hearted had never met Goldie. It was a fucking shame her daughter was on that stage.
King and Goldie had grown up together. Colton, who had also grown up in the same poor neighborhood, had at first thought that King was in love with Goldie, but quickly realized his assumption was wrong when Goldie started stripping. King was just beginning his rise to power, but he was a possessive bastard. If Goldie had been his, she would never have been stripping for money.
“Who are you protecting her from?” Colton asked curiously.
King took another drink of his whiskey before replying, “Digger.”
“Fuck.” Digger ran the biggest prostitution ring in the country. His girls serviced the higher-end clients—everyone from movie stars to rocks stars—but when they were done, the girls disappeared for good. Colton was sure they were sold off to some pervert.
King ran a clean house, while Digger didn’t care; often keeping the women addicted to drugs to keep them in line. The police couldn’t catch the slimy bastard, yet they had managed to lock him away for a relatively minor score. Fucking justice.
“Yeah, he managed to get his hands on a friend of hers and he plans to keep her. I need to find something he wants more than her. Until I do, he isn’t too happy with Vida for going to the cops. He will either try to snatch her or shut her up. Either way, Vida is going to be in a world of pain.”
Colton agreed. Dammit, if it had been anyone else, Colton would have done it without hesitation and enjoyed himself in the process. Taking another look at Vida and her fucking long legs tore at his conscience. No way could he bring himself to touch her. Having just got out of prison, he was about to explode he wanted a woman underneath him so badly, but now he was going to have this young girl in close proximity until King could find a way to help her friend.
“Who’s the friend?” Sick to his gut, he already knew before the name passed King’s tight lips.
“Sawyer.”
Everyone in the neighborhood would often see the girls playing together when they were younger, growing closer as they grew older. His mother had lived in the same neighborhood as the girls so, when he visited his mother, he would often see them outside.
The building his mother had lived in had been marginally better than some of the others, but the one the girls had lived in had been the worst. He had hardly ever been there between work and play, yet no one could miss the little girls playing on the playground, their giggles always drawing attention. Sawyer, Vida and Callie drove everyone crazy with their escapades, getting away with their antics many times without their mothers’ knowledge. Even now, Colton smiled, remembering a few of the stories his mother had told him.
“You going to help me out?”
“Do I have a choice?” Colton asked, his voice tight.
“Not if you want to consider your debt paid,” King answered with a raised brow.
“Then it seems I have a new roommate,” Colton said, watching Vida approach their table.
* * *
The lights are bright tonight, Vida thought. King must have had one of his men change the bulbs. She went down in a squat with the pole between her legs and the men’s yells increased. Blanking their voices from her mind, she wished she had taken one of the pills that Sherri had promised would relax her, but Vida was determined not to fall down that road. She had enough problems without adding drugs to the mix.
Coming to her feet and dancing to the edge of the stage, she came close enough for the men to begin putting cash in the string that went around her waist. At least he allowed her to cover her front, leaving her ass and breasts exposed.
The fingers that shoved a twenty into her string tried to grab her ass, but Vida shimmied over to the next man who was waiting with a twenty. In the bright lights, she tried to make out the ones holding the larger denomination bills, going to them and bending down in a squat for them to put the bills on her. She had learned within the first two days to not look at the faces, to just stare at the money. It gave her enough strength to make it to the next man waiting his turn.
Thankfully, Vida heard her music come to an end. Standing up and hating what she was about to do, she gave her breasts an extra jiggle before turning and exiting the stage.
Sherri was up next, waiting behind the curtain in a silky pink robe. Her music started the second Vida disappeared behind the curtain.
“King wants to see you before you get changed.”
“Thanks.” Vida swallowed hard. She had hoped to get done on time today. She needed to get some lab time in before the grades were due otherwise, unless she had twenty hours logged lab time, she wouldn’t get a grade.
Vida went outside to the bar area, making her way to the booth at the back of the room. She had noticed when she had come out to dance that he was sitting in his private booth. King sat there every night during the first few shows, judging the women’s routines, surveying the crowds and removing customers who didn’t obey the rules of his club.
She was sick to her stomach to have to talk to him.
He controlled everything within the city, moving between the spoiled world of the rich and entitled to the dregs of human society who had long ago lost their morals. He earned money legally through his clubs and illegally through gambling and prostitution.
She had met him a couple of times when her mother was unable to find a sitter. He would hide her in a back room during her mother’s show. Even as a child she had recognized the fear everyone had in their eyes when he was near. However, he had been her only recourse when her friend, Sawyer, disappeared a month ago.
Sawyer had been working as a waitress in a restaurant downtown when she met Rick Redman and began dating him. Vida still remembered her getting ready to go out for the evening in a new dress and freshly done nails. Vida, sharing an apartment with Sawyer, had been skeptical of the over-groomed businessman’s interest in Sawyer when he had picked her up that night. When she didn’t return, her skepticism turned to downright fear.
Worried sick, Vida had gone to the police. They put out a missing persons report, but it had been of little help—Sawyer had no family or friends other than Vida. Vida, not receiving encouraging answers from the police, had turned to King for help. Within twenty-four hours, King discovered information that had terrified Vida.
Rick Redman was not the concert promoter he had told Sawyer he was. The bastard was a pimp for high-class call girls. Vida had sunk to the floor when King had told her, envisioning Sawyer drugged, raped and held captive against her will.
She had begged King for help and he had agreed to help, but for a price. Vida would move into his club where he could keep an eye on her while he would try to get Sawyer back. He had warned her it would take some time since he needed to find out who Redman worked for.
Vida had wanted to refuse, yet she had known King was her only chance after she had gone to the police and they couldn’t find a trace of Redman. Vida’s options were few; either go to work for King or lose her childhood friend forever. Vida began stripping three nights later after King’s women had given her a crash course in seductively taking her clothes off under the black lights.
Her knees were trembling as she crossed the large dim room. As she came closer, she noticed King wasn’t alone. Vida hadn’t seen the man in the club before. His disconcerting gaze made her want to run back to the dressing room, however King’s frown pulled her forward.
“Sherri said you wanted to talk to me?” She trained her gaze on King.
“I want you to get your bags packed; you’re going with Colton. He’s a friend of mine that I trust will keep you safe. After your current two-week schedule is up, I’ll take you off permanently. Staying with Colton will provide a reasonable excuse of why you’re no longer stripping.
“But how am I going to pay you back?” Vida protested.
King shrugged. “You have already made me a nice chunk of change. Two more weeks of your dancing and six scheduled lap dances should cover my costs.”
Vida swallowed. The dancing made her sick to her stomach, but the lap dances were the worst; she had to become physically close to the men. King charged the men twice the usual cost of his other girls, but they still chose Vida if she was there.
“I’ll pack my bag.” Vida cast a look at the stone-faced man before turning away, happy to be leaving the club, yet reluctant to stay with King’s friend. She was unhappily aware she had no choice in the matter, though.
* * *
“Make sure you have her here for her shifts.” King took a drink of his whiskey. “You sure you don’t want one of the girls to give you some relief before you leave?”
Colton shook his head, almost instantly regretting his decision. He was going to be living with a beautiful woman that was off limits and he hadn’t had one in three years.
It was a mindfuck that he didn’t need or want.