“They still what?” I approached with caution because she was visibly upset over whatever had happened. “When was this?” I had no idea what took place, but figured if I narrowed down the timeframe, I could deduce why they’d approached some of our dancers.
“Last night,” Skye answered, looking more angry than scared. “We were downtown at that new club that just opened.”
“Chaos,” Jaz added, folding her arms over her barely clad chest, her zip-up hoodie wide open and hiding nothing.
“Yeah, Chaos,” Skye repeated. “Anyway, these three fuckers show up, and we knew who they were because I’d seen one of ’em before. Plus they were wearin’ their cuts. They caught us comin’ out of the ladies’ room and dragged us outside and around the building, demanding to know where their prospect was. We had no idea who he was talkin’ about, even after he showed us a picture.” Skye stopped speaking and took a deep breath, her anger twisting to include a flash of fear. She was tall for a chick, just a few inches shorter than my six-foot-one frame, but right then she looked tiny, fragile even.
“What happened after you told them you didn’t know him?” I asked, bracing myself for the answer. All three of them shared a look, one I didn’t understand, other than that I was sure it was nothin’ good. The Reapers were amping up their shit. First it was the fire, then shooting at Jagger, grazing Linc’s temple in the process. There was no doubt in my mind he’d rough up some of our workers, or worse.
“They didn’t believe us,” Raven answered. “The one with the face tattoos hit me twice before knocking me to the ground.” I stepped closer, and it was then I saw the makeup she applied to cover a black eye.
“When he was done with her,” Jaz said, “he grabbed me from his buddy and threw me on the ground, kicking me in the side hard enough that it hurts every time I move a certain way or try to take a deep breath.” Her brows pinched in when she tried to demonstrate.
My attention swung to Skye. “What did they do to you?” A simmering rage burned through me they’d been in harm’s way just because they worked for us.
“The big one with the shaved head pushed me against the wall and tried to rape me. It was by the grace of God that two of the bouncers from the club happened to be walking around the side to take a piss. I don’t remember too much of what happened afterward because everything got crazy. As soon as the bouncers charged the three of ’em, we took off.” She fiddled with her chestnut-colored hair, which I suspected to be a wig. Skye gave off the appearance of indifference, but I saw the glassy sheen of her brown eyes and the slight tremble of her chin. She was scared. They all were. Fuck. I was for them. There was no guarantee those bastards wouldn’t find them again and do something much worse.
“What are we gonna do if they come after us again?” Raven asked. “They didn’t believe we were tellin’ them the truth. They think we know somethin’ we don’t.”
“We’ll protect you,” I said. “Just lie low for a while. Don’t go back to that club. Come here and go home. I was gonna say if you go anywhere else make sure you’re there with other people, but I guess that doesn’t matter.”
“I know,” Jaz whispered, linking her arm with Kaden’s. If they hadn’t been through such a scary ordeal, I had no doubt that he would’ve pushed her away. “I’m really scared.” She batted her eyes at him, then looked at me. “What if they come here lookin’ for us? They know we work here.” I didn’t bother to ask how because it’d be pointless.
“Why don’t you ladies take a few days off?” I made the suggestion without clearing it with Carla or Marek. Then again, the girls were my responsibility, so if I thought they should stay home until we could get a better handle on everything, then that was my call, wasn’t it?
“I can’t afford to do that,” Skye practically shouted, more from fear than anger.
“Me either,” the other two chimed in.
“We’ll figure something out,” I promised, nodding, the strained grin on my face making my cheek muscles ache. “I’m gonna talk to Carla. Don’t worry about it.” My eyes fell on Jaz. “You should probably see a doctor to make sure you don’t have a cracked rib.”
“I will.” She looked to the other two women before disappearing back inside. Raven and Skye followed shortly afterward, walking several steps behind me and Kaden as we entered the club.
Because it was late morning, the club wasn’t anywhere near capacity, and with the fire impeding full access of the space, there were even fewer dancers than normal. We’d seen a dip in profits, and while we wanted to get back on track as soon as possible, the money loss wasn’t drastic… yet.
“I gotta talk to Paul.” Kaden walked ahead of me and toward the hallway. “Prez is gonna wanna know when everything is gonna be finished.” Jaz stopped him before he turned the corner. I watched him mouth something, shake his head, say something else, then drop his shoulders. If I had to bet, she tried to take advantage of his kindness for her situation. The chick had it bad for my boy, shamelessly flirting with him every time he came here, but he didn’t want anything more to do with her. He fucked her once and he wasn’t gonna do it again. Even if he wasn’t with Riley now, he still wouldn’t touch her a second time. He told me right after it happened that he knew it was a mistake, that he had an inkling she wasn’t gonna leave him alone. And he’d been right. If she wasn’t such a good employee, in high demand for private dances, he would’ve been able to easily convince me to get rid of her, maybe find her a job at another strip joint.
My eyes scoured the area looking for Carla, appreciating the facelift the club got a few years back. The place didn’t look bad before, it just looked better now, different-sized booths lining three of the four walls, numerous tables and chairs positioned in the center of the space. Smaller stages surrounded the focal one, allowing multiple strippers to perform their acts simultaneously.
When I didn’t catch sight of Carla, I assumed she was holed up in her office, given the time of day. But then I remembered her office was located in the back of the club, close to where the fire broke out. Two storage spaces along with the security room and one of the VIP areas were damaged in the blaze, mostly smoke damage but enough to make the spaces temporarily unworkable.
I was halfway down the hall when the door to one of our private areas opened. Tommy, one of our security guys, walked out, grumbling about something.
He jerked his chin in my direction. “What’s up, man?”
“Same shit.”
“You got that right.” He started to walk past me, but I stopped him by stepping in front of him.
“You know where Carla is?”
“In there.” He pointed toward the room he exited. “You in the mood to get your balls handed to you too?” Sounded like Carla was dishing out tongue lashings again, which had become the norm as of late. She had a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders and needed to keep everyone in check for this place to run as smoothly as it did. And now, she had to deal with renovations on top of everything else.
“What’d you do?” Carla wouldn’t randomly chastise anyone unless they deserved it.