2. Chapter 2 – Tamen
Chapter 2 – Tamen
“I ’ve got everyone that worked tonight assembled.” Tony, the old crotchety owner of the Vixen’s Den, said as we walked down the long corridor from his office. “Some that were off came in, but the ones that didn’t will hear everything second hand within the hour, I’m sure.”
The man was one foot on a private island in the Bahamas thanks to my purchase money and the other was barely still touching his toes to the club. He was done, and I was more than ready to dive in headfirst.
It was after four in the morning, but I was on a high like no other.
She would be at the meeting, just a few doors away at this point.
My pretty little Rainbow.
Ember. Even though I knew that wasn’t her real name, it fucking fit her perfectly. As soon as she left the stage earlier, I abandoned the room I booked a half hour early and went straight to the private office of the man who owned the club and pulled every bit of information I could find about her from his files. It wasn’t much, but I studied every morsel I could on her like my newest obsession. In a way, she was, and I couldn’t figure out why I was so hung up on her from simply watching her do something I watched people do all the time.
It was something else about her that ensnared me and I couldn’t get my brain to let it go until I understood it.
Her name was Sloane Archer, and I was her new boss. She was mine.
Tony opened one last door, and we walked out of a hidden panel in the wall straight into the exhibition stage room. The same room I just spent the last few hours watching Ember from above as she performed for guests.
The girls were all assembled, sitting around in the chairs and couches, flanked by the other various employees that worked for Tony, including three bouncers and various bartenders, both male and female. Overall, there were over a hundred employees I was now responsible for.
A hush fell on the people as Tony walked through the crowd, with me following him up to the center stage.
“Uh-oh.” A startled voice caught my attention, and I glanced to my side, where Valentina sank into her chair, staring at me with wide eyes.
The girl no doubt thought she was in trouble, given that she had just spent the evening with me and now I was standing in an employee meeting with her boss after I left her before my allotted time was up. Poor chit.
I winked at her and slid my hand into my slacks pocket as Tony started it off.
“Thank you all for joining me, you all know I hate these types of things, so I’ll keep it short and sweet and get right to the point.” He announced, “A few hours ago, at midnight, I sold The Vixen’s Den to this fine man beside me, and he will immediately assume all operations.”
A collective gasp rang out through the room and one sharp voice snapped, “Excuse me?”
All heads turned to the voice, and I smirked when I locked on eyes with its source at the back of the crowd.
Ember.
My Rainbow.
She sat in a chair with a black sweatshirt on and her rainbow hair tied up in a twist on top of her head. She still wore full stage makeup, and her frumpy clothes did nothing to diminish her lethal appearance as she angrily glared from me to Tony and back, then snapped. “What do you mean?”
I spoke up, holding her stare powerfully and taking my new role as owner, “He means that he’s running off to the tropics with a couple million dollars more in his pocket and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about you or this place anymore.”
She stood up in a flurry, gripping the back of the chair ahead of her, and tilted her head angrily at me. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Well, that’s a shame.” I tsked at her, staring her down, and announced, “Three hours ago, you were promoted to head manager of this place. Which means you’ll need to be speaking to me a lot, as your new direct boss.” She shut her mouth with an audible clack of her teeth, surprised by my statement. Good, that made two of us. I turned to Tony and waved him off toward the exit he had been eyeing for days now, “You can go.”
“Wait,” An older woman stood up and glared at me before flicking her glance over at Ember dismissively. “I’m the manager here. I have been for six years.”
The house mother, if you will. God, she looked awful. There was no place for someone that looked that miserable with life in a sex club. “You’re fired.” I waved. “You can leave with Tony.”
The man didn’t even hesitate, throwing a half-assed wave over his shoulder as he grabbed his jacket and left.
I knew he was a shit owner, but that was almost painful to watch.
Almost. The middle-aged woman who looked like she had been ridden hard and put away wet by life huffed angrily, I made no move to recant my statement; she grabbed her purse and marched through the crowd toward the exit.
As she passed by Ember, she glared at her and snapped, “You won’t last two weeks answering to a man like that. You don't have what it takes.”
Luckily for her, she didn’t dare make any other comments on her way out, so I continued with my show.
“Now that they’re gone,” I rubbed my hands together and then raised one eyebrow at Ember, who still stood, frozen in indignation and shock. It was almost comical to watch her try to decide if she wanted to be angry or surprised more. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to continue with the meeting so these good people can go home for the night.” I tilted my head slightly at her in a way that unnerved most people I interacted with. It was something my father did that always made my skin crawl when I was a kid. As an adult, I loved turning the tables on everyone else doing it myself. “Is that okay with you, Rainbow?”
Her thick lips tightened together as anger bloomed in the absence of her abandoned shock, but she slowly sank back down into her chair.
“Good.” I turned my attention away from her to the rest of the crowd, some I’d slept with, but I had no idea what their names were. There was an array of unique looks on the faces of the employees staring at me. Lots of anger and confusion, sure, but there were a lot of employees looking excited and happy too. Which was all I needed to keep going with the big bombs of info I was about to drop on the poor people. “The Den is no more. And tonight was the last night that it will be open. This building will undergo massive remodeling starting in two hours, which means that this business is closed for the next four weeks.”
That turned the cheerful part of the crowd sour to join their coworkers as angry jeers sounded from the lips of nearly every person in the room. People worked because they needed the money, and I just told them they weren’t working for a month.
Holding my hands up, I silenced the crowd so they could hear me over their disapproving comments. “I’m an entrepreneur, and I understand money better than literally anything else in this world, so chill out. I’m not taking away your pay. Your employment and current wage will continue throughout the four weeks. There will be mandatory classes and training that will occur while the business is closed.”
“Training?” One girl argued, “We’re all trained! We work every fucking night.”
“Wrong.” I silenced her dismissively. “You worked at a low-class establishment that barely scraped up enough money every night to keep the lights on, and your skills and talents show it. Like I said at the start, The Den is no more. When those front doors open in four weeks, nothing here will look or run the same as it has up until this point. The talent I employ will be luxurious, the venue will be classy, and the clients will be rich.” I lowered my gaze to the employees. “Does anyone want to take a guess at what will happen when those three things change?”
No one moved, though I half expected Ember to shout out some smart mouthed answer. Slowly, Valentina raised one hand, eyeing me cautiously.
“Valentina?” I called on her by name to annoy the other women.
“The clients will pay more.”
I snapped my fingers and gave her a smile that melted the fear on her shoulders. “Correct.” I looked back at everyone. “The clients that come through the front door will expect class and they will pay very well for it.”
“So, you’ll make more.” Ember’s warm whiskey voice cut through the crowd, once again drawing my attention back to her. As if I needed the help.
“Yes.” I replied firmly and her eyes squinted fractionally in anger. “And so will you. All of you.”
“And the clients we have now?” Someone piped up, forcing me to look away from my Rainbow. “Some of them have been coming here for a decade.”
“Feel free to entertain the same blue collar saggy balls you’ve been rubbing for a decade if you’d like.” I shrugged nonchalantly, “I believe I saw a Motel 6 by the highway. I’m sure their nightly rates will accommodate your new income.”
Huffs echoed again.
“I will not stand up here and answer every single little question you have all night long. That will be the job for your new manager, and she’ll be happy to answer every one of them in three days’ time when you’re all expected to report back for your first day of re-training. But I will tell you this before I dismiss you for the evening.” I put my hands back in my pockets and schooled my features so everyone in the room would understand the dominance of what I was about to tell them. “This club will focus on luxury and class, and if you don’t have it, you won’t work here. So, I suggest you get on board with retraining your mind to learn the new skills I’m going to teach you. No one will be upset if you get fired but you. There will be a line down the street of women willing to take your place to make ten grand a night sucking millionaire dick in Chanel dresses and Louis heels. I don’t have to be the monster in this story, I’m your fairy fucking godfather here to finally help you shift the power in this game in your favor. Because with money comes power, and you’re all welcome to an extensive amount of it, if you work for it. That’s all for tonight. Come back Sunday evening at eight for your first night of training. Goodnight.”
I didn’t leave it up for discussion. I also didn’t leave room for them to stick around and gossip about the entire ordeal because if they gossiped and shit talked about me and the changes, negativity would take root.
Slowly, they all started moving toward the exit.
“Valentina.” I called out, drawing the attention of the blonde as I signaled for her to come to me, but my Rainbow also watched. So focused on the back of the blonde’s head, Ember missed the way I watched her as Valentina eagerly joined me onstage. Was the fiery little Rainbow jealous? “Ember, you too.”
Her golden eyes snapped to mine as people moved around her to the exit, gazing at the three of us remaining as they left.
I didn’t wait to see if she’d follow my direction, a part of me hoped she would defy me and leave. Instead, I turned my attention to Valentina and pulled my money clip from my pocket as she fought the urge to watch me count bills out. “I won’t be needing that introduction after all,” I grinned at her, and she bit her bottom lip. “But a deal is a deal.”
As Ember climbed the steps eyeing the money, I folded a couple thousand dollars and offered it to my date for the night with a wink. “I don’t feel like I’ve earned this.” Valentina said coyly with a seductive smile on her plump lips that were still a little swollen from my dick.
“You pleased me very well tonight, Valentina,” I smirked, looking over at Ember as I replied. “Take your pay and go home.”
“Yes, Sir.” She purred and beamed at Ember as she left the stage, joining the last of the stragglers as they left.
Leaving me alone with the first woman to hold my attention for more than a moment in time in as long as I could remember. On the other side of the stage, she stood with crossed arms and a hip jutting out, looking bored with me.
My dick twitched at her bratty attitude. I hated brats. But Ember—damn, I’d make an exception for her.
“You took Tony’s announcement personally.” I started cutting to the chase. “Why?”
She tightened her lips into a line, and she looked away from me, “Because I was going to buy this place.”
I raised my brows in surprise, “Seven grand a night is impressive, especially for this clientele.” I replied and her lips parted in surprise, “But it would have taken you another lifetime to save up enough to buy it, surely you knew that.”
That was the wrong thing to say to her, apparently. Because her golden eyes burned with indignation, and she uncrossed her arms. “Did you keep me back to insult me? That seems like a shitty way to start a professional relationship.” I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut in, “Though judging by the way you’ve got Val acting like a simp at your feet for your attention, it seems you’ve already started building those relationships with your employees.”
Ooh, my Rainbow had some lightning in her clouds.
“Jealous?” I cocked my head to the side.
“Of you?” She countered, trying to throw me off. “Val’s a splendid girl, but she’s not my type.”
I smirked, giving in to the verbal sparring and the way I bloody enjoyed it. “Lesbian. Got it.” I stated it, and she remained silent, although I was unconvinced that her sexuality was so simply categorized. “That should make working together even easier.” I took a couple of steps toward her. “Because we’ll be working together, Ember. Closely over the next month and beyond. At the end of the day you can hate that I bought this place out from under you all you want, but you seem like a highly intelligent woman and at some point, you’ll have to admit that more money coming in these doors benefits far more than just me. All the changes coming, including the money can benefit everyone here including you. You just have to allow it instead of fighting it.” I stopped a foot away from her. “Don’t fight it, Rainbow. Help me, help you and everyone else.”
I firmly threw down the innuendo between us, and I loved the way she stared at me. She worked in the sex industry, but she wasn’t allowing her instincts to convince her one way or another about me.
Interesting.
“We have our first management meeting later today at three.” I stated, cutting through the tension and rocking her again with my change in direction. “Meet me at this address,” I pulled a card from my pocket and wrote my penthouse address on the back of it.
She hesitantly took my card and read the address, but said nothing else before turning away from me and walking toward the exit.
Would she show up for the meeting? Who knew?
I was an excellent judge of character, having spent years being tortured while I examined case studies on people for my dad’s enjoyment, but my guess was that Ember would show up as instructed.
If for no other reason than to spar with me some more. She was far too feisty to let me have the last word.
“What are you naming it?” She asked as she got to the door, proving my point and keeping it going. “The club. What are you changing the name to?”
She didn’t know it, but I hadn’t nailed down a new name for it yet.
At least I hadn’t until tonight.
“Prism.” I replied, watching her face closely as the single word worked through her big brain. “I’ll offer the world an entire luxurious kaleidoscope of pleasures to choose from.” Her eyes squinted like it offended her, and I winked mockingly. “Don’t be late for the meeting. Tardiness won’t be tolerated.”
The slamming of the door was her only response, and I grinned like a maniac as I finally admitted to myself why Ember sparked an interest inside of me.
Because I couldn’t have her.
At least that’s what she wanted me to think.