Chapter 20 #2
I push it all away: the men, the music, the cat-calls, the thrown dollar bills.
I tell myself I’m giving just another dance performance as I prance across the stage and grab the pole.
I spin, stopping with my back to the audience and bending over, hating the sounds they make when I flash my underwear.
I lose the blouse first, tossing it to the side and cupping my breasts as I cat-walk to the front of the stage. I turn around, and again , I bend at the waist, lowering my head all the way to my knees before I turn to wink at the audience from between my legs as I flash a full view of my ass.
Suddenly I freeze , and my stomach drops through the floor.
Because there, at the very back of the audience, behind the rest of them, is a pair of dark, piercing, devil eyes, ripping into me.
No.
Please God, no.
For a second, I just stay where I am: bent over in a fucking schoolgirl outfit and pigtails, my mouth open in horror.
Bitter, poisonous shame like I’ve never felt before…which is saying something…floods through me. I almost trip as I stand up, my pulse slowly hammering in my chest and roaring in my ears as I turn and stare back at Kir.
Whatever I felt before, feeling too dirty for someone like him, or broken, or messy, increases to gigantic proportions as I stand there, feeling his eyes on me.
Seeing me at my absolute worst, strutting around on stage like a jailbait whore offering herself for money.
I hear the yells, the whistles, the screams to “take it off !” But I’m just numb and frozen, feeling my entire reality crumble around me.
Suddenly, I turn and bolt from the stage, my heart racing and cold, sickly horror coursing through my veins.
I avoid the changing room because I can’t deal with any of them right now. I just have to get away—from this place, from Kir, from the shame?—
“You little bitch !”
I scream when I’m grabbed from behind, the stench of body odor and cheap cigars making me gag as I’m shoved along the back hallway. Then I whirl, and my face goes white when I see Lou’s snarling face.
“Lou, I?—”
“ Get in there !”
I yelp as he shoves me against the door to his office, reaches past, and opens it. I almost trip when he pushes me inside and storms in, slamming the door shut behind him.
I’ve seen Lou angry before, but this is something new altogether.
“It was you , you little cunt!” he yells, so loudly that I find myself stumbling back until my ass hits the edge of his desk.
“Lou, I don’t know?—”
“ZAK!” he roars at me. “I couldn’t get a look at the motherfucker who kicked his ass on any of our cameras out front. But you know what I did see?!”
He storms right into my personal space.
“Security footage from outside my fucking office! And guess what?! I saw Zak, giving you one stupid punch, like you deserve! And the very next fucking day , some guy waltzes in, and just about kills the guy who hit you!!”
My face pales. “Lou?—”
“You owe me a fucking bouncer!” he screams at me, spittle flying from his lips and into my face. “But I don’t think you’ve got one of those on you. So this is how we’re gonna do it.”
Lou grabs me and violently spins me around, then shoves me across his desk, his weight slamming into me and pinning me hard against the surface.
He shoves my hands to the far side of the desk, and suddenly, he’s looping a rope around my wrists and yanking it tight.
“ NO! ” I scream. “NO!! LOU! STOP IT!!”
He’s huffing with rage as he stands up.
The jangle of his belt buckle is like a bullet being chambered.
“ NOOO !!” I scream as loud as I can. “STOP IT!”
“I’m gonna do what I shoulda done a long fuckin' time ago, cunt,” he snarls as his pants hit the floor. “I’m gonna take what you owe me out of this fucking ass, right now .”
I scream out a blood-curdling, wretched sound as he shoves my skirt up and grabs my vagina from behind. His fingers poke and prod, nails scraping my inner thighs as he claws at the edge of my panties and yanks them down.
Hot tears spill down my cheeks as his hands and fingers touch and pinch and grab. I go numb as I hear him step behind me, trying to shove his fingers into me as his other hand jerks his dick.
The office door splinters like it's been hit with a wrecking ball, smashing off its hinges and breaking apart as a figure in a black suit surges in like the Devil himself.
Kir .
It’s all too much. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, sobbing and shaking all over as I hear fists smashing into flesh and Lou screaming in agony, bleating for mercy that I doubt is coming.
Then the cries and begging stop, but I keep hearing that same rhythmic wet sound of a fist slamming against bloodied flesh, again and again.
Then it's over.
I flinch, sobbing out a broken cry as hands gently undo the rope around my wrists. It’s only then that I open my eyes to see Kir in front of me.
His dark eyes meet mine, his face a mask of pure vengeance and fury, but also crumpled with…pain? Sadness? Sympathy?
“I’m going to get you out of here,” he murmurs. “To do that, I’m going to have to touch you. Nod if that’s okay.”
Tears trickle down my cheeks as my chin moves up and down. Kir’s jaw sets as he stands.
He pulls his jacket off and wraps it around my shoulders. Then, without a word, he lifts me into his arms, cradling me like a child, one arm around my back and the other under my knees.
Silently, he steps through the shattered office door, walks down the hallway and kicks open the back door to the club, carrying me out into the night.
Away from it all.