15. Nick #3
“How about you show us what you’ve been working on.” I waved at the pole and smiled sweetly. “At least it’ll be easier for you now that it’s fixed. You won’t get as tired hauling your dump trucks around it if it’s doing all the work.”
“You saying we have big asses?” River jumped up on the stage and sauntered toward me.
“If the extra-large granny panties fit…”
“Granny panties? Nah, we’re more manties guys.”
“Ew.” I wrinkled my nose. “Never say that word again.”
“What? Manties ?” River needled. “What’s wrong with manties ?”
Kai flinched. “That sounds so wrong.”
Zane climbed onto the stage and slowly came over to us like a jungle cat stalking its prey.
“Come on. Show us the good stuff.” I waved at the pole. “I dare you.”
Zane grinned, but it was his dark, I’m about to fuck shit up and have fun doing it , smirk.
I glanced at the rest of the crew. They were watching us with keen interest. Even Blaze looked invested in what was going to happen next.
“If you insist.” Zane ran his hand through his dark hair, casually pushing the long strands back from his face. “Ready?” He flicked his gaze to River, whose smile was a slightly brighter version of Zane’s and no less terrifying.
“Ready, bro.”
River took two steps toward Zane, planted his food in Zane’s waiting hands, which he was holding out in a cradle, and pushed off.
“Jumping Jehoshaphat!” I stumbled back as Zane launched his brother into the air.
River did a flash kick backflip when he was at the apex of the throw, and managed to catch the pole with his legs, anchoring himself to it in a move that defied both gravity, and reason.
While he hung there with his body parallel to the floor, Zane hurled himself into a moon kick, then right into a B-twist. Somehow, like River, he managed to catch himself on the pole with his legs and laid out in the same position River was still in, only on the opposite side and facing up so they looked like reflections of each other.
The other guys whooped and cheered as the twins did a series of flips and spins on the pole, moving perfectly in sync like always.
For such big and solid guys, they were incredibly flexible and made pole work look easy.
Duo work was epically hard, especially on the stage pole because it had a limited amount of height to work with.
The twins were within inches of each other with every spin and transition, giving the illusion they could crash at any second, which only heightened the difficulty of the routine.
They ended the short demo in a double handspring pose, and casually flipped off in a modified iguana that I’d never been able to replicate.
“Well, shit.” I dropped down into a theatrical bow. “Long live the pole kings.”
“Pole kings.” River snickered and lifted his hand for a high-five.
“You know that parkour shit gives you an unfair advantage,” I said as the rest of the guys climbed up on the stage. “And the twin thing too.”
“Not our fault you keep forgetting what we’re capable of.” Zane smirked.
“I won’t be making that mistake again.”
“Until next time, at least.” Kai grinned. “Your memory is about as good as your sense of timing.”
“Hey,” I said indignantly. “I was on time today!”
“And was that because of you, or because you got a ride?” Gray slung his arm over my shoulder.
“No comment.”
“Okay!” Blaze, well, blazed. “I hate to be a task master today, but some of us have shit to do after rehearsal.”
“I’m hungry.” River turned to Zane. “Can we get burgers on the way home?”
“Yep.”
“Ugh, now I want a burger.” I rubbed my stomach just as it grumbled loudly.
“Did we forget to eat again?” Gray asked.
“Um.”
“Wait here.” Gray patted my ass and did a running flip off the stage.
“Showoff!” I groused.
He flipped me off with one hand and dug through his bag with the other.
“Can you guys maybe back me up here?” Blaze glared at Knox and Kai, who were standing back from the crowd and watching us with amused grins.
“We could,” Knox said.
“But it’s way more fun to watch you try to wrangle them. Like herding cats, isn’t it?” Kai chuckled.
“Like dealing with a herd of labradoodles on crack,” Blaze countered.
“Wouldn’t a herd of labradoodles be considered a pack?” I asked.
“Are all groups of dogs considered packs?” Dash asked. “That’s not very imaginative.”
“Here.” Gray came up beside me and shoved a small container in my hands. “Eat these so you don’t drop dead on us.”
“What is it?” I tore the top off and peeked inside. “Cookies! Yay.” I shoved one of the cookies with rainbow chocolate chips into my mouth. “Sooooo good,” I moaned around the food. “Thanks, babes. You’re the bestest.”
“Speaking of labradoodles.” Kai grinned at me. “You look like a puppy who’s just been given a stack of his favorite biscuits.”
“Don’t be hating my golden retriever energy just ’cause you’re a German shepherd.” I stuffed another cookie in my mouth. “And just for that, no cookie for you,” I said with my mouth full.
“So classy.” Gray stole a cookie and gently hip-checked me. “But we’d better focus on rehearsal before Blaze has an aneurysm.”
“Sorry.” I turned to Blaze, who looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. “You were being a master tasker?”
“Close enough,” he muttered. “Did anyone think of anything they wanted to add to the routine we’ve been working on?”
“We should let the flippy twins do some of their tricks for the finale,” I suggested. “Give them the spotlight. That way we can still use the routine with Stone or any other headliner and only have to change our final marks. Hey. No backsies.” I snatched the cookie Gray had swiped out of my hand.
“I made them.” He stole it back.
“And I claimed them.” I caught his wrist and yanked it closer. “Mine.” Leaning over his arm, I licked the length of the cookie.
“You really think that’s gonna stop me? Newsflash, I swallow.” Gray winked.
Blaze threw his hands up in exasperation. “I’m done.”
I snatched the cookie out of Gray’s hand as he went to take a bite and shoved it into my mouth. “Stop misbehaving. You’re making Blaze stroke out.”
“Cookie me.” River held up his hand.
I tossed him the second-to-last one. “Anyone else who isn’t Gray want the last one?” I wiggled the container.
Zane’s hand flew up.
I flipped the cookie out of the shallow container toward him. My aim was off, and River plucked it out of the air. Casually, he flipped it up like a coin. It spun in a high arc and fell right into Zane’s open mouth.
“Labradoodles for the win!”
Gray elbowed me.
“Sorry.” I ducked my head at Blaze. “I’m done.”
“No, you’re not.” Blaze’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“Probably not.” I shoved the empty container at Gray. “Be a dear and take care of this for me.”
“Okay,” Knox said loudly. “You guys want to try the ending while the twins freestyle? See how we feel about that? Then we can work out new marks and adjust the ending for event nights.”
Everyone nodded and made various noises of agreement as we moved into position.
“Ever notice how we’re here practicing routines for nights when Stone is making all the money and he isn’t?” Dash asked, his tone petulant.
“What crawled up your butt and died?” River asked.
“More like what didn’t go up my butt,” Dash grumbled. “Men are trash. I said what I said. And no, I will not be taking questions.”
“It is a bit strange that Stone is never here for rehearsals,” Knox said.
“Did anyone think to invite him?” I asked.
The silence was all the answer I needed.
“He’s not the bad guy Corey and Ray made him out to be. And he had no idea what was going on. He thought everyone hated him because he’s in porn.”
“Really?” Kai asked. “He thought a bunch of strippers would have issues with him doing porn?”
“What else was he supposed to think when no one would talk to him?” I asked. “I’ve gotten to know him and he’s a nice guy. Really sweet and thoughtful, and he’s not even mad that we treated him like hot garbage because of the lies Corey fed us about him.”
“Way to make us feel like a bunch of assholes,” Blaze said.
“Well, to be fair, you are a bunch of assholes.” I smirked. “I’m just saying that pretty much everything we were told about him is a big lie and he’s not the bad guy in this story.”
“Did you know he paid our severance packages when Biggs took over?” Gray threw in.
“And he pays out the house on feature nights to offset our tips. We might not have seen that money because Corey and Ray stole it from us, but that doesn’t take away from the fact he put that in his contract for us.
Like Nick said, he’s not the villain here. ”
“That’s true,” Kai said. “Corey and Ray are the bad guys. They stole from us, nearly ran the club into the ground, and orchestrated this whole Stone villain story to keep us in the dark about the shit they were doing.”
“I heard they’ve had some bad luck recently,” Zane said casually.
We all swung our heads to look at him.
“So much bad luck,” he continued. “An electrical fire at their vacation home, flooding in their rental properties. Such a shame.”
I knew better than to ask Zane how he’d found out about this, or if it really was a coincidence. Gray had taught me about plausible deniability, and with the twins, that was usually the smartest approach.
“On that little bit of happy news, everyone get into position before we get distracted again,” Kai said.
Rehearsals were always chaotic, but I loved them. We didn’t get paid or anything, but hanging out with my friends and fucking around while making up choreo was some of the most fun I’d had in years.
We all had different backgrounds and abilities, but somehow, we always found a way to play to everyone’s strengths and give everyone a way to shine during group routines.
Most people don’t realize how much work goes into stripping. Sure, we had to physically do the routines during our sets, but we also had to choreograph and perfect them, and we were constantly tweaking them so they didn’t get stale.
I liked that process as much as performing, but it was hard to keep my mouth shut when people went off about how stripping was easy money and how the only thing you needed to make bank was having abs and good rhythm.
The number of hours we put into each and every set to make it look easy would astound non-performers, and as male strippers, we weren’t raking it in like our female counterparts could.
Our audience was smaller, and while women tended to tip more, there were far fewer of them, so we made less over the course of the night. That meant we all had other jobs because no one was getting rich shaking our junk on stage twice a week.
It was a job, and the money could be good, but you didn’t stay in this industry unless you enjoyed it.
Before Biggs took over, the turnover rate for dancers at the club was high.
Most guys would only last a few months, or even weeks, before moving on to something else.
We hadn’t had someone quit in almost five months, and Gray, Kai, the twins, and I were all coming up on our one-year anniversaries.
It was amazing how much of a difference having a healthy work environment made.
“Everyone ready?” Kai called when we’d gotten back on our marks.
Focusing on Kai, I shut down the multiple trains of thought racing through my mind and waited for him to count us in.