Chapter 9
I climbed back into the car and shut the door.
“Any luck?” James asked.
I shook my head. “No one’s seen her. It was a false lead.”
Alex grimaced. “That’s rough.”
“Where to now?” James asked.
“Another bar.” I gave the cab driver the intersection where it was located.
We rode in silence for the next ten minutes until we reached our next stop.
“This isn’t a bar,” Alex said in a wary tone. “This is a strip joint. You really think your niece might be here?”
“It’s on the list of places she might have been seen,” I said, then added with a touch of desperation, “I have to check it out.”
“I’m goin’ in with you,” James said, in a tone that told me he wouldn’t change his mind.
“I agree,” our driver said as he backed into a spot in the back row. “Jeff, you can’t let your wife go in there alone. The Velvet Room has a rough crowd.”
James gave me a dark look, and I rolled my eyes. I’d been here several times on my own, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. My source wouldn’t care if I brought James in with me.
We got out and started across the parking lot, James snagging my hand. This time, I suspected he wasn’t doing it for show. He was making sure I didn’t ditch him.
“Who are you meeting in there? Another bartender?”
“A dancer, but there’s no guarantee she’s working tonight.”
“Is me bein’ with you gonna be an issue?”
“Nope, it’ll probably give me a better cover. It always looks a little strange when a woman goes into this kind of place alone.”
“So you don’t come here enough to be recognized?”
“I usually meet her somewhere else, but I lost all my contacts when we switched phones. She probably won’t be able to talk to me here. I’ll have to give her my number and hope she gets in touch.”
“She’s a dancer?” James asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then if she’s workin’, we’ll be able to get her alone.”
“A private room?”
He shrugged. “Honestly, it’s the best option.” He turned toward me. “You sure she’ll talk if I’m there?”
I gestured to him. “She’ll like what she sees and she semi-trusts me. I suspect she might say more to you than me.”
“If she’s working,” he said flatly.
“Exactly.”
He opened the front door, standing to the side to let me enter first.
I cast a glance toward our car. Alex’s face was lit up by the glow of his phone screen.
“Hey,” I said. “How did you come up with that photo of our pretend niece to show Alex?”
“I had Carter pull up a list of missing girls in Little Rock,” he said. “I figured they might be tied up in this trafficking ring. So I opened the file and picked one.” Then he added, “Her name really is Penny.”
It was a good idea, but it stuck under my skin. When had he asked Carter for the file and why hadn’t he shared it with me?
James paid the cover charge, then we entered the dimly lit club.
My eyes took a moment to adjust as I scanned the seating area.
James seemed to be waiting for my lead, so I headed to an empty table in the back row—not that the place was very large.
The rules for adult clubs in Little Rock were pretty strict—topless, but the dancers had to wear pasties, and they had to have some kind of bottom covering, even if it was a tiny G-string.
Most people who wanted to visit an establishment like this wanted more skin and they wouldn’t find it in Little Rock.
A woman was dancing on the stage, but she wasn’t my contact. We’d only been seated about thirty seconds before a waitress wearing barely anything more than the woman on stage came over to take our order.
“I’ll take a draft beer,” James said, looking up at her face and ignoring the massive amount of cleavage less than two feet in front of him. “And my wife will have a club soda.”
“No alcohol?” the waitress asked in surprise.
James made a face. “She’s on a medication that she’s not supposed to drink with. Sucks. I know.”
The waitress gave me a semi-sympathetic look, then walked over to the bar.
“Good call on the medication idea,” I said.
“Yeah, most people drink in these kinds of places. It might look suspicious if you didn’t,” he said, glancing around. “Do you see who you’re lookin’ for?”
“No, she’s not on stage, and she’s not out here either. If she’s working, she’s probably backstage getting ready.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, keeping his gaze on the stage. “That’s how we ran things too.”
I did a double take. “Wait. You own a strip club?”
“Past tense,” he said, still not looking at me. “The Feds took it over when I was arrested. I heard it reopened, but the new owner’s an asshole and treats the girls like shit.”
I continued to stare at him in disbelief.
“Why is that so hard to believe?” he asked, after turning to face me. “You know I was up to shady shit in my past.”
“You say the owner treats the girls like shit. Are you saying you treated them well?”
“If you call payin’ ’em a living wage and giving them benefits, well, then, yeah.”
“Wait.” I shook my head. “That’s unheard of.”
The waitress returned with our drinks and set them on the table. “Want to open a tab?”
“Sure,” James said, handing her his credit card with his current alias. “Thanks.”
She took the card, then headed back to the bar, turning so that her bare ass cheeks nearly brushed the side of his face.
I frowned in irritation, but I reminded myself that just because we were a couple didn’t mean women would stop hitting on him. Especially in a place like this. I picked up my drink and took a sip as James took a long pull from his beer.
My mouth watered at the thought of drinking a cold beer, and I tried to tell myself that a club soda was nearly as good. It wasn’t a convincing lie.
“You were saying you treated your dancers well,” I said, “Better than most strip club owners. Why?”
He released a short laugh. “Because it was the decent thing to do?” He took another sip. “Look, I didn’t run the place. Jed did. I let him have full rein. He wanted to pay them a living wage and give them health benefits, so I agreed.”
“Don’t do that,” I said, “Don’t try to pawn off bein’ a decent person onto someone else.”
“Like I said, it was Jed’s idea.”
“But being so generous had to cut into profits.”
“I’ll say.” He took another drink. “We lost money on the place.”
“So why not cut their wages or benefits?”
He turned to look at me again. “You ever been to Fenton County?”
I shook my head.
“It’s one of the poorest counties in the state, and most of the girls workin’ there were single mothers.
Hell, I’m pretty damn sure Jed set up some kind of daycare system before he quit.
” He drew in a frustrated breath. “We made sure they made enough to pay their rent, feed themselves and their kids—enough that they wouldn’t be so desperate that they’d put themselves at risk by soliciting customers for extracurriculars.
Some still did, but most were just tryin’ to get by. ”
“What happened after Jed quit?”
He shrugged. “I got a new manager and told him to keep the same rules, but he wasn’t as respectful. And shortly after, the Feds took over.” He took another sip of his beer. “I still think about those women sometimes.”
I knew, deep down, James was a good person—I saw how he treated his staff at the tavern, but what he was describing was above and beyond.
He’d gone out of his way—to the point of losing money—to help those women.
Sure, they’d still stripped to make a living, but at least he’d made sure their basic needs were met.
“You say it was all Jed,” I said, “but you had to approve it.”
He shrugged. “They were his ideas.”
“But you’re the one who lost money.”
“I made enough legit money. I needed the tax break.”
I frowned. “Don’t do that.”
He turned to face me, one brow lifted. “Do what?”
“Don’t downplay what you did. I need you to be real with me, James.”
He shifted in his seat to face me fully, setting his bottle on the table. “The truth is, Harper, I never thought of a single one of those things. They were all Jed’s ideas. So I’m sure as hell not gonna take credit for them.”
“At least take credit for letting him do it and providing those women with enough money to take care of their kids.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t enough. I was trying to do more for the county, and the agreement I made with…” His voice trailed off, and he drew in a shaky breath. “Is that her?”
The song had ended, and a new woman walked onto the stage.
“No.”
But my mind lingered on what he’d just said. He’d wanted to do more for his county and he’d made an agreement with—who? The Feds? The Hardshaw Group? I wanted to ask more questions, but this wasn’t the place. Still, as far as I was concerned, this conversation wasn’t over.
Which led me to my next topic.
“When did you ask Carter to pull files on missing girls?”
He looked at me in surprise. “When you decided to come to Little Rock. I sent him a text and asked him to pull ’em. They came in shortly before you pulled up to the hotel.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d done that?”
He blinked. “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
“It was a great idea. I’m asking why you didn’t tell me.”
He studied me for a moment, then rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. When he dropped his hand, he covered mine on the table. “You’re right. I should have told you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Honestly? It never occurred to me. I’m used to takin’ the lead. Bein’ the one with all the information.”
“We can’t work like that, James,” I said, my tone firm. “We either work as true partners, or this won’t work. At. All.”
“You’re right,” he said, holding my gaze. “It’s not that I purposely held it back. I just didn’t think to tell you. I’ll try my damnedest to be more forthcoming, but there’s a good chance I’ll slip a few times before I get used to our new rules.”
The man was forty-four years old, and as far as I knew, he’d kept most of his life close to the vest. Jed had probably known more than most, but I also knew James had kept secrets from him.
“I can’t do secrets,” I said, leaning closer. “I know you have things in your past you can’t share, and there are things from cases I’ve worked I’ll never be able to share with you. But from this point on, it’s all truth, no secrets. Deal?”
He met my gaze, hesitating. “I’ve never had that kind of relationship with anyone in my life. There’ve always been secrets.”
I could have taken that to mean he still wanted to live by that code, but I heard it as a confession—an admission this was new territory and it wouldn’t come easy.
“I know,” I said, looking into his deep brown eyes.
“I’ve never had that kind of relationship either.
I’ve always kept everything bottled up, but the only way we’re gonna work—both professionally and personally—is if we put it all on the line.
” When he didn’t respond, I wondered if I’d gone too far.
Asked too much. We were barely a couple, and we both had trust issues.
But the only way I saw this working was if we shared everything from here on out.
He lifted his free hand to the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair and pulling my face close. “Do you know what you’re askin’ of me?” His husky voice sent chills down my spine.
I gave him a half-grin. “Do you know what I’m asking of myself? I’ve never been totally open with anyone, let alone a lover.”
His eyes darkened. “Why does you calling me your lover turn me on?”
“Maybe because you’re hornier than a man with a concussion has any right to be?”
He grinned, his whole face lighting up. I’d rarely seen this side of him before we’d started sleeping together, and I couldn’t get enough of it. “All I can promise is to do my best. This is all new territory for me. I’ve got a lot of things to unlearn.”
“How did you manage previous relationships?”
“I was never in an equal relationship. Ever.”
His admission made sense. Even his best friend had been an employee. It made me realize how special what he was offering me really was.
I wanted to ask more questions, but he kissed me so thoroughly, every question dissolved into the ether.
The song onstage ended, and the DJ’s voice boomed over the speakers, announcing the next dancer. “Get ready to set your night ablaze with the intoxicating beauty of Ruby!”
I broke the kiss and pulled back, turning to face the stage.
The spotlight swept across the small platform, stopping on a woman in sparkly heels and a sequined jacket.
I glanced back to James. “That’s her.”