Chapter 12 She’s Dancing
She's Dancing
Savannah
Present day, five weeks later…
My keys jangled as I rushed into the kitchen for my insulated water bottle and cell phone.
Catalina blocked the front door. “Are you going back to Platinum’s?”
“I’ve helped Desiree and Lucy with their routines for the last five weeks, Cat. Today’s no different.”
“It’s a little different since today was your first day back full-time with Rita. You can’t run yourself ragged. Are you helping the other dancers or are you dancing?”
I took a deep breath. She loved me, and I reminded myself her protectiveness stemmed from that love. “Sweetie, I know you’re concerned, but we still need money.”
She widened her hazel eyes at me. “You were attacked there. They kept you in the hospital for days! Besides, you were there during the day this past month, now it’s already after six o’clock!”
I pulled my cell from the charger and tucked it into my wristlet. “I made five grand the night of the attack. The bastard who did it is behind bars.”
She shook her head. “No, he isn’t. He’s out awaiting his trial. You don’t have a restraining order against him, for all you know he could be in the audience.”
I couldn’t and wouldn’t tell her that Punc had avenged me.
He’d taken care of that problem, even if he hadn’t said it outright.
“That isn’t happening. The Riot brothers were pissed.
You didn’t see how angry Yak and Volt were when they found out it was one of their members.
He isn’t going to get past the front door. ”
After a long blink, she sighed. “That other motorcycle club could show up instead. Really, sissy, I’ve kept this to myself, trying not to judge, especially since Punc has helped us so much, but you should steer clear of Platinum’s and probably bikers in general. What happened to you was horrendous.”
In theory, steering clear of bikers shouldn’t be a problem (other than being around them at Platinum’s).
Once Prime had been handled, Punc stopped staying the night.
This worked for me because I was losing my willpower not to jump into bed with him.
This might have been reciprocal, seeing as over the past five weeks, Punc had moved us back to the friend-zone.
We still talked on the phone nearly every day, and my every instinct said he was attracted to me.
I was definitely attracted to him, but there were no more lunches or pizza dinners.
I supposed that was just as well, or it would have been difficult not to tell him about the debt to Frank.
I aimed a pointed look at Catalina. “I survived. There’s no way to make this amount of money anywhere else.”
She frowned. “You made money because you went viral on TikTok. You aren’t guaranteed to make that tonight. Spending a week in the hospital again would bankrupt you… us, really.”
I might have argued with anyone else, but Catalina had recently turned seventeen. She had a youthful, almost na?ve take on the world - though Mom’s unexpected death marred that in a big way. Still, I wanted to protect my sister’s optimism because Mom left us with more than broken hearts.
I took a quick sip of my water. “I only have enough money to pay Frank for four more months. We need the money, sis.”
Her brows shot toward her hairline. “Not at the expense of your safety.”
“The bills—”
“Are being covered by the Riot MC,” she said, her eyes gleaming with smug satisfaction.
“Yeah, I meant ours,” I whispered.
She didn’t hear me and continued. “It’s the least Ted could do.”
“Leave him out of it,” I said, failing to hide my irritation.
“Please, Savannah… The bills can’t be that bad. Find a different job.”
I leveled a patient smile at her. “Sweetie, you know the bills are that bad. I get Frank squared away, and I’ll be done at Platinum’s. But, it’s gonna take time.”
“Fine,” she relented, and stepped away from the door.
I hugged her. “I’ll try not to wake you when I get in. Lock up after me.”
After I stepped outside, I waited until I heard the lock catch before I moved to my car. I had just hit the key fob to unlock it, when Frank’s black BMW stopped in the driveway cock-eyed.
The window rolled down, the interior light turned on inside the sedan, and Frank sneered at me. “Time’s a-wasting, Savannah. You better have my money by the end of the month.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but the window slid up, the car reversed, and he tore out of the driveway.
Shit.
I glanced back at the house. No movement by the front windows. With any luck, Catalina hadn’t seen him roll up. I didn’t know how long I could protect her from Frank, especially now that she was on summer break, but I’d do everything I could to keep her safe.
I sat in front of the vanity mirror inside the cramped dressing room at Platinum’s. No matter how much I needed to refresh my makeup, I couldn’t tear my eyes from my cell phone.
“Did you get another message?” Desiree asked.
This was the third message I’d received in the past two days. There were some customers avidly counting down the time before I hit the stage again. And since some people lived to yuck other people’s yum, I’d gotten messages full of insults and discouraging me from taking the stage again.
I let out a quiet sigh. “Trolls are harmless.”
She leaned away from her mirror. “You don’t know that. Tell Turk or Yak about it.”
I locked eyes with her in the mirror. “These are online. Not in person threats. If this is a real person, he’s probably on the other side of the globe.”
She pointed a manicured finger at me. “You spent a week in the hospital. Do you want to go through that again? Tell them!”
My fingers curled around a container of mineral powder, and I focused on loading up my brush. “I’ll tell them. What time is it? I can catch them both before Yak heads home to Nora.”
Lucy sailed into the room. “He left two minutes ago. Turk and Punc are here to close.”
I nodded and applied powder to my face.
Desiree scrutinized me. “What’s with you and Punc? You know he went ballistic when you were in the hospital. And we all noticed how protective he was of you when you were here afterward. None of the other men act that way with you.”
I faced her. “I know. He’s a family friend.” With three short nods, I added, “And you’re right, I’ll find time to tell Turk about the messages.”
I meant that. I’d find time to tell Turk, but Punc didn’t need to know. No, he couldn’t know.
Punc
When Punc walked through the back door at Platinum’s at five o’clock, he nearly collided with Desiree.
“Hey, Punc! Turk wants to see you when you get here.”
He climbed the stairs to the office and saw Yak and Turk were both there.
“Desiree says you wanted to see me.”
Yak nodded. “Have a seat, brother.”
Unease settled in his gut, but he couldn’t figure out why as he planted his ass in a chair. “What’s goin’ on?”
Turk sat back in his seat. “Need you to be on your toes tonight. It’s not crowded yet, but Ava’s returning to the stage tonight.”
“No, she isn’t. It’s too soon,” he said.
“She’s dancing, Punc,” Yak said.
“Neither of you came to see her in the hospital. I’m tellin’ you the doctors don’t want her doin’ flips and shit this soon.”
Turk drew his attention. “It isn’t up to you, Punc. It’s her decision. I asked about medical clearance, and as long as she doesn’t do any gymnastics, her doctor gave her the go-ahead. She’s coming in tonight at seven.”
He slid his tongue between his teeth and he bit it. Otherwise, he’d have said, ‘the hell she is,’ and he’d have stood sentry at the dressing room doors until she arrived.
Everything clicked and he kept his gaze on Turk. “This is about making sure I don’t fuck with the plan for tonight. That I don’t toss every horny asshole out the door before the first note blares through the speakers.”
“Punc,” Yak called, and he looked that way.
“You can’t blame him… or us, really. None of us are cool with what happened to her.
I heard you last month. If it were up to me, no woman would get hurt because she works here.
But Turk’s right. It isn’t up to you and me.
Now that you know we’ve verified that she’s good to go, can we trust you to keep a lock on your shit? ”
After a deep breath, he let his gaze shift between the two brothers. His eyes locked with Turk’s. “Yeah. Is that all?”
Turk gave him a chin lift and Punc got to work.
Punc closed the door to his room at the clubhouse at five-thirty-five in the morning. Part of him missed sleeping on Savannah’s couch. No, he missed seeing her every morning, but he wasn’t going to cost her this gig.
He’d had to distance himself from her after eliminating the threat from Prime, even though it killed him to stay away from her.
It had been a long night, made even longer by the fact that Savannah had brought the house down.
Again. He didn’t see much of it since he was busy with crowd control.
Still, when live entertainment got really good, it had an energy.
When the crowd got into it, feeding the performer, which in turn fueled the crowd further.
Yeah. Ava’s stage presence had been electric. What little he’d seen.
And yet, the portions of her set he’d seen…
it held an undercurrent that only someone attuned to her would notice.
His gut said it was desperation, but the way she racked up the tips that desperation didn’t make sense.
Sure, she’d explained about her bills, but this felt like something more foreboding.
Maybe it was in his head.
That was too easy, though. He knew better than to ignore this.
Savannah’s family had been crazy a decade ago…
that didn’t just go away. Even if she claimed she and her sister were boring these days.
After tonight, she had to have enough of a cushion to quit - unless something else was going on with her.
He tapped out a text to Alanis. It might annoy her to get a text so early, but if the notification of his text woke her up… tough shit.