CHAPTER TWO
Before the Rescue
Jess
I really hated it here.
I stared out the window of my room in the clubhouse of the Gray Bones Motorcycle Club.
Well, not my window. It was Skeeter’s window, but it had also been mine for a long time now.
I’d come here thinking it was a temporary fix for a long-term problem.
I’d work here long enough to save up money for me and my mom to get the hell out of Wilkins, Georgia.
Or Shitty Wilkins as it was called by people in and around the area.
I’d get us to West Bay, over on the coast, and save up enough money to go to college.
Then I’d make something of myself and take care of her.
I’d had a full ride scholarship to West Bay University and had been so excited to go there and get started on life.
But then my lazy-ass father had died, suddenly of a heart attack.
Well, that had set off a chain of events that had ended with me applying to be a stripper at the only club anywhere in the Shitty Wilkins area.
My sweet mother, Lyda Walker, had been through a lot in her life.
Her childhood, what she’d tell me about it, at least, was really awful.
I didn’t even want to think about the parts she wasn’t telling me about.
She’d come through all of it with a smile on her face, though, and given me a good childhood.
She’d been an assistant librarian at the public library one town over.
She didn’t get paid much, but it was something.
And I got to spend as much time as I wanted hiding in the stacks and reading.
She’d powered through her marriage, even though my dad was almost never home and helped with bills even more rarely than that.
She hadn’t thought she could afford a divorce.
But then he’d died, leaving nothing but debt and a shocking secret behind him.
It wasn’t the debt that had broken Mom. It was the secret.
When she’d gone to make a claim on his social security survivor’s benefit, she’d gotten a rude awakening.
Her marriage to Dad had never been valid since he’d never gotten divorced from his first wife.
All that time she’d spent with him because she didn’t think she could afford a divorce, had felt pointless to her.
She’d felt like she’d wasted twenty years of her life working her ass off to pay his bills.
The truth was she could’ve walked away at any time.
And she hated that I wasn’t even legitimate since they weren’t technically married.
Bad luck had followed my mom around all her life.
For forty years she’d just dealt with it.
But all of that with Dad broke her. One morning a couple of days after she’d found out, she just…
couldn’t get up. She didn’t cry. She just laid in her bed and looked out the window.
At first her job was understanding. She had tons of sick leave built up, anyway.
But days became weeks and weeks became months.
She quit being able to go anywhere. She’d had a panic attack in the middle of the Piggly Wiggly and a friend who saw it took her home.
Then it happened in church. And at work after she went back.
It happened in the driveway when she tried to drive away from the house.
Soon it had gotten so bad she could barely make it to the mailbox.
The mailman, who I’d always suspected had a crush on her, brought her mail to the porch and set it on the bench outside the door each day.
Her job told her whenever she got better, they’d have a place for her.
And I knew I’d have to delay my scholarship.
I couldn’t leave her like that. She had no way to pay her bills.
I’d looked around town to see what I could get as an eighteen-year-old high school graduate with very little work experience. It wasn’t pretty. There wasn’t anything that paid enough to make ends meet.
When I applied at Groovy Gus’ Hardware, he’d taken one look at me, and pulled me to the side.
“Jess, I know what’s happened to you and your mom.
I hate it for y’all, I really do. But I can’t afford to pay you what you need.
Probably nobody else around here can, either.
” He had sighed and run a hand through his thinning hair.
“I’m going to sound like a creep, but somebody’s got to say it.
I know you’re real smart. The whole town does.
But… well, that’s not what anyone sees when they look at you.
The only place around here you’re going to make good money is over at the strip club, honey. ”
I’d closed my eyes. I’d known he was right, but I hadn’t wanted to do it. I’d even promised Mom I wouldn’t.
I’d been born with what most would call a blessing, but I had seen as a curse. I was gorgeous. I didn’t say it to be conceited. I said it to be truthful. I was valedictorian of my high school, but still the only thing people saw was a pretty face and a great body.
I’d known he was right.
***
Five Years Ago
Jess
I turned my beat-up old truck into the parking lot of the strip club.
The sign, with half its letters burned out, literally said ‘Strip Club.’ No lie.
They couldn’t be more original than that.
I’d worked hard not to fall in the parking lot littered with broken bottles, used condoms, cigarette butts, and what I was pretty sure were used syringes for hard drugs.
It was a first-class establishment, that was for sure.
I figured if I got a scrape, I’d need a new tetanus shot.
I’d called first, and a female bartender who’d sounded somewhat friendly had told me to come on by anytime. She said she’d have one of the managers there to give me a look.
My heart was pounding as I walked in. I purposely didn’t dress to show off my figure too much, because I’d gotten sick of all the comments guys made in the hallways at school.
Now that I’d graduated, my sense of fashion hadn’t changed.
I’d had to go by one of my friend’s houses to get a short skirt, stripper heels, and a crop top to wear.
I felt like I was wearing a costume. The crop top was ridiculous.
My friend had maybe a B cup bra size while mine was closer to DDD. It was obscene.
But that was the point, right? If I was going to work here, I’d have to get used to people staring at me wearing a whole lot less.
It was dark inside, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust. When they did, I headed over to the bar.
“Hey, I’m Jess,” I said to the middle-aged woman working to stock the shelves.
“Hey.” She stopped what she was doing to look at me. And sighed. “Hold on honey, let me call them.”
She picked up an old landline phone. “Hey, you got a girt out here to apply.”
I could hear the guy answer, “Tell her we’re full up.”
“No, you’re going to want to see this one. And you might want to call the guys over at the MC, too.”
“Shit. Really?”
“Really.”
I didn’t know what was going on, but I worked to keep a vacant, pleasant look on my face.
“Honey, you got anything else you can do?” her world-weary eyes were full of concern.
“No. I’ve put this off as long as I could, believe me.”
She nodded. “They’ll be right out.”
I thanked her and started to turn around. “Hey,” she reached out and grabbed my arm. “No matter what they say, you don’t have to suck them off.”
“Oh my God!” I was horrified.
The woman laughed, and it seemed like the first time she’d done that in a while. “You’re a funny one,” she said with a grin. “But seriously, they’ll lie and say that’s the only way they’ll hire you. They’re full of shit. You’re already hired. Believe me.”
“Thank you,” I said, my legs shaking a little as I walked away. What was I getting myself into?
Two guys came out. One was middle-aged with a paunch. The other was young and handsome in a slick, used car salesman kind of way.
They took one look at me and their mouths dropped open. The young guy turned his back on me and picked up his cellphone. “Get me Skeeter or Zeke.”
“Come sit down, sugar,” the older guy said, his eyes locked on my breasts. “Damn, girl. What size tits are those? They natural?”
My face burned. I didn’t answer the size question. I just nodded.
“Hot damn. Stand back up and let me see that ass.”
Humiliated, I did what he said.
“Fuck. What the hell are you doing here? You need to be in Atlanta.”
I sat down. “My mom’s here.”
He nodded, sobering up. “Can you dance?”
I nodded again. “I took dance for years.”
He snorted. “I meant pole dance.”
“I’m sure I could learn.”
The younger guy came back to the table. “We’re going to give you a try-out tonight. We got some guys coming by to make sure you’re what they need.” His eyes scanned me in a way that made me feel like I needed an instant shower. “In the meantime, I’m going to need to see how good you suck cock.”
My eyes widened. The bartender hadn’t been trying to scare me. “I don’t think so.”
He frowned. “Don’t mess around. Do you want the job?”
I nodded.
“Then get on your fucking knees and suck us off,” he said, already unzipping his pants like he knew I would do what he said.
“Nope. I’m done here.” I stood up, pushed my chair in, and turned to leave. They let me get all the way to the door before giving in.
“Hey—don’t be hasty, now.” The older guy shot the younger one a look. He just shrugged. I heard him say, “It usually works.”
I paused. “Yes?”
“You don’t have to do that. Just come back tonight ready to dance. I’ll have a couple of outfits for you to choose from.”
I’d been nervous all afternoon and evening waiting until it was time to have my tryout. I’d gotten there early and now I was sitting in front of a cracked mirror with a woman staring at me.
“My stripper name is Candy, but my real name is Eunice. Call me whichever you want. I’m going to put some more makeup on you for the stage.”
“Thanks,” I said.