34. Harper
HARPER
When we pulled up to the place and got out, I couldn’t figure out where the hell this place was.
Then I saw a group of people standing around a massive metal door.
It appeared to be the entrance to a warehouse or something equally industrial, not to a strip club.
A pink neon sign that read, Prestige, hung, but it didn’t draw any attention.
“Harper, you’re going to need to be in front.
They will charge us a cover fee, but with your looks, they will let you in while they pat us down,” Jaxson explained to me.
“When you enter, don’t go any further than the threshold.
This place is underground, so there will be a set of stairs into the club below.
You cannot enter without us there to watch your back. ”
I gulped but nodded my head. I’m the one who pushed for this to happen.
I couldn’t freak out now. All I had to do was enter and stand there while they got searched.
Did I love the idea of them going in unarmed?
No. Was there another option at this point?
Not really. Who was I kidding? This place was probably crawling with weapons being a mafia-run business.
They could scrounge something up if they needed to.
Magnus’s hand on my lower back was reassuring, but it was gone as I was leered at and waved through while the guys got checked out just like they said.
Standing to the side, I waited, trying to appear disinterested in everything around me while people checked me out as they passed.
The ground vibrated under my feet from the music below, and strobe lights flashed at the bottom of the stairs reminding me of the trip Dax and I took.
Everything is going to be fine. I told myself.
“Chto ty zdes’ delayesh’?” a woman snapped as she charged up to me, grabbing my arm and trying to drag me down the stairs. “Yest’ rabota, kotoruyu nuzhno sdelat’.”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re saying, but you have the wrong girl,” I said, shoving her off me.
The woman made a disgusted noise and muttered something under her breath.
“You American girls all the same. Thinking you so much better than us. I hate to tell you, but they own you just the same as the others. Now is time to work. Boss is here. He want to see new girls. We don’t make him wait.
Waiting make him angry, angry mean bad things for all. ”
Before I could cry for help, a massive black man grabbed me and hauled me downstairs.
I tried everything I could think of to get free of him, but his grip was like iron.
He didn’t even flinch when I tried to stab him with my heel.
When he pushed through the curtains, I was assaulted by purple neon lights that seemed to glow from all the booths people were sitting in.
The center of the room was a massive stage with ten women performing, wearing only a pair of crazy platform heels.
Everything was exposed to the world, watching them with hungry eyes.
Women in skimpy outfits or just a thong and pasties wandered around, letting men feel them up.
Some would lead their prey into a back room where I’m sure they would get an experience of a lifetime.
Women dressed in plunging, backless, fringe dresses that, as they moved, showed they were not wearing anything under them, served drinks to various tables.
The hulking behemoth of a man, frustrated with my lack of movement, picked me up around the waist and carried me like I was a doll toward a door with something written on it.
Once inside, there were two guards standing in front of another door, and that’s the one I was being shoved through.
Catching my bearings, I realized I was in a room full of women in various stages of nudity changing, fixing makeup, or lounging on different couches, smoking and drinking. The women all seemed to be having a great time, relaxed, not at all worried about the fact they’d been bought by the mafia.
“New girl,” someone yelled, catching my attention.
When I looked to see who she was calling, I found her pointing at me.
“Yes, you,” she waved, rolling her eyes. “Come on.”
Part of me wanted to bolt, but then I remembered the guards. Something told me they weren’t just there to keep men out of here. My money was on the fact that if I tried to sneak out, they would send me right back in here, or worse, take me somewhere else entirely.
“Madam Inessa say you serve,” the woman said.
It was then I noticed she was wearing one of the fringy dresses and was handing me one of my own. “Look, I’m not supposed to be here.”
“Yah, yah, that’s what we all say when we first come. The faster you forget, the faster you face reality,” she quipped. “Come on. We don’t have time. Strip.”
Magnus is going to kill me. I should have listened to him, but now I’m just going to have to make lemonade out of lemons. There has to be a way I can find where they took her if they think I’m supposed to be here.
I pulled my dress over my head and only had to remove my bra since I wasn’t wearing panties. The woman handed me over black nipple covers, and I all but sagged in relief. It wasn’t much, but it was something and gave me the feeling that I wasn’t flashing all my goods.
“Remember, they can touch outside, not inside. They pay extra for anything they can’t see with their eyes.
Each girl needs to bring in money from their bodies but it don’t have to be sex.
” Brushing her hand threw her red hair, she gave me a calculating look.
“Soon you won’t care, they will pay you good money then you won’t care no more.
Go to the bar, they give you shots, you walk and sell them, tray empty, go back for more.
They won’t bother you as much if you are busy.
Follow me. They won’t let you pass if you not with a known girl. ”
Hot on her heels, we headed out of the dressing room, where she waved at the men who greeted her by smacking her on the ass and a wolf whistle.
Thankfully, they didn’t seem to notice me until I was too far away from them to do anything.
Back in the loud laser light show, it was harder to keep up with her as she expertly navigated her way through the crowd, avoiding grabby hands with a smile and a wink.
I, on the other hand, didn’t have that skill and tried not to show how disgusted I was at the feel of fingers brushing my thighs and arms as I passed.
One man grabbed my arm and pulled me onto his lap, slurring his words as he groped my breast. He, of course, was speaking Russian, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he was saying. With how sloppy he was, I managed to get out of his hold and back to the redhead waiting for me.
“Keep close,” she yelled loud enough for me to hear over the music.
Nodding, I tried to keep her positioned between me and anyone we passed. Finally, we reached the bar that ran down the whole length of the building, but it looked like this section was for servers like us.
“She need shots, doesn’t speak Russian, so Madam wanted to keep her out of trouble,” the redhead explained, pointing to me over her shoulder.
The male bartender looked me up and down, frowning but started to fill a tray with shots that had already been prepared. “These are two hundred rubles, anything more you get to keep,” he explained. “When the tray is empty, you come back, I’ll give you more.”
I took the tray and a deep breath. This, I could handle.
I would waitress during the summers the last few years of high school, so I had experience.
What I needed to do was use this to find the guys or Prim, whichever came first. Once I found them, they would be able to get me the hell out of here.
I decided to start at the edge of the space, so I only had to worry about grabby hands from one direction, not multiple.
At first, I ignored the men waving at me to come over, but when one of the men standing guard gave me a warning look, I gave in.
I had to balance giving out shots as I searched for our missing teen.
It wouldn’t make sense for them to have her out here, but things were so chaotic I couldn’t figure out where the back rooms were.
I ran out of shots and quickly returned, not wanting to give anyone the idea I was free to touch.
Quicker than I would have liked, I had a full tray, so I cut to the other side where I’d seen some people entering and exiting curtained-off areas.
Just as I passed one of the curtains, a man flew out, followed by the man in the nice suit I’d seen get out of the SUV, Slava.
In his hand was a gun pointed directly at the man now lying at my feet.
The man on the ground was clearly begging for his life, but Slava didn’t like what he heard at all.
With the silencer on his weapon, you didn’t even hear the shot over the music, but being this close, I saw the flash of light and the hole in the man’s forehead.
Slava glanced up and noticed me standing there with my tray.
He didn’t say a word but motioned for me to follow him with a crook of his finger.
Slava didn’t wait to see if I would do as I was told, knowing I couldn’t refuse.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Jaxson just as he saw me.
His face was contorted with fury like I’d never seen before, and even though I knew he would never hurt me, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t take it out on others.
A man stepped up behind me and used his gun to nudge me forward. “He’s waiting.” A voice growled in a tone so frightening I didn’t need any more encouragement.
Behind the curtain wasn’t a room but a hall with a few doors. At the end, I could see men gathered, smoking and chatting. Taking an educated guess, I headed in that direction, assuming Slava wanted to share some shots with his men.