Chapter 6
The ancient demons couldn’t sense something off with my energy that the angels were feeling, simply there was more power.
So Elijah dropped everything to hurry and put another thirty dampeners on me.
He suggested we try to see if Mason could learn to do it and I couldn’t hide my hurt, immediately shutting it down.
But it was something we’d have to discuss later because I could feel his confusion.
Men truly were stupid. Truly were stupid sometimes.
Elijah had been protecting me this way for decades. It was our burden to bear and I trusted him. Yes, I trusted Mason too, but… Not like that. Not the way anyone would after decades.
It was too important to just pass off. And to make me feel a chore or pain he had to endure when I already did feel that way was beyond stupid.
I was glad when the angels clearly understood and would hopefully lay into Elijah when I was gone. Good, because it was exhausting to constantly set men straight and force them to pull their heads out of their asses.
There was no better word than exhausting.
Then it was rudely feeding and racing to get into place when I’d left myself more than enough time. Always fun, but always expected when nothing ever really went to plan.
The club wasn’t close to the worst I’d worked at but also wasn’t the best. I’d have ranked it lower half though. It wasn’t kept up well and definitely needed a deep clean. How it passed any sort of health inspection was a joke.
And anyone who ate anything from the kitchen was seriously off their rocker. I would maybe play Russian Roulette risking a gunshot wound to the stomach rather than put their food there.
No, I truly wasn’t kidding.
Austin Brann was exactly what I would expect given the con he was pulling on the dancers with the deposit. The curveball our quick research didn’t uncover was that his wife actually managed the place and the dancers.
That was a new one even for me.
It took me exactly two seconds to understand why Nicole Brann did it though. Because she knew she couldn’t trust her sleezy husband around other women.
Unfortunately, she blamed and hated all of us instead of him. Instead of having enough self-respect to leave the piece of shit, she shit on all the females who worked for him.
Or even came around him.
“You’re the fill-in?” she asked, barely cutting me a glance as she handed me something. “Sign this waiver, and here is the list of your songs, schedule, and times you dance.”
I took everything and opened my mouth to object to at least one of those… But changed what I was going to say when it was only the last page of the waiver. “Right, cute. Give me the full waiver to read or kiss my ass, lady.”
“Sign it,” she ordered, looking up at me with contempt.
And also taking my breath away as her desire to drag me out of there by my hair flooded me. This was one bitter, bitter woman.
“No, and if you try to force me, I’ll be on the phone with everyone I should call so fast your head will spin,” I said with a smirk.
“I’m sure you’re used to kiddos you can push around, but I’ve worked all over the world.
” I tossed the song list back on the table.
“I also have set songs and routines. If you get me a list of what—”
“That’s not how we do things, and you need this job to—”
I snorted. “No, I don’t.” I gave her a moment with that.
“And I’m better than you could ever get in here.
You’re lucky that Maya knows me and could call in this favor.
” I moved closer when she stood to intimidate me.
“I’ve danced around the world and could get a gig as a backup dancer to anyone on tour.
I’m that good. I like this work. So stuff it. ”
“Listen here, you little—”
“Nicole, you said no more fucking drama,” Austin grumbled as he stormed over. He took one look at me and practically drooled. “She’s way hotter to Maya, and if she has any sort of moves, then we’re lucky. All the girls hate having songs assigned to them. It—”
“People like to hear certain songs, Austin,” Nicole snapped.
“That’s true,” I agreed, shocking both of them.
“But you have to fit the right dancer to the right ones or you do more damage than good. I do my songs well. If you have a worry of overlap, get me the songs the other girls use. Or if the DJ knows what won’t work, I can adjust after tonight.
This was a family emergency and shit happens. ”
“That’s fair,” a woman said as she joined us. “That’s more than fair, Nicole. And you can’t just expect her to even know these songs on the spot.” She shot Nicole a knowing look. “Making any of us look bad makes the club and all the rest of us look bad. Hurts the money.”
“That’s not what I was doing,” Nicole snapped.
But none of us believed her. How sad was it that her husband knew and let her hurt his business?
Then his desire hit me and I had trouble not gagging. He was into it. He was into driving her fucking nuts and… Gross. He was into gross and them beating each other up mentally and emotionally.
He was into abusing his wife but excused it as just play because he saw her doing the same to him. Except she wasn’t. She was a fool for trying to change him and make him into the man she thought he’d be.
It just made me sad.
It made me wonder if she was ever worth anything to start, and the after picture I was looking at should be pitied.
Then she laid into me and I didn’t care. Fuck her. I had piles of issues and I did my best to never take it out on others.
Clearly, she just wanted to blame and hate the world.
“Look, lady, I came in early and am honoring my deal with Maya, but if you don’t pull your head out of your stupid ass and act professional, then I’m going to blow my lid and throw down. And that’s not a fight you can win nor handle,” I snapped when my ears started ringing.
It was almost funny when just about everyone in the club froze in their prep and seemed to pull out their metaphorical popcorn.
She eyed me over. “I can take you.”
I snorted. “First, no, you can’t. I have black belts. As in multiple.”
“There’s no way to have multiple.”
“Yes, there is, Nicole,” Austin sighed.
“Second, I wasn’t talking about getting physical,” I drawled, gesturing to my body. “This is art. You don’t risk art. You protect art.” I rolled my eyes when she clearly didn’t get it. “I have a few fantastic attorneys. You don’t want to meet them. Savvy?”
Someone who was cleaning made the mic drop gesture and I almost broke, my lips twitching a little at least.
“I’ll get you the full waiver,” Austin cut in, moving his wife back. “Tonight, dance whatever you got prepared and maybe do more lap dances if it clashes with the other girls. We can—Lottie here handles all of that.”
I nodded but wanted to roll my eyes. If one of the dancers did that… Then what the fuck was Nicole even needed for? Drama?
“Nicole’s just here to keep a leash on Austin and give us grief and bring drama,” Lottie said the moment we were alone, holding her hand out to me.
“Yeah, called that one,” I chuckled darkly. “Erika Martin.”
“Nice to meet you. Let me give you the tour and we can talk songs. I hate to be less than welcoming, but I just—I gotta pick up my kid. Maya’s a good girl and whatever helps so she doesn’t get shit on more.
” She seemed to come to some internal decision.
“She’s okay, right? She didn’t sound like she really was on the phone. ”
“She will be. You have my word.” I was glad when my confidence helped her settle with that and she cared enough. It was nice to know that Maya had had at least someone looking out for her.
The tour was quick and that was when I learned the level of gross.
I couldn’t even get mad at the guy cleaning when I saw they didn’t give him anything to clean with.
The mopheads were beyond old and… The details didn’t matter.
He might have been lazy, but asking someone to make thousands of Black Friday deliveries on a toy bike wasn’t realistic.
Neither was cleaning the club with what he had.
And he definitely didn’t get paid enough to bring in his own supplies or like bring mopheads home to wash.
Though I maybe might have done that last one just because he had to touch things in that club too. Gross.
I did make a note to bring in some disinfectant spray for the poles or at least wipes.
I checked them and sighed when I found all of them were loose.
I glanced up and saw Austin watching me.
“Yeah, that last page of the waiver would mean absolute dick with this level of neglect. Do you ever even check these?”
The look of malice was too much and the wrath coming off of him would have given a demon a good feed. “They were installed by a good company and are under warranty.”
I snorted. “You need to read that contract better. They normally have a clause—”
“I’m not going to get lectured by a dancer who’s never owned a club or—”
“Who says I haven’t?” I threw right back, smirking when he did a double take.
“You don’t know my resume.” I snorted when he narrowed his eyes at me.
“I’m an investor in a few. So listen because I’m—fine, don’t listen to something that could save your ass.
” I asked the janitor where the tools were and he hooked me up.
While ignoring the owner when he demanded that I explain. I told him to read his contract that was probably invalid now as I did unpaid maintenance work to all of the poles of his fucking club.
Because they normally had a provision that the poles had to be checked and serviced at least every six months. Just like the oil changes on a vehicle. Everything had to be maintained for warranties.
Dumbass.
“You know how much it costs to have a tech come out and do what I just did? And I’m certified,” I snapped when I was done and he was still being a jackass to me. I shook my head when he frowned. “Seriously, how Maya puts up with this shit—poor girl.”