Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
TINSLEY
"This is unexpected," Katherine growls out, her hand tightening on the steering wheel. When we spotted Pierce coming out of the building his office was in, I thought we got lucky. That luck has now died. "It's not even that nice of a strip club."
Does it matter? No. The betrayal I feel is earth-shattering.
He was supposed to be different. I stare at the back door he's gone through. Someone opened it for him like he's a freaking regular! He made me fall in love with him. Led me to believe that he was my happily ever after. Now this.
"You want to go home?" Katherine asks.
"It just got worse." I smack her arm and point to a car that pulled up to the side of the building, and I watch Biff step out. "That's Biff." I didn’t think the betrayal could get any worse, but I was wrong. Pierce played me, and I fell right into his trap.
It was all a setup. He told me to let him worry about the resort and the land. To trust him, and I had. He kept me occupied so that I didn't start digging or coming up with a plan of my own. He sidetracked me, and I willingly let him. They had been plotting together this whole time.
The heavy weight of sadness that fills me is replaced with utter rage. "We are going to jail, aren't we?" It comes out more of a statement than a question from Katherine.
"I make no promises." I slightly open the car door and step out.
"We're going in?" Katherine turns off the engine and jumps out. "How are we playing this?"
"I don't know." I'm already heading toward the front entrance. Katherine grabs my elbow. "You're stopping me?"
"What? No." She scrunches her nose; my question is clearly ridiculous to her. “We need a bit of space between the Biffle dude and us.” It’s a good call.
I clench my fists at my sides, hating that Pierce is in there. I know it's absolutely ridiculous. It shouldn't matter anymore. It’s over at this point, but it doesn’t help the overwhelming jealousy that I have.
“Aren’t we supposed to be working on you jumping to conclusions and reacting before you think?” Katherine tries to reason with me, but I’m too far gone for that.
“Nope.” I pop the P hard. “That went out the window with my therapist.”
“Right.” She nods. “You think they’ll let us in?”
“We’re 21. I don’t see why not.”
“I don't know the rules.” Katherine shrugs both of her shoulders.
“Can we go?” I can’t stand here any longer. If I don’t go in, I’m going to cry, and right now I’m hanging on to my anger with all my might. There will be plenty of time to lick my wounds later. Right now, I want to make a scene.
“Shit.” Katherine doesn’t move. “Look at me,” she snaps with authority in her voice, which I’ve never heard before. “Are you sure you want to see what’s in there?” Katherine points to the building.
“No,” I say before I start walking toward the front entry. “Not going to stop me.”
Hell, it might help me get over him. To get a real glimpse into the man that’s been lying to me.
Seeing his true colors with my own eyes might help sever the hold he has on my heart.
I still can’t believe I’m here. I know my trust is crap, but on a deep level, I can’t fathom Pierce doing this to me, to us.
My anger and jealousy have fully taken over rational thought. A large bouncer opens the door for us without asking for ID. We scurry in.
"You think he thinks we work here?" Katherine whispers over the seductive thump of the music playing. The smell of stale beer and sweat is assaulting me.
We’re both in oversized sweaters, yoga pants, and sneakers. We hadn’t changed. I still have glitter and paint on parts of me, as do my clothes. I don’t give a shit. When a beautiful, tall blonde in a string bikini walks by, I decide I might care a little bit.
Only because I feel out of my depth, and honestly, I am. I always have a way of finding myself in far too deep, but I’m past the point of return.
“Yeah, probably.” I give her the answer she wants. Katherine watches the blonde walk by in killer heels. She winks at her, and Katherine gives her a thumbs-up like a dork.
I scan the room. There is only one giant stage, but there are a couple of girls on it dancing. There are others with individual men. The place is pretty dead.
"Are you ladies good?" a pretty, petite redhead asks.
"Not really, but your makeup is fire," I tell her. The gold around her eyes makes the green pop.
"Thanks. I like having fun with it."
"This bra too," Katherine adds. "I love how the blue and purple lights bounce off all the diamonds." The entire bra is adorned with them.
The redhead laughs. "That's not normally the remark I get when I wear it."
"Well, then those people clearly don't have eyes," Katherine tells her, making her laugh again. My eyes are everywhere trying to spot Biff or Pierce.
"You guys looking for someone in particular?" I’m sure we both stand out like a sore thumb.
"Yes." I pull out my phone and show her my stupid screen saver. It's a picture of Pierce and me. He was always taking pics of me alone. I wanted some with the both of us, so I started taking them.
"Pierce?" She says his name with a thousand-watt smile. A small growl slips free that she recognizes him. They know his name around here. "He's in the private suite." I may be a na?ve small-town girl, but I know what a man being in a private suite at a strip club means.
"Is he alone?" I ask.
"No." Her eyes soften. "It's down there." She nods toward the back. "There is only one room in that direction. You can't miss the door."
"Thanks," I tell her, appreciating that she’s down with girl code. She could have covered for Pierce, but she didn’t.
"Anytime, and don't worry about anyone bothering you. You guys are covered." We watch her head over to the bar and slip behind it.
“We really are covered.” Katherine motions to our clothes. That wasn't what she meant, but it was still a strange thing to say.
“Come,” I tell her. I spot an empty drink tray on a table and snag it.
“Is that a weapon?” Katherine asks, and I only respond with a shrug, seeing the door.
“No!” I grab her when she tries to grab an empty glass beer bottle. “Only I go to jail tonight.” I have no doubt she has it in her mind she’s going to break it in the heat of battle, ending up only cutting herself.
“You’d go to jail without me?”
“Someone has to bail us out.”
“Fine,” she huffs. “May I have the pleasure?” Katherine motions to the door.
“Sure.” I expect her to open it, and she tries kicking it with one foot. It bounces her back, and I barely stop her from falling, my tray hitting the floor.
“Must be locked.” We both glance over to the bouncer off to the left. He’s watching us but doesn’t say shit.
“For sure.” I grab my tray off the floor and open the door myself.
“Oh, they unlocked it,” Katherine says as I fling it open.
We both stand there in shock. My tray again slips from my fingers. “We should go,” Katherine snaps to, quicker than I do, shoving me into the room farther and shutting the door behind us.
Three men stand in the room. Biff is on a gaudy red couch, blood dripping from his lip and one of his eyes starting to swell. Pierce looms over him while the other man is using the small stage with a pole on it for a desk, with a laptop out along with a few phones laid out on it.
“How could you?” Katherine says before I can speak. “Maybe we wanted to handle Biffle.” She punches her hand into her palm.
“You want to take a swing at him?” Pierce asks, stepping back to give her room.
“Please, I gave you what you wanted. I’ll leave her alone.” He starts to cry. Hard.
“Well, that’s awkward." Katherine steps back.
“Apologize to my wife,” he orders Biff, who can’t talk with his heavy sobbing. Pierce grabs his hand and twists, cutting off his cries and turning it into a scream.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeats on a loop.
I didn’t think Pierce could get hotter, but here we are.
“We’re good. I have all his shit cleared, along with the cloud and metadata.” The man closes his laptop. His watch beeps, and he checks it. “My men got his home and work office scrubbed as well.”
“I appreciate your help, Carter.”
“Anytime. You’ve got deep connections and even deeper pockets.”
"Then, you can clean this up for me.”
"I got a federal building I'm going to drop his ass on the steps of."
Pierce shakes his head at the man but smirks. "You're double-dipping."
"Feds pay well too."
“Rory will be in touch.” He tells Carter to leave before he turns and nails Biff with a punch, the crack sound making me cringe and slightly turn, not wanting to see. Katherine, however, squints her eyes and tilts her head, really giving Biff a once-over inspection.
The things that do and do not scare her are strange.
“You ready, spitfire?”
“You think I’m going anywhere with you? You’re at a strip club with naked girls running around.” Sure, he came to beat the shit out of Biff clearly, but I have jealousy issues.
“Lucky for me, there isn’t one naked woman in this building. Nor is it a working strip club.” What did he just say? “Keys.” He holds his hand out to Katherine. She pulls them out of her pocket.
“So they didn’t want us to work here,” she mutters under her breath, shaking her head. I’m still trying to think of a smart-ass response to Pierce, or I’d tell her she could be a stripper if she wanted. “Who are all the people, then?”
“They work for me,” Carter tells Katherine.
“Let’s get out of here, spitfire.” He wraps an arm around me.
“I’ll meet you guys outside.” Katherine says before heading out of the room.
“You’re still in so much trouble,” I tell him as he we make our way outside and over to the car. He opens the door for me. I drop my head back to stare up at him. I feel a huge sense of relief that he didn’t betray me but also extremely guilty that I thought he had.
“I’m looking forward to it.” Then he kisses me so I can’t respond.
Thank God because I’m once again at a loss for words.