Chapter 19 Hollie
HOLLIE
Ispend most of the day resting, tending to my violin, and talking over my schedule with Tiffany for the next two weeks while waiting on Maxim.
His invitation to join him at work last night remains at the forefront of my mind throughout the day while something he won’t talk about keeps him busy.
By the time late evening rolls around, I’m convinced he’s forgotten.
Until he calls me down to the car and we drive until we reach one of his nightclubs, Plumme.
Unlike the last time we were here, music booms from inside and a queue of people lines up around the block.
The neon lights flash in time to the pulsing music, and a burly man at the door moves to stop my approach until he glimpses Maxim just behind me.
Stu and Toto follow us at a distance while Rex, Maxim’s head of security, walks on ahead.
“Aren’t you worried?” I ask, leaning against Maxim as we walk so he can hear me over the music.
“About what?”
“That everything I see you do here will just be more ammo for me to hold over you.”
“I’m not worried.” Maxim takes my hand as we step out onto the upper balcony overlooking the main dance floor. He brings my hand to his lips and kisses my ring. “You’re not going to tell anyone anything.”
“You’re sure about that?” Pulling my hand away, I cross my arms over my chest. “So, what’s the big secret?
What’s so important about what you do at a strip club that you have to show me?
” I hear the words coming out of me laced with venom, but I can’t stop myself.
Last night, in the snow under the trellis, I started to see him differently, like he was someone I could genuinely fall for and the crush that pulled us together hasn’t faded.
I almost felt like there was something real between us, so now I’m on the defensive.
“Go to the bar,” Maxim replies, seemingly unfazed by my attitude. “Have a drink and relax.”
I do just that but insist it’s because I want to and not because he told me to.
Toto follows at a distance but soon melts into the crowd of surging people hungry for the girls dancing and performing on stage.
Thankfully, the bar is mostly empty other than a few skimpily dressed waitresses darting back and forth with trays filled with drinks.
“What can I getcha, chick—wait a second.” The bartender pauses on her rush past me and points at me with one long, manicured finger. “I know you.”
Our eyes meet and she breaks out into a wild smile.
“You’re Hollie, right? Maxim’s girl?”
My gut knots slightly as I nod. “Yeah. That’s me.”
“I’m Xena.” She sticks one hand over the bar. Her wrist is covered in bracelets that jingle together in a light symphony while she waits for my hand. “I was at your wedding, remember?”
“How could I forget?” I shake her hand slightly to be polite, then press my hands together in my lap. “Could I get some water?”
She raises one perfectly penciled brow. “You came to a place like this for water?”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, we serve all sorts here, chick. But you’d be better with a soda. The water ain’t exactly…” She purses her lips. “Just trust me.”
“Fine. A soda.” Is this what he wanted me to see? A bar where the water isn’t drinkable and a building filled with half-naked women dancing and grinding for the men lusting after them?
Xena flashes me a smile and ducks under the bar, returning with an ice-cold can of soda. “Can I get you anything else, chick?”
I shake my head, welcoming the chill of the drink as the heat within the club builds. “No, thank you.”
“So, what brings you back here?” She places both her hands on the bar and leans toward me. “Another wedding?” She winks.
“Do you help a lot of women get married when they don’t want to?” My eyes narrow. “Is that the business he runs here?”
“Who, Maxim?” Xena scoffs. “Listen, I may not be a lot of things but I know when someone is babbling some crazy bullshit, and you, chick, you had no idea what you were talking about.”
“Are you kidding me?” Annoyance rises within me like a wave of heat. “I told you the truth and instead of helping me, you threw me back into his arms!”
“From where I’m standing, you’re looking pretty okay for a woman claiming she was kidnapped.” Xena’s polite expression melts into one of annoyance. “Maxim did you a favor.”
“A favor? You’re kidding me, right? He commits God knows how many crimes, the abduction of me, for one, and you think he’s done me a favor?”
“If it’s so bad, why are you still here?” she challenges sharply. “The door’s right there, chick.”
“Don’t act like you don’t know,” I sneer. “A man like that threatening my family? What am I supposed to do?”
Xena stares at me with wide eyes for a moment, then she bursts into loud laughter so suddenly that I jump. I don’t understand. What was it I said that was so funny?”
“Oh, chick, now I know you ain’t got your head screwed on right.” Xena giggles.
This can’t be happening. Am I the only one who sees Maxim for what he really is? Does he have all his employees so completely disillusioned about what kind of man he really is?
“What would you know,” I mutter dejectedly as a chill sweeps down my arms. “You’re just a—”
“A what?” Xena interrupts sharply. “A bartender? A dancer? A stripper? Is that what your issue is, chick? Are you too prim and proper that a woman taking her clothes off is the worst thing she can do?”
“For money? It’s not exactly admirable.”
“Says who, the Puritans controlling the media making you think anything sexy is bad and just for men?” Xena scoffs as if she’s trying to remove something from her throat. “That’s fucking bullshit. Look around, Hollie. What do you see?”
Glancing over my shoulder, I take in the heaving crowd, the sparkling stages, the gleaming poles, and the beautiful women in various states of undress and dancing and grinding like they’re fucking someone invisible that I can’t see.
“I see a strip club,” I murmur. “I’m not judging, this just isn’t my scene.”
“Your scene,” Xena scoffs. “You really are something. Never saw Maxim settling down with someone so stuck up.”
“Maybe he shouldn’t have murdered someone right in front of me, then, should he?” My heart pounds and my skin grows hot. Why do I feel like I’m the one on trial here? Like Maxim is some good person and I’m the evil one for witnessing what I did.
Xena sighs and leans her elbow onto the bar.
“You see the girl in blue with the black hair?” She points, and I follow her finger.
“She has three kids at home. Two years ago, she was on the streets caring more about heroin than her kids. Maxim found her and brought her here, worked with her to get her clean. Now she works her own hours, takes home thousands of dollars a night, owns her own apartment, and got her kids back from the state. That girl in gold? She worked street corners to pay for the hospital bills drowning her sickly father. Maxim stepped in and paid for everything when he found her. Now her father’s got a new lease on life and she’s back in college training to be a nurse. ”
“So, what, Maxim is some kind of savior? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” It’s difficult keeping the snark out of my tone.
“The girl in red? She was fresh out of school and spent her first night in a whorehouse. One of Maxim’s guys found her and brought her here. Maxim put her back in education and paid for it all. When she graduated, she wanted to work here.”
“To pay him back?”
“No, chick. Because she loves to dance and feel sexy. She has her own makeup line and never has to worry about bills ever again.”
I turn back on my stool and stare at Xena. “Doing good deeds doesn’t justify murder,” I say. “And are these women even free?”
“Girl!” Xena laughs loudly. “We work the hours we want, we rake in the cash. I’m a shareholder in this club.
What, just because this place isn’t accommodating nuns doesn’t make me any less of a businesswoman.
You’re judging me and them for taking our clothes off without asking if that’s what we want to do.
You have no idea how empowering it is to be on that stage, dancing your heart out knowing you’re gonna make enough that you never have to put yourself down to afford a bill ever again. ”
My cheeks flame. She makes a good point, but no matter what Maxim does to help the people in his employ, what I saw doesn’t change. And what he did to me doesn’t change either.
“Nancy!” Xena stands on her tiptoes all of a sudden and waves over a woman dressed in a silky shawl. “Nancy, come here a sec.”
Nancy joins us at the bar, languidly stretching over it and yawning. “What?”
“This is Hollie. Maxim’s wife.”
“Wow,” Nancy drawls softly. “Lucky.”
“She doesn’t think so,” Xena replies.
Nancy frowns at me. “What?”
“I saw him kill someone, murder him in cold blood, and then he kidnapped me and forced me to marry him to keep me quiet. Your so-called savior Maxim is a monster.”
Nancy stares at me and then slowly smirks. “Now it makes sense.”
My cheeks flare hotter. “What does?”
She points at me. “I knew Maxim would never marry someone boring out of choice.”
“Choice?” Anger surges inside me. “I’m the one who didn’t have a choice!”
“Bullshit,” Nancy replies, unfazed. “You know who he is, which means you know who his father is. You saw something you shouldn’t have and that man would have cut you up for it.
But he can’t, right? Because you’re Maxim’s girl, which means all their funny laws and rules protect you.
He saved your life and you don’t even see it. ”
Igor flashes back up in my mind, and I swallow around the memory of his hands. “The cops would have protected me from both of them,” I mutter.
“Who did he kill?” Nancy looks me in the eye. “Who do you care about so much?”
“Does it matter?”
“With Maxim, it always matters,” Nancy says. Xena leans over and whispers something in Nancy’s ear that makes her eyes go wide and then narrow at me.