I nodded and warned, “If Nassir gets a good look at your face, that idiot is leaving the club in a body bag.”
“Good. Asshole deserves it. No touching means no touching. He’s lucky I didn’t castrate him with one of my heels.”
It was impossible to live this life and not develop that edge. Beautiful girls shouldn’t have to live this hard. It was a shame.
“He had Chuck work him over pretty good, but I’m serious about him killing the guy if he catches sight of the damage. I think the devil has a soft spot for you.”
She rolled her dark gray eyes at me and crossed her arms over her silk-covered breasts. I was very familiar with her naked body, knew she made the money she did for a reason, but there was a hardness about her now that hadn’t been there when I left five years ago.
“Nassir is like a wild animal that escaped from the zoo. He’s amazing to look at, fascinating to watch, but I would prefer that bars and glass separated us. There is nothing soft about that man.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t like him having control of the club?”
She blinked obscenely long lashes at me and her perfectly bowed mouth crooked up in a half grin. Only Honor could look that good with a split open lip.
“Ernie was a slob and easy to manipulate. He liked to pretend he was in charge, but we really ran the show. Back in the day this was a fun job that the girls could do hungover and with zero effort. Flash some tit and the tentpole rises. Nassir is all business, and now the dancers have to work for every dollar. There is no playing around, and with Novak gone, every Tom, Dick, and Harry is grappling to prove they’re the next badass. Things are more dangerous, more desperate. Everyone is trying to carve out their own piece of the city, and it shows.” She gestured at her battered face. “Case in point.”
I hated what she said, but it was true. “Why don’t you quit? Go find something less in the line of fire to do?”
She reached out a hand and tapped my cheek lightly. “You always were too pretty and too smart for your own good, Race.” She flipped her hair out to the side. “What do you think I’m qualified to do? I’ve taken my clothes off for a living since I was seventeen. I didn’t finish high school. I don’t have rich parents waiting in the wings. Where else can I make a grand a night and the only risk is an overly zealous soccer dad? This is what I know.”
I was a firm believer in the principle that knowledge was something that continued to grow, continued to develop, as long as you had the desire to chase after it. For me there was always more to know, but I couldn’t fault her for doing what she felt like she had to do in order to survive. I bent down so I could kiss her bruised cheek.
“Take care of yourself.”
She returned the kiss on my dimple. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re back. I just hope you know what you’re doing getting into business with a shark like Nassir.”
“Me too, but it usually only takes one mistake for me to learn my lesson.”
She gave me a sad little smile. “One mistake is too many in this world, Race. This isn’t the Hill. Remember that.”
I watched her disappear into the office where I had left Nassir. I wished everyone would stop bringing up where I was from. I knew that Spanky’s wasn’t the Hill. Nothing here even looked the same as there, including me. I guess only time would tell if I had what it took to make the rest of the city see that.
I walked to the Mustang and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I called Brysen to see when she was going to get off work. Her laptop was a paperweight. There was no salvaging it. I pulled as much limited data as I could off the burned-up hard drive and transferred it to a new MacBook I bought for her. I knew she wasn’t going to want to take it, but I didn’t plan on giving her a choice in the matter. She needed it for school and Dovie mentioned she couldn’t afford a new one, so she was leaving with the Mac whether she liked it or not. Plus, I managed to dig most of her Math Theory junk out of the wasteland, so I was hoping that would smooth the way into getting her to accept it.
She answered in a rush and told me she would be off a little after midnight. That was only half an hour away, so I told her I would just wait for her in the parking lot. It would’ve been easier to go inside and have the showdown with her in front of witnesses, but I wanted to see if she had actually listened to me and was going to get an escort out of the restaurant to her car. I didn’t like the idea of her alone in this part of town after dark. Sure, my sister walked the same path, had even taken the bus to and from work, but Dovie had street smarts and could pick out a threat from a mile away. Brysen looked like an ice princess from a fairy tale. I didn’t think she was stupid, but I also didn’t think she had any kind of clue what really lurked in the shadows and the dark.
The front door of the restaurant opened and Brysen’s superblond hair glinted off the glass doors. She had on a tight T-shirt and a short skirt, and obviously hadn’t bothered to change after her shift. A tall Latin guy was walking next to her. She was laughing at something he said and tossed her head back. She really was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. There was just something so easy about her, so effortless, that it made my heart thud heavy in my ears. She put her hand on her escort’s arm and pointed to where the Mustang was sitting. The guy nodded at her, bent down to kiss her on the cheek, and turned around to walk back inside.
Brysen started walking toward me, so I kicked open the car door and rose to my feet. I don’t know where the headlights came from, don’t know how I missed another car idling in the parking lot, but the next thing I knew, there was a squeal of tires, the smell of rubber burning, and a sedan barreling right at her. I saw her go still as I broke into a run. There was too much space between where she was and where I was and the car was headed right toward her. I saw her throw her hands up as the engine revved up even higher. She didn’t scream, didn’t make any kind of noise, so I called her name. Her head snapped around to look at me and I hollered, “Move!” at the top of my lungs.