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He nodded, his face pink, wet tracks of tears on his cheeks. I pulled him along with me, stopping briefly for him to get his bag from behind the desk.
“I vote we stop for some burgers and fries. Replenish all those calories you burned up worrying.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
My sweet beta had been so on edge. He’d luckily been receptive to my efforts to distract him. Now we were waiting for Nicky’s omega’s heat to be over before any of us would have a chance to see her. Everyone was back to stewing and worrying after finding out that moments after Nicky had been able to let Sidney know she was safe, her ex-fiancé had broken into the pack house to attack her.
Luca was unable to focus, the rest of the Marinos were floating around as if Nicky had died, and Allie and I were trying to hold things together.
Nicky wanted space while she recovered, which was all fine and good for her but was fucking hell for everyone else. I was sure she had probably talked to her mom to try reassuring her, but being told and seeing a person were completely different.
The only reason I was in the loop was because Allie went out of her way to keep me there, and Luca, of course, but no one knew he and I were talking anyway. While I completely understood not wanting to be bombarded by family during recovery from both a heat and an attack, it was hard not to feel a little bitter toward Nicky while I watched Luca agonize over the situation.
“I wish I could pop by to see her,” said Luca. “Just for five minutes.”
“Gated community makes that a little difficult.”
“I know. I’m trying to respect what she wants, but I still hate it.”
“We’ll see her tomorrow,” I reminded him.
I tried not to be annoyed over the fact that tomorrow was a week and a half since the library had burned down. I knew part of the delay was the heat, but the rest of it felt arbitrary and I hated to see Luca hurting for no reason.
“What’s going on in your head, Sunshine?”
“Nothing good,” I replied. “Anxious for the meeting.”
“The pack is going to love you.”
“They fucking better. I’m a delight.”
Luca laughed and pulled me closer. My phone went off, a reminder to get ready so I didn’t miss the start of my shift at the club while I was hanging out with Luca at his job.
“Do I have to let you go?”
“Unfortunately. Duty always calls.”
Duty called me all the way to the club and up on stage, where I entertained the filthy-rich masses in a barely there silver outfit that glittered in the stage lights. I didn’t let Arthur put me up for bid, just tips. It was less money, but I was wrung the fuck out after the last week and a half. I didn’t have the energy for alphas wanting a paid-for plaything.
The dollars still racked up, though. They all knew I could see the tip amounts and track their history of how much they’d paid me overall. All of that and their behavior reports gave them a much better chance of being selected in the future if I was reducing what I was offering to them. I was happy to make myself a limited commodity.
I stepped off the stage, butt naked except for my boots, sweaty and covered in glitter. Auggie greeted me with a beaming smile, passing me a bottle of water and a satin robe. I chucked the latter over my shoulders and downed half the water before heading with Auggie to the dressing room to change so we could go out on the floor for the next hour.
I didn’t mind that part so much. Sure, they got handsy, but I didn’t have to fuck anyone in the front rooms, and sitting on a lap, or getting groped a little, boosted the tips. I sat down with a group of alphas wearing a sparkly bikini. I let their hands rest on my thighs, laughed at their jokes,and ooh’ed and aah’ed appropriately at the stories they expected me to be impressed by.
Some of the clients were generally interesting, but most were dull as a box of rocks. Those ones tipped extra well, but they were also like energy vampires, slowly sucking out my will to live.
One of the alphas squeezed a little too high and I adjusted him while laughing at something another had said. They all knew not to push; that was a good way to get blacklisted. Arthur had bonded a pack of his benefactors before he’d bought this club and changed all the rules. Even if all the clients banded together to get the rules reduced in their favor, Arthur wouldn’t have it. It made working a lot easier. Not every club took care of their staff the way this one did. When people were desperate, you could take advantage, and Arthur always made sure that we were paid well enough we weren’t desperate.
Auggie walked with me to the dressing room.
“We should squeak in some more practice for the showcase,” I told him. “I know I skipped this last week.”
“Babe, you skip what you need to. You’re going through stuff and I get needing a break. We’ll pick up again next week if you’re ready.”
I stood on my toes to kiss his cheek. I stuck it out another hour at work, making another round on the floor, and stayed to watch Auggie perform before carting myself back to my apartment and collapsing into bed.
I woke up the next day with all the energy of a slug, showered to scrub off any lingering glitter, and picked myself up what should probably have been an illegal amount of caffeine at the drive-thru on my way to meet Nicky’s pack for the first time.
