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“That’s really a better question for you. What are you doing here?” he asked, turning the tables on me.
“I’m working! It’s what we poor people do when we need money. Not everyone was born with a full bank account, Cooper. Some of us—hell, most of us—have to do whatever it takes to pay the bills. And so that’s what I’m doing.” I stalked away from him and went to my locker. “I can take care of myself. Now get out! And don’t ever come here and interrupt my show again.” I turned back and cast him an icy glare, daring him to argue with me.
“Obviously, you can’t take care of yourself if you’re slumming it at this piece of shit place,” he fired back, crossing the room in two steps and getting within centimeters of me again.
“Hey!” Marco said, obviously taking offense to the description of his club.
“Get out!” Cooper growled, not even bothering to direct his attention back to Marco. His eyes were staring at me, darker than I had ever seen them before. “What were you going to do out there, Allison, if I hadn’t put a stop to that? How far were you going to go? Were you going to take one of those pigs back here and give them a little special attention?”
“Are you calling me a whore?”
He backed off and punched one of the lockers, the sound of crunched metal echoing in the now-empty dressing room. “Fuck! Allison!”
I didn’t know what to say. Watching him lose his shit was actually terrifying. Not because I thought he was going to hurt me, but because he was always so controlled and put together. I wasn’t
sure what to do with the out-of-his-mind version of Cooper.
“You’re coming with me. And you’re not ever going to be here again. Understood?”
He was back at my side, close enough to smell how his cologne and sweat mixed together in an intoxicating scent. His body was warm, radiating waves of heat as his anger and frustration rolled off of him.
“Cooper, I don’t know what you thought you were going to accomplish tonight, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want, or need, your help. So, just go away.”
“Not an option,” he said. In one movement, he scooped me right off my feet. I struggled against his grip as he adjusted me, throwing me into a fireman’s carry, careful to pull my robe down to cover my ass, before he turned and hauled me out through the club. I was protesting and pounding on his back, but no one seemed to even bat an eye. They probably just thought I was some drunken girl who was getting out of control and needed to be put in a cab.
Either way, no one stopped us or listened to my cries as Cooper carried me outside and set me inside a waiting SUV that was parked along the curb in front of the club.
“Cooper! What the fuck? This is ridiculous. Let me go back to work,” I yelled, trying to scramble around him and get out of the car.
He ignored me and shut the door. There were people outside the club, watching the scene unfold, and I wondered why none of them were doing anything. I mean, really? A girl gets hauled out on some guys shoulder, thrown into a black SUV with tinted windows in a seedy part of town, hardly wearing any clothes, and no one stops to make sure I was all right, or that I even knew this person.
Although if they’d asked, I would probably deny it.
Cooper slid into the driver’s seat and looked over at me before starting the car. “You good?”
“No! Cooper, I’m not good.” I crossed my arms and looked away from him, staring out the window instead as he pulled away from the curb and started down the road. “Where are you taking me, anyways? This isn’t the right way back to my apartment.”
“I realize that. We’re not going to your apartment.”
I looked back to him, trying to read his face, but he was steely and staring ahead at the road. “Are you going to tell me anything?”
“No.”
“So, this is basically a kidnapping, then?”
He laughed, but it was short and sounded strained. “No, it’s not. Here,” he said, digging in his pocket. “You want my phone? You can call the cops if you want.”
I rolled my eyes and ignored him, looking back out the window as we merged onto the freeway, headed south. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Allison, I had to get you out of that place. And I knew you weren’t going to listen to me and just hop in my car willingly. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Why did you have to get me at all? I was doing just fine. I probably made half my rent money in ten minutes. I would have made the rest tomorrow night, but I have a feeling I won’t be welcomed back. You know, assuming I don’t end up murdered and dumped in the woods somewhere,” I said, watching as the city started to fade as we sped down the road.
He laughed again and this time it was a genuine laugh, the melodic, deep sound taking the edge off my irritation just slightly. I uncrossed my arms. “Seriously, though, how did you even know I was there? It’s not like I broadcasted my whereabouts.”
“I have my ways. It’s not really important.”
Irritation prickled in the back of my mind and I wondered why he always had to be so cagey. Why couldn’t he just tell me what the hell was going on?
