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“Why?”
“I once told you that when you found someone, they would tie you up in knots.” She doesn’t know about my love of the knot, but she did say something like that once. I helped Paige get free of a bad situation a couple of years ago and we became close friends.
“You did say something like that but nope. I’m only looking to help her brother out.” I don’t confess that I miss Callie. That I want her and wish I hadn’t turned her down.
“Keep lying to yourself like that, D.” She laughs, and I remember a time when she didn’t laugh. When all I saw in her eyes was sorrow and pain.
“That’s a nice sound. I’m glad you found your forever. I’m too messed up to find mine.” My laptop pings from across the room. “Work calls.”
“Why did you call?”
“I got rid of the viper finally.”
“Good, but she’s not the reason you won’t go for C. Grow a set and give it a try. Talk to you soon.” Paige hangs up, and I stand from the bed where I ended up sitting down while I talked to her. I look around the room in my condo in Los Angeles. I came out here when a contact of mine found Callie had been here for a bit. She’s gone now, but I’m trying to find where she went.
I chuckle at Paige and her comments before I look at the message on my laptop. It’s from a contact I have on the dark web. The information looks promising, so I message Carter to give him a heads-up. I don’t want to get his hopes up. It looks like Callie might have been in contact with someone in Hawaii who might know where she is. A friend no one seemed to know about.
Carter messages me back. He’s in Tennessee helping someone else, but he’ll head out as soon as he can.
His family has been worried that Sir or the Hierarchy has already found Callie and that’s why she hasn’t reached out to them. After talking to him, I get the impression she doesn’t want to talk to them because they think she’s weak and incapable of taking care of herself. I know she’s stronger than they think. I know they underestimate her.
CHAPTERTWO
CALLIE
Music pumps through the club and I can feel it in my pulse. My heart thumps harder. My tattoo is healing up, but it’s going to suck working while it’s still tender.
I’m nervous.
I’m always nervous before a new set. Tonight, I’m dressed in little spandex shorts about the equivalent in size to the shorts I used to wear under my cheer outfit. I’m in a matching sexy brown bikini top with rope for arm and leg cuffs. My hair is done up in a fake dreadlock style, and I have dark makeup on, giving me a dirty but sexy look. I’m one of only a few dancers here that has mastered the ring, and tonight is my first night doing it. I watch through the curtains as Brielle performs her routine on the bar attached to the ceiling. When she completes her act and moves through the curtains to me, she smiles and pats my shoulder.
“You got this. You’ve practiced like crazy, and you look amazing.” Her hand moves up and down my body. I have gold glitter all over my skin to help the lights reflect off it.
I hear my announcement and slowly make my way out as the ring comes down from the ceiling. I grab on, and with deliberate yet slow dance moves, I lift myself up into the center of the ring and wait for the perfect moment. The crescendo starts and I drop through the middle. My ankle, foot, and upper body keep me from dropping to the floor now over five feet below me. I move through the ring as the song, “Ready or Not,” continues to play around me. With every drop after the crescendo, I lower down in a new way until I reach the stage with a loud thump. The dance is sexy but extremely artistic.
I learned after my first couple of nights to never look out at the audience, to look over their heads. I can only make out the dark shapes as if they are shadows. I love being able to use all my years of dance toward something. I’m not a stripper. I’m a dancer. Yes, I dance in a gentleman’s club, but it’s honest money. I don’t sleep around. I know my family would never understand though.
I move from the stage to the back to change for my next number.
“You have a private in the scarf room, then one in a private pole room,” our manager, Trixie, says, and I nod. “Keep the hair but change your outfits.”
“Okay.” I smile at her as I step into the dressing room.
The scarf room is a small room where I can’t see who’s watching me and there could be several people watching from all four sides. The scarves are aerial silks in a sling style that I also have learned to dance with. The more you know, the more they use you. Some of the girls only want to dance on the pole. I’d rather learn more and be used more often.
I change into our normal outfit of a bedazzled black bikini. The top is a choker halter style that laces at the back and has cuts in the front so my breasts can be seen but only glimpses. The bottoms are cut so low that I must wax, and the back allows my ass crack to partially show. I clean my makeup up, removing any smudges and making myself look pretty instead of strong.
I enter from a door next to one of the smaller observation rooms. There is a large size room so a few people can be in it and a medium one for a couple or if the person just wanted a room. I don’t assume it’s only men watching me anymore as I’ve seen several women here before.
The room is barely lit, and I move to where I need to be before the timer beeps and the partitions over the windows rise. The first customer to get the room gets to pick the music that will be played. They obviously picked “Bad Girlfriend” as it starts.
I grab the silk loop and hoist myself up and start a fast routine to the song. The management makes sure we have at least one routine for each song in these rooms. For the first time though I feel eyes on me and they cause my body to tremble. Not in a bad way. I’ve never been turned on by what I’m doing, but I guess there is always a first.
My nipples pebble behind my bra. Thank goodness it’s padded or the others watching would see. I don’t know if all the rooms are filled. I get paid an hourly rate plus tips for the private rooms. The main floor is part of our hourly wages.
I hang upside down as the song ends and pray I can hold it together until I get home, where I’ll use the shower head to help me get off or my battery-operated boyfriend. I never used to pleasure myself, but since I met Declan a couple of years ago, I’ve needed to. When I fled Scotland, I couldn’t bring everything with me because I had to pack light. I made sure my brother wouldn’t be traumatized by finding my vibrator. So I packed it in a box and left him a note telling him to put everything in storage. That’s all I told him. I didn’t say where I was going or when I’d be back. I tendered my resignation with S.I. through email. I loved that job more than this one, but I won’t ever be able to go back there for so many reasons. The first being the lies everyone believes and Piper possibly being in danger because of me. But mostly I couldn’t stand to see Declan again after he turned me down.
I blot my face before preparing for my next private session. Then I guzzle down some water to quench my parched throat and try to get my body under control again. I slip on and buckle a pair of high platform heels before I make my way to the exclusive dance rooms.
