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LANCE
The ride to the club is unusually uncomfortable, Hayden and I haven’t had tension between us like this before. Elle comes back into our lives for less than twenty-four hours and everything is messed up. At least Brent is unaffected.
I sit in the front seat while Brent drives the sleek black SUV, he’s stoically silent, not unusual, and Hayden is in the back seat, typing away on his phone. His face is lit by the bluish glow of the screen and he looks serious as his fingers fly over the keys. I watch him in the wing mirror for a while before a thought occurs to me.
“How long have you been messaging her?” I turn to face him.
He shrugs and doesn’t look up, “Why? Is that against some kind of rule?”
I clench my jaw and tamper down my growing frustration at his snark. “I’m not your mother Hayden, I don’t set rules. I was just wondering.”
“Except when it comes to coasters on the coffee table,” he jokes, finally looking up and gives me a wicked smile to let me know he’s teasing. It still it feels off. I roll my eyes and twist back round to face the road ahead. “I text her every year on her birthday and at Christmas. I let her know I’m thinking of her, and I wish her well. She never replies but I can see that she reads the messages.” He’s looking at me in the mirror now.
I think on that for a moment. “She has the same number?”
“Obviously.” He looks out the window for a moment. “Unless she changed it and it got reassigned to someone else and I have been messaging some randomer for three years who reads my messages but doesn’t have the heart to tell me they’re not Elle.”
Unlikely.
He looks back at me with a smug smile. “She knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the messages last night.”
If she still has the same number, it means I still have it. It means I can contact her, the thought pleases me but I manage to catch my smile before it shows. I know she will be working tonight because I’d checked the website last night and I called Amiri to schedule the meeting when she would be there. Still a coil of doubt is winding itself around my middle and growing tighter. I am excited about seeing Elle, how could I not be? She has always been the one. But she hates me and with good reason. I broke her heart, and mine, by pushing her away and if I do as my father says and finalise the purchase of the club tonight, it’ll all be for nothing. She will be owned by The Daos, not that the club as a business is of any interest to my father, as long as it makes money, he doesn’t care what happens there. But when you work for The Daos, even for one of the legitimate businesses, your loyalty is expected. I’d tried so hard to keep her away from this life, but here I am about to drag her into it.
We arrive twenty minutes before my meeting with Amiri. The club is full, even more so than yesterday. Bodies crowd every available space, not just the dancefloor, and the staff behind the bar are working at impressive speed to fulfil the drinks orders being barked at them from waiting patrons. There’s a DJ amping the crowd and a hum of chatter and excitement can be heard along with the bass. The three of us stand to one side, surveying the crowd, watching the goings on and silently evaluating what this place would be in Dao hands.
“Starlight!” The DJ booms into his mic. “The moment I know you’ve all been waiting for, please welcome to the stage, the incredible, the sensational, the fantastical Miss. Elle. Maxwell!”
The crowd goes wild. Like, seriously wild. You would think Beyonce had just walked onto the stage. If I’m honest, I was more excited about Elle than I would have been about Beyonce. The audience are whooping and cheering and screaming and clapping. Elle walks on stage waving and smiling, throwing kisses into the crowd and encouraging their noise. She looks like a wet dream. Black silk shorts that are cut more like a bikini bottom, riding high on her arse cheeks, the waist coming to her belly button. On top she wears a silver sequined corset that cinches her in and pushes her breasts to perfect rounds peeking above the low neckline. Her legs were wrapped in fishnet tights,and she struts in chunky ankle boots with a huge heel. Her hair is split in half, the top piled into a knot at the top of her head, the lower half in waves just beyond her shoulders. The deep purple tint to her hair shimmering in the stage lights and her eyes looked lighter, almost silver against the darkness of her hair. Like yesterday, her makeup is heavy, and her lips a dark pink.
“Guys, stop. You’re making me blush,” she breathes into the microphone sending a wink out to her adoring crowd as the band settles in behind her. The audience make even more noise and she just throws her head back and laughs. “Alright you lot, you in the mood for a little bit of Country?”
Cheers all around.
I stand mesmerised as Elle struts around the stage, stomping her feet and throwing her arms about, giving full attitude to her rendition of Carrie Underwood’sBefore He Cheats. At some point, Brent turns to face the bar, no longer interested in the show, but I feel Hayden beside me, watching with equal fascination. She is utter perfection, her voice rasping over the song where necessary, sultry and alluring, but I know she could turn it sweet as honey when needed. People are right up by the stage reaching for her and she runs her hands through theirs as she moves from one side of the stage to the other. Every belt of her voice sends the blood rushing to my cock and every roll of her hips has me clenching my fists to stop from touching her…or myself.
Each song gets the crowd moving more and more, it takes me a couple songs to realise that the bar is nearly clear. Everyone is watching the star on stage, being drawn in by her siren’s call, moving their bodies against each other, swaying in time to the beat of the drums. On about her fourth song, she makes her way to the steps from the stage to the dancefloor, the crowd parting to let her through as she singsFuck Youby CeeLo Green, switching to a female point of view. As she passes men in the crowd, she strokes her hand over their chests, she presses her backside against a woman’s front and dances with her for a moment.
There is a group of about three women next to us, they’ve been looking at us since we got here, trying to catch one of our eyes, but Brent is working and cannot be distracted, and Haydenand I are enraptured by one woman, and one woman only. Elle prances over, singing to the women as though the lyrics are meant just for them.
She sings the chorus about driving around town and ends on an aggressive “fuck you.” Turning slightly she catches my gaze. I see the flash in her eyes, anger, but as soon as it appears it is gone and she continues her song as though I was any other stranger. Another line goes by ending on another another “fuck you.” She points to me as she spits the words. The sad thing is she couldn’t be richer, her father was richer than even my father, but even if she were, she still could not be with me. “Fuck you.” She blows me a sweet kiss with an obviously fake smile before turning back into the crowd to continue her performance.
My heart beats at twice its speed watching her walk away. I want more than anything for her to melt for me, to come into my arms willingly and give me her smiles and her kisses. But I’d be lying if I said her fire wasn’t turning me on.
“I think she’s still pissed,” Hayden says into my ear and I just glare at him.
“I’m so glad you decided to sign.” Arash Amiri slides a thick document to my side of the table with a fountain pen. His eyes dart to Brent, standing in the corner, and Hayden who is stood behind my shoulder. “You know, you kind of look like a mob boss,” he says with a laugh.
I raise a brow at him and his smile fades slightly. Taking the pen in hand I look over the document, our lawyer has already reviewed it in digital form and said there are no red flags, so I am okay to sign. This would be the first property in my name, not my father’s. I’d been careful to ensure all went well until the Elle shaped spanner was thrown into the works. The dotted line stands out starkly empty and I hover the pen over where I could sign Elle’s life away.
Can I do this? Can I really say that the last three years of pain and heartache were only to save Elle from three less years under the Dao’s thumb? If I don’t sign right now, I risk the wrath of my father. Although I don’t think he’d put a bullet in my head like Julian, but he would not be beyond punishing me for failing to do as he says. There has to be a way to save her. A thought occurs to me; it would be awful, she’d hate me more than she already does, but at least I can say it’s for her own good.
I put the pen down again. “Do you have stats and figures for each of the performers?”
He looks at me, confused by the sudden change and I can feel Hayden shuffle forward, probably wondering where I’m going with this. “I, uh, what kind of stats?” Amiri asks.
“Do you know exactly what each of the performers is bringing in, revenue wise? Do you know if they are all worth the cost they impose?”
“You can’t be thinking of letting anyone go?” His face falls in concern and hurt, as though I had personally offended him.
