The drive to Paradise City was uneventful. It was after eight, so it wasn’t like it was prime rush hour or anything. I wasn’t surprised to see that the parking lot was starting to get crowded. Most of the cars were from regulars, but there were over a dozen that I figured belonged to college kids.
I hated the college brats. It was the biggest source of revenue for the city, and considering how prestigious the college claimed to be, I was surprised the place wasn’t glitzier. Then again, maybe the MC had something to do with that. They had more or less been running Creswell Springs long before the mayor had gotten the backing he had needed to bring the college to his neck of the woods. With them hanging around, causing so much trouble for the mayor and DA, the big money backers weren’t likely to start footing the bill to put up designer boutiques and imported car dealerships.
I grinned to myself as I headed for the back door. Not much amused me when it came to the old man who had supplied half my DNA, but knowing that the MC had the power to irritate him almost every minute of the day sure did.
“Evening, Kelli.”
My grin faded as I nodded in greeting to Van, the bouncer who kept the riffraff from sneaking in through the back door, and the girls from sneaking out with customers to blow them in the parking lot between their sets.
Van’s name suited him, considering he was bigger than any mom van I had ever seen. He wasn’t fat by anyone’s standards, but the guy had muscle upon muscle that seemed to vibrate with every breath he took.
With the big muscles came a below average sized brain, however. I felt kind of sorry for the big guy. He was a gentle giant ninety-five present of the time. But if one of us was in trouble, he could flip the switch and become a beast who destroyed anyone in his path. Spider had hired him right after I had run into a little trouble not long after I had started working at Paradise City.
My half-brother had come in one night with his frat friends and had recognized me almost at once. Seeing me in the same town where he had been exiled to for the current semester, he had known immediately what our father was up to and had let me know really quickly what he thought of Calvin’s plan.
Spider had thought I was being molested, but really, all Kevin had done was give me a few bruises and the promise of more if he saw me again. After that, I had kept more of a low profile, even at the club. However, Calvin had still been adamant about keeping an eye on his precious only son.
Van opened the door for me, and I walked into the bright corridor that led to the girls’ changing room. Adjusting the strap of my gym bag, I pulled out my bottle of water and took a sip while a few other girls came in behind me. I didn’t know many of them well, and they didn’t really like me all that much, but I could learn a lot by just sitting back and keeping my ears open.
The changing room was what anyone would expect when they thought of a strip club’s dressing room. Vanity stations were set up everywhere, the bright bulbs baking the thick makeup on the other girls’ faces as they got ready for work.
My station was in the corner, as far away from the bathroom as possible. I wasn’t a fan of listening to some of those bitches puking their guts out periodically throughout the night.
I dropped my bag on the floor beside my chair and slowly sat after making sure there was no gunk of any kind on it. Nasty bitches liked to sit in my chair without any bottoms on, and I kept a can of Lysol and a container of disinfectant wipes on hand just for that purpose. When they left me little surprises like that, I always went off the deep end on every single one of them. After the last time it had happened, and I had gotten some kind of white nastiness on my favorite Juicy sweats, it had stopped, and they all now walked widely around my station.
“So, what do you think?”
It took me a minute to realize someone was talking to me. I lifted my head, examining the chick who had just walked up behind me. She was wearing killer heels that made her legs look like they were a million miles long, yet she was super tiny. The outfit she was wearing, a mixture of dominatrix with a dash of cop in black leather, was so tight it appeared to be spray painted over her perfectly porcelain skin. Her tits looked amazing with whatever pushup she was using, making me instantly jealous of her assets.
I had no idea which of the girls she was, because her face was behind some kind of lacy mask that let her see out, but hid her features. Her hair was glossy black and fell past her waist, but when I looked closer, I realized it was a wig, although a really good one like my own.
Her voice sounded familiar, so I knew it had to be one of the girls who talked to me every now and then …
“You don’t recognize me?” Her voice was full of awe now, and I jerked to my feet as if she had just tased me.
“Quinn?” I half-shrieked, half-whispered when she put her finger to her lips and glanced around as if she expected the FBI to burst through the fucking door and drag her away.
Goddammit, I wish that would happen, but we both knew it would be a billion times worse than that if Colt found out she was even in Paradise City, let alone dressed like she was about to make every man in the building her sensual prisoner. I could picture my boyfriend turning into the caveman he claimed he wasn’t and killing every single man in the county to eradicate the image of his best friend from their minds.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded in a lower voice so the girls now giving me worried looks like I was about to become possessed and butcher them all wouldn’t hear me.
Jesus Christ, maybe I would. It would save me all kinds of trouble with Colt.
“More to the point, why the hell are you dressed like”—I waved my hands up and down at her outfit, even as I mentally checked her out all over again. Fuck, she was hot. I had done plenty of experimenting, but hell, looking at her right then was making me wonder just how much experimenting I could still do with my roommate—“that?”
If I hadn’t already known it was Quinn, I would have when she started twisting her fingers together, something she did when she was nervous.
“I need the money,” she murmured after a few moments of just staring down at her feet, which were covered in the sexiest leather boots I had ever set eyes on.
They went up to her thighs, shaping them in a way that shot my heartrate up a few notches. I could only imagine what she was going to do to the middle-aged guys with heart conditions. And the college brats? They would be jizzing themselves before she even finished her first set.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hide the fact that my nipples had gone rock-hard at the sight of her in that outfit. It wasn’t that I was a lesbian, or even bisexual, despite my experimental phase. No, Quinn was just that fucking hot, and I was really giving my sexuality a rethought as I watched her inhale sharply, making her tits quiver.
“Why?”
What the hell did she need that would require her to go from working her respectable job at Aggie’s to wanting to bare all her lovely assets to the world in this sleazy place?
The answer to why I still worked there was easy. I liked the excitement of knowing a room full of men wanted me yet couldn’t touch. But Quinn … She was so sweet, so innocent. This place would fuck all that up, would fuck her up, and it hurt to think about that happening to her.
“I’m leaving,” Quinn told me, lifting her chin almost defiantly.
I nodded. “Good idea.” I started to bend to pick up my bag. “Come on; I’ll go with you.”
She swatted at my hand when I would have taken hold of her elbow. “No.” She shook her head, making the silky dark hair of the wig shimmy over her shoulders. Yeah, I was definitely rethinking the whole lesbian angle. Maybe I was bisexual after all.
Maybe I could talk Colt into a threesome with me and his best friend …
Shit. Now I had those images in my head and they wouldn’t go away. Of Colt doing all those naughty things he loved to do to me, while I did a few naughty things of my own to sweet, little Quinn.
“Kelli, I can’t go home. I need th
is job. I need the money.” She stepped back from me when I would have become more forceful. “What I meant is that I’m leaving Creswell Springs. As soon as I have enough money to do it, I’m getting the hell out of here.”
Something in her voice had all the heat she had been producing in me turning to ice. I couldn’t see a single one of her features, but I knew her well enough to guess she was trying not to cry. What had happened that would make her want to pull up all the roots she had to this place and move away? She had so much going for her there. People loved her, cared about whether she was taken care of or not. She had so much. The goddamn world at her fingertips, for fuck’s sake.
So, why did she want to give all that up?
Chapter 13
Quinn
The scent of baby oil was strong as I tried to breathe. It wasn’t just nerves restricting my airways. Topaz had gotten a kick out of dressing me up, and honestly, the outfit we had finally agreed on was the tamer of them all. Still, she’d had a little too much fun playing dress-up stripper, with me as her Barbie doll.
The older chick had shown an excitement that had been slightly contagious as she had put the veil over my face, and then done-up my hair. Then she had taken me out to the main stage and taught me how to use the pole. My muscles were already screaming after working some that had never been used a day in all my twenty-five years. Regardless, Topaz was a natural teacher, and I had caught on fairly quick.
After the stripper pole crash course, she had proceeded to show me how to work the crowd. As I followed her directions, the bartenders and even one of the bouncers had stopped what they were doing to watch. Watching them watch me had given me a new confidence I had never had before, and I found myself liking the attention, when any other time I would have run and hid from it.
I was pumped up and ready to hit the stage for an actual show.
Kelli, however, was trying to drag me out the nearest door.
“Do you understand what you’re doing?” she whispered fiercely to me as she continued to tug on my arm. “If Colt finds out about this, I’m dead. You realize that, right?”
I crossed my arms over my breasts; a hard feat now that they were practically in my throat with the contraption Topaz had lubed me up with baby oil to get me into. “Why would he kill you?” I demanded, keeping my voice low so none of the other girls rushing around to get ready could hear us.
“Because he told me to take care of you while he is gone, and if he finds out I let you do something this crazy, he will totally lose his shit.”
I rolled my eyes at how dramatic she was being about my best friend. I knew good and well Colt would flip out if he ever found out about my second job, but the way she was talking, it was like she expected him to beat her or something. Colt Hannigan would never lay a finger on a woman in anger. He might scare the hell out of them by shouting, and once he had even gotten in my sister Whitney’s face, but even then, there had been no fear that he would hurt her. He might have been dangerous, but he was a good man.
The best, in my eyes.
“I’m pretty sure we can handle him if he finds out about this,” I assured her.
He was probably going to drag me out of there, kicking and screaming. Until that happened, I was going to save as much money as possible.
Kelli finally dropped my arm, stepping closer, dropping her voice even lower than it had been. “What the hell is going on, Quinn? You have to talk to me, babe. Tell me what’s brought on this desperate need for money. Are you in trouble? Do you owe someone?” Her eyes were full of concern, and something else. Something dark that told me, if I was in trouble with someone, she would handle the problem for me.
I wished I knew more about her, but again, something told me that I wasn’t going to like what I found out. Therefore, I kept my mouth shut, because I loved her and didn’t want or need to know her secrets.
“No,” I told her in as reassuring of a tone as I could muster while still keeping my voice at whisper level. “I told you, I’m leaving.”
“But why?” she exclaimed, losing patience with me. “I don’t understand any of this shit.”
I shrugged, drawing Kelli’s eyes to my boobs as they threatened to pop out of my top. “It’s something I have been thinking about for a while now. Actually, it has been years in the making. Ever since Flick got up the courage to leave, I’ve been thinking about doing the same.”
Kelli narrowed her eyes. “You’re going to just run away? Without telling anyone where you’re going or staying in touch?” She shook her head and backed up a step. “No, you can’t do that to Colt. I won’t let you do that to him.”
I blew out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not going to pull a Flick, I promise. I just want to find a place where I can start all over. Away from … everything.” The last word came out barely above a whisper, and I started to turn away, not wanting to revisit my sudden urge to put as much distance between me and the place I had called home my entire life.
However, Kelli wasn’t about to let it go. She caught my elbow and jerked me around to face her with surprising strength. “Away from everything … or everyone?” She had that dark, dangerous look in her eyes again. “You’re not telling me everything, babe.”
I glanced around to see if anyone was watching us, but the others were still busy getting themselves ready to go on stage. Still, I didn’t want to chance them overhearing us, so I nodded my head toward her vanity station.
Her face darkened even more, if that was possible, but she released me, and we moved farther away from the other girls in the room.
Kelli backed me into the corner behind her station, blocking me in and lowering her head. Despite the killer heels I was in, and the added height they offered me, she was still an inch or so taller in just her sneakers.
“Quinn,” she practically growled at me when I didn’t immediately start talking.
I clasped my hands together, trying my best to keep from twisting my fingers. I had been trying so hard not to think about what had happened with Raider, and now that I was about to actually speak it aloud, it would make it even more real.
Dammit, I didn’t want it to be real. I wanted it to just have been a dream. One that had started out so hot, but had ended with me feeling ice-cold.
“Oh, dear Lord, Quinn, what the fuck did you do?” She dipped her head lower. “More importantly, who did you do it with?”
I opened my mouth, but the words refused to come out. Then I saw the realization enter her eyes.
“No.” She was shaking her head, in just as much denial as I was. “No. You wouldn’t be that stupid. You couldn’t have possibly …” She trailed off. We both knew that it was completely possible.
And true.
“Okay,” she muttered, sucking in a long, harsh breath. “Tell me everything.”
My fingers began to twist together without me even realizing it while I gave her a rundown of everything that had happened the night before. The make-out session with Boomer that had led to us going into the wrong bedroom, followed by everything that had transpired with Raider. By the time I was finished, Kelli’s nostrils were flaring with a temper that was burning hot.
“He took advantage of you.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement that came out in a voice that promised pain and death.
I found myself shaking my head. “No, it was consensual.”
“You were drunk, Quinn.” Her hands balled into fists at her sides. “He had no right to touch you.”
“No. It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t that drunk, I swear.”
I didn’t know why I was defending him, but I didn’t want her to think he was some kind of sleazeball who took advantage of drunken girls. It hadn’t been like that. I had wanted everything that had happened with Raider. And even when it had hurt, I had still wanted it. It had only been afterward that I had felt used and unwanted all over again. He had turned something that should have been magical for me into something that I felt ashamed of.
H
e hadn’t even kissed me, something that still continued to bruise my heart over and over again whenever I remembered.
“Not that drunk? Even a little drunk is too much. He took advantage of you.” She caught ahold of my shoulders and pushed her face close, her eyes drilling into mine. “That’s not right, Quinn.” Right before my eyes, her face went ghostly pale. “Oh, my God, Quinn, did he at least use protection?”
I felt the blood drain from my face as a new realization hit me right between the eyes. I had been so hung up on the fact that he hadn’t even tried to kiss me that I hadn’t even thought of the fact that he hadn’t used a condom. It was my first time, dammit; it wasn’t like protection had been front and center in my mind when I had been getting everything I had always thought I wanted from a man who I had stupidly loved for too many wasted years.
“Kelli …” I breathed her name as a cold sweat broke out all over my body and I felt oddly dizzy.
She moved her hands from my shoulders to my waist, pulling me against her side and helping me to the chair in front of her vanity. When I shakily sat down, she crouched in front of me, holding onto my now ice-cold fingers with her warm ones.
“Shit, babe. Shit, shit, shit.” She was glancing frantically around, as if looking for something to make the sudden reality of what kind of trouble I had gotten myself into go away.
But there was nothing that could make this go away.
I had fucked up.
What if I caught something from that manwhore biker?
What if I was pregnant?
I couldn’t be connected to him for the rest of my life. I just couldn’t. Not when it had been so forcefully shoved down my throat that Raider Fucking Hannigan wasn’t the guy I had built up in my head for so long.
This was a disaster, and I had no way of cleaning it up.
What the hell was I going to do if I was pregnant?
I wasn’t worried about what Raider would do. He was too happy fucking his way through life to possibly even care that he had gotten one random hookup pregnant. It probably happened to him all the time. Who knew how many of the club mommas had produced little Raiders? I was just one of many, as I was sure the possible baby that was growing inside of me right then would be.