“You old enough to be in here, girly?” The behemoth African-American man gave me a little shake. His bald head gleamed under the neon-pink lights and I felt my heart lodge in my throat. Aside from the diamond in his front tooth and the snarl on his face, there was no missing the gun he had snuggled to his side in a leather holster. I was used to violence and the unsavory things that happened in this part of town, but guys with guns was new, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed without making a fool of myself or blowing my shot at checking up on Bax.
“I am.”
“You aren’t here to work or to watch.” It wasn’t a question. “What are you doing here?”
I tried to pry my arm loose, but didn’t get anywhere. “I’m looking for someone.”
That was the wrong thing to say because his ebony brows slammed down and he gave me another little shake. My teeth clicked together and I tasted blood.
“Look, little girl, if your man stepped out on you, that’s your problem. You got a beef with one of the girls, you handle that on your own time and not during working hours. Understand?”
That must be a regular problem if they had this guy here to prevent catfights before they started.
“Run along. Go buy some lipstick or something, and maybe next time your fella won’t have to come looking for a good time down here.”
My pride made me bristle against my will and I pulled on my captured arm again. I was about to tell him to go to hell when the door behind me opened. The brisk night air wafted in, along with an electrical charge that was only carried by a force darker and heavier than the air around it.
“Hey, Chuck. I need to see Honor.” There was no mistaking that rough voice that crackled with authority and cigarette smoke.
“Hold on a sec, Bax. Gotta escort the riffraff out.”
Oh, great. Now, if I had been hoping to slide by unnoticed, there was no chance. I could practically feel those dark eyes burning a hole through the back of my head. My other arm was grasped in a steel-like grip, and I was hauled mercilessly around. My hat went flying and my ponytail sprang free and smacked me in the face. I blew on a curl and met a blazing black stare. The star next to his eye throbbed in time to the muscle twitching in his cheek. It was as terrifying as it was fascinating to watch.
The large bouncer took a step away from me, which sent me falling all the way into Bax. He caught me with his other hand and shook me so hard that my neck made an alarming crack.
“What in the f**k are you doing here?”
“You know her?” the bouncer asked drily.
Bax’s gaze narrowed on me and he gave me a shove that had me scrambling to stay upright on my feet. I felt like a little child being punished for not finishing my dinner. I snatched my hat up and shoved it back on my head and crossed my arms over my chest.
“No. Race knows her.”
“Ahhh . . . well, I have to say, he used to have better taste,” the bouncer drawled, just as drily as before. I wanted to smack him. Too bad he was the size of a house.
“She’s his sister. Lay off.”
“Sorry.” Only the apology went to Bax, not to me. Go figure.
“Honor is on the main stage for five more minutes. I told her you were coming by tonight to see her. She didn’t know you were out.”
“It’s been a busy few days. Just trying to touch base now.”
“That was a raw deal you got, Bax. We were all sad to see you go down for it.”
Bax bit out a bitter-sounding laugh that had no humor in it, and jerked me around to his side.
“I was in the car when the cops stopped me. No getting out of that kind of thing, plus I was a habitual offender. I was lucky all they saddled me with was a nickel.”
“I heard there was way more to it than that.”
Those dark eyes flicked to me and then back up to the bouncer. “You heard wrong. I got busted running cars for Novak. That’s all there was to it. Now I’m out and Novak can go f**k himself. I just want to touch base with Race and get on with my life. Five years is a long time to sit on your hands.”
The bouncer nodded like he understood and I subtly tried to pull myself free. Bax wasn’t having any of it and tightened his grip on me. It hurt, and I think he knew it, if the way those dark eyes narrowed at me indicated.
“Tell Honor I’ll be there in just a second. I gotta handle this first.” This was me, as he turned around and hauled me back out the door. I squeaked in surprise because I wasn’t used to being manhandled, and I wasn’t used to having that kind of unbridled anger directed at me. I minded my own business, I kept my head down, and I stayed out of the way. That was how I survived as long as I had. Getting right in Bax’s way flew in the face of all that, and now this was the consequence.
“What are you doing here? How do you know about this place?”
I wasn’t going to answer that, and I also wasn’t going to let him intimidate me. I yanked free and spun around with every intention of walking away from him. Only I forgot that I wasn’t dealing with just some guy. This guy, he didn’t get ignored or dismissed, and I subsequently found myself backed up against the crumbling brick of the strip club in a scary part of town with an even scarier man all up in my face. I gasped and put my hands around his thick wrists as he hauled me up to the very tips of my toes and got nose to nose with me. The anger in that midnight gaze was hot enough to burn.
“You think you can play games with me, Copper-Top? Do I strike you as the kind of guy that’s carefree and easygoing? Now, I’ll ask once more, and that’s as nice as I get, because if you make me ask again, neither one of us is going to be happy about it. What in the f**k are you doing here?”
Each thick wrist I was holding on to had a matching black-and-gray tattoo of broken links of chain around it. Like he had broken free from some kind of restraint and was set loose to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.
“I’m worried about my brother. He trusts you, thinks you can help him. I need to know what you know. Marco heard you say you were going to be here, so I need to be here. I love him.” My voice cracked, and even though I knew it was foolish to show the enemy weakness, I couldn’t stop tears from filling my eyes.
“You have no clue what you’re doing. All you can do is be in my way and make trouble for me. Chuck never forgets a face, so if someone comes sniffing around, he’s going to mention a redhead poking her nose where it has no place being. Go back to school. Go back to the diner. Go back to your apartment. If I can find Race, and it’s not too late, I’ll let you know.”
He let me go and I slid down the wall, my hair snagging on the rough brick. He turned his back on me and I reached out to snag his wrist. I knew desperation, knew the soul-deep burn of want and can’t have, but this was something else.
“Please, Shane. Please let me help you. He’s my brother. I’ll do anything. I’ll give you anything you want. Please.” I had never begged for anything in my life, and I sure as hell had always been too smart to owe a debt to a guy like this, but for Race I would do it. I tried to make him see, tried to put everything I was feeling into my gaze, but those black velvet eyes didn’t so much as flinch. He flicked the tip of his tongue out and let his gaze skate over me from the top of my head to the tips of my battered tennis shoes.
“Are you a virgin, Copper-Top?” I recoiled, because I had no clue what that had to do with anything. I felt heat flood into my face and I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Why? What on earth does that have to do with anything?”
He pulled out a cigarette from the pack in the pocket of his hoodie and lifted a dark eyebrow at me.
“You’ll give me anything? I don’t think you have anything I want, but I was locked up for a very long time. A guy gets lonely.”
I couldn’t tell if he was baiting me or if he was just being mean and outrageous on purpose. I also couldn’t tell if he was serious, which was the worst case.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
He gave a laugh and blew out a stream of smoke. He ran his thumb along the edge of his bottom lip and stepped around me.
“No one calls me Shane. It’s just Bax and that’s why you’ll only be in my way. When you say you’re willing to give anything, you have to mean it. These people, they will take it all, even if it’s something you don’t want to give. Go home.”
His hand was on the door and he was slipping away from me again. I don’t know what spurred me into action, still didn’t know if he was serious or not, but for Race I could do it. I would hate myself, hate this dark and dangerous boy, but I could do it.
“I’m not . . . a virgin, I mean. No one is anymore, so no one can take it, because Billy Clark already did. I gave it up willingly after drinking a stolen bottle of wine when I was sixteen and he told me I was pretty. He was the first boy who ever did that. I’m not scared of you, Bax. I am, however, scared to death for Race. I will do whatever it takes.”
He must have seen the resolve, must have known I wasn’t just going to go away, because he flicked the cigarette he was smoking into a puddle of unidentified liquid and pulled open the door.
“We are both going to regret this sooner than later, Copper-Top. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I felt his eyes burn into me as he followed me back into the strip club. I wasn’t sure what I had just agreed to, or what was waiting for me around the next bend. What I did know, could feel in every cell of my body, was that I had just made an unbreakable deal with the devil and paying up might mark my soul forever.
CHAPTER 3
Bax
SHE SURPRISED ME. THAT was hard to do anymore.
I pushed her, downright threatened her virtue, and she didn’t so much as flinch. She wasn’t my type. I liked girls who played on the same field as me, girls who knew enough not to ask if I was coming back or bothered with being on a first-name basis. Not to mention, all that pale skin and orange hair wasn’t my thing. Although she was prettier today in the neon lights of Spanky’s. Her green eyes were luminous and stubborn as hell, and with all that hair pulled away from her face, I could see high cheekbones dusted with freckles and a pink mouth with full lips that didn’t belong on a chick who looked like a Catholic schoolgirl. She was far less ordinary than I initially thought, but she had an entirely untouched vibe going on that I just didn’t have the time or the patience for. I still couldn’t tell what she was working with under all those ill-fitting clothes, but sweet and soft was not a turn-on, and neither was the obstinate way she was hounding me.
It was clear I wasn’t just going to shake her off. She was bound and determined to have her fingers in everything I was doing to scare up information on Race, and the fact of the matter was, she was safer in front of me than trying to dodge my heels in the shadows. In all honesty, I figured she would see the places I was going, the rough crowd I was dealing with, and back off. If that didn’t work, I would just dangle the threat of raging libido in front of her and hope that did the trick. She didn’t strike me as the type that liked getting down and dirty, but I was a bastard and could push any advantage I had if it got me what I wanted.
All strip clubs were the same. Desperate girls dancing for lonely and depressed men. They smelled like baby oil and cheap booze and I had yet to be inside one where either the customers or the workers seemed like they really wanted to be there. Spanky’s was a little different. The girls who worked there didn’t have to rely on turning tricks or taking the clientele home to make a buck. Ernie, the guy that ran the joint, was on Novak’s payroll and let his guys use the spot to do business and run illegal poker games on the weekends, so the girls were well compensated and often acted like pretty pieces of furniture rather than exotic dancers. Chuck kept a tight eye on the place, and I could see not much had changed since I had left as he escorted me and my tagalong to one of the red velour booths in the VIP section back by the bar.