Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 122896 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 614(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122896 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 614(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
T-Bone’s eyes narrowed on her and she did not like the slow tobacco-stained smile that crossed his tattooed face. “Feisty as fuck. I like it.” He then grabbed his crotch with the hand not choking her.
His fingers squeezed even harder, closing off her throat and making her wheeze in desperation to draw in air.
As her vision began to darken around the edges, she heard a female voice scream, “Oh my God, MJ! Get off her, idiot!”
It sounded like Raven. Mel didn’t want her getting caught up in a mess she created.
“MJ!”
“Get—” She was screwed because she couldn’t tell Raven to go get a bouncer. She no longer had employees who weren’t Demons. None of them would help her. Not a damn one. They had zero respect for women. Especially for women who talked back. “Get… inside, Raven… I’m okay.”
“You’re not okay! Let her go! Saint! Get that asshole off of her!”
Oh shit. Taint was now outside?
Even when T-Bone’s fingers flexed on her neck, he did not loosen his hold. However, with his attention on the head Demon, she managed to barely nudge her phone under the van with her toe.
She doubted it was enough for them to not spot it, but hopefully the screen had automatically locked by now so they couldn’t see she’d taken pictures. If they did, she was afraid her problem would no longer be a bruised neck, but a broken one.
“What the fuck’s goin’ on here? Let her fuckin’ go, T-Bone.”
“She’s bein’ a fuckin’ bitch.”
Taint shook his head. “You ain’t yet figured out they’re all bitches?”
“This one was bein’ a cunt more than normal.”
Taint grabbed T-Bone’s shoulders and yanked him off her. As soon as she was free, her hand automatically went up to her sore throat and she gulped in air.
In that moment, she discovered two things:
Breathing was not overrated.
And she enjoyed doing it.
“If you can’t handle a sliver of a slit like her, you might not be earnin’ your fuckin patches.”
“Then lemme handle her the way I wanna handle her.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Raven yelled, somewhere behind Taint.
Taint shot a scowl at Raven and pointed at the door. “Get the fuck back inside and back to fuckin’ work.”
“But—”
“Raven, go,” Mel croaked, again not wanting the dancer to sink knee deep in the shit she stirred.
“Come with me,” Raven urged, stepping around Taint to get closer to Mel, her dark eyes full of worry.
Of course Mel wanted to go back inside with Raven, but her phone was still under the van and she didn’t want to risk leaving it behind. Especially if it had important evidence that might help Finn’s case.
She wouldn’t know that until she scrolled through the barrage of photos she took.
Sucking in a bolstering breath, she told Raven, “Go. I’ll be in shortly.”
Taint warned the dancer, “Go back inside now or find another stage to flash your fake tits.”
Raven’s eyes met hers, her eyes now full of hatred instead of worry, and Mel gave her a slight nod. The dancer only hesitated for a few more seconds before turning and leaving Mel out there alone with Taint and T-Bone.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Taint spun on her. “Didn’t I fuckin’ tell you to mind your own goddamn business?”
“This club is my business!” Mel’s yell caused her to cough from the strain on her bruised throat. As soon as she caught her breath, she said, “That’s what you pay me for, but you’re trying to run a formerly successful business into the ground.”
“Ain’t runnin’ shit into the ground. Stick to doin’ your fuckin’ job of managin’ the dancers and makin’ sure customers are happy. That’s it. You don’t like how things are goin’, then fuckin’ leave and take that other cunt with you. Ain’t gonna tell you again about keepin’ your nose out of Demon business.”
“Demon business? You’re putting the rest of us at risk by doing sketchy shit on this property.”
His jaw turned to concrete and the twitch in Taint’s cheek was easy to see, even under his long, unkempt beard. She was clearly pushing his buttons like she had T-Bone’s.
She didn’t care.
Fuck him and fuck his MC.
“What sketchy shit d’you see?”
Shit. Now she had to backtrack a bit. She did not want Taint aware that she knew they were dealing drugs out of the club. “Both the cameras being disabled and this van sitting here abandoned in the lot are suspicious. It was parked there before T-Bone started working here, so why was he climbing inside it?”
Taint’s nostrils flared. “Told you to ignore the goddamn cameras and the van. Ain’t your business. It’s mine.”
“The first one is a safety concern and the van’s hard to ignore since I have to pass it every time I arrive or leave here and it’s been sitting here for days. Not only is it an eyesore, Saint, it takes up valuable employee parking.”