Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
And if I managed to straighten things out with Axl, and Hawk took this on, I’d also share my views on that with them.
After, I’d turn this over to the police.
But for now, as Brett mentioned, there was a drama.
And I needed more caffeine, breakfast, and to get to the club to rehearse the new numbers I was introducing that night.
So it was time to get a move on.
Though, while Brett cooked, I went back out to the deck to grab my phone.
But before I came back in, I sent the first text I’d ever instigated to Axl.
You’re right. You’ve always been
right. We really need to talk.
I hate that went bad this morning.
Let me know when a good time is
for you.
I’m on at the club tonight. But any
other time, I’m yours.
Just let me know.
Then Brett and I had breakfast.
After, Brett got dressed and introduced me to my bodyguard of the day, a man with no neck, a buzz cut that exposed several scars on his scalp (yikes!), with a very full beard, wearing a badly hidden shoulder holster under his well-cut suit jacket.
His name was Sylvester.
With me covered, Brett kissed my cheek, told me unless he heard from me, he’d see me when I was done at Smithie’s that night to pick me up, and he took off.
I took a shower. Got ready to face the day.
And with Sylvester, I headed to Smithie’s.
In all that time, Axl did not reply.
So yeah.
I guessed I was up.
And it was my turn to do the work.
Crap.
CHAPTER FIVE
Because We Love You
HATTIE
I had to admit, in the beginning, when Smithie and Dorian suggested the change to a Revue, I loved the idea.
But I was worried.
See, at Smithie’s Club, strippers made a lot. And they could do that without doing lap dances.
And although, if there was a fabulous slab of marble I wanted to buy or I felt like a new outfit that was beyond the reach of my normal clothing budget, I was in to do a few lap dances to get them, mostly, I lived well off just salary and tips.
So the Revue worried me, because we still got tips, but we didn’t dance all night. Depending on the schedule Ian set (and he shifted it nightly so patrons wouldn’t become accustomed to what was on offer), it was anywhere from four to six dances a night.
And although Lottie had been making a mint off much this same schedule for years, first, she was famous, and second, she was a downright inspirational stripper.
The woman had serious moves.
But I’d been worried.
Sure, I had moves.
But I was no Lottie Mac, Queen of the Corvette Calendar and the most famous stripper west of the Mississippi, which was also the most famous east of it, seeing as Vegas was west, and Lottie was even more famous than any girl in Vegas.
So, not only was I worried because I thought my incoming cash would reduce, I thought it’d be boring, being there nine to two (which was actually a cut in hours, it used to be seven to three, but the last headliner—me—went on at 1:45 and then it was pure strippers for the next hour) and only working for maybe twelve to twenty minutes a night.
But Smithie had tripled the already substantial cover charge in order to hike our salaries.
He’d also increased the price of drinks.
And even if I wasn’t onstage as often, preparing for my next dance was a total do-over in hair, makeup and costume, not to mention making sure our new stagehands had whatever I was going to use sorted.
Topping that, I had to have new material all the time. I had yet to dance the same dance twice and wasn’t set to recycle for another two weeks. That was some serious work, having that number of routines performance ready.
In other words, that amount of prep and rehearsal took a lot of time.
With relief, I’d found quickly that I didn’t have anything to worry about.
Smithie’s used to be a hip hot spot.
Now it was a super-hip hot spot.
The Revue was a smash hit, even the papers were writing about it.
And Dorian had set up some social media that had gone from around a hundred followers to over a hundred thousand in just a week.
As such, the velvet ropes were jammed outside to the point they had to turn some people away.
And my tips were off the charts.
Before the Revue, I never had a night less than five hundred dollars in tips.
Since the opening of the Revue, I hadn’t made less than seven hundred in tips, and the opening night, it was over two thousand.
So even though it was weirdly more work, what with having to have so many routines, and those routines having to be amazing, it was more money.
And it was a lot more fun.