Dancing With Danger Read online

  “Sure, thanks again.” I know my words came out sounding as flat as possible, but I also knew that he stood on the other side of my door and waited until I actually did as he said. Once I turned the door lock and slid the top lock in place I heard the heavy, booted steps that indicated Rabbit was walking away. Only then did I turn to really take in the room that had been given to me. I was probably too numb to fully appreciate the comfort that surrounded me after living in fleabag motels for the past few months.

  Directly across from where I was standing was a set of large double windows that apparently looked out over the back side of the compound I’d only gotten a small glimpse of when we pulled in this afternoon. They were draped in heavy, dark blue curtains that seemed to have a thick lining on them. Most likely, they were blackout curtains, which made sense for a group of men that no doubt kept the party fires burning long into the night.

  Between where I stood at the door and the windows was what appeared to be a queen sized bed with a deep blue comforter thrown over what looked like a freshly made bed. The wrought iron headboard rested just off of the beige wall and to each side of the bed were gorgeous metal and wooden nightstands that looked like they fit the biker-trendy vibe perfectly. On the opposite wall from the bed were two doors separated by a wall that a long dresser and mirror sat in front of. The doors, I found as I walked over, opened to a smallish walk-in closet that had built in shoe racks, another set of racks and drawers at about waist high, and the typical bar across the top to hang clothes from. A comfy, overstuffed Navy blue chair took up the space in the corner just to the left of the closet door.

  I spun toward the last door, and went to take a look at the bathroom beyond. To the left of the door there was a large, singular sink with plenty of counter space, a medicine cabinet with mirror facing, and a toilet in the corner. Off to the right hand side was a linen cabinet that housed navy blue and white towels, wash clothes, and hand towels as well as extra toilet paper and a smattering of hygiene items. Next to the linen cabinet was the spacious shower that had a massaging showerhead plus a rain shower attachment coming down from the ceiling. Everything was spotless and not at all what I thought I would be walking into. This room was gorgeous. Walking back out into the bedroom I noticed that underneath the windows was a long desk-like surface. On one end there was a mini-fridge where the other side held a cabinet with pullout drawers. In the middle was a desk chair so that someone could look out over the back yard while completing whatever business brought them to the desk in the first place.

  Hell, I probably would have been in love with the room if it weren’t for the fact that I was damn near numb at this point. What had just happened to my life? It was already in shambles, but now I felt like I couldn’t trust anything I thought I once knew. Not about myself, my family, where I came from, or…

  Ah, damn. The tears were streaming again. Apparently I wasn’t as numb as I thought I was. Seeing no point in taking a shower since I didn’t own any other clothes at the moment, I moved to the bed, turned the bedding down, and climbed in fully clothed. I did manage to kick my shoes off before the fluffiest pillows in the world managed to lull me into a sleep that was sorely needed.

  Chapter 5

  A loud banging on my door woke me from the most peaceful night of sleep I’d gotten since I’d been on the run. I’m not even sure what the hell made that possible considering everything I’d learned in the previous twelve hours.

  “If this whore doesn’t get her ass up, I’m not going to be responsible for what I do to her shit,” a snide female voice called out to a tittering response from another female. I rose from the bed at that, and walked over to my door.

  Flinging it open, and noticing the barely clothed women standing there, I raised an eyebrow in question. When neither spoke and only gaped at me I had enough. “You banged on my door loud enough to wake the fucking dead, so I’m assuming you had a good reason for that?” I knew I didn’t start work until later this evening, because it was something Rabbit had gone over with me prior to the multiple revelations about my life last night.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t talk to us like that!” Skank one informed me. I ignored her original question since it was obviously none of her business who I was. Sure, I might have been tasked to trust the brothers, but I grew up in Nevada where rule number one was to never trust a whore.

  “You think you’re too good to answer Jezzie?” The other woman questioned me.

  “I don’t know what the hell a Jezzie is, unless you meant lezzie. In which case, no, I just thought it was a stupid question, and not worth my response, because you don’t need to know who the hell I am.”

  “Listen up you fucking whore,” she paused for affect, clearly thinking calling me what she was would bother me. It didn’t. “We are the top ladies here.” I scoffed at her use of the word ladies. She carried on, oblivious. “You follow my lead, you come when I say come. You back off when I tell you to, and you stay the fuck away from the men I tell you to. Understood?”

  “I don’t know who YOU think YOU are, but I don’t bow down to anyone. I’m certainly not taking orders from a whore who doesn’t know how to do makeup, over accessorizes, and wears hideous fucking shoes. I will definitely never take your cues on whom I can and can’t talk to. So, yeah, that should make us all pretty clear about where we stand.”

  The skank raised her hand to strike me. I was ready for it, having experience with plenty of her type in both the professional and exotic dance worlds. It turned out I didn’t have to prepare for a fight though. Rabbit was there, grabbing her wrist out of thin air.

  “You so much as lay one fucking finger on this woman and I will have you both out on your asses and banished quicker than you can draw your next breath. We clear?”

  Skank one startled with eyes going wide as she gasped at Rabbit’s words. Skank two puffed up her over-inflated chest. “What the hell Rabbit? We were told to see to the new girl.”

  Rabbit narrowed his eyes on her. “Who told you to see to her, and what exactly did they say to you?”

  “Rage caught us when he was on his way out this morning. He said to take the new bitch to go get some clothes so she’d be ready to work later.” She pulled a black credit card out of her cleavage to wave back and forth in his face.

  Rabbit snatched the card from her. “This here,” he pointed at me, “is family. She’s not some club slut, hang around, or BRAT. You will treat her with the respect due an old lady or a princess. You ever raise a hand to her, and I’m gonna follow through with my promise.” He glanced at my pissed off visage and added, the last touch. “That will be after I let her have her pound of flesh.”

  The skank duet glanced nervously back and forth between Rabbit and me before nodding and scampering off. The one who fancied herself the leader of the sluts turned after a few steps though. “We were supposed to go shopping though.”

  “Did Rage say anything about getting yourselves something?”

  “Um….” I could see by the shift in her eyes she was thinking of lying. Lucky for her she was just smart enough to see that the narrowing of Rabbit’s eyes meant he wouldn’t tolerate it. “No. He just said to get her stuff for work.”

  “Right. I’ll handle that. You two go do your job. Clean out the main bathrooms this morning.”

  “That’s a prospect’s job,” the other skank whined.

  “Not today it isn’t. We’ll call this penance for the fact that you were going to spend Rage’s money on yourselves without his consent, and the fact that you treated Charlie less than respectfully.

  “We didn’t know who she was.”

  Rabbit took several menacing steps toward them, closing the distance. “And If I ever hear you treating the new club girls like that, I will personally see to it that you both are escorted out in front of the fresh meat. No doubt, I just found the reason we can’t keep a new girl beyond a week. You better believe I’ll be talking to Iceman about this shit later. I suggest you make
the bathrooms spic-and-fucking-span clean out there while he decides if you’re used up cunts are worth the amount of attitude you’ve been throwing around.”

  The girls moved quickly down the hall and out of sight as Rabbit turned back toward me. “Sorry about that. If I had known Rage was going to throw you to the wolves like that I would have gotten up earlier to head them off.” He glanced down at my bare feet. “Go grab your shoes, and we’ll head out for a little shopping trip.”

  “Are you sure? I can probably call a cab and go on my own. I still have a little money on the side.”

  He moved closer. “First of all, we don’t allow cabs up to the property. Secondly, you will save your money. This is on the club, because we should have been protecting you from the beginning, and because some of our guys fucked up yesterday when they didn’t take precautions while running that check on you. Thirdly, and this one should go without saying, but I’m going to reiterate it anyway. It’s not safe, Showgirl. I know you’ve been running on your own for a while now, but we just tipped whoever may have been watching off to your location. We have to assume someone is going to come looking, and when they do we aren’t giving them an easy target. You feel me?”

  I just nodded my head. “Okay, let me go grab my shoes then.” There was no use in arguing since he was right, and besides I figured Rabbit might be able to give me some insight while we went to the store together.

  Once I got my socks and shoes back on and made my way out the door I realized I couldn’t lock up, because I didn’t have a key. After a moment of staring at my door I sighed as I realized I had nothing that belonged to me in the room anyway. “I’ll get you a key when we get back.”

  “Yeah, I just realized it was pointless now, because I don’t have anything.” My shoulders hunched in a bit as I spoke. Rabbit put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close. He kissed the side of my head and then whispered in my ear. “It will get better, I promise.” I smiled up at him as his longer-on-top wavy blond locks flopped into his eyes. His smile creased the sides of his mouth and formed the slightest wrinkles near his eyes letting me know it was genuine. Where his actual brother by blood, Spinner, had bright blue eyes Rabbit’s were a startling mix of green and gold that could no doubt hypnotize a woman. It was almost a damn shame I’d just sworn off men forever, because I imagined he was one of the good ones. At least I did until the door across the hall opened up and a scruffy, messy-haired younger man stepped out sans shirt with pants unbuttoned to the point that it was pretty obvious where his happy trail lead.

  “Damn, Rabbit, you didn’t get your name for nothing, huh? Already tapping the new chick?” I stifled a giggle as Rabbit dropped his arm from my shoulder as he bore down on the man across the hall.

  “I’m not tapping that, and you will remember to treat her with respect. She’s family.” At those last two words the man straightened up, zipped his jeans, and looked sheepish as he glanced over at me.

  “Sorry, Charlie. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “No worries,” I stated nonchalantly. I completely understood everyone’s misconceptions about the new woman who showed up the previous night seeming to cause some drama in her wake. Those that weren’t around for Rage’s initial “hands off” message, were probably still waiting to get the message through the grapevine, or conveniently playing ignorant to get more information about me. Again, I couldn’t blame them for the latter. It’s probably something I would do too.

  We stopped by Iceman’s office so Rabbit could let him know about the skank twins, but he wasn’t in. Rabbit texted the man instead, and then he grabbed the keys to a truck so that we would have somewhere to put whatever I bought. “You know, I don’t need much. Whatever I get should fit in the saddle bags.”

  “You have literally nothing but the clothes on your back, correct?” I nodded. “Okay, then we will be getting enough shit that it definitely won’t fit in the saddle bags.” When I looked like I was going to argue he hushed me. “We’re family. You may not get the importance of that statement yet, but you will. You will also get that we owe you. We owed your dad. You will let us do this little bitty thing for you.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or fall to my knees and thank this man. Not with a blowjob or anything. I definitely wasn’t a club slut. You know, just a groveling, thankful gesture, because I hadn’t seen a whole lot of kindness from people in a really long time. “Thank you,” I told him as he shut the truck door on me. When he climbed in the cab on the driver’s side he grinned wide as possible before speaking. “Thank Rage. We have his credit card to use!” He laughed as I sputtered, about to decline that use. “Nah, he deserves your retail therapy being charged to his card for sending the BRATs to deal with you. I can’t believe he’d trust them with his card, or with you.” He glanced in my direction. “Don’t know what he was thinking,” he grumbled. “And hey, don’t feel too bad for him. Those bitches would have completely abused the card. You could go spend happy at the shops today, and he’ll still be getting off easy. The idiot!”

  “Well, in that case…” I rubbed my hands together in a greedy little gesture.

  Rabbit laughed a full-on head tilted back, full-bodied laugh. “That’s the spirit!”

  “You know I’m kidding, right?” I said, dashing his hopes. He just shook his head. “I’ll get a few things I need,” I started to tell him.

  “You’ll get a few things you need, plus a few things you want. We’re coming up on the end of summer real soon too. So, you’ll be needing clothes for cooler weather, probably some boots, a jacket, and…” he cut himself off when he saw the look of horror on my face. “Not a shopper?” He asked.

  “No, not really. This is going to take all day,” I grumbled.

  Again, Rabbit laughed at my expense. “Damn, you really are the perfect woman, aren’t you?” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Okay, well, don’t worry. I’ll be your personal shopper. I’ve already got a list of shit going through my head so we’ll just make this as painless as possible. You supply sizes, I’ll pick shit out, and you tell me if it’s your style or not. If it is, we buy it. If not, we scrap it. No big deal.”

  “If you say so,” I told him and then proceeded to watch the scenery pass us by outside the window.

  ~*~

  The shopping tally ended up being something like this…

  A pair of leather biker boots, a pair of classic black heels, a new pair of tennis shoes, and some hiking boots. I cringed just at the thought of how much that cost on its own. Rabbit assured me it was fine. Then we went to another store where I was embarrassed on a whole new level as he held up all sorts of undergarments asking, rather loudly I might add, if this was my style or if that was my style. When I wouldn’t acknowledge him he held up the biggest pair of granny panties he could find, and yelled, “So, then these must be your style since you’re nixing all the sexy shit. It’s okay to admit you love granny panties, Charlie!” All the women in the store loved Rabbit, and snickered behind their hands at my expense. Some of the women openly laughed, rather loudly, and much to my chagrin.

  Finally, I relented and purchased several panty and bra sets, again the final total of which I could not stick around to see. I let Rabbit handle the transaction while I wandered away and sniffed the various fragrances on display. When we left there, he took me to a clothing store, purchased me an entire new wardrobe, just as he had threatened. We also went for a trip through the local department store to pick up the hygiene products I normally used, a regular toothbrush, instead of the travel one I was currently using, and a set of earplugs which thoroughly confused me until Rabbit explained the walls could get thin in the clubhouse when the bitches were auditioning to be porn stars. Ugh. And so the day continued until we entered a leather shop and Rabbit had me fitted for a new riding jacket and some riding leathers. I wasn’t about to turn them down if I was going to find myself on the back of a bike in the coming days, weeks, or months.

  When we finally finished
up I was dragging ass, and ready for some food and a nap. I hadn’t realized it until now, at damn near 3pm, but I hadn’t eaten at all today, or most of yesterday for that matter. Just as I was about to tell Rabbit this, my stomach grumbled out an ungodly noise that startled us both.

  He frowned over at me as I watched the lightbulb go off in his head. “Shit! Damn it, why didn’t you say anything before we left? I forgot you probably hadn’t eaten yet. Okay, we’re going to grab some pizza and head back. I promise we’ll feed you better after this.” I think he mumbled something about being a dumb ass under his breath.

  “It’s not a big deal. I could have spoken up sooner. Honestly, this morning I just wanted to get away from the Skank Twins, then we were too busy and it didn’t even occur to me that I was hungry until about a minute before my stomach went on a rampage.”

  “No need to make me feel better,” Rabbit tossed out indignantly.

  “Trust me when I say, I’m not the placating type. I’m also a big girl capable of speaking up for myself. If there’s blame to place, it’s my own for not telling you I needed to eat sooner.”

  “Fine, but can we keep the ‘me starving you’ incident on the down low, because I won’t feel as justified for calling Rage out on his prickish behavior if my own hasn’t been saintly as hell.” He batted his thick, dark eyelashes at me while adding an angelic grin to the mix. Dear lord, this man was sexiness personified even when he was being goofy. I could think of more than a few girls I’d worked with over the years who would love to get their hands on him.

  “Saintly as hell seems like an oxymoron,” I mentioned.

  “I can’t ruin my rakish reputation completely,” he offered with a wink. “Saint in the streets, devil in…” My laughter must have been infectious because he couldn’t even finish that statement without busting out into man-giggles.

  We were high on pizza and caffeinated drinks after the low from shopping on empty stomachs when we walked into the compound and through the secure tiny front room. I had been telling Rabbit about a misadventure I’d had with an older showgirl who was lubing up her thighs so they wouldn’t chafe. She swore it was an old trick, but I think someone pulled her leg into believing it would work. Unfortunately for her she didn’t wipe all of it off her hands well enough so when we pulled a maneuver that had our hands on the floor before we pushed up and used the momentum to take us into the next move, this woman’s hands slid and she plummeted face first into the stage.