Page 86 of Off Limits
It’s past three a.m. The club is closed. I feel numb. Everybody else changed clothes and went home already. Somebody told Kale what happened earlier, and he’s decided to keep me behind. I feel like a naughty schoolkid sent to the principal’s office.
I yawn. Wearily, I get to my feet. I’ve been back on stage for three separate routines and completed four private lap dances. I haven’t seen a dime of my earnings, other than to pull the dollar bills from the pockets of my Daisy Dukes.
I keep my head down. I don’t need to look up to feel Kale McCoy’s presence. He’s imposing enough to make himself known.
The office is dark. He sits with his feet on the desk, the light from his laptop screen illuminating his whole face, his shirt collar wide open.
‘You wanted to see me?’ I say quietly.
He fixes me with his stare. ‘Come where I can see you, sweetheart.’
I grip my left thumb inside the fingers of my right hand and approach with caution. Kale is prone to outbursts and, on occasion, throwing things.
‘Heard there was an incident tonight,’ he says.
I’m guessing Jax was the one to tell him. Kale raises one hand and with one finger beckons me over to his side of the desk. Nervously, I walk round.
On the laptop screen is the grainy image from the club’s CCTV that faces the parking lot. He hits the play button and I watch myself race out after Jake, the picture obscured a little by the rain. But you can tell that it’s me, and Talia when she follows with the coat. There’s no sound.
Kale hits the pause button and presses the tip of his finger to the screen.
‘Who is this, and what’s he to you?’ he asks.
I look to the floor. ‘He’s nobody. He’s just a guy.’
‘He your boyfriend?’
‘No. I mean—’
‘’Cause you better have a damn good reason why you’d abandon that stage mid-performance, Serenity.’
My shoulders slump.
‘I ain’t hearin’ my reason, baby girl.’
I let out a shaky breath. ‘It won’t happen again, I promise.’
He leans back in his chair and his eyes wander down the length of my body. ‘I won’t hold it against you. Kaycee saved your bacon out there. You know you’re still my prettiest girl, Serenity, but I swear, you pull a stunt like that again and I will hang you out to dry. Tonight’s earnings won’t be going in the ledger. Call it payback for you messin’ up the show.’
I open my mouth to object. It means everything I’ve done tonight has earned me a big fat zero. ‘That don’t seem fair to me,’ I whisper.
‘Fair? Fair is you not running off that stage mid-performance and making this establishment look bad! I want every man who comes in here to believe he could get with you. But if you’re running off after some fight with your Ivy League boyfriend… kind of ruins the illusion, don’t it?’
No matter what I think, I nod my head in agreement.
‘May I go home now?’ I ask.
He flicks his wrist dismissively. ‘Go. Get outta here.’
I turn and walk to the door.
‘Oh, and Serenity?’ he says from behind me. ‘Tomorrow night. Brody Conway wants to spend a little more time with you.’
I swallow hard. I know I’m pushing it when I say, ‘You can’t send somebody else?’
I can see his expression darken, even in this light. ‘Seems he’s quite taken with just you.’
‘He makes me feel uncomfortable.’
