Page 30 of Shadow's Surrender
The three men walked out of the clubhouse, jumped on their bikes, and made their way to the diner.
* * *
The parking lotof Dream House was packed with everything from dated pickup trucks to the newest Mercedes AMG GT, which ran over a hundred thousand dollars. Music from the club spilled out into the lot each time the door opened. At the far end of it, Shadow heard a girl giggle and he watched as she staggered to her feet from the passenger seat of a Porsche, wiping her mouth. She wore stilettos, a mini skirt, and a thin strip of fabric that substituted for a top.
“I’ll meet you inside,” Shadow said to Helm as he walked toward the tipsy woman.
A man in his late twenties stepped out from the car and stared at Shadow. The biker instinctively placed his hand on the Glock in his pocket and continued walking. The woman stopped and looked at him with unfocused eyes.
“You okay?” he asked her, his gaze still on the man.
“Yeah, just a little drunk.” She put her hand over her mouth and giggled.
“You with this dude?” Shadow pointed at the man standing by the luxury car.
“I was,” she slurred.
“Sheis,” the man said. “She’s my girlfriend.” He stretched out his arm. “Come here, baby.”
The girl teetered on her heels, confusion marking her face. “You want to go for another round? Can you get it up that fast?”
He turned to Shadow and shook his head. “She’s totally wasted. She was feeling sick in the club so we came out for some fresh air, and I thought it would be better if she rested in the car.”
“That’s a load of bullshit. She just finished giving you a blow job that you paid for. We don’t allow that shit on our property.” Shadow looked at the woman again, who was now sitting on the ground with her head between her legs. He didn’t recognize her; she wasn’t one of the dancers. “You got a way to get home?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Where’d he pick you up?”
“Over on Penn.”
Penn Street was the red-light district in Pinewood Springs. It was where the street hookers hung out, offering much lower rates than the call girls who worked for a couple of the escort services in town.
Shadow narrowed his eyes and took a couple of steps toward the man in the expensive silk shirt and dress pants. “Are you going inside the club?”
“Yes, I’m meeting friends there.”
“I’m gonna let it slide this one time, but you’re on notice. You don’t bring hookers here; you don’t touch any of the dancers, and you don’t offer money to fuck any of the dancers. If you obey the rules, you and me are gonna get along okay, but if you don’t … well, you won’t be walking so good for the next week. You got that?”
A flicker of panic crossed the man’s face and he nodded. “I didn’t mean to disrespect you or the club. I thought it was cool since this is a gentlemen’s club.”
“Hookers aren’t allowed. Now get your ass inside and the only time you come out is when you leave.”
“Okay … okay,” he muttered as he walked toward the front entrance.
Shadow walked over to the young woman and helped her up. “You got a place to stay?”
“I’m at the Wildflower Motel,” she answered.
Despite the name, the motel was a seedy dump that catered to drug deals, prostitution, and other elements from the underground world.
“Are you staying there alone?”
“My boyfriend’s there, but he’ll be mad if I go back now. I need to make a bit more money.” She looked up at him and smiled. Black smudges from where her mascara had run formed half-moons under her eyes. “Do you want a blowjob? I’m real good at it.”
“How much do you have to bring home to the asshole who you think is your ‘boyfriend’?”
Her smiled faded. “Roy is good to me. We’re just low on cash, that’s all.”
