They all laughed and called out encouragement to him in Chinese and English.
Disgust erupted in my belly so fast, I couldn’t control my reaction. All the laughter abruptly came to an end when I slammed my fist into the side of K Diamond’s face.
That got his hands off my ass.
“Fucking bitch!” K Diamond screeched, stumbling sideways.
He glared at me, his muddy brown eyes outraged and petulant—right before he delivered a sharp punch to my chest.
I’d made him stumble. But his hit sent me flying back to land on my butt.
I’d rather have the floor on my ass than K diamond’s hands, but man, the fall hurt. My tailbone stung, and when I tried to catch my breath, it felt like my chest was on fire.
For some inexplicable reason, I looked toward the Fae disguised as a gang leader. He just stared back at me, his expression icy and completely unmoved. Maybe he really was a Fae King, cold and uncaring about the lives of us regular humans.
It didn’t matter. Nothing was broken, so I had to get up. I could hear my former drill sergeant father’s voice in my head telling me that broken bones were the only excuse for staying down when I fell. So I climbed to my feet, but it wasn’t much of a victory.
K Diamond had hurt me a lot worse than I hurt him. And no matter how satisfying the hit had felt in the moment, it changed nothing. I still owed him more money than I could possibly get in such a short time.
And K Diamond knew it. “Be happy I didn’t fuck up your face. Now let’s talk about this money you still owe me.”
He paused, waiting for me to protest again. But this time, I was smart enough to keep my mouth closed. I just stood there on trembling legs.
And K Diamond rewarded me with an approving grin. “Tell you what, you can come work for me. We’ll start you out on one of the side stages. See how you do there. Then, if you act nice, I’ll let you do some shifts in the champagne rooms—that’s where the real money gets made. You could earn back what your father owes in a few months. But first, I’m gonna need you to apologize.”
A few months…
Getting rid of this unexpected debt in a few short months did sound appealing. But I hated the thought of dancing on that stage, of putting my body on display for men like K Diamond. Of having to “act nice” when they grabbed me without permission.
And just the idea of apologizing to the bookie who’d taken my life savings without blinking an eye filled my mouth with invisible dirt.
But my parents couldn’t sell the house. They took out a second mortgage on it earlier in the summer to pay the high cost of an uncovered but completely needed experimental drug treatment for my father. And my sister had already donated her entire paycheck to keep their heads above water while we waited for dad’s insurance to agree to pay for his treatments.
What I’d taken out of the bank was all the money I had in the world. And sure, I could maybe get a job at one of the other gentlemen clubs in Oahu, but there was no guarantee I’d make the same kind of money.
Everyone knew Aloha Ballers was the most popular strip joints on the island, the place where both rappers and CEOS came through, along with higher-end tourists who could afford to make it rain at the club. And with my lack of dance experience, who knew if other clubs would even be willing to hire me?
It took everything inside of me not to panic and run. But then, what good would that do? They’d just come after my dad again, and the debt would keep accruing. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t think of another way out.
What other choice do you have? I swallowed down a huge lump of pride and opened my mouth to agree to his terms—
But then the Fae King in disguise said something in Chinese.
Something K Diamond didn’t like.
He whipped around and said something I couldn’t understand to the Fae King. His expression was threaded through with anger, and he shouted in a whiny tone like a child denied ice cream.
The Fae King’s voice, in contrast, remained mild and even. His expression barely changed as he calmly answered whatever questions K Diamond had shouted at him.
They went back and forth like this for a couple of rounds, K Diamond all but screeching, and the Fae King looking largely unbothered. It was like they were having two different conversations. And unfortunately, whatever they were saying went way beyond the few sentences of Mandarin I kept in my back pocket to teach tourists from China.
