| |
“You think maybe we should have locked the front door?” Six-Gun drawled.
Playboy chuckled. “That isn’t a bad idea.”
“More like we should have chained the front door.” I sat back in my chair and sighed.
“And you’re the one who said we were going to stick with having only two ol’ ladies,” Mace scoffed. “Pretty sure Mitzy is the next ol’ lady in the making thanks to you.”
I flipped off Mace. “Fuck you.”
“And he doesn’t deny it,” Rebel laughed.
“Monk has never talked about who he’s banging and who he’s not banging,” Playboy pointed out. “You really think he’s going to claim Mitzy outright?”
“There isn’t anything that needs claiming,” I growled. I was not going to have this conversation at the table. Who I was with had nothing to do with the club. It never did. I looked at Rebel. “What did you find out about Tank?”
Rebel shrugged. “We went to Rain’s house, but she wasn’t around. We managed to look around the outside, but we couldn’t get in. Her neighbor was outside the whole time and ended up calling the cops on us.”
Jesus Christ. Rebel and Six-Gun getting popped for B&E right now was not something we needed. “I’m assuming you managed to get your asses out of there before the cops showed up.”
Six-Gun nodded. “The old bag was standing on her front porch squawking on the phone to the operator. We were out before she even got the address out.”
Thank fucking God. “You think you need to get in the house?” I asked.
Rebel shrugged. “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to look around, but I don’t think he’s in there. The only way he would have been in there, and we didn’t know, is if he was dead. Six about knocked the fucking door down when he pounded on it.”
“He’s not in there,” Six-Gun agreed. “Though I do think we need to get our hands on Rain. If she was the last one we know that saw him, then we need to talk to her.”
I agreed, but how the hell were we supposed to find her?
“It was her night off last night, too. She’s supposed to be on tonight, so I plan on heading over there later.” Six-Gun chuckled. “But don’t tell Memphis I’m going there to talk to Rain. She’ll never let me in bed again.”
“Memphis not a fan of Rain’s?” I guessed.
Rebel chuckled. “I can tell you for a fact that none of the girls from the club are fans of Rain.”
“And yet you and Tank fought over her like a fucking kid's favorite toy.”
Rebel shrugged. “Power of the pussy, brother. Blinded both of us.”
“I know of that power,” Six-Gun laughed. “Thankfully, I didn’t fall for toxic pussy like you and Tank.”
Now it was Rebel’s turn to flip off Six-Gun. “And a fuck you to you.”
“You ask Mitzy about Rain?” Jinx asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t, but I can after the meeting. I don’t really know how close she is to the girls.”
“I know she has a soft spot for Memphis,” Six-Gun pointed out.
“Pretty sure everyone has a soft spot for Memphis,” Jet laughed. “She’s nice, while Rain is,” he glanced at Rebel, “toxic.”
“Am I really the only guy at this table who made a bad decision of where to put his dick?” Rebel roared. “Fuck me, man.”
Jinx patted Rebel on the shoulder. “We’ve all been there, brother; it’s just that we all knew she was toxic, and you still messed with her.”
Rebel glared at Jinx. “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you fucking failed.”
Jinx shrugged and sat back in his chair. “All that matters is I tried.”
“You think we can talk about something else other than where my dick has been?” Rebel suggested. “As soon as we find Tank, I never want to hear the fucking name Rain again.”
“Here, here,” Six-Gun called. “Pretty sure we need to make that executive decision to fire her ass.”
“Sounds like a fucking plan to me.” I didn’t care if Rain was one of the most popular dancers. She was a raging bitch, and no one liked her. The only reason she had stuck around for as long as she had was because she brought in customers. We now had a full roster of dancers who were all equally good. “I’ll have a talk with Mitzy about it.”
“We moving on to her now?” Playboy asked.
I nodded. “What did you find out from talking to the girls?”
Playboy gave a thumbs down. “Not a damn thing. All of the girls fucking love her.” Playboy elbowed Six-Gun. “Which I have to say was fucking surprising since I thought all the girls would think she was a bitch.”
“She’s not a bitch,” I replied. “She just does her fucking job and doesn’t let feelings and emotions get in the way.”
“That’s what you think,” Playboy scoffed. “I can’t tell you how many girls said Mitzy has helped them out of bad situations and gave them money.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Come again?”
Playboy shrugged. “I guess that bitch attitude she has is just a front.”
“Or she just acts that way to guys because of what happened a few years back,” Jinx suggested.
“Do we even know what the fuck happened to her a few years back?” Playboy asked. “I mean, we know it had to be some bad shit for Barracuda to step in, but what was it?”
I shrugged. “If we were supposed to know, ‘cuda or Mitzy would have told us.” I acted like it didn’t bother me that I didn’t know, but I actually did want to know. Barracuda had told me that they weren’t hooking up or anything like that, but that was all he told me. And obviously, that was all the other guys knew, too.
Six-Gun cleared his throat. “Memphis told me that she and Mitzy had a lot in common that most people wouldn’t know.”
I turned slowly to face Six-Gun. “I hope like hell that doesn’t mean what happened to Memphis happened to Mitzy.”
Six-Gun cringed. “No idea, brother. That’s all Memphis said to me.”
I shook my head and tried not to think about why Mitzy needed Barracuda’s help years ago. “I should hear today about what Mitzy took and what was in all of the pill bottles you collected, Playboy. But—”
“Oh hell,” Jet interrupted. “I don’t not like the sound of what you are about to say.”
“Mitzy said she one hundred percent remembers putting the bottle of pills she used in her desk drawer.”
“I didn’t grab any pills from her desk,” Playboy replied.
“I know, but someone took the pills because when Mitzy went to grab the bottle yesterday, it was gone.” I looked around at the faces of the guys, and they knew the same thing I did.
Whoever tried to hurt Mitzy grabbed the bottle of pills from her desk before I found her or after she was taken to the hospital. Someone had been watching the whole time and knew to take the pills before someone else found them.
“You check the cameras?” Mace asked.
“That was the first thing I did. None in Mitzy’s office and the one in the hallway doesn’t show anyone obviously going into her office.” Repositioning the cameras and ordering a few more was on the top of my list to do today. That should have happened long ago.
“So. You’re sure it wasn’t any of the girls? Maybe pissed off about not getting a day off or Mitzy just being a bitch to them?” Jet asked Rebel.
Rebel shook his head. “If they are pissed off at her and want to hurt her, they didn’t tell me. There wasn’t one second of talking to the girls where I thought they were lying to me.”
Well, that was the first dead end.
“Did Mitzy say if she knew of someone who would want to hurt her?” Playboy asked me.
I shrugged. “I didn’t exactly ask her, but I will this afternoon.” I had figured if there was someone she thought would hurt her, she would have told me. Though, she hadn’t actually believed it was intentional at all at first. “Until we figure this shit out, I’ll be with her when she’s at home or out. I want one of you guys to always be at Skinz when she is there. Whoever tried to kill Mitzy is more than likely going to try again. This time, we are going to be ready for it and stop it before they can try. Good?”
A chorus of “ayes” went up, and a couple of fists pounded the table.
“And now to the thing that we’ve been talking about for too fucking long, and it seems like we’re getting nowhere.”
The “ayes” turned into groans.
“Anyone hear from Barracuda?” I asked. I looked around the table, and all the guys shook their heads. “Me neither.”
“You hear anything from Leo?” Jinx asked.
“Nope. I’m gonna give him another week and then call. I don’t want to hassle him when he’s really just doing a favor for us.”
“Yeah, but that favor is going to turn into us making a deal with the Banachis,” Jet pointed out. “He’s more than getting something out of this.”
“True, but I’d rather just stay on the good side of Leo Banachi.” That was one guy I did not want to piss off. “He’s got a week before I check on what’s going on with Menace.”
“Have we checked with the Kings of Vengeance lately to see if they’ve had any more Barracuda sightings?” Mace asked.
Playboy sliced his hand through the air. “Not a damn thing up by them. Last I heard, they were working their asses off getting the funeral home renovated for the strip club.”
“Tell them if there’s anything they need, they just need to let us know,” I told Playboy.
Playboy saluted. “I’ll make sure they know.”
“So, we figured nothing out and have a shit-ton of what-ifs, yeah?” Jinx laughed.
In a fucking nutshell.
“Just keep your fucking eyes open around Skinz, and honestly, just keep your eyes open everywhere. Fucking problems keeping popping up from every direction, and I’d like to know if there are any more coming our way.”
“Head them off,” Six-Gun agreed.
Everyone filed out of church until I was the only one left.
I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling.
Things were a fucking mess, and I wasn’t sure how to fix any of it.
Right now, it seemed like figuring out who wanted to hurt Mitzy was the easiest thing to deal with.
Figure out what drugs she took and follow the trail to who wanted to hurt her.
Barracuda—and now Tank—missing was some shit I never thought I would have to deal with. Fuck being prez. I wasn’t cut out for this shit, and Barracuda could have it back.
*
