Cado (2 page)

When I blinked—he was gone. I dazedly stared at the suddenly empty seat in front of me.
What the fuck just happened? Did someone drug me or something
? No one else seemed to notice the golden god’s disappearance so I decided to just roll with it. Maybe I just didn’t eat enough today or maybe in fact someone had dropped something into one of my drinks. I felt completely normal again so I moved on to finish my dance.
Shake it off. Just shake it off
.

When I was finished, my target, the kid, was hovering nearby with a tentative smile on his face. “Can I have a private dance?”

I grinned coyly at him. “Sure you can afford me?”

He nodded eagerly. “Yeah, I can get whatever you need.”

I reached up to run my index finger along his jaw line. “What if I want it all?”

He gulped. “Please, Karma. I’ll do whatever you want—pay whatever you want. Please just dance for me.”

I pretended to consider his offer for a moment. “I suppose I can make it work.”

His excitement was palpable as he bounced up on the balls of his feet. “Okay, what do I need to do?”

“Come with me. I’ll take care of you, baby.” I grabbed his sweaty hand and tugged him after me. I paused when we came to the red rope that sectioned off the corridor leading to the row of private rooms. I smiled up at Marcus. His eyes twinkled with amusement at me. “Hey, Marcus, I’d like my usual room please. And—” I turned to the kid. “—he’ll leave his credit card with you.” I winked at Marcus and he stifled a laugh. Poor kid wasn’t going to know what hit him in more than one way.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” The kid’s voice shook with anticipation as he pulled out his wallet and handed Marcus his credit card.

“I.D. please,” Marcus’ deep baritone voice demanded after he eyed the name on the card.

“But I already showed the guy at the door—”

I swept my hand down the kid’s arm. He met my gaze and swallowed hard. “For the credit card, baby. We can all see that you’re old enough to drink.” I not so subtly squeezed his bicep as if to say, ‘see because you’re so manly’.

As soon as he handed his I.D. to Marcus I tugged him down the small corridor towards my reserved room. “You’ll get your stuff back when I’m finished with you.”

“Oh, okay.”

I drew back the thick velvet curtain and ushered the kid in. After placing him in the center of one of the plush lounge chairs I began to work him over. Quite honestly I hardly had to try. He was practically foaming at the mouth to have any kind of one on one attention from me. Not that I could blame him.

When I was hovering over his lap gyrating to the music, while his muddy eyes were focused on my tits, I let my mind wander. Sometimes I actually got images, and I hoped this time would be one of those. I hated having to do recon. Images were cleaner…easier…because there could be no room for error. If I made a mistake then I would be just like the monsters I lived to punish.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the images flitted across my mind. I saw the kid pinning dozens of different girls down in the back seat of his brand new Mercedes and raping them. Afterwards he always dropped them off with a wad of cash, as if it made it all better, with an added threat of what his ‘daddy’ would do if they told anyone what happened.

So, he’s a date rapist.
A spoiled rich kid who thought he could have whatever he wanted. I’d dealt with worse kinds of deviants but he’d been the lucky one to draw my attention. After all, I’d come to work at this particular strip club in hopes of tracking down a serial killer who was targeting the dancers. I’d been a day late and a dollar short though. The FBI had bagged the guy while I’d been preparing for my first time on Club Elite’s stage. But I figured while I was here I’d stick around a while and clean up some of the other riff raff around Pittsburgh. They had a tendency to congregate around strip clubs, hence why I loved my job for more than one reason. Great benefits and even better pay. I got to see the world one dingy strip club at a time. I was living the dream.

I stood when the current song ended and pulled my skimpy clothes back on. “Hey,” the kid complained. “That was only a couple songs and ummm…” He cleared his throat and his eyes darted around nervously. “I was hoping I could pay for a little something extra.”

I laughed. “Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. You seem to be confused. You see…my sexual favors aren’t for sale. Not everyone can be bought.”

“But I thought—” His muddy eyes narrowed with burgeoning anger.

I knew I was hitting a sore spot with him, which was why I’d chosen my words carefully…to prod at him. I raised my hand. “You obviously thought wrong. Bye bye now.” I strode from the room without a backward glance, heading straight for Marcus. “Let’s go run his card now.”

“How much?” Marcus’ deep voice rumbled with amusement.

I grinned. “Let’s see how much he’s got.” It wouldn’t be as if he’d be around to complain when I was done with him, after all.

Pleased with my evening’s earnings after only one set on the main stage and one on the VIP stage, I decided to buy myself off for the night and to head on out. I had a date rapist to track and I was getting kind of hungry.
One simply can’t dole out justice on an empty stomach.

“Karma!” Bert’s annoyed tone stopped me short on my trek to the changing room.

I turned slowly and pasted a bright smile on my face. “Yes?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What ever do you mean?” I’d let him tell me which part he was more pissed about: Me charging the kid five thousand dollars for a single lap dance or the fact that I’d bought myself off when they were short on dancers. Having a serial killer about, even though he’d been caught, had sent a lot of girls running to work at other clubs. It wasn’t Bert’s fault though, he’d even beefed up the security but some girls were always running scared from something.

Bert narrowed his eyes at me and crossed his arms. “I’m talking about what you wore on the floor tonight.”

I glanced down at my bra and panty ensemble, and then back up at him. “Ummm…”

“This is a gentleman’s club, not a run of the mill strip club. We have a full service bar here if you haven’t noticed and that means—”

“Hey now, I wore my pasties and g-string the entire time. I even—”

“I don’t see a gown.”

I heaved a huge sigh. “Oh come on. Some of the ‘gowns’—“ I raised my hands up to make air quotes. “—are nothing more than see-through fabric. What I’m wearing—”

“Is not a gown, even by the loosest definition,” Bert interjected, his scowl making him look older than his forty plus years. “You will wear a gown when you’re on the floor of my club or you won’t work here.” With that he whirled around and slammed the door to his office shut.

“Asshole,” I muttered before continuing on my way. Bert wasn’t really so bad though. He never hit on any of the girls and was always all about business. Although that was also the problem…he was always business, and ridiculously old school.

Once I’d reached the quiet of the changing room I made quick work of switching into my street clothes: black jeans, black t-shirt, knee high black boots, and black leather fitted jacket. My hair usually appeared black too when not right next to the real thing. It was actually a dark chocolate brown. I paused in the full-length mirror to pull it up in a high sloppy bun and wiped at my dark eye makeup with a cleansing pad. I didn’t like walking around in public with all that crap on my face. Once satisfied, I grabbed my shoulder bag, my mind swirling around to form idle musings. I most certainly didn’t expect and almost didn’t see the kid standing right next to the door.
Fuck
.

His muddy gaze slid over me with disdain and his lips curled up into a sneer. “You really didn’t think I was going to let you get away with that, did you?”

Internally I was trying to quickly come up with a plan. I wasn’t some preternaturally gifted being of some sort, not that those existed. Sure I took martial arts and self-defense but…in real life being about a foot shorter than this guy put me at a huge disadvantage. I usually used surprise…and weapons to even those kinds of odds. I was lacking both of those at the moment. I donned the best fake smile I could muster. “Get away with what? I told you I’m not for sale. You got what you paid for.”

The kid’s eyes narrowed and hostility rolled off of him in waves. “You led me on. You made me think—”

“I never led you on for even a second. You paid for and I gave you time in the private room with me where you received a very up close and personal dance that lasted the span of a few songs. I told you before, my sexual favors aren’t for sale. Whatever you’ve heard about me or any of the other girls at Club Elite is a lie. This isn’t that kind of place.” I crossed my arms over my chest and attempted to make it seem like he wasn’t intimidating me.
How the hell did he get past the security downstairs and know where to find me?

He rushed at me, letting me know that our little tête-à-tête was over. I dropped my bag and made myself ready.
I can do this. Just pretend
— My inner pep talk was cut off as I was tackled to the ground and all the air left my lungs. I strained my neck muscles to keep the impact on my head as little as possible. I tried to bring my knee up between his legs but he was already pinning me with his full body weight. I head butted him instead. My forehead made contact with his nose and he screamed in tandem with the loud crunching noise the blow made. Blood spurted everywhere and he rolled off of me. He recovered more quickly than I expected and stars danced in front of my eyes when his fist connected with the side of my face. I collapsed onto my back and blinked dazedly. Taking a full out punch was something I’d never done before. It didn’t feel good, to say the least, and it was more difficult to shake off than people in movies always made it seem.

“You fucking bitch, I think you broke my nose.”

“You’re going to get caught and you’re going to go to jail. Take a look around where you are. This isn’t the back seat of your Mercedes and someone will come up here soon. They have your name, your address and yep, security feed. Stop now and they’ll—”

I cried out when his foot connected with my ribs. I curled into a tight little ball to protect myself as best as possible. His attack was short lived though. I guess my words sank in because I was left alone shortly after that. Or I hoped I was because, much to my shame, I was losing the fight to stay conscious. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was still there and my brain was out to lunch.

“Fuck,” I muttered, pain engulfing me as everything faded to black.

“I can’t love you,” I keened, panic causing my chest to tighten. I could barely breathe. The lack of oxygen was making my vision fuzzy around the edges.

“But you do.” Electric blue eyes stared into mine, seeing everything—too much. They seemed to mock me, and somehow love me at the same time. An impossible and infuriating combination.

Acceptance washed over me, threatening to drown me as his large hands slid tenderly over my naked body. I couldn’t help but arch into his touch. I loved him—wanted him, even though I needed to hate him. I was born to hate him. “You tricked me.”

“Tell yourself that if it helps.” His voice was filled with amusement, even now. I wanted to hit him, bloody him with my fists, and yet I let him continue on down my body, his lips and tongue worshipping my flesh.

“I wish I could hate you,” I whispered, gripping his hair.

“And you try. You always try.”

I woke with a start, blinking back tears. I wasn’t sure what my dream meant or why I was so terribly affected by it. It seemed silly. But it’d felt so real. So very real. Which didn’t make sense in the least—

“Who is to say what’s real and what’s not?” a male voice that sounded like pure decadence asked. It was the same voice from my dream, at least I thought it was.

I sat up and finally took in my surroundings. My brain was moving at a molasses pace. The last thing I remembered was being at Club Elite and being beaten senseless…literally…by the kid. Now I was waking up, home, in my own bed, completely uninjured—with the golden god from the club? He stood a few feet away, in the corner of my room, his gaze boring into mine. I swallowed convulsively. “Oh shit,” I muttered. “I’m in the hospital and on some really strong drugs.”