Read Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1) Online

Authors: Melissa Shaw

Tags: #romance, #Contemporary Romance

Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1) (2 page)

BOOK: Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1)
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The bouncer’s laugh travelled through the space between them. He took his time, checked his nails, then strolled over to them.
 

“Who’s this guy? Your boyfriend?” The suit asked.

In his dreams.
 

“There a problem here?” Big Nick folded his arms and looked from the jackass’s grip on her breast to Emily’s rage.

“Are you blind?” She gripped the guy’s wrist and tugged at it, but he wouldn’t let go.
 

“I want a dance.”
 

“And I want a real job.” Emily pinched the back of his hand with her red glitter covered nails.
 

“Bitch,” he yelped it and flinched. Mission accomplished, she skidded backwards and sat up. The drunken asshole wouldn’t give up that easy. “Come back here.” He dived onto the stage, but Big Nick stepped in and dragged him backwards by his collar.
 

“Bad idea, son.” The handsy jerk’s shirt ripped at the back and Big Nick locked him in a chokehold. He went from red to purple, legs flailing around on the wooden floor. “You’re coming with me.”
 

Now was her chance. She could get back to the dressing room, lock herself in, change and get out before Big Nick had the chance to confront her again.
 

“Lemme go.” The suit protested, smacking backwards with disoriented fists. “Can’t breathe.”
 

Guilt fired through Emily’s mind, but she couldn’t stop Nick with this and the guy had flicked her nipple after all. She did her best saunter off stage, not daring to look back at the bouncer in case he dropped his latest victim and came after her instead.
 

The dressing room was filled with that soft pink light, but it wasn’t empty. Another of the strippers, Isis, applied make up to her overdone brow bones.
 

“Well, well, if it isn’t Miss Candy Lane. Have fun out there?” Isis’ tone dripped with sarcasm and she slammed her mascara onto the countertop. “Saw you and Big Nick were in here together.”

“Not today.” Emily gathered her bag and whipped out her jeans, bra and blouse.
 

“Oh em gee, you’re such a slut though, right?” Isis batted her eyelashes, red lips parting into a mocking grin.
 

Isis had hated her guts from the minute she’d arrived at the club. The other girls said she had a crush on Big Nick, but that wasn’t true; Isis was a bitter cow and a bad dancer, and she couldn’t stand the fact that Emily was a main attraction at The Tease.

When Isis danced, people left their seats to hang out at the bar in the corner. The whole Big Nick thing was a pretense to protect a swollen ego which deflated each time a man ignored her.
 

Emily tucked the money she’d earned into her pocket and changed into the clothes quickly. There wasn’t time for Isis and her attitude today; she had a semi-sociopathic wannabe rapist to escape.
 

“I’ll take that as a yes. You can ignore me if you want, Candy Lane, but it won’t change what you are: a cheap slut and a drug addict. That will never change. Don’t ever forget that.” Isis pointed the brush at the mirror.

Emily didn’t rise to the taunt, but inside she was on fire. How dare this woman speak to her like that? How dare she? She’d been through hell and back, she’d gone cold turkey to get back on track. To get her loved ones back.
 

The world was against her in this, but she couldn’t let it crush her. Her shoulders slumped, but she slung her bag over one of them and strolled to the door.

“That’s right, slut, run away. Gosh, you’re such a coward.” Isis said it with the sweetest smile imaginable.
 

“And you can’t dance.”
 

Isis froze. She let out a low shriek and threw down the brush, it bounced across the desk and rolled off the rim and to the tiles below.

Emily allowed a chuckle to escape her, though she didn’t find it funny, then sauntered out of the dressing room. The coast was clear, the doorway was empty, but it wouldn’t be for long.

And she had to get out of there before Big Nick stopped her.

CHAPTER THREE

“Where you think you’re going?” Big Nick moved out of the shadows outside the club.
 

It was late, past 1 AM, and the parking lot was empty. The main street was busy though, the honking of horns and rush of cars floated through the night.
 

“Home.” Emily continued walking and hid her fear. If she let it show now, he’d own her. She’d be his possession to do with what he wished. She’d never let that happen again.

“Stay a while.” It was a command, but she didn’t stop. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
 

“I have an early shift tomorrow. I can’t stay. You’ll get your money in a week.” The sentences came out clipped; she couldn’t say them another way thanks to the death grip anxiety had on her vital organs.

“You really think you got a choice in this?” Big Nick stomped up behind her, but a woman’s scream pierced through from inside The Tease. He stopped and turned back – maybe the drunk guy in the suit had caused more havoc – then growled low in his throat.
 

“Watch your back, girl.” That was his parting shot. He disappeared inside the club, a swell of noise, people shouting, enveloped him and was cut off with the click of the door.
 

Emily hurried off into the night and around the corner. The closer she got to a busy street, the better. She checked back over her shoulder but Big Nick was still preoccupied inside the club.
 

She took another step forward and the toe of her pump hit a solid object. She tipped forward, flailed her arms and let out a ‘yeaurgh’. Then she smacked into the ground.
 

“Oh my god,” she groaned and rolled around a bit. Cars sped by, red lights disappearing into the distance. This was exactly what she needed after a long day with her bod on display: an obstacle course.
 

What the hell had she tripped over anyway?
 

Emily scraped around on the concrete for her bag, then swore under her breath. A tube of mascara rolled into the gutter, and her night cream had exploded with the impact. The bag was ruined.
 

She gathered up what was left of her makeup, snatched her keys off the sidewalk and turned to check what she’d bumped into.
 

It was a man. He lay face down in the dirt, and there was a pool of blood beneath his head.
 

“Shit!” Emily hurried to the body – god, please let it not be a dead body – then knelt beside him and dropped her cursed bag again.
 

He had dark hair and wore a suit. It was ripped open at the back.
 

No. It couldn’t be.
 

Emily wrestled him onto his side, and checked his air passage was clear. It was the suited jerk from The Tease, the nipple flicker. His jaw was slightly skew and he bled from a gash along his cheekbone.
 

She fumbled for his pulse and a soft flutter beat against her fingers.
 

“Thank God,” she breathed. If he’d died because of her nipples, she’d have been consumed with guilt. “Phone, phone, I need a phone.”

Hers was back at home – she never took it to the club – but the road was clear of pedestrians. Flagging down a car was out of the question, but she couldn’t let him die here. What if he had a concussion?
 

Emily fumbled through his jacket pockets and brought out a wallet and a set of keys. She slipped them back where they’d come from and checked his pants next, coloring a little. This was a sight for passersby – a stripper digging through an unconscious man’s pants like a common criminal.
 

“Ah!” It was a smartphone and it was miraculously unharmed. She fiddled with the touchscreen and ground her teeth impatiently, technology wasn’t her strong suit, then managed to bring up a dialer.
 

911.

“911, What is your emergency?” The male voice on the end of the line was calm, and it helped slow her breathing.
 

“Hi, yes, I found a man who’s been badly beaten. I think he might have a concussion or something.”
 

“Does the man have a pulse?”
 

Emily touched the stubble along his jawline and he moaned softly. “Yes, he’s alive. Please send an ambulance.”

“What is your location?”
 

“Queens Plaza North, Long Island City.” She glanced around and the blood in her veins turned to shards of ice. A man stood in the shadows nearby; he was massive. And bald.
 

“Can you be more specific, ma’am?”
 

“It’s near The Tease. I don’t know the specific address.” She searched the buildings for a number and spotted brass lettering on an apartment block across the road. “We’re across from number 2403.”
 

“I’ve dispatched an ambulance and a squad car to that address,” the 911 controller answered, “Ma’am, can you stay with him?”
 

Emily glared at the shadowy figure nearby and gripped the phone to her ear; she squared her shoulders. “Yes. But hurry, his pulse is very faint.” She hung up and plopped the phone in her open bag.
 

The man in the dark hadn’t moved since she’d noticed him, but terror crept in. Who knew what he wanted from her. Money, murder, rape; they were concepts she didn’t want to familiarize herself with.
 

She’d been through enough.
 

Emily laid a hand on the beaten jerk’s arm and held him in place. Big Nick had obviously beaten the poor guy senseless after his foray in the club and that made this partly her fault.
 

The suit moaned in delusion, “Beautifaaa –”
 

She patted him lightly to keep him calm, not that he could be anything but calm whilst in a semi-coma with a bump the size of a baseball on his tan forehead – that would hurt in the morning.

Movement caught her eye and she snapped her attention to the stranger standing nearby. He’d lit a cigarette, the red coal glowered at her, and moved a few paces closer, but he was still hidden.
 

A couple cars raced by and she squinted in the light, trying to make the watcher’s features out. He had a jacket on. God, was it Big Nick? Had he come to exact the damn payment from her already?
 

She pressed a hand to her stomach and pleaded silently for help.

The stranger took another step towards them.
 

“Stop right there,” she commanded, fumbling in her bag for her deodorant can, “I’ve got pepper spray in here and I’m not afraid to use it.”
 

Grunting laughter travelled through the air, the figure’s shoulders shook from mirth. He didn’t buy it, apparently.
 

“I’m warning you.” Emily’s voice cracked slightly. She drew out the cylinder of deodorant - hopefully he couldn’t see the label from far – and aimed it in his direction.
 

But it didn’t deter him. His footfalls were heavy on the sidewalk. This was it.
 

The whoop of a siren broke the tension and a police car swung into the street up ahead, closely followed by an ambulance with its red lights flashing. Emily waved frantically and hopped to her feet and the cop car pulled up beside her.
 

“Are you all right, ma’am?” asked the black police officer, leaning out of the car’s window and studying the scene.
 

“I think so,” she said and glanced back, but the mystery attacker had disappeared. She hadn’t seen which direction he’d gone in.
 

Three paramedics poured out of the back of the ambulance, carrying a stretcher with grim expressions.
 

The officer slammed the car door behind him and strolled over. “Can you tell me what happened here?”
 

“Not really.” It was kind of the truth. It might not have been Big Nick who did it.
 

The officer took out a notepad and pen, and Emily shifted her attention to the jerk on the ground. They’d braced his neck and placed him on the stretcher. It was probably the last time she’d see him, and remorse tickled the back of her mind. What was that about?
 

“How did you come across the victim?”
 

“I fell over him.”
 

“Sorry?” The officer shot her a quizzical look over the end of his pen.
 

“I tripped over him.” She lifted her palms for the first time since the fall and winced at the grazes on them.
 

“I see. And you didn’t catch a glimpse of who might have done this?”
 

“No.” Also the truth, but it made her skin crawl saying it.
 

The police officer snapped the notepad closed and stashed it back in his top pocket of his shirt. “Are you all right?” He softened his tone and the trauma of finding a half-dead man and being stalked by a psychopath hit home.
 

BOOK: Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1)
2.04Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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