CHAPTER ONE
I was getting ready for work. I was late, extremely late and my boss never likes it when I’m late. I couldn’t find my heels and then my boss called.
I picked up the phone, answering it and putting it on speaker. “Your late, you know what happens when your late,” my boss Jacob says. “Yes Mr Mac, I have seemed to misplace my heels sir,” I say before picking up a pile of dirty laundry to find my red heels right under it.
“Sadie,” Jacob says, “I got it, I’m comi-” I pause getting another call, this time from my landlord.
“I’ll call you back,” I hang up quickly before answering the landlord.
“Your rent is two weeks late, what’s going on,” he says, “I know Max, I get my paycheck after my shift today, I’ll get it to you by then,” I sigh in exhaustion before hanging up, grabbing my bag, and rushing out the door.
I walk down the stairs of the apartment building, and as soon as I step out the door, I hear the loud clunks of the engines passing, cars backfiring and motorbikes flying past. I ran over to my baby an old beat up f150 ford jumping in and starting it up. It purred to life as the engine ticked over. Turning the music up, rolling the windows down as I was finally ready to head to work.
I called back Jacob, like I had promised.
“Sadie, you do not hang up on me like that,” he says sternly, “I’m sorry sir, I’m behind on my rent, I just-” I pause tearing up while he interrupts me. “Sadie, quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck,” I sob, he sighs over the phone, “stop crying, it’s embarrassing,” he says emotionless.
“I’m sorry sir, please don’t fire me, I need this job, it’s all I have,” I wipe my tears, “fine, you’re the best dancer we have anyway, but you’re not getting your paycheck today, not after the stunt you’ve pulled,”
“Sir, wait- I need thi-” before I could finish, he hangs up. I groan and slam my hands into the steering wheel annoyed.
I moved to Texas with a sick mum in hospital and a deceased dad. He died when I was little, so this paycheck is everything right now, I need to pay my rent that I was way behind on and keeping my mums hospital bills up to date. It’s my main priority, she’s the only family I have left.
I finally arrived at work.
I put my stuff down behind the stage where the dressing rooms are, and headed right outside to the bar where my best friend Lilith was. Lilith Evens has helped me through it all, getting this job, finding an apartment, which is a dump in my opinion, but I’m grateful for her, without her I wouldn’t have a place to sleep at night.
“Hey sweetie,” she smiles, “hey Lilith,” I reply walking behind the bar, getting a cloth and cleaning spray for tables.
“Now what’s gotten up your ass,” she says in her country accent, “Nothing much, Jacob, isn’t giving me my paycheck,” “of course he isn’t,” she rolls her eyes, “I’ll talk to him,” she smiles putting the glass she was holding down.
“JACOB MAC,” I hear her scream while she walks off, I chuckle at her. She’s always been the one to put people in their place, she’s known Jacob since the beginning and of course she can put him in his place.
This club has always been different from other strip clubs around, the reason is they do business behind the scenes, with some gangs? From what Lilith told me, I cannot tell anyone else.
It’s a secret, her words, not mine.
I look up from the table I was wiping down and see Lilith fisting Jacob by the shirt, “you got something to say?” she asks him. “No. No I don’t,” he responds stubbornly.
Lilith kicks the back of his legs, “try again, country boy,” I raise an eyebrow looking at her surprised, “fine. Just let go of me,” she pushes him away, “god” he mumbles fixing up his shirt.
“I’m sorry Sadie, I shouldn’t be rude to you, as you are a well-known employee to our customers,” he says formally, “but-” oh here we go, “you aren’t getting that pay-check Sainz,”
He always calls me by my last name when he wants to be “genuine.”
“Please sir, I am way behind my rent, I have my mum’s hospital bills to pay and-”, “and you’re still not getting that pay-check, get it in your head” he says walking away, “Mac” Lilith says sadly, “It’s not happening, we are about to open so go get changed Sadie”.
I sigh walking backstage where all the other dancers have already arrived and warmed up.
The first few dances of the night have finished, and now I’m on my break. I looked out of the door that separated the dressing rooms from the club itself, and what looked like a gang- no biker gang had walked in. They wore those leather jackets you see in movies while carrying helmets in their hands. Some had walked up to the bar and the others had sat down to watch the next show.
A solo dance, just me, no one else.
“Next is a solo dance from our most popular performer Cherry,” They announce over the speakers a few minutes later. Cherry is my stage name, hence the red heels.
I walk on and giving it my all, despite how upset I was. I had gotten money thrown at me that I knew I wasn’t getting to keep. Jacob’s an ass that keeps our tips if we make some big bucks.
I walk back to the dressing room and sit on my chair, rubbing my eyes from tears. It’s going to be a long night with no reward at the end. I’m working, busting my ass of for nothing, it’s just not fair.
Jacob walked up to me after my solo. “Sainz my waitress is away you’re going to have to be on drinks for my table tonight,” “oh and don’t fucking screw this up, I have very important people here tonight and if you mess up you might just lose your damn job,” he growled at me then walked away. The fucking nerve on him, if I didn’t need this job, I’d fucking hit him with my truck.
I put on my best smile after how Mac talked to me. I tied an apron around my waist and changed my red heels to red cowboy boots. As I walked over, I looked at all the men I had to wait on tonight, sitting around the table were three men and Jacob.
The three mysterious men all look intimidating with their black leather jackets. I looked more closely at the middle one, he was tall with dark brown hair and tattoos running up the sides of his neck.
Once I finally got to the men, I spoke in the sweetest voice I could muster up, “howdy, I’ll be you waitress tonight, what drinks can I get y’all,”
“Hi princess, your show was amazing,” the middle one says, “thank you, is there anything I can get for you?” I ask politely.
God he’s gorgeous.
“Mexican Martini would be nice, darling,” the middle one said, “anything else?” I ask writing down the order. “3 Texan hurricanes, make it quick, yeah?” Jacob says, I hum in response walking away.
“Oh princess,” the middle one says, “yeah?” I reply turning around.
“A private show in 20 would be lovely as well,” he winks, “yes sir,” I manage to make a smile.
I walk behind the counter and give the order to Lilith. “Oh My God,” I sigh putting my face into my hands.
“What’s up?” She asks making the orders I had given her. “See where Jacob is,” I explain, she hums looking in their direction for a while, “The middle one, with the tattoos,” she hums again, “he is the finest looking man I have ever seen,” she laughs, “he asked for a private dance in 20, then he winked at me,” I whisper scream.
“You better make it a good one, just for him,” she winks, “omg stop,” I blush taking the drinks back to the table.
“Here you go 3 Texan hurricanes for you guys and one Mexican martini for you sir, anything else I can get for you?” I handed the gorgeous man his martini. “Thank you, ma’am,” he said with a sparkle in his eye. “No that will be all Cherry, now leaves us until I call again,” I walked away feeling pretty shitty, from being called Cherry.
In the interview, before I got this job, I was apparently told to keep our identities a secret, or some shit like that so I had no choice.
I hate to say it, but I didn’t listen at all, the money sounded good, and I needed the income, so I took it without thinking. I kind of regret it now but it’s a job and it pays enough to keep me alive.
Well with Jacob as my boss, I'm barely able to stay alive.
I was sitting at the bar waiting to be summoned by my demon boss to get him another drink, while I was waiting, I was talking to Lil’s while she wasn’t too busy. She was keeping me up to date with her love life. I’ve known her for 3-4 year now, and this woman has had some interesting experiences, like DAMN.
I had been talking to Lilith for about 20 minutes when the man that was with my boss walked over to me.
“It’s been 20 minutes princess,” he whispered in my ear; a shiver ran up my spine as I felt his warm breath on my neck. I looked over my shoulder at him, he had a smirk plastered on his face. I took in his gorgeous features, his eyes that looked like the blue sea, black and dark green swimming around them, his dark brown curly hair that made him look unreal.
God what am I thinking. He’s a gang member for God sakes.
“Oh yeah, just wait in that room over there,” I shakily point my finger towards the black door next to the stage, “I’ll be waiting princess,” I hear him turn and walk away. “I see what you mean Sainz,” she giggles cleaning the cups with a cloth, “oh shush,” I blush walking away to get ready. Once I get into my outfit and touch up my make up I walk in.
“Well, hello gorgeous,” he smirks doing a man spread.
“Oh, My Days,” “Oh My Days indeed,” he says patting his lap. I sit on it whispering to him, “did I say that out loud,” I ask, “yes ma’am,”
“That’s embarrassing,” I get flustered hiding my face in his shoulder while I try and continue this lap dance he asked for. He laughs in his deep voice.
I look back up, concentrating to get this done as fast as possible, “what’s your name princess,” he asks, “Cherry,” I respond, “no princess, what’s your real name,”
I sigh, “I don’t think my boss will like it if I tell you, it’s policy,” I explain, “fuck the policy,” he says.
I smile slightly, “you can’t tell him I told you,” I say making it clear. “Pinkie promise,” he holds out his pinkie, “your one of those guys, huh?” “Come on,” he says.
“Thank you,” I interlock my pinkie with his, “Sadie. Sadie Sainz,” “Sainz? Your a Mexican, princess?” I nod my head yes; “I guess,” I could feel the blush burning my cheeks. I turned my head away hoping he wouldn’t see me turning red. “How about your sir, what should I call you?” I slowly turned my head back to him hoping the blush has gone, but by the look on his face he had caught it.
“I go by a lot a names princess,” he smirked “but you can call me James,” I smile slightly. I had a best friend in primary school named James he was the best, but he moved to Florida in grade 4 and I haven’t seen him since. Sadly.
I was distracted by this fine piece of eye-candy before me because the stupid timer had finished 5 minutes ago. Shit! Jacob is going to be furious, James got more of me then he should’ve. I quickly push myself away from him.
“Sorry I completely lost track of time,” “All good babe, you can keep going if you want,” James smirks sending me a cheeky wink right after.
I laugh a little before replying, “No I have to get back to work, but this was nice.” “Enjoy the rest of your night,” I said walking back to the bar.
The rest of the night went by quickly, thank goodness. The club finally cleared out and it was time to clean up and hopefully get that pay-check if I worked over time. I told Lilith to go home, and I would clean up the rest of the bar and close up for her. Whilst drying the cup I felt someone staring at me, I looked over to see James.
“Hey princess,” welp I guess that nickname has stuck, but surprisingly it doesn’t bother me coming from him. “Hey,” I reply with a small smile trying to hide my heated cheeks. He took a seat near where I was standing, “what time does your shift end?” he asked tilting his head sideways, he looked like a confused puppy. It was cute.
“My shift finished at 12,” I answered focusing on drying the cup. “12!! It’s 1 am why are you still here?” he looked worried. “I was late to work, and my manager, Jacob, said I wouldn’t be getting my pay because of it, and I really need my paycheck so I’m working it back” he looked a little angry at that.
“That’s not happening princess, he can’t do that”, “It is what it is I guess,” I shrug my shoulders putting a few things away, before turning back to him. He was concerned and I could see it, he didn’t even try to hide it. Why though? Why was he so concerned when we had only met a few hours ago.
“You want me to talk to him?” he asks, “I’ve tried,” I sigh in annoyance. “Sadie, I will talk to him,” he says. “James”, “I like when you say my name,” he smiles. I got flustered and turned away. “No, no don’t look away from me,” he teases, I laugh a little, while turning back to him. “Could you do me a favor and not, I would get in so much trouble,” I explain to him.
“Well princess, I’d do anything for you,” his facial features are something that I couldn’t seem to figure out.“Thank you, but it’s fine, really,” I continued with cleaning the rest of the bar with James watching me. I moved on to stacking the chairs and cleaning tables when Jacob walked out of his office with a stripper named Maddison holding onto his arm digging her talons into his bicep.
“Ah now James where will you be staying whilst in town,” he smiled. His smile made me sick. I kept cleaning trying to avoid ears dropping the best I could. “I currently don’t have a place planned is there any where you can recommend,” James said through what sounded like gritted teeth. “Oh, I know why you don’t stay with Cherry I’m sure she will be more than happy accommodating to you, the other two can stay there as well, there are two bedrooms,” I dropped the spray bottle.
STAY WITH ME!!!!
