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  He must have seen the resolve, must have known I wasn’t just going to go away, because he flicked the cigarette he was smoking into a puddle of unidentified liquid and pulled open the door.

  “We are both going to regret this sooner than later, Copper-Top. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  I felt his eyes burn into me as he followed me back into the strip club. I wasn’t sure what I had just agreed to, or what was waiting for me around the next bend. What I did know, could feel in every cell of my body, was that I had just made an unbreakable deal with the devil and paying up might mark my soul forever.

  CHAPTER 3

  Bax

  SHE SURPRISED ME. THAT was hard to do anymore.

  I pushed her, downright threatened her virtue, and she didn’t so much as flinch. She wasn’t my type. I liked girls who played on the same field as me, girls who knew enough not to ask if I was coming back or bothered with being on a first-name basis. Not to mention, all that pale skin and orange hair wasn’t my thing. Although she was prettier today in the neon lights of Spanky’s. Her green eyes were luminous and stubborn as hell, and with all that hair pulled away from her face, I could see high cheekbones dusted with freckles and a pink mouth with full lips that didn’t belong on a chick who looked like a Catholic schoolgirl. She was far less ordinary than I initially thought, but she had an entirely untouched vibe going on that I just didn’t have the time or the patience for. I still couldn’t tell what she was working with under all those ill-fitting clothes, but sweet and soft was not a turn-on, and neither was the obstinate way she was hounding me.

  It was clear I wasn’t just going to shake her off. She was bound and determined to have her fingers in everything I was doing to scare up information on Race, and the fact of the matter was, she was safer in front of me than trying to dodge my heels in the shadows. In all honesty, I figured she would see the places I was going, the rough crowd I was dealing with, and back off. If that didn’t work, I would just dangle the threat of raging libido in front of her and hope that did the trick. She didn’t strike me as the type that liked getting down and dirty, but I was a bastard and could push any advantage I had if it got me what I wanted.

  All strip clubs were the same. Desperate girls dancing for lonely and depressed men. They smelled like baby oil and cheap booze and I had yet to be inside one where either the customers or the workers seemed like they really wanted to be there. Spanky’s was a little different. The girls who worked there didn’t have to rely on turning tricks or taking the clientele home to make a buck. Ernie, the guy that ran the joint, was on Novak’s payroll and let his guys use the spot to do business and run illegal poker games on the weekends, so the girls were well compensated and often acted like pretty pieces of furniture rather than exotic dancers. Chuck kept a tight eye on the place, and I could see not much had changed since I had left as he escorted me and my tagalong to one of the red velour booths in the VIP section back by the bar.

  He was giving Dovie a curious look out of the corner of his eye, and when we got to the booth, I shoved her in the shoulder, totally ignoring her sour look, and took a step to the side when he inclined his head, indicating he wanted a word.

  “Since when does Race have a sister?”

  “Since I got locked up.”

  “They don’t look anything alike. You sure she isn’t one of Novak’s? He’s got everybody looking for your boy. Word is he needs him breathing and is willing to pay major cheddar for him.”

  I shrugged a shoulder and rubbed a hand over my shaved head. “She look like she could be rolling with Benny and the boys?” It was asked sarcastically.

  He laughed drily. “No, but then again you don’t look like the scourge of the Point either, just like some punk kid.”

  I was glad my rep still held water when I needed it to. “It’s the eyes. They both have eyes the color of pine. She seems straight, but if she’s not . . . I’ll handle it.”

  He nodded because sentimental I was not. She was already in my way, and if she proved to be anything other than what she claimed, I would make her regret it in ways that would be legendary in a place where bad stuff was the day-to-day norm.

  I was going to slide in the booth next to her, where she was watching me with those dark green eyes locked on me in a ferocious glare. Her pretty mouth pursed into an ugly frown when bare arms wrapped around my neck from the back and lips that smelled like cherry candy landed behind my ear. I couldn’t tell because of my hoodie, but I was pretty sure a fine-ass pair of man-made breasts were pressing into my back.

  “Long time no see, handsome. I didn’t know you were out.”

  Her voice was husky, manufactured that way to make horny men think it was a brilliant idea to give her all their hard-earned money, even if it meant their kids and wives went without.

  I turned around and brushed a brief kiss on her heavily made-up lips. It was like kissing a candle, and I tried to give her a hug that was as modest as it could be while I was fully dressed and all she had on was heels and a G-string.

  “Just got out. Looking for Race. You see him since he blew back into town?” She looked over my shoulder to where Dovie was practically bouncing up and down in the gaudy booth.

  “Who’s the Pollyanna?”

  I glanced at her over my shoulder and Dovie went still. Her pale hands flattened on the tabletop and she just stared at me.

  “No one. Honor, you and Race had a thing before I went down. I need to find him. I think he’s in trouble.”

  The stripper opened her mouth but not before Dovie snorted and interrupted with a matter-of-fact, “My brother was not banging a stripper.”

  Well, shit. Honor’s fake lashes fluttered and lowered and I could feel her anger rolling off of all that exposed skin. You didn’t walk into a dancer’s gig and insult her. That was just a house rule in the District.

  “Oh, honey, he wasn’t just banging a stripper . . . he was banging a whole fleet of them. Sometimes more than one at a time. When Bax says we had a thing, that just means Race liked me best. Seems to me you would know that if you’re gonna be running around calling him your brother.” She hooked a thumb at Dovie’s scowling face and narrowed her eyes at me. “Really? You get locked up for a minute and you bring this piece around? You forget the way it works out here, Bax?”

  I sighed and gave my head a little shake of resignation. “I didn’t forget anything. I just need to know what Race is into.”

  She pouted for a minute more and kept up her glare contest with Dovie. Neither was going to win since it was like an apple glaring at an orange, so I waited until the dancer looked back up at me. She switched tactics and broke out in a gigantic fake grin. She batted those plastic eyelashes at me and ran her long nails over the zipper of my hoodie. I lifted a black eyebrow and caught her wrist in my fingers.

  “Why don’t you ditch the deadweight and come back after my shift? We can chat, and you know . . . get reacquainted.”

  “I’m running on limited time and even more limited patience, Honor. You don’t want either to run out.”

  She made a face and flipped her long, reddish-brown hair over her shoulder so I could see the pointed tips of each naked breast where they were rubbing against me.

  “All I know is everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking for him. He stopped in when he very first got back to town looking for Ernie. I asked him if he wanted to take a trip down memory lane and he wasn’t interested. He was quiet for a while, we all knew he was back and living in the Point, and then overnight he was rattling Novak’s cage and then he was a ghost. I like Race, we all like Race.” That was said pointedly to Dovie and I heard her suck in a sharp breath. “If I knew anything else, I would let you know, Bax. You know I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”

  I considered her for a minute, trying to determine how much was truth and how much was just what she thought I wanted to hear.

  “What did he want to talk to Ernie about?”

  She shrugged a naked shoulder and ran her
hand up and down my arm. Any prolonged contact with a female who was missing her clothes was bound to have an effect on my starved sex drive, but for some reason, I found the twitch in my pants annoying and ill-timed rather than exciting and blood heating.

  “I dunno. He didn’t say. He did ask if I saw some guy hanging around, though.”

  I went stiff and grabbed her by her upper arms. She gave a little shriek as I pulled her up to the very tips of her cheap heels.

  “What guy?” This was important. I could feel it. I was a good thief, a successful criminal, because my instincts very rarely failed me, and whoever Race was asking after was key to his disappearance. I just knew it.

  “Bax?”

  It wasn’t Honor’s overly sexed-up voice that made me realize not only was I squeezing her hard enough to leave marks, but I was also shaking her like a rag doll; it was Dovie’s much quieter, much more modulated one. I set the dancer down and took a step back.

  “What guy, Honor?”

  She was scowling at me and starting to walk away, her gunmetal-gray eyes flashing sparks at me.

  “You’re still an asshole, Bax. I don’t know how I managed to forget it. It must be because you’ve got that whole dark and dangerous thing going on. I forgot that the dangerous part isn’t any fun. Some rich guy. He was asking about some really rich guy, that’s all I know. If you come back, leave Pollyanna at home, and try to remember I don’t like it rough.”

  She flounced away with as much attitude as anyone in ridiculous heels and not much else could muster, and I turned to look down at Dovie. A storm was brewing under her pale skin. I could see it in the hot flush high on her cheeks and the way her green eyes darkened to almost black.

  Her fingers curled into fists on the table and she snapped, “No way. There is no way Race was messing around with a piece of trash like that.” I noticed she didn’t have the same illusions about me. I put my own hands on the edge of the table and leaned down so we were almost eye-to-eye. She pulled back a little and I saw her gulp.

  “What you think you know and what you actually know are two very different things, Copper-Top.”

  “I know my brother.” She was stubborn and I liked the way her pretty mouth set in a firm line. Finding someone with that kind of loyalty in a place like this was rare, even if it was misguided.

  I pushed off the table. “You know your brother now; you have no idea who he was then. It’ll make for less disappointment if you keep that in mind. I gotta go find Ernie. Stay put and try not to piss off any more of the dancers.”

  She screwed up her face, which I had to admit was cute. Those freckles were starting to grow on me.

  “I want to come with you.”

  “Too bad. Ernie and Novak do business together, so he’ll see me. You try and stick your nose in there, and you’re gonna find your happy ass stripped and onstage whether you like it or not. Ernie isn’t the most enlightened strip-club owner, if you can imagine that. You just keep your ass in the seat.”

  I didn’t really care if she was going to listen to me or not. Chuck would keep an eye on her, and if she wanted to tangle with a bunch of half-naked chicks just trying to make their way in the world, that was her choice. Being a babysitter had never been on my occupational goals list and I didn’t have the time to try and convince her that Race was a person with a past, just like everyone else in the Point. Sure, he came from a shiny and more well-to-do place than the rest of us, but that didn’t mean the undercarriage wasn’t just as rusted out and full of holes, just like the rest of ours. The sooner she saw that, the softer the letdown would be when whatever Race had mucked into got dragged out into the light.

  I made my way to the back room, nodding in Chuck’s direction and hooking a finger over my shoulder to indicate I had left Dovie on her own. He tilted his chin in acknowledgment and I went to the office and rapped on the door with a knuckle. I didn’t bother to wait for an invite in.

  Ernie was a big, fat slob of a man. He was balding and greasy, had beady little eyes, and was as greedy as he was crafty. My theory was that all guys like him started strip clubs because there was no other way they could see hot chicks naked. Novak loved him because he was malleable and a coward. He paid the big boss whatever he asked and let him use the joint for whatever he wanted. In turn, Novak made sure Ernie was insulated, had a steady line of new girls, rich customers, and an endless supply of blow. It was a relationship that benefited both of them. Not to mention, they were both slimeballs and only operated on the other side of the law. In Novak’s case it was the far, far other side of the law.

  Ernie was sitting behind his desk talking on his cell. His bushy brows went up high when he saw me. I offered up what passed as a smile but really was more a baring of teeth and leaned back against the closed door with my arms crossed over my chest. My intent was clear. Unless I got the answers I wanted, no one was going in or coming out of the office without going through me first.

  “Ernie.”

  “Well, if it isn’t Novak’s golden boy back from the joint. I heard you might be poking around. Trying to hit up on your old girls. Five years is a long time; most of them moved on by now.”

  Which really meant most were strung out, got smacked around one too many times, or got too old to bring in the revenue. This guy was a class act all the way.

  “I’m looking for Race.”

  “You and every other SOB in the Point. Don’t know why he had to show back up and stick his neck out. He had a good thing going with you locked up. Out of sight, out of mind. Now his dumb ass is on everyone’s mind and nobody is happy about it.”

  “Honor said he was asking after some moneybags. Who was it?”

  “Why should I tell you shit? You went away, kid. You don’t have any pull around here anymore. The way things went down with you and Novak . . . shit, you’re lucky to be breathing.”

  I narrowed my eyes just a fraction and let my mouth kick up on the side in a grin that had sent far more dangerous men headed in the opposite direction.

  “Novak isn’t here. I am. You really want me to get the answers out of you the hard way? You want to find out all the ways I dreamed up for payback while I was locked up?” I pushed off the door and started to stalk toward the desk.

  Ernie pushed back the chair that looked like it was going to snap under his bulk. I saw a fine sheen of sweat break out on his bald spot. I might not have pull, but I sure as hell had push.

  “Look, I don’t know who the guy was. Race had a picture, like one out of a newspaper or something. One of those fancy society pages. He was all worked up over it. Demanding to know if the guy had been in here. I told him I had no idea, and he put his fist through the wall.”

  He indicated a spot that was covered with a raunchy picture of a girl spread-eagled on a bed.

  “He didn’t use the guy’s name?”

  “No. I told him I didn’t share Novak’s business with anyone, but that Mr. Fancy had been in on poker night more than once. Not alone either. He brought his own entertainment, if you know what I mean.”

  I scowled as Ernie leered at me.

  “Race didn’t say what he wanted with the guy?”

  “No, but shortly after that, Benny and the boys went and roughed up the chick he was shacking up with. Sent him over the edge. Always thought Race was a smart guy, but then he marched into Novak’s compound, making threats and talking crazy. You don’t tell a man like Novak his time is coming to an end, not unless you want to end up in the ground. Boy wasn’t as smart as I thought.”

  I didn’t like the sound of any of that. Race was smart and he knew not to make idle threats. If he had something on Novak big enough to sink an entire criminal empire, it was no wonder he was off the grid, and it explained why Novak had all his minions looking for him. I didn’t understand the timing, why he was back, why he had waited until I was loose to make his move, and I had no clue what he had in his bag of tricks that he thought he could hold over Novak. It was starting to make me uneasy. I didn’t
do uneasy.

  “The guy he was looking for, he have business with Novak?”

  Ernie snorted and tapped his too-long fingernails on his desk. “Like I told your boy, I don’t discuss Novak’s business. That’s why I’m still here and why I got all the best girls. You saw Honor; she miss you? I always heard those girls had a thing for you. I think you broke a couple hearts when you got busted.”

  The girls liked me because I got what I was after and left them in peace. I didn’t want to hang around and bitch about my day or discuss my work, I just wanted to get off and go home. Fortunately for them, I was fairly considerate in the sack. I always tried to make sure I gave as good as I got, unless I was in a hurry.

  “Right now Novak’s business and my business are one and the same. Tell me what you know, Ernie.”

  I cracked my knuckles and let my hands curl into fists as he lumbered to his feet and leaned on the desk.

  “Saw that you brought Race’s redhead in with you. I don’t know what it is about that girl that has you boys all in a lather, but I think Benny and his boys would love to know you somehow managed to hook up with her right after Race disappeared. Maybe, just maybe, she’s the key to getting him to pop back up.”

  I didn’t like being threatened. I liked him threatening a seemingly innocent young woman even less. Dovie might live the hard life, might be familiar with the sacrifice and struggle it took to live on this side of the fence, but everything about her was soft and untouched. She didn’t need Ernie or Benny dirtying her up.

  It took two steps and a single lunge to get Ernie around his sweaty collar. He swore at me and I used all my upper-body strength to pull his flabby bulk over the desk. He didn’t have the strength or the leverage to fight me as he swore and scraped at my wrists to get purchase.

  “She is off the table. Do you understand?”

  He swore at me again and tried to knee me in the balls. A totally pussy move by a guy who had others do his dirty work.