“Please. You’re better than this.”
I was wrong; he wasn’t a strip club regular, he was a wannabe white knight. That was almost worse. “How would you even know that?”
He didn’t flinch as he said, “Because I’ve heard your beautiful voice.” If there was any hesitation in his eyes, it vanished as he looked me over with renewed determination. “I’ve heard you sing before.”
“When?” Feeling exposed, I circled my arms over my chest. “The last time I sang was over seven years ago.”
He stood up from the chair, his jeans still undone—why had I gone so far? “It was long ago, yes, but I’ll never forget that night. You’ve got music in your veins, Harper. You could shake the world, bring it to its knees.” His warm hands clasped my shoulders, then cupped my jaw like we were old friends—older lovers. “A voice like yours belongs on a stage.”
“I’ve got a stage,” I whispered. Shrugging him off of me, I backed up until the curtains hiding us from the rest of the club tickled my spine. “I belong up there on the pole with the other forgotten girls.” I don’t want to sing. Never again.
Jack stayed where he was. He was vibrating with a barely controlled energy; a single drop of sweat, a reminder of our bodies’ heat, rolled down his chest. He breathed in thickly; I had to resist reaching out to touch his massive muscles. “I can tell when someone is hiding. I’m familiar with that world.”
“Fine,” I said, scooping my top up, rushing to tie it on. “Use your familiarity to recognize it’s not your business if I’m hiding or not. Stay out of my life. You don’t know me, Jack. And you shouldn’t want to.”
His voice was somber. “It’s not the knowing that’s the problem. It’s the forgetting.”
We faced off, both hiding secrets and, perhaps, wondering if revealing them would make the static energy in the air worse. A knock came on the wood outside the booth. “Harper?” a girl asked sweetly. “It’s Sensual, you almost done in there? Maurice said you only had fifteen minutes and it’s been twenty, so…”
Jack moved around me. He didn’t look back, not once, as he opened the curtain. He stared straight ahead as he handed me a stack of money from his wallet. “We’re done in here,” he said to Sensual and the man beside her. “All yours.”
The other customer peered at me, probably smelling the tang of sweat in the booth. I felt bad that I’d set Sensual up for trouble; this guy definitely assumed he was about to get some stripper-vag action.
The dancer was squinting at me with a half-smile. “Girl,” she whispered, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, all good.” Running my hands through my hair, I stared around the club. Jack was gone, lost in the crowd, maybe even out the front door by now. All I had was the stack of bills he’d given me for the dance.
It was the first time I wished I hadn’t been paid.
The stairs rocked under me—I could have been on a ship at sea. Jack knew me when I used to sing. He remembered me. That part of my past was a wound so raw and open, any mention of it was pure salt and vinegar in my cells. Jack had taken me high only to drop me so hard I was shattered through my middle.
In my hand, the money was heavy.
Forget him. Who cares if he knew you. He’s just a guy who got a dance… way more than a dance. If he wants to storm off, acting like a child, fine. Everything was fine.
It had to be.
“Harper?”
Mister Big was standing along the edge of the hallway, blocking me from the stairwell that led to the girls’ dressing room. He looked at me closely. When he focused on the cash in my hand, I slid my arm behind my back on reflex. His smile was sickening. “Nice haul, all that for one dance?”
I was confused until I lifted the money back into view. Jack was supposed to pay me a hundred bucks, but this was more; way more. Five hundred damn dollars? Blinking, I offered my boss a quick shrug. “He… really liked me.”
“Well,” Callum chuckled, leaning in close. We weren’t alone, but I felt like I might as well have been. No one would interrupt this man… no one was that stupid. “You’re a beautiful girl. Any man would fall for you, if you gave them a chance. Your mother had that same natural gift.” He stroked my cheek; I pulled away, not hiding the disgust on my face.
This was why I avoided him. I couldn’t fake niceness when he pressed me.
The next time he spoke, he was seething. “Hate me all you like, but I should remind you that the only reason you and your sister are together is because of me.”
I didn’t need him to remind me of anything. “Did you want something, or can I go?”
He adjusted his black jacket, looking over my head, then back to me. “Give me my cut of your dance money, then you can go back to work.”
Not arguing, I peeled off his share of the cost; twenty bucks.
His fingers curled in his open palm. “No, dear. Twenty percent would be one hundred dollars.”
I recoiled, gripping the cash tight. “But I did one private dance!”
“And you were paid five hundred for that. I still get twenty percent, Harper. Understand?”
Furious at his attempt to bully me, I debated my options. It was a waste of time; as long as I insisted on staying in Cena’s life, I had to obey Callum’s rules. Curling my lips over my teeth, I slapped the money into his hand. “Fine. Here, now can I go?”
Shoving the bills into his jacket’s inner pocket, he nodded. “Yes. Get back out there,” he mumbled, strolling around me. “And don’t do anything stupid.”
He didn’t know it was too late.
I mean, I’d already screwed Jack.
How much stupider could I get?
Chapter Four
Jack
After years of plotting my revenge, I’d made my first mistake.
My grim face looked back at me in my car’s mirror. Red veins slithered through the edges of my eyeballs—reminding me how little I’d slept. After leaving the Golden Goose, I’d driven around for hours, trying to shake Harper from my brain.
It was a pointless effort.
I shouldn’t have spoken to her. That much was obvious, but I’d never been great at ignoring people in trouble. I’d thought she was just another dancer. Then I’d heard her humming… and that sound had burrowed into my memory. Suddenly I was back on that alley ground. Suddenly, the angel who’d shown me mercy was hovering over my broken body.
I couldn’t have predicted that I’d find her again.
Least of all, I wouldn’t have guessed she’d be in that filthy club.
She belonged on a stage meant for goddesses. Instead, she spent her nights twirling around a greasy metal pole for the lowest scum around. You’re no better, I reprimanded myself. You bought her body the same as the rest.
Harper had smelled like a sweet dream and tasted like glory. She’d reminded me of who I’d been before years on the street had hardened me.