“No,” she said patiently. “No one got me. I promise.”
“Good. Don’t worry, I’ll keep us both safe. They can’t get us in here.”
Annie looked crestfallen for a second, but then, determination hardened her features. I watched for the next ten minutes as she tried to convince him to leave the tent. When that finally worked, I was impressed. Then she had to convince him to come with us.
Not easy.
When he finally agreed, only if we took the tent with us, Annie threw her arms around me.
“Thank you so much for finding him.”
The pride that I felt was like a living thing, expanding and growing inside of my body. I’d wanted to help her when I heard about her brother, and I was thrilled that I had the chance to follow through.
Lance disassembled the tent expertly, like he’d been doing it a long time, and I offered to carry it, wanting to make myself useful in some way.
I watched them walking ahead of me as we returned to the strip club, where we’d parked. Lance tried to change his mind a couple times, but Annie got him back on track every time. She was incredibly patient with him, taking the time to talk him into continuing. He randomly spoke to himself and seemed to be disoriented the farther we got from the overpass, but, eventually, we got him in the passenger’s seat of Annie’s car. I loaded the pathetic tent into the back seat.
Annie was going to take him to the hospital, where they’d examine him and hopefully get him back on his schizophrenia medicine. He’d have to answer some questions about the dead man, if he could, but I’d already explained the situation to the police officers last night.
“Can I help you?” a voice said from behind me as I watched Annie and Lance pull away, waving.
I turned to see a masculine woman with short hair staring at me. She was wearing a black T-shirt with the wordsBlack Satinscrolled on her left breast pocket.
“No, I’m just leaving.” My eyes strained one last time to the blood stain that I knew to be Butch’s.
The stranger followed my gaze.
“You Butch’s woman?” she asked. I lifted an eyebrow and nodded. How did she know?
“That’s what I thought. Heard a lot about you around here at the club. Butch’s crazy about you, ya know.”
I gave her a wide grin. “I’m Sabrina.”
“Abby.”
“Ah. the boss,” I said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Don’t believe a word of it.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said. My attention was diverted when a car arrived in the parking lot and two perfectly normal-looking girls got out. I couldn’t help staring. I would never know what they did for a living if I saw them somewhere else. They were pretty. Did Butch watch them when he was here? I didn’t want to think about that.
“That’s Cherry and Muse,” Abby said, gesturing. “Cherry’s got a thing for Butch, ya know, but he doesn’t give her the time of day. Not while he’s got you.”
I was surprised by her forward way of talking.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I know that some women can’t handle their men working around mostly-naked women. I’d hate to lose Butch because you had a problem with it, so I’m telling you now, there’s no need to worry. He doesn’t even watch the acts.”
“He doesn’t?” I asked, and she shook her head no.
“He really doesn’t.”
Itdidmake me feel better. Butch was all mine, and I had a feeling I was going to get along just fine with Abby.
* * *
“I’m sorry, Hunter,” I said from my spot beside him on the couch. He was sitting with his eyes glued to the floor while his elbows rested on his knees. I’d told him everything: my misgivings about the arranged marriage, my feelings for Butch, my pregnancy. I even told him about the café I wanted to open someday.
