He bites his lip. “Are you on the pill?”
Reality sinks in and I cross my arms over my bare breasts. Harrison didn’t ask me. He took what he wanted.
I am on the pill, thank goodness.
I blink. “Yes, I am. Rouge’s policy.”
He nods, his expression blank. “Okay, good. Good.”
Then he gasps. “Shit. The old man.” He rises, paces around the room. “What the hell was I thinking? I’m a fucking doctor!”
I sweep my legs to the side of the bed. “My sister will know what to do.”
“I don’t know what came over me,” he says. “Everything in the whole world just stopped existing when I saw your body.” He buries his face in his hands.
“Like you said, it’s not like he was going anywhere?—”
“But there might have been a chance to save him if we’d acted quickly. I could have performed CPR until paramedics got here.”
I stand and look right into his eyes. “He was dead. Dead is dead. You shouldn’t feel any guilt at all. What we need to worry about now is getting rid of the body without arousing any attention.”
“Okay.” He scratches his shoulder. “I guess we should get dressed, then.”
I nod and grab my panties from the floor. I discarded them there at Mr. Calloway’s command, never imagining that I would be putting them back on in the company of a second, much more appealing man. “So…Harrison O’Rourke.”
He gets dressed. “That’s what they call me.”
“It’s a good name. Solid.” I slip my dress back on. “Do you ever go by Harry?”
“No.” He turns his head away sharply.
I swallow. His tone suddenly turned so curt. There’s a story there, but it’s none of my business. We finish dressing in silence.
I put my shoes on and stand. “My next set will be starting soon. We should go.”
11
HARRISON
I put my hand in Bianca’s. God, her skin is soft. Does she bathe in olive oil or something?
“How are they going to move the body out of the club?” I ask Bianca. “Are they going to have to clear all the patrons to make space? I don’t want anyone panicking.”
She shakes her head. “That won’t be necessary. We’ve had incidents like this before. I mean, never in the middle of…” She swallows. “Rouge has a process for dealing with these things delicately.”
I drop my jaw. “Wait, people dying here is so commonplace that you have a procedure in place to handle them?”
Maybe I don’t have to feel so guilty about the old man after all…
But what I said earlier was true. There may have been a chance to save his life. We’ll never know, because I chose to fuck Bianca instead.
Damn.
She sighs. “You have to remember that Aces Underground started as an illegal speakeasy during Prohibition. Everything is by the books now, at least on paper. But Chet has often looked the other way when people bring in narcotics and other hard drugs. Sometimes we have to deal with an overdose.”
“How have you not gotten shut down?” I ask. “Aren’t clubs like Aces liable for any illegal goings-on on their premises?”
Bianca huffs. “You clearly don’t know my sister. She’s got everyone with a lick of power in this town wrapped around her little finger. She does whatever the hell she wants and has never faced any consequences for her actions.”
