I let out a quiet sigh. “Trolls are harmless.”
She leaned away from her mirror. “You don’t know that. Tell Turk or Yak about it.”
I locked eyes with her in the mirror. “These are online. Not in person threats. If this is a real person, he’s probably on the other side of the globe.”
She pointed a manicured finger at me. “You spent a week in the hospital. Do you want to go through that again? Tell them!”
My fingers curled around a container of mineral powder, and I focused on loading up my brush. “I’ll tell them. What time is it? I can catch them both before Yak heads home to Nora.”
Lucy sailed into the room. “He left two minutes ago. Turk and Punc are here to close.”
I nodded and applied powder to my face.
Desiree scrutinized me. “What’s with you and Punc? You know he went ballistic when you were in the hospital. And we all noticed how protective he was of you when you were here afterward. None of the other men act that way with you.”
I faced her. “I know. He’s a family friend.” With three short nods, I added, “And you’re right, I’ll find time to tell Turk about the messages.”
I meant that. I’d find time to tell Turk, but Punc didn’t need to know. No, hecouldn’tknow.
Punc
When Punc walked through the back door at Platinum’s at five o’clock, he nearly collided with Desiree.
“Hey, Punc! Turk wants to see you when you get here.”
He climbed the stairs to the office and saw Yak and Turk were both there.
“Desiree says you wanted to see me.”
Yak nodded. “Have a seat, brother.”
Unease settled in his gut, but he couldn’t figure out why as he planted his ass in a chair. “What’s goin’ on?”
Turk sat back in his seat. “Need you to be on your toes tonight. It’s not crowded yet, but Ava’s returning to the stage tonight.”
“No, she isn’t. It’s too soon,” he said.
“She’s dancing, Punc,” Yak said.
“Neither of you came to see her in the hospital. I’m tellin’ you the doctors don’t want her doin’ flips and shit this soon.”
Turk drew his attention. “It isn’t up to you, Punc. It’s her decision. I asked about medical clearance, and as long as she doesn’t do any gymnastics, her doctor gave her the go-ahead. She’s coming in tonight at seven.”
He slid his tongue between his teeth and he bit it. Otherwise, he’d have said, ‘the hell she is,’ and he’d have stood sentry at the dressing room doors until she arrived.
Everything clicked and he kept his gaze on Turk. “This is about making sure I don’t fuck with the plan for tonight. That I don’t toss every horny asshole out the door before the first note blares through the speakers.”
“Punc,” Yak called, and he looked that way. “You can’t blame him… or us, really. None of us are cool with what happened to her. I heard you last month. If it were up to me, no woman would get hurt because she works here. But Turk’s right. It isn’t up to you and me. Now that you know we’ve verified that she’s good to go, can we trust you to keep a lock on your shit?”
After a deep breath, he let his gaze shift between the two brothers. His eyes locked with Turk’s. “Yeah. Is that all?”
Turk gave him a chin lift and Punc got to work.
Punc closed the door to his room at the clubhouse at five-thirty-five in the morning. Part of him missed sleeping on Savannah’scouch. No, he missed seeing her every morning, but he wasn’t going to cost her this gig.
He’d had to distance himself from her after eliminating the threat from Prime, even though it killed him to stay away from her.
It had been a long night, made even longer by the fact that Savannah had brought the house down. Again. He didn’t see much of it since he was busy with crowd control. Still, when live entertainment got really good, it had an energy. When the crowd got into it, feeding the performer, which in turn fueled the crowd further. Yeah. Ava’s stage presence had been electric. What little he’d seen.
