“Jake’s here?” Dylan asked, sounding far too hopeful about his presence.
I turned on her as his mysteriousarrival suddenly made sense. “Yes. Why is Jake here, Dylan? How did he know we’d be here?”
She had the decency to drop her gaze in shame. “I was worried about you, so I called Asher for backup. Just in case things got out of hand out there. I mean, it’s like you’re so focused on nailing Greg that you didn’t even see all the scary bikers out there, and I was worried about your safety. I stillam. Didn’t you hear them freak out when you ran off stage rather than revealing all your goodies? I’m sorry, Addie, but we’re in way over our heads here. We need help.”
I scowled at my best friend. I couldn’t believe she’d lost faith in me. “I had it under control. I need you to trust me so we can do this job.”
“I trust your heart. I trust your intelligence. I trust your sense of right andwrong. Today, I’m not so sure about your sense of self-preservation, though. Addie, Asher said this bar is owned by the Spiders. If one of them decides to do something to you, nobody in this place will stop them. I know you’re angry, but I did the right thing here.”
“We’ll talk about this later.” Still angry, I grabbed the outfit I’d had on when we entered the bar. “While I dress, you need tofix this mess and find us a way out of here that doesn’t involve facing an angry mob of bikers or an angrier Jake.”
“On it,” Dylan said, snapping to attention. She scurried around the room trying every available door, but when none of them worked, she headed down the hall.
I had just gotten my skirt on and slipped my feet into my heels when I heard a distant scream, loud enough to cut throughthe music up front. Fearing that Dylan was in trouble, I grabbed my blouse and ran down the hall. Dylan was standing in front of an open door, watching as two bikers with Spider patches on their backs shoved Candy’s lifeless body into the back of a van.
As Dylan and I stood frozen in the doorway, one of the guys turned around and looked right at us. Saying something to his accomplice, he reachedunder his vest and drew a gun.
“Shit!” Dylan shouted, shoving the door closed as we both dropped down into a crouch.
Gunshots rang out and bullets slammed into the door, creating little holes of light as they flew over our heads.
Dylan reached up to lock the door, and then we hurriedly crawled down the hallway back into the dressing room. Oh my god, I couldn’t believe we were getting shotat in a strip club. What kind of alternate universe did we just land in?
* * *
Dylan
“Do you think they’llfollow us?” Addison asked, her chest heaving as she watched the hallway we’d both come from.
“I don’t know. Let’s go find Jake.”
“No. No Jake. We can do this without him. We’ll find another way out and sneak to my car, and then I can deal with Jake after he’s had some time tocool off.”
“Addie, I’m pretty sure we just witnessed a kidnapping, or worse. I know you and Jake are going through some stuff right now, but we are in danger.”
“Yes, you fuckin’ are,” Jake said, marching in with Asher hot on his heels.
“Jesus, Addie, put on a shirt,” Asher complained, shielding his eyes.
Jake watched as Addison slid her blouse on and hurriedly buttoned it up. “I heard gunshots,”he said. “What the hell’s going on?”
Someone banged on the door that led to the stage. I’d locked it when I was looking for an exit.
“Maybe we should talk about this after we get out of here,” I suggested.
More pounding on the door. The song ended just in time for us to hear a string of threats about what would happen to Cinnamon if she didn’t get her ass back on the stage.
A vein throbbedacross Jake’s forehead as he nodded. “There’s a back door...”
“Yep. That’s where the gunshots came from.” I slid closer to Asher, drawing strength from his presence.
Jake drew his gun, instantly evolving from angry boyfriend to deadly cop. “Which way?”
Addison and I led Jake and Asher back to the hallway we crawled down. Asher took one look at the bullet-ridden door, swore, and grabbed myhand, squeezing it.
Jake motioned for us to stay where we were as he crept down the hall. Gun at the ready, he swung open the door and took aim. Nothing was there. The van was gone, as were Candy and the bikers. He waved us forward and we all crept around to the parking lot.
Addison and I climbed into her Mercedes.
