“We went to visit Joe at his club on the other side of town, and he wasn’t…receptive to our presence there.”
Receptive was an interesting word for saying that they weren’t allowed in at all. As soon as they arrived, they had barely made it onto the curb before they were surrounded by a group of Mexican men. Words were exchanged between Christos and Joe, but the same type of fear tactic they used with Diamond didn’t work on him. For a man who was as short as Joe, he stood with no fear, but Nikos guessed having that many people protecting you would even make the weakest man strong.
Antonis laced his fingers together. “Receptive?”
“Joe is getting protection now from Ricardo,” Christos explained. “He refused to pay up.”
“Last time I saw Joe, he kissed my boots,” Antonis said, chuckling. “It’s funny how things change when people grow bold.”
“What do you want us to do?” Christos asked.
“Follow him and catch him alone,” Antonis said. “If you can’t catch him alone, pay his ex-wife and their son a visit. I’m sure he’ll bereceptivethen.”
Nikos looked down as Christos nodded. He hoped they would be able to find Joe alone before then. He didn’t want to be a part of that visit to Joe’s ex-wife and child.
“We need to handle this war with Ricardo,” Antonis said next. “He’s grown too bold to do something like this.”
Nikos had heard about this Ricardo person from Theo. He had only mildly been paying attention because, at the time, theyboth had been getting lap dances out on the floor. But from what Nikos could remember when his attention wasn’t focused on the ass shaking in front of him, Ricardo was his uncle’s enemy, and right now, the tension had been growing stronger between them for the past year now.
His uncle looked at him. “You just escaped one war to have to join another.”
Nikos had a feeling it would be nothing like the war he had experienced back home which had been more psychological because of his opponent. After what happened with Raelyn, no woman would be able to get his heart that easily. Right now, he was just enjoying his time, especially with the beautiful women at this club. He would survive this war just like the one he had back home.
“Should we—” Christos started to say, but Antonis lifted his hand.
“Save it for tomorrow,” Antonis said as he looked at the clock that read 9:59 pm. Nikos arched a brow but followed Christos’s lead as he left the office. The last thing Nikos saw was his uncle standing up and looking out of his office window before the door closed behind him.
“What’s so important?” Nikos asked.
“It’s time for Honey to perform.”
Nikos stared for a moment until he realized Christos was serious, and then he laughed because this was just ridiculous at this point. He had barely spoken more than a few words to Honey and had only seen her in passing a few times, and though he could say she was a beautiful woman, it was ridiculous how his uncle was acting about her.
“He’s making a big deal out of that?” Nikos asked, shaking his head. “He’s acting as if he has never seen her perform before.”
“Clearly, you haven’t,” Christos retorted as they stepped onto the floor. “Come on.”
They sat down directly in front of the stage just as the lights dimmed lower and the music changed from a fast-tempo song to a slow one. Nikos glanced around and could see that everyone’s eyes were focused on the stage. Nikos had never seen Honey perform. Either he was too busy doing other tasks, or he was in one of the backrooms with the other dancers. Now that he thought about it, because Honey couldn’t give floor performances, he hadn’t seen her perform at all.
Nikos sat anticipating, wanting to see what had his uncle hooked like this.
The curtains opened, and Honey stepped out looking like diamonds. She wore jeweled harnesses with a jeweled bra and thong. Diamonds acted as eyeliner on her eyelids, and her hair was in a half-up, half-down style. She shined under the blue lights bleeding from the ceiling, and again, Nikos found himself taken away by her beauty, just as every man in the room was, enthralled by her honey brown skin and beautiful body. And when she moved, strutting to the beat as she made her way over to the pole, Nikos instantly understood.
Honey grabbed the pole and gracefully swung around with an elegance that none of the other dancers had. Nikos knew because he had seen the other dancers perform before. Honey held the pole as if she controlled it. She climbed up to the top before she swung around it upside down, letting her legs elongate as if she were walking upside down on air.
Bills fell on the stage as Honey swirled back down until she touched the ground in a split. She leaned down and rolled her hips, biting her lips in a seductive manner but making eye contact with no one. At first, Nikos would have written it off as shyness, but it wasn’t that. Honey wasn’t shy, far from it, as she leaned on her shoulders and reached back with both hands to palm her ass.
More bills fell.
She just wasn’t dancing for any of the men in the room. She carried an aloofness to her, something that made her feel untouchable even as she danced half-naked in a room full of men. Honey rolled her back and hips against the pole, twirling her hips, her eyes closed, and more bills littered the stage. Nikos had to admit it, but Honey was different from the rest of the girls. She felt like a star up on the stage, capturing everyone’s attention and holding it.
“This is why your uncle is obsessed with her,” Christos whispered.
Honey showed her back to the crowd as she grasped the strings of her bra, untying them slowly, and Nikos felt his mouth go dry as the top fell to the ground. She turned around, and though her breasts were free, and more bills than ever before rained on the stage, Nikos found himself staring at her brown eyes.
“Hey,” Christos said, taking him out of his trance. Nikos blinked and looked at Christos, almost forgetting he had been there.
“You can mess with any of the other girls here, and Antonis won’t have a problem with it. Usually, he has a policy with us messing with the dancers because it’s bad for business, but he lets you and Theo slide because your family, your blood,”Christos said, giving him a warning look. “But don’t even think about trying it with Honey.”
