Nikos pulled his gun back, and Georgios lifted his head up and looked back at him in shock.
“No more games with you,” Nikos warned before he left.
Power thrummed beneath his veins, and for the briefest second, Nikos relished in it before he shook it off, reminding himself of the most important thing— he was doing this for his family.
C H A P T E R
20
IT HAD TAKEN THE GIRLS A FEW DAYS TO ADJUST TO THE NEW RULES AT THE CLUB, and Nikos had lost the privilege of fucking a few of the girls, including Allison, who felt betrayed when he told her that he would have no choice but to fire her if she kept missing work. But eventually, order was restored in the club again.
Nikos stood at the bar with Rickman, nursing a glass of whiskey as he observed everything. The club was full again, with many patrons watching Sweetie and Amber perform on stage together. He took notice of the floor when his eyes caught onto someone familiar.
Nikos’s glass clattered on the counter.
“What’s wrong?” Rickman asked curiously, but Nikos ignored him as he strode across the room to grab the person who wasn’t supposed to be there.
“What are you doing here?” Nikos barked as he glared at Rheagan, who looked at him coyly.
“Working,” Rheagan said as Nikos took in her appearance. She wore a skimpy white fur bikini with white platform boots to match. Nikos was confused until he remembered that recently Georgios told him he would hire some new girls and hold an audition just a few days ago.
If Nikos had known Rheagan was going to be one of the girls auditioning, he definitely wouldn’t have allowed Georgios to hire her.
“Does Georgios know that I know you?” Nikos asked suspiciously.
“I may have told him we’re acquaintances,” Rheagan said, shrugging, and that made sense because usually they didn’t hire Black women here, and Honey had been the one exception.
Nikos let the idea settle in his mind, wondering if Georgios had hired Rheagan with sinister thoughts to get back at him or out of kindness. If it were the former, Nikos would have to handle that. He didn’t care for the idea of killing people, but now that he had done it before, there was no point in not adding to that count, and Georgios would be a part of it if he ever did something to go against him. He was only keeping him alive at this point because he was Antonis’s family. But if Georgios caused problems inside the club, he would have to go.
“Why would you even want to work here?” Nikos asked, exasperated as he pulled her over to the side. He knew Rheagan had still been trying to force her way into his life, but this wasn’tthe way to do it. The club was too dangerous for a young girl like herself, especially the lifestyle.
From what he knew of her, Rheagan wasn’t built for something like this. She had been coddled and protected, unlike Raelyn. She wouldn’t be able to handle the patrons here, and she definitely wouldn’t be able to handle the girls either. They were thick-skinned and tough because of the job they had.
“I need to make money,” Rheagan said, shrugging. “Since my sister left me high and dry, and I don’t have my aunt anymore. I don’t have anyone.”
Nikos clenched his jaw, feeling the guilt wash over him from her words because she was right.
“I need to make money for myself, right? You told me that, right?”
He did, but she did not have to do it here.
For the past two months, he had been trying to live his life and leave the past in the past, but Rheagan wouldn’t let him, and now he felt directly responsible for Rheagan because she didn’t have her sister and aunt anymore, and that was his fault.
He wanted to tell her to leave, not wanting to be reminded of the past and not wanting to give her false hope because he would never do anything with her again. But his guilt made it impossible for him to do so.
“I’ll give you a chance, but if you’re not doing good out there, and I see you doing more playing than working, then you’re gone.”
Rheagan smirked. “I’m going to be the best. Better than any of the other girls here.”
Sweetie and Allison’s performance finished, and after they cleared the stage of money, the free-for-all show started, whereany girl could come up on stage and perform. Usually, the girls who didn’t have main stage performances did that, and it could only be up to six girls at a time on stage.
Rheagan swept away from him and took the stage. She couldn’t necessarily work the poll in the way the other OG girls did, and she could barely lift herself high or do a spin for long, but her beauty was doing wonders for her, and she had a certain infectious energy to her that reminded him of wild college party girls. Some of the patrons were loving it as they tossed money at her. When she took her top off, Nikos looked away as he went to sit down, not wanting to see her that way.
He didn’t look at exotic dancing in a bad light as he had before, but still, he couldn’t help but feel that she was doing this right now because of him, and that wasn’t something he could easily stomach.
He waved the bottle girl over to him and asked her to go get him a drink, and as he waited, Honey came over to him, looking just like her stage name. She wore a gold fishnet bodysuit that matched her skin tone. Brown glitter covered her body, sparkling under the strobe lights.
Nikos had been so busy tonight that he had missed her performance, but now that he saw her, he wished he hadn’t. Nikos shamelessly drunk in her looks until something dawned on him.
