“Aunt D–”
“You hear me, Anthony Michael, I won’t have it.” She lifted her chin and shot an arm past me as she grabbed a hair tie off the sink. I couldn’t help the laughter that trickled from me when she bent over and began finger combing her hair into a top knot. She was in her late forties, a gentle soul by most accounts, but she still shot out to collect her shoes like she was late for a street fight.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I laughed, following after her in just my towel.
“I’m going to give Marcus Miller a piece of my damned mind. That’s what I’m gonna do.”
All the humor left me at once, “D–don’t do that. No–”
There was no reasoning with her when she was worked up like this. My aunt was a fucking firecracker when it came to protecting‘her boys.’
My stomach soured and I stared at the open door as she hurried off on her mission. We had a monthly meeting tonight. And this was about the only thing that could make a date with Big Vick worse.
She’d have Mark ready to blow before he had even waked and baked.
Fuck that.
I knew better than to run, but I had to be smart. If I called Vick, C.C., or Montana, they’d remind me there was a meeting. They’d insist I stick around rather than fuck off.
I had to pick the one person that wouldn’t answer my call…
Mak.
I dialed his number, while I scrambled into some clothes, my boots, and snatched my cut off the dresser where I’d left it.
When the voicemail prompt sounded, I made it quick, “Hey, Mak, listen… Me and Daisy got into it this morning. Shit ain’t pretty over here. I gotta bail. I think she might call the law or something.”
I lied my ass off, got on the bike and pointed it toward the Pink Cabaret. I didn’t give a good damn if it wasn’t nine in the morning yet. I’d wait all fucking night to see her if I had to.
Chapter Eight
Stay
Crystal
“You really should consider waiting until tomorrow,” Zandie encouraged me, while huddling in the hallway with me. “He is in a foul fucking mood after last night. Those bikers tore shit up in the parking lot. They knocked the window out of an SUV and dented a Challenger worth a quarter million dollars. That man ain’t gonna smile on nobody for at least a few days. You understand?”
I bit my lip and inwardly groaned. She was right, but I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t have the rent by the end of the week, I was fucked. The only way I had a chance of making it was more night shifts. My roommate who held the original lease on the apartment was being petty and pitting the other two against me.
It sucked, the other two girls were usually more sympathetic, but not this time.
“No. I have enough flat ass, no act girls. Get,” Jay grumbled when the door to his office opened.
A girl my size sniffled on her way past but didn’t manage to meet our gaze.
Jay was full of venom; I could see it in his eyes when they locked on Zandie. She sucked in a startled breath and bolted back to the hostess desk.
“Jesus, they’re all worthless,” he scoffed, before lazily turning his attention back to me. “You’re not on the schedule today.”
“No.” I confirmed, before adding, “But I need to be. I– I could do the night shift again. I could even just get the drinks if you have–”
His beady eyes narrowed on the mark Anthony had left on my neck, and he snorted, shaking his head, “No. Matter of fact, don’t come back until that’s gone.”
The floor sucked out from under me.
No? No extra hours and he was stripping me of the ones I had?
“Wait, Jay–” I blurted his name out, past the growing lump of desperation that was developing in my throat.
