“Does that make you feel better?” I ask, pressing my elbows to my sides so my tits swell together.
Doc’s mouth becomes a hard line. “You wanna play it like that?”
“Always.”
“Right.” Doc turns to the bar and reaches for the hem of his T-shirt. “You bitches wanna see this or what?”
I laugh as my friends crowd even tighter around the stage, cheering and screaming and demanding Doc take his shirt off and I can tell this is going to become one of the amazing impromptu parties that have happened a few times since I started working here. I look to the gold circular bar expecting to see Betty watching and laughing too. She isn’t there. Someone else is. My stepmother, Corinne Whitehall. She’s found me.
Chapter Two
January Whitehall
The second afterI recognize my stepmom, Doc does too, yanking me behind him. But it’s too late. I’m topless in front of my stepmother. My face burns. Yet Corinne doesn’t look upset. She smiles blandly like she’s at one of my ballet recitals, then gives me a look that meansget over here now.
“Olivia.” Doc points at a nearby dancer. “Hand me January’s clothes.”
The look on his face kills the fun mood dead. All the dancers go quiet as Olivia passes Doc my bikini top. I numbly strap it around myself as my boyfriend stares at my stepmother.
“The fuck are you doing here?” The venom in his voice sends goosebumps down my spine. The only time I’ve heard him talk with this much hate was when he was staring down Mr. Parker. A new kind of fear mixes into my blood—fear that Doc is going to kill Corinne, just like he and Adriano have threatened to do for a very long time.
I step forward. “What are you doing here, Corinne?”
She blinks. “You’re calling me by my first name?”
“You’re not her fuckin’ mother,” Doc snarls.
“I am,” Corinne says evenly. “Or as good as. January, come here. We need to talk.”
I don’t move, the shock of all this, how rude she’s being, how entitled and snotty is mind-blowing. It’s been more than a year since I signed Mr. Parker’s contract and refused to go with Margot back to my childhood home and yet Corinne is here talking to me like nothing’s changed; like I’m a disobedient child runaway for the afternoon. She moves toward the stage with slow, waterbird steps and she must mistake my silence for fear because her voice sharpens. “January, get down here now.”
“You must be joking.” Doc lands on the carpeted floor in a thud of battered Doc Martens. “How did you get into my club?”
Corinne pauses, a small smile playing on her face. “I’m sorry… Who are you?”
“The man who rails your stepdaughter every night,” Doc says, in that same hateful voice. “One of them, anyway.”
Corinne’s pale blue eyes scan him, taking him in and it’s like I’m seeing Doc for the first time too. The neck tattoos, the ripped jeans, a gaping black T-shirt that shows off his lean, muscular body. He looks like every parent’s worst nightmare and unlike a teenage poser, it’s not an act. Doc is an ex-drug dealer and a current criminal. A murderer who takes great pleasure in hurting people. And on top of all that, he’s handsome enough that you know you’d never drag your daughter away from him.
My stepmother’s mouth twists. “I see.”
Doc raises a hand to sweep his thick blond hair out of his eyes. I see Corinne clock the hearts Adriano tattooed over his knuckles in honor of me.
“Here’s the deal,” Doc says, voice dripping with poison. “If you’re interested in keeping your body and soul in the same place, turn around and get the fuck out of here.”
Corinne smiles. “Not before I’ve spoken to January.”
Doc steps toward Corinne, his boots deliberately bumping the tips of her Louboutins. “Out. Now.”
“I’m not leaving until I talk to my daughter.”
My chest goes tight. If I had to pick any of the guys to be with me when I saw Corinne again, the last one I’d choose would be Doc. Bobby is as well-mannered as anyone who grew up on Park Avenue. Eli could be polite in the middle of a hurricane. Even Adriano, as intimidating as he looks, can be stoically calm. But Doc? Doc is a loose cannon. Our problem child, as Eli sometimes says. Too intelligent to be intelligent. Too reckless to know he’s reckless.
I look around and see all the other girls have melted away, back to the bar or talking among themselves. I feel a pang of embarrassment. Some of them, like Kiara, know I’m estranged from my family, but that doesn’t make this any less awkward. I want to run away, but I know Corinne means what she said. She won’t leave until she’s spoken to me. And since I don’t want Doc to kill her, I have to do what she says.
I climb down from the stage, grab Doc’s arm, and urge him backward. He resists for a second then lets me pull him away from my stepmother.
“How did you know I work here, Corinne?” I ask. “I’ve never told anyone in the family or put it anywhere online.”
