I nodded but wanted to roll my eyes. If one of the dancers did that… Then what the fuck was Nicole even needed for? Drama?
“Nicole’s just here to keep a leash on Austin and give us grief and bring drama,” Lottie said the moment we were alone, holding her hand out to me.
“Yeah, called that one,” I chuckled darkly. “Erika Martin.”
“Nice to meet you. Let me give you the tour and we can talk songs. I hate to be less than welcoming, but I just—I gotta pick up my kid. Maya’s a good girl and whatever helps so she doesn’t get shit on more.” She seemed to come to some internal decision. “She’s okay, right? She didn’t sound like she really was on the phone.”
“She will be. You have my word.” I was glad when my confidence helped her settle with that and she cared enough. It was nice to know that Maya had had at least someone looking out for her.
The tour was quick and that was when I learned the level of gross. I couldn’t even get mad at the guy cleaning when I saw they didn’t give him anything to cleanwith. The mopheads were beyond old and… The details didn’t matter. He might have been lazy, but asking someone to make thousands of Black Friday deliveries on a toy bike wasn’t realistic.
Neither was cleaning the club with what he had.
And he definitely didn’t get paid enough to bring in his own supplies or like bring mopheads home to wash.
Though I maybe might have done that last one just because he had to touch things in that club too. Gross.
I did make a note to bring in some disinfectant spray for the poles or at least wipes. I checked them and sighed when I foundallof them were loose. I glanced up and saw Austin watching me. “Yeah, that last page of the waiver would mean absolute dick with this level of neglect. Do you ever even check these?”
The look of malice was too much and the wrath coming off of him would have given a demon a good feed. “They were installed by a good company and are under warranty.”
I snorted. “You need to read that contract better. They normally have a clause—”
“I’m not going to get lectured by a dancer who’s never owned a club or—”
“Who says I haven’t?” I threw right back, smirking when he did a double take. “You don’t know my resume.” I snorted when he narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m an investor in a few. So listen because I’m—fine, don’t listen to something that could save your ass.” I asked the janitor where the tools were and he hooked me up.
While ignoring the owner when he demanded that I explain. I told him to read his contract that was probably invalid now as I did unpaid maintenance work to all of the poles of his fucking club.
Because they normally had a provision that the poles had to be checked and serviced atleastevery six months. Just like the oil changes on a vehicle. Everything had to be maintained for warranties.
Dumbass.
“You know how much it costs to have a tech come out and do what I just did? And I’m certified,” I snapped when I was done and he was still being a jackass to me. I shook my head when he frowned. “Seriously, how Maya puts up with this shit—poor girl.”
And that wasbeforeI met the DJ who was so fucked up that anything besides telling him what playlist to load wouldn’t compute. Like his pupils were beyond… Disgusting.
Oh, and it was Nicole’s nephew.
I ended up breaking my own rules and asking Owen and Evan to text me a selfie of one of them with Mudbug to help my cover. I needed to get the owner’s wife off my ass and let them know what I was planning.
Relief filled me when Evan was almost instantly able to do it and looked beyond fucking sexy.
I decided to suck it up and pretend like I was playing nice, going over to Nicole with the picture out. “Look, I don’t know your deal or what happened before I got here, but I can guess.”
Rage and indignation filled her eyes. “You need to—”
I held up the phone to her. “This is my lover. Like almost a year. The dog we just adopted. I don’t like to get personal, but I’m just here to fill in for Maya. I got a great man. I don’t want yours. Legit, your turf is safe from me. He owns a club and we’re great. So get off my ass and let’s just work, okay? I’ll make you money and blow back out once Maya’s back.”
Almostinstantly, her tone changed with me. The hostility was there because I’d called her out and people were still around, but she realized I wasn’t going to be a pushover like others.
“Cute pup,” she muttered. “Good shelter? I hate when people are pompous going to breeders and it’s some fool treating the dogs bad pumping out paydays.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” I said honestly. “Shit disgusts me. And yeah, nice shelter we found when he had to travel for work. Normally, they don’t adopt out of state, but we knew someone local who made it happen. Trickier since he’s British, but I’m a citizen, so it worked out.” I pulled the phone back and chuckled. “Damn pup just melted me when we were only looking.”
“Yeah, had one like that.” She moved like it was over but then froze. “Thanks for fixing the poles. I don’t want people hurt. I’ll look at the contracts.”
I took it as a win and one less issue to fucking navigate. It was definitely the right play and helped me out… Which was why I texted Evan that I owed him a blow job because that quick response got me out of something sticky.
