They exchange a long look that makes something cynical curl inside me.
"Well,don’t freak out." Jeremy leans back in his seat, legs spread, knees beginning to jiggle. His red leather pants and black tank top should have been a clue that maybe this mani, pedi, pizza outing is not what I imagined. "You're going to love it. Don’t worry, I’m sure they have salad."
"You guys.” I groan, looking at the LED lights blinking on the ceiling of the limo before lowering my eyes back to my friends with a scowl. “Spill it.Whereare we going for pizza?"
Anna tightens her smile into a shrug. "It's a new place," she says, too innocently, eyebrows bobbing. "It's called Club Echo."
She slaps her hands over her face just as Jeremy starts clapping.
"Whatis Club Echo?" I half-yell, turning to watch the scenery zipping by outside. We're heading down Woodward where the buildings are becoming less lit up and more abandoned. This is not a casual pizza joint part of town.
"You'll love it, girl. You'll love it." Anna makes prayer hands in front of her chest. "It's my bachelorette party. Just do this for me. Everything's going to be okay. We have a safe ride home. I just wanted to do something crazy tonight. It'll be great."
“So, no pizza?” I shake my head, squeeze my eyes shut, and when I open them again, the limo is pulling up in front of a black cinder block building with a black door and an extended gold awning entryway lined with red lights.
"Is this a freaking brothel?" I throw myself back in my seat. The six-inch black patent leather pumps Anna insisted I wear are, annoyingly, more comfortable than my pointe shoes.
Wherever this is, it's somewhere I should not be.
“No.” Jeremy smirks. “Not a brothel.Better.” He reaches across the open area between him and Anna, holding his palm out and she smiles and smacks his hand in a high five.
As the limo rolls to a stop, the driver is out and around to the door before any of us move. The three of us sit in a staring contest.
"I'm going to kill both of you," I mutter, but the hammering of my heart is not anger.
It’s excitement.
Wherever we are, I have no choice in the matter. Plausible deniability, I think they call it.
The chauffeur swings open the back door. Jeremy launches himself out into the night air and extends both hands back inside. One for me, one for Anna.
"Come on, girls. It's time to get our freak on."
CHAPTER 2
Rye
"Iguess Kink or Dare night has become a good little profit center for our newest establishment."
I fold my hands in front of my chin, elbows perched on the chrome and glass desk I’m sitting behind. “
Leo, one of my partners in the club and event segment of my investment business, sits across from me, nodding, his dark hair slicked back into a helmet, hands cupped behind his head as he stretches out in the black leather chair, knees wide.
"I told you, Kink or Dare works, especially with the newbies. You gotta give people a reason to come in. And we need a constant flow of new people. Kink ebbs and flows. You lose people every month who decide to put their fetishes on ice for whatever reason. Overall membership in most clubs was down by five percent last year. A lotta people won’t admit they're kinky, buteverybody is. So, you make it into a game. Everybody wants to gamify fucking everything these days." He smiles, his gold incisor flashing in the LEDs glowing behind the molding that lines the edges of the ceiling in the club's main office.
I've invested in many clubs over the years. Hole-in-the-wall pubs, back when I first started, all the way up to massive BDSM and kink spaces, upscale bars and event venues. Even some underground fight clubs. My money has returned to me a thousandfold, and I get to not sit in a fucking office for a living.
Win fucking win.
I have one foot in the civilized world, while the other gets to keep dancing in the darkness where my heart is most comfortable.
The wall behind Leo is covered with monitors showing different areas and angles of the club, even the parts few dare to enter. Club Echo serves the kinky world, but ultimately, I'm here for the money. Cash is my king, if I'm being honest. And when you provide fully tiled rooms that can be hosed down with high-powered water after a scene, I think there's a sizable portion of this country that has no idea what some people will consent to having done to them. Or doing to others.
I don't judge. Everybody's fucked up. Everyone has something that turns them on they wouldn’t like exposed to the world.
"You going to come out on the floor tonight?" Leo stretches his arms overhead and pushes up out of his chair, spinning as he runs a hand over the top of his hair, checking the monitors where a few regulars are finishing up their scenes.
On newbie nights, we dial back the more extreme elements. But when someone offers three times the hourly rate to use one of the special rooms, it's hard to say no.
