X was just starting to come alive when we stepped inside. Mostly men filled the tables as they drank in earnest. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” started blaring through the loudspeakers as the curtain opened. All eyes were on Dallas Knox, the voluptuous brunette with huge-ass tits and a curvaceous body. Her small triangles of clothes left little to the imagination and watching the men in the room adjust their pants made me grin. She was one hell of a smart girl, who was only dancing to get through school. She was also my number one entertainment. I’d known her for years.
As Dallas worked the pole up and down, her clothes slowly fell away from her body, captivating everyone’s attention. Looking at the B.Boys, they were fully entranced by Dallas, their mouths hanging open.
“Hey boys, I’m gonna go find Liv. Enjoy the show.” Patting them on the back, I headed towards the office. Opening the door, Liv was behind the desk working on the computer. As she looked up, she glared at me. “What?” I asked, wondering where the hell that came from.
“You have Becs checking up on me?” Her voice was angry as she pushed back the chair, standing there crossing her arms.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Confusion set in as I thought back to everything that had happened and Becs having anything to do with it didn’t register.
“Becs… he’s been coming in here going over the books.”
Initially, anger surged through me, wondering what the hell was going on. “What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t know anything about this.”
“You live with them.” She looked at me dismissively. “You knew and didn’t even bother to call me and give me a heads up? Becs has been into everything.”
“Liv, seriously. I didn’t know. First, what exactly do you mean by doing the books?”
“The books… all the money that comes in and goes out, everything that I’m supposed to be doing.” She pointed at the desk to emphasize her words.
“Maybe just to help you out?”
“Come on. I’ve been doing this for two years. You come home and all the sudden I’m not capable? Bullshit.” Her words were lacing with ferocity.
Thinking back over the last few weeks, I got it. “It’s not you. It’s me. They’re trying to protect me.”
“They’re protecting you from me?” she asked, as if it were the most asinine thing in the world.
“Pretty much. Liv, I can’t give you all the details. The guys are just handling shit the only way they know how, by taking over and controlling. Don’t take offense to it, and Becs isn’t a bad guy.”
“I didn’t say he was bad, he’s just into everything, and it’s driving me nuts.”
“Is he treating you and the girls good?”
She sighed, “Yeah.”
“Once all this shit blows over, it’ll get better and back to normal. I’ll actually be able to be here, and Becsll be gone.”
Blowing out a deep breath, she said, “Fine. Since you’re here, we gotta talk about something.” She sat down, and I followed sitting in the chair across from her. “Coke and heroin.”
My eyes popped to hers. Since I started X, there has been a policy of no hard drugs used by the girls. I understood that some needed a little relaxation before getting on stage, so a little weed would fly, but no coke, heroine, meth, etcetera. “What about it?”
“Some girls are using, and I can handle that. The problem is dealing.” She laced her fingers together pressing them to the desk. “Word has it that Stella and Moxie have gotten themselves in a mess, and the only way to get out of it is to deal, which they’ve been doing here at X.”
“What have you done?” Outraged didn’t even cut it. Guns I can totally handle, blood, fights, but my guy cheating and drugs in my studio were a huge no for me. When I started it, I didn’t want a bunch of druggie girls not being able to keep their shit together. If they wanted to use, they didn’t work at Studio X.
“This just came out the last couple of days. I haven’t done anything, yet. I need to catch them in the act.”
“Bullshit. You cut them. Get them the fuck out of here, now. I’m going to their lockers and flushing the shit, and then they get the hell out and never come back. They don’t take the stage.”
“But what about them?”
“What about them? They were told they didn’t bring drugs to X, end of discussion. This is not how shit works here.” Liv had a soft heart that I had been trying to harden before I left. Seems I wasn’t able to break that in her… yet. “I’m handling this.”
Getting up, I walked back to the dressing room, immediately going to Stella’s locker. Picking up my cell, I called Buzz or Breaker, one of them. “I need bolt cutters, bring them to the dressing room, please.”
Within a few minutes, I was busting through the lock going through all of Stella’s shit, throwing out heels, bras, and thongs as I went. In the very back of the locker, was a metal box. Pulling it out, I tried to open it, finding it was locked. “B.Boys, can you get me a wire hanger and a small screwdriver, please.”
Busting through the lock and throwing open the case, I was not shocked to see that approximately twenty-five small bags of white powder with several bills filled the bottom of the box. “Taste this, please.” I opened one of the bags putting my pinky inside. Taking the tip, I placed it in one of the B.Boys mouths. “So?”
“Coke,” he said with no hesitation.
It’s what I assumed. Going through Moxie’s things, proved the same thing. I decided while I was at it; I’d check the rest of the girls shit, too. Their contract has a clause in it that they can be searched at any time. I was invoking that right. There were condoms and vibrators, but no drugs.
Looking at the B.Boys, “Buzz go find Stella and Moxie, please. Get them in here, now.” The man on the right nodded and took off.
The other man asked hesitantly, “What are you gonna do?”
“Kick their fucking asses out.” My voice was void of emotion. I needed to separate business from emotion.
Moxie and Stella came into the room, trying to wrench their arms away from Buzz, who wasn’t letting go. “So, ladies. Something you want to tell me?” Their eyes both snapped to me as their faces paled and looked like they were going to be sick. I couldn’t help feel a bit smug at their reaction, but I wouldn’t show it.
Neither of them spoke, but they stopped fighting Buzz, who now had let their arms go. “Found some stuff in your locker. Care to tell me about it.” I stood at the dressing table and put the two identical boxes in front of me, strumming my fingers on them rhythmically. “See… funny thing is. I found something in here that, while in my studio, is not allowed.” Moxie gulped loudly while Stella stood there motionless. “Dealing in the studio is gonna stop. You need to get your shit, and get out.”
Stella spooked out of her trance. “We have to sell, if we don’t, he’ll kill us.”
“Who?”
“Rabbit,” Son-of-a-fucking-bitch. I was sick of hearing that man’s name.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Something wasn’t right. Shit. “Call Tug, have him bring the cage, please. These two are coming with us,” I told the B.Boys.
“We can’t go with you. We have to be on stage.” Stella placed her hand on her hip as if that position would threaten me in any way.
“If you think you are ever going out on my stage again, you’re living in a fucking dreamland. We’re going to the club, and we’re gonna work this shit out.”
Relaying the information to Diamond and Pops, I actually felt unbelievably lucky to have these men in my corner. We’re not a traditional family, but we stood by each other no matter what. And I was glad to have them on my side. They said they’d talk to the girls. Pops wanted me to put the girls on lockdown, which meant locking them in the one room with no windows and the lock on the outside.