The taxi dropped me off in front of the Thai restaurant down on Fremont Street. I immediately recognized the two women. They both had russet brown hair and dark tans. I groaned as I stared down at my frosty, pale arms and legs. I was going to stand out as though I had a vitamin D deficiency next to these two. Leah was a petite Hawaiian woman originally from the Bay Area in California. Nina was originally from Houston, Texas. She wasn’t much taller than Leah, but she was more muscular. Her FBI file stated she competed in fitness competitions.
Before I reached them, they turned and saw me and waved. I didn’t know how they knew it was me, but then I remembered that my picture was plastered on the S&R website and they probably looked me up just as I had them, though my search for them was a little more intense as I’d looked into their criminal records.
“I hope you like strip clubs,” Leah said, greeting me with a hug. My eyes widened as I embraced her. I’d never been to a strip club before. Was this my life now that I was in Sin City? Were nights spent on dates in strip clubs? Was I to take dates to strip clubs?
“Are we talking men or women?” I asked, trying to sound normal … Crap.
“Oh, you’re into ladies, too?” Nina asked, giving me a quick hug.
I swallowed hard and shook off my shock. Working as a cop and then FBI, I’d been in strip clubs and busted perps, but I’d never been to one where I had to dress the part to hang out and do God knows what. I’d obviously needed more than a week to prepare myself for this undercover mission. Maybe I was in way over my head. Before I could answer, the hostess brought us back to the patio in the back. We were seated under water misters and the question was forgotten.
“So have you been to a female strip club?” Lea asked.
Well, I’d hoped that the question was forgotten. “Is this what Vegas is all about?” I asked, scanning the menu and trying not to make eye contact.
They laughed. I didn’t get the joke.
“We need to get you clients, right?” Nina asked. I lifted my gaze and nodded. “So this is how we do it in Vegas when we’re just starting out. We go to a female strip club, and while the chicks dance, we hit on the horny bastards watching, slip them our cards, and then wait for them to call.”
“I don’t have any cards,” I admitted.
“Mark should have them for you today,” Leah informed, then took a sip of her water.
I hadn’t thought about needing to get clients. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that having clients and getting in with other girls would allow me to investigate how things were run around the city. I couldn’t wait for things to come to me.
I had to go to them.
Chapter Eight
Paul
My smile hadn’t faltered since breakfast. I enjoyed messing around with Andi and I wasn’t even fucking her … yet. The more I made her smile, the more I couldn’t concentrate on anything but her. I wanted to lean across the table at breakfast and taste the orange juice on her lips, but my gut told me that she was guarding something.
We were escorts, but not all escorts slept around. I didn’t feel right asking her if she slept with her clients. The thought of her being with someone else made my stomach churn and I didn’t know why. It was good if she wasn’t sleeping with her clients, but I did. Was it right of me to not want her to sleep with her clients?
What was wrong with me? I just met this chick.
So I sat back and joked around with her instead of asking her for real. Granted, I did ask her to fuck me and if she would have said yes, I would have said, “Check, please!” and dragged her ass into the Jeep and fucked her right there in the back with her legs spread wide and me balls deep.
But she hadn’t and when we went home, she did her thing and I left to meet Gabe and Autumn at the range.
I needed to talk to Gabe.
When I got to the range, I knew my smile was still plastered across my face. I usually had one. I was that type of guy; I hid my sorrows well. It was confirmed when Auttie saw me.
“Someone’s happy,” she observed.
“I’m always happy.”
She shook her auburn brown hair ponytail and scrunched her eyebrows. “No, you’re like overly happy.”
Gabe clapped me on the back. “He got laid.”
Autumn chuckled. “What’s new?” She started to get her gun ready while we watched.
“I think I found my match.”
Gabe’s head tilted a little. The popping of gunfire could be heard in the distance of the outdoor range. “Your match?”
“Andi.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Who’s Andi?”
“I think I’m in love.” I wasn’t in love, but like me at first, I knew he’d think Andi was a dude. “Andi, man … I could look at that ass all day!”
His green eyes blinked at me. “What? You’re in love with a man?”
I saw Autumn set her gun down on the wood shooting bench and walk the few feet to us. “Did you just say that you’re in love with a man?”
I laughed a full-on belly laugh. “Andi’s a chick and my new roommate. Mark sent a girl to live with me.”
“When do I get to meet her?” Autumn asked.
“She just moved in last night, Auttie.”
She shrugged. “And?”
“And—”
“So you haven’t fucked her already?” Gabe asked.
I shook my head. “No, but man, she’s feisty and I like it.”
Gabe stared at me for a few seconds. “Does this mean you’re ready to move on from Vanessa?”
I gave a sarcastic laugh. “I’m over that bitch.”
“Whatever, PJ. You’re my best friend. You haven’t dated anyone the entire time I’ve known you. You think you’ve never told me about Vanessa?”
I stared back at him. I didn’t remember discussing Vanessa with him, especially in detail. We’d always dealt with his problems. If he hadn’t gotten help, he would have drunk himself to death. Luckily, Autumn had bumped into him at the right time and showed him that there was more to living than a bottle of whiskey every night.
“You don’t even know what that bitch did to me.”
“You’ve told me a few times while you’ve been drunk.”
“Whatever,” I huffed.
“We all have our demons, PJ. You were there for mine. I’m here to help you with yours if you’re ready for that. Maybe Andi’s here,” he pulled Autumn to his side and kissed the top of her head, “to show you that your first love is not always meant to be your last.”
I shook my head. “Again, I just met her last night. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
He nodded and cracked a smile. “I wasn’t the one declaring my love five minutes ago.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and rolled my eyes. “Touché, Cap. Touché.”
“Are you two girls ready to shoot or what?” Autumn asked.
As I drove home, I thought about what Gabe had said. I hadn’t really thought about Vanessa in years. Sure I’d thought about her, but I hadn’t thought about her.
I couldn’t.
Each time I did, I thought about what it meant to kill a part of me, to take that decision away from me. At the time, I was young and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t regret joining the Army, and maybe her decision was for the best, but I still hated Vanessa for not giving me the choice to make the decision, too.
Was Gabe right, though? Was I ready to settle down and start a family now? Was having Andi show up on my doorstep and giving me these thoughts a sign that it was time to leave the past in the past finally? Maybe Andi wasn’t the one, but maybe she was the one who could remove the numbness from my heart.