Page 58 of Spies Like Us

“Just go up and see Anders, he’ll tell you what to do. I need Cindy down here. There’s a friend who would like to see her.” Matthew nods at the end of the bar where a big, burly guy is waiting impatiently, tapping his finger on the bar, the beer in front of him barely touched.

“Oh, okay, sure,” I reply, leaving the tray of glasses near the washer. He takes over stacking them into the dishwasher for me. He has been working the bottom bar with Keith and another man named Larry. Anders and Miller moved to the upstairs bar.

Apart from Cindy, there are five other girls on tonight in addition to Meri, Sam, Carla, and me. All of them have that hollow-eyed, slightly damaged goods look to them, but they seem happy enough to be working the club.

I use the staircase and dodge patrons as I make my way up to the top level. I cringe at the sound of bass when I get up there. The music is louder, it’s hotter, and the air is ripe with the scent of sweat and sex. Dancing is most definitely not the only thing happening on the dance floor, but that isn’t my problem. The bar runs along the back of the club, and on either end, there are ladders leading up to the cages that have dancers inside them. The dancers are basically wearing a G-string and pasties, and they are writhing in time to the dance music. Between them is the DJ booth, and I can see the DJ waving his hands in time to the music. I didn’t even realize we had one the last two nights I worked. Nobody introduced us, and I thought it was some prerecorded tracks that were playing. Some super spy I am.

“Hey, which one is Cindy?” I ask Anders, waving to the girls in the cages. “Apparently I need to swap with her.”

“You do?” He sounds surprised. “Well, okay then. It’s the redhead on that end. There is a spare dance outfit in the staff room at the end of the bar.” He nods in the opposite direction, past Miller and the ladder leading up to the cage.

“Can’t I just dance in this?” I ask him, waving at the tiny uniform, and he shakes his head.

“No. I’m guessing this is a test. He probably wants to see if you will cooperate or argue about wearing one of those outfits.”

I wrinkle my nose and sigh. “You’re probably right. Okay.”

I leave him and head to the office, closing the door behind me. I’m surprised the music is considerably lower. It must be somewhat soundproof in here. There are a couple of office desks with papers strewn on them, as well as a cupboard area. I’m assuming the costume is in one of those, so I move over to it and pull open one of the doors. I blink in surprise when I don’t find a dance costume, but a pile of various little baggies of drugs—or I’m assuming that’s what they are. I reach in, and there are at least thirty little bags of pills similar to the ones Matthew left for me on Sunday night. I tucked them away under the dresser drawers with my gun and laptop. I didn’t want Martha to find them if she went snooping in our room. There’s also the same number of small bags filled with white powder, and lots of rolled joints. Suddenly, the door slams open, and Meri appears on the other side.

“Oh!” She looks shocked to see me as she closes it behind her. “Did Matthew ask you to sell some of those too?” she asks me, nodding at the drugs before coming over and loading a few of each item into her apron pocket.

I shake my head. “No, I was looking for a dance costume. Anders told me the spare ones are kept in here.”

Her confusion clears, and she smiles, pointing to the next cupboard. “That one, but here, have one of these. Matthew lets the dancers take a pill. It makes it more fun to be exposed to everyone in the cage.” She shoves another one of those baggies at me, and I look down at it.

“I’m not sure,” I hedge, and her smile drops. She gets serious, and I’m instantly on alert.

“Trust me, it makes things easier. Even if you don’t take them tonight, I’m going to recommend you keep them on hand for tomorrow. The private parties are much easier with a drug fog going on. Matthew insists on it. He says he wants the girls nice and relaxed and approachable, but we do make great money.”

That’s ominous. I don’t want to take one tomorrow either. I’d rather keep a clear head, but it sounds like I may not have a choice. I’ll have to warn Miller and the others.

“Okay, I’ll hang onto them for tomorrow,” I promise her as I open the other door and pull out a brand-new, sparkly purple thong. Well, it’s not quite a thong, but it only covers half my butt cheeks. I look around for a top but can’t find one.

Meri giggles at my confused expression and points to two sparkly star stickers. “They go over your nipples. He’s not allowed to have nudity with the license here, but that will be different tomorrow, hence the X. It makes everything we have to do easier.”

I blink at the purple star stickers and cringe. I’m not overly endowed, but I have decent-sized breasts and could have used a little support while dancing. Whoever came up with this outfit was definitely a man.

“Ugh, my boobs are going to hurt,” I grumble as I take off my top and reach in to place the stars over my nipples. Meri leans against the cupboard and watches.

“Yeah, it’s why I don’t like to dance in the cages. Cindy and Ginger have small titties, and they hardly move, so it doesn’t make a difference to them. Just shake your ass and run your hands over your body without moving too much. That’s what I do. Matthew doesn’t care as long as it’s sexy.” She pushes off the cupboard and gives me a wave as I remove my hot pants. “Have fun, I’ll see you at the end of the night.”

“You think I’ll be up there for the rest of the night?” I ask her, and she nods.

“Ah, yeah. Cindy has something else she needs to do. A few clients are here to see her because they can’t make it tomorrow night.”

My eyes just about bug out of my head at that, but I manage to frown and look confused instead. “Clients?” I ask her, and she bites her lip, looking a little worried.

“Ah, um, massage clients. You know?” She winks, and I shake my head.

“They have massage rooms in here?” I didn’t see any when we were poking around after our shift the other night, and Anders never said anything, but now that I think about it, we didn’t poke around on this level because we assumed the club was underground. It is, but I guess we were pretty lax in our search.

“Yeah, there are a couple of rooms on this level. It’s a special service for VIP clients. I’m sure you’ll hear more about it tomorrow.”

“I don’t know how to massage.” I continue to pretend to be clueless, even though I know it’s not a massage the clients are after.

She winks. “It’s pretty easy to pick up. Great tips too. Oh, lose the boots. You can go barefoot in the cage.” She doesn’t wait around for me to reply, rushing to the door and giving me a wave before disappearing.

None of us realized Matthew had whores working out of this club too. No wonder he asked me to blow Anders on the first day. Hell, Anders hasn’t said anything either, so I’m assuming he doesn’t know. That would have been something to tell the team for sure. The rooms must have been where Meri and Sam took Ted and James the other night. I assumed they ducked into one of the bathrooms. Hopefully I can get a look at one when we close up this evening, but with so many staff members working, it might be a little tricky.

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