Page 14 of Vengeance

“What’s he doing?”

Crimson shrugs her shoulders. “What isn’t he doing? Threats, stalking, harassing, you know... the usual. But it’s becoming incessant. And he won’t be deterred. He wanted to shut us down, and he succeeded.”

A pit forms in Heidi’s stomach. “The club has a lot going on with the shit that happened to us. The guy in charge is still out there, and his club keeps targeting women. But I’ll call them to make sure we have men here-”

“It’s too late, Heidi. We can’t do it anymore.”

“Where are you going to go? Back to the Clam Bake?”

They all shake their heads. “We don’t know, but we’d rather be without a job than deal with Christian,” Rhonda says. She, Starry, and Crimson appear to be the appointed spokespeople for the group. “As much as we love the freedom here, it’s not worth the terrorizing we have to deal with along with the threat of attack every fucking day. I can’t take it, but I won’t necessarily talk for everyone.”

“It’s not worth it,” Crimson says. “We appreciate the offer, and it all sounded so good. We wish it was different, but we’re done.”

“Wait,” Heidi calls as they walk towards the front door. “Give me a chance to make it better.”

“It won’t get better. And you and your club have a lot going on right now. We’re a last priority, and we’re making it easy by taking ourselves off the list,” Starry says. “Sorry, Heidi.”

Starry sets the final key on the hostess stand, and the door shuts. Heidi just stares at it for a long time before moving to lock it and heads back to her office to try and work on paperwork.

“Does it even matter at this point? I have no strippers. I’m out of business. A strip club without strippers is so much worse than a strip club without booze,” she says to herself.

Reaching for her phone, she wants to call Taylor. To just break down and tell him how things aren’t working out, but she knows it’ll only make him feel more guilty for leaving on the run this morning. She needs to figure out how to function without him right next to her all the time.

“Hey, Heidi.”

“Lex?” Heidi says and bursts into tears.

Alexis Nichols sounds more alert than she had when she answered. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m screwed,” she says and rests her head on the desk. “I have a strip club that’s supposed to open in ten hours without a single stripper.”

“What do you mean? What happened to them?”

“They all just walked!” She sniffles and takes a deep breath. “They can’t take the harassment from Christian any longer.”

“I thought the club took care of that. Hell, I thought Lily did when she had him trespassed.”

Heidi lets out a shaky breath and remains in her current position, not caring that her tears smear the ink on the calendar under her cheek. It’s not like there are any appointments to keep now. “I guess not. We let the PT fall to the wayside because of all this shit, and I’ve failed. I failed the dancers, and I failed the Drifters.”

“You did not fail-”

“I have no strippers!” she cries. “What the hell am I supposed to do with a strip club without strippers?”

“This falls on the club more than you. They should have made sure someone was taking care of the business while you were out. More than that, they should have made sure the dancers had protection.”

Her lip trembles. “Taylor left this morning for the run.”

“Colt, too,” Lex says, her voice quiet. “The first time since...”

“What are we doing to do?”

“We’re going to be big little women and deal with it.”

Letting out a sigh, Heidi says, “Lex, I’m scared. All the time. Even when Taylor’s home, I worry someone is just outside, and they’ll kill him to get me. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“We’re going to be alright. We made it out of the basement, and we can make it for a four-day run.”

She’s right. “I was just really counting on the strip club as my distraction tonight. I don’t know what else to do to keep busy.”

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