Page 3 of JoJo

Chapter 2

What do you mean it’s not open yet?” Keys whined to our hotel concierge. “Well, there has to be another place around this town with male strippers.” She gave the young, male concierge a knowing look. “We’re desperate!”

I joined Tash and Angel Girl in laughing at Keys’ expense. “What she means is we had hoped for entertainment tonight.” I growled at Tash as she put her foot just as far in her mouth as Keys had. The poor concierge was fighting to keep a straight face.

“It’s okay to laugh at them. I’d like to say they’re both suffering from recent head trauma, but sadly they really are clueless.” My words tipped the scale and the man laughed. “I grabbed Tash’s arm then and pulled her toward the elevator that Angel Girl was holding for us. “We’ll leave you two to sort the evening's entertainment. Keys, try not to embarrass yourself,” I called out as a parting shot before the door closed us in the moving box of death.

When we got upstairs to the suite Keys had us in I was suddenly struck by an awareness of how completely weird and out of sync my life had been lately. I knew even if I didn’t have the garage anymore I would always have employment with the club. My life wouldn’t end, but the garage was a legacy passed down to my father from his, and my great-grandfather started it before that. I was the fourth generation to own the garage and be a grease monkey. I did it because I honestly loved the work though. Now, I was about two weeks away from losing the legacy, in Las Vegas, and trying to find male stripper entertainment with my friends to ease the pain of my impending loss. Life was definitely strange.

“I need a drink,” I finally said as the hotel room door shut behind us and I, once again, took in the lavish living room area of the suite we were staying in. There was an exceptionally well stocked bar off in the far corner that most definitely was calling my name. “We should have had Jordan come with us to play mixologist for the weekend.” Jordan was one of the bartenders we employed at our club Paramour.

Tash made a weird noise, sucking at her teeth to show her distaste. “Jordan has his hands full with the girls at Paramour these days. Actually, he’s been making me a little edgy with how closely he’s been watching some of them.”

“Really?” I questioned. “Jordan never struck me as the skeezy type.” Tash just shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know. Just an observation. Come on, I’ll whip something up for you.” Tash downed the drink she just made for herself and then asked the question on everyone’s minds. “So what are we doing tonight?”

“We have entertainment coming to us tonight. I figured after the flight we’d be easily wiped out so I organized a little male review in the room,” Keys said with glee as she brushed her hands back and forth together in what looked a whole lot like greedy anticipation.

“Male review?” Angel Girl asked her, not having heard Keys trying to convince the concierge to order us some strippers.

“Who knows?” She asked the room. “Maybe one of them will be willing to marry our JoJo and save her garage. Then we can watch him work while she works.”

I had just been taking a sip of my Jack and coke that Tash had made me and it ended up being spewed everywhere. “You’re trying to marry me off to a stripper?”

“We’re members of an MC, one of us might as well live up to the stereotype.” The girls all laughed at my expense then.

“Jesus, Keys. Why do I have to be the one to meet your stereotype?” I chuckled when I thought about it a minute picturing some hot as hell dude, shirtless, bent over a muscle car, and sweating until his body shined and glistened under the garage lighting. “Although,” I added quickly after that thought, “I will reserve judgment until I see him.” Everyone continued laughing at my expense, but this time I joined in with them.

“Tash, give me a hand?” Keys called out and both of them left me alone with Angel Girl.

“Jo,” I held my hand up to curtail whatever she was about to say. No doubt, it had to do with how she treated me at her wedding since I refused to be a part of it.

“I know what you’re about to do. Don’t. You had a stressful day and I disappointed you. I had my reasons Angel Girl, and I didn’t think you needed to be burdened by them while you were planning a wedding and getting married.”

“For all the good that did,” she pouted, no doubt dying a little inside because her marriage lasted exactly half the length of their honeymoon before she was hightailing it back to Georgia looking for a shoulder to cry on.

“Listen,” I started to tell her, and waited until I had her attention before continuing. “I know y’all are going through something right now, but it will pass. You’ll figure it out. It’s obvious that you both love one another. Right now, you just need to figure out what’s more important: your hurt pride or communicating and getting everything out in the open to air out all the doubt. Honey, that doubt is drowning you. You’re still sinking in it, even here in Vegas. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

“No, a mechanic will do just fine.” She grinned.

“Damn straight,” I answered back.

“I really am sorry. I want you to know something else.” Angel Girl went on to tell me about how I looked so much like her childhood best friend, Marisol. She was the woman who had initially sent Jamie running from her family and from her fiancé at the time. The woman had lied and told her that she had lost her virginity to Sweet in some crazy attempt to keep Angel from staying behind instead of going to UCLA with her in the fall. I was stunned to realize that was why Angel and I had always had a weirdly strained relationship.

I was saved from having to really dig in deep on those thoughts though as Keys and Tash came back with more drinks in hand. We were all two and three drinks in by the time we heard a knock on the door. Of course, the phone rang at the same time. Angel girl moved to answer the door while I picked up the phone. “Yeah?”

“This is Byron, the concierge. I just wanted to let you know that Joe and the guys will be up in about fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, I think they’re already here. Someone just knocked.”

“No, they’re down here getting ready.”

Well, damn. “Okay,” I drew out hesitantly. “I guess we’ll see the guys in a few minutes then. Thanks Byron.” I hung up the phone as I heard Keys talking to someone.

“This is supposed to be a girl’s weekend, what are you doing here?”

“Aw, come on, I couldn’t let my baby come to Vegas without me. What fun would that be?” My heart sank as I recognized Quickshot’s voice. If he was here, then Sweet probably wasn’t far behind to collect Angel and try to make up for whatever he’d done.

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