Page 10 of Trouble

“My room is locked and it also has cameras. There is nothing you could possibly need in there, so don’t let me find out that you even so much as breathed on the doorknob.”

She huffed but nodded her head as I turned to leave. By the time I got to my Jeep, she was inside the house and I was left with a sick feeling in my gut, but there was nothing more I could do. If I missed another night of work, I’d be out of a job. The management at the club were as understanding as they could be, but a dancer who didn’t show wasn’t easily replaced. I wanted to call Reesa, the woman Shaina had introduced me to when I first got back to town. She would probably be the best person to ask for help, but she had a pre-teen daughter, a husband, and a pregnancy she hadn’t told him about yet on her shoulders. There was no way I could burden her with my issues, even though I knew she would help.

CHAPTER 6

BLAST FROM THE PAST

TROUBLE

It had beentwo weeks since the day Trinity Monroe marched her butt into the clubhouse to see Hollywood. Two weeks and there wasn’t another sighting of her anywhere. I waited for my friend to tell me something, anything about her, but he was tight lipped as ever. Granted, I didn’t want to be the one to bring her up. There was no use in disclosing the fact that, once again, I couldn’t get her off my mind. I was fucked in the head over the bitch and she had been the one to nearly get me booted from the club before. What did that fucking say about me?

Flight and I were sitting around playing a shitty game of poker, since there were only two of us, while we waited on Hollywood.

“Looks like he might be a no-show. What’s up with him?” I asked. Flight and Hollywood had been pretty tight since he joined the club four years back. Flight earned his wings flying helicopters in the Army and the skill was a commodity for the club, since the Cedar Falls, West Virginia chapter owned a helicopter. Their pilot was getting older and they were training Flight to take over his duties of getting our men where theyneeded to be when shit went down. I was positive it might have been used for other reasons too, but I supposed that was something we would learn more about once they transferred the machine down to our chapter.

“Probably with his cousin again. She seems like the needy type.” Flight complained as he glanced around. “Aren’t there any women coming in tonight? If not, I might take off for Paramour and see if I can’t at least get a handy in a back room.”

“You know the women of S.H.E. don’t allow that shit in their club.” I chuckled as he gave me a look.

“Come on, man. Since when haven’t I been able to convince a woman to do what I want?”

“There will come a day when you meet your match, Flight. It might just be when the women of S.H.E. catch you fucking off with their dancers and throw a beatdown on your ass. I can only hope that I’m there to see it.”

“Shut up, dickwad. Those ladies love me.” He puffed up his chest and slicked his longish, blond hair back off his face to show off what he thought was his best feature. The fucking dimples. Objectively, he could give Hollywood a run for his money in the looks department. He wasn’t wrong, but damn if I’d agree with him.

“Nah, man. They’d take one look at your ugly mug and laugh as they broke your nose and a few other bones for good measure.”

Flight threw his cards down. “Well, I guess we’ll find out because I’m too bored to sit around here yucking it up with your pitiful ass while we wait for Hollywood to no-show again. I’m outta here.”

He didn’t wait around or offer for me to tag along. Not that I expected him to. The asshole already knew I’d most likely decline the invite because the strip club wasn’t my scene. I’d fucked most of the women who worked there at one time orother and the rest were either taken, lesbians, or they didn’t appeal to me. Still, Flight wasn’t wrong. The clubhouse was dead. A few of our guys were on a run down to the Tallahassee Chapter while some of the others were off to the coast of South Carolina for the weekend. We had a skeleton crew at the clubhouse and everyone was doing their own thing.

As I was about to get up and head to the bar, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to see Wes, our latest prospect, was trying to reach me. “Yeah, man. What’s up?”

“There’s some chick out here at the gate that needs to see you.”

“Some chick?” For some reason, my thoughts immediately went to Trinity, but that was stupid as fuck because there was no way she would be at the clubhouse to see me. “Who is it?”

“What’s your name, darlin’?” I rolled my eyes at the idiot prospect, since he didn’t think to ask her that simple fucking question before he called me. “She said it’s Natalie and she needs to talk to you.”

“Natalie?” I questioned. I hadn’t seen her in about seven months. I wasn’t sure what the fuck she could possibly want with me.

“That’s what she said,” Wes agreed.

“Fuck, send her up, I guess. No one’s here anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” A couple minutes later, Natalie came through the front door swishing her hips the way she always did when she knew someone was watching her. I took a deep breath and let it out, because the only reason I could think that she might be trying to track me down after all this time was that she had been pregnant and was only just now telling me. I was happy as fuck to see that wasn’t the case. Natalie was an okay fuck, a questionable person, and wouldn’t know the definition of loyalty if it bit her in the left tit first.

“What are you doing here?” I asked as soon as she was close enough to hear me.

“We need to talk.”

“I don’t see why,” I answered back as she threw her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side as if she needed to puzzle out my response. “How about we don’t play fucking games I don’t have the patience for and you just spit out whatever the fuck you’re here for.”

“You don’t need to be rude.”

“Last chance before I have Wes come collect you and drag you off club property.”

“You know my uncle is still a member,” she huffed.

“He might be a member of Aces High, but he ain’t at this clubhouse anymore, so there’s no need for you to be here. Now, last chance, what the fuck do you have to talk to me about?”