Page 21 of Stripped

CHAPTER FIVE

The door to the small, brick ranch house swung open to reveal a woman in her bathrobe, her hair in curlers. “Hi,” I said. “I'm Zara's boss at The Booty Carousel. I've been trying to get a hold of her and I'm hoping you can help.”

Mrs. Robbins glared at me. “A nice young man came by and told her you'd shut down the club because you were moving on to a better job. Said you couldn't even be bothered to give my girl notice.”

Crapola. I hated that Zara's mom was angry at me, but I didn't have time to convince her any different. “Where is she now? Can I talk to her?”

She shrugged. “The guy said he had a club, a better club, and she could dance there. He promised she'd make good money.”

Fudge, fudge, triple fudge. “Was this guy skinny? With white blond hair?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared harder. “What you going to do about it?”

“I just want to make sure she's okay. My club was—”

“He said you'd be by to convince Zara to give you some of her earnings. You leave that girl alone. She worked hard for every cent she made.”

“I just—”

But the woman had shut the door in my face. I turned to Zane. “Have any idea where this new 'club' might be?”

He grimaced. “Got a pretty good idea.” He shook his head. “Damn it, Abby. I'm sorry.”

My heart sank. What had he done? “Why?”

“I really believed Leopold was just trying to cause trouble for you. Everything we know about him, everything we've seen points to him being lazy and good-for-nothing. He takes money from people, but is unwilling to work for it. I never…”

“You couldn't have known,” I said, relief coursing through me. I had a lot of friends, a lot of acquaintances, but no one in my life I felt I could depend on. No one I talked to about stuff that really mattered in my own life. It was nice to have someone on my side. “Let's go find them.”

Since Zane knew where the vamps might have taken the women, I let him drive, which gave me plenty of time to sit in the passenger seat, chew on my fingernails, and worry. I opened my mouth several times to share my concerns with Zane, but I couldn't say it out loud, couldn't let on how worried I was. It felt like talking about it would make it more real and if he couldn't offer me the unrealistic reassurances I wanted to hear, I wasn't sure I'd hold it together. Leopold had destroyed everything I'd worked for in less than twenty-four hours, I wouldn't let him hurt anyone else.

“How can he be allowed to do this?” I finally said as Zane parked in front of a two-story, silo-shaped building on the outskirts of town. “How can anyone have this much power?”

“Fear,” Zane said. “Money. This sort of thing happens with humans, too, all the time. The difference is that he is inhumanly strong and has a taste for human blood.”

I knew all that and, yet… “I guess I just never expected it to happen to me. I have a lot of friends in this town… I just thought they'd be better.”

He shrugged. “I'm a werewolf and Leopold put me out of business. He's the reason the pack is struggling financially. Your friends are still your friends, Leopold is just stronger.”

I turned to him, my worry forgotten for a moment, or maybe I just didn't want to face what we'd see inside. “What was your business?”

He gestured to the building in front of us. I'd driven past it before, but never given it much thought. “Yoga and meditation classes, a sort of spa for the mind and body.”

I stared at him for a moment, shocked. I'd heard about this place, had heard good things, but yoga and meditation weren't something that interested me enough for me to learn more. “Wow,” I said. “Really?” I studied him, thinking about what I'd seen from him. “I guess I can see it, I just…”

“Never would have imagined a bloodthirsty, aggressive werewolf as the type to teach yoga and meditation?”

He was smiling, though there was a bite to his words, and I wondered if maybe I wasn't the only one who'd questioned his career choices. “I wouldn't go that far,” I said. “It's just unexpected.”

He relaxed a smidge. “Not a lot of other options for a guy with a PhD in Philosophy who needs a pack to keep his wolf from going primal.”

I stared at him a moment longer, feeling like I was seeing him for the first time. He was a good-looking guy, a werewolf, a breed not known for deep or particularly intelligent thoughts or actions. I'd gotten to know him better and my opinion of him had begun to change, but I had still thought of him in terms of his good looks and his primal nature. I was a woman who prided herself on not judging, and I'd judged him. “I'm sorry about your business.”

He nodded, his expression grave. Losing his business had really hurt, maybe almost as much as losing my club was hurting me. “Let's find out what Leopold's done to the place.”

We got out of the car and walked to the building. I could hear the thumping bass of the music before we'd gotten close to the door. There was no sign on the building, no way to identify it as a strip club. Whatever they were doing in there, they weren't advertising. Zane pulled the door open, but before we could step inside, two pale, very tall men moved into the doorway, shoulder to shoulder. Their fangs were prominently displayed, so they clearly weren't worried about scaring away human customers. “Wolves aren't welcome here,” one of the men said, his fangs causing a lisp that might have been humorous if I didn't know he could drain all the blood from my body in less than five minutes.

Zane reached for my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “I just want to see what you've done with the place.” His tone was light, but his jaw was clenched. “Abigail wants to see what new line of work her dancers have taken on.”

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