Page 27 of Stripped

“This is unacceptable,” Leopold said. “When I get a hold of Sheriff Walpole, I'm going to make sure he's aware of the way you two have abused your power and mistreated my guest.”

The woman ignored him and signaled to me to spin.

I turned and put my hands behind my back. I wasn't stupid enough to argue with two armed officers of the law.

“I'll get you out,” Leopold said. “I'll send the coven's best lawyers, and you'll be back here with me by tonight.”

I gave him my sweetest smile, even as I prayed he'd fail in that task. I'd choose prison over Leopold's dog kennel any day.

I let the cops drag me out of the condo and down the stairs to the parking lot, but I balked when they took me around the corner of the building to a beat-up, red Camry. “What the heck is going on?”

The male cop opened the back door of the car and the female cop put a hand on top of my head. “Rixton sent us,” she said in a low voice. “Just get in the damn car before that blood-sucker gets suspicious.”

I was well aware that I might be about to leap from the fire to the frying pan, but I'd rather die by cop impersonators than by vamp who could compel me to his will. I got in the car and the woman slid in next to me. The man got into the driver's seat, started the car and peeled away from Leopold's building.

“Strain against the cuffs and they'll pop right off,” the female 'cop' said. “They're just a prop.”

I strained, the cuffs popped off, and I rubbed my wrists. They weren't sore, but every character in every movie and cop show I'd ever watched rubbed their wrists after taking off cuffs. It seemed like the right thing to do.

I handed the cuffs to the woman. The man took a turn way too fast and I slid into the female 'cop.' I pulled myself back to my seat and strapped myself securely in. “Are we being chased?”

“No, why?” the man asked, just missing a pedestrian and running a red light.

“Because I'd like to survive long enough to find out what the heck is going on.”

“She's asking you to slow down, Jeremy. We don't need to get pulled over by the real police.”

Jeremy glanced back in the rear-view mirror and nodded. “Good point.”

He slowed down. I looked at the woman, who appeared to be the brains of this questionable operation. “Who are you? And where are you taking me?”

Her cheeks pinked. “I'm Melanie,” she said. “I'm a friend of Rixton's.” She gestured toward the front of the car. “So's Jeremy. Anyway, we owed Rixton a favor. When he called and said you needed help, we hightailed it over to the vamp's place.”

“You just happened to have police uniforms lying around?”

The woman's blush deepened, but her smile was wide and proud. “It's a costume I use at work. See.” She ripped the front of her uniform open to reveal a lace bra and large breasts, also the fact that the uniform was held together by Velcro.

“You're both strippers?” I asked.

Melanie nodded and fiddled with her badge, like she was nervous. “Jeremy and I opened the business a couple months ago. We do parties and whatnot, we never intended to compete against you, but we're entrepreneurs and there's no clubs in town for male dancers.”

“It's a brilliant idea,” I said. “Though I think it would get more traction in a big city.”

“Too much competition,” Jeremy said. “We wanted to start small, get some practice, build our brand before we tried the big cities.”

“Makes sense.” Why hadn't I thought of it? The car bounced as it hit a pothole and I realized we were no longer in the town limits. “Where are you taking me?”

“To the pack in Mule Creek,” Jeremy said, glancing back at me. “That's where Rixton said you wanted to go, but… We can take you anywhere you want.”

I thought of my half-packed condo and my destroyed club. There were lots of places I wanted to go, but only one place that made any sense. “Yeah, okay. Take me to Mule Creek.”

***

I was beginning to worry the beat-up Camry we were riding in was going to sink into one of the potholes we were bouncing over and we'd never be seen again when a ginormous truck roared to a stop in front of us. It was followed by a line of ginormous trucks, disappearing around the bend in the road.

Zane stepped out of the passenger side of the truck and hefted a rifle over his shoulder. Axel got out of the driver's side also carrying a rifle.

“Um, do they have any reason to be pissed at you?” Jeremy asked, shifting the car into reverse in case we needed to make a fast get-away. Not that it would do any good, those trucks would easily catch us and roll right over us.

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