Page 36 of Hot Cops

“Didn’t figure he would be after the hit he put on that last guy. Put the poor guy in the hospital for nearly a week. Johnny may be stupid as pigeon shit, but he’s strong and mean when riled.”

Aaron had to agree with that assessment.

“Anyway, I was thinking after you left. Maybe you should go to Swingers.”

“Swingers?” Aaron asked.

“It’s the strip club where Bella works. Fucking bitch stole the job I wanted.”

“You wanted to be a stripper?” Riley’s voice expressed her surprise.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Whowouldn’twant to be a stripper? All that money, men looking but not really touching. It’s a dream job. Way better than being a fucking ho.”

“So why are you a hooker if you hate it? You’re a smart woman, pretty face. I’m sure you could find lots of jobs.”

Bubbles shrugged. “Not as easy as you think. Sort of fell into the hooking after high school, got into some money troubles and sex was a quick way to make a buck. Now people know me around here. I got a reputation. Ain’t nobody gonna hire a hooker for any respectable job.”

“So move somewhere else,” Riley suggested.

“With what? Monopoly money? Besides, where would I go? I was born in Vegas. Only place I’ve ever been. I got friends here.”

Riley fell silent and Aaron tried to beat back his sixth sense that said her sudden quietness couldn’t be good. Anxious to distract her from whatever plot she was cooking up, he latched onto the first thing that popped into his mind.

“So where is this Swingers?” he asked.

Riley glanced at him, a smile crossing her face. “You wanna go to the strip club?”

“Why not? For all we know, she’s taking a spin on the pole as we speak. Johnny mentioned her love of the spotlight. And if not, maybe Bella called in and quit. Maybe she told her boss where she was going. It’s worth a shot, I suppose.”

Bubbles hitched her oversized tote bag on her shoulder and fluffed up her already voluminous pink hair. “You two mind if I tag along? Figure if Bella cut and run, the boss might finally give me a shot at her spot.”

“Sure. The more, the merrier,” Riley said. “You can tell us how to get there.”

Riley and Bubbles headed off toward the corner in search of a cab, chatting away as if they’d been friends forever. He fell into step behind them and listened as Riley espoused about the wonders of Baltimore.

Fuck. It sounded like his wife was trying to talk Bubbles into considering a move to the east coast if the stripping job didn’t pan out.

The images of her pop’s face and those of Riley’s four brothers crossed his mind. Riley was infamous for bringing home strays—injured pigeons, dogs, once she even found and rescued a blind rat. Hell, just a couple weeks ago, she’d started putting milk out on the back stoop of the restaurant for a small kitten she’d found.

Bubbles laughed loudly at something Riley said and Aaron sighed. Yep. He could see it now. Bubbles was the ultimate stray.

CHAPTERSEVEN

Riley laughedas they entered Swingers. While Aaron was a pretty worldly guy—his job as a cop ensured that he’d seen plenty—she couldn’t miss the slight blush that stained his cheeks when they were led to a table by the almost naked, bald hostess. Totally bald. There wasn’t a hair anywhere on the woman—a truth driven home by the fact she was basically wearing two strings, one around her waist and one between her legs. Riley assumed this was her version of a thong. Her husband’s eyebrows rose to his hairline when he first spotted her, but in typical Aaron fashion, he recovered quickly.

“That was interesting,” he said after she took their drink orders and left. It was nearly two a.m. and the place was in full swing. There were two women performing. One was dressed in a skimpy police outfit—her badge attached to her naked breast through a nipple piercing. She was swinging a billy club as a blonde woman she’d handcuffed to the pole gyrated and pretended to resist arrest. As she moved, her clothing began to fall away, piece by piece, until she was left in just a thong.

The crowd—equal parts male and female—was urging the policewoman to use her billy club on her captive. She began rubbing it between the other woman’s legs to great applause.

“Damn. This is a strip club?” Riley asked.

Bubbles shrugged. “Swingers sort of blurs the line. It’s connected to Swingers Too through those doors over there. That’s a full-fledged sex club. This is just sort of the warm-up. The girls get the customers so hot and bothered they’ll drop the hundred-buck cover charge for Swingers Too without blinking an eye.”

Riley watched a couple hand over a wad of bills and pass through the door to the other club. Good business sense, she decided.

As that show ended, two more women came onstage to act out the roles of teacher and naughty schoolgirl. Riley squeezed her legs together and tried to ignore Aaron’s smug glances when the teacher used a ruler on the student’s ass as punishment.

“Looks like fun,” he murmured to her. “List worthy?”

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