Page 34 of Bite Marks

Ginger waved his hand with the smoldering cigarette. “Go back to the bar, Caps. We got thirsty customers.”

Caps huffed and nodded, holding onto the chrome rail, looking out over the club as he made his way back down the hall to the stairs.

Vanessa marched up to the door. She glared up at Ginger, but his frown said he wasn’t fazed. “Tom.”

He took a drag of his cig and blew the smoke up and away from her, clearly to avoid hitting her with any of it. “Nessa.”

She waited for a minute, each second ticking like the clock on a bomb. “Levati di mezzo, cazzo.”

Ginger grinned. He knew Italian. He’d been at her sweet sixteen as a security goon like Nunzio. The whole day was spoken in Italian. Her father made sure the staff had to know the language, all the way down to the henchmen. “Can’t do that. Nunzio’s busy,” he said in Italian.

At least one of the Three Stooges knows how to speak to a lady.“I just saw him in there, sipping a fucking scotch.”

Ginger nodded. “He’s busy.” He took another drag, the tip glowing, but it was nowhere near as hot as the firestorm in Vanessa’s chest.

“My dad used to tell his second, Lorenzo, ‘Deal with your woman while you have the time. Otherwise, the bitch will show up when you need her gone.’ Well? The bitch is here!” She held her arms out to her side as if presenting herself. “He’s been avoiding my calls. He’s been avoiding my texts. He’s had plenty of time to do right by me, and he’s been putting me off. If he’s busy now, that’s on him, Tom. He should have dealt with me when he had the time. Now get thefuckout of my way.”

A red eyebrow lifted, and his grin faded. “Even when your father parted with that wisdom, Lorenzo still told your ma to go home. Go home, Vanessa.” He pointed back down the way she came with the cig smoking between his outstretched fingers. “You’re not getting through this door.”

Mother fucker!She lunged at the door and pounded on it. “Nunzio! Open the fucking door!”

Ginger caught her arm after the first two strikes and wrapped her up in his arms, twisting her around till he had her back pinned against his chest. With one arm holding her against him, his other grabbed her cheeks, squeezing and stopping her from screaming as the cig burned and crackled in the corner of her eye.

“You see that?” He shoved her against the railing, looking out over the strip club, his weight pinning her against the rail. Women danced on stage while men drank and threw money at the naked women. “This is your man’s place of business. This is where he makes his money to take you out. To give you nice things. And you’re going to disrespect him by coming here and disturbing that?” He pushed her away and toward the elevator. “Go, Vanessa. He’ll call you when he calls you.”

“Fine!” Vanessa fixed her clothes after being manhandled. She pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors opened. “If he’s not coming out, I guess he’s going to miss my audition.”

Ginger nodded, taking a slow drag. “Yeah, he’ll … Wait, what? What audition?” His brow knotted in confusion, but his eyes followed Vanessa’s to the stage. “Whoa! No! You can’t do that.” He ran toward the door, but it shut before he got close.

She walked out onto the main floor, glancing up at Ginger, who was hunched over the railing, before beelining it to the stage. As she passed the DJ’s booth, she called out. “Play me some Nickelback!”

The woman, wearing sunglasses the shape of stars, let out a whoop before picking up the mic. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a hot as fuck audience member coming to the stage. Let’s give her aroundof applause and buy your tables another round with our buy-three-get-one shots all night long!”

S.E.X.played over the speakers, and Vanessa winked at the DJ before taking to the main stage. Its slower build flowed into her, and she let the notes move her on stage. She strutted down the main catwalk as if she’d done it a million times before. The spotlight hit her, but its heat was nothing compared to the heat of all the men gazing at her.

Biting her lip, she unbuttoned her blouse. She teased, revealing her breasts, but waited for the chorus to hit before jerking it open and eventually throwing it off to the side. She paraded around on stage to all the cheers as money flew in her wake.

On the slower verse, she danced with the center pole like a lover, like Nunzio. She unzipped her pencil skirt and turned to place her ass on the pole. She dropped low, spreading her legs to give those in the right position a clear view of her black thong. As she rose, letting her ass go before her head, she pulled the garment down, exposing her hanging cleavage to the men sitting around the stage as well as those enthralled in their booths. She kicked the skirt off to the side as the chorus kicked in again.

She danced around the stage in nothing but her lingerie and heels as the men cheered, whooping and hollering. Even so, their energy was nothing compared to the music and the dance. It lifted her as if she was being raptured. Nothing could stop her. The Invincible Nessa. That might not be a bad stage name.

The bridge and guitar solo took over her as she reached back to unclasp her bra.

SEVENTEEN

NUNZIO

Nunzio poured over the documents on his desk. It wasn’t easy to cook the books. Capone went down for taxes. If a boss like that could be sent to the slammer by the taxman, Nunzio could too. And he was determined not to. The money from the illegal card games in the back needed to get squeezed into his profits. Not all of it, of course.

There were other places they ran or protected that could help, but Sinsations had to take at least half, and the capo wanted it to take on closer to three-quarters. With all the business Nunzio had brought to the club, that squeeze was getting harder to make.

That wasn’t his only problem. Vanessa was literally banging on his door a minute ago. He needed to decide what to do about her. She was horrified by him in his shifted form. That was very clear. So horribly clear. He cringed at the thought of the look she gave him. Like she just couldn’t believe it. Like he was someone else entirely.

He hadn’t even been able to bring himself to look at her texts or listen to her voicemails. He knew what they said.‘Don’t come back here,’ ‘I never want to see you again.’But after the second day of her trying to get in touch, he figured she was likely wanting to get the painting from him.‘Hey, I need the painting, have Caps bring it.’Something like that.

He sighed in his chair, shaking his head.This shit couldn’t get worse.

Nickelback ramped up on the speakers, the noise bleeding through into his office, even though it was meant to be soundproof. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Was it a bad thing that the soundproofing wasn’t good enough to block it all, or was it a good thing that his speaker system could break through it?

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