Page 14 of Collide

All of that should have been enough to keep him from my mind, butcould I forget him?

Could I fuck.

Diana had a lot to answer for. Funnily enough, when my time with Kaiwas over, Diana was nowhere to be seen, conveniently, she had developed a migraine and had taken the rest of the evening off.

Bullshit.

The following night, I went to work an hour early with the solepurpose of confronting Diana. I found her lurking in the club’s basement, doing a last minute stock take on the bottles of beer stored down there, and I demanded to know who the fuck he was. Her face paled as she told me his name and as the penny dropped, I didn't know whether to laugh or smack her in the face.

I didn't know much about the Wolfe brothers other than the rumorsthat had echoed around the streets of Hollows Bay since the day Angel and I had landed five years ago. Rumors that they were dangerous, violent murderers and people not to be messed with, so I couldn't understand how Diana would put me in such a position.

That was until she told me she owed Kai a shit ton of money.

Two years earlier she'd got herself into a bit of troublewhen an ex-boyfriend had conned her out of her entire savings. He’d also taken out loan after loan and credit card after credit card in Diana’s name so when the bailiffs came knocking and threatened to repossess Club Sin in order to pay off the debts, and despite Diana having proof she didn’t take out the loans and cards, with no savings to fall back on Diana had two choices, give up the club or find someone to bankroll the debt.

There was no way the banks would give her any more money, her exhad been very clever with his scam and the banks and the police had not believed her when she claimed she was innocent, the only way Diana stood a chance was to turn to a loan shark who gave her the cash upfront.

Diana was many things, but a genius she was not.

On the plus side of her decision, she paid off the debt and we all keptour jobs.

The downside was Diana’s repayment plan wasastronomicalthanks to the interest rate charged by the loan shark, and although she had tried her hardest to meet the repayments, Diana had started to fall behind within a few months of taking out the loan.

It was a stroke of luck that Diana had been pouring her heart out to afriend who suggested he could help. One thing led to another and her so-calledfriendintroduced her to Kai who agreed to buy her debt, and she could pay him back in smaller monthly installments. The catch was he would charge double the interest but she could pay it off over a longer term, meaning she was bound to him for the rest of her life unless she came up with a way of repaying the money back sooner.

I still felt like Diana had thrown me under a bus, but when sheclaimed the loan shark had threatened to break her legs so badly that she would never walk again, she had no choice but to agree to Kai’s terms. She'd been paying off her debt without any issues until last night when Kai offered to wipe her debt completely clear in exchange for a private meeting with me.

Needless to say, Diana didn't hesitate to throw me to the wolf.

Literally.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when she told me exactly how much herdebt to Kai was, and it made me all the more curious about him given the fact he had agreed to write the debt off in exchange for an introduction with me.

If I was honest, I couldn't blame Diana, it made sense and Icouldn’t help but think that I would have made theexactsame choice if I had been in her shoes. And ultimately, it resulted in me earning a small fortune, so I guess it was a win-win situation for us both.

But knowing who he was, I was nervous that I was suddenly on theman’s radar, and a feeling deep down in my belly said to me I hadn’t seen the last of him.

As the week had gone on and he hadn’t made a reappearance, I triedmy best to put the man out of my head but I couldn’t help constantly replaying my encounter with him over and over in my head. It was like during the twenty minutes I had spent with him, he had somehow managed to burrow his way under my skin and every night since meeting him, I had looked out into the audience longingly, hoping I would find him watching me from a dark corner.

It was stupid really, I should have been relieved he hadn't come back,he was not a man whose attention I wanted, or needed for that matter.

And yet, every night I found myself a tiny bit disappointed whenhe didn't show up.

Okay, maybea lotdisappointed.

It was a busy night in the club this evening, Diana had organized oneof her special event nights which she did every few months. Nights like this were always sure to bring in the pundits and therefore the cash and tonight was no exception.

And the theme?

Slutty school girls, of course.

All the waitresses were dressed up in matching tight-fitted white shirtswhich barely contained their breasts, knotted at the front to reveal as much of their slender tummies as possible. Black and red ties sat loosely around their necks, and they wore the tiniest black pleated skirts accompanied by white knee-high socks and platform shoes.

We dancers wore even less if that were at all possible.

My evening had gone from bad to worse as the minutes ticked by.Diana had begged me to pick up two extra dances on top of my own two, as well as the group routine, all because fucking Leandra had disappeared.

Like,poof!

---