Page 79 of Blood and Bonbons

“I thought about it, and you’re right. He’s not our bodyguard. Plus, it’s a little hard to get a hold of him when he doesn’t even have a phone. We’ll do this meeting with our brains instead of his muscles. Scope out the place first, and if everything seems legit, we show up at one as ourselves.”

I stuffed the fluffy pancake into my mouth, not finding a hole in her plan other than the danger of going to a strip club.

She grinned as if she could read my thoughts. “With your pushup bra, we’ll get in, no problem.”

“Do you promise that this is the last lead we’ll follow today?”

“Promise. Go and bring out Lucky.”

“Stop naming my bras. Let me finish eating so we can get this over with.”

Vena rushed me through my food in record time and dragged me to my room to dig through my closet for the tightest and skimpiest clothes she could find.

“Perfect!” Vena tossed a low-cut top onto the bed and a tight miniskirt. She then fished out neck-breaking high heels.

“Do I get to go through your closet and pick out your outfit?” I asked.

“No need. I already know what I’m wearing.”

Her outfit would have more fabric to conceal some sort of weapon, and I was okay with that.

By the time we were dressed and in the car, Vena was searching the internet on her phone while I drove to the strip club.

“I wish Miles would have told me what he was up to,” Vena said. “Following his trail would have been so much easier. I can see the potential value in the book and the map if it leads to gems, but what’s with the strip club? How does it tie in?”

“That’s why we’re going, right? To find out?”

“Yep. And thanks to you, we’ll have no problem getting in.” She smirked at me.

I hoped she was right because I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough courage to try again.

Parking in front of the club, I turned to Vena. “Do you promise we’re going to be smart about this?”

“I swear, if there is any trouble, we’ll leave.”

The extremely short skirt I wore showed half my ass to the world when I got out of the car. I took a moment to tug it back into place.

“Fluff the girls,” Vena said, watching me over the roof.

“I’m not fluffing anything in the middle of the street.”

“Then what were you just doing to your butt?”

“Covering it! I should have worn pants.”

“No way. Legs are a stripper's asset. We need to show off that yours are decent. You can wait to fluff the twins until we get to the door.”

I glared at her. There would be no twin fluffing. They were barely in the bra the way it was.

“I should have burned this thing after the last time you made me wear it,” I said, joining her on the sidewalk. If not for the valiant efforts of my questionably sized button-up shirt, the world would be viewing the healing scorch mark from her dumb sun charm.

“No way. That’s our free drinks ticket when we go out.” She glanced down at the unbuttoned vee in my shirt and grinned. “You have more cleavage than I have crack. I just want to put my face in there and motorboat.”

“Seriously, your parents must have experimented on you as a kid. It’s the only explanation for you.”

She grinned at me and hooked her arm through mine. “Show time,” she whispered, turning us toward the club.

I took a deep breath and strolled to the door with her. This time, it was locked, though.

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