Page 190 of Dance of Devils

I giggle, grinning. “Would you like a replay of howexactlyI convinced you?”

His eyes flash as he smiles hungrily back at me. “You know I would.”

I flush as heat throbs in my core.

“Deal. But first, wedohave to go in there. I mean, itisyour place.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, on paper. All the headaches, none of the perks.”

“Good thing you love me, huh?”

He chuckles as his arm slides around my waist. “Good thing I do.”

Technically, on paper, Kir is the owner of The Oasis. But the real brains behind the operation, who will be running it once it’s officially open and reaping the income—and slowly paying Kir back at a very fair rate—is Maya.

And, like I said, things have changed around here.

There’s now a strict “no creeps” policy. Isaak ended up working with Maya to recruit and vet a seriously professional team of bouncers. Obviously, people come here for T&A. But there’s a fun, performative kind of strip club, and a sad, predatory kind.

This will be the fun kind, and Maya and her team will make sure of that.

The girls who work here now are all pros who, like Maya, genuinely love the gig—the costumes, the athleticism mixed with the erotic, and thefunthat this kind of place can be when you remove the desperation.

Some of the girls who worked here before are still around, others have moved on. Caroline, for instance, now works for Kir in the acquisition wing of his empire.

Apparently, he was really impressed with her shrewd business tactics and her ability to stand her ground.

It’s also notalljust stripper poles and lap dances around here anymore. Saturdays there's going to be burlesque performances, with a live band and everything.

Even cooler, the whole area is going to be changing soon. The mostly abandoned old warehouses and derelict buildings have been bought up by a consortium of Kir and a few other investors, and they're in the early stages of leveling all the old stuff so they can build new apartment buildings with ground floor retail space for bars, cool coffee spots, and more.

“Brooklyn!”

I turn and grin when I see Val walking over with Evelina and Dove.

“Hey!” I pull away from Kir to hug them all.

“M-Mr. Nikolayev,” Evie stammers, bowing in a hilariously formal way.

“Evelina,” he says in that deep voice of his, smiling. “For the last time,Kiris fine.”

Val gives Kir a firm handshake. “BDE. Good to see you, as always.”

Kir sighs and rolls his eyes. Val turns to look up at the new neon sign above the club.

“Who’s ready to see some titties?”

Kir chuckles deeply as I groan. Then I poke Val’s arm. “Hey, where’s?—”

“On his way,” he says with a goofy smile. “Shall we?”

“Oh my God,” Evie blurts. “Did you guys see Inessa’s latest Insta post?”

Dove groans. “Unreal. That whole company is…beyond.”

Inessa, unsurprisingly,didend up getting theBallet Imperiya Koronaspot. We also ended up becoming pretty close in the few months she spent in New York before heading to Moscow.

I’m truly happy for her. I mean that.