Page 54 of We The Depraved

Walking into the club the smell of body lotion, cleaning supplies and lingering cigar smoke hit my nose. I find Gio’s hulking figure beside Sage. They sit by the bar on shiny stools talking. She appears sober and I’m grateful.

However, I don’t like that he’s close to her.

She peers around him and sees me, offering a scowl.

“What are you doing here?”

I stare at Gio, who hasn’t figured out I don’t want him around, but he ignores me. Taking a deep breath, I give Sage my full attention. “I finished up with my business early. Came to check in.”

She takes a second and composes herself. Behind her, I peer around and see that the dancers from the club are lining up.

I admit, I haven’t cared much about this place. Buying it was to mind fuck Sage. To let her know that there was no part of her that I couldn’t touch.

Her body.

Her mind.

I could touch it all and there was nothing she could possibly do to stop me.

“Well you’re just in time for a show,” she shrugs and goes to stand up.

“What?”

“These dancersssss!” She annunciates her words very loudly and everything seems to come to a stand still at her voice. “Have forgotten how much money they make here. They also seem to think they’re running shit.”

My eyes roamed over some of the girls. There was one girl, who seemed a little skittish. Her hands were running up and down her arms as if she were trying to keep warm. Her nipples seemed to pop through the light pink top she wore.

Sage went over to her and whispered something to her. The girl’s eyes got wide as saucers.

“I don’t know,” I heard her speak, her voice soft and timid.

Gio stood up and when Sage gave a nod, he turned on some music. Sage took the girl by the hand and walked her on to the stage.

“Yall been giving Yasmine hell,” she muttered. “I’m about to show you how a star is made. Keep up because when I tell you I’m going to make Autumn that bitch, you’re going to wonder how I did it.”

The beat of the music began to get louder, and I saw Sage whisper something in the girl’s ear and then she gave the girl a slight push. Autumn gave a skeptical look back. Leaning back against the bar, I watched this woman do exactly what she promised. The beat to the music picked up and Autumn began to snap her hips on que to the music.

Sage had a grin on her face wide as hell and the other women behind her were grumbling. They were pissed but Sage had spotted a diamond in the rough.

Autumn lost herself to the music, pulling herself into a slow split and my mouth was about to drop to the floor when Gio slid me a beer.

“Thanks,” I nodded but he hadn’t seemed to hear me either.

When the music ended, Sage gave all of the dancers even more of her mind and told them to get their shit together before she brought in new girls to dance.

“That was impressive,” I told her pointing to Autumn.

“She has the body, and she just needed a song,” Sage remarked.

“Never the less,” I drank the last of the beer and put it on the counter. “I’m a hard man to impress.”

Sage rolled her eyes and then offered me a genuine smile. “Men are such simple creatures.”

“Have you heard anything about the fire?”

She sobered at the mention of the disaster from last night and shook her head. “No.”

“And still no idea on who did it?”