“You’re such a light-weight, Nikki. Here…” She extended her hand. In the palm were two white pills.
Nikki looked at them suspiciously. “And they are?”
“Aspirin. What’d you think I was giving you? You said you have a headache.” Lori shook her head as Nikki took the pills.
“Listen, my only vices now are cigarettes and men, sometimes a drink, nothing worse. Well, those are bad enough, but that’s it.” She held up three fingers.
“Scout’s honor, Nikki. Not for a long, long time. I’ve been good.”
Nikki went to the tiny kitchen and filled a glass at the sink, downing the pills. Lori followed her, leaning against the doorframe.
“You believe me, right?”
Nikki looked at her friend. Finally she nodded.
“Sorry, Lori. Yeah, I do. It’s been a long f**king night. Come here.” Nikki held out her arms and Lori walked into her embrace.
The sound of a blaring horn made both of them jump. They stepped apart, laughing.
“You working tonight?” Nikki was searching under the couch for her shoes.
“No, I have the night off. Plan to catch up on my sleep, now that there’s no mumbling, snoring body in my bed.”
Nikki shook her head, laughing, pulling on her second shoe. “I don’t snore.” She reached up, planting a kiss on Lori’s cheek as she opened the apartment door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then, yeah? Take care and get some sleep.”
The cab ride was brief and Nikki was home, standing beneath the pounding hot water in her shower, letting the water sluice through her hair. She’d never been so glad to get out of her clothes, contemplating throwing them in the garbage. Even the cabbie had given her a dirty scowl as she got into the cab. It was funny; she’d never noticed that the alley smelled that bad, even with all the dumpsters.
She spent a long time drying her hair, sitting by the window in her bedroom. The street below was busy, but she knew in the next hour or so, as people started coming home from work, it would be packed.
It occurred to her, not for the first time, what an odd life she led. Just when most people were coming home from work or school, sitting down with family for dinner, she was getting ready to take her clothes off for a roomful of strange men.
She shook her head, padding back to the bathroom. There was no good reason to think about what might have been if things had gone differently. She’d given up years ago wondering how different her life would have been if her parents hadn’t been her parents, hadn’t fought every night of her life, hadn’t dragged her into the middle of the arguments, made her choose sides. And hadn’t died in a car crash two months before she was to graduate from high school.
Thinking didn’t change anything, it just brought up a lot of pain. Pain Nikki could really do without.
She thought about dinner instead, poking around in the still-empty refrigerator. Hiding in the back she unearthed a stale bagel and a tub of semi-petrified cream cheese. Toasted and covered with spread, she called it dinner.
It was almost time to leave for work but the last place Nikki wanted to be was at the club. But they were down two dancers and Lori was off. Nikki cringed, knowing why they were short. It didn’t make her want to be there, but she knew Mack would fire her in a heartbeat if she called in. He’d have a new girl hired and using her locker probably before Nikki would even have a chance to clean out her stuff.
But there was no way in hell she was walking down that alley. She opened the front door of the club, the sounds and smells washing over her. It was Friday and the place was almost full. As luck would have it, Mack was sitting at the end of the bar, right by the door. He caught her eye, scowling at her.
“You know better. Dancers use the alley door.” He jerked his head toward the door she’d just entered, indicating she should go back out. Normally she would have. But not tonight.
Something snapped. She walked over to Mack, leaning close, her hand on his arm.
“Mack, give me a break. People were killed in that alley, just the other day. China’s boyfriend held a knife to my throat. Last night…” She stopped. There was no way she could explain last night to Mack.
Mack’s eyes were cold as they met hers. “Yeah. And I have rules. You don’t like them, you know where the door is.” He jerked his head again in the direction of the front door, his voice hard.
“Look, Nikki. I like you. Really. You’re a great dancer, the customers love you. But…you know, you’re stubborn. And you gotta respect that I got rules here. Okay?” He stood, opening the door for her. She stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“You got a choice. Follow my rules, use the alley. Or...”
The door closed behind her as she left the club without thought about how she would be able to pay the month’s rent. She had enough of Mack, the degradation, the always feeling as though she held no value other than in how hot she could make the men who stuffed her panties with one dollar bills. Enough already. Moving almost mechanically, she walked to the corner of the building, the mouth of the alley looming ahead of her.
The clouds obscured any moonlight that might have penetrated the depths of the alley and the dim bulb above the club door didn’t do much besides cast a faint yellow circle on the door. Nikki took a deep breath and turned, walking away from the club.
*
Jax opened the door to the club. He’d caught a whiff of Nikki’s scent, clear and rich, on the night air. He inhaled, closing his eyes, and then stepped inside the dim club.
The place was packed, but he picked up on a low level of disquiet in the air, a subtle tension. Jax moved along the back wall, watching the crowd, looking for Nikki, or for the tall blonde woman that had been in the alley with Nikki. But neither appeared to be mingling with the crowd.
And then it occurred to Jax that there didn’t seem to be any girls in the crowd, or dancing on the stage. He cocked his head, listening intently to the conversations around him, finally picking up the drift of what they were saying.
There seemed to be no girls working, or very few. Jax worked his way toward the bar, finally managing to catch the bartender’s eye.
“What can I get you?” The man…Sam, Jax remembered his name was Sam…seemed on harried, on edge.
“Campari and soda. And has Nikki been up yet?”
Sam hesitated, looking up at Jax. “I remember you.” He shook his head.
“No. And she won’t be up.” Sam turned, speaking over his shoulder.
“Is she off?” Jax frowned. Nikki usually worked Fridays.
A voice at his shoulder spoke. “She’s off alright. Permanently. Bitch quit.”
Jax turned, scowling. An older, heavy-set man was standing next to him. Jax recognized him as the club owner.
“Quit? When?”
“Tonight, start of her shift. Wanted to come in through the front door. She knows the rules…dancers use the back alley or not at all. Guess she chose not at all.” The man suddenly seemed to realize he was talking to a customer.
“But, you know, we have lots of other girls…Eden is working tonight, should be up any minute. She’s gorgeous, you’d like her. If you want, I’ll reserve a private room for you, set up a dance…”
Jax barely heard the rest of the man’s pitch. As he shouldered his way past him, pushing open the front door to the sidewalk, he heard the guy calling after him but he didn’t stop to listen.
Once on the sidewalk, he ran a hand through his hair, panic rising up in him, his heart skidding out of control in his chest. The irony of the situation hit him; he’d finally found the perfect woman, only to lose her over something as stupid as this, as simple as not knowing where to find her.
There was no other way for him to find Nikki than to trail her through the city. The thought had crossed his mind to get her cell number or ask for her address, but the time never seemed right, or it had slipped his mind. Or…
As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t blame Bec for this, even though he’d barged into his room, barged in on him in bed with Nikki.
He shook his head. There wasn’t time now to worry about what he hadn’t done. It was time to find Nikki.
His senses were still on overdrive, the wolf still strong in him. Even though the moon wasn’t completely full, it still affected him deeply. He closed his eyes, opening his senses to the sounds, and particularly the scents around him.
Last night, he’d followed Nikki and Lori back to Lori’s apartment. He’d hung in the shadows, ghosting behind the women, never letting them know he was there. Once they’d entered the aging red brick building, it took longer to find which apartment they’d gone into, as he’d climbed the rickety metal fire escape, working his way slowly around the building.
Finally he’d found her scent and he’d crouched outside the bedroom window, watching her sleep as sunrise grew closer. He risked being caught outside the den, barely making it back to his room before he changed back to his human form.
Tonight, the clouds and the impending rain worked in his favor. The air was heavy, holding scents like a sponge. Nikki’s was there, as clear as if she was right in front of him.
It wasn’t long before he realized he was heading in the same direction, down the same streets he’d gone the night before. She was headed back to Lori’s apartment.
Jax hesitated outside the building. There was no easy way to do this, he’d just have to go get her. If she didn’t want to come with him…he didn’t want to think about that right now. If necessary, he’d just carry her out of the apartment.
The apartment was in an old building, the street door open, two guys sitting on the steps sharing a bottle. Jax walked between them, ignoring their comments.
He climbed the stairs to the third floor, counted the doors in the hall, trying to get his bearings, envisioning what the building looked like from his vantage point on the fire escape. Her scent was so heavy here, mingled with dozens of other pungent scents, it was difficult to know exactly where she was. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door he hoped Nikki was behind.
There were voices, and he recognized Nikki’s and then Lori’s, as she undid the multiple locks on the door. It finally opened a crack, the safety chain still in place and Jax caught a glimpse of Lori’s face. She looked at him for a moment, then the door closed. He could hear the chain being pulled back and then the door opened again.
“Come in.” Lori held the door for Jax. Her face was an unreadable mask, her voice neutral, but he could sense disapproval in her posture, in the tension at the corners of her eyes.
“Who is it?” He heard Nikki’s voice from somewhere in the depths of the tiny apartment.
“It’s for you…” Lori closed the door behind Jax. He let her walk ahead of him down the short hall, into a dingy living room.
Nikki was curled up on the couch, a glass of what smelled like straight whiskey in her hand. When she saw him, her eyes went wide with surprise. But her voice was cold.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Look who’s here.” She set her glass on the coffee table, her hand trembling slight. “How’d you find me?”