Free Web NovelChapter 80: Chapter 80 Felicity.
"Get your ass down here, bitch!" Dante shouted. "And don’t you make wait another minute or you’re gonna regret it!"
My heart leapt again, and my stomach turned as the hammering on the front door continued. It was Dante, the absolutely repugnant owner and manager of Cherry Sweet’s Gentlemen’s Club in Dorchester.
If there was an Academy Awards for World’s Biggest Asshole, he’d win every year.
And Dante wasn’t going anywhere — not without me.
"Let’s go!" he shouted, banging his fist again. “If I have to get Tyrel to kick the door in I will! And I’ll add the cost of the repairs onto what you already owe me!"
I grabbed my pillow, pressed it over my face, and screamed until all the breath in my lungs was gone and my throat felt like it had been scrubbed with sandpaper.
I owed Dante money.
Well, technically my parents owed him money, but now that they were dead, that debt had been passed to me. And how had Dante decided to collect? By forcing me to strip for him at the club until all the money my parents had borrowed had been paid back.
I had no idea why my parents borrowed money or why they chose to do so from a scumbag strip-club-owning loan shark, but it didn’t matter now. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
They were both gone, killed while working at the restaurant they owned together, leaving me with a broken heart and a mountain of debt.
There was nothing I could do.
"Let’s go, bitch!" he roared.
"I’m coming!" I screamed, throwing my pillow aside. I got up off my bed — the same one I’d grown up in, that my dad had tucked me in when I was a little girl-and looked at myself in the mirror.
I wanted to throw up.
I’d stood here for countless Halloweens and school mornings, making sure my outfit was cute and my hair was right, and now I was looking at my “tits and ass" trying to determine if I was sexy enough for the hungry men who would be ogling me in less than a half an hour.
And I had no idea what I was doing.
I got some black fishnets because guys like fish nets, right? I had a garter belt with straps, also black, and a black thong with a matching black bra and a crop top t-shirt so I could at least have some modesty until I had to dance.
Dance...
Just the thought of it made me sick.
What would I have to do? Be up on the stage having dollar bills thrown at me? Give lap dances?
Or worse!?
I was completely pretending. I had no idea how to be sexy, so I was just going off the stereotypes we all knew.
Tossing my hair in a way that would Felicityfully make it look hog I made my way down the stairs and yanked the door open just as Dante began banging again. I had to duck out of the way of his fist or it would have hit me.
“The hell are you wearing?” he snarled, almost laughing as he eyed me like I’d come out in a SpongeBob costume or something.
What did he know about fashion anyway? He was wearing cowboy boots, white jeans, and a leather trench coat with hair so long he could have played a vampire in a movie.
"What?" I asked. If I wasn’t so angry I would have blushed. "What’s wrong with it?"
Dante shook his head.
"Whatever. The boys won’t be looking at anything but those sweet tits anyway. Get in the fucking car."
I followed Dante to his all-black pickup truck that was raised off the ground so high that the doors had literal step ladders to get up to them.
Overcompensate much?
I climbed up like I was a criminal being taken to prison, and that wasn’t too far from the truth.
The truck roared to life like a howling monster, and I grabbed the armrest as Dante peeled out of my driveway and sped towards the club.
It was about a twenty-minute ride, but time flew by, making it feel more like two minutes. The next thing I knew we were in the back lot, and I was stepping through the back door into the locker room, which was filled with girls getting ready for the night.
"Girls, this is.." Dante turned to me and raised his eyebrows.
Oh, right. My stripper name...
"Uh, Gina," I replied. A lot of girls used Russian names, according to Dante.
Every single one of them looked at me like a hostile invader here to take their money and their job. I felt my stomach lurch and wondered if I should head to a stall to throw up my breakfast-the only meal I’d managed to eat all day.
"I’ll leave you girls to get acquainted,” Dante said. “And I’ll be back for you later."
Dante left, but not before giving one of the girls a slap on her bare ass. She flashed him a sexy glance that told me all I needed to know about his relationships with the girls here.
They were all clearly way more comfortable than I was. I felt completely exposed in my outfit, but the rest of them were either half-naked or completely naked and walking around like it was no big deal.
One girl, clearly the queen bee, wearing nothing but a G-string and a curly pink wig, walked right up to me and for a second, I thought she was going to hit me in the face. She stopped less than an inch from my face and stared.
"Look, Gina," she spat.
“You just stay out of my, and the, other girls’, way. Understand?"
“I — ”
“You even think about stealing one of them high rollers from us, and I’ll beat that pretty little face of yours until you look like a blow up doll. Comprende?"
"Yes..." I said quickly.
“Mmhmm," she nodded. “Nice fishnets, bitch."
She turned away and was greeted by laughter and high fives from the other girls. I found a corner of the locker room and waited, doing my best not to stare (or throw up) at the rest of the
girls as they got ready.
They chatted about guys, money, their boyfriends, and what songs they were going to dance to, and all I could think about was running away.
But where would I go? The police? What would I tell them? That Dante was forcing me to pay off an illegal debt my parents owed? As shady as Dante was, he had even shadier guys working for him and I wanted nothing to do with them.
I wouldn’t mind running off with that man from last night, I thought, even though I knew just how silly that was.
I didn’t even know his name for God’s sake. Lesley? That was a load of crap. He didn’t want to tell me who he really was, and while that should have scared me, I had to admit it kind of excited me.
I’d been sitting there by myself, wishing I was just another college student whose only worries were her next assignment or getting to class on time, and he’d come out of nowhere like a force of nature.
I must have looked like a complete mess, having been crying for an hour before hand, knowing what I had to do tonight, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. He was gorgeous and had come at me despite my protests like I was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen and nothing I could say was going to stop him.
And I’d given in. It was like I had no choice.
My body had taken over and I’d kissed him, and it wasn’t because I was vulnerable at the time either; it was because I’d wanted him.
And that’s what scared me.
That’s why I’d run away.
I would have given myself to him I right then and there when I didn’t even have my life together.
