Page 42 of Heartless Sinner

When I got to the back of the strip club I nodded at one of the strippers, a large hoodie covering her up, as she smoked on a cigarette and chatted with someone on the phone. She hardly spared me a glance as I slipped in through the back door.

Once I got inside, I had to figure out what to do now. I needed information, but how would I go about doing that? It wasn’t like I could go up to someone and say hey, I’m Dmitri Preston’s sister, yeah he was murdered, do you know anything about that?

I took a few deep breaths. Without Vince next to me, I suddenly felt naked.

Then I shook myself. I didn’t need Vince’s protection. I could take care of myself, damn it. What, a few days with the guy and now I couldn’t handle anything on my own anymore? Bullshit.

I went into one of the dressing rooms, walking through like I was looking for something. There were about three strippers there, all talking quietly among themselves while they looked at their phones.

“Anyone got any deodorant I could borrow?” I asked.

One of them, done up in pink lingerie, passed me hers.

“Thanks.” I took off my shirt. “How’s the night going?”

“Weird, but it’s been like that for a couple weeks now.” Pink Lingerie shrugged.

Ever since Dmitri had died. Interesting.

“Yeah, my tips haven’t been great since… you know…” I put on the deodorant and gestured vaguely, trying to see if anyone took the bait.

One of the other strippers, a dark-skinned woman with gorgeous dyed blue braids, snorted. “Like that’s our problem. Y’know? How come they’re taking it out on us?”

“Do you know exactly what happened?” I asked, wiping off the deodorant and handing it back to Pink Lingerie.

Blue Braids shook her head. “All I know is there was a fight over one of us, and then it got nasty. But I don’t know any girl here who’d be stupid enough to try and sleep with two mafia men. They’re possessive assholes that way.”

“Tell me about it,” I groaned, leaning back against the makeup counter. Even as I said it a little thrill ran through me, remembering how Vince had stood up for me at the dinner and made it clear what would happen if anyone talked badly about me.

There was a nice side to the possessiveness, if it was handled properly.

“But hey, Dmitri was always obvious about his tastes, right?” I persisted, albeit in a casual tone. “So you should know who the girl was from that?”

“If Dmitri was consistent, maybe,” Blue Braids said. “But he went through girls the way some men go through beers. It could be anyone.”

“And he liked to go after other guy’s girls,” Pink Lingerie added. “It was like a game to him.”

I swallowed down my disappointment in my brother. He’d always been a bit of a thrill seeker, so I supposed it made an awful kind of sense that he would want to court disaster by screwing the girlfriends of other men, but… how could he be so selfish? So stupid?

I noticed the third girl was being rather quiet. “Are your shifts done?” I asked.

“Mine is,” Pink Lingerie said.

“I’m just not feeling it. I had to take a break,” Blue Braids said.

“I should go,” the third girl said, abruptly standing.

I stared after her as she walked out. “Is she okay?”

“Not sure,” Pink Lingerie admitted. “She’s been squirrely lately. I think her boyfriend’s upset with her.”

“Who’s her boyfriend?” I asked.

The other woman shrugged. “No idea.”

“I’ll go check on her.” I waved at the other two and hurried after the third girl.

A quick peek into the front area of the strip club showed that Marco Russo was talking to a stunning dark haired woman wearing silver pasties and not much else, along with a few other men from various families that I recognized by face but not by name, or by face and name even if I’d never met them personally.

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