Page 19 of Shar: A Woman Alone

“Croc, what about you? Youguys have been pretty tight.”

Croc eyes Psycho and Porkybefore answering. “You know, I’m not sure. A road trip sounds good, but so doeshaving a place to park my hog safe every night. I’ll let you know, but I won’tbe leaving today.”

“Right. Before we call an endto this, we need a vote on a couple of things. Shar has been busy at DanceMecca and made some excellent improvements there. There’s been a request forlap dancing in private rooms. It will mean extending the club to make the roomsand extra security. We can’t have women in rooms without effective security forthem. Any thoughts before we cast a vote?” Looking around, I get anothersurprise when Gunner speaks up.

“Financially, I don’t see itworking. The cost of the rooms being added would take months to claw back, andwith the cost of extra security, we might never see it break even never mindmake a profit. We don’t have enough high-value customers around here to chargewhat we would need to.”

Bank speaks out. “I agreewith Gunner, surprisingly. I’ve run some numbers and lap dancing for a profithas to be either, high-end or low-life, and I don’t see Shar allowing the clubto go low-life, after the effort she’s put in to raise the club’s profile.Having cheap skanks do lap dances in the main room isn’t going to sit well withShar’s vision. Oh, and Shar has put Mr. Pembleton and his company on notice. Ifthey don’t meet the standards that she has set, we’ll either be looking for anew company or employing our own cleaners.”

“Bank raises a good point.We’re going in a good direction with the club and we need to keep rolling outquality rather than quantity. Pole dancing has also been thrown into the mix.That could certainly be an earner and also classy. So, votes on lap dances.”

A quick vote and everyone isagainst that. Pole dancing gets a resounding aye, so I think we’ll have more ofthe brothers frequenting the club.

“Finally, the apartment abovethe club is standing empty. Do we renovate it or leave it as is? Shar suggestedwe could rent it out or, my preference, she suggested allowing the club managerto live there but take a salary reduction. I prefer that idea, as it gives usanother measure of security. Do we want to rent out an apartment above ourbusiness?” I felt I needed to cover this after Cord and Crack spoke to me aboutit. This gets another resounding aye for the renovations and a split decisionon its final use. We have plenty of time to mull that over while it gets itsmakeover.

“Okay, lunchtime everyone!”That starts a mass exodus from the room and soon there’s just Bank, Pen andmyself at the table. That Lira must be cooking up a storm.

“Right guys. I want the transfer of the garage from Shar tothe club delayed as long as possible and no one, especially Shar, is to knowabout it. We know she is going to move on at some point, but I want as muchtime as possible to try to persuade her to stick with us.”

“Okay, Pres. You could just make her your Ol’ Lady, youknow?”

“Very funny, Pen. Both Crack and me have made advances inthat respect and got shut down in short order. Feel free to have a go though,guys. You know, take one for the team!”

“She’s above my batting average, Pres.” Pen always sellshimself short, but I’m sure that her standards are going to be a hell of athing to meet.

CHAPTER 9

Shar

“Come on, Zara,” I shout as Iwalk out of the front door of the clubhouse and head directly to the SUV.

Turning, I give Cody a wave.He’s the prospect on the gate this morning. I feel bad that the prospect thatwas on gate duty when I arrived was removed from the MC due to his disrespect.The prospects are rotating to work at the garage and I was able to talk Sharpinto letting me have Snore this morning to be our escort while we walk aroundtown.

“Jump in, Shar and I’ll goget Zara. She’s always the last to be ready.” Snore rolls his eyes, which Ihave to admit has me giggling to myself.

I sit in the passenger seatand allow my mind to wander. So much to do, and such a short time to do it all.Maybe I’m going to have to be here longer than I estimated?

The door opens and Snoregives me a strange look, before his eyes shoot to the back where Zara isclimbing into the back seat. I snap around and give her a glare. “Oh, no,girlie, you are not going looking like that. Get back in there and change,now.”

Zara gives me an astonishedlook, but when I flick my eyes down her body, which is covered in what youwould describe as a little black dress. She blushes before sighing loudly andgetting out of the vehicle.

Watching Zara stomp in stupidhigh heels, I look at Snore when he shakes his head, and I ask, “Is this normalfor her?”

“Well, it wasn’t until aboutsix months ago. Then that Clarice woman had a pop at her about needing to growup. Then she started with these tight-fitting clothes. She was a tomboy untilthen so to see her change to short tight dresses was a bit of a shock. I haveto tell you, she doesn’t dress like that when Gunner is around.”

I search Snore’s face to makesure he is being honest, and seeing nothing but concern make myself a mentalnote to speak with Gunner.

The back door of the SUVopens and Zara steps in, dressed in skinny jeans, a t-shirt, and has wiped themakeup from her face. I give her a warm smile before calmly stating, “That’sthe Zara I know and love.”

Zara blushes, but gives me asmall smile. I don’t make any more of the issue and give Snore a look to get amove on. Firing up the SUV, we settle back for the ride out of the compound andinto town. “Whereabouts in town do you want me to park?” Snore asks.

“We are going to look at allthe empty shops on Main Street. Zara is going to be doing her beauty schoolstint as a stylist, so we need a shop that we can register as the club’s. Butwe’ll employ someone to manage it and teach Zara all she needs to know.” I grinat the thought of this young woman eventually owning a salon jointly with theclub. It will set her up for the future.

“Shar, there is a salon onthe corner of Stonewall Street. It’s been closed for about six years, but itused to be a nice salon,” Zara states as she looks out of the window.

“Okay, head to that, Snore,and we’ll take a look at it. Do you think the place is for sale?” I ask,looking over my shoulder at Zara.

“It’s been for sale quite awhile as the lady who had owned it got married and left town. She moved toFlorida, I think. But it didn’t go up for sale right away.”

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