Page 94 of Bad Boy Next Door
“Promised who?” Shane stepped over. “That piece of ass?”
I nearly launched myself over the table, but Keagan put his hand on my arm.
“Don’t talk about her like that.” I glared at Shane.
He raised his hands in surrender. “You saying youloveher or something?” He looked over at Keagan, laughing.
“Oh, shit.” Mac whistled on an exhale. “Hedoeslove her. Holy crap. Nicky, is she, like, going to be our sister or something?”
I drained the rest of my beer, hoping to hide the flush heating my cheeks. Jade and I were not at the getting engaged stage, but shit—that’s exactly what I saw happening between us someday. Married, together forever, kids if she wanted them—I hoped she wanted them—maybe a dog, grandkids down the road…
“Well, congratulations!” Mac came around the table and clapped my back. “Who’d a thought the youngest Downey would be the first hitched?”
“We’re not engaged!” I took a deep breath. “Please don’t say that around Jade, okay?” We hadn’t even come close to talking about it. “We’ve only known each other a month.” And for a chunk of that, she hadn’t been talking to me.
“Okay, I promise.” Mac made the sign of the cross, then raised his eyebrows, his smile contagious. “But sounds like that’s where you’re headed?”
I shrugged, shaking my head. “I dunno. Someday.” If she’d have me.
“So you’re choosing a girl over your brothers.” Shane’s tone was filled with anger—his eyes, too.
“Yeah,” I said, tired of this debate. “I guess I am.” I tossed my half-eaten plate of lasagna onto the counter and then headed out the door. I did not want to get into this loyalty thing with my brothers. Yes, I owed them. But did that need to dictate the rest of my life?
I’d accused Jade of asking me to pick between her and my brothers, and now they were questioning my loyalty… That one-two punch was raining shit on my happiness.
I needed to focus on something else. Jade and Melodie were antique hunting at a flea market in San Jose, so I decided to head in for my afternoon shift an hour early, see if I could reason with Stan.
On the way to the club, my anger woke. It wasn’t the first time Stan had fired dancers or waitresses over something a customer had done, something completely out of the woman’s control. It had always bothered me, but I worked at a strip club owned by criminals, and the place was full of misogyny and injustices.
I’d mostly turned a blind eye, telling myself that getting paid and keeping the girls safe were enough, but now it had happened to Jade…
My wake-up call had come late. I should have defended Francesca when she’d kneed that creep after he’d grabbed her tits when she came off stage. And what was her name back in February? Monica? Mona? Didn’t matter. She’d been fired when a customer ground his erection against her pussy. He’d been clothed, but she’d been in a G-string. Asshole. And she got fired.
Seeing Jade so rattled coming down those stairs had boiled my guts. She was proud, a hard worker, and being unfairly fired had shaken my baby. She’d been right to stop me from going up there so angry, but it was time to set Stan straight.
I marched up the stairs to his office and knocked on his door.
When I entered, an older woman was sitting on the shitty leather couch Stan used to sexually harass the staff, no doubt. Stan was behind his desk.
“You’re in a meeting?” I asked him. “Should I come back?”
“It’s fine.” He beckoned. “This is the guy I was telling you about.”
The woman nodded, then went back to reading something on her phone. Her heavily made-up face gleamed in the glow of her phone.
“This about Jade?” Stan’s eyes narrowed and he put his hand under his desk where I knew he kept his gun. “She’s lying. I didn’t lay a hand on her.”
“You better not have.” I stood behind the folding chairs that faced his desk. If Stan had touched her, she’d have told me. Right? No way would Jade put up with that shit.
He visibly relaxed and moved his hand to the top of the desk. “What’s up?”
“Give Jade her job back.”
Stan sneered. “No fucking way.”
I grabbed the back of one of the chairs. “It’s really shitty how you fire the girls for things that aren’t their fault.”
“Is that right.” Stan glanced toward the woman on the couch, then back at me. “Are you the manager of this club?”
