Page 59 of Sapphire's Gem
“Will do, boss,” Benny replied and began marching the woman he was holding off.
“Luca, take a break. Are you okay?” I asked. Luca was twenty-three and studying to be a nurse. He worked here at night to pay his way through college.
“Yeah, sadly it ain’t the first time nor will it be the last,” he said as he walked off stage.
“Incidents have dropped since it got around that we would prosecute?” I asked about checking with Tinkerbell.
“Yeah. We have one incident a week now. It’s not several times a night like it used to be. Three weeks of having bitches arrested soon sends a message,” Tinkerbell replied.
“Good. I hadn’t seen anything in the reports,” I responded, and Tinkerbell nodded.
She’d turned what had been a sleezy female strip club into a respected, clean, male strip club. We were dithering aboutopening a female one. There were some good dancers out there, but the women were just bitches to deal with.
“Look right,” I said as Teddy stood up when some uniformed officers stood up.
“Grab him!” Tinkerbell murmured and shifted forward.
Before Teddy could capture the attention of the officers and no doubt have it get back to his father, Tinkerbell locked lips with him.
My eyes widened when, instead of pushing her away, Teddy hauled her in close and kissed her soundly. That was not the action of a gay man. Was he bisexual? Either way, the kiss was hot, and Tinkerbell was plastered to Teddy’s lean, muscled body.
“Stop rescuing me, Tink,” Teddy said when he released Tinkerbell.
“Take him out the back,” she ordered as she turned him around so the cops couldn’t see him.
“Tink, I mean it,” Teddy warned, and she shoved him towards me before heading towards the cops.
“Come on, Teddy. Let’s get you out of here,” I said, and Teddy made a frustrated noise.
“She needs to stop rescuing me,” he said to me.
“You know something?”
“What?” Teddy asked.
“You’re the only person I’ve ever heard call her Tink and she’s not ripped their heads off. Even we call her Tinkerbell,” I replied.
A slow smile crossed his lips before Teddy caught me watching him closely. He wiped the smile and assumed an expressionless face.
“Don’t hurt her,” I ordered him as we approached the rear exit.
“That’s the last thing I’d ever do,” Teddy promised and headed outside. I watched him get into a car before he drove off. Well, now, that was an interesting night.
Hayden
This was not how I’d planned to spend my night. Freezing my balls off watching a warehouse for an illegal shipment. We’d got word from the informant line that the Royal Harlots were getting a delivery of drugs, and we’d also been given the location. I’d been sitting in my car for three hours now with Cassidy.
“This is bullshit,” he muttered, not for the first time.
“We’ve gotta act on the tip-off.”
“And if we arrest Sapphire?”
“Then she’s not who I thought. And she fooled me with her alleged aversion to drugs.”
“Can you arrest her?” Cassidy pushed.
“In the blink of an eye, if I capture her drug running,” I promised.
