Page 70 of Crushed
“I thought he owned nightclubs all over the states?”
Iris shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. None of them are like our club. None of them. He’ll ruin it.” She held her head in her palms. “I don’t care who he is. Real estate developer, genie, or a damn king. He’s an outsider who will mansplain our club into the fucking shitter.”
Teagen rubbed her back. “You can’t do anything about it right now,” she said. “Not yet, anyway.”
“You’re right.” Iris let out an exasperated sigh. “But I’m not giving up. I’m not going to leave. He’ll have to forcibly remove me.”
“Why would he remove you?” Teagen asked. “Wouldn’t we be bound by our contracts anyway?”
Iris shook her head. “Dahlia said he might dissolve them. You know. The whole slavery thing.”
“That’s good though, right?”
“Of course it is. But what happens to the people whowantto do sex work in a safe environment?” She clenched her fists. “He wants to change the entire place into a nightclub, Teagen. A trashy, generic, basic-ass nightclub. There’s no room for contortionist whores in a club like that!” Iris suddenly turned to me. “You must think I’m crazy for caring so much about this place.”
“No,” I said. “Not at all. And I’m happy for the distraction.”
“Oh?” Iris said, but her mind was elsewhere, her eyes fading.
“Speaking of distractions,” Teagen began. “Did you hear Kendall is going to testify?”
“Who’s Kendall?” I asked.
“She’s Iris’s old frenemy,” Teagen explained.
“No. Not a frenemy. A straight enemy,” Iris corrected. “She’s the belly dancer.”
I knew who they were talking about then. “Testify about what?”
“Jake, this security guard who used to work here. He was arrested for the Pros Angel’s murders.”
I had read about that. SNC was debating whether or not to start searching for the serial killer ourselves. “Really?” I asked. “The Pros’ Angel worked here?”
“Well, it turned out that Jake didn’t kill anyone,” Iris said, “But enough of us came forward about the other things Jake had done, and we found a lawyer.”
“From the Adler family,” Teagen said.
Silent Network Consulting had once done work for the Adler family, decades ago, back when they couldn’t risk their names getting attached to the scene of the crime. They didn’t need that protection now. They were a local mafia family with deep ties in Sage City. Everyone knew the Adler family.
“The Adlers’ lawyer was willing to back our case. But the only one he wanted to testify was Kendall since her experience was so recent.”
“Experience?” I asked.
“He drugged and raped a bunch of us,” Teagen said. She turned to Iris. “Do you think Mel would have testified if she was here?”
“Nah. He was like a brother to her.”
“Yeah, a brother whorapedher.”
“Who’s Mel?” I asked.
“She used to work here. Disappeared though,” Iris shrugged. “She was a good person. A fantastic artist.”
“Mel beat up Kendall to defend Iris,” Teagen laughed. “Ripped her hair out and everything.”
“And where were you, bitch?” Iris laughed.
“Do you see any muscles on these chicken wings?” She held up her arms, squeezing them into a gun-show pose. We laughed.
