15. Dancing for Dollars

CHAPTER 15

DANCING FOR DOLLARS

TRINITY

The guys worried for nothing. No one had been by my house and when they realized I knew that because I had cameras watching the place inside and out, they calmed down a bit. Despite my offer to go in and keep Paramour running while the girls of the S.H.E. MC mourned the loss of an important member of their family, they turned me down. All of their businesses were closed down for a bit to give everyone time to get through, not just the death of Tash but of MiMi as well. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Angel Girl because it was club business and no one would tell me, but something had happened and she had been taken to stay in West Virginia with her father. Her husband Sweet and their kids were there as well, and no one could say if they were coming back.

I never knew just how in the dark the women tied to the Aces High MC were kept until everything went down. I was told very little and what I did know was because Reesa filled me in. Eventually, JoJo came to see me.

“I can’t really get into a lot of details, but the club is going through some shit,” She started out. I took her hands in mine as we sat side by side on the couch I’d bought three years earlier to replace the one that had been there since I was about five years old.

“You don’t have to explain things to me. I know everything is up in the air. I’ll find another job and be just fine. You really didn’t need to come all the way here to…”

“No, that’s not what I came here to do,” She insisted right away. “You’re the only one I trust to run Paramour. Keys is President now, and we already discussed it. We’re willing to give you a bump in pay. I’d offer you benefits, but you already had those.” I nodded. “The thing is, I run my shop. Keys is head of our cyber security team and Redemption Inc. We’re pulled thin. Legs has her own shit to handle, and Christina has stepped out to help out where she can. I know you’re not a member of the MC, but you have ties to us through Paramour as well as ties to Aces High through Bishop and Hollywood. It makes sense that you run the club.”

“I was pretty much already doing that,” I admitted. JoJo nodded her head.

“I know Tash left most of the management to you, but you’ll be taking over what she used to do as well.” I could see that it physically pained JoJo to speak about her friend and leaned in and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry she’s gone.”

“I swear,” she mumbled as she wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. “Every time I think I have it all under control, just the mention of her name brings it all back. We were supposed to grow old together, like the Golden Girls or some shit.”

I chuckled. “I could totally see all of you sitting around throwing one-liners at each other.” JoJo laughed through her tears.

“It was supposed to be exactly like that. Now, Tash, MiMi, and Angel Girl are gone. It’s just me, Keys, and Legs. The other women too, but we were the originals and half of us are gone.”

“How is Angel Girl?” I asked. Everyone was still tight lipped about her, but I’d come to understand that she had some sort of degenerative disease, or cancer or something.

“She’s not well. It won’t be long and she…” JoJo choked up and I pulled her into my arms again. There was no point telling her how sorry I was that she was losing another friend. She knew. Besides, feeling bad about a situation didn’t do a damn thing to change it for the person who was hurting. “It’s crazy because Angel Girl and I didn’t even get along that well. I reminded her of someone who stabbed her in the back and she never could quite separate the two in her mind. She knew I wasn’t the one, but it still colored the way she treated me. And the bitch of it is I would take every bit of bullshit she could throw my way if she was whole again. We had our issues, but there was still love and respect underneath it all too.”

“I get it,” I told her. “It was like that between my mom and me in the end. I still cared for her and loved her even though I’d never been her priority when she was healthy. I would have given anything to go back to the status quo rather than lose her completely.”

“Yeah, I guess you do get it.” JoJo swiped at her face some more and then seemed to physically shake off all the emotions that took hold of her only a moment before. “Damn. I swear, I didn’t come here for an unpaid therapy session.”

“I’m not just an employee, you know. I’m a friend too. If you need to talk, I’m here to listen and what is said here, stays here.”

“I appreciate that, Trinity. Thank you. I came here to discuss your promotion though.”

“From manager to bigger manager,” I teased.

She chuckled lightly. “Something like that. The bump in pay I mentioned isn’t as straightforward as you’re probably thinking. Keys and I talked it over and we want you to become a partner in the club portion of our business.”

“JoJo, I don’t have the money to buy into something like that,” I admitted.

My friend shook her head and took hold of my hands. “No buy-ins required. You’ve worked every job there is to work at Paramour. Since you took on management, you’ve busted your ass and whipped that club into shape. We want to bring you on as a partner because you earned your place through hard work, dedication, and loyalty. That was your buy-in. There were originally six of us partnered. We are putting Tash and Angel Girl’s shares in a trust for their kids. MiMi didn’t have anyone, so we wanted to offer you her stake basically. Christina is taking her portion of Redemption Inc. and you are getting the Paramour side of things. You get vetoing rights when we make a decision for Paramour as well.

“I’m not a member of S.H.E.” It was the only thing I could think to say.

“True. You could be, if you wanted, but it isn’t a requirement to take the position.”

“I don’t think I can see myself driving motorcycles around. I’ve been driving the same Jeep since I was seventeen.”

“You might want to think about an upgrade,” JoJo teased.

“Now, why would I do that when the best mechanic in the world keeps her running so well for me?” We both laughed, since she was my mechanic.

“I guess that’s fair. It’s nice to not have a car payment to worry about.”

“That’s the damn truth,” I agreed. “I’ll do it. I’ll take the job. You might have to fill me in on what Tash did behind the scenes, and MiMi too, for that matter, but I’m pretty quick on my feet, so I don’t think it will take long to figure things out.”

“Good. Our first order of business will be to find some new dancers.”

“Why?”

JoJo sighed and then looked up at me. “We were supposed to open tonight, but three of our scheduled dancers moved to Atlanta to take jobs there because we were closed down too long.”

“So, what you’re saying is we’re short staffed and don’t have enough entertainment to be open tonight?”

“First problem to solve is a doozy, huh?” JoJo joked.

“Nah. I can handle this. Do you have any club members who have danced before?”

“One, I think. I can check with her to see if she’d be up for filling in.”

“Okay, you do that and I’ll dust off my pasties and fill in too.”

“You’re a partner now, you do not need to work the stage.”

I smiled at JoJo. “I’m a partner and part of keeping a business running is filling in where I need to. It will be temporary and I’m not going full nude. I’ll dance between the other girls’ performances to keep the crowd lively. A good tease is worth more than a dead stage at any rate.”

JoJo left not too long after that and I stood there and took in the house I’d grown up in. I had changed just about everything about it over the past four years. The furniture was all new. The paint was as well. The carpets were ripped out and wood floors were put in. I had stayed with Shaina for a bit while that was done. It was worth it to have the filthy old carpets gone, but living with Shaina had been a task that no one was really ready for. I turned and took in the wall across from the television. While not much else about the house felt like the one I’d grown up in, that wall tied the old and new together. There were framed pictures covering almost the entirety of the space. Pictures of Trent and me growing up, some of our parents were mixed in, but mostly it was the sad story of a family that seemed happy when we were younger in the photos to one that started missing its people as time ravaged the fabric of who we were. In the end, there was a picture of Bishop and me the day we laid my mom to rest. He was the last of my original family.

The rest of the walls in my house held hints of my new family. There was Reesa and her children, Charlie and her family from South Dakota were on the wall too. She was like a surrogate daughter to Bishop as well. For a man who never had any children of his own, he certainly had a lot of daughters he looked for. It was something I’d thought about a lot. He may have been my uncle, but in reality, I thought of him as more of a father figure. He stepped in when my dad stepped out, and I would be forever grateful for that fact.

The last picture to catch my eye was just outside of my bedroom. I refused to bring it into my personal domain because it seemed a step too far. It was of Hollywood, Trouble, and me. One of the old ladies had taken it the day we all showed up after the ordeal on the mountain with the mafia. Instead of standing next to Hollywood, as I normally did, I stood there beside Trouble with him sandwiched between me and Hollywood. Our hands touched and the camera caught the way our pinky fingers twined around one another. Every time I stared at that picture, my eyes were always drawn to that connection.

Trouble seemed determined to start where we left off in that cabin before Hollywood interrupted us. I chose to hide from him every chance I got. Yes, I had feelings for him that were unexplainable. Keys warned me about trauma bonding when I tried to talk to her about it. I was sure that was part of the reason my heart had softened toward the man who had made my life so difficult over the years. My old crush was another part of the confused emotions. The lessons I’d learned in life are what made me keep my distance though. Keys warned me about trauma bonding, but I had to wonder if that wasn’t why Trouble suddenly had a newfound interest in me. We were shot at, chased up and down a mountain and he killed people in front of me. He spared me the need to do the same. That kind of experience left a mark, and I had to be the one to recognize that and keep him at arm’s length until he got over it. Otherwise, I’d fall headfirst into a young girl’s daydreams about her crush and he’d wake up one day and question why he was with me. My heart couldn’t handle that kind of break, especially since it would have bigger ramifications where the club was concerned. I didn’t want my access denied when he decided that the bonding was over.

I didn’t have time to think about possibilities with an impossible man. I had a dance routine to perfect, which meant I needed to video chat with Charlie and get something set before the club opened to the public again.