Come a Little Closer (Kadia Club Nights Book 1) Page 3

  Talk about bat-shit fucking Stockholm syndrome, Marcus thought as he took another draw from his drink and then swirled the ice around in the glass. It rattled softly. “We’ll give him another couple minutes.”

  Carrington was an ally of the Castalettas now, just as Erik and his men were. It was almost unheard of to have so many crime families pull together and share interests, but in this case, it was necessary.

  There was a villain capable of ending them all and they needed to become a united front, like two parents dealing with an unruly, unpredictable toddler.

  The difference was Cooper was no toddler. He was a cunning, wicked, and merciless beast, and he wanted what Drake Demarco, Dimitri’s brother and the Don of the Castaletta Syndicate, had created.

  The door to the private room opened and an older man with a goatee and slicked-back gray hair paused, framed in light. He peered into the room.

  “Come on in, Frederick.” Marcus rose smoothly to his feet. “Cole, fix him a drink. Frederick, lock the door behind you. Gentlemen, it’s time to discuss business.”

  Frederick moved tentatively into the room. He still wasn’t entirely comfortable around this entourage. He had a long history and Marcus knew his experience made him wary of alliances like this. Sooner or later, he expected someone to stab him in the back.

  It was a good expectation to have. Marcus lived his life the same way. He had a tight inner circle he could trust, but everyone on the outside? He remained permanently cautious around them.

  Frederick Carrington took a seat on the only remaining empty sofa and unbuttoned his light gray pinstripe jacket, exposing a purple silk shirt under a white vest. He’d always been a snazzy dresser and didn’t care to blend in. He leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. “Good evening, gentlemen.”

  Thomas lifted his drink in greeting.

  Erik didn’t so much as blink in Carrington’s direction. Instead, he turned to Marcus. “Let’s get this over with. I didn’t come all this way to shoot the shit with you pussies. Speak, Marcus.”

  4

  Keesha

  Keesha’s mother’s eyes felt like weights against her back as she stood in the doorway of Beth’s bedroom with her arms crossed and watched Keesha tuck her daughter into bed. Keesha ignored her as she pressed a kiss to Beth’s forehead and stroked her curly strawberry locks.

  “You have a good sleep, sweet girl,” Keesha cooed.

  Beth snuggled deeper beneath her princess-themed duvet and blinked tiredly up at her mother. “Goodnight, Mommy.”

  Keesha smiled, but it never got any easier to kiss her daughter goodnight and leave for her shift at Kadia. Luckily, she had her mother to babysit on nights like this, but still, it hurt. She dreamed of being the kind of mother one day who would be able to stay home with her daughter rather than have to leave—even if Beth was sleeping the whole time.

  Keesha also dreamed of a time where she didn’t have to depend on her family members to uphold her parental duties while she made ends meet.

  Keesha gave Beth one last goodnight snuggle and moved to the bedroom door. She closed it softly behind her and joined her own mother out in the hallway, which was dimly lit by the light coming in from the kitchen down the hall. It smelled like peppermint and lavender, the two essential oils Keesha’s mother always had running in diffusers placed all over her condo.

  “Thanks again, Mom.” Keesha went to the front door and her mother followed. She picked up her duffel bag, which contained her outfit for the night and her heels, and slung it over her shoulder.

  Keesha’s mother still had her arms crossed. “You don’t have to thank me. This is what family is for. Besides, you know how much I love my grandma time.”

  She was saying all the right things, but Keesha knew there were underlying tones of disappointment. Not that she was disappointed in having to babysit but more why she had to babysit.

  Stripping was a controversial subject between the pair.

  “I’ll be by on my way home to pick her up.” Keesha opened the door and stepped out into the apartment hallway. It was already just after nine in the evening and the hallways were quiet. This was a retirement complex, so for the most part, having children around wasn’t accepted. But Beth was a charmer, and she’d made her way into people’s hearts effortlessly. Keesha’s mother was able to take her down to the outdoor pool behind the building without a single resident raising a complaint. “I’ll probably be here around five or six.”

  Keesha’s mother nodded. “You can go home and rest first if you’d like. I can get up with Beth and make her breakfast and spend the morning with her. You’ve had a long day.”

  Her mother wasn’t wrong. She’d been up at the crack of dawn to bring Beth to Robert’s house so she could start her shift at the salon. Her workday there ended at six o’clock, and then she’d savored the two hours between gigs with Beth and they had dinner together before she packed her daughter back up and brought her here. Now she was off to dance her ass off for the next five or six hours. It all depended on how busy the club was.

  By the time she got home, she’d have been up and going for almost twenty-four hours.

  Keesha stifled a yawn. “I think I’ll take you up on that, Mom. Thank you.”

  Her mother smiled sadly. “You really need to consider letting this dance job go, Keesha.” Saying the word stripper had never come easily to her, so she referred to Keesha’s night job as dancing. “You can’t do it all. The salon is safer. Steady. Easy hours to manage for a single mother.”

  She didn’t understand. She never had.

  “I know you don’t like it,” Keesha said. “But I can’t leave Kadia. The salon doesn’t pay me nearly enough. I couldn’t keep our heads above water on that wage. But Kadia? Besides the hours, it’s perfect. I’m saving a lot of money, Mom. Just bear with me a little longer, okay? It’s not forever. It’s just for now. And you don’t have to worry about me. Kadia is a tight ship.”

  Her mother sighed. “Okay. Just for now.”

  “Love you.”

  “I love you too. Be safe.”

  Keesha was already walking down the hall to the stairwell, but she smiled over her shoulder. “Always.”

  Keesha never went through the front doors of Kadia when she arrived for her shift. For starters, she didn’t like pushing through the line to get to the bouncer who would let her in without blinking. The last thing she wanted was to put a sour taste in the mouths of patrons who were there to see girls like her dance. She couldn’t risk them not wanting to give her all their money. Secondly, it wasn’t worth the effort or the catcalls.

  So she went around the side of the club to the alley that ran parallel between Kadia and the closed-down business beside them. She wasn’t sure what kind of business it used to be, but whatever it was, it hadn’t survived today’s economy.

  She avoided the puddles and the dark corners near the dumpsters and wove around an abandoned shopping cart to reach the side emergency exit, where she discovered one of the bodyguards leaning up against the wall puffing on a cigarette. As he inhaled, the ember burned orange and lit up his features in warm light before casting him into shadow when he exhaled.

  She recognized him immediately. His name was Vance Harding. All the other dancers told her he was new, but he’d been there longer than she had, and he seemed as capable and knowledgeable as the other guards. He was a friendly face on a crowded dance floor whenever the night started to look a little rough. She’d seen him rescue girls from handsy clientele more than a handful of times and he did it with ease. She’d never seen him come to blows with anyone before.

  Keesha couldn’t say the same for the other guards in Kadia. Where Vance was skilled at avoiding a brawl, the others seemed to crave it. Like Marcus. The fight was in his blood. He loved it.

  Vance, however, loved easy nights and small talk.

  And nicotine.

  “Hey, Queen,” he said when he saw her coming. He referred to all the dancers by their last names. �
��You gotta stop coming round back like this. Marcus wouldn’t like to find out you walk yourself down here in the dark. There’s some unsavory folk down here some nights.”

  “The only unsavory folk I see are you, Harding,” she said.

  Vance chuckled before taking a long drag of his cigarette. His features glowed in the ember light and Keesha couldn’t deny he was a handsome man, if not a little rough around the edges. Word around Kadia was that he’d spent some time in the clink and only got out eight or so months ago, after which he was unable to secure work. When he happened upon Kadia and met Marcus, the club owner decided to take a chance on him.

  There was no harm in having an ex-con around who knew how to handle his shit.

  Vance had dark features, heavy brows, and a slightly lopsided jaw from a bad break and poor healing. His eyes were gray on some days and seemed bluer on others, and he had an inquisitive stare that suggested he was always thinking. Always planning. Always considering how a situation might play out so he could respond accordingly.

  “You’ll bruise my ego saying shit like that, Queen.”

  Keesha laughed as she moved up beside him and gripped the door handle. “You? Bruise? I doubt it.”

  Vance offered her his cigarette, twirling it in his fingers so the filter faced her. “Drag?”

  Keesha leaned in, pursed her lips around the cigarette, and inhaled. Smoke and nicotine filled her lungs. She held it for a delayed few seconds and then exhaled, reveling in the rich burn and the smoky aftertaste. She used to smoke when she was younger, back when she and Marcus were a thing in New Orleans, but she’d given that up when she got pregnant.

  But a drag every now and then couldn’t hurt.

  “Thanks.” She tipped her head to the club door. “What’s it like in there tonight?”

  Vance pushed off the wall and stood in the smoke cloud of his cigarette. “Busy. Real busy. And there are some hotshots up on the third floor with Marcus you might want to stay clear of.”

  “Hotshots? Sounds like thick wallets. Why would I avoid the big players?”

  “Sometimes, money isn’t worth it, Queen. Be sensible.”

  She laughed. “I’m a stripper. Sensibility and taking off your clothes for money don’t go hand in hand.”

  Vance flicked his cigarette on the pavement and put it out under the heel of his boot. “Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t profile me, Harding.”

  He flashed a daring smile and opened the door for her. “Then don’t bullshit me, Queen.”

  She stepped into the club and the roar of the music broke over her. She knew Vance was walking behind her but she couldn’t hear him. The floor beneath her sneakers shook with the vibrations of the music, and the flashing lights distorted her senses. She loved how wild the club was on Friday nights and she intended to enjoy profiting from this place for as long as she could.

  Like she told her mother, she had money saved. A bit more time in this joint and she’d be ready to make some serious moves to better take care of her daughter and be the role model Beth deserved.

  Sensible moves, she mused. Vance had always been able to see right through her. She suspected his time in prison had turned him into a wise soul.

  He tapped her shoulder by way of wishing her a good night and then slipped into the crowd to continue his rounds and watch over the staff and the patrons to make sure everyone was being safe. Keesha ducked off down a narrow hall toward the dressing rooms, where she pushed through a doorway filled with hanging crystal beads. On the other side in a brightly lit room with individual dressing stations and vanities, she found the other dancers.

  All the girls greeted her with enthusiasm. She found her station, dropped her duffel bag on the floor, and sat down to start her makeup.

  Red lips. Black eyeliner. Sparkly green glitter on the lids. Fake lashes.

  Green was her signature color. No matter what, she would include it in her outfit or her makeup for consistency. It made it easy for regulars to recognize her, and she’d learned a long time ago that having a brand led to success, no matter what line of business you were in.

  Including stripping.

  One of the dancers, the blonde girl named Ashley, came by with a little plastic bag full of quartered-up pills.

  Zandra.

  She held the bag up to Keesha. “Need a pep in your step tonight?”

  Keesha declined the offer of the sex party drug but she didn’t blame the several girls who took some for themselves. Some nights, it was easy to get up on stage. Other nights required some encouragement, and that came in the form of either booze or Zandra.

  Keesha would always choose booze if she needed to take the edge off. Two shots. That was it. She couldn’t afford to lose her mental clarity. Not in a gig like this. She had to be alert. She had to make smart choices. Always.

  Marcus had promised to protect her and she’d believed him. But now? Things had changed. He’d kicked her to the curb and barely looked at her this past week. She was on her own in this place, and even though guards like Vance made her feel safer, she knew how quickly things could turn bad.

  Her bloodstream needed to remain clean in order for her to be able to react accordingly if things went south.

  And inevitably, they always did.

  5

  Marcus

  Marcus had the attention of all four men in the private room. He wasn’t one for putting on a show and teasing people with information, but he liked the way Thomas was perched on the edge of his seat and how Carrington continuously glanced around the room with quick, darting eyes.

  Erik, of course, didn’t let on that he was bothered. He behaved like he owned this damn place.

  Marcus ignored how much that annoyed him and drained the rest of his drink before setting the whiskey glass down hard on the coffee table. “I had a visit from Adam Cooper last week.”

  Carrington exhaled sharply.

  Thomas shot a look at Erik.

  Cole, who already knew about the visit, looked bored.

  Erik Bertinelli arched an eyebrow. “What did that prick want?”

  Marcus scoffed internally. What made Erik think Cooper would show up at Kadia and hand over his itinerary? Why would he want Marcus and, in turn, the Demarco’s knowing what he was planning?

  “He just wants us to know he’s alive and well,” Carrington spat. His venomous response surprised Marcus a little, but he remembered the old man had strong personal feelings toward their common enemy. After all, Adam Cooper had tried to kill Carrington’s daughter. He’d nearly succeeded too, and he would’ve ended Erik and Thomas right alongside her. Kane, too.

  Lucky for them, Marcus had shown up in time to save their sorry asses. The girl’s, too.

  “He’s playing games,” Thomas said. “He shows his face here because he knows there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it. Not with the crowds Kadia pulls in. Fucking coward.”

  Marcus didn’t say anything to that but he wasn’t foolish enough to believe for a second that Cooper was a coward.

  “He didn’t come out and give me a play by play of what his intentions were in New York,” Marcus said dryly. “He didn’t share much information at all. But he showed up with an entourage with him, and he made a hint that he wasn’t going anywhere for the time being. I assume he’s here on personal business and it would be foolish not to think that business would impact us and Drake’s Syndicate.”

  “Then why isn’t Drake here?” Erik asked sharply. “Or why didn’t he at least send that damn brother of his?”

  “Drake and Dimitri have their hands full,” Marcus said. “They trusted this to me.”

  “Trusted what to you?” Erik’s eyes were cold and calculating. Even though they were allies, he didn’t trust anyone in this room but Thomas. Marcus understood his unease. Half a year ago, they’d have all been trying to kill each other if they were all trapped in close quarters like this.

  The others wou
ld be easy to put down.

  But Marcus and Erik? They’d be on their feet to the bitter end. Marcus itched to find out who would come out on top in a battle like that, but now that they were fighting on the same side, he doubted he’d ever find the answer.

  A damn shame.

  Marcus nodded at Cole, who hadn’t said a word during the exchange, and cleared his throat. “I’ve spoken with Dimitri over the last few days. He and Drake listened to what I had to say. And, as of right now, we’re going to pursue this legally. Cole has connections from his time as a cop we can take advantage of. Bringing Cooper down with the full force of the law will have a domino effect on his reach of business and revenue. The entire empire would be ripe for the taking. Cole and I are going to head the operation.”

  “And if the lawful path fails?” Carrington asked, cocking his head to the side. “I’ve been around a lot longer than you boys. A man like Cooper isn’t going to go down without a fight. Are you sure your little cop friends can handle that kind of heat, son?”

  Cole swirled his drink around in its glass. “I think it’s worth trying. And so does the boss. So the decision has been made.”

  Marcus appreciated the ex cop’s succinct nature and loyalty. In Cole’s mind, this was a clear-cut simple strategy.

  “If the law fails, it’s going to be an all hands on deck situation,” Marcus said.

  “Once Cooper is in the ground, the Castalettas’ reign will go unchallenged,” Erik noted.

  Marcus arched a speculative eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”

  Erik shrugged. “A little healthy competition never hurt anybody. It’s important to keep men like Dimitri and Drake on their toes.”