It’s from the end of the room.
I turn my head there just in time to see someone barging in.
What the fuck is going on?
I narrow my eyes into slits, trying to see the person walking toward the stage in a straight hurried line, and then I feel my heart sink inside my chest.
Fucking Christ.
It’s Lester Vicks, and he looks fucking pissed.
“Show’s over, gentlemen,” he shouts, pulling his badge from a pocket in his overcoat and flashing it to the men sitting at the tables. It’s almost as if he said there’s a bomb inside the building; they scurry out like mice, heading out of the room as if they were running for their lives.
Oh. My. God.
This time he’s gone too fucking far. Skinny dick loser corrupt fucking cop.
“What the fuck, Lester?” I hiss at him, grabbing my bra from the floor and putting it on.
I pull my thong up, walk down the stage, and head toward him, feeling as pissed as he looks. I don’t know what bug crawled up his ass today, but he can’t barge in here like this and ruin my business.
“You can’t do this!” I protest, but he shoots me down with one hard look.
“I can do whatever I want, Destiny,” he says, and this time he doesn’t call me babe. Even though I hate when he calls me that, I would've preferred it to the way he’s talking to me right now. He means business, and when Lester means business… It’s usually bad business. At least for me.
“I’m running out of time here,” he tells me sharply. “That girl I told you about, you need to find her, and you need to do it quickly.”
“Jesus, and you had to storm in here just to tell me that?” I ask him, folding my arms and tapping my foot against the floor. He might be the commissioner, but that doesn’t give him the right to come in here and do whatever the hell he wants. I mean, it does, but you know what I’m trying to say.
“I’m not playing around anymore, Destiny,” he says to me. “There’s something very bad going on, and I need you to go to Python and find that girl. Not fucking play porn star for a bunch of fucking perverts.”
Seriously. That statement coming from him has like eighteen different kinds of irony.
“There’s some shady shit going on at Python, and that girl is right in the middle of it. That girl and your friend, Austin,” he says, pronouncing the word friend as if he knows more than he’s telling. I wonder how much he really knows.
“I told you, if she’s there, I’m going to --” I start, but he waves me down and cuts me short. He smacks his lips in that irritating expression of his, and then points one long finger at me.
“You have 24 hours. Not a minute more,” he tells me, and I understand the threat under his words. Even though he has the hots for me, this woman he's looking for seems to be more important than all of that for him to threaten me like this.
“The clock is ticking,” he finishes, turning on his heels and storming out of the room. “And when it finishes, you better have a fucking chair to sit on, darlin’.”
I frown as I watch him leave the room, thinking that if hate could kill he’d drop dead right now. I used to tolerate him, but lately he’s been overstepping.
I’m not his errand girl; if he wants to investigate Python, why doesn’t he do it himself?
I stand there in silence, mulling over his words as Lux walks toward me, a coat draped over her naked shoulders.
“What the fuck was all that about?” she asks me. “Did Lester go off the deep end?” She folds her arms like me, tapping her foot at the same rhythm I was doing before.
I shake my head.
“I mean, just walking in here and flashing his badge and shutting shit down, it's…” Lux tries to find the words but can’t. “Jesus.”
“I don’t think Jesus has anything to do with this, Lux,” I whisper, more to myself than to her. “Can you do me a favor? Get me an Uber; I need to get to Queens fast. Lester isn’t fucking around this time, and I don’t want to take any risks.”
“Sure, boss,” she tells me playfully, trying to brighten my mood but failing miserably. Seeing the worried look on my face, she finally turns on her heels and starts walking toward the backstage. “I’m on it.”
As I stand here, completely by myself under the dimmed lights of the room, I can’t help but worry. There’s something going on, and I have no idea what it is.