Crash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s a given. But if you cut him loose, you’re gonna need a replacement.”
“Yeah, who do you figure for that job?” Wolf asked, pulling the drink stirrer he was chewing on out of his mouth.
Crash was waiting for Cole’s answer when Dolly walked up and folded her arms over her chest. The look on her face spoke volumes. She was pissed. The frustrated breath she blew out before she spoke underlined that fact. Her gaze moved from Cole around the table until it landed on Crash. “You.”
Shit. What the fuck was she looking at him for?
“You putting a new girl in my lineup?” she asked, her brows raised.
Crash glanced around her to the bar where he’d left Shannon. Her barstool was empty. He searched the room, his eyes finding her leaning up against the frame of the archway into the parlor, sipping on her drink. There was a lineup of girls that basically ended where she was standing, so in effect she was in the goddamn lineup. She looked out of place in her tight fitting jeans and halter top in a sea of lingerie and cocktail dresses, but that didn’t make her any less appealing. Especially with that sexy as fuck pierced navel revealed in the bare skin that showed between her low riding jeans and short halter top. He stared, speechless for half a second as her luscious mouth opened, and her tongue came out to try to capture the tiny red drink straw. Christ! Didn’t she have a clue how seductive that was?
Cole, who had turned to look, burst out laughing.
Crash slammed his beer down and rose from his chair. Dolly stopped him with a hand on his chest. “You’re not going to yell at her, are you? It’ll upset my girls.”
“If I don’t yell at her, how’s she gonna know why I’m strangling her?”
Wolf and Red Dog chuckled.
Cole grinned and advised, “Take a breath, and count to ten, brother.”
“I can’t count to ten, my head’s gonna explode at five.” He stalked toward her, his brothers’ laughter following him. He grabbed her arm, jerking her attention from the show. “Babe, what the fuck are you doing?”
“What? I’m just standing here waiting, like you told me to.”
“Yeah. You’re standing in the goddamn lineup, Shannon!” He gestured to the girls.
“Huh?”
Dolly moved up next to him. He turned to her, his hand tight around Shannon’s upper arm. “You got someplace safe I can stash her?”
Dolly grinned. “There’s a small kitchen break-room combination down the hall. Last door on the left.
“Thanks.” He turned back to Shannon. “Come on, Troublemaker.” He hauled her off by the arm toward the hallway.
“Hey! Wait a minute. I was gonna pick that one!” Shannon heard some guy in the parlor complaining as Crash pulled her down the hall. She bit her lip. Damn, she’d done it again, caused trouble and pissed him off without even trying. His nickname for her was beginning to be proven right. Damn, how did she get into these situations?
The brothel’s hallway was narrow, and the walls must have been paper thin, because Shannon could hear a woman’s moans. Even to her ears, they sounded fake. As they moved along passing door after door, she heard more sounds. A woman’s soft giggling in one room, the sound of spanking in another, and a man’s rough grunting in still another. Shannon tried to imagine the life these girls lived, being under the man that was doing that grunting, having to act pleasured by a strange man on top of her making those awful animalistic sounds.
Crash pulled her down the hall, distracting her attention from the rooms. “Swear to God, you can push my buttons like no one else, Princess.”
“Crash!”
He ignored her as he found the break-room and tugged her inside. She looked around. It was basically an eat-in kitchen with a table and some chairs around it. A sliding glass door led outside to a small patio, where she imagined the girls could go to take a quick smoke break. The only thing odd about it was the couch pushed against the far wall. There was one girl sitting at the table, drinking a cola and flipping through a magazine. She looked up, startled by a strange man coming through the door, until she saw the cut. Obviously word of the club being the new owners had spread through the talent.
“What’s your name?” Crash asked her.
“Um, Stacy.”
“Stacy, this is Shannon. Can you do me a favor, honey, and keep her company?”
The girl smiled flirtatiously up at him. A little too eager to please for Shannon’s comfort. “Sure. Have a seat, doll.”
Crash spun her around to face him and ordered, ?
??Stay here. Do not wander off. Got me?”
She couldn’t help but smile back at him, every bit as flirtatiously as that girl had been. Her hand reached up, and her finger trailed down his chest. His eyes dropped to follow it. “Got you.” He slid his hand to the back of her head and pulled her close, his mouth coming down on hers for a deep kiss. Pulling back, he kissed her on the forehead before his hand dropped away, and he disappeared down the hall. Shannon turned back to the girl named Stacy.