Kisses and Warfare

Chapter Twenty-ThreeBlaze“You need Kat back. She runs this place better than anyone. The girls don’t listen to anyone else,” Steve says, shaking his head. His eyes are dilated, and I can tell he’s stressed. I’ve been helping out as much as I can all week, but he’s right, she runs a tight ship, and the girls clearly don’t listen to anyone as they do her.

“She doesn’t want to come back.”

“Bullshit! She loves it here,” Steve says, walking away, shaking his head.

He’s right, she does love it.

I go into the office and call her. All her things are here because she hasn’t been back to collect anything. Though she doesn’t have many personal items, just a drawer filled with panties and bras, which is weird, but who am I to say anything. I may get a plant thrown at my fucking head again, and I am anything but stupid.

“Fuck off,” she says as she hangs up on me.

Shit.

The door to the office flies open, and a small girl, the one who opens the night, walks in.

“Hi,” she says in a very small voice.

“It’s Sparkle, right?”

She nods. “Is Miss coming back? I kind of need to speak to her.” She bites her lip and looks down at the floor.

“I don’t know. What was it that you needed?”

“The girls… well, they aren’t very nice to me when Miss isn’t here. She’s the only kind one.”

I hand her the phone. “Call her.” She steps forward and takes the phone. “You know her number?” I ask, and she nods and starts calling.

I hear Katarina’s voice, just as when I tried to call, answering with a full-on loud as you can stand, “Fuck off.”

“Miss,” the shy girl says.

“Oh, Sparkle… I am so sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

“That’s okay,” she replies while looking at the floor.

How on earth is this girl a stripper?

“I just wanted to know when you’ll be back.”

I sit back, listening, waiting for her to answer to see what she says.

“Oh, I don’t know, Sparkle. Why? What are they doing now?”

“Nothing… it’s okay, sorry to bother you, Miss.” Sparkle holds the phone out to me, and I take it, placing it to my ear and wave Sparkle out.

“You have to straighten these girls out. Those bitches will eat her alive, and she’s one of the best dancers we have,” Katarina says, then hangs up, not even giving me a chance to respond to her.“Oh, Blaze.” I turn to that voice. I’ve heard it before. Katarina’s mother is standing there, one of her hands on her hip and the other holding a bag. “I thought it was you.” She walks over.

“Hi,” I reply.

Snow looks her up and down, smiles, and I resist the urge to hit him. He cannot hit on their mother. That would be bad, so fucking bad. I’m already on Katarina’s bad side, and telling her Snow wants to fuck her mother would make things even worse.

“Rochelle let it slip that you fired Kat. Didn’t see that one coming with the way you stare at her.” Her eyes pin me, and I feel scrutinized. How can that be possible? No woman has ever felt like a mother-type before, but this woman makes me feel like I have to defend myself.

“She quit,” I reply.

Snow chuckles next to me, and her eyes cut to him, then back to me.

“Well, fix it. She hasn’t left the house, and she won’t let me babysit my grandbaby.” She pulls her bag up on her shoulder and pins me with another one of those stares. “I’ll see you next week at Marcus and Rochelle’s, I’m guessing, for their gender reveal.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Snow chuckles again, but she pays him no mind as she walks away.

“Dude, since when are you polite to mothers?”

“Don’t you even try to hit on her. I’ll cut your dick off,” I tell him while shaking my head.

“I wasn’t.” He holds up his hands, but he’s smirking. “It was just to play. You know how I like to play.”

“Yeah, play.” I give him a snide look. “Play my ass.”

“Well, if you insist.” He smacks my ass, making me jump.

“Jesus! Fuck off.”

“You do need Kat, though, right?”

“I do,” I tell him. “But she doesn’t want to come back.”

“Well, that happens when you treat her like shit. She isn’t like the other girls.”

“I know she isn’t.”

“And it doesn’t help you’re falling in love with her either.”

“What the fuck?” I turn around to him. People who were walking past us stop and look at us with horror in their eyes. “I don’t fucking love her. Nor am I falling in love with her.”

“Oh, how fun it’s going to be when you work out that you are.” Snow clasps his hands together and continues to walk.

“I’ve put a knife in someone for less,” I threaten him as we walk into the store.