The Red Light

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 35 (Tailing Carlos)

"So my brothers lied…" Douglas narrowed his eyes as he parked his car next to the gas station that Carlos was inside of. Carlos was busy buying a bottle of liquor. "That bastard's been in the gang longer than 'new' if he's being considered as Dad's replacement." His father had a few years left before he died, surely, so he didn't see much point to worry. However, if he was going to be targeted by Carlos's supporters, then his dad might be as well. This just would not fly.

Once he saw Carlos walk out of the building, he sprang into action and shifted his clutch into drive. He waited as Carlos got into his car and started to pull out of the parking lot. Where was he going? The sun had set, so it would be harder for Carlos to see Douglas tailing him. It worked a lot better when he stowed away in their car, but he was taking into consideration that Carlos might be smart enough to check the backseat, and he was.

Carefully he pulled from the parking lot and trailed Carlos like a lion stalks his prey. His eyes drifted to the five hundred and fifty dollars on the dash, it was the last transaction he had from the video shoot in the morning. He had another he should have done in the afternoon, but he had no choice but to cancel it. His eyes moved towards Carlos's car and he turned left with the man, who still didn't suspect him of following. Even as they entered the freeway, Carlos was still completely oblivious to Douglas's presence. It made him laugh to think this man could be so stupid to not realize someone was tailing him.

As he tapped his left foot on the foot rug, he decided to go ahead and roll his window down. He'd been feeling a vibration and was almost certain someone had their radio on max. When he rolled the window down, the music blasted into his ears. He nearly swerved and hit the car next to him. As he readjusted himself and looked around, he realized that of the other cars around him, only Carlos's would be playing music that loud. Groaning with annoyance, he rolled the window back up and glared at the back of the man's head.

"No wonder the prick doesn't know I'm following him." This droned on for the next two hours when Douglas finally took note of the sign for Yakima. His eyes widened a small amount and he slowly bore his glare onto Carlos's shaven head. "The motherfucker better not be doing what I think he's doing."

At the Divas, Carly and Bridget were getting dressed in the back room. Carly straightened her small silver bra and fixed the straps to her shoulders. She had a silver shawl on her arms, slightly resembling wings, and some buckles on her legs that ran up to her silver panties. The bra and panties were outlined with glimmering strings. She looked at Bridget, who was dressed similarly, but with gold. Bridget gave her a smile and a quick hug.

"You ready to go out there, Carly?"

"Yeah, more than ever."

"Let's do this, then. Just remember, when you choose the person to go into the private room…no sex, okay?" Carly chuckled nervously under her friend's stern glance. She knew she was in for it if she slipped up and had sex again. "Just be careful, some of those people think they're going to get sex when they see that you take the highest paying in for a private show. You have to let them know: Hands off."

"Right…so how do you choose who gets the private room, Bridge?"

"Same way as you, highest payer gets in no matter who he is." Carly smiled and looked up as the DJ started to announce Bridget's name. Bridget grinned as Carly gave her another tight hug. "All right Carly, start preparing your act. I'll see you in a few minutes." Carly slowly nodded her head and watched as Bridget breezed through the door and onto the stage.

Carly turned towards the mirror and started fixing her hair. She held it up and turned from side to side, gazing at herself with a bright smile. She was all silver today and she enjoyed the theme. There were various fun themes they did here. In some ways it was better than being a porn star, but she still missed the constant sex. She frowned and placed her hands to her hips, watching her hair fall to her shoulders. It didn't help that it was mostly older men here. That gang member had been the youngest she'd seen here. She wondered if Douglas could get in here, considering he was 21. At least he turned 21 a month ago. She rubbed her chest and moaned, her breasts hurt, most likely from a cold. She grabbed the lipstick off the counter and looked up at the clock, it was 10:23, and yet she was already starting to tire.

Douglas started growling as he stopped near the alley behind the Divas club, he was almost certain to be close to killing Carlos. He left the car and made his way to the side of the green dumpster right across the alley door. He had to wonder why Carlos was wasting his time going in through the back, but then it dawned on him that the El Niño's were strictly forbidden from entering the club. The bouncer in the front wouldn't even let him in. However the alley door ought to be locked, so how else would Carlos come in?

He watched Carlos scale the wall, feeling it by running his fingertips along it. Soon he came to an area that felt of wood. It was part of the old foundation that was left over, a board covered a busted window that led into one of the old private quarters that was no longer in use. It was how he snuck in the last time. Douglas raised his eyebrows and watched as Carlos lifted the bottom of the thin board out, the top was still bolted into the brick, he then slipped inside.

"Shit!" Douglas rounded the corner of the building and eyed the bouncers, he was certain they wouldn't know who he was. As he started walking to the door, one of the two men in a black suit held his hand out, asking for an ID. He showed his ID to the man, waited as he checked the birthday, then let him inside. "Thank you."

He slowly walked into the building, looking around at the smoke filled air. His nose twitched and he slowly scanned the tables that were off to the left. He never had been in a strip club before and never thought he would be in one. The smoke was a bit much, he rarely smoked and it still bothered him. He spotted a table amid all the filled dinner tables that had a pole going up to the ceiling. One busty looking girl was swaying her back in a serpentine motion on the pole while a bunch of horny business men threw money at her feet.

"You're kidding, right?" He lifted his eyebrows and started moving his eyes towards the far left corner of the room where a cluster of doors rested. Most likely the doors were where the main office was, along with the entryway towards the area where the strippers changed and started heading to the stage.

The stage was lit up with white lights and currently a girl with short hair was stretched in an upwards arc. His eyebrows rose and he started making his way to the bar on his right, it was actually the most comfortable looking thing there. He sat on one of the stools and spotted the area to his right of the stage, it was a small square area with four doors, each were likely private rooms. As he scanned his eyes along, seeing tables off to the side of the stage, he found there was a smaller, rectangular stage that only had room for one stripper and a rusty looking climbing pole.

The bartender startled him and tapped his shoulder, causing him to nearly fall out of his chair. As he turned his eyes to the bartender, he saw she was a young, almost thirty year old woman with coal black hair and pale skin. She wore a few bracelets on her wrist and had nothing on her chest at all. He sighed and placed his elbow on the bar, then rested his head onto his hand.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Yeah, give me a bottle of Sam Adams, if you have it."

"We do. That'll be 4.50." He reached into his pocket and pulled out five dollars, then rested it on the table. The lady took the bill and moved over to the beers they had. She returned seconds later with a cold bottle of beer.

"Thanks." He took a sip of the beer and eyed the private rooms in time to see Carlos slip unseen by the guards walking the joint. Every fiber in his body told him to alert them of Carlos's presence, but he thought better of that. If he did, Carlos would most likely alert them, along with Carly, as to his involvement in the gang. He followed Carlos and watched move to the stage and watch the girl dancing. The DJ had mentioned her name was Bridget. "Hey bartender, do you have a list of the appearances the dancers make on the stage?"

"Yes, hold on…" He turned to face the bar completely as the bartender pulled a sheet from the register and placed it in front of him. "Here, and the girls have their preferences on private rooms as well."

"Okay, thanks again." He took another drink of his beer and started scanning the list with his finger. It appeared they had a rotating rule, which meant each of them waited for full cycle before getting on the stage again. There were ten dancers, the current one was Bridget, the prior had been Serendipity, and the next dancer was Carlotta. Douglas lifted his eyebrows and chuckled. "Highest price, huh? Guess they'd really have to want that lap dance." He kept Carlos in his peripheral vision while taking another slow sip of his beer.

"That was the Bodacious Bridget, and it looks like she's chosen her private dance!" The DJ crooned. Douglas blinked and turned around on the stool, taking a drink of his drink. He carefully set the drink on the bar and watched as Bridget took some random young guy off into the private rooms. "Give it up for Carlotta Bush! How many of you want to bet she's shaven and doesn't have a bush?" Douglas arched his eyebrow and leaned back.

"Yeah. She's shaven. Completely. What's the big deal? None of your business..." He watched as the stage doors opened and fog rolled out of the doorway. Within a second, out stepped Carly. His eyes widened momentarily as he eyed her beautiful silver outfit. Her neck sparkled in the light and her hair was up above her head. He glanced to the side and felt his stomach flip. At least she had a decent job in a strip club rather than porn or prostitution. Granted, a strip club wasn't all glamorous and it did have its trouble, but as long as she wasn't mixed up in random shit, that was fine.

Carly walked out onto the stage, once more her vision was dulled by the lights. She immediately began dancing around the pole and performing her sultry moves, her goal was simple, to make all the men in this place want her.

She moved her arms in front of her face, moving almost like a belly dancer would, but not quite the same way. She continued on to slowly pull her bra straps from her shoulders and moved her palms beneath her breasts and pushed them up.

Men were already beginning to toss money on the stage for her, she was watching each of them. Her dance was almost over, a few more booty shakes, then a revealing of her breasts, a few teases, and then a couple aerobatic moves, and she'd be in.

After she managed to perform the dances, bending over amongst them, that's when she saw him. The gang member from the previous night. Her eyes widened as Carlos flashed his teeth and pushed in four hundred dollars into the bra she had put back on. The color began draining from her face and she slowly closed her eyes. She knew this guy would want sex. As much as she craved that feeling, she didn't want to have sex with him.

She slowly looked up at the DJ, nervously trying to figure a way to communicate to him that the gang member was back. He was busy checking his records and wasn't paying attention. Why was it that the one time she wanted his attention, he wasn't there.

"So you and me again, eh chica?" Carly's eyes darted back to Carlos as the other men around him were searching their pockets. Nobody could top four hundred dollars. Either they couldn't or they wouldn't. She was praying someone, anyone would do it, because if she had to go into a private room and he threw himself on her, it wouldn't be consensual this time.

Suddenly out of nowhere, when the man was busy looking away and talking to someone who struck up a conversation with him, somebody slipped five hundred and fifty dollars into her silver underwear. She looked at it and counted it mentally, her eyes widening. She was saved! Someone topped the gang member, she'd have to pay them with an extra special lap dance, or whatever they wanted as long as it wasn't sex.

Her eyes drifted to the person who put the money in and her breath caught her throat as her eyes started to mist and her jaw fell. Douglas! He was staring at her with a cool smirk and his left hand in his pocket. His right hand was outstretched. "Well, you want to go with that guy or me? Make up your mind." Douglas managed to make some random guy start talking to Carlos, and thus, managed to distract him.

"I-I…" She stammered and took a glance at Carlos, then quickly placed her hand in his. Her expression became determined and he began walking with her. Carlos looked back and groaned when he saw her walking away with someone, he couldn't recognize them from the back. Evidently they topped him and he was out three hundred bucks.

"Son of a bitch…"

Next chapter, Carly and Douglas have a long talk, among other things. No, they don't have sex or a lap dance in the private room.