Max was the one that mentioned dancing that night at dinner. MTV choked on
her gumbo when Max said that she had been thinking about it. She had
looked at Max with those big pleading eyes and asked if she was serious.
Max had just shrugged. Then it was my turn to mention it. Ju agreed that
the club hadn't been packed the last couple of weeks like it had been
before, and by dessert; we were planning the Sister Saturday. It was
almost too easy. Not that I was going to complain about getting some
relief in the tension department, but such things did leave me a little
suspicious. I was just being nervous. That wasn't something I was used to
feeling, and I must say, I didn't like it one bit.
It was all over the club that night. I didn't have to say a word. They were all going to get the chance to not only see me in one of my rare performances, but it was going to be the first time that most of them could remember seeing me share the stage with someone else. And there was Simone. Nobody had ever seen her dance despite begging her to do so. Several regulars had stopped me that night and asked if it was true. I told them yes and they all swore they were going to be there. With friends. Lots of them. I laughed and said that if they all did as promised, I was going to have to have Renee come in and help out at the bar. They howled and swore to bring enough to warrant Renee. Renee was a hooker that could mix drinks. She got along well with Chris. He didn't even mind splitting the tips. Since she was usually topless the whole time, even with splitting the tips, he tended to make more money when she was there.
And things did progress that week. During the day, Max practiced a few times. There wasn't a soul in the room that didn't want to toss her down and go for a quickie after seeing her slink all over the stage. I recognized a lot of the moves. She had used them in sneaking in and out of places. On stage, they were mysterious and sensual. Privately, we were working out a routine together that would have Vic thinking that he might take a quick walk on this side of the street. Whatever I thought about Max, she had some moves, and I almost regretted that she wasn't going to be able to be around for a while.
It was tempting to seduce her myself. If I got her a little drunk or stoned before the performance, I knew that I would be able to pull it off. That would be something for Zack to walk in on. Might even be better than what I had planned. I was willing to place my money that he would join us. He liked being Captain Asshole, but he was also a man, and there were precious few that wouldn't respond to the sight of two beautiful women making love...or a reasonable facsimile of that.
On the plus side, I hadn't heard a thing from Zack. I usually knew when he was watching the club, and I wasn't getting that feeling. I could only hope that my luck would hold out a little longer and that he would stay away until Saturday. If he did, then that would confirm everything he felt for Max. He was so fucking desperate to have her that he would even listen to me to get a chance. That was all I needed to know for sure that my plan was going to work. He would take her. Wouldn't keep her, but if he did, then that would ruin all my careful planning. And what was the fun in that.
The week didn't drag like I thought it would. But days never do when I get back from a trip. Hell, only for a few hours after sunrise does time ever run the risk of dragging in this city anyways. Anyone who claims to be bored in New Orleans is either overly religious or recently deceased. I say recently because as anyone here knows, the ghosts know how to liven up a party faster than anyone else around here.
Saturday dawned hot and muggy. Typical day in New Orleans really. The morning air was still and by nightfall, everyone would be a sticky mess. There's something about the heat. For some people it drugs them and makes them lethargic. For others, it's sensual, stimulating. The body seems to open up, releasing the musky smells of sex and lust. Something about being hot and wet that makes people just want to get down and start fucking. Bad for the people trying to save souls, but great for my business. Even better for the personal business I had to do tonight.
Max and I got to the club early that morning like we had been since she had been here. She had started talking the night before that maybe she should be getting back to Seattle. Next week sometime, maybe. I asked her if she really thought she was ready to go back and face everything. She had shrugged and said that she couldn't keep hiding down here like she had been. Having a different name and persona had been great, and she didn't want me to be upset or think she was ungrateful, but she did have a life to get back to. That worried me. She was supposed to be ready to think about a new life somewhere else. But she had more than Logan in Seattle. She had friends that she missed. She wouldn't admit to it, but she even missed that two-bit job hustling packages for Normal.
Things would be different after tonight, I reminded myself. It would be different once Zack was here. She was still thinking of this as a vacation. Tomorrow she was going to wake up and Zack would be here asking her to leave with him and be with him. I was going to tell Zack that she needed to be asked, not ordered to go with him. I was going to risk a major ass-kicking, but all that was needed was to tell him that those other men with Max had asked, not ordered, and she was certainly responding to them. It was going to be a delicate situation, but in a strange way, I was looking forward to the challenge. Not since I had taken over the club had I used such planning and strategy and I must say that felt good to stretch the mental muscles in that way.
Everything went just with the routine that it always did. I spent the early part of the morning taking care of the paperwork and books and Max helped get the club ready for that night. She was nervous as hell, and I couldn't blame her on that. I had been nervous my first time too, but it was so worth it. I didn't know if she was capable of getting the high off of dancing that I did, or if she would be able to with those drugs perking through her system, but I didn't care much either way. This was the means to an end for us both.
Girls started showing up to get their costumes ready. Chris walked in with Ruby, smiling at laughing with each other. They had started dating while I was gone. Sweet. He was one man that wouldn't think of being abusive to her. He started making sure the bar was prepped for the night, checking stock, seeing what needed to be ordered while she went off to do what she needed to do to get ready as a warm up act before the main event. Everyone was excited, making it seem almost like a holiday festivity of some sort. We talked and played and laughed and all I could think was how grateful I was that the tension was coming to an end tonight. As fun as it had been, I was tired of playing the games. I wanted to get back to my life, this life and have time to really mourn Ben and move on eventually. A matter of hours and Max would be gone and Zack and I was willing to bet every reminder of Terran would go as well once they were gone. That I looked forward to more than anything.
The doors opened right as the old clock behind the bar chimed the hour, and glory be, men were already waiting to enter. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that. This was going to be one of the best nights ever at The Treasure Chest. I didn't recognize half of the faces streaming through the door, and that was even better to me. New patrons were the best. I was already circulating around the crowd, chatting with the regulars that I knew and introducing myself to their friends that they had convinced to come with them for the first time. The bar was doing boom business, especially when Renee started doing her patented "boob shots". She would let the liquor pour down the top of her breast, and get it right in the glass. For some reason, the men ordering it didn't care in the slightest if some of the liquor they were paying for got wasted. The tip jar was going to be overflowing on the bar tonight, that was for sure. Music was pumping, the dancers were having fun on stage and by the time the sun's last lingering rays dipped below the horizon, the place was already jumping like the party to end all parties was going on inside.
I finally made it backstage where it was just as much of a madhouse. Max and I were due on soon and I needed to get my hair and makeup ready and costume on. We had really stressed about costumes since Max didn't want to go through having her barcode removed. It took some experimenting, but we finally found the right makeup to cover hers up and I had done that earlier in the privacy of my office. Our costumes were matching draperies of a diaphanous material that was almost, but not quite see through. It was going to be so hot to slowly peel the layers off of each other as we danced around the stage. After watching the practice runs, Vic confirmed that if anything was going to make him take a walk on the straight side, that would pretty much do it. Highest praises coming from him.
One good thing about short hair is that it's easy to fix. A little gel, a little mousse and it's flipped around and doing looking sexy curling around my face. Max had her hair in curls, pulled back on the sides to give her a sexy-innocent appearance. It worked well on her. Makeup was much heavier than I normally wore, but that was needed for the stage so that all the features could be made out. Some of the girls like to add some lipstick or other kind of makeup to their nipples to make them really dark and stand out, but I didn't have that problem. My body was, in every way, absolutely perfect.
There was just one more little thing to take care of. I grabbed Max and hauled her to the back of the room and unlocked a small cabinet. "See, there's this little tradition I have," I explained. I pulled out a bottle of hundred-year-old scotch and two glasses. It was still half full. "I got this when I took over and I always have one drink before going out. Tonight, for the first time, I share."
Max grinned and took the glass I was offering her. She was so busy smiling at me that she didn't notice that the glass I handed her was slightly damp on the inside. I had slipped away earlier and carefully painted the powder onto the side of the glass and the bottom. And then I poured the scotch and it was dissolved immediately.
She held up her glass. "To sisters," she said softly. I smiled and hefted my glass.
"Miss Topaz!" Miranda yelled, her voice cutting across the dressing room. The volume in the room dropped. When Miranda called for me, nobody interrupted. Still, her timing really sucked here. I paused in my toast with Max and looked over my shoulder as the little girl bopped over to me. Fuck. Max wasn't going to drink until I did.
"Excuse me for a second," I said, putting down my glass. I couldn't be mad at the girl, it was her job, but goddamn, couldn't she just wait three more seconds before interrupting me?
I walked over to her and kneeled down. "Now what is so important that it can't wait until after I'm done?" I asked.
"There's a guy looking for you," she said. I blinked. A guy? She knew Zack. She would have told me it was my "friend."
"Lots of guys look for me," I said, my tone letting her know that she better have more information than just that.
Miranda rolled her eyes. "I'd give you his name if he would have told me," she said, sounding frustrated. "He just said that he wanted to see you, and I told him that you were real busy and then he said to tell you that he was looking for Terran and Max. He's in a wheelchair if that helps."
For a second, I couldn't breathe. This was not happening. Couldn't be. Please don't tell me this was happening. And Miranda hadn't been talking quietly when she gave me the message. Why would she? She was used to shouting over the noise. Oh God. I looked over my shoulder. Max's eyes were wide, her face paled slightly. I would have to go with, she heard. Fix this. Got to fix this. Just breathe. Fix it.
I got up and was over at Max's side in a second. "Stay here," I ordered. "I'll get rid of the bastard. You don't need to hear any of his pathetic "I was drunk" excuses or "I really love you" lies. I'll have his ass tossed out, I promise."
Her chin came up. "No," she said coldly, her beautiful mouth turned into a sneer. "I wanna hear his lame-ass excuses. And then I'll kick his ass out myself." She brushed by me and I almost started laughing with relief. Oh, sweet Jesus, I was good. The more Logan denied it, the more confused he seemed to be, the more she was going to think it was a lie. I followed her out anyways. This was not a conversation I was going to let get away from me.
I ran out from the dressing room and there was Logan, sitting by the bar expectantly, knowing that what he had told my little one was going to have us running. His eyes raked down Max in her skimpy costume, devouring every detail of her body. And that was when every hair on my neck stood up. He wasn't looking like he was confirming something that was Zack had told him was obviously true. He didn't look disgusted at seeing Max parading around like that. A little lust, yes, but not what he should be looking like, thinking that the love of his life had decided that being a stripper was more fun than him.
"Let me guess," Max sneered when she walked up to him. "It wasn't like that, huh? She didn't mean anything to you? It was my fault for being a female fog bank? Heard all them lines before from Darren, okay, so just keep 'em and get back to Seattle." His eyes flicked to me and then back to her. I did not like this. Whatever was going on in his brain was not good. I had overestimated his sense of morals obviously. I was not going to underestimate anything else from him. And why wasn't he confused? It was like...like he knew what Max had seen.
"How about your sister set us both up for a fall," he said conversationally. Max blinked. I didn't hesitate.
"You pretentious bastard," I snapped. "You get busted with your fuck of the week and it's my fault? Oh, I get it. If I hadn't of lost my earring, then she would have never know." I gave him my best look of disgust, one that usually had people immediately pleading for forgiveness. He didn't flinch.
"I know how you really got this club," he murmured. "I know what you are capable of. No wonder you and Ben were such perfect mates."
Max gave me a sideways glance. So what if he knew. So fucking what. I could make it sound much less worse than it really was. But I would prefer that this wasn't discussed in front of everyone.
"Storage room," I snapped and then cut through the crowd, Max and Logan following. Max was going to believe what her eyes had told her. Play on that. I was getting back my equilibrium. No need to panic. Just play the situation, let Max explode and then let her consent to throwing him out. That was all. No more was needed. Let the hand play out.
We went into the storage room and I spun around, my eyes blazing at Logan, my entire air that of someone who was full of righteous anger. "Fine," I snapped. "You want to come in here and threaten me? You think I am going to let my sister go back to a man that runs around on her because I am afraid of what he might say to her? Fuck you, Logan. Max means more to me than that."
I looked over at Max defiantly. "I don't know why I didn't tell you," I said, my voice taking on a slightly pleading note. "I was embarrassed, scared of what you might think of me. You see...two men were sent to take out the man I got the club from. I told you that. But if I had let them, then I wouldn't have gotten it signed over to me. So I took them out first and Frankie ran off and made nice with his wife so her daddy forgave him. All I can say is that I was very young and thought I was doing the right thing at the time."
Logan damn near snarled at the sympathy in Max's eyes. She looked at him coldly. "At least she feels bad for what she did. Don't even try passing the blame around. I was there. I saw you. I told you the chair didn't matter to me, but you still couldn't get past it. Guess what. What I saw got me past you." She turned her back on him and glanced at me. "Will you please do my a favor and have his skinny white ass tossed out of here?"
"Gladly," I purred, taking a step towards him.
Logan glared at me and reached into the black leather satchel on the side of the chair. "You might want to read this first," he said conversationally to Max's back. "I have a feeling this would be the first time you read this letter you wrote to me."
I froze. Max turned around, confusion on her face. Logan smirked at me. "I didn't write jack to you," Max said, trying to still be angry.
"Then you will be interested," he said, holding it up. "You told me how you were sick of always having to be responsible and missed the carefree life you had before meeting me. And then Zack showed up and told me what kind of influence she was and that you were probably gone for good being the same little whore that she was."
Max blinked. "Goddamn," I managed to get out. "No wonder you're so good. That's the best damn story I've heard in a long time. Is this when the wicked step-sister gets a bucket of water thrown on her and the white knight runs off with the princess?"
He glared at me. "You only made two mistakes," he said with a harsh smile. "The first one is forgetting about Original Cindy." He looked back at Max. "I finally broke down and went to your apartment. I was worried about you and she reared back and called me everything but a white crippled boy for hurting her boo. And that's when I found out what you had seen and everything started to make sense."
I almost laughed. I really did. In all my planning, it was Logan I had seen as the wild card. The one thing I had to be careful about. It had never been him though. He was under my control. Had been from the start. It was never him. It was the one person who had loved Max unconditionally from the start and the person that she would confide in no matter how painful. Original Cindy. Oh shit.
"Max," he said, almost pleading. "I fell asleep at my computer the night you left. I was working and then I was suddenly exhausted. You know I do that. How many times have you teased me about it? But that morning I woke up in bed. I thought I had to have gotten there on my own, but after what Cindy said, it made sense. I wasn't tired, but ended up waking up in my own bed. And that's when everything, the letter, Zack's visit, the things Terran had so delicately said. It all fell into place. We had all been played and she was the puppet master."
"No," Max whispered. She looked at me desperately. "You wouldn't do that to me."
"She did it to the woman that killed her lover."
"He's lying," I whispered weakly. My eyes met Max's evenly. All of the acting I ever did in my life before was nothing to the sincerity that I had to put into this. "I don't know why he's doing all this, trying to hurt you with me. Maxie, I swear, as much as I loved Ben, I understood why you had to do what you did. It hurts, yes, but not to the point where I would try and destroy my own sister. He just said how the first thing he thought was the worst about you. Now he's here with a phony letter to back up what he thought you were going to do."
"I did believe it," Logan admitted in a smooth voice, but there was a glitter in his blue eyes that said he had the trump card as he reached into the leather bag on the side of his chair. If that bitch Lazlos gave me had talked then I was going back to Seattle and...
He pulled out a coffee cup. The cup that I had dumped the Di-Ni into. "Mistake number two. You know why Di-Ni is used as a date rape drug?" he asked coldly. "Not only is it colorless and odorless, it leaves no residue on the glass." The triumph in his eyes made me swallow. What the fuck had I overlooked? "But you used it in porcelain. And it does leave a residue there." He flipped over the cup so that we could see the inside. The outside was a light gray, but the inside was a mottled blue color. "Next time you decide to drug someone," he continued in that same deadly voice, "make sure you know what chemicals react to what surfaces."
Both of us looked over at Max. She was pale, staring at him and then me back and forth, not sure whom to trust. And for once, I had no idea what to say to make things go my way. And Logan, damn him to hell and back, got in there first.
"Max," he said in a much gentler tone. "You know me. She doesn't. She thought she could trick us and keep us apart, but she doesn't know either of us. Once I thought about it, there would be no way you would take off like that. If you didn't want to do things for me anymore, you would just say so or stop coming around, but you wouldn't abandon the people you love. And Max, you know me. Would I be sleeping with a prostitute or trying to save her and her widow mother and orphaned brothers and their puppy?"
Max let out something between a sob and a laugh and I knew. I lost. Plain, simple and cruel. I lost. No matter what I said now, I lost. No. No, no, no! I was not going to lose and I didn't care what was going to have to happen to make that work. She didn't want to leave Logan. Fuck that. Rage suffused every corner of my body, filling my mind with a red fog. What in the fucking hell did he have over her that would make him chase her and her to come back. To want to come back to him. No. Fuck no. She wasn't going to win like that. She was going to live without Logan and I didn't care what the cost was going to be.
I attacked. One move straight across the room bypassing Max and going for Logan. I had the advantage on her and for the second she was stunned, I was right there, hands going for his throat...
And then I was shoved backwards easily, flung into the wall like a doll being tossed away by angry little girl. Zack. Bastard.
"We've got to get out now," he ordered harshly. "All three, now!"
This had nothing to do with the game. The expression on his face said that. This was...this was...
And that's when the crashing and screaming and shouting started in the club.
It was all over the club that night. I didn't have to say a word. They were all going to get the chance to not only see me in one of my rare performances, but it was going to be the first time that most of them could remember seeing me share the stage with someone else. And there was Simone. Nobody had ever seen her dance despite begging her to do so. Several regulars had stopped me that night and asked if it was true. I told them yes and they all swore they were going to be there. With friends. Lots of them. I laughed and said that if they all did as promised, I was going to have to have Renee come in and help out at the bar. They howled and swore to bring enough to warrant Renee. Renee was a hooker that could mix drinks. She got along well with Chris. He didn't even mind splitting the tips. Since she was usually topless the whole time, even with splitting the tips, he tended to make more money when she was there.
And things did progress that week. During the day, Max practiced a few times. There wasn't a soul in the room that didn't want to toss her down and go for a quickie after seeing her slink all over the stage. I recognized a lot of the moves. She had used them in sneaking in and out of places. On stage, they were mysterious and sensual. Privately, we were working out a routine together that would have Vic thinking that he might take a quick walk on this side of the street. Whatever I thought about Max, she had some moves, and I almost regretted that she wasn't going to be able to be around for a while.
It was tempting to seduce her myself. If I got her a little drunk or stoned before the performance, I knew that I would be able to pull it off. That would be something for Zack to walk in on. Might even be better than what I had planned. I was willing to place my money that he would join us. He liked being Captain Asshole, but he was also a man, and there were precious few that wouldn't respond to the sight of two beautiful women making love...or a reasonable facsimile of that.
On the plus side, I hadn't heard a thing from Zack. I usually knew when he was watching the club, and I wasn't getting that feeling. I could only hope that my luck would hold out a little longer and that he would stay away until Saturday. If he did, then that would confirm everything he felt for Max. He was so fucking desperate to have her that he would even listen to me to get a chance. That was all I needed to know for sure that my plan was going to work. He would take her. Wouldn't keep her, but if he did, then that would ruin all my careful planning. And what was the fun in that.
The week didn't drag like I thought it would. But days never do when I get back from a trip. Hell, only for a few hours after sunrise does time ever run the risk of dragging in this city anyways. Anyone who claims to be bored in New Orleans is either overly religious or recently deceased. I say recently because as anyone here knows, the ghosts know how to liven up a party faster than anyone else around here.
Saturday dawned hot and muggy. Typical day in New Orleans really. The morning air was still and by nightfall, everyone would be a sticky mess. There's something about the heat. For some people it drugs them and makes them lethargic. For others, it's sensual, stimulating. The body seems to open up, releasing the musky smells of sex and lust. Something about being hot and wet that makes people just want to get down and start fucking. Bad for the people trying to save souls, but great for my business. Even better for the personal business I had to do tonight.
Max and I got to the club early that morning like we had been since she had been here. She had started talking the night before that maybe she should be getting back to Seattle. Next week sometime, maybe. I asked her if she really thought she was ready to go back and face everything. She had shrugged and said that she couldn't keep hiding down here like she had been. Having a different name and persona had been great, and she didn't want me to be upset or think she was ungrateful, but she did have a life to get back to. That worried me. She was supposed to be ready to think about a new life somewhere else. But she had more than Logan in Seattle. She had friends that she missed. She wouldn't admit to it, but she even missed that two-bit job hustling packages for Normal.
Things would be different after tonight, I reminded myself. It would be different once Zack was here. She was still thinking of this as a vacation. Tomorrow she was going to wake up and Zack would be here asking her to leave with him and be with him. I was going to tell Zack that she needed to be asked, not ordered to go with him. I was going to risk a major ass-kicking, but all that was needed was to tell him that those other men with Max had asked, not ordered, and she was certainly responding to them. It was going to be a delicate situation, but in a strange way, I was looking forward to the challenge. Not since I had taken over the club had I used such planning and strategy and I must say that felt good to stretch the mental muscles in that way.
Everything went just with the routine that it always did. I spent the early part of the morning taking care of the paperwork and books and Max helped get the club ready for that night. She was nervous as hell, and I couldn't blame her on that. I had been nervous my first time too, but it was so worth it. I didn't know if she was capable of getting the high off of dancing that I did, or if she would be able to with those drugs perking through her system, but I didn't care much either way. This was the means to an end for us both.
Girls started showing up to get their costumes ready. Chris walked in with Ruby, smiling at laughing with each other. They had started dating while I was gone. Sweet. He was one man that wouldn't think of being abusive to her. He started making sure the bar was prepped for the night, checking stock, seeing what needed to be ordered while she went off to do what she needed to do to get ready as a warm up act before the main event. Everyone was excited, making it seem almost like a holiday festivity of some sort. We talked and played and laughed and all I could think was how grateful I was that the tension was coming to an end tonight. As fun as it had been, I was tired of playing the games. I wanted to get back to my life, this life and have time to really mourn Ben and move on eventually. A matter of hours and Max would be gone and Zack and I was willing to bet every reminder of Terran would go as well once they were gone. That I looked forward to more than anything.
The doors opened right as the old clock behind the bar chimed the hour, and glory be, men were already waiting to enter. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that. This was going to be one of the best nights ever at The Treasure Chest. I didn't recognize half of the faces streaming through the door, and that was even better to me. New patrons were the best. I was already circulating around the crowd, chatting with the regulars that I knew and introducing myself to their friends that they had convinced to come with them for the first time. The bar was doing boom business, especially when Renee started doing her patented "boob shots". She would let the liquor pour down the top of her breast, and get it right in the glass. For some reason, the men ordering it didn't care in the slightest if some of the liquor they were paying for got wasted. The tip jar was going to be overflowing on the bar tonight, that was for sure. Music was pumping, the dancers were having fun on stage and by the time the sun's last lingering rays dipped below the horizon, the place was already jumping like the party to end all parties was going on inside.
I finally made it backstage where it was just as much of a madhouse. Max and I were due on soon and I needed to get my hair and makeup ready and costume on. We had really stressed about costumes since Max didn't want to go through having her barcode removed. It took some experimenting, but we finally found the right makeup to cover hers up and I had done that earlier in the privacy of my office. Our costumes were matching draperies of a diaphanous material that was almost, but not quite see through. It was going to be so hot to slowly peel the layers off of each other as we danced around the stage. After watching the practice runs, Vic confirmed that if anything was going to make him take a walk on the straight side, that would pretty much do it. Highest praises coming from him.
One good thing about short hair is that it's easy to fix. A little gel, a little mousse and it's flipped around and doing looking sexy curling around my face. Max had her hair in curls, pulled back on the sides to give her a sexy-innocent appearance. It worked well on her. Makeup was much heavier than I normally wore, but that was needed for the stage so that all the features could be made out. Some of the girls like to add some lipstick or other kind of makeup to their nipples to make them really dark and stand out, but I didn't have that problem. My body was, in every way, absolutely perfect.
There was just one more little thing to take care of. I grabbed Max and hauled her to the back of the room and unlocked a small cabinet. "See, there's this little tradition I have," I explained. I pulled out a bottle of hundred-year-old scotch and two glasses. It was still half full. "I got this when I took over and I always have one drink before going out. Tonight, for the first time, I share."
Max grinned and took the glass I was offering her. She was so busy smiling at me that she didn't notice that the glass I handed her was slightly damp on the inside. I had slipped away earlier and carefully painted the powder onto the side of the glass and the bottom. And then I poured the scotch and it was dissolved immediately.
She held up her glass. "To sisters," she said softly. I smiled and hefted my glass.
"Miss Topaz!" Miranda yelled, her voice cutting across the dressing room. The volume in the room dropped. When Miranda called for me, nobody interrupted. Still, her timing really sucked here. I paused in my toast with Max and looked over my shoulder as the little girl bopped over to me. Fuck. Max wasn't going to drink until I did.
"Excuse me for a second," I said, putting down my glass. I couldn't be mad at the girl, it was her job, but goddamn, couldn't she just wait three more seconds before interrupting me?
I walked over to her and kneeled down. "Now what is so important that it can't wait until after I'm done?" I asked.
"There's a guy looking for you," she said. I blinked. A guy? She knew Zack. She would have told me it was my "friend."
"Lots of guys look for me," I said, my tone letting her know that she better have more information than just that.
Miranda rolled her eyes. "I'd give you his name if he would have told me," she said, sounding frustrated. "He just said that he wanted to see you, and I told him that you were real busy and then he said to tell you that he was looking for Terran and Max. He's in a wheelchair if that helps."
For a second, I couldn't breathe. This was not happening. Couldn't be. Please don't tell me this was happening. And Miranda hadn't been talking quietly when she gave me the message. Why would she? She was used to shouting over the noise. Oh God. I looked over my shoulder. Max's eyes were wide, her face paled slightly. I would have to go with, she heard. Fix this. Got to fix this. Just breathe. Fix it.
I got up and was over at Max's side in a second. "Stay here," I ordered. "I'll get rid of the bastard. You don't need to hear any of his pathetic "I was drunk" excuses or "I really love you" lies. I'll have his ass tossed out, I promise."
Her chin came up. "No," she said coldly, her beautiful mouth turned into a sneer. "I wanna hear his lame-ass excuses. And then I'll kick his ass out myself." She brushed by me and I almost started laughing with relief. Oh, sweet Jesus, I was good. The more Logan denied it, the more confused he seemed to be, the more she was going to think it was a lie. I followed her out anyways. This was not a conversation I was going to let get away from me.
I ran out from the dressing room and there was Logan, sitting by the bar expectantly, knowing that what he had told my little one was going to have us running. His eyes raked down Max in her skimpy costume, devouring every detail of her body. And that was when every hair on my neck stood up. He wasn't looking like he was confirming something that was Zack had told him was obviously true. He didn't look disgusted at seeing Max parading around like that. A little lust, yes, but not what he should be looking like, thinking that the love of his life had decided that being a stripper was more fun than him.
"Let me guess," Max sneered when she walked up to him. "It wasn't like that, huh? She didn't mean anything to you? It was my fault for being a female fog bank? Heard all them lines before from Darren, okay, so just keep 'em and get back to Seattle." His eyes flicked to me and then back to her. I did not like this. Whatever was going on in his brain was not good. I had overestimated his sense of morals obviously. I was not going to underestimate anything else from him. And why wasn't he confused? It was like...like he knew what Max had seen.
"How about your sister set us both up for a fall," he said conversationally. Max blinked. I didn't hesitate.
"You pretentious bastard," I snapped. "You get busted with your fuck of the week and it's my fault? Oh, I get it. If I hadn't of lost my earring, then she would have never know." I gave him my best look of disgust, one that usually had people immediately pleading for forgiveness. He didn't flinch.
"I know how you really got this club," he murmured. "I know what you are capable of. No wonder you and Ben were such perfect mates."
Max gave me a sideways glance. So what if he knew. So fucking what. I could make it sound much less worse than it really was. But I would prefer that this wasn't discussed in front of everyone.
"Storage room," I snapped and then cut through the crowd, Max and Logan following. Max was going to believe what her eyes had told her. Play on that. I was getting back my equilibrium. No need to panic. Just play the situation, let Max explode and then let her consent to throwing him out. That was all. No more was needed. Let the hand play out.
We went into the storage room and I spun around, my eyes blazing at Logan, my entire air that of someone who was full of righteous anger. "Fine," I snapped. "You want to come in here and threaten me? You think I am going to let my sister go back to a man that runs around on her because I am afraid of what he might say to her? Fuck you, Logan. Max means more to me than that."
I looked over at Max defiantly. "I don't know why I didn't tell you," I said, my voice taking on a slightly pleading note. "I was embarrassed, scared of what you might think of me. You see...two men were sent to take out the man I got the club from. I told you that. But if I had let them, then I wouldn't have gotten it signed over to me. So I took them out first and Frankie ran off and made nice with his wife so her daddy forgave him. All I can say is that I was very young and thought I was doing the right thing at the time."
Logan damn near snarled at the sympathy in Max's eyes. She looked at him coldly. "At least she feels bad for what she did. Don't even try passing the blame around. I was there. I saw you. I told you the chair didn't matter to me, but you still couldn't get past it. Guess what. What I saw got me past you." She turned her back on him and glanced at me. "Will you please do my a favor and have his skinny white ass tossed out of here?"
"Gladly," I purred, taking a step towards him.
Logan glared at me and reached into the black leather satchel on the side of the chair. "You might want to read this first," he said conversationally to Max's back. "I have a feeling this would be the first time you read this letter you wrote to me."
I froze. Max turned around, confusion on her face. Logan smirked at me. "I didn't write jack to you," Max said, trying to still be angry.
"Then you will be interested," he said, holding it up. "You told me how you were sick of always having to be responsible and missed the carefree life you had before meeting me. And then Zack showed up and told me what kind of influence she was and that you were probably gone for good being the same little whore that she was."
Max blinked. "Goddamn," I managed to get out. "No wonder you're so good. That's the best damn story I've heard in a long time. Is this when the wicked step-sister gets a bucket of water thrown on her and the white knight runs off with the princess?"
He glared at me. "You only made two mistakes," he said with a harsh smile. "The first one is forgetting about Original Cindy." He looked back at Max. "I finally broke down and went to your apartment. I was worried about you and she reared back and called me everything but a white crippled boy for hurting her boo. And that's when I found out what you had seen and everything started to make sense."
I almost laughed. I really did. In all my planning, it was Logan I had seen as the wild card. The one thing I had to be careful about. It had never been him though. He was under my control. Had been from the start. It was never him. It was the one person who had loved Max unconditionally from the start and the person that she would confide in no matter how painful. Original Cindy. Oh shit.
"Max," he said, almost pleading. "I fell asleep at my computer the night you left. I was working and then I was suddenly exhausted. You know I do that. How many times have you teased me about it? But that morning I woke up in bed. I thought I had to have gotten there on my own, but after what Cindy said, it made sense. I wasn't tired, but ended up waking up in my own bed. And that's when everything, the letter, Zack's visit, the things Terran had so delicately said. It all fell into place. We had all been played and she was the puppet master."
"No," Max whispered. She looked at me desperately. "You wouldn't do that to me."
"She did it to the woman that killed her lover."
"He's lying," I whispered weakly. My eyes met Max's evenly. All of the acting I ever did in my life before was nothing to the sincerity that I had to put into this. "I don't know why he's doing all this, trying to hurt you with me. Maxie, I swear, as much as I loved Ben, I understood why you had to do what you did. It hurts, yes, but not to the point where I would try and destroy my own sister. He just said how the first thing he thought was the worst about you. Now he's here with a phony letter to back up what he thought you were going to do."
"I did believe it," Logan admitted in a smooth voice, but there was a glitter in his blue eyes that said he had the trump card as he reached into the leather bag on the side of his chair. If that bitch Lazlos gave me had talked then I was going back to Seattle and...
He pulled out a coffee cup. The cup that I had dumped the Di-Ni into. "Mistake number two. You know why Di-Ni is used as a date rape drug?" he asked coldly. "Not only is it colorless and odorless, it leaves no residue on the glass." The triumph in his eyes made me swallow. What the fuck had I overlooked? "But you used it in porcelain. And it does leave a residue there." He flipped over the cup so that we could see the inside. The outside was a light gray, but the inside was a mottled blue color. "Next time you decide to drug someone," he continued in that same deadly voice, "make sure you know what chemicals react to what surfaces."
Both of us looked over at Max. She was pale, staring at him and then me back and forth, not sure whom to trust. And for once, I had no idea what to say to make things go my way. And Logan, damn him to hell and back, got in there first.
"Max," he said in a much gentler tone. "You know me. She doesn't. She thought she could trick us and keep us apart, but she doesn't know either of us. Once I thought about it, there would be no way you would take off like that. If you didn't want to do things for me anymore, you would just say so or stop coming around, but you wouldn't abandon the people you love. And Max, you know me. Would I be sleeping with a prostitute or trying to save her and her widow mother and orphaned brothers and their puppy?"
Max let out something between a sob and a laugh and I knew. I lost. Plain, simple and cruel. I lost. No matter what I said now, I lost. No. No, no, no! I was not going to lose and I didn't care what was going to have to happen to make that work. She didn't want to leave Logan. Fuck that. Rage suffused every corner of my body, filling my mind with a red fog. What in the fucking hell did he have over her that would make him chase her and her to come back. To want to come back to him. No. Fuck no. She wasn't going to win like that. She was going to live without Logan and I didn't care what the cost was going to be.
I attacked. One move straight across the room bypassing Max and going for Logan. I had the advantage on her and for the second she was stunned, I was right there, hands going for his throat...
And then I was shoved backwards easily, flung into the wall like a doll being tossed away by angry little girl. Zack. Bastard.
"We've got to get out now," he ordered harshly. "All three, now!"
This had nothing to do with the game. The expression on his face said that. This was...this was...
And that's when the crashing and screaming and shouting started in the club.