Tri Me (Primrose, Minnesota, Book 4) (5 page)

“That means I have to walk through the main part of the club.”

Bri nodded slowly, as if she agreed but didn’t quite understand.

“Dressed like this,” she finished.

“Oh, yeah.” Bri smiled. “No big deal.”

“Um, yeah. It is a big deal.”

“Really Alex, you don’t look like yourself tonight. I highly doubt anyone will identify you.”

“And if they do?”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, Alex!” Marnie grabbed her hand and yanked her past Bri and out into the club. “Live a little. For once, just have a good time.”

Without much of a choice, Alex followed behind Marnie through the dimly lit club, half of her tempted to duck and run the rest of the way to their destination. The other half, however, taunted her to take the stage and strut her stuff. Except, the threat of being recognized – or worse, murdered – threw a cold bucket of water on her wanton spirit.

She allowed herself a cursory glance as Marnie continued to pull her toward the hallway. Girls of all shapes and sizes entertained gentlemen at tables, in corners, or on stage. Men of all walks of life. Businessmen, laborers, and …. Judges.

Alex squinted to make sure she’d seen one particular patron correctly and then grinned at her discovery. “Well, well, well …..”

“What?” Bri said from behind her.

“Judge Bowman on your left.”

Marnie cackled in front of her. “See? Now you have ammo.”

“No.” Alex quickly averted her gaze. “I don’t even remotely want to know why he’s here or what kind of entertainment he’s experiencing. Besides, I’m not sure I could explain my own appearance.”

“What about the wine?” Dara shouted over the music.

“In the room,” Bri answered.

“Thank God,” Alex murmured.

Although grateful when they finally left the main floor and entered the private hallway, more second thoughts assaulted her when she was forced to squint from the bright light.

“They do this in broad daylight?”

Bri giggled. “No, there’s a variety of lighting choices inside the room. The hallway is bright for surveillance.” Bri finally stopped at the last door and greeted a hulk of a man who typed in a code and then opened the door. Bri nudged Alex inside.

Cautiously, she allowed her gaze to scan the room. Several seating alternatives were offered - a loveseat, sofa, and several oversized chairs sat against the walls. A table and four chairs occupied the middle, complete with a chilling bottle of wine and a clear view of a fairly large oval stage. Alex’s eyes widened so far she thought her eyeballs might pop from the sockets. One look at the pole planted in the middle told her exactly what her friend expected her to do.

“Bri, you are completely out of your mind.”

“No, she’s not.” Marnie shrugged as she and Dara sat in chairs at the table. “You have an amazing body and you look the part.” She reached for a bottle of wine, pushed the stop from the top, and then poured the liquid into a neighboring glass before she extended it in offering. “Swallow some wine and climb on the pole, Alex.”

Alex gave Marnie a narrow-eyed glare, or at least she tried to through her slight alcohol haze. Climb on the pole? Seriously? She accepted the glass, downed the contents, and then handed it back to her friend before she pulled her mouth closed and stretched her lips into a grin. “Okay Bri, show me how to work that thing.”

Marnie squealed and then released a string of maniacal giggles while Bri took her hand and led her up the set of stairs on the right side of the podium, thrusting her hips from side to side. “Start with a sexy strut – something that shows confidence.”

Confidence? She had loads of confidence – just not in this particular arena. But who would know? The four of them were the only ones in this room and every one of them knew that ratting her out would cause undisputable death.

Throwing all good sense to the wind, Alex tossed the long, blonde tresses over one shoulder, swayed her hips from side to side and then grasped the pole. She braced her back against the cool metal then lowered herself into a deep squat, opening her thighs and then closing them. She twisted her lips into a sultry smirk then pushed against the pole to stand straight.

She glanced at her friends, all of whom stared wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and apparently speechless.

“What?”

“You definitely don’t need my help,” Bri mumbled as she left the stage and took a chair at the table.

“Hold on.” Dara rummaged through her purse. “I know I have some ones in here somewhere.”

Marnie finally smirked. “You’re just full of secrets.”

Alex wrapped one leg around the pole and shimmied against the metal, incredibly carefree for once in a very long time. Maybe the alcohol inspired her more than a little, maybe not, but in any regard she felt good. Inhibitions? What inhibitions?

“What the heck? Since no one can see me, I might as well try it on for size. Crank up the music.”

Bri stood and then walked across the room to press a silver button on one wall. “Uh, Alex.” She bit her lip. “The activity in this room is recorded.”

“Come again?”

“For security purposes. Not to worry though, you’re in disguise. No one will ever guess it’s you wrapped around that thing.”

***

“Jackson, you’ve got to see this.”

Jackson looked down and frowned as Jake vigorously tugged at his shirt sleeve. “We’re supposed to be locating suspects.” He pulled away from the assault and glanced at the security camera, ready to blast his friend for taking in the show, when his jaw dropped instead. “Holy hell.” The short, blonde woman on the screen gyrated in time to a heavy metal beat, her body wrapped around a pole on the stage, while three other women clapped and encouraged her every move. He moved his gaze to the audience. Dara. Marnie. Bri. That meant the dancer could only be one certain woman. “That’s Alex.”

“Told ya.” Jake released a wolf whistle.

“Cut it out,” he snapped. “What the hell is she doing?”

“Entertaining.”

“Stop watching, Rawlings!”

Jake turned and raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

Jackson knew he was busted; his demand for his friend to stop visually undressing Alex was maybe just a little too forceful. Yet at the time, he really didn’t give a rat’s ass.

“Because she’s not even supposed to be here!” He glanced back at the screen, intent on marching downstairs, throwing her over one shoulder, and hauling her out in handcuffs. Except, the more she shimmied her incredibly sexy body around that lucky, lucky pole his procrastination built. What were ten more seconds in the whole scheme of things?

A muscle ticked at the base of his jaw while she tossed back her head and slid her hips up and then down the silver metal. Up … down … up … down …

“What the—?”

“Rawlings!” Jackson pinched the bridge of his nose and quickly interrupted. “Aren’t you even remotely concerned that Bri’s here?”

“She’s not on the pole.”

“True, but I’ll bet you a hundred bucks she had something to do with it.”

His partner laid a hand on his shoulder. “Jackson, man, the pole is not your enemy. Especially since my observation confirms she knows how to work it.”

Yes, she sure does
. Even through his extreme shock, Jackson kept his silent confession to himself. Never mind the fact that his cock now stood at full attention and arousal coated his every nerve ending, he was going to have to get her out of there. One way or another.

“I’m going down there to get her. Call Ryker and tell him to send Storm home.”

Jake snickered. “I’d offer backup, but you couldn’t pay me enough to interfere.”

Jackson gave his friend one last hard glare and turned to exit the room. He took the stairs two at a time while he attempted to harness his temper. Although his knee-jerk reaction was to barge in with guns-a-blazing, he dismissed the notion – mainly for survival reasons. She’d rip him up one side and down the other if he even attempted to issue another ultimatum and that would make catching her stalker quite difficult.

He hesitated once he stood outside the door of the Platinum Room. The guard standing there only gave him a sympathetic smirk and gestured to the door with his head. “Good luck in there.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled. “Any chance you’d like to go in with me?”

The other man chuckled. “Sorry, I’m on duty for another room.”

Tension twisted his nerve endings as he placed a hand on the doorknob and turned. He pulled open the door. Smoky, green eyes met his over the heavy metal music. An invisible, magnetic force urged him inside. The door snapped closed behind him.

Activity on the stage didn’t falter. The sultry creature closed one eye in an arrogant wink and then grasped the pole with one arm while she rotated her hips in slow circles. His eyes rolled like marbles in his head as his gaze followed her every move. Round and round and back again.

He swallowed hard, unable to pry his gaze away from her movement, mesmerized even further when she turned and presented her amazing heart-shaped ass to him. With another of those cock-strangling winks over her shoulder, she bent at the waist then squatted before slowly raising her body upright. The tight, toned skin beneath her shorts lured him into a daring game of peek-a-boo.

His fingers pressed the flesh of his palms as he fisted his hands to keep from reaching for her. Temptation dared him to approach the stage, force her to bend back over, pull those pretty pink scraps of material down her body and cram his cock deep inside her while she gyrated beneath him.
Holy Mary, Mother of God.

Unable to take any more torture, he stepped to the button on the wall and gave it a good slap. Silence coated the atmosphere. All four women turned their attention to him.

“Hi, Jackson,” Bri said finally. “Is Jake here?”

He nodded. “Upstairs.”
Probably horny as hell
.

“What about Mace?” Dara’s nonchalant question made him grin.

“No.”

Marnie cleared her throat. “How many of you were upstairs?”

He suddenly felt reprimanded. Leave it to Marnie to turn the tables. What did it matter how many of them were present? None of his crew straddled a pole.

“Just four. Jake, the two security guys, and me.”

His confidence in his defense began to build until her gaze dropped to his groin.

“And how long did you watch?”

“Long enough,” he mumbled.

“Well then.” Bri grabbed the bottle of wine. “We’ll give you two a moment.”

He waited until the door closed behind Alex’s posse to approach the stage and extend a hand. “Care to explain what just happened?”

She lifted one shoulder – one smooth, creamy shoulder – and then accepted his offer before stepping from the platform. “That, Detective, was a pole dance.”

He swallowed around the softball in his throat. A pole dance? A freaking pole dance? No,
that
was a full onslaught seduction.

And she knew it.

“Did you know I watched you from the security camera?”

“Not until you came into the room. I’ve never done that before and I’m not familiar with the ins-and-outs of the protocol.”

Ins-and-outs. Sonuvabitch.
Although relieved she didn’t make a habit of prancing around nearly naked on a routine basis, his ego winced. He would’ve preferred to have heard she had tailored that dance just to entertain him and
damn
, he had certainly been entertained.

“Would you be willing to do it again?”

“Absolutely.”

His cock jumped and he raised an eyebrow, both at his reaction and her lack of hesitation.

“Not here,” she continued. “Bri probably knows where I can get a pole.”

“Probably,” he mumbled.

Her soft giggle traveled the distance between them and suddenly he understood her quick agreement to climb back on the pole.

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Not much.”

“How much, Alex?”

“Alcohol has nothing to do with my performance. It was just a little harmless fun.”

He shifted and his hard-on thumped the inside of his thigh. Harmless?
Yeah, right
.

“I told you to stay at home behind a locked door.”

“Yes, you did.” Her quick agreement took him by surprise but before he could bask in a short victory, she barreled right over any chance of elaboration. “How did you find me anyway?”

“Doesn’t matter.” He sighed and began to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

He continued in silence, focused on his task, until he reached the last button, pulled the shirt from his pants, and shucked it from his shoulders. Cool air caressed his overheated skin. Alex’s tongue darted from her mouth to sweep her bottom lip and he began to formulate an altogether new game plan. Arousal pushed him to toss the shirt to the floor, press his bare chest to hers and lay her out on the stage. Screw the pole.

Then he remembered who watched behind the security cameras. Rawlings was probably laughing his ass off.