Club Thrive: Agenda (The Club Thrive Series Book 3) Page 5

  “Hey, Stone, I’m not bad, but you boys have a mess on your hands.” he shakes my hand.

  “Yeah, I can see that. Do we have any idea who did this?”

  Logan says, “I don’t want to point fingers yet, but I have a feeling it’s Higgins. The owner of the club your girl is working to promote.”

  “Fuck, I was worried about her taking this on.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s pissed at me. I have no doubts about that. I’ve gotten a few calls telling me to watch my back, but I didn’t think he’d start pulling this shit.” Logan shakes his head.

  “Hey guys.” Shane approaches, shaking hands with everyone. “This isn’t pretty.” He points to the door. The cops are taking pictures of it so they can see if the graffiti matches anything in their database.

  “No, it’s not. I’m already working on getting some cameras installed in the parking lot so we can try and nail down whomever this is. If this is Higgins, then it could be hired help. I don’t think he’s the type of guy to get his hands dirty, though I don’t know him that well,” Logan sighs.

  “Has he said anything to Miranda about wanting revenge on Logan or anything?” Cooper asks.

  “No, not that I know of, but he did send her flowers today. I can ask her tonight when she gets home from work if he mentioned anything.”

  “She said something to me at the club the other night, but you should see if he’s said anything more,” Logan adds.

  “Please do and let me know. I’m going to question him today, but I doubt he’ll give me any info. Guys like that play stupid. He’ll point me to another strip club in the area to send me on a damn goose chase.” Cooper already sounds frustrated. Cooper tells us he’ll be in touch, and as he leaves, Jonah pulls in. The three of us make our way inside to discuss the situation.

  When we get to Logan’s office, we all take a seat and he growls, “Cameras will be going up soon.”

  “Logan, this is your club, so you do what you want, but you may want to reconsider that. If some of your high profile clients get wind that there are cameras outside the club and that they can be recorded walking in, that could really mess up business for you. This isn’t Club Thrive. Some of your clients don’t want it out there that they’re at Club Heat getting a lap dance while their wife is at home cooking dinner,” I warn him.

  He sighs. “Fuck, you’re right, so what do we do? I can’t have the club getting painted every other night. It looks shitty and it’ll be expensive to keep cleaning it.”

  “Security outside the club?” Shane questions.

  “That could be an option,” Logan says. “I would probably only need it from three o’clock in the morning until around eight. By then it’s plenty bright out that no one would want to risk being seen.” He turns to Jonah. “How quickly can you have a new bouncer at Thrive?”

  “I’ve just hired a new guy and he starts Friday,” Jonah says. “He has plenty of experience and great references, so I’m not too worried if you need Stone here. The guy has been wanting to get into a nicer place, so he applied with us and I took him.”

  “Good. Stone, you’re meeting the team this Friday anyway, so plan on staying to work that night, and then you’ll be on Saturday too. I want you keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.”

  “You got it, man.” I nod. Now I have to see how Miranda feels being there all night with me. When we originally discussed her coming to work with me on Friday, I was just meeting with the team, but now I have to stay.

  “Okay, I have to get someone to clean up my club. You guys get the hell out of here and make sure Thrive is taken care of,” Logan growls in frustration.

  The three of us walk out together, taking one last look at the outside of the club. Shane looks at me. “Do you think this could be that Higgins guy?”

  “God, I hope not. I don’t want my girl mixed up with a guy like that. She said he was sleazy and weird, but she didn’t seem threatened by him.”

  We all quickly man hug, the guys walk off to their trucks and I to my bike, but before leaving I quickly call Miranda.

  “Hey!” she answers, sounding excited to hear from me.

  “Hey, baby. Listen, I have to work at Club Heat Friday night. I know I promised to bring you to the club to introduce you around. Are you okay with staying, or do you want to meet everyone another night?” She giggles into the phone. “What’s so funny?”

  “I was just asking the girls how they would feel about hanging there to have some drinks. Of course they’re awesome friends and are down with it. I’ll tell them to meet me there and we’ll hang out until you get off the clock.”

  “It’ll be a late night. We won’t be out until at least three.”

  “No worries. If they want to leave early, it’s all good.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you at home in a little while. Be careful,” I stress to her.

  “I will, you too. I love you, Stone.”

  “I love you too.” I cut the call and slip on my helmet to get home so I can make our dinner.

  Chapter 6

  Miranda

  I’ve been sitting in this parking lot for almost five minutes now. My palms are sweating and I’m a nervous wreck. I’m meeting with Mr. Higgins, and to be honest, the guy is really starting to give me the creeps. Especially now that Club Heat has been vandalized and they think it was him and his crew. Of course they left no evidence, so there’s nothing that can be done.

  Taking one last deep breath, I step out of the car, grabbing my briefcase. When I approach the door, it opens like someone had been watching me, and now a blush creeps up my cheeks. They must wonder what the hell I was doing sitting in my car. Benny is holding it open and he says, “Mr. Higgins is waiting for you.”

  I stand up tall with my head held high. “Lead the way.” I don’t want these guys to think they intimidate me.

  “Mr. Higgins.” I hold out my hand to him as we approach. Once again he takes it and plants a wet kiss on my knuckle.

  “Good morning, love.” My brows shoot up at his endearment. This guy sickens me and now he’s calling me love.

  “Good morning, Mr. Higgins. Are you ready to see what we have so far?”

  “Please, let’s take a seat over here by the stage.” He points to a table and asks, “Can I get you coffee or something to eat.”

  “No, thank you. I’m fine.” I take the offered seat and begin pulling his file out of my briefcase. When I look back up, he’s staring down at me with a grin on his face. “Are you ready?” I ask, totally confused as to why he’s just staring at me.

  He sits in the chair and asks, “What do you have? I’ve cleared my entire morning just for you.” I want to roll my eyes, but don’t want to piss him off, and that’s exactly what would happen.

  “Well, I’m glad you have some time, because we have quite a bit to talk about. Let’s start with signage for outside.” I pull a few different designs out, some of which are light up signs like he has now, and one is more discreet. “I personally like the more discreet banner with just the name Vixen on it. It’s classier and it will make high profile clients feel like they can get in without a big flashing light on them that says look at me entering a strip club.”

  “Why the purple?” he questions.

  “How many strip clubs do you see around with pink banners? If you want to stick out, you have to be different. The purple and silver will set you apart from other clubs in the area.”

  “Fine, what else do you want to do to the outside?” he questions, coughing from too many cigars.

  “You need some plants outside, something to make it look nicer. You can get huge planters and put something that won’t need a lot of upkeep. That will be on you to talk to someone from a landscaping company or a nursery, but it’s our suggestion that you do.”

  “So you want me to take down my sign, put up this awning and put plants out front?” he questions with his brows raised.

  “If you want my honest opinion, I think you should fix the parking lot as we
ll, so the lines are cleaner.” He takes a deep breath. “Let’s talk about the private rooms you have. There are six of them. I think you should paint them and freshen up the furniture in there. Then we can talk about doing VIP rentals and having different pricing options. Those rooms can make some big money for you, but they need to be cleaned and made classier. For example, the chairs in there weren’t the nicest, and the few rooms that did have couches, the furniture was ripped.” I shrug my shoulders. If this guy wants to be competition, then he needs to pay and pay big. “Now as far as your website goes, my team is going to leave it as is for now, but this is what we’re thinking of doing.” I pull out some pages to show what the website will look like. A lot of it is in black and purple. I point out where we would list the VIP prices for the back rooms. “This is the part where you come in. You have to tell us what you want to list the rooms for and tell us what you can come up with for food packages. We also want to have bios of your girls so that whoever is renting them can select the girl or girls they want. You can decide if it’s one girl per room, or if you’re willing to charge more to have two girls.”

  “This is going to cost me a lot of money,” he states.

  “You said money was no object…that you wanted to be the top strip club again. These are some of the suggestions we’re making before we do a grand re-opening. We will invite high profile clients and come up with a way to do it discreetly, but you need to make this place look high profile, and I’m sorry, right now it doesn’t.”

  “You need to stop knocking my club. This place was fine for everyone until Club Heat came along,” he growls, spit flying from his mouth. He slams his fist on the table.

  My brows shoot up. “And now Club Heat is here and the club is probably in better shape than yours, because he remodeled it before opening his doors.”

  “Benny!” he shouts.

  “Yes, sir.” He comes running over to Mr. Higgins.

  “I want you to check out Club Heat this weekend. See if we in fact need to do all the updating that my love here says we need to.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  “Oh and Benny.” He turns back to his boss.

  “Bring a few of your boys, but don’t you dare drop a lot of money in that club. You check it out, watch a few of the shows, and get the hell out of there.”

  “Yes, sir.” He walks away, pulling his phone from his pocket.

  Mr. Higgins looks back at me. “Now it’s almost lunch time, what should we eat?” he questions, like I’m supposed to be here all day.

  “Mr. Higgins, I’m sorry, but I have another appointment, I’m going to have to wrap our meeting up soon.”

  He looks offended, like he really expected me to clear an entire day for him. “Well, I guess I need to be clear for our next meeting, and tell you that I want you to be a bit more flexible with your schedule for me,” he says angrily.

  “Well, in the meantime, if you’ll sign here…” I point to a spot on a form, giving me approval on the new logo, and to order and bill him for the awning. “I’ll get to work on ordering the awning for you, while you decide what you want to do about the VIP rooms.” I pull out another sheet with our list of suggestions on it. “When you’ve made some decisions, reach out to me and we’ll get to work on the website and a timeline for the grand re-opening.” I collect the rest of my paperwork and place it back into my bag.

  This time when I stand to leave, he says and does nothing. He’s seething that I didn’t stay and have lunch with him. I’m here to market his club and make it a success, not become his bitch, and I’m pissed he thinks he can control me that way. I stroll straight out the door and directly to my car. As soon as I’m in it, I hurry to start it and pull away as quickly as possible.

  I pull into a gas station up the street from the club and call Stone.

  “Hey, baby, how did your meeting go?” he asks with concern in his voice.

  “He’s sending some of his guys to check out Club Heat this weekend, but I don’t know when,” my voice is shaky.

  “He told you that?” he asks, sounding surprised.

  “No, but he told Benny to check out the club this weekend. He wants to see if he really needs to do all the upgrading we’re recommending before the grand re-opening. I’m pretty sure he thinks we’re just trying to get him to spend more money, but I don’t trust him.”

  “Yeah, me either,” Stone says. “Listen, when are you coming home?”

  “I’m on my way. I’m going to call the office to tell Tanya I’m not feeling well and to update her on the file when I get home.”

  “Good, I’ll see you when you get here. I need to call Logan and schedule a few extra men for Friday and Saturday night.”

  “All right, I’ll see you soon.” I cut the call and pull out of the gas station to make my way home.

  When I get there, Stone is on the phone with Logan and he looks pissed. He’s pacing the living room, running his fingers through his hair as he listens to Logan. He finally says, “Fine, I’m running an ad right now,” he growls into the phone and cuts the call.

  “What’s wrong?” I question.

  “One of the bouncers just quit, so we’re going to be short staffed for the weekend, and because I left Club Thrive, Logan can’t send anyone from there to work because he has a new guy on, and he wants added security there as well.” He sighs. “It’s going to be a long weekend.” He walks up to me, and slips his hand into my hair. “I need your help.”

  “Of course, anything,” I look deep into his concerned eyes.

  “I need you to hang at the club this weekend, so you can point out who this Benny guy is.”

  I look down to the floor. “I’m sorry, Stone, I had no idea this guy was going to start spying on the club.”

  “It’s not your fault. Actually, it happens more often than you think. I’m lucky, I have a great girlfriend who can inform me who the spies are.” He lifts my chin and presses his lips to mine. I instantly open and he deepens the kiss and I welcome it. After being around that scum bag, I need to feel his hands on me. His hands run down my back, pulling my shirt from my slacks, then glide over my skin, setting me on fire as he kisses his way across my jaw to my ear. He whispers, “I’m starved for you.” He then lowers his body, scooping me up and carrying me to our room.

  “Stone.”

  “Yeah, baby.”

  “I need to call my boss,” I whine while he nibbles on my earlobe.

  “She can wait a little longer. You need to feed me.” He places me on the bed. He climbs over me, grabs my shirt, and rips it open, sending my little buttons flying everywhere. I burst out into laughter.

  “Really? I love this shirt.”

  He presses a kiss between my breasts and says, “I’ll buy you fifty of them,” and then licks up the valley of my breasts to my neck. He bites my ear one more time while I pull his shirt from his pants and peel it over his head. He makes quick work of removing the remainder of my clothes and then stares down at my naked body. My hands run down the muscular bumps of his chest and abs, sending goosebumps running rampant all over his body. His nipples harden, making me want to nibble on them. I begin to sit up with the intention of doing just that when he gently pushes me back down on the bed. He licks his lips, and then presses them to mine, our tongues instantly battle it out in a heated kiss. His hand slips down my body, directly to my pussy, where he runs his fingers through my folds, gently slipping them inside and curling them to hit that beautiful spot that drives me wild. My hips instantly start to grind against his fingers. I’m greedy and I want more.

  He breaks our kiss and looks into my eyes. “I’m going to devour you,” he whispers, “but first you’re going to see why I’m so hungry for you.” He lifts his fingers to my mouth and says, “Suck them clean.” I let out a deep breath, hesitant at first. I’ve never tasted myself before and I’m not sure I want to. “Trust me baby, you taste fucking amazing.”

  Wanting to please him, I open my mouth and he slips his fingers in so I
can suck them clean. Sticking out my tongue, I lick the length of his two fingers the way I would his cock, never breaking eye contact. He groans in appreciation. “Delicious, huh?” he questions with a dirty grin. Then he lowers himself between my legs, wasting no time. “I hope you’re ready, because I want you and I want you now.” He plants his face between my legs, and instantly he’s licking his way through my folds. I’m trying like crazy to lay still the way he likes, but it’s not easy, because he wasn’t kidding when he said he wants me to come now. He’s devouring me, lapping up every drop of my juices. He stops licking my clit to fuck me with his tongue and that’s it, I’m done. My hips are grinding against his face, trying to cause more friction. I need to explode. I’m writhing on the edge and he knows it. He presses his thumb to my clit, rolling it around, and it’s just what I need. I bite my lip as my body trembles, my legs tightening around him, holding him still as I ride out one of the best orgasms of my life.

  Pressing my legs to my chest, he opens me up and licks from my ass to my clit. “Mmm, delicious,” he moans, doing it again. This time he lingers around my ass a bit longer. “I love this ass of yours.” He lubes his finger with my own juices and presses it into my hole.

  “Stone,” is all that comes out. I bite my lip to stifle my screams.

  “Should I bury myself in your ass or your pussy?”

  I release the breath I’m holding as he continues to finger fuck my ass. “Pussy, please.” He’s claimed my ass once before, but I’m still tight. He starts licking at my clit while pressing his finger against my tight hole, and instantly my hips jerk up, but his strong arms grab hold and pin me down.

  “Lay still,” he says with a stern tone. I bite my lip as I contemplate begging him to fuck me hard, but I decide to keep my mouth shut. He climbs up my body and looks into my eyes. “Good girl.” He presses his lips to mine. He tastes of him and my arousal, and it tastes even better than when he stuck his fingers in my mouth. “Are you getting impatient?” he questions, lining his cock up with my opening.