Big Girls Don't Cry (21 page)

He glared at her, clearly sizing her up. She returned his stare. Then tugging on her bottom lip, she did her best to add a sultry smile. That may have done it because he flushed under his orangey tan and grabbed a dirty handkerchief from his pants pocket. He wiped off his brow, capturing streaks of color along with his greasy sweat.

Bella sauntered over to a cabinet and pulled out a couple of glasses.

“James, do you mind if Sarah Jane and I have a bit of that Canadian Mist of yours before we start?” She nodded at Lexie and leaned closer to James. Giving him a conspiratorial wink, she whispered loud enough for Lexie to hear, “I think she’s a little nervous. Let’s see if we can help take the edge off. I’m looking forward to getting it on with her, but she needs to be loosened up.”

James tugged at his groin. Jerking his head at the chair next to him, he motioned to Lexie.

“Park your ass in that chair, girl. And be quick about it.”

Lexie pretended to hurry. So he got off on dominance, but couldn’t get it up with a woman? Lexie shuddered. From long experience, she knew that was a bad combination. Bad for the women who made the mistake of confronting him. She bit her lip and sunk into the chair, not meeting his eyes.

Lexie choked out a nervous sounding laugh.

“That whiskey sounds good, James. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll help myself.”

She poured herself a finger of the amber liquid and one for Bella. Noting that James’ eyes were locked on Bella’s breasts, she filled his glass to the top.

Assuming a cheery pose, she raised her glass to them both.

“Bottoms up!”

To her relief, James didn’t look at the glass, just tipped it back and drained it. Exchanging a knowing glance with Bella, she leaned over and refilled his glass. Bella leaned forward, arching her back to better display the golden flesh that threatened to overflow her tightly laced corset.

“James, I think Sarah Jane will be a great addition to our team. You should see how the men in the club are lusting after her. She could get any one of them to go anywhere that she asked them to.”

He glanced over at her. To her relief, Lexie saw that his eyes were glazed as if he was trying to get her in focus. Without looking at the glass, he tipped it up and emptied it, then swiped a big paw across his mouth. Lexie leaned in closer to refill his glass. The stench of his sweat combined with alcohol was over powering. She swallowed her revulsion and smiled at him.

“I hear you throw good parties, James.” She laughed and tossed her head. “With a little ruffie to warm me up, I’m a genuine party animal.”

He leaned back in the chair and splayed his legs apart. Tugging at his belt, he growled at Bella, “You, now! You first.” He jerked his finger at Lexie. “And then both of you.”

Lexie closed her eyes for a brief moment to regain her composure. When she looked up, she was relieved to see Bella calmly walk over to the stereo and punch a button. When the acid tones of Ginuwine’s
Pony
blast out, she almost laughed. Refusing to look at the man sitting beside her, she giggled when Bella rolled her eyes, and said in a sweet voice, hiding her distain, “This is James’s favorite song, isn’t it, baby?” At his low grunt, she nodded and moved to the center of the room.

Lexie watched in admiration as her friend began a sexy dance. Her movements were seductive, practiced. But Lexie noted with her expert eye that Bella was not dancing for James. She was dancing for herself. It was as though he wasn’t there. Lexie gave a sigh of relief, remembering the lessons from long ago. You don’t dance for them, you dance for yourself. For a brief moment, she remembered dancing for Jake the night before. She saw him leaning against the wall, his thumbs tucked in his belt loops. His dancing eyes, his wicked wink, like a lean panther biding its time preparing to take down his prey: her. She quashed the memory, refusing to let the ugliness in the room pollute that glorious moment.

As Ginuwine thumped to a stop, and Nelly’s
Hot in Here
cranked out, Bella grinned at her and tweaked a finger, urging her forward. Lexie jumped up and joined her friend. She refused to see or hear the disgusting actions and sounds of the man in the chair. Instead, she focused on the music and on Bella. To her surprise, the music grabbed her. Imitating the flashy moves of her partner, and adding some of her own, she ignored the loathsome man and danced to her own beat.

Bella sidled closer pretending to press against her. She winked at Lexie and whispered, “Maybe we should give him a towel.” Lexie chortled and gave her friend a playful bump. Glancing over her shoulder, refusing to look lower than his face, she saw James squinting at her, trying to focus his glassy eyes. She spun away and gave in to the beat of the music and the trilling laughter of her outrageous friend.

Chapter 21

Lexie closed the door behind her and leaned back against the wall, trying to erase the hideous scene from her scarred vision. She looked up to see Brady sitting at one of her tables, his eyes dark with concern. She nodded to him then sauntered over to the bar and gathered up a several bottles of beer. She pasted a big smile on her face and strolled over to his table. With a sigh, she plunked herself down in the chair next to him.

Fortunately, her job description called for her to flirt with the customers and that included drinking on the job if she wished. Lexie leaned over and handed Brady one of the bottles of beer.

Picking at the label on her bottle, she murmured. “That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Maintaining his practiced nonchalance, Brady murmured, “And what might that be, hotshot? Can’t get my head around you doing anything that is disgusting. Outrageous, yes! Disgusting, no!”

She shrugged. “It was in the line of duty. And, yes, since I’m sure you will ask, it was my first time. I’ve got so much to tell you. I made a real breakthrough”

Brady’s voice was low, a wicked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, I bet you do. But just for a moment, humor me. Details, woman! Don’t leave me hanging! A little more info on the every man’s favorite jerk off, the girl on girl lap dance.”

Lexie laughed out loud.

“Brady, you are awful. Listen. I’m telling you, this is important. The man, that awful man, is the guy who is hiring the girls. They call him the Watcher – for obvious reasons. Part of the
‘
interview’ process is a lap dance.” She shuddered. “Thank God it wasn’t on him. I’m not sure I could have done it. He was dreadful, Brady.”

Brady’s cheeks flushed and his eyes danced.

“C’mon, Lexie, we can talk big bad criminals anytime. Drug dealers? Pfft! But a fucking girlie lap dance? Oh, yeah!”

Lexie tried to glare at him, but his humor was infectious, especially after what she had been through. It felt good to laugh and joke around, helped make the repulsive memory more bearable.

“Fine! What do you want to know?”

“Ah, that’s better, hotshot. Now we’re getting to the crux of the issue. You did it with whom? Tell me it was that hot brassy Isabella and I will curl up and die from over- stimulation.”

Lexie shook her head.

“You are incorrigible. And, yes. It was Isabella and she was great!” She winked at him. “If I was into that sort of thing, I might have…”

Brady threw up his hands in mock dismay. “Don’t even say it! I won’t be able to drive home.”

He added with a salacious grin. “Any chance you girls are up for a repeat? You know, just so I can make my report as accurate as possible.”

Lexie punched his arm, hard.

“Don’t you dare, Brady. This isn’t going in any report. But, seriously, we need to make sure Jake is at the house. I have a lot to tell him.”

She heard Brady mutter under his breath, “Yeah, honey. You sure do.”

~~~

“Bella insists that Sergio and the gangs are not involved. She also insisted that she doesn’t know who the mastermind is. The only one she knows is the guy she introduced me to tonight.”

Jake sat across from her at the kitchen table. Brady and Clint were at either end. He nodded thoughtfully.

“Do you believe her?”

“I’m not sure. I want to believe her, I like her. She is smart, Jake. Savvy. Street smart. She told me flat out that she and the other girls are dealing. There’s no reason for her to tell me the gangs aren’t involved if they are. She was adamant. Said both Sergio and the gangs are making more hands off than they could running it.”

“Okay. Let’s assume she’s being straight with you. Tell me about the ‘man.’ What’s his role?”

“From what she said, he is the conduit to the mastermind. His job is to recruit the girls and set up parties to introduce their marks to both the girls and the drugs. Their primary target is all the guys coming through her on their short term training missions. She said more than a million people pass through this little town every year.”

“Yeah, I know that. She’s right. No question, there are plenty of opportunities to target potential users.”

“She also said the drugs are the purest shit she’s ever dealt.” Lexie shrugged. “She knows her stuff, Jake. She rattled off more statistics about heroin that I’ve ever heard.”

“Hmm. That’s interesting. You need to get some samples, Lexie. If it isn’t coming from Mexico like we’ve all assumed, we need to find out the source, could be the turning point in this investigation.”

Lexie grinned at him and reached in her jeans pocket and pulled out a baggie filled with white powder. Smacking it on the table, she said, “Your wish is my command.”

Jake whistled and shook his head, admiration written all over his face.

Brady guffawed. “Damn, hotshot, you had that in your pocket when we drove on base? I don’t know how else to put this. Girl, you’ve got balls!”

All three men laughed.

Jake handed the baggie to Clint.

“Take this over to the lab. Don’t talk to anyone except Dr. Chang. I’ll call and tell him you are coming. Reinforce that this is for his eyes only. I don’t want anyone to know that he is running this.”

Lexie was surprised and from the quizzical glance Brady and Clint exchanged, she wasn’t the only one.

Seeming to see their surprise, Jake was non-committal. “This stays among the four of us. That includes anyone on the base except Dr. Chang, as well as anyone in the YPD, including Chief Burton.”

“I gave Brady a full description. From what Bella said, he is there almost every night. The girls call him the Watcher. He’s creepy, Jake. And he doesn’t ‘match’.”

“What do you mean ‘match’?”

“His appearance. His skin is wrinkled. He’s at least fifty years old and he’s got all the markings of a hard drinker. And he was a weird color. Orangey. When he mopped off his face, I saw flecks of orangey color, like he was wiping off his tan. And for a guy his age, his hair was too glossy, too black. And his moustache is just not real.”

“It was strange, Jake. He was drunk. Could barely focus. Bella said he’s that way every night. If he’s that important, why would the ‘mastermind’ hire an over the hill drunk to be his middleman?”

“Good observation, Lexie. He doesn’t seem like a trustworthy interface. Gotta be a reason.” He turned to Clint. “It’s more important than ever we find out who he really is.”

“The guy is the recruiter and he wanted to interview me. It’s just that he has a rather unusual interview process.” She shrugged. “And that’s it.”

“Well, first of all he asks lots of questions. He seemed suspicious when I gave him my fake name. I told him I use different names because I never know who’s after me. He wanted to know if I was wanted by the cops. I said yes. Implied that I turned tricks and did drugs.”