Tough Guy: A Hero Club Novel by Jamie Schmidt (the reading list .TXT) 📗

could have gone with her. She had woken up nervous and freaking out about meeting Parker and verbally sparring with Lisa.

I smiled at how I had relaxed her a bit. My cock throbbed as I thought about how hot and wet she’d felt when I fucked her up against the window while she looked out over the Strip. I was looking forward to doing it again tonight. And for the rest of the nights of the next week. I hadn't given up the idea of convincing her to stay, but when she was so wrapped up in knots about Lisa, I didn't want to add to her stress.

While I was checking all the stations and making sure the bar was fully stocked with clean glasses and enough booze, I ran into Paulie in the kitchen. He looked like someone had beaten the shit out of him.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“I got into a car accident.” He turned away from me to unload plates from the dishwasher to the prep station.

I looked closer. “Before or after you took a beating? Don't bullshit me. I know what it looks like when you get worked over.”

“I don't want to talk about it.”

“Too bad. When you didn't show up for work, guess what I found in your locker?”

He shrugged. “I don't know.”

“Don’t you? Is that why you got knocked around?”

“I don't know what you're talking about, man.”

Liu was trying to get my attention from the walk-in, so I let Paulie off the hook. I hoped Leonidas was a little more talkative. Of course Grier thought Paulie had been set up, so maybe the gun and the baggies had been planted there after Paulie left.

“What?” I said, aggravated, leaning against the big refrigerator door.

“You're not going to believe this shit,” he said, handing me a tray of meats and cheese. “That asshole Zeke wants his job back.”

That was interesting. “What do you think?”

“He was good when he was here. I don't like that he took off without notice, but we could use people we don't have to train. And you took back Paulie, so why not Zeke?”

“I think Zeke might be running his own business out of the club. Escorts,” I said at Liu's look. I wasn't going to tell him about Dee's newest profession because it wasn't his business. But I didn't want Zeke leading away any of the dancers to Pahrump.

“His sister is a good worker,” Liu said. “I'd bet she'd keep an eye on him.”

“If you want him, he's yours. Don't let him know that I suspect he's up to no good. If he's clean, no problem. If he's messing around, I want to catch him in the act.”

“Deal.”

A few more rounds with security, the DJ, and of course the girls, and we were ready to open. Some clubs were twenty-four hours, but I closed my doors at four a.m. and opened them back up at noon. I only needed about six hours of sleep a night. I had been doing this every day for two years. I was getting sick of the inside of the club. If Jackie did stay in Las Vegas, maybe I'd ask Highway if he wanted to be promoted to manager and we'd split up the shifts. Maybe I'd do it even if Jackie went home.

I signaled for the DJ to start playing and three dancers sauntered into place on each of the small U-shaped stages.

“Open the doors,” I said to the doorman. I was pleased that there had been a small line. At the end of the line were Leonidas and his lieutenants.

“You got the money?” he asked when he got to where I was standing in the middle of the club.

“You've got the information?”

Leonidas nodded.

“You want to do this out here or in my office?”

“We might want some privacy for this conversation.”

I shrugged as if it didn't matter and led them back to my office. I saw Grier and Miranda getting up from their usual table. He followed her into the VIP room just as I reached my office. The goons sat on the couch and Leonidas perched a hip on my desk. He glanced at Uncle Johnny’s album and I inwardly cursed. I couldn't believe I’d left it out.

“That you as a kid?”

“Me and my uncle.” I tossed him the five thousand dollars. It was rolled up and secured with a rubber band.

He lobbed it to one of his lieutenants on the couch to count it.

“You've been waiting a long time for this,” he said.

“It better be accurate information.”

“It is. You've been staring at them for the last two years.” He jerked his thumb behind him. “Konner and Dieter from the pawn shop across the street had it in for your uncle for years. Surely, you remember that?”

“I remember that there was no love lost between them, but murder and arson? I don't buy it. The cops didn’t either when they questioned them back then.”

“Konner and Dieter are mob connected. They're not big fish, but they know people who are. While you were hustling drunks and laying socialites in Mykonos, Johnny was struggling financially.”

My jaw clenched. I hadn't known it at the time, but after the fire I had been stuck with settling his estate. He had been a few months from bankruptcy when he died.

“Your uncle went to Konner and Dieter and said he wanted to cash in on the club’s insurance policy. He hired them to burn it down.”

I was shaking my head in denial. But in my gut, it sounded right.

“He was getting old and getting sick of the club. He wasn't bringing in the crowd that he had been in the seventies and eighties. He wanted a lump sum to move to Florida and live the good life. He even had a girl picked out to take with him.” Leonidas handed me a photograph. For a second, I expected to see one of the burlesque dancers I knew from the old days. Instead I saw a younger version of