JOHN PAUL

"Is everything ready for tonight?" I ask Adonis as I slide my arms into my suit jacket.

"Si, Capo. People are arriving as we speak."

"What is it? You look like you're fighting with yourself on something..." I point out as I watch him pace the room with his arms crossed, biting his thumbnail.

"I swear to you I only waited because I thought it didn't matter after she quit," Adonis says, running both of his hands through his hair, and I hear him mutter to himself in Italian, along with some cursing.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Stella..."

"What about her?" I turn on him quickly. "Did something happen? Where is she?"

"No, no. Stella's fine, Capo. She's at the club." Adonis tells me, and I let out a breath in relief. I'm not sure I would be able to handle hearing something happening to her again.

"It's just," Adonis looks at me worriedly, "she's not Rio's assistant. I mean, she does help a lot with hiring and training, but..."

"But what?" I growl, losing my patience quickly.

"She works for him as one of the dancers; she's the lead dancer for the group, and she'll be dancing tonight and tomorrow, JP." He says quietly, and I feel the constant simmering volcano within me begin to rise and start to erupt.

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me? You know who will be there tonight and tomorrow, Donny!" I shout. "Why did you wait until now to tell me?"

"Honestly, I thought that first night when she clocked you and told Rio she quit; I wouldn't have to. I thought she was only going to the club to help with the administrative side of things and only found out this morning that she's been practicing all week and will be performing tonight, too."

I groan in frustration; this can't be happening. What a fucking nightmare.

"Boss, you don't have to listen to me, but you said you want to prove to her that you're different than before..." I look over at him, curious about where he's going with this.

"The old you would go storming in and carry her out of the club like some caveman, but what if...you just showed support for her choice to do what she wants?" He asks.

I take a few deep breaths. He has a point, but I don't know if I can do it. "Please tell me they're not going to undress completely."

Adonis shakes his head, "No. But, of course, there will be some removal of clothing, but they're not nude...completely."

I still don't think I can handle seeing her up there, dancing, let alone removing her clothes for all the men that will be there tonight. But maybe he's right; I can show her I've changed, in some ways.

I can be supportive about this. 

Yes, I can do this.

I think.

"Let's go," I grunt out.

<><><><>

The bouncer greets us as Adonis and I walk in, followed by a couple of my men. The lighting is dim, and the music is at a reasonable volume where people can still converse with one another. The recently hired waitresses are milling around to get drinks for the already seated men.

Most of the tables on the main floor are filling up, as well as some of the booths, but it's not as packed as it will be tomorrow.

Several guests notice me as I walk in and nod in my direction; others start making their way to me, undoubtedly to kiss ass.

"Keep the talks short; I think the first number will be starting soon," Adonis tells me, and then he curses under his breath. I glance in the direction he's looking and understand his annoyance.

I nod in greeting to the man making his way towards us as I talk to Adonis. "Steer him away from me. I don't want to talk for an hour about his sick grandmother, again." Adonis nods, cursing as he approaches the middle-aged Don out of Boston before he gets to us.

All the guests have been briefed on the purpose of tonight and tomorrow's trial runs.

I plan to open more clubs, and having investors, shareholders, and associates, in general, coming these two nights to see how they run and perform only enhances my opportunities for them to contribute.

"Johnny, I'll show you to your table." Rio greets me and leads me to a table directly in front of the stage, and I don't know if I should be relieved or terrified.

I see Cristian and Enzo with their group sitting already and Santino, Samantha, Joey, and Annalisa.

This will be interesting, but maybe they all already knew about Stella dancing and didn't tell me. Fucking assholes.

"This club is great, JP," Joey comments as he sips his beer.

"Is Stella in the back office or cooking in the back of the bar or something? We haven't seen her yet." Topo asks. Well, I guess that answers that.

"There's no food here," I state. Topo looks back at me confused, and then he looks at Cristian and Enzo. Enzo eyes me suspiciously.

"What?" I question Enzo, irritated, even though I'm more anxious about what we will see.

But Topo is the one who speaks up again. "I thought she works here, doing training or something?"

Before I can respond with a smartass reply on the tip of my tongue, the DJ speaks loudly into the microphone, welcoming everyone. Rio and Eva sit at the table next to us as the opening song starts playing, my palms start to sweat, and my heart rate picks up.

"Girl, I love me some Pussycat Dolls," Samantha tells Annalisa, and she agrees with her.

The DJ introduces the girls, the anxious tension in my stomach builds as each of the girls who've been staying at the house comes out. When I see Victoria, my mind goes to how much Stella didn't like her. She hated her, and now they're like friends, working and dancing together.

They each do a short dance at the mention of their name, but when the last dancer is introduced as "Raven," that's when everything stops.

Stella struts out; her walk is strong yet seductive as she stands in the group's center and moves alluringly to the music. She's wearing a short chin-length black wig, but we all know it's her.

Everyone at the table reacts differently; Annalisa and Samantha cheer loudly. Joey and Topo's mouths are wide open, Rocco and Mateo snigger but try to hide it, and Enzo looks more furious than I feel. At the same time, Cristian appears indifferent at first as he holds onto Enzo's arm to keep him in place, yet there is no hiding the look of disapproval on his face as he watches her.

The girls move together towards the edge of the stage and begin their routine.

Adonis slides into his seat next to me, and I happen to notice someone standing as he looks up at the stage at another table.

Rio stands cursing as he heads over to the unknown man, but I recognize a couple of the men at his table who are trying to get him to sit down. I watch as Rio exchanges a few short words with the man, and he sits down heavily into his chair, his eyes fixated on the stage just like everyone else's.

My attention is pulled back on Stella as she moves in synchronized moves with the other girls. They start undressing at a certain point, where the song talks about their clothes not fitting on them. She's left in a black bra and a very short skirt; I remind myself it could be worse, even though it doesn't fucking seem like it at the moment.

The girls move provocatively around her as she dances. Stella's eyes focus on me for a moment, and I see a hint of a smirk on her face. I narrow my eyes at her. It takes everything in me to keep from pulling her off of the stage. The thought of punishing her for doing something like this passes through my mind. But who am I kidding? It wouldn't be much of a punishment as much as pleasurable.

I shake the thoughts from my mind as Annalisa and Samantha are cheering for her loudly, and the crowd whistles and claps when the song is over, and the girls head off the stage.

"I don't know about you guys, but I can honestly say that was an incredible opening number. Don't you agree?" Santino asks, chuckling.

"Damn, if someone would have told me Stella would be a stripper one day, I would have laughed my ass off, but here she is..." Joey comments, and I feel myself coming over the edge again.

"You didn't know, did you?" Enzo asks me as he watches me, and I shake my head at him.

This is not what she was supposed to be doing with her life, and I feel somewhat responsible for how I handled everything from the very beginning. Timo must be rolling over in his grave right now.

"The girls aren't strippers." Rio clarifies, snapping me out of my thoughts. "They're more like go-go dancers. Raven or Stella is one of the more popular performers at the club in Miami. Several clients comment on her artistic ability since she uses more props, wigs, and costumes for her numbers compared to the other girls, as you all saw. I didn't know what her real hair color or length was until a couple of months ago."

"She's also one of the few with no formal training, but when she came in for her audition, there was something about her that drew me in. She has this effect on people. She can make you feel what she's feeling while she's dancing." Rio laughs suddenly, and it takes me out of my violent-filled thoughts hearing him talk about her the way he was, "Granted some of her dancing and music choices, has some tongue-in-cheek humor to it."

"What do you mean?" Samantha asks before she takes a sip of her drink.

"She wasn't very welcomed by the other girls when she had first started because of her very first dance. It set a bad impression on some of the girls, but the other girls' the few who are here, saw the humor in it the song choice.

I know now after getting to know her a little better she did it to prevent men from approaching her, but it didn't work; quite the opposite," Rio laughs again. "And the regulars at the club request her to perform it often; Stella's built a steady fan club and clientele a little under a year that she's worked at After Dark."

The DJ interrupts the conversation, "Okay, let's keep the fun going; give it up for the one and only, Raven!" The crowd cheers now that they can put a face to the name, but as the song begins, Rio groans.

"Dammit! I told her not to do this song, at least not for the trial runs." He fumes as the song begins to play.

Out of all the reactions I expected Cristian to have. I did not expect him to start laughing.

He laughs so hard he's clutching at his stomach. I don't think I've ever heard him laugh, now that I think about it. A chuckle here and there, sure, but this is different, and then I listen to others in the room begin to laugh, specifically the table where the disgruntled man from before was standing.

"Wait, isn't this song about--" Santino begins asking before Cristian cuts him off.

"It's about a girl having the clap, but AC/DC had to change the name of the song to The Jack to be more "acceptable" on mainstream radio when it was first released," Cristian informs us all.

A spotlight comes on the stage, and Stella is lying on a small platform box and lifts her legs one at a time before lowering them again. She's not wearing heels for this song, and it adds to her already sexy look.

She sits up, moving to the song, and sashay's slowly across the stage in a skirt and a button-up blouse; her hair is piled on top of her head in a beautifully messy bun. She pulls at her hair, and it tumbles down as she swings her head around over and over again, her long curly hair moving in every which direction.

She sways her hips back and forth and slowly starts to unbutton the shirt, and I grip on to my glass so tight, my hand starts shaking.

Adonis pries the glass from my death grip, and Stella's now only in a skimpy red bra and tiny cheeky red satin bottoms; she's wearing a garter on her right leg, like the song lyrics state.

After some writhing on the floor, she strolls to the pole and begins using it in her dancing. She spreads her legs as she swings herself around and spins before her legs wrap around the pole, and she flips upside down.

She places her hands on the ground, then releases her hold on the pole and flips down, landing in a split; the crowd cheers in appreciation.

"I forgot how flexible she is," Joey comments; Annalisa laughs but smacks the back of his head.

Stella saunters to one side of the stage and moves in front of the table where the man was standing, but I watch as she moves away rather quickly and heads back to our side, and focuses on Mateo and Rocco, who are closest to the edge of the stage.

My eyes land on the tattoo running down the outside of her left hip, and I wonder what it says or what it is.

"Get it, baby girl!" Samantha encourages her.

Stella sways with the song and smiles as she moves down on her knees while teasingly beckoning Rocco and Mateo to go to her with her fingers. I don't know if they realize they are both leaning forward like she's pulling them towards her, and I start to get up, but Adonis puts a hand on my shoulder.

She winks at them before she stands and moves to the pole again, and we watch as she climbs to the top and does a split with both feet on the pole.

"How the hell is she holding herself up?" Samantha asks the question I'm sure we're all wondering.

Towards the end of the song, the entire room is chanting "Jack" along with the damn song as she dances; the music finally fucking stops, and the crowd erupts in loud cheers, and she blows kisses to the audience and fucking bows, and it reminds of the night we went Karaoke singing. She did the same thing; only she was wasted then.

"Well," Rocco sighs deeply, "I need a cigarette after that, and I don't even smoke!" Everyone at the table laughs except Enzo and me.

Rio gets up abruptly, cursing, and follows behind the man standing earlier and rushes to the back area; a few of his friends are hot on his heels, and Enzo hurries after Rio for some reason.

Adonis looks at me and shrugs. I throw back my drink and contemplate if I should follow or let Rio handle whatever the hell is going on back there.

~~~~~

Any ideas on what's going to happen next? 😬

Don't forget to vote, comment and share!

Xoxo LJRae 💋