Chasing Down Changes (Moroad Motorcycle Club) (25 page)

"I will." Marci hurried away.

Tiff leaned against the wall in the hallway, unsure of her next step. Over the years, they'd experienced a few emergencies from migraines to sprained backs with the women who worked at Red Light. Only having each group of women around for three months meant they worked hard for ninety days and when they rotated out they had the option to vacation or take time off before jumping back on the schedule and traveling to the next bordello.

"What can we do?" Keely's lips pressed together.

Tiff shook her head, straightened her shoulders. "Nothing yet. Go ahead and take your showers, get ready for bed, and I'm going to go change before it's time to open Silver Girls."

"But, you'll let us know...if you hear how she's doing, right?" Amanda latched hands with Tahleena.

"I promise." She shooed them back to their rooms. "One-hour ladies and we're on lockdown. After that, televisions don't come on until ten and no loud music."

She hurried into her suite, pulled out her phone, and groaned. Where had she put the phone Jeremy gave her?

She'd promised him never to call him from her work cell.

After searching for five minutes, she found the right phone in the bedroom under a stack of mail. She texted Jeremy. "Marci will stay with H."

She shut off the phone and put it back on the dresser. Time ticked away from her. She needed to hurry if she planned on opening Silver Girls on time. Any sign out of the ordinary raised people's curiosity, and she needed everything to go on schedule.

Showered, made-up, dressed, and exhausted, she slid on her heels and wondered why Jeremy hadn't returned. She was growing more worried the longer she waited without any word.

Her phone rang. She grabbed the cell without looking to see who was calling and pushed the button. "Hello?"

"It's me," said Marci.

"How is Hannah?" She walked into the living room.

"Not good. I'm taking her to the hospital. Dr. Brandof scheduled her to have emergency surgery to take her appendix out. Supposedly, it's about to pop or rupture. It's infected, too. The doctor is in front of me on the interstate. We should be there in five minutes."

"Oh, God. Poor Hannah." She paced the room. "Before she goes in for surgery, see if she wants us to call or contact anyone."

"I will." Marci paused. "I'll call you later and update you."

"Wait, hang on." She changed her mind about asking after Jeremy. "Thank you."

She disconnected the call, knowing she couldn't mention Jeremy's name on the business phone. There was nothing she could do about the situation anyway, so close to the time to open Silver Girls.

She grabbed the bag Marci gave her earlier and went searching for the Red Light women to inform them of what was happening with Hannah. She found Keely in her room and was informed the others were still in their showers. "Hannah's at the hospital. The doctor is going to take her appendix out. I'm not sure how long she'll be there, but she's where there are nurses and doctors to help her and she'll be okay."

"Oh, shit." Keely covered her mouth and shook her head.

"What?"

Keely lowered her hand. "She was planning on working until the end of rotation here and would have enough money saved to go back home. She wanted to reconcile with her mom. If she can't work, she won't have enough money and will have to work next quarter at a new bordello. If she can. I don't even know what all is involved with having her appendix taken out. That's major surgery or something. Will she be able to have sex afterward?"

"Yes, but I don't know how long it'll take her to recover." Tiff's phone vibrated. "That's my alarm. I need to go downstairs. Fill in the other ladies, and let me deal with what happens next for Hannah. There's no use worrying or getting her upset."

"Okay." Keely inhaled deeply, pressing her hand to her stomach. "Thanks for taking such good care of us. Some bordello owners, well we don't have it as nice as we do here at Red Light."

Tiff reached out and squeezed Keely's hand. "What you do for a living is only a fraction of what you ladies are about. You deserve respect and appreciation."

Keely nodded and smiled. Tiff took a big breath. "Okay, I need to get downstairs before the dancers wonder where I am."

On the main floor, she found women from Bantorus MC and Moroad MC talking up a storm in the dressing room. She knocked on the open door to get everyone's attention.

The room quieted, and all eyes looked at her. She smiled. "I have clips for your outfits."

Katie from Moroad handed out the needed supplies. Tiff caught Lola standing with the Moroad women and decided to leave the room. Shari had everything covered with the dancers, and the last thing she wanted was Lola snitching on her for being out of Jeremy's
designated safe zone
.

She wandered out into the main room, pulled out a chair, and tried to force herself to relax. An upset schedule played havoc with her head. Her legs were already tired from working upstairs, and she still had the whole night to go.

"Would you like a drink?" Teri, one of the servers setting up the mobile bar, held up an empty glass.

"Water, please." Tiff's stomach gurgled. She'd skipped lunch and...shit. With all the hectic pace of the evening, she forgot to order dinner for the Red Light ladies.

Teri set the water glass in front of her. "Here you go."

"Thanks." She used her cell to call Marci, waited for her to pick up, and said, "Hey, I totally forgot to order dinner upstairs. When you get back can you tell them I'm sorry and there's food in the fridge. They'll have to make do. I'll make it up to them tomorrow night by ordering from Lenny's."

Marci promised and let her go, she set down her phone, and drank from the glass. Usually, she stayed away from drinking before a long night, afraid a bathroom break would hit her at the worst moment, but if she didn't keep herself busy, she was going to stress out in front of the customers.

A knock sounded at the double doors. She swiveled on her chair and spotted the new deputy standing out front. Looking around the room, she found no bikers in the building yet, but two servers remained at the bar. She stood and walked to the door, opening it with a smile.

"Deputy, how are you tonight?" She stepped back allowing him to come in.

Her hand went to the side of her thigh, and she almost cussed out loud. She always, always strapped her small pistol to her leg when she worked, and in the commotion upstairs, she forgot.

"I'm good. Thanks for asking." Deputy Williams took off his hat and flashed her a smile. "I'm early. I thought I'd come inside and get a good look around before the customers arrive."

"Sure." She swept her arm to the side. "The dancers are dressing in the back, so I'll have to ask you to respect their privacy. My boarders are in their rooms upstairs and because they're paying guests and not part of Silver Girls, the second story is off limits."

Deputy Williams strolled around the main room, touching the back of chairs, gazing at the erotic velvet pictures hanging on the walls, and peeked behind the mobile bar before returning to her.

"I'd heard this wasn't the original building, and everything got destroyed by a fire years ago." Deputy Williams put his hat back on his head.

"That's correct." She clasped her hands behind her back. "That was before I became the owner, but from what I've been told, the builder tried his best to replicate the times and architecture from pictures the previous owner gave to him."

"Fascinating." The deputy gazed over at the stairs. "When it's convenient for your
guests
, I'd love a tour of the upstairs."

Her heart raced. "I'm sorry. Like I said, I respect my guests' privacy. Those are private living quarters and not open to the public."

Deputy William's gaze shot back to her, and he raised his brows, beaming an extra big smile that never reached his eyes. "Never say never."

She dipped her chin in acknowledgment and dropped the subject. "If you'll excuse me, I need to check on the dancers and give them their ten-minute warning."

"Of course." He remained where he was with no intent to wait outside.

She turned and hurried out of the room. What a jerk.

Lola intercepted her, startling her out of her escape. "Jeremy told you never to be alone with him."

"Stop shaking me." Tiff shrugged off Lola's hands. "There was nothing I could do about it, and the servers were in the room. Was I supposed to ignore an officer of the law?"

"Stay back here until it's time to open the doors or until one of the bikers arrives." Lola's eyes softened. "Or, stay with me."

The last thing she wanted was to wait with Lola and have one of the men rescue her from a bad conversation and a deputy. Tiff exhaled loudly and walked around Lola when the back door opened.

Jeremy strolled in, intense and glaring. She pivoted to go to him when Shari called her name.

"We're short one clip." Shari held up the empty bag.

"Dammit." She held up her hands. "Sorry, that's all Marci gave me."

"I'll sit out one dancer for that routine. Problem solved, and the show will go on." Shari twirled her hand in the air, turned, and disappeared into the room.

Jeremy turned her around. Her head spun. She needed a break.

"Never let Williams in the building unless he has a warrant." Jeremy's low, rough voice grew deeper. "He has no right to come in here unless Silver Girls is open for business."

"Oh, and that doesn't scream 'search the building'." She gazed up into his hardened face. "You never did tell me what the big deal was about him."

Jeremy ran his hand over his face. "Dirty cop. He's been arrested and arraigned a couple of times. I don't trust him around here or around you."

"Maybe I can talk to Sheriff Colby and have him arrange another deputy to patrol Silver Girls on the nights it's open." Tiff gave her head a sharp shake, ran her hands down his vest, feeling the bulge of his pistol "How's Hannah?"

"She'll be fine. I followed Marci and her to the hospital and made sure Marci could handle getting her inside, and then I came back here." He kissed her hard. "Breathe deep, and let's get done with tonight. Leave the security of Silver Girls to Moroad."

"Mm." She relaxed her shoulders. "I'm trying."

Together they walked into the main room. She double checked to make sure everything was in place and then opened the doors to let in the customers.

Deputy Williams was nowhere to be seen.

T
he alley between the Sterling Building and the vacant building beside it currently served as a path for customers to slip onto the back street and climb the stairs to the door for their Red Light visits. Jeremy sat on his Harley at the curb in the late evening before the sun went down. The back street, the alley, and the buildings in view.

Tiff had security covered on the inside during Red Light hours and left herself wide open on the outside.

Sheriff Colby's random patrols around the block were more an act of charity than protection. Anyone cutting through town twice because they forgot milk on their first trip to Country Mart could pick up on the foot traffic going into the upstairs.

Curious minds always looked for more to the daily life of regulars. Whether boredom fed their need to create a fabricated life for others or people were more aware of their surroundings nowadays because of terrorist threats or the faster pace of life, he needed to find a more secure way to get customers inside before some middle-aged woman decided to spread rumors.

One after another, three customers forged their way out of the building, paranoid of discovery, and hurrying in separate directions. In five minutes, the next round would start. At fifteen minutes a pop, Red Light served anywhere from forty to fifty men a night. He spit on the sidewalk. Four hours of work, four days a week, and the women upstairs walked away in three months with a bankroll of dough to share their talents somewhere else.

The customers came from every state as they traveled Interstate 90 and as close as Federal where the miners and male population routinely came to get their itch scratched.

A roar of a motorcycle broke through his thoughts. Jeremy gazed down the street, surprised that after all these years the rumble of Cam's bike still brought him to attention.

His dad pulled up beside him and shut off the engine. "What's up?"

Jeremy shrugged. "You're the one that came to me."

"Right." Cam pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and exhaled the smoke. "I wanted to touch base and find out when you wanted the word spread about your new role with Moroad. Our contacts will want to hear the news of the changeover from me before you approach them in my place."

"Go ahead." Jeremy caught sight of the first customer of the last round of men working his way to the back of the building. "If you want, you can continue making the pickup for the extortion payments. That's your baby."

Cam nodded. "What about Christina doing payroll?"

"Does she want to continue the job?" Jeremy watched the upstairs door open, and Tiff's smiling face appear.

"She's talked about letting someone else take over once I stepped down." Cam flicked his smoke out into the street.

Jeremy scratched the back of his arm. "I'll talk to Bear. He's good with numbers and prefers to work on backgrounds and to dig into shit."

"What about Pack?" Cam reached down and rubbed his knee. "He's younger and more into that technology crap if you go by way of what the other gangs are doing."

One thing Jeremy stood strong against was the use of trackable phones, computers, and information floating around on a wire. His thought process followed Cam's ideas for the club.

"We're staying off-grid." Jeremy leaned forward. "I've put Pack on watch. I caught him, Graves, Monty, and Rebar with a shit ton of pot."

"It's not unusual for our brothers to deal," said Cam.

"Have you always let them store their supplies on Moroad land in one of the empty motel rooms?" Jeremy faced his dad.

Cam stared straight ahead. Jeremy gave him no more time to dwell on something he'd overlooked.