“I’m sorry, Vike, but I’m going in.” I turn my back on them and pull open the door before he can stop me.
Inside, it’s dark; the music playing is loud, and despite it only being eleven am, all the men who are in here are drinking. There are a few of the girls dancing on podiums; none of them look happy, and when the guy who’s standing behind the bar sees that Vike has followed me in, he takes a baseball bat out from under it and starts heading toward us.
“I suggest you put that thing down before you get yourself hurt.” Vike doesn’t seem nervous anymore, in fact, he stands nose to nose with the guy and laughs in his face like he ain’t got a care in the world.
“Why are ya here? Do Soul men not have pussy of their own?” he asks in a thick, brash accent that I can’t quite place.
“We got plenty of pus…” Vike cuts himself off when Alicia looks at him, judgingly. “My friend here needs to speak to one of your girls. We don’t want any trouble,” he continues, clearing his throat and straightening his shoulders.
“Which one?” Bar Guy asks me, and since I don’t have a clue what her name is, I take out the phone and show him one of the many naked pictures she sent Corey.
“Ahhhh, Jodie. She doesn’t come on shift until two.” He shrugs.
“She lives upstairs, though, doesn't she?” I know that from reading through the messages she sent my boyfriend.
“Yeah, but, you can’t?—”
“I assume this door leads to the stairs?” I interrupt him, already walking toward it. Alicia is too busy watching the dancers to follow me, and when Vike gives her a yank to keep up, Bar Guy stands in front of him.
“Sorry, I gotta protect my girls. If she goes up, she goes alone,” I hear him tell him.
“I’ll be fine, wait there,” I assure Vike.
“Dev is gonna fuckin’ kill me,” he mutters as I keep moving through the door, heading toward 3b so I can find out the truth.
“Okay, okay. I’m coming,” I hear an irritated voice call out from the other side of the door I’m banging my fist against.
I’m taken aback by the girl who opens it. She looks much prettier than she did in her pictures. Far too pretty to work at a place like this.
“Can I help you?” She looks me up and down as if I’m a piece of shit.
“You knew Corey Kendrick?” I start; now that I’m here, I don’t really know what to say. I’m not even sure I want to know the truth anymore.
“Yeah, I know him.” She folds her arms over her chest defensively, “What’s it to you?”
“I’m his… ex-girlfriend. I found his secret phone.” I hold it up in front of her as evidence.
“And…?” She shakes her head and huffs a laugh, like this is no big deal.
“I need to know if you…Were you and him–”
“I can’t divulge anything; client confidentiality and all.” The sarcastic smile she makes triggers something inside me, and reaching out, I grip her neck and force her back into the room.
“Answer my fucking question,” I speak right into her face.
“Jesus Christ!” I suddenly feel myself getting pulled back, and when I look over my shoulder expecting to see Vike, I’m shocked as hell when I see Dev instead.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
“Vike called when you got here. What the hell areyoudoing here, Mill?”
He keeps a firm grip on me when the bitch starts laughing, and I go for her again.
“This little skank was fucking, Corey,” I tell him, unable to hold back my tears. “He lied to me. All that time we were together, he wasfucking lying.” I think of all the nights I’d lain beside him, feeling guilty for the way I felt about Dev.
“Baby, what the hell are you talking about? Corey wouldn’t—He loved you, he would never have slept with someone else.”
“I found this in his room this morning.” I hand the phone to him so he can see for himself, and when the girl, whose room we’re in, angles her head to look at the screen, I want to knock the smug look right off her face.
