Mason’s sinfully full lips quirked up. “This isn’t about your taxes.”
Damn, these were the sexiest cops I’d ever seen. I almost wanted them to arrest me. Maybe this is about the internet stuff? I folded my arms over my chest. “Last time I checked being a cam girl wasn’t illegal and—”
Gabriel cleared his throat interrupting me. “Enough. We’re running out of time.” He stepped forward and stared into my eyes. “Ms. James, come with us now.” His voice rang with a strange tone.
Rubbing my temple where my head suddenly ached, I said, “Don’t I have a right to an attorney and a phone call?”
Gabriel’s mouth fell open as if I’d shocked him.
“Mistress Robin,” the professor wheezed from the VIP room. “I think I need to see a doctor.”
Gabriel stepped by me, slid open the curtain, and cursed. “It’s one of the infected.”
I peered around his muscular shoulder and found the professor slumped on the floor with his shirt in his lap. There were even more dark veins running across his chest. “Can you get your shirt on, Dr. Sullivan?” I asked with a calmness I didn’t feel. “Max is calling you a cab. You can take it straight to the hospital. We can call an ambulance if you want…”
“No. A cab is fine. Thank you.” The professor slowly pulled on his shirt with shaking hands. In that moment, he looked old and frail.
Feeling sorry for the man, I reached into the top of my boot and pulled out his money. “You can have this back since we didn’t—”
“Move away from him,” Gabriel said, grabbing my arm. “He’s infected with the virus.”
“The virus?” I echoed. Is he talking about the canine flu?
“Keep the money,” the professor said with a wan smile. “It can be a holiday advance. I’ll come back and collect my…punishment when I’m feeling better.”
“Thank you,” I replied, not knowing what else to say.
Gabriel tugged my elbow. “Come on. This way.” He pulled me toward the main part of the club.
I caught a whiff of his scent—smoke and leather. The dark masculine smell made my insides tighten.
Mason fell into step beside us. “We’re parked out front.”
Sandwiched between the two hot men, my knees weakened. Maybe I can ask them to handcuff me? I quickly bitch slapped my libido. Get a grip, Vana. It figured the first men I’d be attracted to since my breakup with Nathan would be cops wanting to question me.
We’d almost passed the side stairs to the dressing room when I remembered my things. I stopped short, dragging Gabriel back a step. “I need to change.” No way was I going to walk into a police station in my dance outfit. Besides, I didn’t want to leave the rest of my money here where it could grow legs and walk out of my locker before my next shift.
Mason let go of my arm. “Okay.”
Gabriel frowned. “We don’t have time—”
“Couldn’t we spare her a minute?” Mason asked, interrupting the taller man.
I beamed at the blond, deciding I liked him more than his gruff partner.
Gabriel gritted his teeth and nodded. “Just one minute.”
Relieved, I rushed up the stairs. When the men tried to follow me, I held out my hand to stop them. “You can’t come back here.” Max was the only guy allowed in the dressing room and it was only because he barreled his way in like a bull whenever he felt like it.
“Hurry,” Gabriel ordered, looking down at his watch.
Wondering what crawled up his butt and died, I headed backstage and made a beeline for the empty dressing room.
It wasn’t much, just a row of vanity mirrors and a bank of lockers. I went straight to my locker and pulled out the duffel bag that held my purse, makeup, toiletries, spare dance outfits, the wad of ones I’d milked out of the professor earlier in the night, and most important, the bottle of pain pills my back would soon be begging for. I quickly chewed the pills and dry swallowed down their bitter taste.
After throwing a skintight black dress over my skimpy dance outfit, I shrugged into my long charcoal wool jacket. My aching feet pleaded with me to ditch my boots, but I’d neglected to bring other shoes.
My cell rang as I was closing my locker door. I answered it to the shriek of my roommate, Sydney.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this, Vana!”
“What?” I drew a blank for a moment before remembering she was covering a private party for me. “Are you at that bachelor’s party?”
“I’m hiding in a freaking stranger’s closet wearing nothing but a thong and some pasties.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “There are worse ways of making two hundred bucks.”
“You know how I hate dark, cramped spaces. I owe you big-time for this."
“Yeah, like twenty percent,” I reminded her. Thinking of how little I’d made tonight, I sighed. Serves me right for ditching that job in favor of Max’s request to work late tonight. Family before work, I would’ve reminded myself if he and Donna hadn’t just bowed out of the one event I asked them to attend all year.
“It smells like mothballs in here,” Sydney said, returning my focus to our phone call. “This has to be the worst night ever.”
“At least you don’t have two cops waiting to take you down to the station.”
She gasped. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Crap, girl. Are you in trouble? Do you need me to blow this gig? I could—”
“No, you stay in that closet,” I said with a tight laugh. “You need the money. We need the money. Besides, they aren’t arresting me.” At least right now. I looked down at my bag, unzipped it, and reluctantly put the pain pills back in my locker. Back pain or no back pain, I couldn’t afford to get busted with illegal meds. “And they’re the hottest cops you’ve ever seen.”
“Hot enough to make you forget about that asshole Nathan?”
Not this again. I rolled my eyes already anticipating the lecture.
Syd took a deep breath. “I know he was rich as Midas and gorgeous as hell, but Nathan was also a cheating son of a bitch. It’s been three months since you two broke up. Time to get back in the saddle.”
“Right,” I said, agreeing to end the conversation. There was no point in me trying to explain heartbreak to someone who’d never been in love.
“You need to promise me you’ll give the next guy who goes after you a chance.”
“And what if the next guy is Phil?”
She laughed. “Okay, obviously not our pervy neighbor. But you know what I mean.”
Knowing she could be as tenacious as a Gila monster when she set her mind to something, I sighed. “I promise. Look, I’ve got to go, but I’ll text you when I figure out what’s going on.”
“Okay. I’m heading right to the airport for my red-eye after this, but I’ll call you as soon as I land.”
“Have a safe flight,” I said feeling a stab of envy that she had parents and siblings to share the holidays with. It seemed everyone had a family, but me.
Jade walked through the dressing room door just as I hung up the phone. “Heading out?” she asked with a sniff. Her heavily kohled eyes swam with tears.