Forever and Always

Chapter Twenty Seven: Taylor *TW*

*Trigger Warning* Mention of s****l assault closer to the end of the chapter. Wanted to warn you guys before hand.*

Taylor

“Eeep!” I squealed like a damn child when we pulled up to the back of the club. The girls think I’m all crazy, and well, maybe I am, but like I said last night, three birds, one stone. Earlier, I was going back and forth with one of the owners earlier while we were at Sawyer and Ivy’s birthday party to get everything settled. She was curious as to why we wanted to come here. She knew of our family, I mean, who hasn’t? Not to sound conceited, but there are like a million of us at this point. Who in this area of Texas doesn’t know who we are?

Throughout the day, Sarah was giving me weird looks because I kept grinning at the phone and texting. The owner’s name is Loretta and she is a freaken doll. I mean, she’s young, mid-thirties, freaken beautiful inside and out and is absolutely amazing. She co-owns the club with her brother, but they have been at odds at who to hire. Loretta wants to have the club be more classy, upscale type of men’s club. She wants the girls to dress sexy, flirty, and let the men have a bit of imagination while drawing them in, more of a seduction type so to speak, while her brother wants a straight-up strip club.

I met Loretta last year when we had a mix up of appointments with a photographer outside of Dallas. We both scheduled a boudoir shoot at the same time by accident, but the photographer was able to get us both in. We talked and hung out and that’s when she told me what she does and what she wants to do. She told me about Klassy Kat.

And when I found out the b***h worked at her club, I started texting her and asking for details. So, we met up for coffee at Luna and Drew’s bakery one morning and had a nice conversation. It was…enlightening.

“Hey pretty.” She smiled at me as I stood up from the table, waiting for her. She wrapped me in a big hug, lifting me off the ground with a grin. I laughed at my feet came off the ground before she set me down, “It’s been way too long.”

“Yeah! I know. Almost a year. I’m sorry about not keeping in touch. I’m terrible at that.” I gave her a small smile as we sat down. Before we could talk, Drew came over with two plates filled with pastries for the both of us, “Aww, thank you.” I grinned at him as he leaned down and gave me a soft kiss.

“Anything for you, sweets. Luna and I are testing out some new baked goods and you two will be the guinea pigs.” He grinned as he held out his hand for her to shake, “Drew.”

“Loretta.” She smiled up at him, “You must be one of her partners. I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Likewise. It’s good to put a face to the stories. Gage is going to be pissed he missed out on meeting you.” He chuckled, “Taylor talked about you non-stop last year to the point I was getting a bit jealous.”

“Nah, no reason to be jealous.” She smiled, “Tay here is a sweetheart.” She winked.

“I’ll grab your drinks and leave you to it.” and we caught up while Drew made our coffee and once we got them, she took a seat and smiled at me.

“So, what do you really want to talk about since your man isn’t here listening?” she laughed.

“You still run KK, right?”

“Sure do, kind of.” She shrugged, “My dipshit brother still owns half of it. We’re constantly fighting about how we want it ran, so we split the days. Why?”

“Tara.”

“Ugh.” She spat and rolled her eyes, “I can’t stand her. My brother hired her and her reputation is…gross.” She shuddered, “She’s completely on his payroll. What about her?”

I explained everything to her that we found out about Jo, Archer and Tara and as I explained the story, you could see her visibly get more and more angry, “So, let me get this straight.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “The crazy stole your dad’s app and somehow, got it updated so she was able to use it to cause two of the sweetest people in this freaken town to be apart for five years and for Lil Archie to not see his son?”

“Yeah…that pretty much sums it up.”

“So, what do you plan to do?”

“I need to get a confession out of her. Something. Anything. I need to know what happened the night of her and Archer. I need to hear from her what she really did because once we find out, we can get that information down to the station to Gage and Aiden, and we can finally put her where she belongs.”

“Oh, I am so in.” she laughed, “And I have the perfect plan.” She grinned.

So, the plan wasn’t mine, it was Loretta’s and I loved it.

During Sawyer and Ivy’s party, I was getting the plans all finalized with her. Sawyer was excited for what was going to happen because she wanted a new, fun, different way to seduce Finn.

Barf.

But hey, I don’t blame her at all.

Gage and Drew had the real chore and that was to convince the guys to get to the club. They are going the route of guilt-tripping them. Since we never had an actual wedding, since I can’t marry both men, we didn’t have a bachelor or bachelorette party, they wanted this evening to celebrate with everyone. The girls would be together, having fun, and the guys would get a private suite at Klassy Kat in Loretta’s lounge, where the amateur dancing competition is going on with the five thousand cash prize.

“You are way too excited for this.” Ava laughed as she opened the door and hopped out of the car, “And so am I.”

“What are you dressing up as?” Ray asked as she opened the trunk to her car so we could grab the bags we brought that had our costumes, make up and disguises.

“Think of a Miss. Scarlette theme.” I grinned, “Red and black corset, lace lingerie, knee-high fishnet stockings with belts that connect it to the corset, a black and red mask, red lipstick, black heels, a couple of bows and frills.”

“Oooh, that sounds sexy.” Summer smiled, “What about you, Jo?”

“Taylor picked mine out.” She grinned, “Black heels that strap around the ankle, knee-high white stockings with little bows at the top and the outfit is a soft, baby blue babydoll that pushes the girls up just enough to tease, but not to see, and the mask is white and blue with some feathers on it. I was thinking of going with soft pink lipstick and dark eyes to make them pop.”

“The boys are going to pass out.” Ollie laughed, “And I cannot wait. Are they all here?”

“Yeah. They should be here and if not, then soon. They were even able to convince Aiden to go, but he put up the biggest fight out of all of them. Gage had to talk to him alone and give him a hint of what was to happen and once he heard, he was all aboard.” I grinned.

“Of course he was.” Ava laughed, “Anything to see his sweet little minx get all sexy for him. She’s a closeted freak.”

“Where is she?” Jo asked, “I thought she would be wish us right now?”

“She’ll be here later. She wanted to make an entrance and she’s helping me with the plan. Let’s go in.”

The bouncer at the back door checked his list and let all of us in and directed us to where the changing room was. The changing room was shared with all the girls and had two dozen vanity mirrors set up for each of them to use.

All of us girls quickly got dressed in our outfits and did our make-up before the dancers for Bradly’s bar came into the room. The plan was to make sure we were all set when they walked in, so Tara didn’t recognize us off the bat. We were all dressed and ready to go. We were just waiting for our queues to get on the stage. Loretta knew to start this when all of our guys were sitting front and center. I was adjusting my mask when the doors opened and a beautiful blonde bombshell walked through the door wearing a skin-tight leather suit that reminded me of cat woman with a black mask and bright red lips. Her hair was long and wavy and she had on high heels black leather knee high boots. And behind her, more girls came in, but they were dressed normally. I tensed a bit when the b***h herself came over and sat two seats from me, only because the sexy cat woman sat next to me.

Cat woman let out a wink and grinned, “I love this.” She whispered, “I can’t wait for him to see me like this. I’ve never done anything remotely so daring and sexy and ahh!” she squealed.

“You look hot, Luna.” I winked, “Does Aiden know what you’re about to do?”

“Nope. He would murder everyone in this club if he did, which is why I’m being so secretive about this. He thinks I’m home, so he has absolutely no idea.”

“Yeah, and that gives you the opportunity to talk to the slut, since she doesn’t know who you are, she won’t question your motives.” I whispered.

“I have to say, you look perfect, sexy.” Tara leaned closer to the mirror, applying her make-up and cutting off our conversation, “I’m jealous of your bod. I wish I had those curves.”

“You look good!” Luna grinned, “Don’t pay me any attention. I didn’t get these until after I had my baby. Still have five pounds to go until I’m at my goal weight.”

“Oh! How old is your baby?”

“He’s four.” She smiled. I looked back at the mirror, listening to the conversation and putting my phone face down and pressing the record button, knowing this was about to get juicy, or at least I hoped. I looked at Luna and saw her expression drop a bit as she shook her head.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Tara asked, reaching over and grabbing her hand.

“It’s just been so hard.” She sighed, “Doing this on my own. The struggles with being a single mom and resorting to this for money. I just…I didn’t know what to do.”

“What happened?”

“I made a huge mistake. I got pregnant and I panicked. The guy I slept with was a dud, a nobody. I was reckless and I panicked. When I found out I was pregnant, I slept with one of the guys I went to school with. He ended up being a trust fund baby to one of the business tycoons in Dallas. When we woke up, I freaked out and ran out of the room and I rushed home. My parents found out about the pregnancy and kicked me out and I was homeless for a bit. I tried to go back to the guy's house and explain things, but he basically told me it wasn’t my problem. I didn’t know what to do and then I found this place.”

“Girl. We are almost the same.” She sighed, making me roll my eyes. I couldn’t wait to hear the s**t she was about to spill, “I was totally in love with this guy, like madly in love. He was my everything and we were meant to be together. I knew it, he knew it, but he kept refusing.” I looked over at Jo, who was on the other side of Tara, listening and playing with her hair. She was keeping her cool the best she could, but I could see her shoulder tense. She didn’t want to listen to this, but we needed to.

“What happened with him?”

“He was seduced by this trash of a girl. I don’t know what she did to him, but he was all about her. I held my crap together until she went to college and when she was out of the picture, I knew I could get my guy back. You see, you should have told the guy, the rich one, you slept with that the baby was his.”

“I don’t know…” she sighed.

“Trust me. You should have, especially if they looked the same in any way. That’s what I did and I almost got away with it.”

“Can you tell me what you did? Maybe I could take a page out of your book.”

“I don’t know.” She sighed, “It was a long time ago and I wouldn’t dare do anything like that now. I have to take other measures though.”

“Oh, I mean, I guess I could just…”

“Okay. You convinced me.” She bounced, a little too happily in her seat and turned to her, “If it ever happens to you again, this is what you do. Find a rich guy that looks like the real baby daddy. Tell him the baby is his and try everything possible to get him to believe it. I think with your looks and personality, you can achieve more than what I could.”

“You weren’t able to do it?” Luna asked.

“No. Unfortunately, I was young and stupid and took too much for granted.”

“What happened?”

“I got pregnant with this guy’s kid.” She shrugged and I froze. I felt Luna’s hand on my thigh tighten a bit as she looked at me through the mirror, “But he was an absolute nobody. I was so upset, I went to the bar to try to get my mind off of it when I saw him again.”

“The guy you were in love with?” Luna whispered.

“Yeah. I knew right then and there, it was fate. He has dark hair like the father of the baby and they both had green eyes, so I knew if any of those features were there, I would sink him. So, I tried to get him to drink and dance with me, but he would have it.”

“Oh, that sucks. I guess you just moved on?”

“No.” she grinned, “When there’s a will, there’s a way.” She winked.

“I don’t know what that means.” God, Luna is absolutely nailing this.

“Let’s just say I was able to convince him to go back to a hotel with me and we woke up the next morning. He freaked out and rushed out of the room, but the damage was done.” She laughed.

“You got him to sleep with you? Did you get him drunk?”

“Oh, god no.” she shook her head, “He wouldn’t touch me, but when someone is…inebriated, so to speak, you can make it look like they did and have it be in your favor.”

“Inebriated?”

“You are so innocent.” She laughed and grabbed Luna’s arm again. I wanted to punch her face and get her away from Luna so bad, but we were almost there. We almost got what we needed, “He took a little something that made him incoherent. I helped him to the room and stripped him down to his boxers. He didn’t fight at all, but he was almost unconscious. He fell onto the bed and I stripped naked.”

“So, you did sleep with him!” Luna gasped.

“No. I tried. I really did, but the bonehead wouldn’t turn the hell over for me to even try. He pushed me away a couple of times, moaning something about that b***h he was in love with before passing the f**k out. But I kept trying, if you know what I mean. But when it was no use, I got a condom, filled it with clear liquid soap, lotion and some other s**t, tied it at the end to make it look like semen, and threw it on the floor to make it look like we f****d. I almost had him convinced that he was the baby’s father. I mean hell, I was pregnant, but I was stupid and got a damn abortion before things could get further and, of course, he showed up at my parents' house and that was that.” She shrugged, "But that wasn't it. I went further because I knew I had to get the b***h out of his life. I found out she was pregnant and destroyed the picture and letter she sent him. And his family is fuckin' stupid. His uncle created this app, so I paid someone I used to sleep with in college to re-code it so it would still work, so I could f**k with her even more." she laughed, and I saw red. My face turned cherry red. My hands turned into fists, needing to beat the s**t out of her.

We all just looked at her and didn’t say a word, even the girls who didn't know us. We all sat there, completely dumbfounded. I can't believe she actually would admit this s**t to a stranger! How stupid could she be?

To trick someone into thinking they slept together was one thing.

But she sexually assaulted him, and he didn’t even fuckin’ know? I know what she meant when she said 'if you know what I mean.' Fuckin' b***h has a goddamn death wish.

I stood up, knocking over my chair and Ray grabbed my arm and pointed to Jo.

Jo came over in a rush, grabbed Tara by the shoulder and stood her up to her face.

“Hey! I was in the middle of a conversation!” Tara snapped, "Who do you think you are?"

“You think it’s fun and games to sexually assault someone?” Jo yelled, "You think its fuckin' hilarious to ruin peoples lives because you're a jealous b***h who didn't get who she wanted?"

“It’s not s****l assault if they wanted it.” She crossed her arms and smirked, “And trust me you little trailer park tramp, he wanted it.”

“You touched him when he wasn’t coherant! He pushed you away! He didn’t want you, he told you more than once to back the f**k off and you wouldn't! And you think it was okay to try to fuckin’ trick him!” She screamed, coming closer to her as Tara backed into the mirror.

“Why do you even care? You don’t even know him.” she rolled her eyes. I stood back and let Jo handle this fight, because it was hers.

“b***h, you messed with the wrong person.” Jo sneered, ripping off her mask. Tara’s eyes went wide and her face went flush. Before she could even say anything, Jo took her fist and decked her right in the nose, knocking her head back into the mirror, smashing it.

Tara fell to the floor, crying out as blood poured from her nose. I looked over and Ollie was recording everything. Jo hopped on top of Tara and started to beat the s**t out of her, punching her in the face and pulling her hair as Tara tried to flip Jo over, but Jo wasn’t having it.

She was a babe on a mission and I couldn’t have been more proud of my best friend. In a blink, Jo was pulled away from Tara, who scurried back against the vanity, crying and holding her nose to slow the bleeding.

“Let me go!” Jo screamed, kicking her legs and flailing her arms trying to get back at her, “Let me finish her! She touched him! She assaulted him and he doesn’t even know! Let me fuckin’ beat the s**t out of her even more!”

“Jo. I got her.” It was Gage who gave me a nod, letting me know that he'd got this, “I’m going to set you down and push you over to Drew. He is going to help you get cleaned up and calm you down, okay?”

“LET ME GO!” She screamed and cried, trying to pull away from him. We looked at her with wide eyes. I’ve never seen her like this. I was starting to tear up because everything was now rushing at me all at once. Tara sexually assaulted my cousin to try to baby trap him. She drugged him and touched him. What kind of monster does that? “Let me go right now!” she cried as she started to slump. He turned her around and hugged her, cupping the back of her hair as she cried into his shoulder.

“Hey now. We got her. I have one of my guys coming in right now to arrest her and take her to the station where she is going to get booked.”

“You have no proof!” Tara laughed as she stood up. She was instantly handcuffed and she tried to fight it.

“Proof? You want proof?” I laughed, “I have all the proof and we all here heard everything you just said.”

“Taylor?” she questioned with wide eyes as she was being pulled away, “What a fuckin’ set up!” she screamed.

“Is it though? If you willingly gave up the information?” I shook my head, holding back my own tears. Gage handed Jo off to Drew, who was trying to calm her down and get her cleaned up, “What do we do?” I asked Gage as I went into his arms.

He cupped my face as the other girls went to Jo to make sure she was okay. They were all talking about the next step. Gage leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my forehead before turning to the girls, “Listen up ladies.” He said, and they all looked at him, “I know this is hard, and we will all handle it together. But right now, I think the best thing to do is go ahead with things as planned. Go out there, dance for your men, get lost in the night and have fun, because tomorrow is when the dirty work begins.”

Loretta popped her head in, making sure the coast was clear when she let us know it was time to go on stage. I pulled Jo into my arms and hugged her, “What do I do?” She asked, “He needs to know. I need to talk to him.”

“And we will tell him, together, as a family. If you want, it can be just me, you Gage and Drew. No one else has to be there. I think if it were just us, it would be easier for him. We will tell him.”

“Okay.” She sighed, “Do I have to do this?”

“No, but I think it might help.” I gave her a soft smile, “You got all dolled up and sexy for him, might as well use it tonight before things come crashing down.”

“Yeah…I guess. I can fake it until I make it right?”

“Right.” I sighed and as we went on the stage and danced our hearts out, my heart was shattering for my cousin and I didn’t know how he was going to handle this. But as we got to the stage, I didn't see her. I looked around, and she was gone, but in a quick flash, I saw her blonde hair pulling Archer out the back door and I knew that tonight was going to change everything for them. I wanted to be there, but they needed each other more right now. I'll check in with them tomorrow after they have the night.

Fuckin' b***h.