Trace

8 - I said no!

Trace

“I’ve said no, Tammy.”

“I know this. However, I’d like to know why, Trace. If Shepard is okay with it, and he’s really the one in charge, then you don’t get a say in it. I can’t have you dictating which girls can dance and which can’t

“Shepard put me in charge of the place for a reason, Trace. Because he knew I’d run the place properly. He knew I’d keep the girls in check. Fallon is one of the best girls I have here, Trace.”

“What exactly is the problem with her dancing, Trace?” Tessa asks.

This is how it’s gone for the past half hour since I walked into the strip club. Tammy and Tessa are going on like I’ve taken over the project the Prez gave them. Tammy to keep her mind on anything but what happened to her so she doesn’t have a relapse – not that I think working in a titty bar where men grab women, where anything seedy could happen, was the best idea. Tessa because she’s a good leader, and she’ll help Tammy keep the girls in check.

“I know this, but…” I rake my fingers through my dark hair. This is pissing me off, annoying me beyond anything.

What the hell am I supposed to tell them?

The truth, I guess.

“I like her, and I don’t wanna see other men looking at her in that way.”

They exchange glances that say they saw this coming but that I have no damn right at the same time. It pisses me off.

Why should I expect them to take me seriously when I’ve never given them a reason to?

All they know me as is the player, the man who fuck.s any woman that moves — the man who cheated on his fiancée because committing to her scared the shi.t out of him. I loved Willow, but I wasn’t in love with her, and I should have let her go long before I did.

But it’s true. After dropping Fallon home last night, all I could think about was her and the way she made me feel so alive. I’ve never felt that way before. It was new to me, and I feel lost to a fuckin.g woman for the first time in my life. I don’t care who laughs about it, either. Fuc.k them all!

“Well, Fallon wasn’t happy, Trace. She wants her job back. She needs the money.”

“She don’t need to be stripping to do that, Tammy.”

“I’m not going to stop Fallon from dancing if that’s what she wants.” She tells me defiantly.

“You made sure she’s even old enough to work here?” I counter back while folding my arms across my chest. “‘Cause she sure as shi.t don’t look twenty-six to me.”

There’s no way Fallon is twenty-six. I don’t even think she’s twenty-one. That I.D. of hers has to be fake. The girl doesn’t look a day over nineteen. Shi.t, that makes me feel like a pervert!

I’m probably just clutching at straws, but I’ll clutch at anything and everything if it keeps Fallon from taking her damn clothes off for a bunch of old pervs. She’s already been attacked once, and there’s no way I will let it happen again.

Tessa sighs and sits her hot ass back against the desk. “That’s the only reason we’ve taken her off stage.”

“The only reason?” I stiffen my back, looking at the two of them with a serious expression on my face.

“It ain’t like you don’t have a reputation, Trace. Shepard told us to keep you away from the girls while they’re working.”

Tammy’s right, he did. The cunt. However, he was right to do so because I would have fucke.d each and every one of them by now if I had my way. But Shepard warned me not to touch one of them, or he’d break my hands to the point I’d never be able to ride my motorcycle again.

I have to say that it was a cuntish move putting me in this place. I mean, it’s like putting a damn junkie in a crack den.

“When Nova caught a glimpse of Fallon yesterday, she point-blank told us that she thought Fallon was too young to be here. Nova took Fallon’s information with her and told us she’d get back to us once she’d done some digging. I let Fallon dance last night regardless. Today, I got a call from Tank telling me not to let her dance. Shepard’s orders.”

Good. They may not have done it for me, but Fallon is not dancing, and that’s fine by me. She’s of age, though, for se.x if nothing else. That much I’m sure of.

“Well, let’s hope she ain’t allowed to dance tomorrow either.”

“You can be a real dic.k sometimes, Trace.” Tessa rolls her eyes at me, and I can’t help but smirk.

“So where is Fallon? I didn’t see her out front.”

“She left early,” Tessa tells me. “She didn’t seem with it to me, making mistakes with drinks orders, and customers started getting aggressive with her.”

Anger boils deep inside. My fingers dig into the muscles of my biceps, my nostrils flaring.

“Jesus, Trace!” Tammy chuckles. “You look set to kill.”

I am. I really am!

I don’t know what it is about that girl, but the very idea of someone getting aggressive with her makes me murderous! I’m no woman beater, and I can’t stand men who physically hurt women. My old man taught me better than that.

Yeah, I’m a fuckin.g cheat, a lowdown rotten bastard who can’t keep his dic.k in his pants, but one night with Fallon has destroyed the man I was overnight.

Literally.

I don’t understand how or why; I just know I have to have her. This desperate urge to protect Fallon, to make her mine, is all-consuming. It’s driving me crazy to the point she’s all I think about, and that’s damn dangerous for a man like me.

Maybe it’s because she told me it would never happen between us again that’s making me want her like this. I’m not used to any woman not wanting to see me again. It’s like Fallon is forbidden fruit, and I have to have another taste. The thought of not touching or tasting her again is driving me to distraction!

“Oh, my God, you really like her, don’t you?” I don’t answer Tessa. It’s none of her damn business what I feel.

“There’s something you should know about Fallon.”

Listening to Tammy telling me about Fallon’s problems only cements in my mind that I need to make her mine. I can protect her if she’s mine. I can give her everything she needs. I just have to make her see it. Fallon probably won’t believe I’ll ever be faithful to her, because no doubt someone will tell her what a slut I am. I can make her believe me. I can be faithful to her.

Can’t I?

Can a serial cheat really change?

I don’t know, but I’m willing to give it a try.

I bump into Roman in the parking lot as I’m about to straddle my bike. He pulls up beside me, looking as pissed as all hell.

What the fuc.k rattled his cage?

“What’s up with you?” I ask as he barges up to me, getting right up in my face.

What the fuc.k?

“What the hell do you think you’re doing with Fallon?”

“What the fuc.k does that have to do with you?”

His eyes narrow, nostrils flaring.

What crawled up his ass and died?

“You were warned to stay away from the girls. Why can’t you just listen?”

I fold my arms across my chest. “I have stayed away from them. Ask any one of them, and they’ll tell you the same thing.”

He growls from his throat. Literally growls in my damn face like a dog with rabies.

Is he spoiling for a fight over Fallon?

Roman is married. Marley is a beautiful woman who loves him more than anything in this world. One who forgave him when he stupidly believed her ex when he said they’d been sleeping together. It might have taken Marley a little time to prove she never had, and Roman taking their daughter away from her and threatening to kill her before he realized what a damn mistake he’d made, but she forgave him.

Marley was hurt by her ex; he drugged her and planned to take her out of the country. Roman found her and brought her to safety, but Marley wasn’t the same with him after that. She needed time alone with their daughter before she could have him back in her life. By time, I mean a few hours, which turned into minutes.

Roman killed Marley’s ex, finally proving to me just how he got the name Roman. He’s a sick individual is Roman. Crazy bastard.

However, Marley did forgive him. She took him back, and they’ve been happy ever since. Not long became parents to a little boy. Colt. Little Romany loves her baby brother, and Roman adores them both.

However, something definitely pissed him off today.

“Just stay away from her, Trace. I mean it.”

“I don’t know who died and made you king, but what I do with whom is none of your business, Roman.”

He pulls in a deep breath and runs his hands over his face. Roman has been good to me in the past. Especially with the whole therapy thing – something I needed after witnessing Wrench shot and left for dead – but that doesn’t mean it gives him the right to get up in my face about a woman.

Who the fuc.k does he think he is?

Shi.t, I wouldn’t put it past him to warn Fallon away from me. He’ll tell her all about my past and what a bastard I am, and then she’ll never want anything to do with me anyway.

Great.

Not that I could blame him. He might be my friend, but he’d be protecting Fallon from a man like me. Roman will always put the needs of others before anyone else.

“Don’t test me, Trace. I’m warning you.”

I don’t answer him; I just watch him walk away from me with his shoulders hunched.

Well, that was interesting, to say the least.