Town of Chance_ Believing in Love(12)

“The crowd liked the petite little brunette that sang tonight,” Vic said and stared at Luther, looking him over and making Luther feel like such a nobody. Man, these guys were intimidating. He knew they were capable of crazy shit. Hell, he heard Daville and Vic did time for some pretty nasty stuff.

“Who is she?” Daville asked.

Luther felt his chest tighten. They couldn’t possibly be interested in Eliza Grace. Fuck.

“The singer?” Luther asked.

“The one you were keeping really close to you a little while ago at the bar. She yours?” Vic asked him.

He swallowed hard. If these men set their sights on Eliza there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Maybe if he mentioned she worked with Clarissa that might make them keep their distance. Clarissa had a thing for Si, but she was also on his payroll.

“She’s not mine. I just hired her to sing here twice a week. She has a great voice and the crowd seems to like her a lot.”

“She has an incredible voice. She’ll make you a lot of money. How come she isn’t working more than two nights?” Daville asked him. As Daville looked at him with those dark evil eyes Luther felt his throat close up, he was that intimidated by these men.

“She works for Clarissa,” he said and Vic and Daville looked serious.

“Modeling. I saw her the other day at Clarissa’s. Seems she has multiple talents,” Si said to him and took another sip from his martini. Luther did not want to mess with Si. Anyone who did could wind up disappearing. He knew to play it cool.

“Yes. She just did some super sexy fundraising calendar. Clarissa said she’s got real talent there. She’s booked for a lot of events and shoots, that’s why she can only work here two nights a week. I have to call Clarissa to confirm, of course,” he added and knew he sounded nervous. These men made him a nervous wreck.

“We need the back room Friday night. Got a new line of girls coming in for trials. You know what we need, right?” Si asked, changing the subject and getting back to business.

Luther nodded his head. “I’ll take care of everything, Si. You know that,” he said to him.

“Good. We’ll arrive around eight, the women will trickle in from there on like usual. I’ve got about a dozen clients coming in, so you need to set up the private booths and partition off that small room. The bars fully stocked in both rooms.”

Luther nodded his head. He was mixed with emotions of fear and also excitement. He would get a hefty payment for providing the back rooms, never mind the open bars and the bartenders. He would need to prepare the back room, close off the hallway leading to it so nothing could be heard and raise the volume on the music. He hoped no one picked up on anything. The last thing he needed was for the cops to find out he was assisting in a prostitution ring and allowing new girls to be trained and broken in in the back room.

“Anything else?” he asked Si and Si shook his head and then looked away from him. One look at Vic and Daville and he knew he was being dismissed. He walked away and hoped that everything went perfectly on Friday. Simeon held the mortgage on Luther’s and at any time he could get rid of Luther and replace him. He wished he had never had such a gambling problem years ago and had needed Simeon to bail him out. He was stuck under his thumb forever.





Chapter 3




Lynch and Tazer were finishing up a meeting at the police department in Cambridge when they saw a bunch of cops gathered around. As their buddy, Detective Salvatore Connelly and his brother, special investigator Finn Connelly walked out with them, they asked what was going on.

A couple of the guys were shaking their heads, smiling and whistling low and turning the pages of some sort of calendars sideways.

“It’s this year’s fundraising calendar for Charlesburgh. A bunch of local stores and community events are sponsored,” police officer Brian Morrison told them.

“Well, what are all the oohs and ahhs about?” Salvatore asked as they got closer.

“Miss September posing against a sweet classic car,” he replied.

“Yeah, it’s the car,” one of the others teased and they all laughed.

“She’s gorgeous. A petite thing with one hell of a body on her,” the other officer said.

“Let me see that?” Finn said to them and one of the guys handed over the calendar.

Tazer looked at Lynch, shaking his head and almost chuckling at their behavior. But then Lynch suddenly looked angry as damn hell as he pulled the calendar from Finn’s hands.

“What’s her name? Does it say her name and where she lives?” one of the officers asked as they looked at other copies of the calendars.