“Yeah, but you’re half blind,” Little Ricky taunts him. “Take my word for it. She’s going to be a hit on stage.”
“Fine,” Jerrie grumbles. “You’ve got the job, Mandy. Go change so we can fill out paperwork. The rest of you, keep dancing.”
When Sandra brings my drink, I give her a nod before taking a sip, then I mutter, “Don’t you dare fuck any of the strippers.”
“Aww…” The big motherfucker pouts at me. “But who’s going to keep them company now that Georgi has thrown in the towel?”
“No one.”
I’m still shocked Georgi settled down with Nina and her kid. The man went from single to husband and father in the blink of an eye. With both my best friends in committed relationships, it’s making me feel… itchy.
I just turned thirty-six, and I won’t be getting any younger. At some point I have to pick a wife so I can carry on the family name.
“What’s got you thinking so deep?” Little Ricky asks between bites.
“I’m getting old.”
He lets out a bark of laughter. “Old my left nut sack. We’re not even forty.” He points at Jerrie. “That’s fucking old.”
“Fuck you,” Jerrie calls out, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I have to get married and have kids,” I say, the beat of the bass starting to give me a headache. “That shit takes time.”
Little Ricky grins at me as if I said the funniest thing. “You…get married? Who’s the unlucky woman gonna be?”
“Fuck you.”
“You and Jerrie should be so lucky,” he smartmouths me.
Suddenly the tempo of the beat climbs, and it makes me instantly irritated. When I stand up, Little Ricky’s eyes widen. “Whoa, I was joking.”
Turning to the DJ, I shout, “Turn off that shit before I kill you.”
The guy, who’s in his early twenties, startles, and the next instant the music stops and all I can hear is the sharp clack of high heels on the stage.
“Everyone out,” I shout angrily.
“Move!” Jerrie ushers the women off stage while shooting me a worried look.
When I sit down again and swallow the rest of the whiskey in one go, Little Ricky lifts a questioning eyebrow at me.
“Eat so we can leave,” I grumble, the irritation still crawling beneath my skin.
“You should let me handle the club,” he says, his tone soft because he knows the slightest thing will set me off right now. “You’ve gotten worse with the noise shit over the years. Too much going on around you, and you go from irritated to homicidal in seconds.”
“Don’t start.” I level him with a scowl before I get up and walk to the main doors. “Either you come now, or I’m leaving without you.”
I hear his chair scrape over the floor, and the next moment, the box of buffalo wings is shoved into my hands.
“Seriously?” I mutter.
“Yep. I’ll eat the rest at the shipping yard.”
If it were any of my lower-level guys, he’d be dead, but because it’s Little Ricky, I carry his food so his hands are free in case of an ambush.
Just as we step onto the curb, someone comes barreling toward us from the right. Just as the person is about to collide with me, Little Ricky draws his gun, and the next second there’s a panicked squeak as he slams a woman up against the wall.
It all happens in a matter of seconds, and by the time Little Ricky and I realize we might have overreacted, the woman looks terrified while she tries to wiggle free from Little Ricky’s huge hand wrapped around her slender neck.