the card back across the desk to me. “Of course Lenorah. You wouldn’t want to lose that.” I took the card, slipping it quickly back into my clutch and then turned to Clarence as he pressed the button for the elevator doors to open.
“Gee, talk about my train of thought being diverted, I almost forgot,” Lucille began. I swung my head back around, wondering what else this woman was about to say. I was already tongue-tied after her last few comments, and any more like that would send me sprinting off into the darkness.
“Pass,” she said and looked at me, holding out her hand. This time I knew exactly what to do. Josh had given me a small coin to hand out as a ‘pass’. It supposedly represented wealth and something in the history of the Lappell. All the members had access to these particular coins and used them as calling cards for identification of their membership. They also used them for various meetings as well and admittance to certain gatherings and places.
I reached into my snakeskin clutch and withdrew a tiny gold coin Josh had provided me with the previous day. He had also told me that he had added my picture and details to the list of attendees this evening, without Clint’s knowledge of course.
Lucille took my coin, and ran the scanner over it to confirm it was authentic. When the light on the scanner turned green she turned back to me. Her eyes and smile lingering on my face a moment longer, and then she gestured to the elevator. I stepped in, and Clarence stepped in behind me.
“You look relieved Ms Rossi. Did Lucille scare you? She shouldn’t, she is harmless,” he stated, retrieving a key from his jacket and using it to start the elevator before pushing the number two button for the second floor.
“No, she didn’t scare me.” I watched as he put the key back into the inside lining of his jacket pocket.
“Good, because she is nothing compared to what you are about to walk in to. Most of our members’ partners don’t like coming here.” He grinned widely, even licking his lips. That threw me off. Now I had a feeling of sheer nervousness. What the hell?
The ting that signaled we had arrived onto the second floor, caused both our heads to swing towards the opening elevator doors. As they opened, I stalled, not wanting to walk out. Clarence noticed my hesitation. “Would you like to go back down? You don’t have to go in.” There was compassion in his voice this time, like he had seen this happen before. I shook my head, and took a big step forward out of the elevator. Before I could turn back and thank Clarence for bringing me up, the doors closed, leaving me without any escape.
Finally I let my ears and eyes turn in the direction of the music that was playing. I can only describe it as half Broadway musical and half hip-hop. It was a strange kind of musical mix that caught my attention immediately.
Then I saw where I was. F.U.C.K. Were my eyes seeing correctly? Am I in the right place? The song Lady Marmalade started to play in my head.
It was a burlesque bar. An up-market yet hardcore gentlemen’s club. There was a sea of multi-colored lingerie-clad women, serving, dancing erotically, and standing all around me. They were entertaining the men in all the corners of the room. The bar was pretty expansive with cedar wood details, small leather chairs and a finely crafted saloon-style bar.
I did not expect this. Not. At. All. Why had Clint failed to tell me he had meetings around half-naked women? Was it because Clint was cheating on me? Is he a cheater? Is that what the note could mean? I was already jumping to conclusions, but the fact that Clint had failed to tell me about this meeting place, had me making up all kinds of reasons in my head as to why he could be hiding that information. Clint was a huge player back in Morewell before I even met him. Would it be so hard for me to believe he couldn’t go back to his old ways?
As I scanned the place, the first person I recognized was Josh, who was already looking for me when our eyes found each other across the room. I knew he was expecting me to arrive at any second. He was standing with a group of men in