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Ginger’s gaze locks on her boss Now, our boss "Yeah, he tends to" She pauses "But not in a bad way He’s a good guy," she assures , occasionally And he can be moody, but ouldn’t, with all the shit he deals with"

I have to agree with her I caught rare gli, playful Cain earlier today, with his soft chuckles They were few and far between but when he loosened up, I couldn’t deny there was a h, he see into ins to pace, one hand deftly adjusting the collar of his new shirt while he talks By the deep wrinkles in his forehead, he doesn’t look iround check

Not good

When I caator--a spotless, well-maintained vehicle that s next to ht he had discovered the wigs I’d hidden But then I was distracted by the fact that yptian cotton sheets that I had to buy because cheap sheets ht, paranoid that bugs are scurrying all over roin

That was a super-aard , and aard because I instantly wanted him to offer me the same ultimatum that Rick had At that very er says, cutting into hts She pauses "And principled Cain marches to a different beat I irls try on hihtening with doubt as I gaze out at the tall, dark forain, still on the phone "Bullshit" I don’t believe it It doesn’t matter, because he can do whatever--or whoever--he wants

"No" Ginger’s soft chuckle fills my truck "Ben jokes that Cain must have a malformed, Hobbit-sized penis, because there’s no way any man can own a strip club and have the pick of the litter--Ben’s words, not e"

"That’d be unfortunate," I mumble The very idea of Cain with a malformed, Hobbit-sized penis leaves er’s curious green eyes on me as I ask, "Has anyone ever seen hietting any dirt out of hiuy is like Cain’s own private Chinese wall"

I could see Cain preferring a sophisticated, suit-wearing woman with a pinched nose and a snotty attitude, who only ever has sex in a bed with the lights off Who he would never bring around to a strip club But, then, ould he own one in the first place? And ould she be okay with hi it? Unless she doesn’t know that he owns a club

And hts swirl aroundthethought pops into er’s derisive snort and confident head shake tells h of relief escapes irls, but that doesn’thimself when one of them walks by and accidently," she uses air quotes, "brushes her ass into his groin" She pauses "He doesn’t fire theh some of them deserve to be tossed out I’ve actually never seen him fire a dancer, not once Oh," she scowls "I lied There was one But that girl was dealing drugs out of Penny’s Cain has a huge issue with drugs I think it’s one of the reasons he hates Rick Cassidy so irls with drugs or if he’s got soo in to Sin City seem to come out addicts"

Heat crawls up ht sheen forh, unaware of irl--Mindy--orked at Penny’s a few years back She was super nice, and she worked hard But then she started dating this local pot dealer Co lot to pick her up Sure as hell wasn’t allowed inside Penny’s For weeks, Cain and Nate were driving Mindy hoht because she didn’t have her license and Cain didn’t like the idea of her riding the bus at that hour"

There’s a long pause, during which Ginger says nothing while studying her green fingernail polish, and I finally have to prod her "So what happened?"

I get a dish to her and she duuy It was around the sarins "All those dirtbags tend to get what’s coer’s perfectly shaped eyebrows pull together "My point is, don’t worry Short of breaking the law, your job is safe"

Oh, Gingerif you only knew Would Cain spend weeks trying to talk me out of my crooked life? Doubtful Would he fire o as far as toaround soerous to my future by the second

"Anyways, Penny’s is his life He practically lives there Hethe dancers perform and he doesn’t sleep with the staff He stays in his office when the club is open He’s a quiet, private guy who doesn’t say a lot, but you can tell he has a lot to say" Her little nose scrunches up "You knohat I mean?"

I nod slowly "Yeah, I know" I could tell by the way his eyes stayed glued toEven now, as Cain see his neck, over that tattoo "Who’s Penny?"

"Oh" Ginger’s face falls "A dancer orked for him She was killed by her fiancé in his first club"

"Jeez," I mutter I knew there was a story behind that A man doesn’t name a bar after a woman and tattoo her na with her?"

"No one really knohat happened" I can feel Ginger’s eyes drilling into the side of my face as I continue to watch Cain "Look at me, Charlie" I do, and I find that she’s turned in her seat to face , but she frowns suddenly "You’re impossible to read, do you know that?" There’s a mixture of awe and annoyance in her tone that makes me smile I know I am I like that I am Sam has always said that I have an incredible poker face Now, Iher eyes, she switches back to the topic at hand "Listen, I know Cain is very appealing and the attention he gives you can ood about yourself And confused about hih Penny’s and start thinking that there’s so there" Ginger’s voice takes on this calm, authoritative tone "There isn’t, Charlie He’s just a really kind oes out of his way to help his employees It’s that simple"