Gangster's Girl (Complete)

Chapter 1 - Part 1

My eyes drifted over the rowdy crowd at the end of the stage. It was dark with minimal lightning except for the spotlight on the stage. I swallowed as I scanned the room briefly. There was chatter and the clacking of glasses with a few rowdy guys. Even though I had a momentary feeling of anxiousness, I pushed through it, I would not allow myself to chicken out. I wasn't comfortable in my situation from the gold glittering g-string to the matching bikini type top, but I was determined to go through with it.

For far too long I had been pushed into situations I had no control and I wasn't going to allow it anymore. He had to know I wasn't going to placidly do as I was told. The 'he' was Angel. He was a crime boss in charge of the family my father had worked for for as long as I could remember.

Two years ago he had sent me away without any explanation. I had been forced to keep a low profile in a small town with a couple of bodyguards to watch over me. I had effectively been a prisoner with guards, with little to no contact with the outside world.

Even thinking back to it now I felt the anger return. Who did that? Angel, that's who. He was used to issuing orders that people followed, I was not going to be one of those people. I'd had enough.

I was an adult, and I got to make my own choices. And he was going to be faced with that reality soon.

Coming back to my home town in the darkness of night, having given the bodyguards watching over me the slip and been the first step in taking back control of my life.

I could have quietly arrived back and gone to see Angel to demand answers but I wanted to make a statement, that I got to make my own decisions and this was me making the boldest statement I could.

The guys are the end of the stage started waving bills of money at me, pulling me out of my thoughts, and I made myself smile even though I wasn't comfortable with what I was doing. Not at all. My makeup was perfect and dramatic to fit the part. My long, dark brown hair was down and tickled my back as I moved. I even had a little glitter all over my body and in some places I was going to struggle to get it out of, but that I would worry about later.

My hands tightened on the pole as I moved my hips in time with the music. The guys cheered louder and louder. They were getting more excited second by second. The smell of alcohol wafted into my nostrils and I knew there was no way they were anywhere close to sober.

My mom had been a stripper before meeting my father. She had been breathtakingly beautiful, which she had used it to her advantage on and off the stage. She had taught me that women were beautiful for a reason. In an unfair world, you had to use every advantage you had.

Not once had I been judgemental over her life style, in fact, it had fascinated me and I had spent hours listening to her stories she would never tell again. It still made me sad to think about my mother and how she had died from a drug overdose. I had been thirteen at the time. It had devastated me and left me alone in a world of men.

I had an overprotective brother and an absent father. And then there had been Angel. My relationship with him was complicated.

I had watched my mother suffocate under the dominance of my father, and I swore I would never allow that to happen to me. No man was going to treat me the way he had treated her, it was a promise I had made to myself. He had cheated on her multiple times and had even gone to the extent of flaunting his infidelities in her face for good measure. It had been heartbreaking, and she had suffered in silence.

At the time I hadn't been aware of it. It was only when I was older and heard the stories did I fully understand what my mother had endured.

I would never give a man the power to bring me to my knees. I would not follow the same fate as my mother, that I had assured myself of a long time ago. Men who believed they could control me were about to find out differently.

"Come here, sugar," the one overweight balding guy crooned to me. I forced myself to smile even though I was so nervous. I knew he could look, but not touch. With the bouncers watching the girls carefully, I knew he wouldn't be allowed to lay a finger on me and that made me feel safer.

I delayed my next move until I had worked myself up to actually do it, take my top off. Just when I was about to turn around, someone grabbed my leg and I looked over at my shoulder at the zealous man trying to force me into doing what he wanted. I smiled sweetly, trying my best not to let my panic show.

The club was dark, but I knew the bouncers would be watching and someone would be over in minutes. I could keep the situation from escalating until then.

"Take off the top," he commanded. His eyes devoured me and it turned my stomach, but I schooled my features, refusing to show him my disdain. This was an act, and I had to keep it up.

"Soon," I murmured softly as he let go of my leg momentarily. I felt relief.

Fred, the one bouncer, put his hand on the guy's shoulder. "No touching the girls. You always do this and then I have to throw you out. You never learn."

He led the repeat offender away from the stage and I could hear him continuing to argue with the burly bouncer but there were very strict rules that had to be adhered to for the safety of the dancers and he would not be allowed back in no matter what he said.

His friends didn't seem perturbed by the incident as they stared at me. I bet they couldn't wait for me to lose my top. I took hold of the pole and swung my hips suggestively as I bent down with the pole between my legs. The guys stared, transfixed.

I got up onto my feet and walked slowly back to the pole, looking over my shoulder at them while trying my best not to show the nervousness I was feeling. I was playing a role, someone who I wasn't.

I lifted myself up on the pole and slid down seductively, knowing that I couldn't put off removing some clothing. That's what strippers did. They didn't dance fully clothed in a strip club.

My hands moved to my back as I continued to dance to the music. I did a scan of the place but didn't see any sign of the person I was hoping would already be angrily removing me forcefully from the stage and throwing me over his shoulder.

It was time to go through with it. My nerves increased and for a second I wavered.

That was the thing. When you made a threat, you needed to make sure it something you would follow through with. People had to know that once you said you would do something, you did it.

I was hoping it wouldn't get to this, but I wasn't going to stop now. The group of guys at the end of the stage waved more money at me. It was time. No more delaying.

My fingers found the strings, and I knew it would only need a slight tug for it to unravel. But there was an art to it. First, I undid the top strings, then I held the top in place with my arm while I continued to move for my audience. My free hand moved to the last knot, and I took a deep breath, trying to build the courage to go through with it and then I yanked it. It began to unravel, but I held the top in place.

The guys were whistling. I held my breath, drawing it out. I heard some movement to the side of me.

At that moment I lifted my arm and the top fell to the floor.

"What the fuck Kira?" a familiar but angry voice hissed at me. I smiled.

"What took you so long?" I asked Angel, who stood in front to cover up my nudity from the desperate gazes at the end of the stage. I knew he would find me and be determined to stop me. When it concerned me, he was predictable in that way.

His handsome features tightened as he glared at me, giving me the full force of his anger. My statement had been made and now I would get my chance to find out why he had sent me away. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now.