Midnight Dancer Chapter 1 (Preview!)

This is a preview from my newest book, Midnight Dancer. Release details coming soon! For now, enjoy the story and anticipate a page turner! 

 

Chapter 1

Raquel sits in horror as the two police officers stand at the door of her apartment, informing her that her mother was found murdered inside the club she owned.

“That damn club…” she whispers. She begged and pleaded for her mother to sell that place. Ever since her father passed, she had been adamant that it was time to sell it.

“Ma’am, we’ll need you to come down to the station and identify your mother’s body. Then we need to ask you a few questions.”

“Sure…just let me get my coat.” She takes her coat off a nearby chair and follows the officers out of the apartment. Suddenly, a stroke of panic hits her.

“My sister…she’s only sixteen years old…where is she?” Raquel asks the officer.

“Your sister is already at the police station. Your grandmother is with her.” Raquel sighs in relief.

“Oh…she’s not my grandmother…but she is a trusted friend of the family.” He had to be talking about Ms. Liz, the one who took care of the girls who danced at the club. Ms. Liz and her mom had been friends for decades. When Raquel’s father first bought the club, Ms. Liz’s husband was his silent partner. Even after he sold his share of the club back to her father, Ms. Liz stayed faithfully, citing that no one could take care of the girls like she could. She’d been a part of the family ever since then.  

After she tearfully identifies her mother’s body, Raquel asks if she can see her sister to which the detectives agree.

Kendra comes running out of the detective’s office and squeezes her sister tightly.

“Is it true?” she asks.

“It is. I’m sorry, Love.” Kendra begins to cry, holding her sister tightly. Raquel is at a loss. She had just finished her master’s in business and was planning on traveling overseas to take over a marketing position in Italy. How could she do that now? She was all her sister had.

After being questioned to high hell, Raquel takes her sister back to the house. She knew Kendra probably needed some normalcy.

She sits on the side of Kandra’s bed, trying to think of words to comfort the worried teenager.

“Are you gonna send me away?” Kandra asks.

“What? No! Why would I send you away?”

“Because…you’re going overseas. I can’t come with you.” Raquel chuckles.

“I absolutely will not leave you. Italy can wait; honey, you’re more important.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. I will try to make life as normal for you as possible. You’ve got a year and a half of school left and then it’s off to the Ballet Academy for you. I won’t leave until I know you’re okay on your own.” Kandra was an aspiring dancer who had already acquired a scholarship to one of the nation’s best classical ballet programs. Raquel would die before she took that opportunity away. Troubled with thoughts of the future, she suddenly longed for her mother’s arms around her. Their relationship had always been wonderful, her mom was her biggest cheerleader, and now she was gone. She knew that she had a long road ahead of her, and she was afraid.  

A few weeks later, Raquel and her sister sit in the office of their mother’s lawyer, James as he reads her will. Most of it was to be expected…except when it came to the club.

“‘Raquel, you’ve spent the better part of your adulthood persuading me to sell the club; however, even in death, I cannot let it go. I am leaving the club ownership to you, and your sister will become co-owner once she’s reached the age of twenty-one. Please don’t disappoint me.’” The lawyer reads.

“Of course she guilt trips me…even in death.”

“Quite the contrary, Raquel. Your mother handled the finances well and she already has trusted staff. She’s handing you a business that will practically run itself” James reminds her.

“I know, I know” She sighs, looking over at her baby sister.

“What do you want to do?” She asks Kandra.

“The money would put me through ballet school.”

“Mama already saved for that.”

“Well, then, you could make enough money and do whatever you want until I turn twenty-one.”

“And then what? You want to take over the club?”

“If you don’t want to.” Raquel sighs heavily, looking at the condemning eyes of James.

“Fine, I’ll take over the club, but I’ll still need you to handle the business until I can learn my way around it.”

“Of course, Raquel. Anything you need.” He slides a stack of papers towards her.

“What’s this?”

“Your mother planned for you to take over this club. These are the rosters of everyone she employs. You have two protective agents who will escort you to the club as well as to the bank to do your daily deposits.” She scoffs as she remembers the days of her mom carrying the previous evenings’ earnings to the bank escorted by her two faithfuls: Kenny and Tyrone. No one would dare even ask her a question when those two were around.

“Your mom also arranged for her transportation to be transferred to you: she said you can choose any car you want as long as it’s from Daniel’s dealership and it has to have tinted windows.”

“James…when did Mama plan all this?” Raquel’s heart jumps in her throat. Did her mom know she was about to be murdered? There was no way she just did this out of the blue. James puts his head down.

“For a couple months, she started to get paranoid because there was another club owner trying to buy her out. She wanted to protect the club at all costs, so she arranged for you to completely take over should anything happen to her.”

“Did you tell this to the police?”

“Of course.”

“Who was trying to buy her out?”

“Uh…Curtis Strozier.”

“That crook? He doesn’t even have half the money Mama does!” She grabs the stack of the papers off his desk in frustration.

“Raquel, I’m sure if Curtis was involved in your mother’s death, the police will find him and prosecute him. For now, I am here to protect you and the club…at all costs. So, I need you to make sure you hire staff you can trust.”

“I understand.”

“Good. You can go to the club as early as tomorrow. I’ve hired staff to clean up what the CSI team didn’t.” Kendra looks at Raquel with concern.

“Rocky? You okay?” she asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. This is what Mama wants. I wouldn’t think about doing anything other than that.”

“Well, let’s get to business…” James says.

The next day, while Kendra is at school, Raquel decides to brave the club. Ms. Liz had assured her that everything had been cleaned up from that fateful night. The police had confiscated the surveillance tapes, but there were no leads yet. Raquel secretly wondered if whoever it was would come back and finish the job, but she couldn’t be worried. She had a business to run.

“Hi, Baby!” Ms. Liz greets her at the door.

“Hey, Ms. Liz. You ready to show me around?”

“Yes, indeed! And I got the girls together so you can meet them.” Raquel, dressed in an all white pantsuit, immediately feels underdressed as she walks in the vast club. The club, aptly named “The Tease,” was one of the only female-owned strip clubs in the state of Georgia. Her mother had revamped it when she took over, replacing the raunchiness with class. Plush black leather couches and modern bar tables and chairs stood ready for the rich male clientele that frequented the place.

Immediately, memories start to rush back. When she turned twenty-one, she would visit the club quite frequently, as her friends thought it was cool that her mom owned a strip club and wanted to see what all the hype was about. They were always given first-class treatment as well…free drinks all night, fun with the dancers when they were taking a break from their shifts, there were some good memories at this club, she couldn’t deny that.

“Rocky?” Ms. Liz interrupts her thoughts.

“Sorry, show me to the back.” Ms. Liz leads her to the dressing room which is already alive with loud talking and laughter. When they reach the back, there they are, six of the featured dancers for the club. They were all beautiful in their own way. One thing about her mother, she always knew how to choose girls who represented every type of beauty.

“Hey! Girls! Ladies!” Ms. Liz shouts as they step inside. The room grows quiet.

“This is your new boss, Raquel. She’s Ms. Fran’s daughter.”

“We know who she is, Ms. Liz” Joanna, one of the more seasoned dancers, says. Raquel smiles at the familiar face. Joanna had been around for quite a while.

“Welcome to The Tease, Baby. Your mama took good care of this place” Lisa, one of the other dancers says.

“I…um…don’t want to change the way things are. We’ll see how it goes for the next few months and we’ll make changes as necessary. I know you all loved my mom, and I intend to treat you the same way she did.” Raquel stutters through her nervousness.

“So, when are we re-opening? And we need some new girls, ‘cause some quit after that night happened” Joanna pips.

“Joanna! We can always talk about that later” Ms. Liz scolds.

“I’m just saying, you know we have hundreds of clients. We can’t please ‘em all.”

“I’ve already put up an ad and will start interviewing soon. We will re-open next weekend, hopefully with new girls, but I need you guys to support this. You are the engine of the business. I can’t do it without you.”

“We’ve got your back, Raquel” Lisa says. Raquel smiles at the sympathetic, kind faces. She’s suddenly aware of her mother’s spirit and finally begins to feel like this may be where she belongs.

After speaking with the girls, Raquel steps into her mother’s office. Her heart breaks again as she sees the décor, the CDs on the shelf next to the stereo system and the custom nameplate on the desk. Out of curiosity, she presses “play” on the stereo and the sultry voice of Anita Baker comes through the speakers.

“Mama…” she whispers, remembering how much her mother loved listening to Anita Baker as she drank her red wine spritzers.

“How am I gonna do this?” she asks, as tears roll down her face. She sits down at the desk, noticing that the computer is beeping. Out of curiosity she clicks to open it, knowing that her password was the same it had been since her father died. Surprisingly, a video pops up. She gasps as the face of her mother appears.
“Don’t be shocked. You know I prepared for this…” her mother says through the screen. Raquel puts her palm up to the computer, wishing she really could touch that sweet face.

“You’ll be alright, Kendra will be alright. I’m entrusting this to you because I know that you will make this place thrive in ways that I was too old to. Everything is set up for you to take ownership. You just do what you do best, and don’t let this place consume you. I still want you to have fun…find a man if you want to…” Raquel laughs, sniffling as tears continue to roll down her cheeks.

“But I want you and Kendra to make this place yours. I spent time and money to maintain the class, now you maintain the clientele. You were made for this Baby Girl. I believe in you.”

“I know, Mama.”

“And one more thing…keep Curtis Strozier’s ass out of your club! He’s bad news. Don’t let him talk you into a partnership or anything, you hear me? I love you, my dear sweet Rocky.” The video suddenly leaves the screen, and Raquel, knowing how her mother operated, would probably never see it again.

“You heard what she said, now let’s get to work…” Raquel says to herself, preparing to take one hell of a journey.