had joined the Angeles National Forest Rangers directly out of school and had held the same job ever since. Envy still loved hanging out with Jason. She also got to see her best friend Tabatha more often, since Tabatha was part of Jason’s unit with the rangers.
Chad got up from the sofa and stood outside Envy’s bedroom door. They had been roommates for the last four years, since their parents had died in a car wreck, and they’d gotten along wonderfully. He was a cop and she was on call for bartending at several of the clubs within the city.
The only reason he didn’t say anything about her getting a “real” job was because most nights she made more money than he did. That made things even better because when rent came due, Envy was the one that usually paid it, while he took care of everything else.
“What club?” he asked through the door.
“The new one called Moon Dance,” Envy swept some of her long strawberry hair up in a ponytail, leaving the rest to hang down her back in long layers. “I might as well apply as a bartender while we’re there.”
Chad frowned. “That’s the one out toward the end of town, right?” He walked back to his room without waiting for her reply. Recently, things down on that end of the city had gotten a little dangerous. Disappearances were the most prominent danger and quite a few bodies had been found within a city block of that club.
So far there was nothing they could link directly to Moon Dance, except that the victims of choice were all club goers. It was just the time frame that Chad and a lot of other people found suspicious. There had been some question as to whether or not there was a serial killer hanging out at that bar. Several of the latest victims had been last seen within the club. As a police officer, he couldn’t overlook the probability that there was a connection.
Since his gun and badge were already in the car, Chad grabbed the small taser and slid it into the back waistband of his pants. With all the bad stuff going on down there, he wanted Envy to have it just in case something went wrong while they were in the club.
Coming out of his room, he glanced down the hallway and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his sister. A black leather skirt with lace peeking out the bottom at mid-thigh covered her legs followed by a black lace belly shirt. There were leather patches only where it counted… enough to hide her breasts and show off her slim belly and navel.
She was also wearing a pair of black leather boots that came just over the knees with dainty link chains around the ankles. A necklace their mother had given her years ago graced her neck with a beautiful piece of amethyst quartz hanging from it. Most of her red hair was tied up in a high ponytail with some of it falling over one shoulder.
Her make-up was tastefully done with a bit of black eyeliner and shadow and a dark shade of lipstick. She looked like a dominatrix.
“Damn, out for blood are we?” Chad cocked an eyebrow, giving her the once-over twice. He had a mind to cancel the night out and make her go back to her room for safety reasons.
“Well, I have decided,” Envy raised a delicate eyebrow, “After I take care of Trevor, I’m going to have fun! From now on, I refuse to date just one guy. I don’t want a boyfriend… I want a LOT of them! That way when one acts like a jerk, it won’t matter because I’ll have others that will be more than happy to kick his ass.”
“Yeah, I remember how well that went over in high school.” Chad shook his head, knowing his sister was way more innocent than she pretended to be, “Let’s take my car in case the station calls.”
“Only if I get to play with the blue lights,” Envy smiled, knowing he would let her.
Chad sighed and started walking out to the car. “I swear you’re worse than a kid in a toy store squeezing every stuffed animal that makes noise and driving everyone insane.”
“What?” she laughed. “I like the blue lights. People get out of our way when I turn them on.”
“Like the time you did it when we ran out of coffee?” he asked. “You do know that’s a waste of taxpayer’s money, right?”
“If you don’t shut up I’m going to drive. Then you’ll have to deal with the red lights and the siren,” she warned with a playful wink.
Chad immediately shut up because the last time that happened, she’d been late for work and he’d been too sick to drive so he’d sat in the passenger seat sound asleep. The chief still gave him grief over it.
*****
Envy clicked off the blue lights about a block away from the nightclub and looked up at the spotlights that danced across the cloud-covered sky. She watched as the two-story building came into view.
She’d been working so much lately that she hadn’t had a chance to check out Moon Dance, but some of her customers had raved about it. On the outside it was nothing fancy. It just looked like a brick warehouse with very few windows and a large purple neon sign high on the front wall.
People were standing in line halfway across the massive parking lot dressed in their best club clothes and talking with each other animatedly. The fact there was still a line after ten at night let her know that working here would probably be very lucrative.
“Yep, I’m definitely putting in an application,” she smiled at the prospect.
“At least the line is almost gone,” Chad said sarcastically, not wanting to wait to see Trevor get a good dose of his sister on adrenaline.
He parked way down on the darkest end of the parking lot right next to Trevor’s car. Before Envy could open the car door, Chad reached out and caught her arm. “Here,” he placed the small taser in her hand then, without a single word about it, he opened his door and got out.
Envy wrapped her fingers around the device with a smile. Her brother had taught her self-defense to the point to where she could probably take down most of the cops he worked with without breaking a sweat. But Chad had always said, ‘Why fight, when all you have to do is press a button?’
She slid the taser into the little side pocket of the leather skirt along with her ID. She’d press Trevor’s button all right. She’d happily press the elevator button going to hell just to see him in it right now. No one cheated on Envy Sexton and got away with it.
They walked toward the line side by side and Envy was especially happy when the line started moving so fast that it only took a couple of minutes to make it inside.
The doorman was dressed in a nice pair of Armani pants and matching suit jacket. The shirt underneath was form fitting and showed off his nice chest. His brown hair fell on either side of his face in waves. A bit of stubble was present on his face and he had piercing dark eyes that almost glowed in the neon light.
Chad paid and they showed their ID’s before the man stamped their hand and unclipped the red velvet rope allowing them access. They entered the main doors and walked down a short hall toward another door that slid open as they approached. Both of them stopped when they entered the main room and stared. It was a lot like walking into another dimension.
For as packed as the parking lot had been, you would think it would be wall-to-wall people inside but it wasn’t. Envy’s lips parted as she walked across the floor to the massive hole cut out in the center of the room.
Stepping closer to the railing, she looked
