Julia brushed past Shanae, jumping in surprise, and almost dropping the tray of drinks and empty glasses in her hand when her coworker screeched and shot away. "You sure are jumpy tonight." She sidled past the beautiful woman, wishing for about the millionth time that she had a figure like Shanae—or any of the other dancers who worked at G—Strings. "Is everything okay?"

Shanae bit her full lower lip, seeming to be on the verge of sharing something, before blinking. "Everything's fine."

She shook her head at her friend's continued stubbornness as she set the tray on the bar to load the last of the glasses that had been left behind by the patrons Tony had escorted out at closing time one hour before. "If you need to talk about something, I'm here."

Shanae gave her a shaky grin as she smoothed a hand down the dark skin of her stomach. The skimpy dancer's costume she still wore revealed the firm tautness of her muscular body. "Nah, I'd better not."

"Even if it's about Raze, I promise I won't say anything to piss you off. Or I'll try not to." Just saying Raze's name sent a slight shudder through her, and she couldn't figure out what Shanae saw in the balding, chubby, Italian man who frequented the strip club.

He'd been a regular before meeting Shanae, and he continued to come several times a week and ogle the other girls, though he was ostensibly in a relationship with Shanae. Julia tried not to be cynical, but she imagined the wads of cash Raze Marconi flashed around had a bit of something to do with Shanae's willingness to overlook his odious nature. Not that she could blame her friend for wanting security, but she wasn't at a point of desperation in her own life where she would ever consider such an arrangement, especially with someone like Raze Marconi.

Shanae let out a little gasp as she turned to face Julia under the auspices of slamming down some empty glasses onto the tray. Julia thought about admonishing her to be more careful of the glassware, but since Shanae had offered to help clean up out of the goodness of her heart, not because it was in her job description, and because she really didn't care about the glassware in the bar, she held in the reproach.

"Seriously, what's wrong? You're usually a little sensitive about him, but I've been trying to rein in any comments since you asked me to." Shanae had made it clear that Raze was a topic that was off—limits, and Julia was trying to respect that despite her disapproval of the relationship. The less she heard about Marconi, the better.

"I'm done with him. That should make you happy. Only problem is, I'm not sure he's done with me." As she said that, her gaze drifted to the door, and she bit her lip in a sign of worry.

"You think he's going to stalk you or something, or not let you end the relationship?"

Shanae shrugged. "It ain't that. I don't know how he'd feel about me breaking up with him, but as soon as he realizes what I did, he ain't going to come after me because of me ending the relationship."

A chill went through Julia at the words, and she eyed her friend with concern as she turned away from the tray of glasses and the nightly clean—up. Her attention remained focused solely on Shanae. "What did you do? More importantly, why are you afraid of him?"

There was almost a look of pity in Shanae's eyes. "You don't know who he is. Bless you for your naïveté, but you're about the only one around here who ain't got a clue."

"A clue about what?"

"Raze is in the mafia. He's like third in line for the don or some shit. I don't know. Alls I know is after I figured out what he's doing, I was done with him. But if he finds out…" She trailed off with a shake of her head, sending long strands of dark hair flying between the two of them. "I gotta get out of here."

Reflexively, Julia glanced at the clock. "Your shift ended forty—five minutes ago, and all the other dancers are gone. You don't have to hang around helping me out with clean—up."

Shanae shrugged. "I don't mind helping with that, but I ain't talking about leaving the club. I need to get out of the city. I gotta figure out what to do with it."

"With what?"

Once again, Shanae seemed poised on the cusp of confession, or at least conversation, but she abruptly shook her head and turned away. She pretended to busy herself with straightening bottles of alcohol, and Julia let her. It wasn't as though she could badger her friend into telling her the secrets she was hiding.

They worked in silence for the next twenty minutes, until everything was done. "I just have to close up the till, so you could head out if you'd like, Shanae."

"I'll wait for you. I was kinda hoping…"

"Hoping what?"

"Could I crash on your couch tonight? I'm getting out of town tomorrow, but I gotta get to the bank to get most of my money. I have some squirreled away on me, but it ain't enough to get far away."

"Of course you can stay, but I'd like you to tell me what's going on."

"I can't. It ain't safe, Julia. You shouldn't—"

A sound of raised voices, one of them identifiably Tony's, interrupted what she was going to say. A second later, three gunshots followed.

"Fuck, he's found me," said Shanae. "I knew I should've called in sick and just hit the road today."

"He shot Tony." Julia was sure of it as she said the words, only vaguely aware of Shanae speaking to her. She seemed to have developed a case of tunnel vision, and the world around her blurred. Her friend's voice seemed to be coming from a far distance, and she couldn't make out the words.

However, a sharp sting against her cheek whirled her back into focus, and she stared in surprise when she realized Shanae had slapped her. She understood why, since Julia had been on the verge of a panic attack. "We have to hide and call the police."

"Use the silent alarm, Julia." Shanae looked terrified, but her brain was still clearly working faster than Julia's.

With a shake of her head at her own lack of logic, she stretched under the bar and pressed the button that triggered the police to come investigate. "Now we have to hide."

There was an eerie calm about Shanae, and she stood with her back away from Julia, facing the entrance to the club. "I'm going to stall him if I can. I need you to get in my purse and take out the flash drive. It looks like a classic car. I gave it to him for his birthday, and then I borrowed it to transfer my school work for my encryption class. Fuckin' ironic, huh? There's a lot more than homework on there, and you have to keep it safe. Don't tell nobody you have it. I'll get it back from you if I can."

"What's on it?"

Shanae turned and glared at her. "Get your ass moving. Find the flash drive and hide."

Julia was reluctant to leave Shanae to face Raze, but she couldn't deny her friend's urgency, and it was suddenly contagious. She spun on her heel and raced to the back room, heading straight to Shanae's cubicle against the wall. The dancers shared a row of vanity tables, along with three large racks of costumes, but each had their own assigned personal space. Though Julia wasn't a dancer, her space was also alongside the others.