Reaper Unleashed by Michelle Woods, Mary Bogart Crenshaw

she’d do what she had to do to keep that promise. A hard determination filling her, she started the car. She drove across the street and parked next to about twenty bikes and a few cars. Seemed it was early for the crowds, which was good for her. She gripped the wheel, looking out the window at the two men leaning against the wall near the door.
    Was she really going to do this? She must be losing her mind. She sucked in a deep breath, her eyes on the two men wearing leather vests. One had a nose ring, with a chain hanging from his waist and wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. The other wasn’t wearing a shirt but wore a leather vest too; his upper body was covered in tattoos.
    She wasn’t frightened by the tattoos; they were beautiful. She’d always thought tattoos were sexy. He had a butterfly across his chest that was coming from the mouth of a skull. It wasn’t a traditional girly butterfly; it was made up of jagged edges and fire and it was a work of art. Breathtaking in a way and frightening in another. Sarah could see that the man with the tattoos had a scar that ran along his left cheek from beneath his eye all the way up to his hairline.
    She was debating driving away and forgetting about her promise to not be her mother when she realized she couldn’t do that. She just wasn’t able to live off her best friend no matter what, not when there was a chance that she’d be able to get a job.
    Steeling herself for walking into the club, she got out of her car. Pulling her purse onto her shoulder, she began moving towards the door. The man with the nose ring tapped the other and pointed at her. The other man laughed at whatever he’d said and Sarah wanted to run back to her car and get the hell out of here, but she didn’t. She kept walking towards them with determination.
    “Are you lost, sweetcheeks?” asked the tatted man.
    “No,” she replied flatly, refusing to allow them to frighten her away. She was doing this for Josh. The flyer had said they paid five hundred credits plus tips and that was better than anywhere else in town. She should have come here first but she’d wanted somewhere men wouldn’t be jerk-offs and this didn’t seem like that place to her.
    “This is a strip club you know,” the second man snickered.
    “I know,” Sarah said between her teeth, not willing to back off this idea now that she’d had it. She was determined to talk to whoever did the hiring here, even if she had to get past these two buffoons to do it.
    “And you decided to come here wearing that?” he asked, his brows rising to his hairline in amazement.
    “Yes,” Sarah said flatly.
    “Sweetcheeks, I think you should get back in your car and leave. This isn’t the place for a lady,” nose ring guy told her, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.
    “I’m here to apply for the waitress job. Now let me through.”
    “Uh, yeah. I don’t think you’d be a good fit for that job. So why don’t you just get back into your car and leave,” tattoo said, gesturing to her car.
    Sarah wanted to scream at them that she wasn’t a child, she was twenty-seven years old and she could damned well decide for herself if she wanted to walk into a damned strip club. She was about to tell them just that when a woman came out of a door nearby. She was wearing a green skirt that reached just above mid thigh and a white top that ended at the top of her rib cage displaying her flat stomach. She also had a rather large rack.
    “What’s going on here?” the woman asked.
    “She wants to apply for the waitress job. We think she should leave,” nose ring said.
    “Huh, seems to me she’s old enough to know what she wants. Let her in, Rebel.”
    Sarah was glad the woman was on her side and she didn’t have to scream at these men. She nodded to the other woman in thanks.
    “Candy, look at her, she isn’t really the type to be in a strip club.”
    “Look, she didn’t ask you if it was okay, Iron. She’s an adult and seems