CoR The Candy Shop

[Faithy]

Date: To be decided [after Pupnapping]
Location: Lupaix

One of the more fancier Gentleman's Clubs, The Candy Shop was constantly bouncing. The inside consisted of a multiple poles for dancing, a plethora of tables for the clients, as well as a very nice bar setup and a DJ section. Off in the back were several VIP private rooms for clients that wanted to do more than just throw money at the dancers. There were also other rooms for more nefarious activities that the boss kept on the down low. The locker room and break room were off in the back and the bosses office was in the same area.

Aimée had been at the Shop for a little over a year or so and despite her bosses constant nagging, had refused to do more than just dance. She had told the boss multiple times that she wasn't going to get nude and every single time, he told her that soon she wouldn't have a choice because everyone was going to work the back rooms and she could either get with the program or face the consequences. That response was generally met with a nice eye roll from her. She hadn't bothered telling him he didn't want to jack with a Bloodstone, but was definitely holding that as an ace in her sleeve.

Wanting some form of normalcy after her horrific kidnapping and subsequent beating, Aimée stubbornly returned to work after she had recovered enough to not have questions asked about her appearance. Sauntering through the door, the dark-haired female made her way to the locker room to put her items into the locker and change into her stripper outfit. She decided to wear her cowgirl outfit, complete with a Stetson hat, though her facial scars were still covered. It was very skimpy and while it left little to imagination, she was still clothed. Shashaying out of the locker room, Aimée paused and frowned. Damn, normally she'd get drinks.

"Hm." Musing a moment, she decided to just go ahead and jump up on the stage and get to dancing. She was juuuuust about to completely get into her groove when Maximilian caught her attention with his demanding hand signals. Somehow managing to keep from rolling her eyes, she jumped down from the stage and made her way over to the boss.

"I'm fucking busy. What now?" Aimée hissed at him, doing her best to keep her voice down.

"Watch your tone, kid." Max warned and grabbed a hold of her arm, jerking her towards the back. His thick fingers dug into her upper arm as he got to the double doors that led to the VIP rooms.

"You're working the back today. No excuses or whining." He squeezed tighter and put his free hand on the handle.

"No." Aimée's eyes narrowed and she stepped back, trying to free her arm.

"Excuse me? I am the boss and you're working back there or I'm going to make you wish you had just done it." Threatening came easy to Max, especially when it came to the girls because they were weaker than him, at least in his eyes.

 

[Tiko]

A figure moved in abruptly and grabbed Max's free arm and squeezed hard. Max let out a startled yelp of pain and let Aimee go before grabbing at the hand gripping his arm.

"She said no," Bastien growled.

Though an unexpected presence, it wouldn't take Aimee long to recognize him. Before she had a chance to question what the fuck Bastien was doing at The Candy Shop, he had slammed his fist into Max's face. The blow sent the man slamming into the wall where he crumpled to the floor. A nearby security guard moved to intervene, but a look from Bastien stopped him dead in his tracks.

The Bloodstone cut marked him for what he was, and the wolfish gleam to his eyes and slightest ghost of a smile said 'just give me an excuse'.

"What are you doing?!" Max demanded. "Get him the fuck out of here!"

His face was a mess of blood that was gushing from his broken nose.

 

[Faithy]

As Max squeezed her arm, Aimée snapped back to the night she had been beaten to near death by her roommates. She froze, almost like a deer in the headlights and let out a choked sob. No! This wasn't going to happen again!! She immediately shrank inside of herself mentally and waited for the baseball bat to connect with her body. When nothing happened, she slowly blinked back to the present... to reality and realized Max was no longer holding onto her.

"... what...?" Aimée's voice was soft and she found herself staring at... wait, was that Bastien?! Why was he here?! Her face flushed and she wanted to ask, but the words died in her throat.

Bastien ramming a fist into Max's face was probably the real reason she didn't say anything. A slight smirk crossed her face and she slowly moved behind her savor, feeling so much better that he had shown up. Who knows what might've happened otherwise.

"I told you to stop asking me...!" Aimée's voice was steady despite her still racing heart.

"You bitch! I told you what was going to happen if you disobeyed me! That fuck isn't always going to save your pathetic ass!!" Max shouted at her despite tasting his own blood and fearing the Bloodstone male.

 

[Tiko]

Bastien reached down and grabbed Max by the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet, only to drive a fist into his gut this time. The man doubled over, but Bastien didn't let up and pull him up to slam a fist into the side of his face and sent him sprawling to the ground.

The commotion was quickly drawing a crowd of onlookers. It was slow at first, but as more and more people took note of what was going on the dancers on the stage where quickly forgotten. The women on the stage stood looking a bit confused as to whether they should continue or not.

A few people closest to the situation had pulled out cellphones, and much to Max's chagrin instead of calling the police they where too busy filming it. The man tried to crawl away with a whimper, and Bastien stepped on his hand.

Max grabbed his wrist to try and pull his hand free but that just made the pain worse.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck! What does the stupid bitch matter to you?! She's just another whore like the rest-"

CRUNCH

Max screamed as Bastien ground his heel down with the audible snapping of bones.

"This is what's going to happen. Bloodstone pack members get free admission - VIP rooms included - until we say otherwise. We'll be dropping in to make sure you don't need another reminder on how we do things in Lupaix."

Bastien knelt down with an alarmingly dangerous smile. "And I'll be leaving my number with the girls. If I get even a hint that you've been forcing them to do anything they don't want to, or that you've been skimping on their wages for extra services rendered, or if you even think of retaliating against any of them... I'll be back."

He gave the onlookers a wink.

 

[Faithy]

Aimée tugged a little on her hair at Max's threat, knowing that she was going to once again suffer. The look he was shooting her was not a pleasant one and she once again found herself thinking about her roommates and how their eyes looked the night she nearly died. Shuddering, she kept close to Bastien as he walloped the boss, her eyes taking in the phones. This was blowing up, but it was definitely better than being alone and being forced into the VIP section.

Fucking dirty bastard...

When Max called her a whore, Aimée clenched her jaw and turned bright red. She wasn't a whore!! Just about to act on her anger, Bastien beat her to the punch and she ended up smirking at the sound of the boss's bones breaking. Served the fucker right. Glancing first at the people gathered around and then at the very confused girls, she wondered if they would be happy with the development. They sure were giving Bastien dreamy eyes, so probably. It was so very sickening, but that was probably because she didn't see him like that.

"Wait, what?" She picked up on the fact that Bastien said that the Bloodstones would be checking in to make sure Max was behaving and that meant... no... no! She didn't... no, COULDN'T have them here when she was! It was... it was supposed to be her secret. Squeezing her fingers into fists, she slammed the heel of the high heel she was wearing into Max's thigh.

"You fucker... couldn't just leave well enough alone! And you...!" Aimée spun on Bastien, finger pointing at him, eyes brimming with tears. "You ...!" Unable to finish, she just kicked at Max again before pushing through the crowd to get some air. Her entire body was shaking and she felt like she was suffocating.

 

[Tiko]

Bastien seemed a bit taken aback by Aimee's abrupt change in demeanor. "Wait, what-," he started, but she was already kicking Max again before storming off.

Bastien was quick to follow her, completely disregarding Max who was curled up on the floor clutching his broken hand. He had gotten the message clearly enough.

"Hey, wait!" Bastien called as Aimee made it through the crowd of onlookers ahead of him and he broke into a jog to catch up with her just outside the building. "What did I do?" he asked with a befuddled look. "We can take care of it if he gives you shit for it."

He remained woefully unaware of the actual source of Aimee's reaction.

 

[Faithy]

Temporarily ignoring Bastien, Aimée stubbornly stalked outside of the Club. The fists at both sides were shaking uncontrollably and the harder she squeezed, the deeper her nails dug into her flesh. It was all just too much! Within a very short period, her life was being upturned and she hated it! She hated her landlord for evicting her and hated the railyard. Hated her roommates for nearly killing her. Hated herself for wishing they had. Hated her father for betraying the pack and killing her mother. Hated the pack for not dealing with the murder better. Hated that it had been kept from her. Hated herself for being so fucking useless and weak. Hated that the one thing that she had that wasn't pack business, was now pack business. She was so full of everything that she was just turning to anger, because sadness showed weakness.

Coming to a stop a little bit away from the entrance, Aimée spun to face Bastien. For a second, his confused look lessened the rage, but it was still there. Her shoulders trembled as did her bottom lip. NO! She wasn't going to cry here! No matter how much the way Max was holding her arm reminded her of Lucas, she wasn't going down that road! Clenching her jaw, the Pup fought to lessen the tightness in her hands.

"... Why the fuck are you here? I deliberately staked out EACH strip club to make sure no one from the Pack came here. It was my secret and ..." Her voice choked up and she felt tears welling up.

"I can't... no one can... I don't..." Swearing when her words wouldn't come out, she looked down at the ground.

"Doesn't matter anymore... the rest of my life... of my freedom has been taken away. Might as well take this too. Thanks for dealing with Max. The other girls will appreciate the additional checking in..."

 

[Tiko]

"Hey now, no one's taking anything from you. I'll beat his ass again if I have to," Bastien told her. "Wait, is this about... what happened? Ragenard just wants to keep you safe. I'm sure it's not forever. Hey look, come on and I'll get you something to eat. It'll make you feel better."

Bastien wasn't always the best choice when it came to good advice, or good life choices, and he was certainly no role model. But he could be a good ear at times.

"Besides, it'll save a lot of headache if you skip the rest of work today," he said with a grin. "Call it a mental health day."

 

[Faithy]

Aimée just stared blankly at Bastien or that's what she had been trying to do. Instead traitorous tears ran down her cheeks, ruining her perfect makeup in the process. She knew without looking that her mascara was running enough to make her eyes resemble raccoon eyes and she hated it. At least one side of her face was covered with her hair, but enough damage was being done. He really just didn't get it. No one understood her and that stabbed her deep in the heart.

"You're not even remotely close to why I'm upset, Bastien," Aimée spoke softly before cocking her head slightly. Or maybe he was on the right track just a smidgen.

"This job was my one secret. The only thing I had that was just mine and you ruined it by telling Dick-face Max that the Pack would be coming and checking on him. Can you not understand why I'm pissed?" She kicked a rock off to the side before sighing.

"Rage had been having Xandre trail me for a while... even before I was nearly beat to death. It's just... I have no freedom. It's been an illusion all this time." Giving up, she squeezed the bridge of her nose, stomach growling at the notion of getting food.

"... fine, we can go eat, but I can't just skip work all willy-nilly."

 

[Tiko]

"What's he going to do? Fire you? Just punch him in the dick," Bastien offered helpfully.

He paused and scratched at his head while pondering his next words. "You do realize how many members of the pack hit up strip clubs, right? I saw you up there myself about eight months ago. Some swan getup if I remember right."

He led her to his bike and offered her the helmet.

"Want to swing by the Warehouse for a change of clothes first?" he asked. "I'll wager we can shake Xandre after," he added with a roguish grin.

 

[Faithy]

"Oh my god, Bastien. I can't just go around punching people in the dick. I mean, I can, but... no. That's not my cup of tea." Rolling her eyes, Aimée pulled her hat down a little more to cover her face. This was not a helpful conversation right now. Not at all. But, honestly, it was expected. Just about calmed down, tears finally drying up, she couldn't stop the cry of disbelief at his next words.

Seriously?! No!! No way in hell they had come in and she didn't know! Maybe she was off? That slight sliver of hope was dashed almost immediately when Bastien described what she had been wearing the night he visited. Yep, that was definitely her.

"Fuuuuuck...I can't... you... I just... I'm not a whore..." Granted he hadn't say that, but that was her huge fear that was how the pack saw her now. Frowning, she once again started to cry though, she did go with him to his bike. Taking the helmet as it was offered, she just shrugged.

"... sure, let's go get me changed. As for Xandre... he was just doing Rage's orders. It's just very irritating and makes me want to punch Rage in the dick." Giving Bastien a slight smirk, she switched out her hat for the helmet and adjusted it on her head.

 

[Tiko]

"There you go, that's the spirit," he said with a grin at her dick punching remark.

"And I'm pretty sure stripping and prostitution are two different things. Besides, you know Vanessa stripped for a few years. And Julienne's probably fucked half the city, and more for free than not. Probably would give me crap for lowballing her numbers. The only one who gives a fuck about that shit are the rich pricks over in Luskonios," he said with a light laugh.

"You've been hanging out there too much if they've gotten to your head."

 

[Faithy]

While she knew both things about Vanessa and Juilenne, Aimée still couldn't get past mentally how people viewed her. She was so desperate to present a certain image and couldn't even place why it was important. All she knew was she didn't want to be labeled a traitor or whore. Squeezing her jaw tight, she did her best not to smash her hat.

"Mmm, yeah, I guess stripping and prostitution are different, but there are people who see them as being the same. Especially with the VIP rooms. I just..." Aimée paused and poked at her thigh in deep thought concerning his final comment.

"Maybe you're right, Bastien. Maybe I've spent too much time in hoity-toity land and I've forgotten my roots. Can we go eat now? I'm starving."