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If we had to be Saint View’s voice, then we would be.
“What about the businesses already on the strip? What happens to us? My business puts food in the mouths of my employees’ families. It pays for clothing, education. What happens to them when you close us down?”
Augie, Fawn, Lyric, and Phoenix all shouted their agreement. We might be outnumbered, but we would be loud if we had to be. We would be loud for all the people who didn’t get to be here to have their say.
William held his hand up, calling for silence. “And who exactly are you, Miss…”
“Hawkins. Eve Hawkins.”
A flash of recognition streaked across his face. He looked down at the piece of paper on his podium. “The same Eve Hawkins who owns Saint View Strip Club?”
An old woman to my left frowned, pursing her thin, wrinkled lips together. “Strip club? The Devil lives in those places. Shame on you.”
I suppressed the urge to sneer in her face. They could try shaming me all they wanted. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. “Lady, your husband probably spends all his Friday nights at my club. Don’t go acting like you’re all high and mighty.”
The woman gasped and turned away.
Augie chuckled his delight behind me.
“There’s no need for language like that, Miss Hawkins. This is a peaceful discussion. If you can’t keep your tongue in check, I suggest you go back where you came from.” William nodded to the police officers at his side. At his command, the officers moved down in front of him, forming a barrier between me and the politician’s family.
“Where I came from?” I seethed as the officers filed into place. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Settle down.”
My attention snapped to the police officer who had issued the warning. My gaze rolled up his solid chest only to be met with the most beautiful hazel eyes I’d ever seen. I did a double take, absorbing the details of his face, partially obscured by his cap. A strong jaw covered by a light dusting of dark stubble, and full lips that were currently drawn into a frown.
He would have been hot if he weren’t glaring at me.
It took me a second to compose myself long enough to glare back. “I’m sure you didn’t just tell me to settle down, like I was some sort of overexcited dog. I have a right to be here and speak my mind.”
“And I have the right to arrest you for making a public disturbance. I don’t want to do that, which is why I politely asked you to settle down.”
Anger bubbled up inside me. Another rich white dude trying to lord his power over me. “This is my business he’s trying to destroy.”
William huffed in my direction. “I’m not trying to destroy anything. I’m trying to make Saint View better. We need to attract wealthy investors and tourists. We cannot do that when the strip is overrun by prostitutes and sex clubs.”
“Prostitutes!” Anger flushed through me, hot and raw.
“Oh no he didn’t.” Lyric stepped forward, fingers clenched into fists, only to come eye to eye with another police officer.
They tightened their ranks around us while the rest of the crowd backed away nervously.
“Oh yes he did.” Augie’s growl was menacing. He didn’t even have a leg to stand on. I knew for a fact he took on personal clients, and there was a lot more than just dancing going on at those parties. But he wasn’t doing that at my club. The man was a grown adult. He could do what he liked in his free time as far as I was concerned. So hypocrite or not, I was grateful for the backup.
“Nobody at my club is trading sex for money. We’re dancers. Entertainers. Last I checked, there was nothing wrong with that. This is bullshit!” My voice came out shriller than I wanted it to, but screw them and their assumptions.
“Seriously,” my cop said quietly. “You need to stop.”
But I was beyond stopping. I was fired up, blood hot, and not going home without a fight. “Or what? We just want to be heard. We want to actually be consulted about what happens in our neighborhood. And instead we’re here, in yours, being told that our livelihoods are being stripped away in favor of a yoga studio! Nobody in Saint View is doing any downward fucking dogs, cop!”
William sighed heavily into the microphone. “Officers, can we please remove the disturbance? There are other people who came here to be heard. I believe Ms. Hawkins has overstayed her welcome.”
“Time to go.” The cop stepped in closer, putting his hands on my bare arms.
A spark of electricity shot through my entire body at his touch. I jolted, my gaze slamming into his once more. For a moment he held it, while I drowned in his eyes. Damn, they were gorgeous.
But the real world came crashing back at a scream from Fawn as she was manhandled through the crowd. Augie launched himself after her, trying to get her away from the officers. Three more swarmed in, surrounding him, too.
