tabby

was the night. Probably part of the reason why my dance appeared more sexual than normal.
But Arin wasn’t there.
Neither was Bae.
For the first time since I started dancing, neither of them waited for me. Unease crept along my spine. Could something have happened to both of them? Were they hurt? Caught? Kidnapped? And where was Kasim?
At the thought of Kasim, my worry disappeared. Kasim was watching. If anything bad had happened, he’d know and would follow so that they could be rescued. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Miss Kitty?” Mike stepped out from behind the curtain alcove where he monitored the show. He held out my dressing gown. “Arin asked me to give this to you and to walk you back.”
“Um.” It was nice of Arin to think of me, but doing so made me wonder what had happened. Could he have received word that something happened to Bae? I took the dressing gown and wrapped it around me, tying the band around my waist.
No longer horny, I allowed Mike to usher me back toward the change room.
A tall burly man stepped out from the room. My nose wrinkled at the smell that emanated from him. It made the insides of my nostrils freeze like when I’d gone camping high up in the mountains for winter survival training in high school. It had been so cold that the moisture from my breath froze on my nose hairs.
“I’ll take her from here, Mike. Thanks.”
Mike nodded but didn’t leave. Instead he stepped back and blocked the hallway leading back to the stage. Before my eyes, he grew in stature. Gone was the nondescript man that we ignored. Instead, a quasi monster stood in his place. The thing sported a head that came from a crocodile, the upper body of what could have been Bigfoot, and the lower body of a horse. Mike had to be one of the Henchmen’s mutations, but why hadn’t we realized that he was a shifter?
The other man stepped forward and smiled, but his smile didn’t instil any good will. “If you’ll come with me, Miss Kitty? If you don’t, we’ll just take you anyway. And you really won’t like that.”
Given that choice, I walked the way he motioned, down a different hallway, which led to an area of the club I’d never been. But having memorized the interior blueprints, I knew that this area of the club contained private rooms and another exit. With the knowledge of where the surveillance cameras were, I made sure to ask my questions where the camera would view my face. I didn’t know where I was going or why, but it was obvious that he wasn’t taking me somewhere for the good of my health.
“Where are we going?”
He grunted.
“Why are you taking me?”
Nothing.
I tried again. “Who are you taking me to?”
“Enough. If you don’t stop talking, I’ll gag you. You’ll find out everything when we get where we’re going.”
Since talking didn’t work, for the rest of the walk I used covert hand signals to tell the cameras, and hopefully my men, that Mike was the person they needed to follow.
He led me out the door to a waiting car. I climbed in after dropping a piece of my dressing gown’s tie on the ground. It was the only thing I could do since not once in the club had we encountered another soul.
I don’t know how long we drove. Within minutes of the car door closing behind my burly escort, who sat beside me, I passed out. One minute I was awake and the next moment I heard a voice telling me that we were here. Nothing of what transpired in between those two memories seemed to appear no matter how hard I tried to remember as I paced the beautiful room I’d been placed in. Nor did I remember how I’d gotten to the room. Those memories were just as blank.
If I was being detained—a nice way to say kidnapped—the person behind it was being nice. Instead of a dank cell in some basement with a ratty old blanket, my prison was made of gilt. Hardwood floors, a large four-poster bed, silk bedding, fluffy pillows, even a large screen TV. I also had a marble ensuite complete with a large soaking tub.
But the one thing I didn’t have was freedom. My door was locked, along with my windows. Even the view outside didn’t give me a clue as to where I was since they were windows to nowhere. Each window revealed a different scene and was lit to simulate sunlight. I could have been in a mansion or a warehouse for all I knew.
The door to my prison room opened, revealing a wood panelled hall, and admitted the burly man from the club. He motioned around the room. “I hope that this meets your liking.” He waited for me to answer, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I still didn’t know who he was. Was he the head goon? The one in charge? Or just another lackey who had the unfortunate luck to be assigned to me?
He closed the door, crossed the wooden floor, and sat on the plush velvet-covered couch. “I’m sorry we had to do this to you, but you’ve grown close to some men who seem to be poking their noses in my business. So if your men behave and drop their silly nonsense, we’ll let you go free. But until then, you might as well make the most of it. If you need something, just ask. The staff have all been instructed to give you anything you request, within reason.”
“Staff?”
“Yes. My staff.” He pressed a button on the edge of the coffee table. The door to the room opened, admitting another man. This one was older with white hair and a thin body. His scent told me he was human, and from the way he was dressed, all in black, I assumed he was a butler. It would be in keeping with the