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Raven-hair had backed down the steps, eyes a little wide. She didn’t want to play. It made me think better of her.

I drew Nathaniel in through the open door, with the brunette giving me a murderous glare. She was taking this way too personally. It was sort of unnerving. Nathaniel and I were safely through the door, but I didn’t like closing it and leaving Buzz out there alone. I mean, he’d helped us. What were the rules about security guards? Did they get protected, too, or just the dancers and customers? If you cut a security guard did he not bleed? So I stood there uncertainly with Nathaniel. It was Nathaniel who gently closed the door.

“Buzz will be fine, he knows how to talk to them.”

“What, you read my mind?”

He smiled. “No, I just know you. He helped us, and now you feel obligated.”

I fought the urge to squirm or shuffle my feet. I hated when anyone figured me out that clearly. Was I that transparent? Apparently so.

I decided to change the subject. “How did they know that ‘Brandon’ would be here tonight?”

“When we change headliners, we have an E-mail list that we notify. There’s even a list just for Brandon.”

I looked at him. “You mean that some of these women dropped everything, changed all their plans, because they found out that Brandon was going to be here tonight?”

He shrugged and managed to look a little embarrassed. “Some of them, yes.”

I shook my head. I changed the subject again, because I was losing again. “Who was supposed to be keeping the fans away from this door?”

The door in question opened. Buzz laughed and joked, until the door closed behind him, then he leaned against it and looked tired. “Primo was.”

It took me a second to realize that he’d answered the question I’d asked with the door closed. “You heard me ask the question?”

He nodded. Then he grinned flashing fangs, the sign of a new vamp. “You didn’t know I could hear you through the door?”

“Hear, yes, but I thought you were too busy concentrating on the women outside.”

He looked past me at Nathaniel. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Buzz pushed himself away from the door and stood, settling his big, overdeveloped shoulders like a bird settles its feathers. “I better go talk to Primo, for what good it will do.”

“What do you mean, good it will do?” I asked.

He looked at me. “Primo is old, really old. He wants to be one of Jean-Claude’s vamps, but he had his eye on like the number two, or at least number three slot. He’s pissed that he’s having to be security at a strip club. He’s more pissed that a baby like me is his direct boss.” Buzz looked worried. “He’s old school, and he thinks if he keeps pushing me, that I’ll call him out. But I am not going to challenge that thing. He’d kill me.”

“Have you told Jean-Claude what’s going on?”

He nodded. “He told Primo that if he couldn’t stomach this job and obey me, then he could get out of town.”

“Did that help for awhile?” I asked.

Buzz smiled. “Have you heard this story before?”

“No, but I know how the really old vamps can be. They are proud bastards.”

Nathaniel touched my arm. “I need to talk to Jean-Claude about tonight’s performance.”

“I’ll join you in the office in a minute.”

Nathaniel started to say something, then seemed to think better of it and just went down the white hallway. I watched him go into the office that was just a few doors down. Then I turned back to Buzz. “Is it just not doing what he’s told, or is there more?”

“He’s started taking money to let in people we don’t let in.”

“Like who?”

“Men.”

I raised eyebrows. “You don’t let in any men?”

“Not a lot. It makes the women uncomfortable, and some of the dancers don’t like it either. You’re either comfortable shakin’ your thing in front of other men, or you’re not.”

“I guess that makes sense, but you let some in.”

“Couples, just like they do at most female strip clubs across the river.”

“But Primo is letting in single men,” I said.

He nodded.

“What did Jean-Claude tell you to do about it?”

“He told me to deal with it. That if I wasn’t vampire enough to control Primo that maybe I didn