Blue

Breaking The News

Dente was scratching his head and had walked around the club so many times that he had lost count. Tommy and Hobi shared awkward glances as they got Bluebirds ready to open and caught Dente walk past again out of the corner of their eyes, they were sure there would be a track left in the floor where he had paced along the same route so much.

"Dente?" Hobi called out.

"Hmmm?" Dente looked troubled, his usual calm, happy exterior giving way to something that concerned both the workers.

"Can I ask what is wrong? You seem... unlike you." He added, Tommy nodding along.

"I've got to tell Vante something and he's going to lose his shit. Not only that but I don't want to do it, I don't want him to go."

This was bad... Hobi and Tommy knew it. Dente was used to telling Vante news and orders from Cyan and co, they'd seen him when he'd had to reprimand the stripper but this was something else.

"Tell V what? Where is he going?" Hobi had his phone in his hand, ready to text Yoongi who was at Magpies.

"They are sending him to High End tomorrow night."

"What?! Are you serious? Why? They never send our best workers there?" Hobi's heart was thudding in his chest, he had worked behind the bar at the High End function before and hated every second of it.

"That's what they want and that's what I have to do." Dente didn't want to say too much, the walls had ears and he knew it.

Hobi knew there wasn't anything he could do and he felt sick. Vante had started to find happiness and when he'd seen him that morning he had seen a look on his face that Hobi hadn't ever seen... this would destroy him.

'High End' was held once a year, it was a huge event for the three clubs and it was very exclusive, so exclusive that you had to be invited and it cost the earth to attend. The invitations were sent out via text message and you were only on the database if you had paid for the privilege. The clients were usually CEO's of the biggest companies that had families but also lived an underground second life that no one in their circle of friends or family knew about.

High End was a lavish event, held at a location that wasn't revealed until the day of the event and alerted by text message. This year they were holding it at Magpies which was closing for 'refurbishment'. It was eagerly anticipated by the people that paid to be there, the night being one where they could live out all their fantasies without a care in the world.

To anyone going for the first time, they would think it was an after party for one of the top most awards ceremonies, so much glitter and glamour. The waiters and waitresses dressed in nothing but body paint and rhinestones, matching whichever theme had been decided... they were the lucky ones... they walked around with food and drinks on gold trays, possibly being touched up every now and again but that was as far as it went for them.

The event in the past was usually held in a hotel, the biggest banquet room being transformed into the main room, the lobby lavishly decorated and several rooms being used for the fantasy rooms. Each room had a theme and a particular fantasy and the men that paid to be there were given carte blanche to do whatever they wanted. The usual practice was to have the new strippers from each of the clubs there, they would dance around poles placed in the main room and were available to be taken off at any time. There were workers in the clubs that didn't perform on stage but would work the floors and provide a backroom service, so these guys were usually the ones taken along to High End. The reason the new ones were used was quite simply because their disappearance would go unnoticed if that is what happened. Their bodies could be dumped and it could be made to look like another drug overdose that would be filed away by the police and they would be forgotten... that was their worth. It didn't happen very often but it did happen because there weren't any rules, anything goes when obscene amounts of money are involved.