SHUT DOWN | JENLISA

4

Jennie – 6 years later

"Come in, Mino."

The double doors swung open, and my personal bodyguard, Mino, walked in. Mino was tall in height, broody in features, and a man of strength and skills.

The two guns he had strapped in his holster beneath his suit were evident, and I knew that he had a gun strapped to his ankle, and a knife latched onto the other one. Mino was ex-military and from Korea. He was my security head and controlled all the other men I had posted to watch my clubs, restaurants, hotels, and my own estate.

He was a loyal man and had proved it to me with the gunshot wound he had on his left shoulder. A shot he had taken for me. A pact formed over life and death was profoundly stronger than any blood pact.

"Boss." He spoke politely. His hands stayed behind his back as he approached my desk.

"The hacker?" I exhaled the smoke and leaned back in my chair.

"Dealt with."

"Good." I crushed the cigarette butt on my glass ashtray and stood up. I fixed my fur coat and reached for my phone. "Mino, did you find the man that's been counting cards in the new casino I just opened in Vegas?"

"No, boss. Not yet. I have my men looking into it."

"He's smart. I'll give him that."

"Have Mark and Lucas head to Vegas and investigate it further. I don't want the cops to catch him."

"Understood."

The doors opened up again, and Jessie, my accountant, and my lawyer all wrapped in one, and a former dancer walked in with files in her hand. Mino rushed to help her with everything, and she thanked him as he set everything down on my desk.

Her maroon-red hair was in two braided ponytails, and she was in a classy black pantsuit. Her heels matched her hair, and even though it wasn't her natural colour, it matched since her eyes were blue. It gave her that simple redhead, and blue-eyed girl look. Jessie was just one of the many dancers that I used to dance alongside with and was now working with me.

Some of the girls left, and I compensated them greatly, while others stuck around and reaped the benefits significantly. Over the last six years, I'd been busy. I took that one strip club, renovated it, added more entertainment excluding the girls, and raised the prices of the drinks and dances. It took a year and then some just to get it back on track.

Profits went through the roof, and I expanded, added more security, and it all just went on from there. I invested here and there, and with Jessie's help, I was able to open up six new strip clubs. Along with co-owning a few Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury hotels, I was making enough money to support my dancers and myself.

I bought an estate that I never thought I'd ever buy. Wore jewellery and clothes I only dreamed of wearing and buying. Six years later and I had grown from counting dollars off dirty stripper grounds to owning a house that cost me ten million dollars. I even designed and owned my very own lingerie line that all my dancers wore. It took me six years to grow, expand, learn and to overcome the struggles and battles that I fought along the way. The world that we lived in was a man-infested and hungry world, but they had to step aside sooner than later.

Women were hungry and in need of some power and control too. Either you stepped out of my way and let me make my own path or you were buried deep underneath it. I don't know if I was the same woman who used to dance for a man's pleasure or if I was the stronger, bloodthirsty version of her. Either way, it wasn't easy to be where I was or be who I am without chopping a few heads off some snakes.