The man eyed Neely Kate up and down, and then his gaze landed on my face. “Did you bring yer friend to hold yer hand, or is she here about a job too?”

Neely Kate stepped to the side so I was more visible. “She’s applying too.”

He glanced down at his desk and scratched his crotch. I took the opportunity to elbow Neely Kate in the side, and I was impressed when she barely flinched. All the abuse she’d taken from her cousins had toughened her up.

“There is a job opening, ladies, but only one.”

“That’s okay,” I volunteered. “She needs it more than I do.”

“Is that so?” he asked, giving Neely Kate more attention than I liked. He shrugged, then motioned for us to come into the room.

There was only one extra chair, and I didn’t plan on staying long enough to use it. I only hoped the fact that Neely Kate didn’t take it meant she wasn’t planning to stay either.

“I can only give you four nights a week, and only one of ’em’s a weekend. Otherwise the other girls’ll be squallin’.”

He paused, and Neely Kate said, “Okay.”

“You pay the house thirty-five dollars for every shift, and then give ten percent of the money you earn in tips to the D.J. and the bartender to be split.”

“Tips?” I asked.

Mud’s eyes bugged out, and the cigarette dangling out of his mouth nearly fell out. “I take it you never danced before.”

I was pretty sure he wouldn’t count me dancing for the first time last June in the Henryetta splash park with my niece. “Uh . . . no.”

He shook his head and turned to Neely Kate. “What about you?”

“Sure.” She shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “Down in Shreveport. I had to move back home to take care of my momma.”

Seeming to accept her answer, he turned to me, looking at me like I was an idiot. “Tips is what the dancers get when the customers tuck money in their G-strings.” He pantomimed to reinforce his words. My face flushed, and he laughed. “But most of the money is made from lap dances. The house rule is that it’s twenty bucks a dance.”

“Okay,” Neely Kate said. “I heard one of the other dancers quit.”

“More like didn’t show up,” he grumbled. “You plan on sticking around?”

“I need a job, Mr. . . ?”

“Just call me Mud.”

She shifted her weight. “I really need the job, Mud.”

“You can start tomorrow night, but first I gotta see you dance. We’re a classy joint, and we gotta keep up our standards.”

The brown stain on the wall in the hallway screamed of class and sophistication. But I still couldn’t shake the fact that this place felt familiar, which creeped me out even more.

“Okay,” Neely Kate said without hesitation, and I fought to hide my horrified shock.

“You prepared to dance today?”

“Of course.”

His gaze returned to me, and his eyes roamed my body. “I’d like to see you dance too. You never know when there’s gonna be another opening.” He had to have an active imagination; I was wearing jeans and boots and a heavy brown wool coat over an oversized sweater.

My mouth dropped open, and I started to protest, but Neely Kate’s eyebrows lifted so high in warning she gave herself a temporary facelift.

He waved to the door, already givin’ his attention to the papers on his desk. “Show your dance to the girls and Roy. If you’re any good, I’ll watch. Roy will meet you in the hall and show you where to change.”

Neely Kate practically shoved me into the hall.

“Shut the door!” Mud shouted after us, and Neely Kate closed it.

I turned on her like a barracuda. “Are you out of your ever-loving mind?”

She covered my mouth with one hand. “Shh!”

I swatted her hand off and whispered, “We can’t do this! It’s not right!”

Her lips pressed tight. “There’s nothing illegal about dancing. I told you that this place has all their permits in line and everything.”

My tactic obviously wasn’t working. “Neely Kate. You can’t strip! What will Ronnie say? Not to mention the fact that you’re pregnant! You just started getting your morning sickness under control. All that twirling around is bound to stir things up.”

“Rose, calm down. We’re not strippin’.”

“You’re about to audition! We’re about to audition!” I shook my head in horror. There was no way I could spin on that pole, let alone strip while doing it.

“I’m just borrowing more time.”

“You’re sure gonna need it. You got nothing out of Mud. You didn’t even try.”

“He’s not just gonna give us answers, Rose.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Then what are we doin’ here? Why do we have to pretend we want to work here?”

The boss must have contacted Roy somehow, because the cowboy who’d led us back into the hallway had reappeared and was moving toward us. We were running out of time.

She released a heavy sigh. “Trust me.”

The thought of getting up on that stage and taking off my clothes scared the bejiggers out of me. There was no way in tarnation I would do it. “I’m gonna be honest, Neely Kate. You’re making it awfully hard right now.”

“I know, but I have a plan.”