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Cleo Horan
The pink neon lights would always make my head hurt if I stared at them for too long, especially given the way they were blinking to match the beat of the song playing in the background.
It didn't matter, I'd told my mother over and over again that she should change the color but she refused. It was the same shade as the huge neon sign right outside the club, the glowing letters caught everyone's attention, as if being a strip club wasn't enough.
Well, welcome to Eroda... no place quite like it.
The strip club was one of the biggest and most renowned in the city, with plenty of VIP rooms and separate lounges with black leather sofas and also special rooms for lapdances, everything monitored by security cameras.
The walls were covered by a dark snakeskin wallpaper, and the black floor only made the pink lights seem brighter.
Tonight, every small stage and pole had an assigned dancer. It was very full, well, like any other Friday night around here. The majority of customers were always the same: men over forty years old who were planning on cheating on their wives.
Some of them removed their wedding rings but others didn't even bother to do the minimum, but I'd gotten used to this gross behavior.
I was in a shitty mood thanks to tongueless Aaron, he was making me hate men even more tonight.
Niall was walking in front of me, leading the way to a large bar on the back, where my mother probably was. She rarely stayed in her private office, she only went there when she needed to meet some important client or receive the payments.
The chatter and the cheering around me were way too loud to add to the music, and thank god I remembered to stop by the bathroom to wash off the blood from my hands and face before I walked out to the public part of the establishment.
To be honest, I just wanted to go home and force myself to stop thinking about Aaron's threats. I'd pay him another visit in the morning and I was sure he was going to write down just the name of the murderer... and I'd know for sure if Styles was involved or not.
Niall didn't know about this detail yet, he always claimed I had zero control whenever that disgusting family was involved and he was right. But he was too calm sometimes and I really couldn't understand how he or my mother wasn't angrier... I was always so fucking angry.
Desmond Styles is the name of the man who killed my father.
And yeah, you could say I was resentful. There was no forgive and forget, and I sure as fuck was never going to forget about it, because unlike my brother and my mother, I was there to watch when my father got shot in the head six years ago.
My mother had taken over the business even though she didn't want to, and she changed pretty much everything around here. The strip club was a safe place for the girls and I knew she cared about them a little too much sometimes.
