Read Online Cherry Pie by Leigh Redhead - Free Book Online

like.’
    ‘When did you last see Andi?’
    ‘Staff party,’ he said without hesitation. ‘She left about two. Toddled off down Fitzroy Street to catch a cab.’
    Liar. But I didn’t let on. For the first time I noticed a scratch on his cheek, opposite side from the scar.
    ‘How’d you get that scratch?’
    ‘You wouldn’t believe it but I was bending over in the cool room to get some stock, and a fucking pineapple attacked me.
    I’ve got nothing to hide, darlin’. You want to check the rest of my body for suspicious marks? Maybe take a DNA sample?’ He moved his hands toward his belt, laughing at his own joke.
    ‘That won’t be necessary. I’m going now.’
    He didn’t try to stop me. Just stood there and ate the rest of the dessert.
    If I’d thought things were a disaster before, they were more so by the time I got back into the bar. Everyone was hammered and Chloe was making Patsy audition by giving her a lap dance.
    ‘That’s right, baby,’ she said. ‘Who’s your momma?’
    Yasmin was leaning against the bar, mouth pursed into a cat’s bum. She grabbed my arm as I walked past.
    ‘I told you not to bother us,’ she spat. ‘Now take your slut friend and get out of here.’
    I shook out of her grasp. ‘We were just leaving.’
    I marched over to Chloe. ‘Come on, babe, we gotta go.’
    ‘Just a sec.’
    Patsy, still sitting on her lap, said, ‘I have to ask, darling, are those fucking gazoongas real?’
    ‘Why don’t you have a feel and find out?’
    He put a breast in each hand and weighed them up. ‘They are too!’
    ‘I don’t believe it,’ said Dillon. Chloe tipped Patsy off and marched over to Dillon, grabbed his hands and put them on her tits.
    Patsy suddenly gasped and clapped his hands to his mouth.
    ‘Oh my god, Dillon, you are sooo busted.’
    I followed Patsy’s gaze to the front door. A dark haired woman in her early thirties started pounding on the glass, a baby in a front pack and a pissed off expression on her face.
    Dillon’s hands recoiled but it was too late. Gordon, the fat sous chef, leapt up sneering and let her in.
    The woman stomped over to Dillon. ‘Just staying back for a couple of staffies, huh?’
    I grabbed Chloe and her handbag and dragged her toward the entrance. Gordon turned the lock as we approached and reached out his hands. ‘But I didn’t get to see if they were real.’
    Chloe giggled and I stood in front of her. ‘Party time’s over, mate, let us out.’
    I went for the lock and the prick made a swipe at my boobs so I grabbed his chubby hand and dug my fingernails into the palm until his eyes started to water. ‘Try it and I’ll slap a sexual harassment suit on you so fast your head will spin.’
    He looked me up and down, stood to the side and waited till I’d passed before he muttered, ‘Bitch.’
    Chloe stepped out the door and fell on her arse on the footpath. I put my arms around her waist and hauled her up.
    ‘Come on, babe.’
    She struggled against my grasp. ‘I’m going back in. I was having fun.’
    ‘No you’re not. I’m driving you to my place.’
    ‘Don’t wanna. Let go.’ She made herself floppy, like a kid chucking a tantrum at the shops, and slithered to the ground where she sat, legs stretched out, laughing.
    I’d really had enough. ‘Damn you, Chloe, you’ve fucked up my undercover operation, made a dick of yourself and pissed off somebody’s wife. Not to mention humiliated your own boyfriend. I’m not Curtis’s number one fan but that was awful.
    What the fuck’s wrong with you tonight? You’d better get your shit together because you’re fucking embarrassing.’
    Soon as I uttered the last word I regretted it.
    She picked herself up and stood in front of me swaying, one eye squinted. ‘You’re ashamed of me?’
    ‘I’m not—’
    ‘You fucking hypocrite. It’s okay for you to be a stripper because you have to do it to save for your business. But me, who does it ’cause I like it, that makes me a