Read Online Taking Jana (Paradise South #2) by Rissa Brahm - Free Book Online Page B

compared to Newark’s club scene, was the exponential money to be had in the City. Even though, at the start, she’d been low on the totem pole—far fewer peak shifts and no private room demand—she’d still made twice as much money as she had in Newark. And once she acquired her own following at The Sweet Spot, well, astronomical history. She had never imagined having so much cash before, every last dollar of which would all go to cover the remainder of her folks’ debt and all of her college tuition. And for the next four years, she worked all night, hit class and studied by day, and grabbed some sleep and food somewhere in between. That’s how she got out of the clubs and obtained her ER spot.
    But here she was again, the Newark club on her brain. Chills shimmied up her spine.
    Just focus, Jana.
    Okay, so the money would be less, but she, logistically speaking, couldn’t afford to get to the City from Fort Lee every day, not with the traffic. And if anyone from her ER saw her on stage, well, that was just unthinkable. She calculated that as long as she got full shifts and lap dance priority in Newark, in four weeks’ time, she could rake in thirty to forty grand, and that was based on figures from years ago. It was always safer to be conservative. From Thursday through Saturday, she’d have no problem pulling in two grand a night. Then, if she worked three weekday nights, she’d add another three to her weekly pot. Nine thousand a week. Yeah, thirty-two in the month would make a dent, combined with her savings and credit card advances. Oh, and she could try to sublet her apartment in SoHo while crashing at her folks’ place here… ugh . Still, she could do this. She could stop this new boulder her parents had hurled at her from steamrolling their lives and her life along with it.
    Finding the financial solution in her mind was only a dopamine rush for an instant, though, as her hand went up to her shirt collar, holding it closed, and closer to her skin from the thought of baring her body again to those men and their starving eyes.
    The cabbie cleared his throat, bringing Jana out of her zone. The cab sat idle in the hospital portico for who knows how long. The driver’s narrowed eyes glared at her in the rearview, showing his obvious readiness to move on with his shift, back to his own never-ending rat race, even though the meter was still ticking up every second she sat there.
    She too had to get on with things. She stared at the bright white light shining through the hospital’s automatic doors, which were opening and closing rhythmically, again and again, because the cabbie had pulled up too close to the damn sensor.
    She began to gather her things as the driver’s expression in the rearview willed her to move her ass.
    Look, asshole, it’s not like you aren’t charging me for sitting here.
    Being rushed to do something she resented and detested—and by this piece of shit!—made her jaw clench and her stomach cramp. She wanted to send Driver Dredge in to her parents, into the hospital, in to pay the damn hospital bill that was mounting every second, and then send him down to Newark after that to get naked and gyrate for an audience of horny assholes!
    She took a few deep breaths, shot him back a look in his little mirror, and tossed a wad of crumpled ones over the divider. For interrupting me and my procrastinating.
    She got out of the cab, and instead of helping with her bags, the driver only sat and straightened out the crumpled bills. Walking through the automatic doors, she glared over her shoulder one last time, only to catch the dickhead gawking at her ass through his passenger side window. She cringed while chills shot up her arms.
    Get used to it, Jana. And fast.
    She sighed long and hard, then continued on, weary and spent, dragging her baggage behind her.

CHAPTER 7
    H er father was asleep and her mother was glowering at her from her awkward fetal position in that armchair in the corner of