Ghosts of Jazz
This is a sample of the beginning of a story I was writing a few months ago.
The lady walked onto the floor like a cat on the prowl, eyeing the crowd. She was no youngster but her voice and sexual presence more than made up for lack of youthful vigour. Cat knew she held the stage; the men wanted her, and the women wanted to be her. Her patrons loved Cat and she was feared by those who crossed her. She is the Black Cat.
At the top of the Merrick building in Medville, there is a small club known as Room 666. Inside this secluded area, is a jazz lounge that is frequented by the most exclusive guests, if you get an invite you have become a respected member of a high-class elite group whose powers are only limited by your desires. The main thing about this room is money can't get you in, but once you get accepted you have unlimited power.
Equally, as sexual and deadly is Cat's sister Darryl. Cat may be the lady whose face draws the crowds, but Darryl is the powerhouse behind their success - she is the brains.
Nobody knows where they came from, or when. All the patrons know is don't cross Cat or her sister, they may be ladies, but these ladies have claws, and they will use them if necessary. Powerful men have tried to take over their domain and have disappeared without trace
The woman strutted onto the ballroom floor, and all eyes watched as she rolled her hips to the last sounds of the jazz quartet. The woman glanced around the crowd, watching for anyone who might cause trouble tonight, but the room was quiet News gets around fast, she thought as she walked on stage.
The "news" she was thinking about was the opening of her new club The Black Cat. The lady and her sister had recently taken control of the club Archie's, in a peaceful transaction. Archie Dempster, the previous owner, realised having two sexy ladies running the club was better than one ex-horn player on his uppers. Before the takeover, the club barely cleared its costs, now after only a month in the new ownership Cat was playing to full houses each week.
While Cat did her thing on stage, Darryl was in the heart of the business - Room 666 - where the ladies entertained their exclusive clientele. Many powerful and rich men had tried to buy their way in, but the women maintained a strict code - guests only - this usually included musicians more than politicians.
Darryl was a majestic singer in her right. While Cat exuded sexuality like bees makes honey, Darryl's style was more like the gentle tones of a lounge singer, but her stage presence was as sexual as her younger sister's.
Archie sat at the back viewing the audience with his friend Jack Moore, "Cor, ain't she something to look at, Archie," Jack swooned, "I'm sure Cat gets better looking with age."
Archie smiled, and then replied, "I have to agree with you, Jack. Both Cat and her sister do get more sexy with age, who needs young girls on their arms when we have a full-bodied mature lady? The sisters have aged like a good wine."
The crowd buzzed with excitement as Cat began her act, she moved in a series of circling motions, deliberately gyrating her slender hips and long legs, like a panther slithering across a tree branch. She knew that the crowd was in her palm, men wanted her and women wanted to be her - perhaps some of the women wanted her, she didn't mind.
As the friends watched the act, Jack passed the comment, "Do you remember when they Archie thought for a while; a lot had happened in a short time since those early days. The sisters had been at Archie's for several months before they decided to make their claim to fame. "I think I remember the night. I recall the business was going downhill like a train with no brakes. I was one month from closing when they turned up and turned things around in a matter of weeks. I was glad when they took place over last month, and they worked hard bringing the customers in, this is their reward," he said, as he glanced at the full room.
The light dimmed as Cat went into her sexiest number, she growled and purred like a lovesick animal, and enjoyed watching the crowd lick their lips as she slid across the stage. She felt safe here, but it hadn't always been that way. When they arrived at Archie's, the joint was a dive populated by low life gangsters, who thought a lady was fair game for anything. That was until one went too far with Cat one night.
He thought to slip a few dollars into her suit gave him Carte Blanche. He was wrong, and he found out the hard way when Cat drew a knife from under her shirt and nailed his hand to the table. His blood oozed down and pooled on the floor below the table, as she struggled to free the hand. Some of his friends at the table made a grab for their guns, but they were too late. Before they could react, Darryl launched her counter-action, with a vengeance she stormed from the back of the room and grabbing a shotgun, she fired twice at the table. The first shot hit one man in the knee and blew his leg apart, revealing the shattered remnants of the bones. The second blast hit the third man sitting on the table and took his shoulder apart. By the time the police arrived, everything was in order, and the men had been taken outside and put in a truck - where they went was known only to the girls and the driver.
Archie looked on in stunned silence as the men began to roll on the floor in agony, "Where did you learn to act so smoothly?" he muttered to Darryl.
Opening the breach, and releasing the shells onto the floor, Darryl replied, "Where we come from, we look after our own. Hurt one sister, hurt the three of us and feel our wrath," she said with a wicked smile.
Jack glanced at the table top; this wasn't the only time it had been in a fight. The top had more scratches than a porcupine has quills. He glanced at Cat, who was wiping the blood from her knife on the torn jacket of the man whose shoulder had got blown away, and he asked, "Did your sister say you have another sister?"
Cat stretched her long, slender legs, and then replied, "Yes, Sandra, she's the middle of us, and she's coming next week. She and Darryl are very similar, but Sandra has a sweeter tone to her voice."
Darryl put the gun on the broken table, and took in the surroundings, "Archie, have you thought about turning this bar into a profitable venture?" she asked as Archie surveyed the wreckage before him.
Archie shrugged, and then commented, "I did think about it for a while, Darryl, then the high-class joint opened in the next street and took my custom. All I get now is the scum you kicked out a few minutes ago. This bar ain't paying for its keep, and I'm closing next month when the lease ends."
Darryl smiled to herself, and then asked, "How would you feel about a takeover bid?"
Archie scratched his chin and looked at Jack, who shrugged his shoulders, and then he said, "Who'll want this place. It's in the wrong part of town, and only the bums come here."
Darryl glanced Cat's way, and winked at her; Cat responded with a gentle nod, "I'll take it off your hands next month, Archie, and what's more, I bet we can turn the place around within three months."
Jack looked at was left of the bar after the shooting, and then commented, "If you think you can make a go of it, you're welcome ladies. I'd be interested to hear how you intend to turn this wreck into a smooth operation."
Cat gave her sister a wink and then said, "That's the easy part, Jack. We institute, and enforce a no-gun policy; then we give the patrons what they can't get anywhere else Us, three sisters singing a harmony backed by a saxophonist we know. "
Jack ran his hand over his greasy beard, and then replied, "How do you plan on enforcing the no-gun rule?"
Cat smiled and licked her lips, then replied, "That's where you guys come in. You're our security, who better than people who know the place to police the club? You know all the niches where the camera won't reach."
Archie began to wonder if the girls were taking on too much but he said, "Okay, I'm in with you; with one clause."
"What's that?" commented Cat, as she started to walk to the bar.
Archie walked over, and poured Cat a drink of Brandy, "The clause is Jack, and I remain armed with concealed pistols, and there's a shotgun under the bar. Do we have a deal, ladies?"
Cat took a quick shot of her drink, and then replied with a wicked lick of her lips, "Why, Mr Dempster, you drive a hard bargain, shake on it, Archie."
After finishing the memory lane visit, Jack took in the area they were sitting in, and then commented, "You gave them three months, and they came through for us. By getting Sandra to stay and sing boosted the crowds. That was a masterstroke, Archie."
Archie never heard what Jack said; his mind was on the sexy lady on the stage. Cat may be older than many of the patrons, but Jack is right, she was hotter than any woman in the room - and she knew it - as she purred on stage, blowing kisses at the males.
Sandra walked the floor, watching the clients, and making certain nobody looked like they were drinking too much. The last thing the club needed was a police raid, Her well-proportioned figure drew as many glances as her sister's slender action on stage, but she knew that only one man could satisfy her passions, and he was on his way back from the other side of town.
The lights came on, and Sandra took the stage to sing. After three songs, she stopped and talked to the patrons, "In a few minutes, you'll be in for a musical treat. I convinced the man I love, Joe Carter, to play for us tonight. If you are unsure of his background, Joe started out back in the final days of the old Pallisia Rooms, and for a long time dropped from sight, playing only now and then. We met by accident as our paths crossed in a corridor at a gig, and it was love at first sight for both of us. That aside, he's a damn good sax player, and deserves your thanks for appearing tonight." Sandra left the stage to a standing ovation. She sang on her own rarely these days, so the crowd fully appreciated her singing when she did sing.
In her office, on the top floor of the building, Darryl was busy booking the acts for the next month. Her eyes only left her diary for a moment; that is all it took to realise the danger. She picked her phone up and hit the #1 key, Immediately, the phone in the bar rang twice, and then went silent before it rang once more. Jack and Archie didn't need to know anymore, they dived for the guns, as Sandra ran for the gun behind the bar.
In less than a minute, the doors burst open, and the Thimms gang stormed in with guns blazing. This moment was what the friends had prepared for; now they only had to enact the plan they had finalised. The head of the family - Ricky Thimms - tried to get through the doors; Sandra gave a blast and blew the doors back into him, As the stunned gang members attempted to regroup for an attack, Jack and Archie loosed two volleys of gunfire, and killed half of them. Ricky tried to make a charge through the doors again, this time, Sandra's blast hit him full in the chest and sent him flying; seeing their boss laying on the floor in a pool of blood, the gang left in a hurry.
Sandra gave a wry smile, and then whispered, "They won't bother us again, Cat." There was a pause, then she continued, "Have you seen the handsome man at table five?"
Cat didn't turn to find out who her sister was talking about, she knew, "Oh, yes. He's been watching me like a hawk watches for voles since I walked on, he's hot. Is it who I think it is?"
Darryl came down the stairs and was walking across as her sister asked the question, she commented, "That is a leading question, Cat. Who do you think it is?"
Cat smiled, and licking her lips as she sensually swayed to the beat, she replied, Don Carlton, the record producer?"
Sandra glanced across at the table, and then commented, "Think again, girl, think big time."
Darryl smiled as she saw the look of surprise on her sister's face, and then Cat said, "Jack Marshall, the big time gambler, and tour organiser? Boy, would I love to crack him, and take him down to size."
Sandra glanced at Darryl and seeing her nod, and she said, "Go for it, Sister. Strut your moves."
Cat moved her body, in the only way she knew, sexually provocatively as she crossed the floor. With her hips swinging to the music, and her hair flowing like cotton in the breeze as she swayed, this was her moment. Cat crossed Jack's vision, and didn't miss seeing him take a gulp of air as he licked his lips, Come to mommy, she thought, as she began her dance macabre.
She winked at her sisters, and Sandra said, "If it weren't him, I'd feel sorry for the guy, but he's bad news on legs, and he deserves to be taken down."
With a smile, Darryl commented, "And who better to take the job than Cat. He's done a lot of bad things to some friendly people. He doesn't have the slightest idea what's coming his way. Ain't Karma a bitch."
There were few things Cat enjoyed more than singing, one was turning a man on, and boy did she know her stuff. She may have been many years older than most of the girls who came to the club, but she still had her looks, and her figure was the thing men dreamed of, and women hoped they could gain one day. Her long legs, and flowing her accentuated Cat's slim body as she weaved her way to the table. Almost everybody in the room knew what was coming - except the man at the table. He thought Cat was his capture, and little did he know how wrong he was.
Cat swayed across the floor, as all heads turned to glance at her target, the ladies smiled as they noted all the smiling faces at the tables. All were expecting the biggest take-down in the city's history. Jack Marshall had made a rep for buying going concerns and ruining the businesses with bad sales. There were few people left he hadn't crossed - even his cohorts wanted him taken down until now he thought he was untouchable. Never a lady to disappoint her fans, she threw her hair back, and gently smoothed her body. Her firm breasts pressed against the tight shirt she wore, and her nipples stood out. The kill had begun - and Marshall didn't even know.
She took her time, moving this way and then the other, caressing her body. Gently teasing her breasts, sensually Cat started to unbutton her shirt for him, showing the top of the perfectly formed mounds, and she couldn't help but see his manhood twitch at sight. She moved her hips tantalisingly slowly before she sat on his lap, there was no surprise for her to find him hard and wanting her supple body, but she hadn't started to warm up. Cat sat on Marshall's lap, and slowly ground his cock with her bottom, feeling him twitch he rubbed harder until he was forced to bite his lip with excitement. Jack bit his lip so hard that the blood flowed, sensually, Cat licked her lips, and then licked the blood off her victim's mouth, all the time watching his eyes flared at what he thought was his latest conquest. And all the time, Cat knew she was in control of the situation, no man had tamed her, and none would. Cat was as free as the wind and as wild as a brush fire in the dry season.
She gently licked his ear, as she seductively whispered, "Come with me to my room, and we can continue our dalliances in private." Cat took Marshall by the hand and led him to the private elevator that went to room 666. On the way, she took the time to order a bottle of brandy for the suite.
