Murder Takes a Dare: The First Marisa Adair Mystery Adventure (Marisa Adair Mysteries Book 1) by Jada Ryker Page B

would be hurt if she didn’t start the action for the men around the stage to follow. Marisa grabbed one of the dollar bills from the pile in front of her. Carefully, she rolled it into a ball. To please her friend and also to distract herself from her harrowing day, Marisa wildly threw her balled up money and missed.
    Diana laughed. “See,” she cried to the men as she strutted around the stage, “She throws like a girl!”
    Pushing back his cowboy hat, an older man energetically balled up a bill. “Her paltry little dollar ain’t gonna work, let’s try this fifty!” Carefully squinting one eye as he gauged the distance to the open g-string, he launched his money.
    The other men howled with laughter when he hit her in the navel and the wadded up bill bounced to the stage.
    Amid cheering and hoots of derision, the men took turns throwing their balled up bills. Diana turned to Marisa again and winked at her through the fall of thick, black hair. “Try it again, honey, you know you want the first stage dance with me!”
    Marisa plucked another dollar from her stack. Before she could wad it into a ball, someone slid into the chair next to her and pressed a balled up dollar into her palm. Marisa drew back her arm and launched her missile.
    With a cry of glee, Diana moved her g-string to catch the ball.
    “Aha, Trinity gets the first dance!”
    Since the majority of the men who came to the club loved to see two women together, no one denounced Diana for her blatant chicanery.
    Diana smiled seductively as she slid toward Marisa.
    Moving in time with the classic rock music, Diana danced gracefully in front of Marisa. As she bent over to whisper in Marisa’s ear, the dancer’s long, dark hair slithered over Marisa.
    “Oh, Marisa, it’s been ages since you’ve been in here! I’m so glad you’re here!”
    Marisa turned her mouth to Diana’s ear. “I need to talk to you about another dancer, the one who used the stage name Goth Girl.” Not wanting to upset Diana during her dance, Marisa did not add that she’d stumbled onto the stripper’s body in the graveyard less than an hour ago.
    “Pull up her top,” chanted a particularly boisterous young man, his hoop earrings catching the light as he raised his arms in parody of what he wanted Diana to do.
    Diana noisily kissed her cheek. “There you go… Trinity .” The dancer gave her an outrageous wink.
    Marisa sensed the gaze of the man seated next to her. Unobtrusively, she turned her head toward him. She didn’t want attention or trouble. Eye contact with a person in this setting could lead to unwanted attention. A familiar woodsy scent tickled her nose. All she could see was the back of a shorn head above a dark windbreaker jacket.
    With a sigh of relief, Marisa turned away.
    When a hand touched her bare arm, she closed her eyes in exasperation. “No,” she said firmly, and pushed the hand away from her.
    “Trinity, don’t be so cranky!”
    An arm slid around her waist as the other woman sat down heavily in the chair next to her.
    “Sarah!” Marisa laughed and leaned over to kiss the other woman’s dimpled cheek. “There was a guy there and I thought he was getting grabby!”
    At the last moment, the dancer twisted her head. Marisa’s kiss landed on her plump lips. “Grabby, yes; guy, no!”
    “You’re incorrigible!” Marisa eased away as Sarah’s hand stroked her knee under the edge of the stage.
    “It’s good to see you, honey! Where have you been?” Sarah reached inside her tight green tank top and arranged her bountiful cleavage. When the women weren’t dancing, they were required to wear clothes. Otherwise, the men would get their naked women views for free, rather than giving them money on the stages.
    “Around,” Marisa avoided, definitely not wanting to talk about her rehab. “How’s your boyfriend…” She rummaged around her head and only found the image of a slithery reptile. “…Snake?”
    Sarah rolled her heavily mascaraed