Chapter 32

After finding a strategic spot, Colonel Anthony sat down comfortably and his men sat down around him. He and his men had all dressed in casual clothes to avoid easy recognition. Now, Colonel Anthony was actually a divorcee whose wife had left and divorced him after four miserable years of marriage due to his unrepentant habit of cheating. 

He cheated with every slim girl he could lure to his bed either with money or authority, and he was still searching for the one woman to settle down with. Not that he was going to put a stop to his infidelity, he just wanted a trophy wife whom he could take along with him on occasions and show off to his colleagues.

He had a habit of visiting clubs and prospective places in order to hunt for slim girls since the barrack was not wide enough a range for him to practice his act of philanderer, so he had decided to visit this new strip club which had barely opened for five months after someone had tipped him with information that the club had a lot of slim girls that he would like and he had simply come to clarify the information for himself, not to mention that he was also determined not to go home alone. As Nosa clicked his fingers to attract a passing waitress, she instantly came to take their order, then left.

The strip club was almost crowdy and Colonel Anthony began to observe the strippers on the other stages since the stage in front of him was empty. And as he half-heartedly began to watch a stripper on the stage on his left, his attention was taken away from her when the waitress returned with their drinks and fried-peppered meat, set them on the table then left. "This place is not what they say it is." Colonel Anthony finally said in disappointment as he stuck a cigarette between his lips, cupped a finger over the end and lit it.

"Boss, I doubt that Kujo will lie about this place. This place came highly recommended, let's just wait for some minutes and you might actually find what you want." His right-hand man, Nosa told him as he uncorked a bottle of beer for his boss.

"If I end up leaving here without finding someone that I like, I swear, Kujo will sleep in the guard room for one month and will do hard labor." Colonel Anthony stated as he dragged at his cigarette and blew out clouds after clouds of smoke into the atmosphere.

As he smoked and sipped a beer, a stripper who had breasts bare approached him now with a seductive smile playing on her face and he relaxed into his chair as she sat on his laps, after exchanging a few words, she began to give him a slow seductive lap dance by gently rolling her big ass on his groin. 

He was enjoying this when he heard a man announce the name 'Violet' on a microphone and then he saw a tall slim girl walk out on the empty pole stage in front of him. She had on a blue net sprinkled with silver dust over her eyes and her long curly hair framed her beautiful face. 

She was dressed in a blue costume and unlike the others, she had on a sexy outfit that had a wide cut that exposed most of her back and the left side of her waist. 

Colonel Anthony's gaze and attention shifted from the stripper on his lap to Violet now as she held the pole and sexily walked around it in her silver heel shoes. Colonel Anthony could bet that under the mask, this pole dancer was extremely beautiful and he was transfixed by the sight of her. 

She had a lovely smile that not only revealed her pearly white teeth but the shallow dimples on her cheeks. She also had the right proportion of ass and boobs that fitted her structure. Her long legs were nicely sculpted and he imagined her wrapping one of them around his neck. 

Quickly dismissing the lap dancer by shoving her aside, he relaxed once again to focus on this new stripper now and he was curious to see the face behind that mask because he wouldn't mind taking her home.

For some reason, Stephen returned to the club since he had nothing to do at home and didn't want to wallow in boredom. Jerry had gone to see his girlfriend while Rufus had gone to Mami to drink since the drinks in the club were too expensive. 

After Stephen walked to the bar, sat down and ordered a drink, hoping to spend just an hour before leaving. He knew that Violet hadn't seen him walk into the club since she was so engrossed in her pole dancing and he hoped that she wouldn't notice him till he left. 

Stephen scrutinized her new outfit now and noticed that Violet was wearing three black-bead bracelets around her wrist and she also had on a ring on her left smallest finger. There was no denying that Violet was hot and beautiful, but he had not come back for women, neither did he think that he'd ever been able to fall in love with another woman besides Susan, so he barely thought deeply about Violet and all he did was watch how she continued to dance around the pole.

In the course of watching her, he even had to turn down three strippers' offer to give him lap dances.

She was indeed very good at pole dancing that she drew the attention of so many men who quickly filled the stage floor with tips. Somehow, he was curious to know if she would approach any of the patrons like she had done to him three weeks ago but she did something this time that surprised him- she started to slowly untie the strings of her outfit that was tied behind her back. 

After untying the strings, she slowly let it fall forward in a teasing manner then she dug her thumbs into the top and started to slowly peel the material off her chest, making the crowd watching her double in anticipation to see her breasts for the very first time but she only ended up leaving it on her chest with only a quarter of her breasts being visible. 

When she danced on the pole again, she suddenly wrapped her legs around the upper part of the pole, anchoring herself then she threw her upper body downwards so that she was staring at her patrons in an upside-down view. Then she did the last thing Stephen expected her to do, she pushed her outfit down her breasts, revealing them making Stephen practically spit out his beer in shock. 

Stephen suddenly felt a tiny bit relaxed when he noticed that she had concealed her nipples with pasties but he was still surprised that she had gone that far. As he glanced around at how the lustful men were eagerly gawking at her, Stephen felt slightly irritated now and he watched how she walked around the pole again and swung her hair backward as she seductively lowered herself to a squatting position and somehow, her eyes found him in the bar and registered surprise and he didn't fail to notice the shame he saw on her face even though she tried to hide it and still act boldly.

 Not liking what he had seen her do, Stephen paid for his beer and much to her dismay, she watched him walk out without his looking her way.

Soon, Violet finished her strip-tease and pole dancing. Pulling her outfit over her chest as intense guilt continued to eat at her, she felt like disappearing from the stage. She didn't know why she cared so much about the look of disappointment she had seen in Stephen's eyes but it had affected her all the same and had almost ruined her zeal to continue. 

Eager to get off the stage, she bent down and started to collect the money off the stage floor and she realized that she had made more money tonight than she had ever made before but it didn't make her feel any better.

Still smoking and having enjoyed Violet's strip-tease, Colonel Anthony leaned over and whispered something to his right-hand man and Nosa nodded and stood up. As Violet continued to collect the money off the floor, she looked up when she noticed a man approach her to stand in front of the stage. It was Nosa and he was smiling up at her.

"Hello, beautiful..." He said.

"Hi." She answered, her eyes returning to the money she was picking. 

"That's really a beautiful pole-dance you gave there." Nosa complimented.

"Thank you." Violet simply answered, not really paying him any mind.

"So, Violet... My boss here..." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at the Colonel. "...will like to have a word with you."

Violet glanced over Nosa's head and saw Colonel Anthony wave a hand at her while he held the dwindling cigarette to his lips between his thumb and index finger. Violet instantly didn't like the man then she replied Nosa. "Please tell your boss that I don't relate with the customers. My job is to dance and strip and not to have a Tete-a-tete with anyone."

Nosa smiled. "Do you even know whom you are saying no to? He's-" he started to explain when Violet interrupted him.

"I don't care who your boss is, I'm not interested!" She flatly said and without waiting for any more words from Nosa, she rose after gathering her cash, threw a look of disdain at Colonel Anthony, turned and disappeared backstage. 

As Nosa turned and approached the table, Colonel Anthony curiously asked, wondering why Violet had left without seeing him: "What did she say?"

"She said she's not interested, sir." Nosa answered with a frown. "But I guess she's just playing hard to get, I'll go talk to her again, sir." He assured and Colonel Anthony nodded. Nosa quickly found his way to the backstage by following the same route Violet had taken. As he emerged into a corridor, he saw Violet walking down a narrow corridor with red lights. "Hey!" He called in a commanding tone, ready to use his military power as a means of authority and coercion. "Hey, stop there!"

Violet glanced back but when she saw that it was the guy who had just spoken to her on the stage, she hissed, ignored him and continued to walk away and this made Nosa quickly run to catch up with her. When he finally caught up with her, he suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder and roughly yanked her back to face him. "No be you I dey talk to? You dey craze?! I say my oga dey call you and you dey form, who you be sef?! (Are you not the one I’m talking to?! Are you nuts?! I said my boss wants to see you and you are being adamant, just who do you think you are?!)" He sounded furious, hoping to intimidate her now.

Violet chuckled now and clapped her hands in wonder. "First of all..." She began in a sober tone, also switching to pidgin. "For your life, no ever touch me like that again! Secondly, my no still remains no, go back go tell your oga say na stripper I be, I no be ashawo! (Go back and tell your boss that I am a stripper, not a hoe.)" She turned to leave now but he suddenly yanked her back and slapped her hard, making the side of her head almost collide with the wall.

Stunned by the slap, Violet's hand flew to her face and Nosa told her through gritted teeth, pointing a threatening finger at her face. "Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll behave yourself and follow me!"

Violet could taste blood inside her left cheek and her head was beginning to ache badly, thanks to the slap, but she wasn't going to let this slide. She had always defended herself in every situation and this guy was definitely not going to get away with this. 

She glanced down the corridor now when she heard a group of three strippers coming down their way and she decided to make good use of this opportunity. Suddenly catching Nosa off guard, she jammed her fist into his face, turned and fled. 

Nosa let out a small cry of surprise than of pain and angrily tried to go after her but she had quickly squeezed through the group of strippers and had escaped and he knew that it would be unwise to follow her into the dressing room. Strippers and prostitutes were known to look out for each other against an outsider and he knew they could gang up against him if he dared walk into their midst to deal with her.

In disappointment, he returned to the club to deliver the message of her blatant refusal to Colonel Anthony, who was now very much displeased with his failure to win Violet over. 

"What was her reason?" He asked.

"She said she's strictly a stripper and not a prostitute." Nosa said, gently touching his hurting nose where Violet had punched him.

"Time for plan B then." Colonel Anthony murmured to himself and without saying another word to Nosa, he pulled out his phone and immediately made a call. When he was done with his call, he gestured at his men that they should leave and without hesitating, they all rose. Colonel Anthony took his hat off the low table, placed it on his head and walked out of the club with his men following behind him.

Meanwhile, as Stephen stepped out of the club, feeling a bit light-headed, he had barely walked down the block when he noticed three police vans driving towards the club with wailing sirens but he didn't notice Colonel Anthony and his men drive past him and turn down the other road. 

Suddenly, he turned as he saw the policemen jump down their vans and begin to rush into the club, yelling out orders and fully armed. Soon, there was a sudden uproar as loud screams erupted from the club and the patrons began to dash out of the club to escape the police. 

Stephen could hear several ladies screaming and soon, he saw the policemen dragging out the waitresses and the strippers out of the club, loading them into the back of the van as they begged and struggled to break free. Even the manager and some other staff of the club were also arrested.

As the commotion continued, in a matter of minutes, almost twenty-nine strippers had been arrested and put in the back of the police van, including several waitresses. Glad that he had left there earlier and had thankfully avoided this chaos, Stephen had already stopped a taxi when he suddenly remembered Violet. 

What if she had also been arrested? What if she was also in that van pleading for mercy?! He thought of walking to the van to rescue her by using his ID but he changed his mind when he remembered what she had done at the club.