I sat in my office watching the wall of monitors that were attached to the security cameras hidden in various locations in the Club.

The Club, you ask?

Well the Club is a very upscale gentleman's club, actually I guess you might describe it as a strip joint. That is a poor description, but sort of accurate. The Club is a huge 4 story building located in best part of town. It's worth, at last appraisal, about $5,000,000, definitely not your run of the mill titty bar.

I'll describe the building so you have a better idea what it looks like.

When a person walks in the double front doors, they enter a bar room. The bar room was once an Irish pub in Ireland (of course) that I bought, dismantled, shipped back here, and reassembled. It is beautiful. It has 150 year old hand carved wood and the entire bar fixtures.

There are TV's located all around the room tuned to all the sports channels.

There is a grand stair case to the second floor. The staircase splits the bar from the dining room. The dining room serves high end meals that are prepared by a gourmet chief, and served in a very sophisticated decor. There are tables tastefully placed around the room as well as semi-private booths.

For the more demanding customers there are small private dining rooms. "Proper Dress" is always required.

The meal prices reflect the décor.

At the top of the grand stair case are the game rooms. No, these aren't for those types of games, but there are pool tables, dart games, and rows of various video games.

There are the ever present TV monitors. Only these sets show more risqué videos.

The waitresses up on this floor wear skimpy outfits also, just to add to the eye candy.

They make really good tips while only fending off the occasional pat on the butt. The bigger the tip, the longer the "pat."

The sexual tension on this floor is a lot higher than the first floor.

Now there is the third floor. This floor features nude female dancers and highly paid strippers. There are three stages with continuous dancers in various stages of undress. These women are paid very well. They are not the heavily tattooed, bored dancers usually found in the average titty bar. These ladies are very pleasing to the eye and work very hard to entertain their audience. The crowd usually shows their appreciation by tipping heavily. The girls respond positively by exhibiting their charms completely.

Sort of a win-win for both sides.

There are the usual private booths for lap dances. The waitresses are topless and wear only a thong and a small apron around their waists. The apron is only so they have pockets to put their tip in. They really don't cover much.

There is also a system that allows the room to be divided into one large and one small section. Once or twice a month the room is split and the smaller room becomes a ladies only section with male dancers. This is a very popular night for the ladies. Actually sometimes we use the larger room for ladies night because of the advance reservations.

I tried to use the same guys, I regularly use as bouncers, for the women's side, but the "ladies" started trying to get them naked also. I was forced to use a bunch of female body builders as bouncers instead.

It was almost a month before my guy bouncers would talk to me again.

The fourth floor is private. No customers were allowed up there, all the dressing rooms are up there. There was a large open area used as the men's or women's dressing room with small private rooms for the "featured" dancer. Some of those girls are real "Prima Donnas'" and require their own rooms.

"Featured Dancers" are the headliners that month. They are usually up and coming dancers who are very attractive as well as talented. They work the "circuit" consisting of all the big cities and the best clubs. Some might rate their looks as perfect 10's, but I put them closer to an 11. These "girls" cost me 5 figures a month.

They were expensive but well worth it because of the business they'd bring in.

My next class of "Featured Dancers" are the ladies that are getting a little long in the tooth. They are still attractive but now in their late 30's or early 40's. They are on their way down. These ladies are usually former porn stars who still have name recognition.

They work their butts off to entertain the audience. They have no modesty anymore. My bouncers have to keep an eye on them to keep them legal. When they show up in town, they usually had a case or two of the videos they would sell. I let them have the full price for themselves and took no cut of the sales.

Hell, I felt sorry for them.

I try to keep my business on the up and up. If a customer buys one of the dancers a drink, it is a real drink. I will not allow my customers to be cheated. The customers notice and really appreciated it.

The dancers miss the cut that other clubs give them on the sale of drinks, but like the fact the customers didn't hassle them over drinks. Of course every once in a while a dancer gets drunk, but it is funny watching her stumble around trying to strip.

I have a few rules that apply to all the staff, NO DRUGS was one of them. If a person got caught using, selling, or carrying, out the door they went. There were no breaks and no "do over". You broke this rule and you were out.

The other rule was that the dancers were not allowed to have, husbands, wives, or significant others in the club at any time. There was just too big a chance of jealousy raising its ugly head.

Ok, maybe you think I am a bit harsh, but it's my club and my business at stake here.

It was a typical Friday night. The evening had been good up until about 1:00 am when it started quieting down. I was looking forward to being able to leave earlier than my normal 3-4 am, when one of the bouncers signaled that there was a problem on the 3rd floor.

It seems that one of our "Featured Dancers" and porn star was completely naked and demonstrating how to pick up beer bottles using her (well you know).

While local law enforcement was known to look the other way, this was one action they would not allow. I hurried upstairs to put a stop to that action and read the young lady the riot act.

Walking into the room, I saw her in a head stand with a beer bottle pointing up. I was really pissed. With two of my larger bouncers following me I yelled, "Get the fuck off my stage bitch."

I reached the stage just as she was standing up. I found myself looking into the eyes of my ex-wife and the mother of my two children.

She looked at me and smiled, "Hi Tommy, long time no see,"

Shit, there stood my worst nightmare.

Brandy looked over the club. As her agent promised it was a very impressive place. She knew that she was on the wrong side of 40 and on her way out of the business. In this business after a certain point, she would only be dancing for tips and turning tricks for the rest of her money. Once a dancer hit that stage in her life, they were soon disease infected drug addicts. Those dancers never saw 50 years old.

She got out of the taxi with her baggage and one of the bouncers showed her to the dressing room. She was impressed. It was clean, neat and well lit. Even the bathroom and showers were spotless. Off the shower room she found a small steam room and a hot tub. In another area off the dressing room was a small gym.

One of the other dancers explained the rules to her. Since she was drug free and did not have a boy friend she wasn't worried. The girl explained that the locked door off the gym led to the owner's office.

Then she added he was a hunk.

That comment started a discussion among the other dancers in the dressing room about him. It seems that he was in his early 50's, divorced with two kids, and had not been involved since he caught his wife cheating many years ago.

She walked out of his life at that time and never looked back. She abandoned both her children and her husband for a high roller.

They guessed that he had never gotten over her.

Brandy started doing her dance routines. Four times a night, five if it was very busy. She was the star, it was her job to bring in the customers and keep them in their seats. For that she was being paid $10,000 a month.

She had a two month contract with the possibility of a two month extension.

She wanted the extra two months. She had called her agent and there was nothing lined up for her. There was no next stop. If nothing showed up, she'd be forced to make some very hard career choices.

It was on her first Friday night, that she got a little drunk. She was teasing a bunch of out of town salesmen and they were teasing her right back. It was fun. She felt young and attractive again.

She started getting wild.

The salesmen started teasing her that they could hold more beer than she could. So she squatted over an empty bottle while completely nude and started teasing them back. One thing led to another and soon she felt the beer bottle enter her as she lowered herself on it. She popped into a head stand with the bottle firmly clutched in her vagina.

There she was standing in a three point head stand when she heard a voice yelling at her to get off "his" stage. She thought she recognized the voice.

She dropped out of the head stand onto her knees. She turned her head toward the voice and looked directly into her ex's eyes.

Her world went black.

Tom watched as his ex-wife fell over. One of the bouncers managed to grab her just before she was about to roll off the stage. They took her up to the dressing room and put her on a couch. She looked strange lying there completely nude with a beer bottle sticking out between her legs.

One of the bouncers grabbed the bottle as if to pull it out when Tom stopped him explaining that the bottle might be broken and pulling it out would do her more harm than leaving it in her. They decided to wait 5 minutes to see if 1) she woke up, or 2) blood started appearing around the bottle. At that point they would make up their minds to call 911 or not.

As they waited Tom started remembering his past with "Brandy".

They had met in high school and became friends. Her real name was Mary and she soon became the love of his life. They graduated and both attended a local two year college.

They married shortly after graduation.

Five years later there were four of them in the little family.

Five years later there were only three left. Tom, a 5 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. Mary had taken off with her boy friend.

Tom remembered that day as if it was yesterday.

He had come home from work as usual and found Mary sitting at the table a little upset. When he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it was a bad day at work "was the only reply he got.

She went to bed right after dinner that night. He kept the kids entertained until their bedtimes.

He didn't want to disturb Mary when she was in one of those moods so he slept on the couch that night.

The next morning as he was putting the garbage out by the road for pickup, he found something very distressing tossed in the can, a used early pregnancy test kit.

There was no way he could read the results any longer, but he knew he had a vasectomy five years ago so he couldn't have made Mary pregnant. He wondered who did.

He took the empty box out of the can and put it in his pocket.

Mary was still in bed as he put the kids on the school bus and left for work.

He purposely had left the empty box on the kitchen table for her to find when she got up.

That night when he got home from work he found the kids at one of the neighbors and Mary gone. Two suitcases were missing along with most of her clothes.

He never saw her again.

He saw a lawyer the next day and started the divorce, reason Desertion. The divorce took a little longer because they could never find her, but finally he was a single father and a little richer.

From what his attorney could determine Mary and her boss took off together. His attorney sued the employer on some technicality and the company settled out of court for a million dollars plus all fees and costs.

Tom started his new life a million dollars richer.

He noticed a vacant restaurant in a large building in an up and coming part of town. The owner had died and his family just wanted out. Tom was able to buy everything for about $100,000. He spent 1 yr remodeling the structure into it current configuration. When he opened the doors it was uphill from then on. The 1st floor bar and restaurant took off almost immediately. The 3rd floor took a lot longer because he had to go slowly as not to offend anyone. But one day he noticed that it was also paying for itself.

His trip down memory lane was interrupted by the arrival of an EMT. Mary had not come to and was being taken to the hospital. Tom sent one of the bouncers along to take care of any questions the hospital might have, and protect himself from liability questions.

Tom left about 3:00am. So much for his early night home.

On the ride home that morning he wondered if he should tell his kids that their mother was back. His kids were almost grown up. His daughter was a freshman at a local college and his son was a senior in High School. It had been 15 years since their mother left them. There were no calls, birthday cards or letters for them for all those years.

He decided not to tell them yet. She had ignored the kids all those years. Why upset them now.

Brandy awoke to the bright lights and noise of the hospital. She remembered dancing on the stage and then hearing her ex yelling.

She tried to move in the bed and found her arms and legs restrained.

She got scared.

A nurse showed up and started talking to her, "The Doctor will be in to explain shortly". A doctor came in and explained that a beer bottle had wedged into her vagina. It seemed that when she passed out she fell and drove the bottle deeper into herself. It tore up her vaginal channel and damaged her cervix. She would be uncomfortable for a couple of weeks but everything should return to normal after that.

He asked about her various surgeries. She explained about her breast augmentations (3), tummy tucks (1), face lifts (2), and nose jobs (1). She also explained that she had her vaginal lips trimmed to make them less noticeable when she danced. No hanging meat for her.

He asked her if she was on any drugs she said nothing important only aspirin or Midol for her cramps. She thought that she was going through the "change" and it was causing more sever cramping. He then told her she would be in the hospital for two or three weeks while she healed. He wanted her to get some rest and recover for her ordeal. She protested that she had no insurance.