As she walked around the club, she saw that new bartending practices had already been put into place, but one of the servers, a slender brunette named Taylor, caught her attention. That first night in the club, Piper had observed that she seemed to have a particularly close relationship with bartender Keith.

When Taylor stopped at the bar to pick up a drink order, Piper introduced herself. “I’m thinking it might be interesting to post a regular feature profiling some of the servers on Spiral’s Web site. Put up a picture, a couple of fun facts. Do you think the staff would go for it?”

Most of the servers, Piper had already observed, seemed happy with their jobs. The pay was good, they got decent benefits, and none of them were expected to do lap dances to sell bottles, but maybe Taylor wasn’t as happy as the rest. She set the drinks the bartender handed her on a black lacquer tray. “Sure. They’d do anything to make Coop happy.”

Was there a slight edge to her answer? “They? But not you?”

“Oh, yeah. Me, too. It’s a great job.”

Her enthusiasm didn’t quite ring true, and Piper made a mental note to keep a sharper eye on her.

Coop was being pressed for autographs, and none of the bouncers was stepping in to give him some room. She appreciated the wisdom of keeping the bouncers from looking like prison guards, but these guys had taken it too far. Everyone wanted to be Graham’s friend, and even though tonight’s crowd was benevolent, that could change. Still, it wasn’t her job to watch out for him, and she stayed on the move, hanging out at the bar, drifting toward the dance floor, and making frequent checks of the ladies’ room.

As midnight approached, she headed toward VIP. The odious Jonah stopped her at the bottom of the stairs. “You can’t go up there.”

She’d met these grown-up bullies before. He knew she was part of the staff, but he wanted to make sure she understood he was top dog here. Her heels gave her an extra couple of inches of height, and she utilized every bit of it. “I go where I want. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Mr.Graham. But don’t cry when you talk to him. You’ll only embarrass yourself.”

She pushed past him and headed up to VIP. Her first night on the job, and she’d already made an enemy.