Lana and I both looked at each other. "Good riddance, bitch!" We chorused in unison.
Camilla laughed. "I knew you wouldn't be totally heartbroken, but that still puts us in a shit position for this weekend."
"Well," Lana spoke up, "she was never really that good, so it can't be hard to throw another girl or two in her place."
"That's my other piece of sort of good news? Mercedes came to me about getting me more hours, and just recently asked if she could audition to be part of the show."
I blinked a few times as I thought. "Does she have experience?"
"She does, actually," Camilla answered, "but she's still real young. Maybe we can meet with her and see what she's got? At the very least we can maybe throw her into the big group numbers so she doesn't stand out too much."
"That's true," I said slowly, mulling it over in my brain. "I mean, it wouldn't hurt-"
"-and we'd end up hiring someone new anyway," Lana finished for me, to which I snapped my fingers and pointed at her as if to say, you got it.
"Well, I guess we're calling the girl in and seeing what she's made of?" Camilla asked from the phone.
"Yes," we chorused again.
"Thanks for the voodoo magic, freak twins. I'll give Mercedes a call and see when she can come in and I'll text you when to meet?"
"Got it," we chorused again, on purpose to annoy our friend.
"Ugh. Bye, hoes."
Once the call was ended, Lana and I were left to our own devices again. "I better get this shit done so I can shower before we have to meet," I said. "Knowing my luck, she'll be able to meet in an hour."
Lana hopped up from the couch then. "Yeah, and that's gonna be a problem, because you smell like sex and old booze."
"I do not!" I called after her, picking up a roll of ribbon to throw at her as she flitted by. "Bitch!"
Lana's cackling carries back down to me as she runs up the stairs, drifting off once she disappears into her room.
Grumbling to myself that I do not smell, I grabbed my phone, realizing then that I hadn't texted Ward back. With a grin back on my face, I typed out a reply, equipped with an I love you and sent it. It doesn't matter to me that he may have me followed twenty-four-seven by one of the prospects, but it does leave a little bit of an uneasy feeling. I know Ward can be overly cautious, but with everything that's been going on for the past few weeks, it would be dumb for me to not take his concern seriously.
CHAPTER 33
LEAH
IT WAS ONLY JUST after noon when we ended up at Darlings, so we grabbed some sandwiches and pastries from our favorite cafe just down the street to make a little fun lunch for our meeting. Made sense to us at least. If we were gonna have to come in hours before we opened to go over stuff, why not snack while we worked?
Normally when we had a brand new girl to bring onto the stage for the first time, we would call in the big guns. Every one of us that had a hand in making the shows what they had been asked to come. We didn’t need them this time, but luckily for us, we had an amazing group of people that are just as invested in Darlings as we are. We were like a family, doing something that we loved. That had been our goal from the very beginning, to create a working environment that everyone would enjoy coming to. A place that we could take pride in, that others would die to work at. The saying goes that if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life - and that, more than anything, was our goal with Darlings.
Lana and I going on to work our lives away behind a bar or at a restaurant or behind a desk doing something we hated just seemed like it would be such a dishonor of our mother's memory. And so, Darlings came to be, and it truly is a totally different experience. It's not without its challenges and hard days, but it doesn't feel like working some days. This beautiful old theater is my second home. Our mother would be proud of all we accomplished in her name.
"Ay! Bitch boat! You find anything or is Mercedes gonna dance naked? Because we're not running that kind of club."
My eyes roll so hard in the back of my head that I see my brain. "Listen, twatwaffle, I'm trying to find the right outfit!" I hollered from the back storage room, currently half buried in hangars and hangars of corsets, bustiers, and bra tops as I rummage through to find the right outfit for our newest dancer. "If these animals kept this place organized like I left it, this wouldn't be a fucking problem!"
Chaos. That's what this place looked like right now. Like the Tasmanian Devil himself came in, late to his own personal drag show, and tore this place apart. I honestly don't know why the girls that work here find it so hard to just find something calmly and leave everything else hung up where it came from, but it makes me want to strangle them. I spend way too much time setting everything up by size, type, and color to have to come in here and dig through it all like I'm trying to find buried treasure.
"Is it really that bad?" Lana's voice now comes from right behind me, scaring the shit out of me. I scream, throwing the black lace bralette into the air - and if that wasn't enough it lands right on my head, causing Lana to burst into hysterical laughter.
"Asshole!" I grumble, ripping the piece of clothing off my head. "This isn't on me. I'm just trying to find something in her size so she knows how to dance it them."
"Whatever, just grab something. You can take measurements and stuff later." With that, she's done with the conversation, spinning on her high heeled boots so she can strut away.
"Like that wasn't my fucking plan from the start." I grumble, finally finding the right size corset. I grab the matching pair of booty shorts in her size, then manage to find thigh high stockings, garters, and heels for her. They're not matching as far as the color scheme goes, but they will have to do.
Hopping up onto the stage from the side staircase, I hold out my findings to the small, maroon haired girl that's standing with my sister. "Here you go! This should all fit you. It's not gonna be your outfit, but it'll give you a good idea as to what you're gonna be dancing in, and me a feel for what fits you so I can put something together. If that corset fits, though, you'll be wearing it." I smiled as I handed it all over, before remembering something and quickly adding to it. "Oh! And don't worry, everything is freshly laundered. Keep on whatever underwear you're wearing until I can get your own, okay?"
Mercedes nodded. She was mostly quiet but seemed eager to get on stage. When she auditioned, she seemed to really open up. It was something I recognized; after everything terrible had happened, it had taken my sister and me a while to get back on stage. I recognized someone with darkness in their past. It seemed that Mercedes had a lot more in common with us than we had known.
"Alright girl, go change and then we'll go through a few more things."
Mercedes headed towards the back to the girl's dressing room, and we went about business. Suddenly, she let out a piercing scream and stumbled back from the door. Immediately we jumped into action, running towards her to see what had scared her so badly.
Skidding to a stop, I got to the door first and pushed it open. That revealed the scene before us: the entire room was trashed, and in big black letters, the words NO ONE IS SAFE were spray painted on the wall.
"Holy fuck," I gasped, my wide eyes taking it all in. Lana and Camilla had stopped short right behind me and were now cursing themselves, knowing full well that we had run into a huge problem.
"Mother fucker!" Lana shouted, kicking the door frame next to me. "Who the fuck did this?!"
Immediately, I jumped into action. "Take pictures of everything. I'm calling Ward." Turning to Mercedes, I reach out to place both of my hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry you had to see this. We're gonna get it taken care of." I quickly take off then to the front where I had left my bag to grab my phone.
Dialing Ward's number as soon as my phone is unlocked, I place it to my ear and wait the two rings before he answers.
"Hey baby, what's up?" His voice should have been able to bring joy to me, as it always did, but I was too filled with too many emotions. Ang
er, rage, and fear. Whoever did this had wanted to send a message, and they had managed to get into our club. That was message enough.
"We have a problem." I blurt out, and I can almost feel him tense on the other end of the line. "We're at the club. Just opened the girl's dressing room to find it trashed and the words 'no one is safe' spray painted on the wall."
"Fucking hell! We'll be right there. Take photos of everything but don't touch a thing."
"Already on it."
"Good. Be right there."
He hung up and I was left standing there, shaking, my heart pounding. Suddenly, something inside of me gives off this feeling, an inkling that I should check our office. We hadn't gone in there since we had arrived at the club, since we didn't have any business there until later. Now, I wondered if there was a surprise waiting for us there, too.
Not giving myself a second to back out, I stalk towards our office door and pull it open. My stomach completely sinks when I see what is inside. The room is also trashed, but the spray painted words are in red. 'DIE MARTINEZ FAMILY' is written above three photos - Lana's, Eddie's, and mine - with the eyes cut out and red x’s over our faces. I grab onto the door frame to keep myself up.
This isn't the work of a scorned employee, or simple vandalism. This is an outright threat, given to scared us.
And they succeeded, because I was terrified.
~
Ward didn't come alone, and I also didn't want to think about the laws he broke to get to us as fast as he did.
When I told him about what I found in the office, his fury went up tenfold. He was on the phone immediately, barking orders to someone to get there immediately. He had shown up with Joker and Tank, with Moose and Eddie coming in right behind. Eddie, like us, was furious, but I could see the fear in his eyes as well - though I was willing to bet that he wasn't scared for himself.
Poor Mercedes was clearly shaken up, but even with how angry he was, Ward talked to her and reassured her that she would be safe. He then sent Moose to follow her home as a precaution.
"I really don't fucking get it." Jekyll had his laptop open on the bar as he perched on a stool in front of it. He and Hyde had been the two Ward had called in immediately after arriving at the club. "Surveillance shows no one breaking in last night. The last time anyone is exiting the building is after closing last night, and then entering, not until you guys came here today."
Chewing on my nails, knowing full well that I'm gonna end up with my hands looking a mess, I paused my pacing. "That doesn't make any sense. How else would they be able to get inside?"
Jekyll shrugs before tapping at his keyboard again. "You don't have cameras in either of the dressing rooms, so we can't see who did it that way. and the hallway seems clean."
"We had some randoms using the girl's locker room last night. Open mic night, and a few of the musicians used it as a warm-up room," Camilla said from her spot behind the bar. "So we would have seen something when we locked up."
"There's no way that someone could get in and out without being seen at all," Eddie said as he paced, rubbing the back of his neck so hard I swore he'd rub the skin raw.
Jekyll, who was still studying something on his laptop, suddenly sat straight up. "Fucking fuck!” He smacked his brother in the arm. “Look at this!"
His identical other half jumped over to look at the computer, not even bothering to acknowledge that he hit him. They both fixated their gazes on the screen, studying something that no one else could see. Jekyll pressed something on the keyboard and the footage continued, until he pressed stop again with another smack of the keys.
"Fuck me, you're right." What exactly he was right about, I didn't know, because the two of them had done a little twin magic with their brains just then. "Ten minutes are cut out of the footage. It's so fucking clean, too. No one would have been able to tell."
"Other than us, obviously."
"We're just that fucking good."
Ward snapped, clearly impatient for answers. "So you're telling me someone hacked into the security feed and deleted ten minutes of tape from the camera in the hallway? What about the others?"
Jekyll was already typing, so Hyde spoke up. "It's possible they forgot to wipe those, but I can almost guarantee they didn't. That's the work of a professional." He shook his head, and his brother chimed in, "Yeah, this is no amateur. They wiped all feeds clean for the ten minutes they needed to hide whoever went into those rooms."
"When was it?" I chimed in, stepping towards the computer. "That gives us at least an idea of when it happened."
"This morning. 4:53 a.m."
My eyes widened. "No one would have been here. And it shows no one getting in or out?"
Both twins shook their heads. "Nope, we've triple checked."
"Fucking check again," Ward demanded. He was really starting to lose it. "Look for any inconsistencies to see if they edited the feed there, too. There's no way a ghost did this. Someone had to get in the building." Turning towards me, I could see his jaw set firm, almost clenching. He was trying so hard, but I knew it wouldn’t take much more to break him. Just as I was about to reach out to him, he turned so he was speaking to the rest of us.
"We're closing you down until further notice."
Lana and Camilla's faces mirrored mine, as all of our eyes bulged out of our eyes and we immediately started speaking at once.
"We can't! How are we supposed to make money?"
"There's a shipment coming in tomorrow night that we can't miss."
"How can we do that to our girls? No work and they don't get paid. All of them need it!"
Ward held up his hands. "Ladies, I'm not risking you or your employees' safety. There's too much going on right now for us to have security here twenty-four-seven. We'll make sure the delivery gets taken care of tomorrow, anyone scheduled while you're closed will get hazard pay, but until we think it's safe, Darlings will stay closed and that’s final."
I felt my stomach sink, and my soul break a little. Since opening, we had never closed Darlings. No matter what, we made sure that the club would open when it needed to be. The idea of closing its doors for an unknown amount of time gave me a ton of anxiety.
But I could see the seriousness in Ward's demeanor, the urgency in his voice. Someone had managed to get into our place of business, leave two threats, and disappear while manipulating our security feeds. That left us completely out in the open, essentially. And I couldn't put the employees or patrons at risk.
"Okay," I spoke up, though it was clear that this was killing me. Lana looked like she wanted to protest, but when she saw my serious expression she closed her mouth. Camilla sighed, lowering her head into her hands as she leaned her elbows against the bar. "We'll let our employees know, and put stuff out on social media that we're closed for personal reasons."
Ward turned and walked the few steps towards me, his arms moving to envelop me. "I'm sorry, baby," he said softly, for only me to hear, one hand cradling the back of my neck as I buried my face in his chest. "But it's the best way to keep you safe. I can't have anything happen to you. Until we figure this out, I have to protect you."
I knew this, but hearing him say it made everything fall into perspective as he gained even more ownership of my heart. Ward made things better. Without him, I'd be lost. "I know," I whispered, my hands curling into his shirt. "It's not the end of the world." I lifted my head to look at him. "We gotta do what we gotta do."
That seemed to placate him, as he gave me that smile that he reserves for just me and leans down for a quick kiss to seal the deal. "Thank you, beautiful." He kisses me again, then pressed his lips against my forehead before stepping back from me.
"Come on," he called to the brothers, waving one finger at them in the circle to round them up. "Back to the clubhouse. Emergency church." He turned back to us girls again. "You ladies come with us. We'll surround your cars, just in case."
I nodded, and the three of us went to clean everything up and get our things so
we could head out.
This was a mess. There was no fucking around now, we needed to take these threats seriously. When we would take care of them, we had no clue, which meant the club was closed indefinitely. With my stomach in knots, I got into my car with Lana, following the guys to the clubhouse. Hopefully, they would be able to figure things out, or at least come up with a plan, because this not knowing thing was driving me absolutely insane.
CHAPTER 34
WARD
"THERE WERE NO FINGERPRINTS, no point of entry or exit, and I'm still not seeing where they could’ve hacked in to fuck with the security footage. It really is like a fucking ghost did this."
Jekyll was speaking from his spot at the church table, his laptop still in front of him. Since the moment we had gotten to the club, the computer hasn't left his hands. Same with Hyde. The two of them have been looking at things from every single angle, and we were in the same place we started.
With jack shit.
Someone had broken into an Aces protected club and threatened Leah and her family. Hell, they’re my family, and had been since before that fateful night. One of them was sitting at my table now, willing to put his life on the line for the club, day in and day out. Leah, Lana, and Silver were relying on me, and I wasn't delivering. But I would. I gave my fucking word I would.
"I don't see how this is possible," Hawkeye started, shifting in his seat. Everyone was clearly on edge, and I didn't blame them. It was taking every single ounce of my control not to lose it. This was not a situation I wanted to be in. We were blindsided by an unknown threat, and we had no answers. It was un-fucking-acceptable.
And still no answers on where the released Chingados had gone after leaving prison.
Or where the Forgotten were, or why they had bombed our warehouse.
Heart of a Rebel: Rebel Aces MC Part 1 Page 18