“Lauren, Matt, the usual? And Ryan, what about you? What’ll you have?”
In answer, he stuck his tongue as far down Lauren’s throat as he could.
Alex bent over between the kissing lovers. “Hey! Drink! What are you having?” She tried to say it lightly, but she was growing more irritable by the minute.
Ryan slowly peeled himself away from Lauren and lazily dropped three hundred-dollar bills on the table. “Champagne, thanks, pet.”
Pet? “Lord, give me strength!” she muttered.
Alex headed straight for the bar, leaving the money on the table. No one noticed. Matt was rocking his head to the beat and the others had resumed their heavy tongue work immediately after Ryan finished speaking. Alex saw the three line, six-deep queue at the bar and actually sighed with relief as she took her place at the end, happy with the excuse to stay away from Ryan and his effect on Matt and Lauren.
Ok, just breathe.
Maybe Ryan just wasn’t what she was used to. Maybe she would get to like him if she just gave him a chance. Then again, it didn’t matter whether she did or not, it only mattered whether Lauren did. Lauren clearly saw something in him Alex didn’t, and she guessed that’s what Lauren liked about him. Alex decided to ignore her gut instinct and just go with it. For now, at least.
Finally reaching the head of the line, she gave the order to the barman. Within moments the drinks were plonked on the bar in front of her.
“That’ll be $343.50.”
“HUH?” Alex said, loudly over the dance music.
The barman tapped the champagne bottle. “It’s the best. And the only one we stock.”
“Oh shit,” Alex whispered. She’d forgotten to pick up Ryan’s stupid three hundred dollars. With a great regret, she pulled out her credit card and handed it over. The barman took it and tapped the numbers into the card machine. Alex straightened her bag on her shoulder, double checking her purse for any extra cash she may have missed, but found none. When she looked up her card was lying on the bar.
“Next please!” the barman called.
Alex looked at him, but he was busy fixing the new drinks for the guys behind her. “Uh…excuse me? Don’t you need me to sign something?”
“It’s taken care of,” the bartender shouted over his shoulder at her.
She shook her head at her luck and put her card back in her purse. Carefully lifting the tray with drinks, Alex tried not to get squashed by the people queuing up behind her. The place was filling quickly, she noted.
She turned sharply and her tray-carrying hands bumped into what felt like a cold, steel wall. With a sensation like her heart had fallen into her stomach, she watched, as if in slow motion, the champagne bottle tip forward and tumble off the tray. She instinctively reached her foot out to save the doomed three-hundred-dollar bottle but nothing fell on it. There was no sound of smashing either. She looked at the tray. The bottle stood there, upright and full.
“What the…”
“Couldn’t let it break,” a voice said, serene even over the dance music. “I know how expensive it is.”
She looked up again and Dante was in front of her. He wore a white business shirt with rolled up-sleeves, two buttons undone. Alex found herself going over him with an approving glance. Even with the darkness of the club she could see how tight the shirt clung to the muscles of his shoulders. He was the steel wall she had hit. He had caught the bottle and placed it back on the tray as sweet as you like.
“Oh my god! Thank you!” Alex exclaimed, putting the tray back on the bar and wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt him lift her with one arm and chuckle to himself. Incidentally, Dante had his fingers almost in the exact same spot Ryan had his a few minutes earlier when he’d guided Lauren and her into the club, maybe even a bit lower. But this time she didn’t mind. Dante wouldn’t have even realised, and even if he did, he had just saved her three hundred bucks. She would let him get away with it.
“You’re welcome. Come on, let’s move out of these people’s way.”
Dante walked along the length of the bar, holding the tray with one arm and supporting her with the other, as if she weighed nothing. Alex laughed at how she must look. He took her a few feet along before he let her down. He leant over the bar and returned with another bottle of the same champagne and swapped the one she had.
“Just in case the fall ruined the first one.”
“How the hell did you catch that thing?” she asked.
Dante smiled warmly and shrugged. “I don’t know. Fast reflexes.”
“Yeah right,” Alex laughed. “No one’s reflexes are that fast. You must’ve learnt it somewhere,” she said, poking his stomach playfully. His stomach was that hard it would’ve probably hurt her to hit him harder. Dante had her hand gently in his a second later, as if thinking the same thing. It was amazing how fast he could react.
“Nice,” she said, looking at the hand that held hers. Nice hands for a guy. “So are you that fast with everything?” she grinned, before she realised how that sounded.
“I’ve just always been good with my hands,” he replied.
She realised her hand was still in his grasp, and neither had attempted to shift it. Finally, she removed it, clearing her throat. He must ’ve had the fridge on full blast, because his grip was icy cold.
“Well, um…that’s awesome,” she giggled. “I should be getting back. Thanks again for the save.”
“You’re welcome, but I must apologise. It was my fault you dropped it in the first place,” he said, picking up the tray.
“No, it’s ok. I thought it was bad karma coming to get me.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Well, it’s weird, but I don’t think I was actually charged for any of this,” Alex admitted.
“You weren’t,” he replied, smiling warmly again, showing impossibly white teeth.
“What? You…?”
“I signalled the bartender that it was on me. You’re a friend of mine, Alexandra. I would like you to turn up more often when you can. So consider yourself a guest when you do.”
There was a second’s pause before Alex went on tiptoe and placed a peck on Dante’s lips. “Thank you.”
Dante nodded and took the tray in his hand. “You lead on. I’ll take this for you.”
She took a few steps and rounded on him again. “This is going to sound really stupid, but can you say my name again?”
Dante’s eyes locked onto hers. Was that lightness around his pupils there a second ago? A pale green colour. Contacts? Or the lights above their heads maybe.
“Alexandra.”
She took a small sighing breath and continued walking. She couldn’t help it. That voice was chocolate for the ears.
She pushed past dancers and found the table. All three seemed to have forgotten she was gone, laughing immeasurably at a joke told by Ryan.
“Hey,” Alex said, sitting down.
“Where are the drinks?” Matt moaned.
“Nice to see you too. I had a little accident, but luckily my knight in shining armour came to my rescue.”
She gestured to the man in question, and Dante placed the tray down on the table.
“Good evening. I—”
Dante stopped mid-sentence, turning his head slowly towards Ryan, then Lauren, then back to Ryan again. All eyes at the table were suddenly on him. The air surrounding them grew cold. Alex could’ve sworn she saw Dante lean a little closer and give a small sniffing gesture towards Ryan, never keeping his eyes off him. What was a perfectly friendly look had turned into one of intense menace, just as he’d turned toward Ryan. Alex could not believe a person’s expression could change so quickly. Dante’s face had turned to stone. It was instantaneous. For a brief second, Alex thought Dante was going to leap over the table at Ryan and maul him.
“You right there, dude?” Ryan asked, noticing the obvious tension. For his part, Ryan looked completely bewildered.
Dante did not move for the longest time, star
ing Ryan down intensely, until he straightened. Dante turned to Alex. “Excuse me.” With that, he quickly disappeared through the crowd.
*
Dante closed his office door behind him. He crossed the gleaming black-and-white tiled floor to the desk at the centre of the room, which was placed atop a wolf-skin rug. The desk’s surface was covered with rosters, security and financial reports, expenses and two mobile phones. The far wall was actually a two-way mirror that overlooked the entire club on the floor below.
Dante had planned everything and it all had fallen into place. He felt Alex was ready. Even from afar, he could see her past haunted her. But that was because she only knew half the story of that night, when the lives of three people were changed forever. All because of him. Almost twenty-five years later and the very human feelings of guilt and responsibility had not eased. Nor would they, until he could tell Alex the truth and right a horrible, pointless wrong.
Which will require some light misleading, he assured himself, placing Alex’s purse on his desk. He had swiped it with those “fast reflexes” he’d mentioned. So fast, no one had noticed his movements.
He picked up his personal mobile. The phone contained two numbers and he dialled the first.
It rang twice before Michelle picked it up.
“Yeah, honey?”
Dante walked over to the mirror and look down and across towards Alex’s table, focussing on Ryan. This was unexpected. But Dante had to be sure.
“We have a problem.”
*
Matt, Lauren and Ryan all turned to Alex and exploded with questions.
“What the fuck was that all about?”
“Did you say something to him?”
“Did he say something to you?”
“Why did he leave?”
“What’s his problem?”
“Like I said, what the fuck?”
All Alex could do was raise her hands. “Stop, guys, enough! I don’t know any more than you do!”
“Dude, do you even know that guy?” Matt asked Ryan.
“I’ve never spoken to him in my life.”
“He looked at you like you rooted his mother or something. Thought he was gonna whack ya.”
“Bring him on. I’ll knock the cunt out twice before he hits the ground if he ever looks at me like that again.”
Alex looked at Lauren for several seconds before she noticed, and had a slight grin on her face when their eyes met. Lauren gestured to the bathroom and Alex nodded.
“’S’cuse us,” Lauren said.
“Little girl’s room.” Alex added.
Both girls slithered out of the booth and walked quickly towards the back bathroom just as Ryan was emphasising what objects in the club he would use in order to bash Dante senseless. When they were out of earshot, Lauren stopped Alex.
“Oh my god, can you believe it? This is incredible! Matt can get off your back now. I got Dante jealous!” Lauren squealed, hopping several times on the spot.
“What?” Alex asked, unsure whether Lauren was serious.
“Well, it’s obvious isn’t it? You saw the way he looked at Ryan and me, it was driving him crazy!”
“Babe, I don’t know…” Alex said, frowning. “I’ve seen jealous looks before. Matt gets them all the time, like all the time, and that wasn’t one. That was like…hatred or something even worse, like I dunno, vile loathing.”
“Yeah,” Lauren said dreamily. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“Babe, seriously, I don’t think that’s a good thing…”
“Of course it is! It’s the best! He sees what he can’t have anymore and he doesn’t like it. I knew he wanted me. Well to hell with him!”
Alex didn’t know why she couldn’t see what Lauren was trying to tell her. Alex had been there since the first night Lauren saw Dante, and Alex could tell Dante had always shown barely any interest in her. Of course it wasn’t the first time in history that one person had sprung to action because someone else had shown interest, but Alex wasn’t convinced that was the case with Dante. She couldn’t believe that about him.
Not the guy that could have anyone in the place. The guy that women flocked to. The guy that held her hand with such care and said her name in a way that could make her spine tingle, giving her slight goose bumps. If she didn’t know better, she could’ve sworn they had had a moment back there. They’d gotten on well ever since they’d met, really well, and yes she had flirted with him a bit. Well, ok, if she was honest with herself, more than a bit. But it was nothing really. Alex’s attraction to him was different. Dante was just really nice to her. A gentleman. He smiled a lot when he was talking to her and just seemed happy to be around her, something Matt certainly didn’t exhibit. She liked having that effect on someone. And there was something else about Dante. Sometimes, just sometimes, she thought she could sense a sadness about him. Loneliness even—a need to connect. If she’d been single it would be different. For now, it was just nice to have a friend who liked talking to her with kindness and respect.
But the words they’d exchanged back at the bar, the electricity, that was different. That was intense. Or had she imagined it?
“Anyway, we are going to head off,” Lauren said.
“Huh?” Alex said, startled out of her brief reverie.
“I’m going back to Ryan’s place. I am feeling ridiculously horny over this and feel the need to celebrate.”
Alex shook her head and laughed. “You go right ahead.”
Lauren grasped both sides of Alex’s face and planted a kiss on her still partially open lips. “Told ya! Bye! Wahoo!”
Alex turned and watched as Lauren got to the table and without a word took Ryan by the hand and escorted him to the exit. Alex went back and sat next to Matt, putting her head on his shoulder. Weird night.
Matt did not move as he sighed loudly, “So I suppose we are going to wait around to make sure your new best friend Dante is all right, are we?”
Alex’s head shot up and she glared at him before her whole body rose. “What was that for? You know what? Forget it. I’m out of here!”
“Jesus, it was just a question!”
“No it wasn’t, for fuck’s sake, and you know it, Matt! You’re being an arsehole and I’m sick of it.”
Alex stormed off, leaving Matt to roll his eyes for the people gawking at him. That too infuriated her. He was always belittling her in front of others as if she was always the one at fault.
There is no way he could just apologise his way out of this, Alex thought. The sarcasm was really uncalled for, regardless of how strange Dante behaved. Alex had called Matt childish before, and he had proved it again tonight.
*
Lauren and Ryan hailed a cab and got into the back seat. As it took off, Michelle, driving a small, silver BMW, started the engine and began to follow.
*
There was about a foot of space between Alex and Matt. Neither had talked for hours, and neither could get to sleep.
“Do you realise you have done more to defend Dante than you have me lately?”
“Shut up,” she replied through gritted teeth.
“He’s a fucking weirdo and he’s hanging around you all the time! If you won’t see it, I’ll prove it to you.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Alex spat with undiluted sarcasm. “I’m so sick of this shit.”
“Nah, you don’t want to see it, that’s fine,” Matt retorted loudly. “There is something about him and I’ll find out what it is. You can bet on that.”
*
Michelle tailed them all the way to an apartment block where the two passengers made heavy work of getting from the cab to the door; such was the enthusiasm of their passion.
Michelle knew this must be Ryan’s place. When she had driven Alex and her boyfriend home she had mentioned living with Lauren.
Once the couple had finally gone inside, Michelle dialled Dante. When he picked up, she told him the exact address.
“Thank you.”
“You want me to stay here for a while and suss things out?”
“No!” he said sharply. When he spoke again he was much more subdued. “Just get home quickly.”
Michelle smiled. “I’m on my way.”
She hung up and was about to pull out into the street when she gave a last look up at the windows facing the street. She stopped the car’s engine and rolled down the window. Yes, even from here, she could hear a woman screaming her lungs out, having the time of her life. Michelle felt as if her eyes were drawn to a particular window, the only brightened window and she could not look away. A dim light - a torch maybe, shone from a low point within the room, giving off elongated shadows, moving slowly.
As the light shifted, a shape slowly took form in the centre of the window. Michelle recognised it as a person, yet it was strangely unmoving. The ecstatic screaming inside continued, and brief movements back and forth to the right of the main figure in the window was further evidence that someone was likely having sex. The tall figure, whoever it was, seemed to be watching the show.
Suddenly, Michelle saw the figure move, turning slowly towards the window, towards the street. Michelle realised it was looking in her direction, staring at her.
It knew she was there. It could see her.
Michelle couldn’t move; she sat frozen in her seat. She couldn’t look away either. The figure disappeared.
The screaming stopped. The light went out.
Michelle started the engine with a shaking hand. She thrust it into gear and got it to top speed as quickly as she could.
Chapter Six
Better The Devil You Know
Alex couldn’t be in the same room with Matt right now. She got up, grabbed her pillow, removed a spare blanket from the closet and headed out to the lounge. Thankfully, to the softest and most comfortable couch in the world.
Thinking to check her messages, she looking around for her phone and realised she’d left it at the club. Which meant she’d left her purse too.
“Fuckety!” she hissed under her breath. She tried to call it, but it rang out. She didn’t really think anyone would answer even if they did hear it. It was almost four in the morning, not much point worrying about it until daylight at least.
Night Walker (Undeadly Secrets Book 1) Page 7