by Carly Fall
As she thrashed around on the floor, Sami got to her feet. Screams from the group brought everything in the club to a screeching halt—the music, the low murmurs of conversation, the clink of the bottles at the bar.
The woman began flailing her arms as if she were blindly grasping for something. Her jaw worked like she chewed on something, and Sami could hear her teeth grinding together.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she stepped closer and considered what she thought she’d witnessed just a short while ago. It looked like everyone at the table had taken a pill. The way the woman writhed, it reminded her of the video she’d seen of Candy. As she slowly approached, her stomach curled as she tried not to consider what she’d see once she got closer.
She stopped about five feet away, and around her, mayhem had paid a visit. The group the woman who came with were now trying to stand in their little train car, and one of the men actually kicked the woman in the face, trying to get her snapping jaw away from his ankles. Sami didn’t blame him, but as the victim’s head twisted violently, she couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her. However, it didn’t seem to faze the woman as she lunged backward, shaking, her eyes now bleeding and her mouth still trying to find something to chew on.
The rest of the cars around them had cleared, while others had gathered at a safe distance to watch the spectacle.
She had to do something. When a small female server appeared and attempted to bend down to help the woman, Sami pulled her away.
“Call 911,” she yelled, then took off her heels and tossed them to the side, unable to believe her plan.
“You’re flat-out crazy,” she whispered to herself, then concentrated on the debacle in front of her.
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that the woman was not a zombie. Even if she did get bit, nothing would happen, but maybe she’d need a tetanus shot after. She had to keep the woman from hurting herself, as well as others.
Sami edged toward her, standing just out of reach. When the woman flipped to her stomach, Sami jumped on her, straddling her. Drops of blood flew onto Sami as the woman shook her head and tried to claw her legs.
“Calm down,” Sami muttered as she wiped blood from her eye.
Being part vampire, she tended to be stronger than the average human female, but the raw power the woman exuded was almost overwhelming. For a bit, she feared she’d lose this battle and end up having her face chewed off.
After a moment, she finally had the woman’s hands pinned behind her back, her bloody palm at the woman’s neck to hold her head steady. Sami didn’t know if she did the right thing by trapping her, but at least, the woman was contained and couldn’t hurt herself, or anyone else.
Where in the hell was the ambulance?
She glanced around the club, and saw no sign of Connor. Where had he gone? A little help here would have been nice.
Management started clearing people away from the area, and some left the club. The lights above brightened to full strength, and Sami glanced down at herself. With her crimson arms and hands, she looked like she’d been fighting zombies or bathing in blood.
A few moments later, the ambulance finally arrived, as did the police. Now worried about Connor, Sami wanted to go find him. The woman below her had gone still, and Sami slowly stood in case she went into another fit. When the paramedics reached her side, Sami turned and disappeared into the crowd. An interview with the police was the last thing she wanted. Besides, she didn’t have much to tell them as she’d only subdued the victim. The woman’s friends, however, should start singing like parakeets. She and Connor could have Harper get the police report later.
She walked through the crowd to the front of the club. Connor had gone this way, but she still didn’t see him. As she approached the coatroom, she noted it had been closed. She almost walked right past it, but then heard a thump coming from inside.
As she reached for the knob, her heartbeat quickened. She glanced over to where the first responders worked on the woman while the cops tried to figure out who they needed to interview, and who could leave.
Murmured voices met her ears through the panel, and although she couldn’t understand what they said, she thought she recognized Connor’s. Turning the knob, she stepped inside and gasped.
A couple of full coat racks lay on the blood-red carpet, their contents scattered. The coatroom woman, Violet, had Connor pinned up against the wall with a hand around his neck, her back to Sami. Connor tried to pull her hand away as he gasped for air and his eyes bulged, but it wouldn’t move. Then, he reached behind him, and the glint of the blade gleamed in the dim lighting. Violet saw it coming. She grabbed Connor’s hand and squeezed his wrist, causing him to drop it to the floor.
There could be only one reason why Connor couldn’t overpower the little woman, and this situation had just become critical.
Sami rushed in and grabbed the knife off the floor, holding it in front of her. Violet’s eyes widened in surprise as she flashed her fangs at Sami.
“Back off,” Sami hissed, baring her own fangs, and also wondering why Connor had neglected to tell her Violet was one of her kind.
The woman slowly lowered her arm down to her side as Connor leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, sucking in air. She had no idea what had transpired between the two, but seeing the bitch with her hands around Connor’s neck had Sami considering slamming the knife into her gut.
Violet lunged at her, causing her to stumble backward. Both women tumbled to the ground, and Sami let go of the knife.
Her instincts kicked in, and within seconds, she had Violet pinned beneath her, and she slammed her fist into the woman’s face. Violet yelped, but went still. Sami grabbed the knife off the floor and held it millimeters from the woman’s nose. “If you so much as blink too many times, I’ll use this next time.”
Her training with her father had come in handy once again, and Connor’s blood had infused her with the strength to overpower Violet.
“What’s going on in here, Connor?” she asked as she slowly rose, keeping her gaze trained on sweet, little Violet.
“I found the club drug dealer,” he said with a raspy voice, standing.
She glanced over at him, and his face contorted in shock.
“What happened to you, Sami?” he asked, moving toward her.
At first, she didn’t understand his question, but then realized she probably had blood all over her face.
“A table took some of the drug. One OD’d. I tried to keep her from hurting herself, or someone else, and this is the outcome.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
As he walked over to her side, Violet’s gaze flickered to the door.
“You aren’t going anywhere, sweetheart,” Connor said. “I won’t be nice this time.”
“What do we do with her?” Sami asked as she heard voices outside, most likely waiting to get their coats and leave.
All was quiet for a moment, then Connor spoke. “I’ll handle the coats since you look like you walked out of slaughter house. Take her to the back and sit her ass down. We still need to talk to her.”
She didn’t like the idea of being the one to have to watch Violet alone, but she shouldn’t be seen in her current state. The police would want to talk to her, and right now, they had more pressing problems, like how to get information out of Violet.
“Let’s go,” she said, motioning for the woman to get up and head to the back.
When they arrived at the far wall, Sami instructed her to pull some coat racks filled with hangers holding the restaurant’s linen together so they couldn’t be seen. When that was done, she told her to sit down.
“You need to be quiet,” she murmured as she stood in front of her. “If you aren’t, not only will I stab you, but I’ll tell the police that you’re the drug dealer.”
Violet smirked. “Like that matters.”
“Why doesn’t it matter?” Sami asked. For all they knew, they
’d just caught the woman who was responsible for dealing the drug everywhere in town.
Violet shook her head. “I’m just a small wheel in a big operation, darlin’. No one cares what happens to me.”
She nodded, figuring it to be the case. However, she also knew that a little fish could lead to a bigger one. Violet would have to cooperate so they could snag their whale.
After a while, Connor emerged through the tablecloths. “I ended up pulling the racks out into the entry way. Everyone can grab their own damn coats.”
Made sense.
“Did you lock the door?”
“I did,” he said. “Don’t know how long we’ll have before management comes busting in, though.”
She had no idea how they’d explain the three of them hidden in the back of the coatroom, but supposed they’d figure it out if it came to that.
“Violet says she’s not feeling very talkative,” Sami murmured.
“Really? That’s the exact same thing she said to me before she tried to rip my throat out.”
Connor’s words only upset her more, and she again fought the urge to stab the blonde woman. Apparently, she’d become severely territorial over Connor, and the fact the woman had tried to kill him made her see red.
As Connor squatted in front of Violet, Sami gripped the knife, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“We don’t have a lot of time, Violet, so I’m going to tell you what I want, and then you tell me what you need in order to give me the information.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m dead, honey. Nothing you can threaten me with will change that.”
“Okay. If you’re a dead woman walking, why not talk? That shit you’re selling is killing people. You’ve got blood on your hands, sweetheart.”
Violet stared down at her fists in her lap for a moment.
“I just needed a job,” she whispered.
When she looked back up at Connor, Sami noted her glassy eyes.
“He brought me from California to work the circuit here.”
“What circuit?” Sami asked, thoroughly confused.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Connor broke in. “You said you came to Seattle from California, and you were born in Mississippi. How did you end up in California?”
Violet sighed. “I was a small town girl with big dreams. I wanted to be a model or an actress, so I headed to California.”
A story Sami had seen first hand a hundred times. However, Violet was too short to be a model, and she couldn’t see daylight because she was a vampire, so her acting career was grounded before it could ever get started.
“You’re a vampire,” Sami said incredulously. “How are you supposed to meet with producers and talent scouts if you can’t be out in the sun? Especially in Los Angeles?”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t think that part through real clearly.”
Sami rolled her eyes. Apparently, the woman had been hit with the stupidity stick one too many times.
“So, what happened when you got to Los Angeles?” Connor asked.
“Well, as Ms. Smartass over there pointed out, I didn’t find any work. How did you know I was a vampire, anyway?”
Connor waved his hand in front of his face, as if to slap her words away. “It’s not important. Just continue your story.”
“Well, when I couldn’t find any work, I ended up doing some things I ain’t real proud of.”
“Like what?” Sami asked, but she had a pretty good idea.
“I got into a little prostitution. I was tryin’ to save up to catch a bus home, but then he found me and told me I would work for him, or he’d turn me in to the police.”
Connor got to his feet and glanced over at Sami. “Who’s that?”
“He goes by The Captain.” Violet mumbled.
“You don’t know his name?”
She shook her head. “No, but he looks a lot like Mark Consuelos.”
Pedro.
Pedro had to be the one. There weren’t too many men who could be described like that. And, the fact that she’d just seen him here in the city, and he no longer belonged to the Los Angeles Police Department … they knew Pedro was involved, but surprise washed through at the thought of him being in charge. How did one go from a respected cop to the head of a drug ring?
Connor ran his hand over his head. “Where are the drugs made?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know none of that. I just sell here, and sometimes over at Hot Sauce. We get better pricing here because the crowd has more money. At Hot Sauce, it’s usually a younger crowd, and they ain’t got a lot.”
“How do they find you?”
“People always ask around for where they can get drugs. They ask bartenders, bouncers, and here, they ask the coatroom girl. They’re usually lookin’ for coke, and want to know where they can score.”
“And instead of pointing them in the direction of getting coke, you tell them you’ve got something better,” Connor said. “Does that sum it up pretty well?”
“That’s it in a nutshell.”
They sat in silence for a moment as Sami tried to process the fact that Pedro was the leader of the drug ring.
“Once he realizes I’ve been found out, he’s going to kill me,” Violet whispered, the tears now falling.
Sami wracked her brain on what to do. Although the woman had been responsible for people dying, and she’d like to see her pay for what she’d done, she couldn’t help but consider that Violet really hadn’t been given a choice. However, they also couldn’t let her walk out of here. Chances were too good she’d head right back to Pedro.
They needed to hide her.
“I have an idea,” she said to Connor.
He turned to her, his back to Violet. Sami didn’t know if that was a good idea or not, so she kept her gaze trained on the woman.
“She’s not going to hurt me,” Connor murmured, his voice low. “She was scared before. Now, I think she’s just resigned to the fact that she’s fucked.”
Sami hoped he was right. Frankly, Violet’s strength made her a bit nervous.
“She can’t talk to Pedro,” she whispered. “He’ll kill her, and once he realizes who she talked to, he’ll come looking for me. She’s heard you say my name.”
He nodded. “Agreed. What do you want to do with her?”
”She said she was turning tricks to get a bus ticket home. What if we drove her to the airport and just put her on a plane back east?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he studied her face for a few moments, then spoke. “We can get her on a plane as close to home as possible, then give her enough cash for a bus ticket, but not enough for her to get back here.”
“Yes. If she decides to come back, it won’t be for another day or two until she can scrape together the cash. It will buy us time.”
Connor arched his eyebrows. “Or we could just kill her.”
She bit her lower lip. That would probably be the smartest and safest thing for them to do, but she couldn’t get past the fact that Violet wasn’t here on her own accord, or so she said. Pedro had basically found her and put her in a position where she had no choice but to do what he said. If it was the truth, Sami didn’t want to kill her over something she had no control over.
The sight of Violet wiping tears from her cheeks, her shoulders rounded, looking utterly defeated, sealed the deal for Sami.
“Let’s take her to the airport.”
“You’re too nice,” Connor replied with a wink, but then turned serious. “I hope we don’t regret this.”
She sighed, praying that she’d made the right choice. “Me, too.”
“You can’t go anywhere but back to the apartment looking like that,” he muttered. “You look like you just attacked a bunch of poor unsuspecting campers with a damn chainsaw.”
Having forgotten she was covered in blood, she brought her hand up to her cheek.
“There’s got to be something in here where you can clean up a little bit and head back h
ome.”
They rummaged through the desk drawers, and then checked the pockets of a few leftover coats. Sami found a small pack of baby wipes, and she used all of them to clean herself up, hoping that she did an okay job. Without a mirror, it was a guessing game.
“How’s this?” she asked.
Connor studied her closely. “It’s pretty good. I can still see some blood, but no one will pay any attention in the dark.”
Then she remembered she’d kicked off her heels in the club before jumping on the woman.
Glancing down at her feet, she considered what to do about that.
“Just go,” Connor said. “I’ll take care of Violet. Get home and get cleaned up.”
Taking a deep breath, she nodded and grabbed one of the coats off the floor. Slipping it on, she stood in front of Connor.
“Be safe,” she said as she handed him the knife.
“You, too. I’ll be back at the apartment soon.”
Turning to the door, she opened it slowly. The entryway was empty, but she heard voices coming from the main club area.
Slipping out of the coat room, she headed for the cool night air. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining. She walked about a block away from Train to an apartment complex, stepping carefully as she made her way. Once she’d arrived at her destination, she pulled out her phone and summoned an Uber.
As she leaned against the outside of the brick building while waiting, a chill ran down her spine, and goose bumps covered her from head to toe. She glanced down the sidewalk to her right and then to the left, her stomach twisting with anxiety.
When the car arrived, she got in. Relief swept through her as it pulled away from the curb because she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched.
18
When Sami arrived at the apartment, she left the door unlocked in case Connor came back sooner rather than later, then headed directly for the shower. As she met her stare in the mirror, she gasped.
Blood matted her hair, and bits of flakes were still evident on her cheekbones and at her hairline. Connor had been right—it wasn’t that noticeable unless she looked for it.