“Listen, I’ve got some things I need to talk to my brother about today. Some pretty important things. And after that, tonight, after I pick you up, I’ll try and explain everything. Okay?”
She sighed. “Okay.”
"Please don't be upset. Come on, you're starting this new job. You're out of that dive of a nightclub, and you're going to have a great night. I don't want to be the reason you're down."
"That's not possible." She replied. "That's okay. There's always tomorrow."
“Just know that I’m here for you, okay?”
“I know.”
“And that you’re important to me. Don’t forget that.”
“Okay, now you’re starting to worry me.”
“No.” he smiled down at her and kissed her across the knuckles. “No reason to worry. Everything will be just fine.”
He hoped what he was telling her was the truth. He prayed that tomorrow would come and they could have a future together. Though deep down he highly doubted that the prayers of a half demon would ever be answered. If he were to survive this legend and have a chance with Elizabeth, it would come down to a fate that was decided for him thousands of years earlier.
Chapter Nine
Elizabeth stepped out of the car and onto the cleanest sidewalk she’d seen in years. The entry to The Top Hat was lush with potted plants and sleek looking flowers that looked as if they’d come from some far off tropical island.
“Wow.”
“Yeah. It looks like it’s a pretty nice place.”
“Does it ever.” She beamed, feeling like the Cinderella of waitresses.
“Still no idea what type of uniform they’ll have you wearing?”
She rolled her eyes and stepped up on her tippy toes to kiss him on the cheek. “Would you stop worrying. I already told you I’m not dancing. I’m going to be a waitress.”
“I’ll try.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you worry far too much?”
“Has anyone ever told you how adorable you are?”
“Maybe.” She smiled. “There is this one guy. I guess you could say I'm sort of seeing him. He says I'm adorable, cute, pretty and even beautiful."
He pulled her in for a hug. “Well, he sounds like a brilliant man. I’d hang onto him if I were you.”
“You know. I think I just might.”
"Good. Now remember that I'm picking you up. Promise me you'll wait for me after work, so I can give you a ride, even if I'm running late, okay?"
“Xavier I already said I would.”
“Okay okay. Have a great first day. I’ll see you later.”
He gave her a kiss just before she walked toward the leather tufted double doors.
“Don’t work too hard.” He yelled to her.
Laughing she turned to face him. “I’ll try.”
“Remember. Wait inside, don’t wait out here. Okay?”
She walked over to him and hugged him. “Okay. I promise. Now, stop worrying.”
She gave him a kiss that was meant to soothe and calm his worry but instead she found herself pulling away as they both gasped for breath.
He winked at her before driving away.
She watched him leave, wondering if he knew just how much he was coming to mean to her. Their night together had been perfect. They talked, cuddled and kissed. She felt like what it must have been like for normal teenagers when they were falling in love.
And there it was again. That word. Love.
It kept sneaking its way into her subconscious and offering hints at what her feelings were. But how she could truly know, she wasn't sure. She'd never really been in love before. Her years spent as a young adult were filled with avoidance of the dirty old creeps who used to frequent her house or running away from her past. Love, much like boyfriends had never been a priority for her.
But Xavier was becoming a priority. Xavier was already a priority. Imagining a time without him, even a single day was nothing she wished to entertain too readily.
As she opened the door to The Top Hat, she realized there was no denying it. Whether it be called love, or any other four letter word, regardless it was magnificent.
She was in love with Xavier. And though she didn’t know what secrets he kept hidden, she didn’t care. It was all of him that she loved. Not just the good, but the bad as well. If there even was any. She would take every piece of him. Any part he was willing to give.
The alternative just wasn’t a possibility. It was Xavier.
All of her for all of him.
Chapter Ten
Elizabeth had been happy with her new day on the job. The staff was friendly. Mr. Giancano hadn't misled her in any way, and the tips had been outstanding. She was a little concerned for the head of the front of the house. His name was Charles, and he didn't seem to care for her too much. In fact, he didn't seem to care for any of the wait staff.
Several times that night she had caught him giving her what could only be described as an evil eye. Still, she wasn't about to complain. One bad apple in a bushel full of opportunities was well worth it as far as she was concerned.
"Goodnight, Rodney." She yelled at him from across the busy kitchen in the back on the way to the women's locker room.
“Elizabeth. How was your first night?”
“It was great. Thank you!” she smiled and waved before heading up the narrow staircase to the back area designated for employees only.
There were several doors, all marked with the same warning that no customers were allowed. She might have been more curious any other time, wondering what was going on behind the scenes, but her thoughts were focused solely on Xavier.
Not only would he be outside waiting for her and she didn’t want to worry him. But she couldn’t wait to see him. More than that, she wanted to have that talk he had promised her.
She had no idea what his secret may be, but she wasn’t about ready to let it come between them.
She made quick work of changing and hanging up her uniform in the locker that had been provided for her. One of the perks of being a Top Hat employee meant that they would launder and provide for her clean uniforms for every shift. It meant she gave up her privacy of allowing them in her locker, but judging from the money she saw rolling through the club that evening and the three hundred plus in tips that was burning a hole in her pocket book, she doubted that they’d be concerned with anything she had to offer.
Having left her cell phone locked up during her shift, she was pleased to see that Xavier had left her a message to let her know he’d run into a problem with picking her up.
Hey, gorgeous. Something came up, and I need to take care of some things with my brother. I'm leaving my car out front of The Top Hat. The key will be under the driver's side mat. Asked the bouncer, Frank to keep an eye on it and you for me. I’ll meet you at your place later. Thinking of you. XO.
He had to be the most considerate boyfriend a girl could ever have. Assuming of course that he was her boyfriend. Whatever he was he sure knew how to melt her heart.
Maybe that was something they could discuss that night. She’d never really had one before. Was it something that needed to be declared, or was it just a given once you began seeing someone?
With so many questions it became even more obvious that she’d missed out on far too much in her teenage years. She might want to consider being not so presumptuous and acting like a teenager. The last thing she wanted was for Xavier to think she was a complete goof. Though he had called her a goofball, a couple of times already. So maybe he already knew.
She laughed to herself. Finding her internal thought process amusing. Wondering why she was such a complete dork in so many ways.
Walking out of the locker room a muffled scream caught her attention and stopped her in her tracks.
She turned back, listening for signs of where it had been coming from. A loud noise came from one of the rooms on her left. And another sound that sounded like someone in distress followed soon after that.
Slowly she walked down the hallway to the door she suspected the noise to be coming from. She knocked once, then twice but no one answered.
The sign read Employees Only in gold letters, and she went inside. "Hello?"
She waited for a response, but none came.
“Hello? Is anybody in here?”
Still, no one replied. She had been about to step inside and turn on the light when Mr. Giancano stepped out from the darkness.
“Elizabeth? What are you doing in here?”
“Mr. Giancano. Oh, I’m sorry. I thought I heard –.”
“Heard what?” he interrupted her.
“Umm…” she wasn’t sure what she’d done, but he didn’t have the same look of kindness that she’d remembered seeing the night before. “I’m not sure.”
“I see. Well, your shift is over now. Isn’t it?”
"Yes. Yes, I was just about to leave when I…" she hesitated saying anything, but her conscience wouldn't allow her not to. "I'm sorry, it’s just that I thought I heard a woman scream.”
Mr. Giancano let out a boisterous laugh. “A woman scream? Why that’s ludicrous. This is just an old storage room. I was just taking a few minutes away from the crowds downstairs. You found my little hiding place. I’ll have to find a new one now.”
"Oh." She smiled politely at him but was still feeling strange about his demeanor. "I'm sorry, Mr. Giancano."
“No worries. Maybe this will be my test to see if you can keep a secret, huh?”
Though his words were light and he appeared to be joking, she sensed a real urgency in his expression. And she suddenly wanted to get as far away from him as she possibly could.
“Not to worry, sir. You can count on me.”
She turned to step away when he called to her. “Oh, Elizabeth?”
“Yes, Mr. Giancano?”
“Your first day… it was good, yes?”
She nodded. “Yes, very much so. Thank you again for this opportunity.”
“You’re quite welcome. Goodnight then.”
“Goodnight, sir.”
She quickly closed the door and raced down the hall to the stairway. Her heart pounded in her chest, beating erratically with the type of fear that was reserved for lonely nights watching scary movies in the dark.
She had no idea why, no reasoning behind it. But in that dark room, she felt in fear of Mr. Giancano. He'd done nothing to deserve such a reaction. Still, all she could think of was putting as much distance between herself and her new boss as possible.
Minutes and several deep calming breaths later she was stepping out onto the city street. Frank, the bouncer, had held the door for her and offered her a wide gap-toothed smile as she looked around for Xavier's vehicle.
She saw it just down the street about a half of a block. Unlike the neighborhood she was used to working in, she saw no vandalized storefronts, no broken windows or slashed tires. It was a good feeling to know that she was in much better surroundings.
After retrieving the key from under the mat, she started the engine and smiled when she realized that what Xavier had done must've been by far one of the sweetest things anyone had ever done for her.
Elizabeth waved goodbye to Frank as she began pulling away from the curb. Initially, the drive home she was filled with happiness. Sure she was heading toward a seedy part of town and staying in a place where most wouldn't dare to spend five minutes, much less an entire night. But she took solace in knowing that Xavier would be coming by later that night. He didn't give her a time, and that was just fine. She would wait up all night if she had to.
Days ago she might have thought her life was going nowhere fast. Not anymore, though. Her life was changing for the better. And it was all thanks to Xavier.
She’d only been on the road for a couple of minutes when an all too familiar and eerie feeling plagued her, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up.
She spun around quickly and checked her back seat. Something she realized she should have done before she drove away. Luckily there was no one hiding. The back seat was empty of lurkers ready to do wrongdoing.
As she came up to a stop light she sat there for a moment, her heart beginning to race. She was sure, if only for a moment that someone had been watching her. She looked around the street and saw no one. Sure there were people passing by in cars, on the sidewalk, just about in every direction. But none of them seemed to be paying any attention to her.
Sighing, she wrote the growing bundle of nerves off and finished her drive home. A few miles away from the club she caught a pair of headlights in the rearview mirror. It was silly that it unnerved her. They had just as much right to be driving down this road as she did.
Maybe she was getting so used to Xavier being around that she was beginning to become dependent on his presence. Still, she couldn’t help the unsettling feeling of whoever it was on this road right behind her was someone she didn’t want there. Trying to ignore the feeling which she was sure knew must just be silly paranoia, she continued on her way home.
Within blocks of her apartment, she glanced once more to see the same headlights still following behind her. While they were not that close and truthfully she couldn't even be sure they were the same ones she had first noticed, she still couldn't shake the feeling of fear that they were leaving her with.
Suddenly her foot became heavier, and she pushed down harder on the gas pedal eager to get to her apartment as quickly as humanly possible.
The flashing pink neon sign of the hotel blinked in the distance. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was drawing near, and she couldn't get there quickly enough.
With only blocks left to go, she glanced back in the mirror and saw the lights still keeping a steady pace behind her. Luck was on her side, and she found a parking space just in front of the hotel.
Elizabeth slammed on the brakes, screeching the car to a halt. She’d never been so happy to be home in all the years since she’d moved to Los Angeles.
She all but raced out of the car and ran through the front doors and the lobby. Eyes fell on her as she ran up the stairs, feeling like she was being chased by the devil himself when she made it safely to the fourth floor and saw her door within reach.
Elizabeth hurried into her apartment, closing the door behind her and making sure to secure the deadbolt. The one thing she had learned in the years of living on her own, it was that there was no substitution for a sturdy lock keeping the bad guys away. It was something she’d learned at a young and vulnerable age.
She held onto the coat rack and bent over, removing one shoe at a time from her aching feet. Waitressing had never been her career of choice, but maybe she wouldn't have to do it as long as she thought now that she had this better-paying job. It might not only pay the bills, but it could offer her a better future as well.
Her mind went back to the odd interaction she’d had with Mr. Giancano just before leaving. He hadn’t overtly done anything wrong. In fact, he had been quite pleasant. Still, there was something about that dark room, when he’d stepped out of the shadows that just didn’t sit well with her.
She had been so sure she'd heard the muffled sound of a woman's scream. Maybe she'd been wrong. It had only been days since she'd nearly been raped or worse from that man. Maybe she was suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress.
She hoped that was it. Anything other than something complicated that would hinder her at The Top Hat. She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that making a few hundred in tips for only six hours of work wasn’t the most money she’d ever made.
No, the more she thought about it, the more she was sure it must have been her imagination. Mr. Giancano seemed to be a genuine and nice man. She was obviously just letting her mind run wild.
Deciding she’d take a quick shower before Xavier surprised her, she undressed and made her way to the bathroom. The apartment was dark and quiet. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Yet for some reason she found herself
walking over to the window to peek outside.
There, down in the darkening city streets, she saw it. That car that had been behind her nearly the entire ride home. It sat across the street from where she'd parked, and a small trailer of cigarette smoke swirled out from the cracked window.
She swallowed her fear and tried to push her anxiety aside.
Was she being followed?
Taking a deep and calming breath, she glanced back over for a mental check of the lock. It was still secure. She was still safe.
So then why she wondered, was she so damn afraid?
Chapter Eleven
He sat in his car across the street from The Lexington. The old building looked like a fifty-year-old hooker offering hand jobs for a quarter. It was beaten up, run down and probably hot worth the cheap weekly rate the windows advertised.
Lighting a cigarette, he cracked the window and sat back in his seat. He wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, and he was at least going to be comfortable while he waited the girl out.
He picked up his cell phone and dialed the club. “Hey, boss."
“Did you find her?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t that hard.”
“Good. You know what to do.”
“Right. Listen there might be a little problem with that.”
“Don’t give me that. I pay you to get rid of my problems, not hear about yours.”
"I know. It's just that. Well, she lives at The Lexington."
“Am I a mind reader? Is that name supposed to mean something to be or what?”
“No, it’s just that there’s a lot of people around. Not the most conducive environment for getting rid of… problems.”
“I don’t care if it’s conducive or not. Handle it!”
“Boss are you even sure she saw anything? I mean… maybe she didn’t. Or maybe even if she did she won’t say anything.”
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