by L. A. Casey
I nodded my head even though she couldn’t see me. “I’m in the toilets on the first floor in Darkness, that’s why the reception is shitty. If the phone cuts off, you know why.”
I heard Keela mumble something to someone before she returned her attention to me. “If you’re fine, then why’re you callin’ me? It’s half two in the mornin’!”
Was it that late?
Oops.
“Sorry, I thought it was earlier,” I said and smiled. “I love you.”
Keela laughed. “Are you drunk?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I mean, I was, but I’m soberin’ up now. I’m tired of dancin’ so I think I’m gonna go home. Me feet hurt.”
Keela laughed again. “Make sure Skull puts you in a taxi.”
I blinked. “I will, but first. Guess what?”
“What?”
“I said guess.”
Keela groaned. “Aliens have taken over Earth?”
“Close. Skull and I didn’t have sex.”
Keela choked on air.
“What?” she rasped. “Why not?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “We had a talk on the way to the club and it turns out he wants to settle down. He thinks he is gettin’ too old for one-night stands. He wants to find his main chick.”
“Wow.”
Yep. Wow.
“I know—it sucks for me though. I wanted sex tonight. I’m so disappointed.”
Keela snorted. “I’m sorry for your vagina’s loss.”
I dramatically sighed, “So am I. No one can turn her out like Skull can.”
Keela burst into laughter making me smile.
“I’m goin’ to go home. I’ll text you when I get there, okay?”
“Okay, I’m going back to bed. I’ll set me phone to vibrate and when I hear it vibrate from your text I’ll know you’re okay.”
I used my left hand to grab some toilet roll and wipe myself. I stood up, pulled up my underwear, and adjusted my dress. I turned and flushed the toilet and laughed when Keela cursed.
“I fuckin’ hate when you call me in the jacks!”
I snorted. “I know, sorry. Love you. Bye.”
I hung up giggling while Keela went on about how disgusting I was. I bent down and picked my clutch up off the floor, stood up straight, and adjusted my dress once more then dropped my phone into my bag. I exited the stall and went straight to the sinks where I washed my hands.
The bathroom was crowded, and I could hear multiple females talking and laughing. I was so tired that everything felt like it was far off in the distance instead of happening around me. I glanced left and right and looked at all the baby faces of the women in the bathroom and groaned.
Maybe I was getting too old for this shite.
I sighed to myself, gripped my clutch and walked out of the bathroom. Instead of looking up at where I was going, I looked down at the ground. As a result, I walked head first into another person and the force of the impact knocked me back onto my behind.
“What the fuck?” a female voice hollered. “Watch where you’re fuckin’ goin’!”
I groaned and rubbed my head. “Sorry.”
I pushed myself up to my feet and used my left hand to rub my behind to try to take the sting away. I yelped when I felt a sudden sharp pain spread out across my head. It took me a second to realise that someone had hold of my hair, and they were pulling at it.
Hell no.
I didn’t reach up for the person’s hair to pull back, no, I placed my hands on their hands and dug my nails into their flesh. Seconds later, the hands retreated from my head. I swung my head back, located the bitch who attacked me ,and charged.
I dived on the girl, fists flying and legs kicking. It was a blur of punches, slaps, and screeches. It felt like it lasted forever, but in reality, I was lifted off the girl ten or so seconds into the fight.
“That’s enough!” a familiar male’s voice bellowed into my ear.
A very familiar male’s voice.
Uh-oh.
“Sorry,” I squeaked and looked up to Skull’s blazing eyes.
“Aideen,” he sighed, his tone irritated as he set me down on the ground.
I instantly pointed at the girl across from us. “She hit me first. I was only defendin’ meself.”
Skull looked at the girl who was looking at me like she was going to rip me to shreds the second she got the opportunity.
“Is that true?” Skull asked the she-devil.
“She knocked me to the ground, that’s why I hit the fat bitch!”
Fat?
Oh, hell no.
I stepped forward. “Listen to me you STD-ridden little toothpick. Havin’ an arse and tits doesn’t make me fat, it makes me desirable, just ask your fella. He’s been starin’ at both since the moment I walked into you, which, by the way, I apologised for.”
The girl screamed and tried to come at me with outstretched hands, but Skull stood in front of me and kept the she-devil at bay. I made the situation worse by laughing at her.
“Damn it, Aideen,” Skull grunted then barked orders at the other bouncers before he turned, bent down and threw me over his shoulder and walked away from the pubescent teenager who was having the mother of all tantrums.
I didn’t struggle against Skull’s hold on me. I’d learned from previous experiences that beating on his back and spewing threats didn’t work on him. I relaxed as much as I could and simply enjoyed the ride. That was until he brought me somewhere I had never been in Darkness before. He brought me straight through a set of double doors and into a collection of long hallways with multiple rooms.
Where in the hell was I?
“What is this place?” I asked Skull when he placed me on the floor.
Skull closed the doors that led to the nightclub and instantly the noise lessened. You could hear music, but it wasn’t loud. Not loud enough to make you think a club was on the other side of the door.
“This is an area for VIPs,” Skull replied to me when he turned around.
I raised an eyebrow. “Bullshit, I’ve been a VIP for years.”
He smirked. “I mean the paid VIPs. Associates of the boss, if you will.”
Oh.
“Ah, dodgy businessmen? Got it.”
Skull grinned again. “Go on down to the end of the hallway, take a left and then go into the first room on the right. Lock the door behind you and I’ll be down to get you when my shift ends.”
I tilted my head and smirked. “I thought we weren’t goin’ to be havin’ sex tonight.”
“We aren’t,” Skull said, but he grinned as he said it.
I laughed as I turned around.
“Take the first left then go into the first room on your right,” Skull called after me.
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.” I yawned.
I heard him chuckle then a loud burst of music filled the hallway only to be cut off seconds later. I glanced over my shoulder and saw I was alone in the empty hallway. I was alone in an unfamiliar place.
Keela would kill me for walking around an unfamiliar place on my own.
“Shit, Keela,” I mumbled.
With the thought of her, I remembered my promise to text her when I was home so she could go to sleep. I took out my phone, thumbed a message that I was safe and going to sleep and then slipped my phone back into my clutch after I hit send.
I turned and continued to walk down the hallway, and just as I came up to the left turn Skull told me to make, I heard a door slam and male voices bellowing at one another from the end of the hallway on my right. I jumped with fright and balled my hands into fists to keep them steady.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my breathing sped up. I inched my way down the hallway towards the voices, even though every fibre in my body screamed at me to turn and walk in the opposite direction. I rounded a corner and followed the voices taking a left turn, then a right.
I ignored my gut and continued my slow and steady walk down the hallwa
y. I only stopped when I came to a door that wasn’t shut all the way. I glanced at the door looking for a number or something to say what the room was for, but there was nothing but dark varnished wood.
There was a space between the door and doorframe and I took it upon myself to look through the gap to see what all the commotion was about. I closed one eye and scanned the section of the brightly lit room that I could see, and when a bloodied man bound to a chair came into my line of sight, I couldn’t help but gasp.
I instantly covered my mouth with my hand and ceased to function altogether in fear I would make another unnecessary noise. I remained frozen until a few seconds passed by and nothing happened. I lowered my hand and gently exhaled a relieved breath.
That was close.
I flinched when I looked back into the room just as a tall man rounded into my view and punched the bound man across the face. The poor man’s head snapped to the right, and a moan of pain escaped him. Other than that one moan, he made no sound—not one.
“Remainin’ silent will only lead to more bad shite happenin’ to you, Shane. Do yourself a favour and tell me where my shipment is. I know you tried to jack it, I’ve eyes everywhere along the docks.”
The bound man laughed then spat a mixture of saliva and blood onto the man speaking to him. “If you have eyes all along the docks, why did none of them see where your shipment got to?”
The man, who I assumed was in charge, took out a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped his face. “I don’t have time for games; tell me what I want to know or me friend here breaks your legs. Your choice.”
There was a lot of shouting, cursing, and screaming that followed in the next twenty seconds and it caused my stomach to churn. I was about to turn away from the room when the door opened wide and the bearded man who was threatening the bound man stood before me, glaring at me.
Oh, fuck.
“I took a wrong turn, I’m so sorry,” I blurted and turned around.
I all but sprinted up the hallway and ignored the man shouting after me. I also ignored his calls for someone to ‘catch me.’ I took a right turn then a left and stopped when I came to an abrupt end to the now small hallway.
How fucking big was this place?
“It’s like a bloody maze!” I hissed.
I turned around and mentally prepared myself to retrace my steps so I could find the room Skull told me to go to, but all coherent thoughts left my head when I ran into a hard chest.
“Ow!” I grunted and lifted my hand to my head.
“You should watch where you’re going.”
I froze.
I knew that voice.
I fucking loathed that voice.
I tilted my head back and looked up at his marred face.
Kane Slater.
“What the hell are you doing back here?” he snapped at me.
No hello or stupid comment on his part, just rudeness as usual. I was shitting myself by being here, but I couldn’t not be a smartarse to him.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said and stumbled to stay upright when he advanced forward.
Kane glared at me. “No, you fucking can’t. This is no place for someone like you.”
I knew that good and well after witnessing a bound man being assaulted, but what in the hell did he mean by that?
“Someone like me?” I asked, as I tried to narrow my eyes at him, but found it difficult.
He was mad and I didn’t know how to handle mad Kane. Teasing Kane, or annoyed Kane I could deal with, but mad Kane freaked me out quite a bit.
Kane continued to stalk forward, and I continued to back up. “Yeah, someone like you.”
I walked backwards until my back hit a wall. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I squealed when Kane surged forward and gripped both of my arms with his hands.
“It means,” he hissed and leaned in close to my face, “that good girls don’t belong here. Understand me, babydoll?”
Babydoll? Was he for real?
“What makes you think I’m a good girl?” I asked trying to get the tremor of fear out of my voice.
Kane looked at me for a long moment as a ghost of a smile curved his lips. “I don’t think you’re a good girl, babydoll, I know you are.”
I didn’t know why I felt insulted, but I did.
“That just goes to show you really don’t know me, because I do belong here... I hang out here all the time. I’ve actually hung out in Darkness since before you moved here. I’m practically an OG of this place.”
Kane grinned at me. “Oh, really? Then tell me something, OG, why do you look lost walking down these hallways?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but quickly closed it because I had no idea. Skull said these rooms where for Brandon’s business associates, and I was definitely not one of those. I honestly never even knew Darkness had back rooms, though I shouldn’t be surprised. Brandon was a shady fucker.
I was too stubborn to admit that to Kane so instead I said, “I don’t have to justify meself to you, Slater.”
Kane chuckled as he roamed his eyes over my face. “That you don’t, babydoll.”
I tried to pull free of his hold, but his grip tightened on me.
“Jesus! Let go of me... and what the hell is with this babydoll crap?”
Kane smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “You need babying, and you look like a doll so... babydoll.”
Did he just call me childish and fake in one sentence?
“You dick. How dare you call me childish and fake!”
Kane grinned. “I didn’t call you childish or fake you little weirdo.”
Little?
“Now you’re callin’ me short? You’re a real—”
Kane’s low laughter cut me off.
It shocked me to silence because I had never heard him laugh like that before. I don’t think I have ever heard him laugh at all. I’ve seen him grin and smirk but never smile like he was doing right now.
He looked so different.
He looked stunning.
Damn him.
“You need to calm down. I’m not insulting you. Firstly, all I’m saying is you need looking after. You being here proves my point so that’s what I meant by babying. Secondly, you look gorgeous, fucking unreal, so that is what I meant by a doll. Put them together and you get babydoll, babydoll.”
His smirk irked me.
I swallowed. “And little?”
Kane grinned. “You’re a little bitty thing, what can I say?”
I was oddly flushed with pleasure that he thought I was gorgeous. I was also touched that he wanted to look after me while I was here, but my stubbornness wouldn’t allow me to admit that aloud.
“Your observations and sugar sweet words won’t get you anywhere with me so you can let go of me arms.”
“Make me.” Kane grinned.
I glared at him. “I don’t have time for this. I just saw somethin’ I shouldn’t have and I have to leave before they find me—”
“I already found you,” Kane cut me off, his eyebrow raised.
I stared at him for a moment then gasped, “You were in that room?”
He shrugged.
I shoved his chest. “Get away from me.”
Kane held up his hands. “It’s not what you think—I was more of an observer than an active participant in that room.”
I scoffed, “So you watched a helpless man get attacked? How noble of you.”
“Shane? A nice man? He is anything but nice.” Kane humourlessly laughed. “Darling, you take people at face value too often.”
I swallowed. “I clearly do because I thought you weren’t into anything bad. Looks like I was wrong.”
I rounded on Kane then and turned right, trying to find my way out from the maze of stupid hallways.
“I’m not a bad man, Aideen,” Kane said as he followed close behind me.
I grunted. “What are you doin’ back here then?”
“Working.”
<
br /> I stopped walking and turned to face him. “What type of work?”
Kane sighed. “It’s nothing that concerns you, darling—trust me.”
No.
“Bite me, Slater,” I growled.
Kane snapped his teeth at me and took a step closer to me. “Tell me where and I’ll be happy to oblige.”
He was very close to me, a hair away from pressing his body against mine. I could smell his cologne and feel his touch without him actually putting a hand on me.
“Kane,” I said then cleared my throat.
He lowered his head. “Aideen?”
“What are you doin’?” I whispered.
Kane smirked. “Call it an act of impulse.”
I swallowed. “You... you better not be thinkin’ what I think you’re thinkin’.”
Kane winked at me. “I bet our thoughts are pretty identical right now, babydoll.”
Oh.
“Get away from me,” I whispered, “and lose the stupid nickname.”
Kane jostled me closer to him until our bodies finally touched. “Not a chance in hell on both counts, babydoll.”
Before I could put him in his place with a well thought-out threat, Kane covered my mouth with his and just like that all bets were off. Okay, maybe not all bets. The stubborn bitch inside me put up a three or four second resistance against Kane’s mouth. She really did, but she, and the rest of me, was simply no match for Kane’s talented lips and tongue. No match at all.
I caved in to Kane’s kiss and touch and latched onto him with a grip so strong it made him hiss as he pushed me back against the wall behind me. I groaned as a slight stinging sensation spread across my back. I gasped when Kane ran his hands down my sides and around to my behind where he squeezed.
I yelped into his mouth when he lifted me up and pressed his torso against mine, pinning me against the wall with his hips. He kept one arm under me and used his free hand to cup my face.
He kissed me so hard that I wanted to scream at him to stop, but I didn’t. I did nothing but grab at him with my hands and kissed him harder as I tightened my legs around his waist.
He dropped both of his hands to my behind where he squeezed me and dug his fingers into my flesh. Hard. I hissed into his mouth. He swallowed down my hiss and responded with a nibble on my lower lip.
I felt the moment my back was pulled away from the wall and when Kane started to move. He was blindly walking down the hall while still kissing me. I gasped and pulled back from the kiss and looked around.