The mess was all cleared away and within another few days, workmen were here putting my world back together. They’ve been working tirelessly on it over the past six weeks and I’m proud to say that it’s really starting to come together.
So far, all the walls are back in place, the new glass front windows and door have been put in, and the flooring has gone down. Today all my signage is going up and watching that man expertly attach a big ‘Style me Crazy’ logo to the glass is like coming home.
In the next week or so, the inside will be put together and painted then the security system and bookkeeping software will be installed. Once that happens, I can work on stocking it all and organizing my relaunch.
I can’t wait. It’s going to be incredible. I’ve had to spend the week putting in all my orders to my designers so the stock will arrive with plenty of time to be displayed before opening. It was pretty incredible actually, as many of my designers have brought out their new collections, so the store is going to be filled with brand new designs.
Having all this time away from the store has given me plenty of time to create some of my own designs… or well, not so much as my sewing machine was destroyed in the fire, but I’ve had the time to draw it all out and work out exactly what I need to make it happen.
As soon as I get the store up and running, I’ll be able to focus on bringing my designs to life. I can just see it now. I’ll have a whole section of my store dedicated to my designs. It’s going to be the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.
I check in with the workman and drop off some lunch to them as I have every other day they’ve been here putting my store back together. I don’t have to do it. I mean, the insurance company is making sure they get paid and I’m sure they take their own lunch breaks, but it’s something I want to do for them. It’s my thanks for putting in the work to help piece my life back together.
They thank me and with a smile, I get on my way. Besides, it’s good to keep on their good side so they do an extra good job on my store. And from what I’ve seen, they certainly are. The place looks incredible.
I get in my car and head down to The Dark Room. I’m so thankful for Rylee right now. Since she’s been home with little Isaac, she’s been letting me run the club for her to keep me busy. Otherwise, I’d be stuck at home day in and day out thinking about that night over and over again.
I mean, that night… oft. It was explosive. The first time Jace and I had been together was ridiculously good, it’s was needy and desperate and we’d both had a little bit to drink, but this time, we were stone cold sober and knew exactly what we were doing. The emotion was riding so high and it was just another confirmation that Jace is my man.
He always has been and he forever will be. Nothing will change that. I just hope he can manage to get himself better and stop fearing that he’s going to hurt me, until that happens, I don’t want anything to do with him. I refuse to allow him to bring me down.
When I see him next, it’s either going to be him telling me it’ll never happen, or it will be him finally making the commitment that I’ve been needing from him since the very start. I’m done with this in between bullshit where I get hurt over and over again.
I won’t be that pathetic girl any longer. Just as I had told him. It’s either all or nothing.
I can’t help but think about his reasoning for not being with me. I mean, he’s so certain that he’s this monster who’ll hurt me, though, I don’t believe for one second that he could ever lay a hand on me, but then, he managed to beat the living shit out of his dad and have absolutely no recollection of it, so I completely understand his reasoning for not wanting to be with me, but it sucks.
He’s hurting on the inside for what he did to his dad and I want nothing more than to take that pain away for him, but I can’t, not unless he allows it.
I walk through the doors of The Dark Room and look around with a smile on my face. I absolutely love this place, and while it’s absolutely incredible in the middle of the night when the lights are flashing and the DJ is doing his thing, it’s even better when it’s just me.
The place is like my second home. It’s been my salvation from awful days and the place I go when everything at home is going to shit, say like, every time Jace decided to break my heart and tear me down, I never had to go home. The Dark Room has always been here and even when there wasn’t a shift available for me to work, Rylee would always find something for me to do so I wouldn’t have to be alone at home, thinking about everything I can’t have.
I leave the door unlocked knowing that the kitchen staff will be showing up soon to start their preparations for the night. I flick on all the lights before I make my way down to Rylee’s door and pull out the set of keys she has entrusted to me for the next little while.
I search through the stack of keys on this stupid keychain and finally locate the right one before shoving it into the lock and opening it all up.
First things first, I power everything up and check over the security footage to make sure everything was all good between closing last night and me showing up now. You’d be surprised just how many dickheads try to break into this place at four in the morning, hoping they can get their hands on a little something to wash down their late night munchies.
With everything looking good on the cameras, I go about getting everything else ready.
An hour later, the kitchen guys are here and a few of the bar staff are showing up to start getting things ready out there. After getting everything I need to get done for the night, I start on all the other administration things like checking and responding to Rylee’s thousands of emails and putting in the stock orders.
Tonight’s big job is getting all the pays done. It must be the worst job around here. It takes forever and with close to one hundred staff, I’m extra pedantic about it because that’s one thing I don’t want to stuff up. Tomorrow is sorting out the roster, which is equally as awful, but not as bad if I was to screw it up. It’s so much easier only dealing with three staff who generally work the same hours from week to week.
Far out, I miss my store so bad. I mean, I know it’s just about there, but I want to have it up and running already. I’m going to owe Rylee big time for keeping me busy like this. She’s been an absolute godsend.
It’s close to opening time when the office door flies open with Rylee standing before me, struggling to hold up the baby who’s currently attached to her boob while also holding a stack of papers and a whole lot of other shit that she probably doesn’t need.
“What the hell are you doing?” I grunt as I run forward and do my best to take everything off my hands. “You better not drop my baby.”
“Ugh,” she groans, ignoring my comments. “You’d think after I gave all those idiots jobs, at least one of them would have helped me.”
“What do you mean?” I question as she gets herself comfortable on the chair and finishes feeding Isaac who looks gorgeous in the little onesie I bought him last week. In fact, it’s already looking a little small. I swear Rylee’s breast milk must have some kind of growth steroid in it. The kid just keeps growing, every time I see him, he’s that much bigger.
“I walked past all the girls behind the bar and each of them looked up and smiled before getting back to work. I mean, is it that hard to give me a hand?”
I can’t help but smile. “The Rylee that those girls know is the one who would snap and say she’s got it. They don’t know this Rylee who’s overtaken by hormones.”
“So?” she grunts. “I should fire them all.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” I laugh. “But I can make them clean the bar from top to bottom if it would make you feel better.”
She lets out a grunt and continues sulking. “Make them do the outdoor bars as well.”
“You got yourself a deal,” I laugh. “Now what are you doing here? You should be at home resting.”
“I, um… needed to drop this stuff off,” she tells me.
I look down a
t the papers she points at before looking back up at her. “Cole would have done that for you. You didn’t need to come all the way down here.”
“Yes, I did,” she argues.
I narrow my eyes on her, knowing the papers she’s just given me is only stuff that needs to be filed. “What’s going on?” I ask her.
She lets out a sigh. “I’m bored at home. Cole is driving me nuts. He wants to do everything for me and is constantly telling me to rest. I mean, I’m fucking rested already and there’s nothing for me to do. Isaac pretty much eats, sleeps, and shits, and apart from that, the washing is done, the kitchen is clean, the house is vacuumed. Like seriously, what kind of man does all that? Cole doesn’t leave a single thing for me to do, so when Isaac sleeps, I twiddle my thumbs. Please, Cami, don’t send me home.”
I can’t help but laugh. “What you mean is that no matter what I say, you’re staying here anyway and please don’t tell Cole?”
A grin rips across her face. “You know me so well,” she tells me.
I let out a huff. “Fine, as soon as Isaac is done feeding, I’ll give him cuddles and you can do the pays.”
“Thank god,” she says in relief before getting up with Isaac and forcing us to switch places so she can get a start on doing the pays.
“Isn’t breastfeeding supposed to be about bonding?”
She looks up at me and gives me a blank stare. “I feed him like a hundred times a day. We’ve done plenty of bonding. Now, it’s all about getting milk inside his guts so he doesn’t cry.”
“You’re such a great mommy,” I tease.
She can’t help but grin right back at me. “Shut up,” she laughs. “When you push a baby out of your vag, you’ll understand.” Her eyes flick back to the screen before looking back at me again. “Actually,” she says, giving me a thoughtful look. “You’ll be one of those mommies who can’t put her baby down, so maybe you won’t understand.”
I roll my eyes, but she’s right. I’ll definitely be one of those over the top mommies who thinks the sun shines out of my kids asses. I can’t wait, though the more and more Jace pushes me away, the more I fear I’ll never have those kids. So, for now, the sun can shine out of my little Isaac’s ass.
Isaac finishes up and pops off Rylee nipple, making a stream of milk spurt out across her desk. “Shit,” she grunts before shoving a feeding towel over her tits and getting herself sorted out.
I reach over the desk and grab Isaac out of her hands before sitting him up on my lap and burping him before he promptly falls asleep in my arms.
I can’t help but look down and watch the little guy sleep. I swear, he completes me. My heart is so full knowing he exists in this world. I must sit here for at least an hour just looking down at him, but eventually, my ass starts to hurts and I look up to see Rylee completely finished with the pays and checking over her emails.
“Shit,” I grunt. “Ry, you’ve been here for nearly two hours. You have to get this little guy home before all the people come and the music comes on.”
Rylee pouts out her bottom lip and looks down at her little sleeping man in my arms. “I really should get him out of here, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say equally as upset that I’ll have to hand him back.
“Alright,” she says as she gets up off the desk chair and walks around. She expertly slips Isaac out of my arms without waking him and leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for being here,” she tells me.
“You don’t need to thank me,” I remind her. “I want to be here.”
She gives me a grateful smile. “Either way, I’m still going to thank you,” she tells me before walking to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she tells me.
“Tomorrow?” I grunt. “What the hell is happening tomorrow?”
“You’re coming over to keep me from going insane. I need adults to talk to while this little guy sleeps the majority of the day away.”
“Alright,” I laugh. “You can help me go through and pick all the collections to sell in the store.”
“Perfect,” she grins before blowing me a kiss and disappearing out the door.
With Rylee out of the way, I can finally focus on getting everything done for the night, though, after getting back behind her desk, it looks as though she’s pretty much done everything which frees me up to spend the night out in the club rather than sitting back here.
With the little bit of spare time I have on my hands, I find myself pulling up a google search and typing in blackout episodes before spending a good chunk of time learning all about it, though, without having Jace here and asking him all sorts of question on the way, I could probably be reading up on the wrong thing, so instead, I type in PTSD and see what that comes up with.
After all, if Jace can’t get past this and breaks my heart for the last time, I can’t afford to take another trip. For my bank account’s sake, he has no choice but to kick these black out’s asses.
Chapter 16
Jace
I stand in the middle of Rebels Advocate surrounded by a sea of people. Tonight is a big night for us as we're hosting a huge fight night between our fighters and a few of the other local fighting clubs. Our fighters have been working their asses for this over the past couple of months. They’re so excited as for some of them, it’s their first chance of getting their names out there.
It’s been widely advertised and we’ve had unbelievable amounts of interest, which apparently, by the way the club is standing room only, has definitely paid off.
The first fight starts within the next half an hour and the boys and I race around the place making sure every last thing is done. My parents and Jessie have shown up and I’ve made sure they have the best spot in the house to watch the show.
Even all the trainers, staff, and fighters from our new Rebels Advocate franchise have turned up and are giving us a hand with any last minute tasks that need to get done.
Cole and Caden disappear out the back, probably to help the fighters warm up while Luke, Xander, and I work on getting some of the weights out of the way to allow room for more spectators.
It’s absolutely ridiculous how big this turn out is. I mean, we have the fucking media here who had requested approval to do a story on the night, which naturally we all agreed to.
As the time grows nearer to the start of the fights, I find myself looking around for that one particular face. I had hoped she would turn up, but I should have known she wouldn’t. I guess I was holding onto the hope that she’d be here to support the boys. Maybe I pushed her just a little too far this time, or maybe she’s coming with the girls later on and I’m just overthinking the whole thing.
As I continue searching around, my eyes come to a stop on my sister who’s staring right at me. I give her a look as if to say ‘what the fuck do you want?’ and all she does is raise her eyebrows while being a smug as fuck little turd. She knows exactly what I’m doing and exactly who I’m looking for.
Damn her. Why does she have to be so good at reading me?
I ignore the grin that rips across her face and get back to work.
Ten minutes later, I come to a standstill beside the fighters from our other club and take note of the excitement in their eyes. Tonight should be good for them. Some of these guys have never seen a fight before and I’m sure this will go a long way to keep them encouraged and motivated to get where they want to go.
Though, on the other hand, they could possibly have shown up just to cast their eyes on the famous Xander Phillips who’s the current heavyweight champion. He returned from his honeymoon a few weeks ago and since then he’s jumped straight back into training for his third big fight of the year that’s going down in two months. It’s been publicized everywhere, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these fighters were hoping for a bit of demonstration from him.
The door of Rebels Advocate opens once again and I watch as a pram is pushed through followed by a bunch of women, two of which are starting to become very pregnant.
I can’t help but feel disappointed as I realize Cami isn’t with them but I slap on my game face and go to greet them. “Wow,” Izzy says as she looks around. “I didn’t think you guys were capable of drawing such a crowd,” she teases. “What did you do? Promise each of them a blow job is they showed up?”
The girls laugh as I roll my eyes. “Shut up,” I say. “We can draw crowds like this in our sleep.”
Each and every one of them scoffs and grin like the idiots they are. I give in, realizing that when the girls are like this, you just have to roll with the punches. I lead them over to the seats we’ve saved for them by my parents and I make sure they have everything they need, as the first fight starts soon and knowing them, they’ll want something right in the middle of it.
As I go to walk away from them, Jessie latches onto my arm and pulls me down. “Why isn’t Cami with them?” she questions.
I don’t want to get into it right now but from my cringe, I don’t need to. “Jace,” she scolds. “Get your shit together already. I don’t want the random whore you impregnate to be my sister-in-law. I want Cami.”
“I know, I know,” I groan. “I’m working on it.”
“Really?” she grins. “You’re not just saying that, are you?”
“No, I’m actually working on it,” I groan. “Now, let me go. I’ve got shit to do.”
She rolls her eyes and does as she’s asked, allowing me to get on with it.
I head out the back and do what I can to help the fighters warm up for their fights when I hear Luke over the speakers welcoming everyone to the club. It’s almost comical how the atmosphere back here changes. One minute, the guys are calm, cool, and collected, the next, they’re freaking out as the nerves begin to rattle them.
For most of these guys, this is probably one of the biggest fights of their professional careers to date, so I can understand the nerves, but if these guys want to be fighting in stadiums filled with fifty thousand people, then they need to get this shit under control.
We hear Luke announcing the first fight and calls Alec out. The boys cheer for him as Cole puts his hand on his shoulder and double checks he’s ready. Within the blink of an eye, they walk out the door to get this show on the road.
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