by Nicole Fox
I didn’t know why I’d expected to be able to peer in from the outside, but I bit down my disappointment and opened the door a crack. I heard another crashing sound from within and, through the slight gap in the door, spotted a figure moving about.
Who would be here now?
Maybe it was just Rossi. That seemed like it was the easiest answer, and it would mean that I was just overreacting about the whole thing. I knew he was often in the club at strange hours, and it wasn’t that unlikely that he would be here now. After all, what kind of person would break into an empty strip club?
I slid inside the door, closing it softly behind me. If there was someone here, then I’d have to stop them. I’d broken into enough places with my crew back in the day that I felt an odd disappointment in other people who do the same.
Sticking my head around the corner, I pulled back instantly when I saw a masked man in head-to-toe black. He wasn’t looking in my direction, but I’d confirmed that there was indeed a robber in the club.
The thought of calling the police didn’t even cross my mind. After silently counting to three, I jumped out, and shouted, “Stop!”
The man froze, instinctually lifting his palms up to me in a placating gesture.
“Don’t move, and I won’t call the cops.”
The masked head nodded once.
“Good, now take off your mask.”
I was shocked that the man was actually about to comply when the sound of a single muffled footstep alerted me to the presence of another man, just before his fist came crashing into my side.
I’d taken enough hits in my life to not buckle under the force, but God was that a good hit.
Twisting away from the next punch, I threw one of my own that he dodged effectively. Another masked man appeared beside him, and it was now three on one. It wasn’t that I doubted my abilities in any way, but I knew I was in trouble when the hits started coming from all sides.
I threw a leg out, spinning around and going for some knees, while my hands went for their heads. I cursed as my hits missed all of them. They were really good fighters; it was almost like they were able to read my mind.
What were fighters as good as they were doing robbing this place? I sincerely doubted there was a large sum of money kept on the premises, so what else would they be here for?
One of the men threw a sliced uppercut and kick, followed by a side jab, and I was so surprised by the familiar combo that the last jab got me in the side and knocked me to my knees.
I could have recognized that fighting style anywhere. After all, I was the one who invented that move. But, surely, it was just a coincidence.
Attempting to get back up, I was knocked down again by a kick to the back of the knees, and then a blow to the head, before everything went black.
Chapter Nine
Christy
I had just dropped King off at the club and was barely half way home, when I realized that he had left his phone on the passenger seat of my car. Part of me had an internal battle for a brief second to look through it, but then immediately decided that there would be nothing interesting on there anyway.
I debated driving home and waiting until the next day to give King back his phone, but I also considered turning back to the club and seeing if he was still there. It was a complete long shot, and I knew it was more than likely going to be a waste of time, but I was too pumped to sleep anyway.
When I arrived at the club a few minutes later and noticed King’s car was still in the lot, I let out a little sigh of relief and laughed at my good luck. Pulling up beside his car, I looked curiously inside, but I could tell King wasn’t going to be in there.
Where was he?
I’d dropped him off a while ago, so I knew that he should’ve been long gone, but I also knew that there was no way he would have left his car behind and gone home without it. It was early in the morning, at this point—early enough for the sun to be coming up in a short while. Though I was used to late nights when I was working at the club, I still found it strange to be there at that time of night, or day, depending on how you looked at it.
The idea of going home was so incredibly tempting that I almost turned away and drove straight back out of the parking lot. But a small, niggling feeling at the back of my mind kept me from doing so. I didn’t know what exactly it was, but something wasn’t completely right about the situation.
I got out of my car and started walking around the lot. Maybe he was around somewhere. The thought seemed ridiculous, but I couldn’t leave without making sure. The lights were off in the club—something I wasn’t used to when I was normally there— so, I couldn’t even see properly in the darkness.
After wondering around a little, I decided to check out the club for good measure, going to the front door and seeing if it was open.
To my surprise, it swung open easily, and I stepped inside the dark club.
“King?” I yelled. “Are you here?”
It suddenly occurred to me that this could be something out of a horror film; a young and naïve girl enters a dark building alone, calling out, and drawing the killer to her. I barely even watched horror films, and I could already predict the ending of that movie.
I gulped loudly as my fear escalated, and I shuffled over to the nearest light switch, flipping it and lighting up the entire place with bright light. Blinking a few times against the onslaught of brightness, I was blinded for a few moments until I regained my vision. When I did, I let out a tiny scream of shock and sprinted forward.
King was lying motionless before me, bloodied and beaten, barely conscious but still alive, thankfully.
“King?” I shook his shoulder gently, to wake him, but he wasn’t responding.
“King!” I shouted, giving him a light slap on the face. It was probably a really bad idea to slap him when he was so injured, but I needed to wake him up, so he could tell me what happened. It didn’t even cross my mind that whoever had hurt him might still be in the building.
After a few minutes of not-so-gentle prodding and poking, King’s eyes flickered open, and he blinked several times as he awoke.
He opened his mouth to speak, but winced suddenly and lifted a hand up to his head instead. There was a trail of blood coming down from his temple, and I had no doubt that he was suffering from a killer headache. At least he was alive, though.
“King, what happened?” I asked, lifting my hand to gently wipe at the blood on his forehead.
“The lights were on,” he bit out with another wince. “I went to check it out, and there were three robbers here.”
“Robbers? Here? But, why?” I frowned at the thought. What kind of robbers would come try and burgle a strip club?
“I didn’t ask,” he muttered sarcastically.
King slowly pulled himself up to a sitting position and tried to regulate his rapid breathing.
“You’re hurt. I need to call the police.”
“No!” King said immediately, then lifted a hand up to his head again. “No,” he said in a calmer tone. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” I asked incredulously.
“Because. They didn’t take anything.”
“They hurt you,” I insisted.
“It doesn’t matter. Would you just… please don’t call anyone.”
I paused for a moment, lowering my brows in anger and frustration at King’s stubbornness. Maybe it was just a guy thing, or maybe he just hated cops, but I could already tell that I was going to regret giving in.
“Fine. But you have to come to my dressing room, so I can clean you up.” That was a reasonable compromise.
“That I can do,” King agreed.
I stood up and held both hands down to hoist him up. To my surprise, he accepted my offer of assistance, placing his hands in mine and letting me help him up. He was too macho to put his full weight in my hands, even as injured as he was, but I still appreciated the gesture.
We hobbled to my dressing room together, which was t
hankfully very close by, because I wasn’t sure for how long King could pretend to be able to support his own weight. As soon as we entered, he collapsed into my chair, and I reached into the closet for the first aid kit that was lying in there. If I was being honest with myself, I’d never actually used the kit before in my life, nor did I even know what was inside. I basically assumed that it would have everything I needed, and I could just go for it. How hard could it possibly be?
I began dabbing at King’s cuts with the cloth from the kit, trying to assess if there was any damage that I couldn’t see. For all I knew, King could have a broken bone and was trying to prove his own strength by not bringing it up.
“I still can’t believe we had robbers here. Diamond Castle is the worst place anyone could ever try to rob. They would have been sorely disappointed,” I blabbed, trying to take my mind off my poor medical skills.
“I’m fine, Christy,” King said, apparently picking up on my barely concealed distress. “Just relax.”
“I am not going to relax! You’ve just been attacked. What did you think I was going to do? Besides, how will we ever get justice if we don’t tell the police?”
“The police won’t do anything. They were masked head to toe, with gloves as well, and they didn’t take anything.”
I made a sound of displeasure, but I didn’t even bother arguing anymore; I knew I wouldn’t win.
“All done,” I said with a huff, backing away from King and taking a seat beside him.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I did,” I waved off his thanks.
“Why’d you come back anyway?” he asked.
I pulled his phone from my back pocket and presented it to him with a sheepish smile.
“Phone?” I said with some slight embarrassment.
King accepted it with a smile, and we both sat there in silence for a minute.
It was at that moment, thinking about the robbers and the lack of anything to steal from Diamond Castle, that I turned frantically to my drawer and searched for an envelope full of money that I had withdrawn for my security deposit. It was missing.
“Fuck!” I yelled.
“What?” King asked frantically.
“The money for the deposit on my club is gone.” I was still crazily opening and closing drawers, in case I had somehow put it somewhere else, despite knowing that I hadn’t.
“Shit. Seriously?”
“Yeah. Are you sure the robbers didn’t take anything?”
This was just my luck; I had been saving for my club for ages, and my cursed luck interfered at the last moment.
“Positive,” he said with a frown. “I don’t know where it could be.”
Damn it, I bet Rossi took it. I had no firm knowledge or reason to believe he would betray me, but the longer I thought about it, the easier it was to convince myself that I was right.
I’d done little to hide my plans, and Rossi might have discovered that I planned to open up a rival club. He probably stole my money just so that he could stop me from opening up a place that would compete with him.
Once my club opened, I knew that very few people would personally choose to come to Diamond Castle instead of my club. I supposed that Rossi was just trying to protect his business, but that didn’t give him the right to steal my hard-earned money.
“How fucking dare he!” I fumed.
He’d gone too far. Rossi had always been a sleaze, a creep, and an all-around asshole, but stealing my money was too much and something had to be done.
“Who exactly are you talking about?” King asked confusedly.
I realized that I’d been ranting and raving inside my head for the past few moments, while King remained silent.
“Jarren fucking Rossi. He was the one who stole my money. It has to be him.”
Pacing the tiny space inside the dressing room, I was already coming up with plans of revenge, when King placed two hands on my shoulders and brought me to a stop.
“You don’t know it was him. Why don’t you wait a little until you have proof? Who knows what he’ll do, otherwise.”
I knew King was right, but I still didn’t cool down immediately. A few days ago, when King had warned me to be careful of Rossi, I had dismissed him like a fool, and now it turned out he’d been right the entire time.
Jesus, I felt like such an idiot.
I knew what King wanted me to say. I knew that he was being reasonable and responsible, but it was still an insanely difficult pill to swallow, especially when I pictured the smug grin that would no doubt be plastered over his face.
“Christy?” King prodded after a moment more of my silence.
“Yes, fine, okay. I’ll be good, I swear.”
Chapter Ten
King
Although Christy did a good job fussing over me, to the point where she was checking my bandages every thirty seconds, the only thing I wanted to do was leave, so I could sort my head out. A small part of me was loving all the attention she was giving me, only because I knew she wouldn’t do it often, and I wanted to appreciate it.
“Christy, I’m fine. You don’t have to check on me every damn minute.”
A part of me thought it was to take her mind off the fueling hatred she seemed to have developed for Rossi. Of course, I would be angry, too, if somebody stole the money that I was planning to build a life with.
“I was just trying to help,” she huffed, packing up the first aid kit and slamming it shut, so I could sense her displeasure.
“Don’t be like that. Thank you for your help.”
“You're very welcome. Are you sure they were masked? No identifiable features or anything?”
I paused thinking back to the fight. There was something identifiable all right, but the fact that I recognized the fighting style of a potential robber seemed a strange thing to say. In all honesty, I had a very good idea of who had broken into the place, but I needed to try and find them before I told anyone about it.
Growing up as I had, I was always told that it was no wonder that my childhood friends and I had turned into what we had. We were good at what we did; breaking into high security places, like it was a walk in the park. I didn’t care that we’d become criminals—the crew were my best friends, the kids I’d grown up with and spent my entire life with. That all changed when they framed me for something I didn’t do. Now the cops were after me, and all I wanted to do was just lay low. That’s why I took the shitty, low-paying job at Diamond Castle. Rossi was the only one who would hire me.
I’d tried to move on from what my friends had done to me, but it was so hard, and even the thought of them made my blood boil. But I knew there was nothing I could do. I knew I just had to keep my head down and move past it. It was even more difficult when they turned up at the place I worked and knocked me out. I wasn’t entirely certain, but I had a strong feeling that the guy that sucker-punched me in the face was my old pal, Sammy.
“King?” Christy said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“No, nothing,” I said quickly. “Hey, I’m going to head off. I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”
Without waiting for a reply, I walked off, trying to keep from hobbling so I could retain some form of dignity.
I collapsed into the car and drove home without too much difficulty, the entire time my mind focused on my past and what the hell my old crew was doing coming back into my life.
I woke up the next morning, sore and with a pounding headache. At first, I thought the ringing I heard was just in my ears, until I realized that someone had been trying to call me for the past few minutes.
“Hello?” I said groggily.
“King? Uh– Hey.”
Is that who I think it is?
“Dane?” I said, my complete shock evident in my tone.
‘Yeah. It’s me.”
Well, that confirmed it. If I wasn’t entirely sure that my old crew had been the ones to attack me last night, this confirmed it.
Don was my best friend growing up, and the fact that he was calling me now, after radio silence for so long, could only mean that he felt guilty for something.
“You son of a bitch! You left me knocked out in an empty club. Who knows how long I would’ve stayed there before someone turned up!”
“King, I’m sorry,” Don said quietly, with regret in his voice. “You know I don’t always agree with crew decisions.”
“What decisions would those be,” I said sarcastically. “Framing one of your own and setting him up for the cops to find?”