by Gina Kincade
She thought she heard him say something about a “fucking doctor”, but she dismissed it. Then he started tearing at the lining, ripping the backing cloth from the frame.
“What the hell, that’s Amber’s sofa!”
Andie stood there like an idiot as he shifted from the couch to the shelves above it, tossing things off, and opening a decorative box to check inside.
“Todd stop or I’m going to call the cops!”
She had to call the police anyway. He was vandalizing Amber’s apartment. Was this some sort of revenge for breaking up with him? He must not know she wasn’t staying here anymore. Was he hoping Amber would kick her out onto the streets so she would be homeless?
Todd flipped another table over on his way to the kitchen, where he started rummaging through the cupboards. Andie shook her head, pushing herself to do something. She fished her cell phone out of her purse, and pivoted on her heel, prepared to run out the door and call the police from the safety of the stairwell.
She stopped short, staring into the barrel of a gun.
Chapter Fourteen
“You were supposed to shut up and keep your head down, but you couldn’t even do that,” Amber said, the gun held steady in her hand.
Andie gaped at her, belatedly realizing Amber hadn’t been speaking to her. She had been talking to Todd.
She put her hands up in the air as if she was in an old-fashioned stick-up. “What the hell is going on?”
Todd whipped his head around and started when he saw the gun. “You’re supposed to be at work,” he said accusingly.
Amber raised a single brow. “You won’t find my stash. Look around. This isn’t where I keep my money. That’s safe someplace else.”
“A stash of what?” Andie was still in shock.
“The drugs.” Todd sneered. “The ones she talked me into pushing for her.”
Her drugs? The drugs in her locker had belonged to Amber?
The world started spinning crazily and she stumbled, but quickly righted herself when the gun swung back in her direction.
“I’m just going to leave now,” Andie said very quietly, holding her purse to her chest.
But she didn’t make it more than a few steps. Amber blocked her path to the door, which she must have closed behind her when Andie was staring at Todd.
“I’m sorry you got dragged into the middle of all this,” Amber said, sounding genuinely contrite. “But now that you’re aware of my real business I can’t let you leave.”
Oh God.
“I won’t tell anyone anything,” she promised. “I swear.”
Amber shook her head. “I wish I could believe you. And I really did have the best of intentions when I let you stay here. I was grateful for the in at Lynx. Getting a job there is next to impossible. You’re the only reason they took me on. It was hard as balls to get around Mike and the other security guys. I eventually figured out a way when I caught this asshole hooking up with a girl in the bathroom. He was a real shit boyfriend by the way. But he cared enough about you to start working for me in exchange for my promise to keep my mouth shut about what I saw. I did want to tell you, but I figured you’d find out on your own. Once a cheater always a cheater, after all. I was right too. This idiot blew up his own spot weeks later and I had an employee of my own.”
“Fat lot of good working for you did,” Todd muttered. “You got me involved in too much heavy shit and Andie dumped me anyway.”
Amber tisked. “Not my fault. You should have kept it in your pants.”
Andie was swamped with confusion. “How did he work for you? We all would have noticed those Drek capsules switching hands. The main bar is the most crowded one in the club.”
Amber nodded. “The nice thing about those capsules is they dissolve. He just slipped one into a particularly colorful drink when I gave him the sign. It worked great so long as I was the server and the ass didn’t drop more than one in. My customers would pay me direct, and it just looked like they gave me a very generous tip afterward. It was the perfect system until this shit decided to bring in the whole stash to the locker room that day instead of keeping it in his car and refilling his pockets as needed.”
“So how did it get in my locker?” she asked.
“Ask him,” Amber said, rolling her eyes at Todd. But he was quiet now, perhaps unnerved by the presence of the gun. “He stuffed it in there when he heard someone coming,” Amber explained. “I told you he knew your combination.”
Todd grunted. “I don’t fucking remember her combination. Andie always forgets to spin the lock when she clocks in. It’s almost always open during her shift.”
Un-fucking-believable. She was in this mess because she forgot to turn a fucking dial?
Amber shifted and the light reflected on the gun. No. She was in this mess because she had awful taste in friends and boyfriends.
Not all my choices were wrong. Eric had come back.
“I thought having Andie sic the cops on you might teach you a lesson about respect, but I guess you haven’t learned anything yet,” Amber said.
“Okay,” Andie said, trying to sound calm. “What can I do to reassure you I don’t care about any of this? I—I just got married and I’m going to moving to Boston any day now.”
There was silence for a beat.
“You’re married?” Todd exploded behind her. “You fucking bitch!”
Andie didn’t turn to him. She kept her eyes on the gun.
Amber pursed her lips. She was so quiet Andie’s heartbeat picked up. Sweat trickled down her spine as she waited for an answer.
“So you married the doctor?” Amber asked.
“Yes,” she whispered, showing her the ring. Behind her Todd shuffled, but she ignored him.
“And he’s friends with Calen McLachlan.” Amber bit her lip.
“Also some other billionaires apparently. I met one the other day,” she added, hoping it would convince her former friend to let her go. She wasn’t a nobody anymore. Someone loved her—and in a stroke of blind luck that man had some serious connections.
“Then this is going to be even worse than I thought,” Amber muttered.
Andie swallowed hard. “What does that mean?”
Amber shook her head, an expression of sympathy in her eyes. “It means it’s already too late. I work independently here, but I’m part of a network. And when this shithead forced my lock, the silent alarm I had installed went off. Two enforcers are on their way. My intention was just to teach Todd a lesson. We need him to keep working the bar. But your presence here complicates things.”
Andie didn’t like the sound of that. She liked it even less when those enforcers showed up a few minutes later.
Amber had motioned both her and Todd to sit on the couch. She was waiting there when two men came in. Like the bouncers at the club, they were massive, but unlike Mike and the other security guys at work these men looked dangerous…evil.
Her stomach hurt when one of them kept staring at her like she was a piece of meat. He liked his lips and she fought the urge to vomit.
Amber pulled the men aside. They had a whispered conversation, stopping to glance up at her and Todd on occasion.
“I did this for you, pushing that shit,” Todd said quietly as he sat next to her on the couch. “And then you go and marry that asshole.”
Andie clenched her fist, momentarily distracted from her fear. “Eric’s not an asshole. And no one told you to break the law for me. It wasn’t worth it.”
Todd snorted. “You got that right.”
Andie wanted to turn and punch him in the face, but she had enough to worry about. Motionless, she waited for the conference deciding her fate to be over.
“You,” one of the men said, pointing at Todd. “Come with me.”
Todd shuffled to his feet, moving slowly toward the door. A few steps away he paused and turned back to her. “You should have just taken me back instead of marrying that fucking Jap or whatever he is.”
Unbelievable. Andie wan
ted to laugh in his face, but she suspected if she started, she would never stop. A little hysterical bubble escaped anyway.
“He’s a much better fuck,” she said, with a choked laugh as tears began to fill her eyes. “Like ten thousand times better than you. Most men are, though,” she added from between set lips.
If these were going to be her last words to him, or to anyone, she wanted to make them count. There would be no pleading or begging from her.
The killer near the door snorted, but Todd’s face crumpled. He turned to Amber. “Andie can dump the doc and go to work for you. Imagine how much more money you would make with both of you delivering your shit.”
Andie’s throat tightened, and she regretted being so harsh to him. Todd may have been a shit boyfriend but he did care about her in his way.
Unfortunately, his appeal didn’t work.
“I wish that was a possibility, but Eric Tam won’t understand if she wants to end things with him to return work at the club.” Amber turned to Andie. “I’m right, aren’t I? Your doctor won’t go away this time. Not now that you’ve married him.”
Andie didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Amber was so much smarter and ruthless than she had realized.
“Get him out of here.”
The guy at the door shoved Todd again, hard. Before she knew it they were gone and she was alone with Amber and the second killer.
Andie focused on her knotted hands. If she looked up at them she was going to break down, and no matter what happened next, she wasn’t going to show weakness.
“He’s right, you know. I could make you a lot of money,” she lied, grasping at the last straw in sight. “Eric loves Vegas. I can just tell him I want to live here and he’ll move back, no questions asked. I can even expand your client list through the people I’ll meet being with him. He knows a lot of rich people. Some of them must like to party.”
Her mouth tasted faintly of bile and she wondered if the lie had sounded as weak to them as it had in her ears.
“I’m going to go,” Amber said. Her voice sounded as if it was coming from a million miles away. “Text me when it’s over.”
The tears did fall then, but Andie clamped her lips shut, and refused to make a sound.
“Are you sure?” the man asked her. “I know some people that would pay a lot of money for a piece of ass like this.”
“No. Her husband would never stop looking for her and he’s connected to the McLachlans. We can’t risk it. Make sure not to leave a mark. That means no fucking her or they’ll know something else went down. I’m going to write the note now. I know her handwriting well enough.”
Andie closed her eyes against the rising tide of nausea threatening to spill over. I should never have left the hotel. How was Eric going to feel? His new bride was going to be found dead two days into their marriage.
Don’t believe any lies Amber writes, she prayed silently, hoping there was some way he could hear her.
He will know the truth, she decided, calming slightly. No matter what happened, what the note said, he would know it was all a lie. He had to.
Legs appeared in front of her. She didn’t look up to thug number two, but she didn’t have to. He thrust a glass of something in her face. It smelled like vodka, but it had a purple tinge to it.
“Fucking waste,” he mumbled under his breath before shaking the glass at her. “Drink this,” he said in a louder voice.
“No,” she whispered. Andie wasn’t going to help them make this appear like an accident. He was going to have to shoot her.
“I said drink bitch.”
She shook her head. Shuddering all over, she gasped involuntarily when the cold barrel of the gun pressed against her forehead.
“Drink.”
“No.”
The asshole swore long and viciously, but she ignored him.
Andie put her hands around her knees and hugged them tight. Then she squeezed her eyes shut, and waited for the bullet that would end her life.
Chapter Fifteen
“Why the fuck isn’t Andie picking up her phone?” Mike yelled in his ear.
Eric winced, pulling his cell phone a little farther from his head. He’d just arrived at the club. It was still pretty dead, but Trey had called him into his office to discuss their ongoing security strategy.
“I think she’s still at the hotel,” he said, shrugging at Trey, who mouthed, “What’s up?” “She’s getting a massage later and is probably sleeping right now.”
“Oh. Well, call her as soon as she wakes up. There’s something she needs to know. You too.”
“What is it?”
“I think Todd and Andie’s friend Amber are both involved in this Drek business somehow. One of my staff just sent me a video. It’s grainy but I think I’m seeing an exchange there. Todd’s showing her a baggie of pills and she slaps his face and shoves them back in his pocket.”
“Oh, that is weird,” he agreed, sitting down.
“Yeah, and it’s not some lovers spat either. Amber’s gay.”
He nodded before remembering Mike couldn’t see him. “I’ll call Andie right now,” he promised, turning to Trey. “Are Todd and Amber both on the schedule?”
“Just Amber. She should be here by now. Why?”
He explained briefly with Mike still on the line. “Are you coming in?” he asked Mike.
“Yeah. We’ll call the cops in and send them the video. They can decide what action to take.”
“All right. I’m going to call Andie. I’ll have the concierge wake her if I have to. She was talking about going to going to get her stuff sometime this week. She’s was crashing on Amber’s couch before I got here. And she didn’t mention anything about this before,” he added, in case Mike decided Andie was too close to this mess.
Mike swore in a low voice. “Call your girl now. And have Trey get some guys to watch Amber. Maybe we can get a buy on film.”
“Okay,” Eric agreed, hanging up right away. He dialed Andie’s cell phone in case she’d woken up in the meantime, but when she didn’t answer he called the hotel’s front desk to ask them to knock on their door.
“I’m sorry, sir. There’s no answer.”
“Look, this may be an emergency. Can you go in with your key card? The room is registered under my name. I can give you permission.”
“We will do that as soon as we have a female staff member get up here to your floor. It’s company policy.”
Eric suppressed a groan and agreed. He held his breath until the guy came back on the line.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Tam. It appears Mrs. Tam isn’t in her room. Our records indicate she called for a cab an hour ago. She left roughly a half hour ago. The address is Kenwood Avenue.”
Fuck! Andie had gone to Amber’s apartment. He hung up and turned to Trey, who was on his Bluetooth headset, talking in a low voice with one of the security guys on the floor.
“Is Amber here?” Eric asked.
“She hasn’t clocked in yet,” Trey said with a frown. “Which is atypical. She’s very reliable and has never been late before.”
Of course, she wasn’t late. Amber wouldn’t jeopardize her job as a waitress at the hottest club on the strip. Not if she was a drug dealer savvy enough to find a way to sell under Trey’s nose.
“I have to go,” he said, trying hard to ignore the tight feeling in his gut. “Call Mike and tell him to head to Amber’s apartment. It’s four-o-three Kenwood Avenue, number ten.”
“You think something’s going down?” Trey asked, standing up with his phone in hand.
“I think so. Tell him to hurry.”
He didn’t wait for an answer before running out the door.
Chapter Sixteen
Mike got Trey’s call before he pulled off the highway. He was able to get to Amber’s apartment minutes later.
After a quick assessment, he approached the door on silent feet, noting that the blinds were down. It was the only apartment in this dark end of the hallway that
did.
He was prepared to kick open the thin wood door, but it wasn’t necessary. The door was shut, but not locked. He kept a hand on it and listened.
Mike gave a momentary thought to the kind of trouble he might get into bursting into a single woman’s apartment, but he dismissed it. If there were ramifications he’d find a way out of it. Amber worked at his club after all. There would be some security-related excuse he could use for being here.
Counting to three he threw the door wide and shifted to the side, letting the wall protect the bulk of his body while straining to look inside.
There was a man with a shaved head bending over Andie. She was lying on the floor, unmoving. He didn’t see a gun in the guy’s hands—they were busy arranging Andie’s body.
Mike didn’t stop to think. One second he was at the door, the next he was pulling the guy off her and pounding his face.
His opponent was an experienced fighter, but it was clear after a few moments that he didn’t have the years of training Mike did. When the guy threw a punch Mike pushed, forcing him off-balance. He struck hard, going for the soft spots of the Adam’s apple and groin to incapacitate him as quickly as possible.
He followed those strikes with his trademark right hook, a punch so powerful it had felled men much larger than him in one blow. It didn’t let him down now. He hit the guy, the guy hit the floor and didn’t get up.
“No!”
He spun around. Eric was frozen at the door, his tan face grey. His eyes were black voids, his expression devastated. Mike flinched and quickly turn away. He hadn’t seen that expression on someone’s face since his time in the military service. It was why he had left—he hadn’t wanted to see that look ever again.
Moving quickly, he secured the assailant’s hands with his belt and pulled out his phone to call 911. Eric’s stupor broke and he flew to Andie. The doctor’s hands were a blur as he checked her vitals.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
Eric didn’t answer. Mike grimaced and made the call to emergency services before going down on his knees on Andie’s other side. “What can I do?”