“You guys… sleep with each other?”

  John laughed and turned to look at Brooke. Only then she realised how close their faces now were. His pupils were huge, dilated, and he smelled like beer.

  “That’s a personal question.”

  “You afraid to answer?”

  “No,” John almost whispered as he glanced down at Brooke’s mouth for a second.

  “So, do you?”

  “Might have, once.”

  Brooke felt her stomach tingle, the feeling moved downwards, affecting her groin, she could feel herself slowly getting aroused. “You love her?”

  “You love Luca?”

  Brooke smiled. “I do, but he left me.”

  John slowly moved his face even closer, his eyes aimed at her mouth again. Brooke felt the tingle grow stronger, and she closed the distance by letting their lips touch. Although thin, John’s lips felt soft and moist against hers. She opened her mouth, letting their tongues play with each other. John placed his hand on the back of her head and pulled her closer.

  She let her hands feel the contours of his body, finding their way to his chest. She slowly undid the buttons of his white shirt while he placed his hands on her breasts, gently squeezing them as his breathing intensified.

  Undressing each other, nothing felt more right; it was the right thing to do, it was the right time to do it, and it was definitely something Brooke needed. John sat naked on the couch while Brooke placed herself on top of him, letting him admire and touch her body as she used the strength in her thighs to move up and down his cock. It lasted for what felt like hours, they changed positions, made love on the floor, on the table, the kitchen counter, and then, eventually, they moved to the bed.

  John ran out of steam, and let Brooke jump under the covers. A headache was coming on, fast, and it wasn’t going to be a nice one. John sensed what was happening and left to go and get something from his backpack. Brooke waited, trying to close her eyes.

  “Here, take this,” he said and handed her a couple of white pills.

  “Painkillers?”

  “No, it’s Xanax, to help you sleep. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

  Brooke looked for her phone, but couldn’t find it. “What time is it?”

  “Um.” John checked his phone. “It’s three am.”

  “Oh.” Brooke accepted the pills, what harm could it do?

  “I’ll lay here until you fall asleep, if you don’t mind, then I’ll head off.”

  Brooke turned to look at him, he now had his pants on, but naked from the waist up, barely any hair on his chest, a few nice abs. “Okay.”

  It didn’t take long for the pills to kick in, and Brooke fell into a deep sleep, no dreams, no nothing, only darkness.

  Chapter 7

  Pain. Regret. A dry mouth. A sore nose. Anxiety. It all hit her at once when she finally got out of bed, at one in the afternoon. The first thing she did was running, with a foggy vision, up the stairs, looking for her phone. If Lee had called, she would be dead; she would be the man sitting in the chair with a pool of blood under her feet.

  Luckily, he hadn’t called. Brooke sighed, ran her fingers through her hair, and looked around the living area. Traces of coke scattered around the table, her own clothes thrown all over the place, and empty bottles. She didn’t even know where to begin, what should she be feeling, or thinking? Yes, she did drugs, bad idea, and yes, she slept with a stranger, also a bad idea. But, if she remembered correctly, she had a really good time doing it.

  Her thoughts naturally went to Luca. She honestly had no clue what to think. She loved him, yes, but she held on to their relationship; the great one they had before it all went down the drain. She still needed to find him, and she wouldn’t go easy on him.

  She decided to try and not blame herself. It was all fucked to begin with. She quickly cleaned up the room, throwing the bottles in the bin, and spray-cleaned the coffee table. She then went around and opened the blinds back up, letting some light through.

  Better. Now she just had to sort herself out. Still naked from last night, she went back down the stairs and dressed in a top and a pair of leggings. Looking in the bathroom mirror, she sighed again. Her makeup was smeared all over her face, and her pupils were still big as balloons. Cleaning up her face, and brushing her hair, her thoughts went to John. What would he be feeling right at this very moment, if he was awake?

  He had left her a note on the bedside table; a couple more Xanax lay on top of it.

  Just in case you need more tonight,

  John

  “Thanks, mate,” Brooke said out loud as she placed the pills inside the draw.

  She didn’t feel like eating, but her stomach was hurting, and she knew she had to. Popping a ready-to-heat meal of spaghetti in the microwave, Brooke tried to remember what she and John had been talking about. She had told him that her mother died of aids when she was a teenager, she also told him how she had met Luca at a bar, when she had just turned twenty-two, and how they had saved up enough money to move into a trailer home. She told him she had been working as a bartender at an extremely slow and miserable bar. Nothing serious, nothing she regretted sharing with him.

  John mostly spoke of the other members of Streetwalkers, the only part she could really remember was when he said he and Raven had sex once. She didn’t know why it bothered her, but it did. Maybe it was just standard practice for him to visit all the new women at the syndicate and sleep with them? Even if that was the case, Brooke couldn’t care less. There was not enough room left in her brain to worry about it.

  The microwave pinged, and she sat down to eat her breakfast/lunch/last night’s dinner.

  ***

  Lee didn’t call at all that day. It was a relief. Brooke would not feel comfortable riding the bike, let along socialising with anyone. If a gun was pointed at her, her reaction time would be too slow; they would have shot her a hundred times before she could even touch her gun.

  She spent the evening watching mindless TV and eating potato chips. With the blanket rolled around her, making her look like a cocoon, she let herself drift off to sleep.

  ***

  The phone woke her up early the next morning. Lee.

  “Come down to the club, you got an hour,” was all he said.

  Brooke rubbed her eyes and stretched out on the couch. Breakfast. She ate a piece of toast and drank an awful cup of instant coffee before she had a quick shower. She dressed in her business pants and blazer, suspecting it wasn’t the best dress code for the occasion, but John and Lee were always walking around in black suits. Before leaving the apartment, she decided to bring her revolver, and put it in the storage compartment of her bike, just in case.

  To her surprise, Raven didn’t meet her at the door. Instead, Garett did. He smiled, teeth missing in his mouth; and the ones he did have, were either grey or black. “Abby, Abby, Abby.”

  “Garett.” She walked right past him in the doorway. She had respect for Lee and John, but so far, not for anyone else.

  The club was almost empty. The only people there were sitting at the bar. Two men she had never seen before, along with Raven and Lee. Raven was wearing a long, red dress, showcasing her medium sized breasts. When she turned and smiled, Brooke noticed her bright red lipstick. Clever, she thought, matching the dress, wonderful.

  “Come sit down,” Lee said in a low tone.

  Brooke did what he said and waited for someone to speak.

  “We are going to have a gathering, tonight. The boss will come down and speak.” Lee looked concerned as he fiddled with a straw inside his drink.

  “Dress up, look nice,” Raven said and giggled.

  Brooke wasn’t sure what exactly was funny about that. “Okay, what time?”

  “I don’t know, he’ll be here anytime between ten and midnight, I would assume. But you are staying here for the day, not going back to the apartment.”

  Brooke felt a pit in her stomach. “Why is that, if I may ask?”

  “So we can get to know you!” Raven said in a high-pitched voice.

  Brooke glanced over at the men she didn’t recognise. Both had ash blonde hair; both looked stocky and hard. Bodyguards?

  “Raven will look after you, I’m going for a nap.” Lee left the table and disappeared into the office like he always did.

  ***

  Raven took her to yet another area of the club. They entered through the staff door of the bar, and behind there, it almost looked like an apartment. Not a fancy one like Brooke had, more like her and Luca’s trailer home, only a little bigger, and cleaner.

  She opened the door to a bedroom and sat down on the lone bed. The table lamp standing on the computer desk had a red tea towel laying on top, making everything look red. There were some clothes scattered on the floor, corsets, bras, G-string.

  Brooke sat down in the computer chair. “This is where you live?”

  Raven began filing her nails. “Yeah, I like it here, it’s alright. Sam lives in the room next to mine, and we have Brock and Jamie.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Brock is a guard, and Jamie is second in charge.”

  “Oh, I thought Lee was second in charge.”

  Raven scoffed. “No, Lee is just the runner. He tells people what to do, and makes sure it’s done. Although, he does run the place. At least more than Jamie ever has.”

  “Where’s John?” For some reason, Brooke felt uncomfortable asking her this, and her feelings were confirmed when Raven bit her lower lip, raising her eyebrows.

  “John, huh? He’s hot, I don’t blame you.”

  Oh God. “Don’t blame me for what?”

  “Fucking him.” Raven smiled and wrinkled her nose. “Who doesn’t want to?”

  “Well, I didn’t know he would go around telling people.”

  “Oh come on,” Raven threw the nail file on the floor and leant up against the wall. “I knew he was going to your apartment, and you just confirmed what I had suspected.”

  Brooke couldn’t help but smile, both because she was embarrassed, and because she felt her cheeks getting hot. “Oh well.”

  “You need to loosen up a bit if you’re going to fit in.”

  “What if I don’t want to, fit in?”

  “Not an option, it’s a tough world.” Raven’s raspy voice was somehow calming.

  “Tis.”

  “So, we’ve got the whole day, what do you want to do?”

  Brooke let out a short laugh. “I don’t know, what do you normally do?”

  “Well, I work in the bar at night, serving drinks, when I’m not out on a mission. During the day I normally sleep or hang out with Holly. God, she can be a bitch to hang out with, though.”

  “Who’s Holly?”

  “Ace’s mistress. Or that’s what she says she is, she’s more of a hooker in my eyes. Oh, and she came up with the name, Streetwalkers. Just because she’s a hooker, doesn’t mean we all are, but they all thought it was bloody funny, so they kept the name.”

  “Ace is… the boss?”

  Raven rose from the bed and dug through one of the draws of the computer desk. She stood close enough for Brooke to smell her perfume, cotton candy. “Here, that’s them,” she said and handed Brooke a photograph. A man in a grey suit, holding a tall, blonde woman around her waist. Her lips were pink, shiny, and his face was clean-shaven, he didn’t look one day over thirty.

  “Recent photo?”

  “Ah, couple of months.”

  Brooke took a closer look. Holly’s head rested on Ace’s chest, he had a faint smile on his lips, but his sharp features didn’t let it show too much. They were standing in front of the bar in the club, Brooke thought she could see John standing behind it, but he wasn’t in focus.

  She placed the photo on the desk. “Nice.”

  “So tell me.” Raven laid down on the bed, on her side, looking at Brooke. “Have you ever killed someone?”

  “What?” Brooke swallowed, just when things started to feel somewhat normal.

  “Have, you, ever, killed, someone?”

  “No,” Brooke shook her head, “have you?

  Raven suddenly went serious; her eyes seemed to go dark. “I have, I had to though.”

  “What happened?”

  Raven rolled over on her back and looked up at the ceiling. “I got sent to deliver some coke, along with Sam, and Richard. We got to the drop-off, but there was supposed to be a white van waiting for us. Instead, there was an armoured, black van. Stupid me didn’t even notice at first, so I got out, and got shot in the leg.” Without looking at Brooke, Raven moved her dress from her leg, showing her a scar. “And so Richard got out, shooting at the van, and Sam did the same, while I was moping on the ground. They killed at least three guys before Richard got shot, badly, he died on the spot.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, it’s part of the job, it’s a risk. Anyway, Sam thought they were all dead, so he ran up to me. I could see an ugly fucker walking up behind him, gun pointed at his head. So, I snatched the gun from Sam’s hands and shot the dude, it was clean, a headshot, he died instantly.”

  It felt like Brooke was listening to an old man, exaggerating his years as a twenty-year-old rebel. It didn’t feel real. But looking at Raven’s face as she spoke, staring up the ceiling, she knew it was the truth.

  “So I basically saved Sam’s life, and we managed to deliver the coke, which was a win. But I did know Richard quite well, and missed him after that.”

  “I could imagine,” was all Brooke could say.

  “I learned not to get attached, shit happens all the time, and I don’t like being hurt.”

  “Who does?” Brooke glanced around the room. “Can we smoke somewhere?”

  Raven jumped out of bed and grabbed a couple of smokes from inside her bedside table. “Hell yeah, follow me.”

  Chapter 8

  Raven assigned herself the task of getting Brooke ready for the gathering. She made her face look smooth and free of imperfections. She ran an eyebrow pencil through her eyebrows and drew a thick line of black eyeliner. Brooke’s eyes were now smoky black, with the eyeshadow elegantly flowing from the narrow parts of her eyes – out to the edge of her eyebrows. She handed her a pair of golden earrings and a golden necklace. Real gold, Brooke assumed. Raven had money, just like everyone else at Streetwalkers. Lastly, she marked Brooke’s lips with a lip pencil and applied a shiny, pink lip-gloss.

  “You look gorgeous,” she said as she ran to get her some clothes. She picked a dress from her walk-in closet and held it out in front of Brooke.

  “Wow,” she said as she studied the silk material of the dress. It was white, tight – showcasing her curves, and V-shaped at the chest.

  “These go with the dress,” Raven said and handed Brooke a pair of white pumps.

  She studied herself in the mirror. Never had she looked so… elegant? Rich? Sophisticated? She couldn’t find a word for it. “Thanks, Raven.”

  “No problem, now if you excuse me, I’m going to get ready as well.”

  Brooke sat down in the computer chair as Raven got ready. She changed into another red dress, caked on some red lipstick, and pulled out a red pair of pumps. She must like the colour red, Brooke thought, and it suits her. A sweet girl, deep down, disguised by the dress and look of an evil, dangerous mistress.

  ***

  The club quickly filled up. Brooke had no idea how many people were actually there. She followed Raven around like a helpless puppy, not wanting to get lost in the crowd. The DJ played a mixture of popular pop songs and dance music.

  Raven told Brooke to sit down as she jumped over the bar and began serving drinks. With a rum and coke in her hand, Brooke nervously scanned the crowd. The pool tables had been removed, and the floor was packed with groups of people, mostly men, speaking with each other. In one of the corners of the room, someone had installed a dance pole. A girl, who looked an awful lot like Holly, was gracefully embracing it. Spinning around, moving up and down. She was wearing black underwear, that was all, and her shoulder-length, blonde hair flowed as she moved about. Even if Brooke tried, she would never look as elegant as her.

  Where the hell is John? She wondered. She wanted to see him; she wanted to feel like she knew more people in the place. He would sit down and talk to her, making her feel more comfortable and less self-conscious.

  Raven jumped back over the bar and sat down next to her.

  “Having fun?”

  “Not really, feel like an outsider.”

  “No! You’re beautiful. Look at them all, they are all staring at you.”

  Brooke laughed a little. “That’s exactly what I mean, I’m the new animal at the zoo.”

  “Oh come on, do you need anything? I’m going to have a line.”

  Brooke thought about it for a moment, then decided against it. “No, not tonight.”

  “Suit yourself.” Raven emptied a bag of coke on the bar and sniffed it up, in front of everyone, but nobody raised an eyebrow.

  Brooke sat there, watching as Raven greeted one after another, introducing them to Brooke, who put on a smile, shook their hand, and resumed to drink her rum and coke. She had been sitting there for a good hour before John showed up. She saw him coming down the stairs, adjusting his black tie against his white shirt. He had styled his hair with gel and looked more handsome than ever.

  Brooke smiled when he noticed her, and so did he.

  “Abby,” he said as he walked up, “you look…”

  “Sophisticated?”

  “Amazing was the word I was going to use.”

  Brooke smiled. “You don’t look so bad, either.”

  John sat down next to her and ordered a beer. “So the boss is coming, that’ll be interesting.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “Yeah.” John took a sip of his beer. “I have an idea. You see, the Arrows have been on the radar for a while.”

 

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