Vice

by Nicole Marsh

  He smiles back, his white teeth flashing in the hospital light, “Jenna, glad you’re awake.” After Dr. Richardson’s smile, Alex wraps his arm behind my shoulders in a possessive manner, while Dr. Richardson, looks down, reading the information off my charts. He finally finishes reviewing my chart and looks back up at me, “After everything that your body has been through, your vitals are looking really good. As long as everything remains stable, I believe we can get you out of here after one more night. I want to keep you for observation a bit longer, after the head trauma you experienced.”

  My brow furrows, I don’t remember a head trauma, all I can remember is Pavel and the knife. Hopefully the guys can disclose some of the details of what happened. My head is still fuzzy, but I no longer have the same groggy, pounding feeling in my head that I experienced when I was strapped to the chair.

  Dr. Richardson is hovering in the room, waiting for me to respond. I slowly nod in agreeance and offer a thank you to both Dr. Richardson and his Nurse. Together they leave the room.

  Cooper is still standing in the doorway, and I can sense that he is about to follow the Nurse and Dr. Richardson out the door into the hallway. Before he can make his exit, I call out to him, “Cooper, can you stay for a bit? I need you and Alex to fill me in.” I appreciate Cooper’s thoughtfulness, but I have so many questions about what happened.

  I snuggle further into Alex’s side, and Cooper lowers himself into the seats next to the bed, then the guys begin to tell me what they know. The first thing that the guys tell me is that I’ve been unconscious for almost a full day, following the events that happened in the warehouse.

  I don’t know how to feel about the lost time yet. I’m relieved that I’m safe, and that Alex is safe, but I also have so many questions about what happened. And questions about Katia, and about my Club. Instead of dwelling on the lost time and my injuries, I ask the guys for a recap of the events following the power outage at the Club.

  After the power went out, Alex left the office to check on the girls. He says he found the security guards were already taking measures to ensure their safety and check the breaker box. Everyone was gathered in the dressing room, with my Security team standing guard.

  After talking to Jackson, Alex went back to my office so that we could join everyone else. He thought that that we would be safest in a bigger group, rather than the two of us on our own. He was walking down the hallway and noticed the door to the office was open. Alex was sure at that point that I was missing, but he made sure to check the Club and my apartment before he called his Chief.

  Shortly after he made it back to the office, the power was turned back on and Alex used almost all of the guards to search the rooms of the Club. Instead of telling the girls I was missing, Alex had Sira pulled aside and told that I was ill, she was asked if she could try her hand at managing the Club.

  From there, Alex used Chief’s tips on the location of the Bratva and the help of Steele and Smith to find me at the warehouse. I was only gone for about six hours, before Alex burst onto the scene to save me.

  He split from Steele and Smith to cover more ground. After half an hour of searching, Alex had almost given up hope that he was in the right place. The shot in his shoulder pushed him to dive into the room that held me strapped to a chair.

  At this point, Alex hesitates to continue his story. He lets out a shaky breath and then just finishes the story with a few brief words, “Then I cleaned your wounds, and we brought you here from the warehouse.”

  I lightly kiss Alex’s chest, then look up into his eyes and give him a soft smile. I don’t want Alex to beat himself up. None of the events that occurred after the power outage are his fault. We both made the best decisions that we could during the situation. There was no way either of us could know what Katia’s Father had planned.

  I inhale a gasp. Katia’s father. “Did you know that Pavel was Katia’s father?” I ask the guys, sitting up a bit out of Alex’s arm. “He took me to try and get information for finding Katia.”

  I catch Cooper and Alex exchanging a glance before Cooper replies, “We didn’t have the official story of what happened to you yet, although a few details were pieced together from evidence at the warehouse. We need to call Chief now that you’re awake.” He pauses for a second, before he continues on, “We wanted to give you a few minutes to ask questions before we called, but they’re going to want to get a statement from you as soon as possible.”

  I nod my head, “Go ahead and give them a call. I want to be help if I can. I can get some rest after that.”

  Cooper steps out into the hall to make his call. He shuts the door behind him as leaves the room. As soon as the door clicks closed, Alex holds my face and descends on my mouth again. When we finally separate we are both breathing heavy.

  Before he can say anything, I breathe out, “I’m sorry.”

  Alex shakes his head, “There’s nothing to be sorry about. None of this is your fault.”

  I look down at my hands resting in my lap, “I don’t think I meant what I said, back at the Club. I’m interested in trying a relationship with you.” I pause, then rush to add, “If that’s what you’re interested in.”

  Alex places two fingers under my chin and forces me to look at his face before he responds, “I’ll be in your life for as long as you’ll have me.”

  Alex and I stay cuddled up on my tiny hospital bed until the Nurse comes in and tells Alex he’s being released and needs to gather his belongings from his room. Alex gives me a quick kiss and walks out the door.

  Cooper must’ve been waiting in the hall because I hear him and Alex exchanging words before Cooper comes back into the room, his crutches signifying who he is before he’s even visible. “Chief will be here soon to take your statement,” He tells me as he crosses the room back to the chairs near the wall of windows.

  Matt and Alex arrive at my room around the same time. Alex has changed into some fresh clothes, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, instead of the hospital gown with the open back. To be honest I’m not sure which look that I like better.

  The gown gave me free reign to ogle his butt. With that said, I’m not in a rush to see Alex in a hospital gown again, unless we get one to play patient and doctor at home or something.

  Matt is in my room for almost two hours asking me hundreds of questions. He constantly states that no detail is too small to be left out. I wrack my brain, trying to recall everything I possibly can to help him build a case against the men that were found at the warehouse. By the time Matt wraps up his questioning, I feel completely drained of energy.

  While Matt is in my room, Alex sits in one of the chairs near the bed instead of beside me. I catch a glimpse of his face when I describe the events of the warehouse to Matt. I can tell that Alex is horrified that they were even able to take me in the first place, when he was my security detail and he’s really beating himself up over what happened to me while I was strapped to that chair.

  Matt excuses himself to leave and Cooper says that he’s going to head out as well. Its only noon, but I definitely need to take a nap. I can feel my body is still recovering and the questioning left me mentally drained. Alex walks the two men to the door, then returns to climb back into the tiny bed with me. I lay there as the small spoon in a cuddle and fall into a restful sleep.

  Alex is watching the news on a small TV mounted on the wall across from the bed when I wake up sometime later. As I stretch out a bit, Alex picks up the remote and puts the TV on mute. I’m grateful for his forethought.

  Before I can bring up Katia, the stern looking Nurse comes back into the room. She chastises Alex again for taking up space on my bed, while she works around him. She adds numbers to my chart as she checks the various machines, then steps close to Alex and points her finger at him, threatening to make him leave if he doesn’t let me get the rest that I need to recover.

  Alex’s cheek flush red from her words of chastisement, and I laugh. But secretly I’m thankful for his company
and the comfort of his touch. I don’t want him to leave me alone, or to leave the bed, even though it’s cramped and tiny. I’m glad he isn’t taking the Nurse’s words to heart.

  The entire time the Nurse is in the room, my mind keeps drifting back to my best friend. I’ve been putting it off, but I need to know what happened to Katia. She’s my closest friend and I need to know that she’s okay.

  Once the Nurse leaves, Alex tells me that Katia hasn’t reappeared at the Club, nor has she been by the hospital. He hands me my phone from the table beside the bed with a sheepish grin, saying she also hasn’t contacted my phone either.

  I chuckle at the look on his face, there’s nothing that needs to be kept private on my phone. I think its sweet that he checked for messages from Katia while I was unconscious, he knows how important she is to me. At this point, her welfare is more important than privacy.

  After thinking about the situation for a few minutes, I ask, “Can I file a missing person’s report for her?”

  Alex shakes his head, giving me a no without saying the word out loud. “She’s still posting on her social media. She just posted photos of her on the beach in Miami.” He shrugs his shoulders, “If she’s posting new photos of herself, it seems like she just left her life in Chicago, not that something bad has happened to her.”

  My shoulders slump. I knew it was a long shot that Katia would be able, or want to stay in Chicago after everything that her father has done. I can understand that she’s probably scared and wants to avoid him finding her, but I just assumed she would be around and in my life forever. That she would help me run the club and plan our Patron Appreciation events and specialty nights. We would continue going shopping on our days off and try out new restaurants we hear about from the Patrons, like we’ve always done in the past.

  I pull up her contact on my phone and press the phone button to initiate a call before holding it up to my ear. It doesn’t even ring, just gives the error message that her phone number has been disconnected. I open the Photogram app next. I type her name into the search bar and pull up her profile. I look at the last few photos, seeing her posed on the beach in different colored bikinis, her skin looking sun kissed, and her blonde hair falling around her like a curtain.

  I hand my phone to Alex wordlessly, and he places it back on the table next to my bed.

  I wipe away the first few tears that leak out of my eyes, then give up when they turn into rivers that stream down my cheeks. Alex silently gathers my against his chest, whispering low words into my hair and rubbing small, soft circles against my back with one of his palms.

  Chapter 15

  Katia

  I’m sitting in a black sedan with tinted windows, parked in the back parking lot of Vice, waiting to see Jenna’s Escalade pull into the lot. I don’t plan to approach her, it’s not safe for me to be in Chicago, or anywhere near Vice. I just need to see Jenna, I want to make sure she’s okay.

  I’m even wearing a wig, black hair cut into a sleek bob, with dark sunglasses on my face. Just in case any of the girls pass by my car, get curious and attempt to peek in through my windows. I don’t want anyone to find out I’m here and tell Jenna that they saw me.

  Jenna is hurt, I’m sure. I just left without telling her what was happening, pretending like I would be back in a few days. After making her feel guilty, with my lie about appointments and errands that had been stacking up because I never took days off. Once I heard my father’s name leave her lips, I knew I wouldn’t see her again.

  Leaving was the only way I knew how to keep her safe. Jenna is both my savior and my sister. She’s the only person who ever looked out for me, without expecting anything in return. That’s just her as a person. Kindness radiates from her, it’s part of what makes Vice such a success. People are attracted to Jenna like moths to a flame for both her looks and her personality.

  I wait in the parking lot for another fifteen minutes, then I breathe out a sigh of relief as I finally see Jenna’s Escalade whipping into a spot close to her apartment. I couldn’t go into her room and see her at the hospital, but I paid a nurse for a few updates. I know it was my Father that roughed her up, and I hope that he follows the conditions that I laid out for him and actually leaves Jenna alone moving forward.

  If he feels threatened by her, nothing I say or do will help her. Even the conditions he agreed to in order to get me to come back home. I need to stay away from her and get him to focus on something or someone else.

  I see Alex leaving the driver’s side of the Escalade, jogging around the front of the car to open the passenger side door. He leans into the car and when he straightens back up, fully back in sight again, he has Jenna in his arms bridal style.

  Alex seems like a good guy, I’m happy that somehow in this mess, he and Jenna found each other. I know he’ll take care of her and watch out for her. Which is important, she’ll need him without me around.

  I sit in the parking lot for a few more minute, knowing that I don’t have much time left before I need to return. I can feel a few tears slipping down my face at the thought of leaving the Club and the girls. Some of the Patrons are seedy as hell, but for the most part, the Patrons are some of the best drinking buddies you can have. They’re entertaining and wealthy. They show up ready to relax or party and share their stories of the amazing adventures that they’ve been on, wish to go on, or are planning for the future.

  More than the Patrons though, I’m gonna miss my girls. The girls are my family, we’ve been through more together and supported each other during more ups and downs than my actual family. Four years ago, I thought I was going to die alone on the street, but with Jenna and the Club, I was able to find a new life that I never anticipated.

  I hear a ding and look down at my phone to see a notification from Photogram. One of the girls from the Club liked a photo I posted from last week of me laying on the beach in Miami. I spent three days in that city, taking photos in a hundred outfits, posed all around town. I needed enough material to throw everyone off of my scent for a while.

  When I look back up, a small group of the girls are heading to the back door of the club together, catching my eye. If I strain my ears, I feel like I can hear their laughter floating through the air to reach me as I sit in the car. I remain watching until Sira opens the door from the other side, letting everyone in.

  I think back on all of the memories I’ve had in that place. The laughter, the tears, the jokes, the friendships, the fun.

  Then I let them all go.

  I think it will be a while, if ever again, that I feel the freeing sensations offered by working at Vice and from my friendships with Jenna and the girls. The last few years of my life, beat out the earlier nineteen by a landslide. Even when I was staying with Jenna and we were both working crappy bartender jobs, scraping by and trying to save up money, I still was thriving compared to how I’ll be soon be living. Friendship can really carry you through anything. It can lift you up when you’re down and turn you into the best version of yourself, one that you didn’t know was possible.

  I gaze into the rearview mirror one more time, looking at Vice, saying my final goodbye. I glance around the parking lot and don’t see anyone in view. I slowly roll out of the lot and turn onto the road. For one last mental photo, I drive by the front of the Club with it’s large wooden doors.

  Once I’m a few blocks down the road, I take off the wig and remove my sunglasses. After a few more minutes I have to pull over, I can barely see from the tears streaming out of my eyes. Once I gather myself, I pull back onto the road and follow the signs that direct me to head to New York.

  Chapter 16

  Alex

  Jenna was finally released from the hospital yesterday and we’re settling back into her apartment together. We’re sitting, cozied up on the couch watching sci-fi movies, when my phone starts buzzing on the table. I groan, but make no move to pick it up.

  There’s no one that I want to talk to right now. Cooper is out of town to visit hi
s family, my parents are on a cruise, and I have the next few weeks off work while I go to physical therapy for my shoulder. All I want is to sit on the couch with my girl and relax.

  The police raided the warehouse that the Bratva were using as a hideout, taking a few of the bastards into custody, the rest scampered off into hiding elsewhere. With the raid and Katia sharing her photos from the beaches of Miami on Photogram every day, it finally feels like Jenna is safe from random attacks. Now we can relax and move forward with our normal lives. Well, our new normal life, together.

  Jenna leans forward and swipes my phone off the table before the buzzing ends, handing it me without looking, then cuddles back into my side to keep watching the movie. I glance at the screen and see that it’s Ally calling. My annoyance is quickly replaced with concern.

  I swipe my phone screen to answer, “Ally? Is everything okay?” I can feel Jenna’s body tense with concern against me after hearing my words and tone as I talk to Ally.

  Ally lets out a breathy laugh into the phone, and my body relaxes a bit, “YOU just got out of the hospital from getting shot and you’re asking me if everything is okay?”

  I groan again once I realize the station must’ve called my mom after the shooting. She’s still listed as my emergency contact. After everything that happened, I was so worried about everything with Jenna. I was consumed by thoughts of her recovery, unsure that she would even wake up. I didn’t think about the station calling my parents, or think to call them to reassure them that everything is okay.

  Ally takes my groan as my response and continues berating me, “Mom and Dad just got the message about what happened to you, they’ve been on a cruise and only have random spots of service. They’re on vacation and instead of enjoying it, they’re freaking out about you.” She pauses taking a deep breath to continue to lay into me. I just wait, knowing I deserve it, “I drove the hour and a half to your apartment to come check on you to report to Mom and Dad how you are and whether they need to fly back from the Bahamas to come take care of you… and you aren’t even here!”