“We had a deal,” King spat. “And yet, we’re still waiting for you to pay up…”
“It’s been a slow week,” Marv pleaded with them, holding up his hands and looking scared for the first time in his life. “How can I pay you if I don’t have anything?”
King sneered and slammed the gun down right in his eye line.
“You wouldn’t even have been on my radar if it wasn’t for what you did to Lexi,” he growled. “Now you better stick to your end of the deal, or the rest of The Forsaken Riders will be down here with me, and we’ll be taking this whole place over, you hear?”
“B-b-but,” Marv stammered, “I can’t… I can’t…”
“Thirty percent of each week’s takings,” King said. “Or Red X is ours…”
“Please!” Marv begged. “This is all I have… Without it, I’m nothing.”
King and the other guy laughed and Candy had to restrain a little smirk from dancing across her lips, too. She could barely hide how nice it was to watch Marv squirm.
“Do as we say…or we’ll take it by force,” the other guy reiterated.
When Candy heard him speak for the first time, her eyes shot straight up to meet his. His voice was so deep, so powerful and strong, she was almost put in a trance by it. She looked at him deep in the eyes and felt her pulse quicken. They were icy blue and pulled her in instantly. They looked so intense and spectacular against his tanned skin.
“Please guys,” Marv kept begging. “I’ll do anything, but don’t ruin my business. It’s all I have, and the girls will suffer.”
King cut him off and pulled him to his feet by the scruff of the neck. He held his face millimeters from his and the rage and fury that radiated from him was terrifying.
“No,” King said sternly. “The girls won’t suffer… If anyone is going to lose out because of this arrangement, it’s you.”
“But I…”
“But nothing,” King said. “We’ve told you how it is. You either stick to it or the club is ours.”
King dropped hold of Marv’s collar and he fell in a heap to the floor. He began to sob, and although there was a small part of Candy that wanted to feel sorry for Marv…she just couldn’t.
“We’ll be back tomorrow, Marv…” King said playfully.
He waved and grinned like a maniac as he backed up to the main door. Destiny was still hiding under the bar, and Candy could feel her fingernails gripping into her ankles, but she didn’t care. All she could focus on was the man in front of her… The one with King… The guy who had barely taken his eyes off her since the second they burst in.
3.
After the bikers left and Destiny calmed down, Candy just wanted to get the hell of out there. Marv was shaken; he had acted like a wimp and she had seen it happen. She knew that it could only mean bad things for her and Destiny, and she wanted to make sure they were both out of there before he had the chance to snap.
She got into her car and started the engine. The moon was high overhead even though the sun was already creeping over the horizon. She slammed the car into reverse and spun around in the parking lot before pulling out onto the highway. She thundered down the road with her music blaring and her head still spinning, and as she drove through town and reached Main Street, she had the overwhelming urge to stop at the gas station and grab a coffee. Mainly she was intrigued to see if the bikers were there.
She pulled off the road and into the gas station. The lot was quiet and there were no bikes to be seen, and she instantly felt a pang of disappointment. She had no idea what she would achieve by seeing them again so soon, but she kind of wanted them to know that she was more on their side than Marv’s. Who knew, maybe one day they would take it over and if she hadn’t moved on, then the bikers would be her bosses. The idea was both terrifying and exhilarating, but she pushed it to the back of her mind before restarting her engine. The last thing she needed right then was strong gas station coffee that would keep her wired until noon. All she wanted to do was get home and crawl into bed.
As she pulled up onto her driveway, she turned off her headlights and stretched. Her house wasn’t much, but it was home and she loved it. She had gone for a small ranch with two beds, and even though she knew she would never have any visitors, she always kept a single bed in the spare room…just in case. She often thought about clearing it out and having the room purely as an office, so when she finally went back to school or got a real job, she would have somewhere to work. But at this point, it would be giving the game away. Everyone in Slate Springs thought she was a dumb blonde, not an intelligent go-getter with serious qualifications.
She slid the key into the lock and walked into the front room. She had spent weeks decorating when she had first moved in and loved every second. She had gone as neutral as possible with the walls and floors but accessorized with as many colors as possible. It almost made her feel as if she were walking into a rainbow. The explosions of blues, pinks, reds and yellows that hit her the second she walked through her door always made her smile. And they always seemed to keep her spirits up so she didn’t dwell on the past.
She closed the door behind her and turned the key in the lock before bolting it and pulling across the chain. Even though she knew that no one would find her in Slate Springs, she still didn’t want to risk being unprepared or safe. She had to keep her home secure.
The sun was coming up and she yawned. In the kitchen she made herself a warm cup of cocoa and took it with her to the bedroom. Even though it was hot in there, she always made cocoa to help her get to sleep. After a night in the club, it was her chance to unwind.
She pulled off her jeans and t-shirt before climbing into bed in just her panties. She clicked on the ceiling fan and lay beneath its cool breeze, sipping the cocoa and letting her mind wander back to the events of the evening. She had her ups and downs working at Red X, but she couldn’t deny that it was entertaining. No matter what, she always seemed to go home with a story and have something to write about in her diary. She reached under her pillow and felt the smooth, familiar leather-bound book.
Candy had considered starting a blog, so she had taken to documenting her experiences at Red X ever since she started working there. After her first night, she had come home, crawled into bed, pulled out her notebook and written Confessions of a Stripper… across the front page before detailing everything that had happened to her on her first shift and how she had felt about it. She had even looked into hosting and different blog templates but decided against it after reading a news story about a girl being stalked because some weirdo had found her IP address. Candy had been terrified and lost her nerve just in case he ever found her. She took a sip and shuddered. The last thing she wanted preying on her mind when she was trying to get to sleep was him. She pushed her journal back under her pillow and vowed to write when she woke up. She placed the cocoa down and turned off her bedside light, and within seconds of her head hitting the pillow, she was soundly asleep.
The shrill tones of her alarm clock invaded her blissful sleep as she dreamed of wild, rebellious men. She rolled over and reached for the cellphone to hit snooze and the room fell silent once more. Even though it was the middle of the day and the summer sun bled through the cracks at the base of the curtains, her room remained dark. She stretched and yawned. It was only 1:00 pm, but she felt as if she had slept for a lifetime. Normally after she had been working late, she found it incredibly hard to drop off or to stay asleep due to all of the action of day-to-day life out on her street, but this time it was different. She had managed to zone out and drift off peacefully, staying that way for almost eight hours.
Almost like a real night’s sleep, she thought as she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Above her was one of the only things she still hadn’t gotten around to replacing, and one of the only things she truly hated in the house: a big, battered, old Japanese lantern that had been left by the previous tenants. She scowled up at it and vowed to make it her priority for the day
to order a replacement or to head into town and find something much more suited to her taste.
She picked up her cellphone again and with bleary eyes went to her text messages. She had one from Destiny and her heart began to race as she opened it…
D: How crazy was that last night? Hope you’re ok! D x
***
She thought back to what had happened in the bar and her palms began to sweat. Even though she hadn’t been overly frightened by the bikers coming into Red X, it was still a nerve-racking possibility that they may take over. King was Lexi’s boyfriend and Candy knew that if he would do right by Lexi, then there was no way he would treat the other girls that had been involved any different, but the other guy… The one she had never seen before… There was something about him that was pure menace… But what shocked her more than the idea of him walking into her life in that way, was the fact that it turned her on.
He had stood there so calm and stoical, so sure of himself and aware of the power he had brought into the situation. He didn’t need to say a word. Marv was terrified of him and he had barely even spoken. Candy found herself smiling. After what had happened to her in the past, he was exactly the type of man she needed to make her feel safe. But could she ever give herself up to a man again after what had happened?
She scolded herself for thinking about it and got out of bed. As soon as her feet touched the rough wooden boards, she stretched once more before she jumped up and grabbed a t-shirt to throw over her underwear.
She wandered into her front room and turned on the TV. Candy had never been the kind of girl to spend a lot of time watching television, but with her mind swimming with possibilities and unwanted memories of her past, she was glad of the distraction. She sat on the arm of the couch and let the predictable sitcom lull her into a trance. She watched men and women fresh out of college trying to make their way in the world and failing miserably, albeit hilariously, along the way.
Reminds me of someone… she thought before she scrunched up her nose and decided she needed coffee.
In the kitchen, she put on the coffee and found her favorite oversized mug. After the night she had had, she needed something strong to keep her awake and on her game. She flipped through the stack of unopened mail that lay lamely on the kitchen table but without opening any of it, she pushed it back and ignored it. Nothing ever came except for bills, and she certainly wasn’t in the mood for opening those. When the coffee was done, she poured some and breathed in the fresh aroma of coffee. There was nothing she loved more on a morning than relaxing with a fresh pot and a good book, but she hadn’t been to the library for weeks and she had already decided that she would treat herself to an hour of TV over breakfast. As she curled back up on the couch and tried to get her brain to switch off for a few moments, she found herself drifting back almost instantly to the events of the night before. She knew that whatever Marv had done to annoy them must have been bad, and if he was skipping out on paying them money, then surely things weren’t going to end well. She clutched the mug between her palms and warmed her hands.
“Maybe I should try and find Lexi… See if she knows anything,” she thought out loud.
The idea of going and looking for answers was tempting, but Candy also knew that meant she was involving herself more than she needed to.
“Don’t do it,” she coached herself. “It’s a dumb idea.”
She picked up the remote and flicked through the channels, trying to distract herself from her burning desire to play investigator.
She stopped on the news and watched updates on a hurricane that was about to hit Florida and tried again to engage with that rather than her thoughts, which were starting to run wild.
Maybe I could go into town, look for a new light. And if I happen to run into Lexi, then maybe I’ll ask her about King and his friend…
She bargained with herself that it wasn’t about him…that it was really about the club, but something was bugging her more than she liked to admit.
She didn’t even know his name…
And she knew she wouldn’t rest until she did.
4.
She tied her long blonde hair into a high ponytail and applied her usual pink blush and lipstick to her alabaster skin. She pulled on a pair of low-cut jeans and a cute, cut-off pink t-shirt that showed off her navel and the tiny jewel that hung delicately from the piercing she had since she was fifteen.
It was one of the hottest days she had felt in a long time, and as she locked the door to her house and made her way over to her car, she could tell she was going to have to open all of the doors and blast the AC for a while before she got inside.
As she waited for the interior of the car to cool down, she leaned against the door and waved at the neighbors as they passed by. Even though it wasn’t the nicest street in the world, she had felt at home there since the minute she had arrived. Slate Springs didn’t have an abundance of places to lease, but she had been lucky to find this particular house via Joe, the owner of the diner. She had visited there on her first day in town when she had been staying at the motel just off the highway and overheard him telling one of the waitresses about how he needed to find a new tenant but didn’t have much hope. People didn’t tend to move to a town like Slate Springs. It was the sort of place where everyone knew each other and had been their entire lives. People didn’t move there… They fled, looking for bigger and better opportunities.
She had wandered over to the counter and spoken to Joe, and when he had taken her and shown her around the house, it had pretty much made up her mind. She wasn’t going to carry on drifting, she would stay there for a while and try to make a new life. As luck would have it, Red X had a pretty regular turnover of staff, and even though she had never stripped before in her life, Candy had successfully gotten herself a job there, her classical dancing experience helping her case.
She bent down and poked her head inside the car. It was no longer hotter than hell, and the AC was cool and welcoming. She climbed inside and slammed the door behind her before she backed down the driveway and started off down the street.
Main Street was only a couple of minutes from Candy’s home, but she liked to be in her car, just in case she had to make a run for it at a second’s notice. She hadn’t always been so cautious or afraid of what could happen…but she had been through a hell of a lot, and now she couldn’t leave anything to chance.
She felt the tears welling up behind her eyes as she drove down Main Street and parked outside of the hardware store. She saw her friend Tammy wander inside, and she waved to her before she turned off the engine and sighed.
She couldn’t explain why he was haunting her that day when she had been so good to shut him out of her thoughts and live without constantly dwelling on what had happened. But something had triggered it and suddenly he was all she could think about.
Simon.
The man who wanted to destroy her.
Of course he hadn’t always been that to her… At one point, he had been something completely different, something even important. But now, after what he did, he was just someone to be forgotten… Someone to be buried… Someone who she couldn’t risk ever seeing again.
She swallowed back the tears, but the memories were powerful and they were clamoring to break free. She pushed her palms down over her closed eyes and willed them to stop, but with each acknowledgement she gave them, more kept coming, and she was powerless to stop them…
They had met at work and she was smitten almost instantly. Simon had been one of those guys around the office that was strong, handsome, funny and successful. He and Candy were equals; they were both intelligent and well respected, and whereas at first this seemed to attract him to her, it was eventually what led to her downfall. Even though Candy didn’t have a type, she knew the instant she met him that he was going to be someone important to her… She was going to make him her husband.
They dated for several months before things got serious and when they did, his personality
began to change. It was as if he knew that he caught her, knew that she was his and he no longer had to make the effort. If that was all it had been, maybe she could have handled it. She was in it for the long haul, after all… But it wasn’t long before his actions took a more sinister turn, and before Candy knew it, she was afraid for her life.
Simon seemed intimidated by her intelligence. He didn’t like that he didn’t hold all the cards, and he also had very select tastes, not just in the bedroom, but in all aspects of his life. He had to be dominant, he had to be in control… And although this was something that Candy liked in a man, his fetish bordered on obsession. And then, without warning, it spilled over into violence.
She tried to shake the memories, but she could clearly see the vision of his fist coming towards her face. The way she had begged him to stop. The night she had cowered in the corner of their bedroom and prayed he would just leave her alone, but instead he had walked heavily towards her with a belt and his bloody knuckles.
She shivered.
No one should have to endure that, she thought. No one should ever have to know what it feels like to be that scared.
He said it was an accident. Then he said it was role play. Then, after he had done it again and again, he stopped pretending. It didn’t matter how many times she said no, how many times she pleaded with him to stop, it only seemed to make him want to do it more. Candy had to stay home—she couldn’t go to work because what if people saw the bruises and the cuts? Simon urged her to quit her job so that no one would know what was happening and he could provide for them both. She didn’t even know how it had all happened, but somehow she had gone from a strong, intelligent, independent woman to someone scared of her own reflection. She couldn’t look at herself, and she couldn’t look at him. Before long, she agreed and spent most of her days locked inside his apartment waiting for him to come home… And when he did, it started all over again.
[Runes of Argyl 01.0] The Runes of Argyl Trilogy Page 157
