The Club

by Mandasue Heller

  ‘As long as you don’t blame me when the receipts don’t tally,’ Maurice muttered to his back. Then, smiling tightly at the three louts, he said, ‘What’ll it be, gents?’

  ‘Three cognacs’ the man told him, finishing what was left of his original drink and sliding his glass across the bar. ‘Triples.’

  Reaching the bar just then, Melody eased her way in between the men to ask Maurice where Fabian had gone.

  ‘Who knows, who cares,’ he muttered, shrugging unconcernedly as he went to get the men their drinks.

  Leaning an elbow on the bar, the man Fabian had bumped into gave Melody a lingering once-over. ‘All right, darlin’? Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?’

  ‘Very likely,’ Melody said, flicking him a mildly dismissive glance. She usually enjoyed being recognised, but she wasn’t in the mood right now.

  ‘Yeah, I know who you are. You’re that bird out of Baywatch.’

  Gritting her teeth, she said, ‘No, I’m not.’

  ‘Yeah, you are,’ the man persisted. ‘I never forget a good pair of tits, me.’ Laughing he held his hands to his own chest. ‘Red swimsuit, running down the beach. Phwoar!’ Clicking his fingers now, he said, ‘Pamela Anderson!’

  ‘You need glasses,’ Melody told him sharply. Why did people always think it was a compliment to mistake her for that vacuous tart? She was Melody Fisher. Her name spoke for itself. At least, it had started to in the States, but these ignorant thugs obviously hadn’t caught up yet.

  ‘Gonna let me buy you a drink, then, Pammy?’

  ‘For Christ’s sake, I am not Pamela fucking Anderson. Just back off and go find someone else to wank over, will you!’

  ‘She likes me,’ the man said, grinning at his mates.

  ‘In your dreams,’ she muttered, tapping her long fingernails on the bar. God only knew why he thought he stood a chance. He was nowhere near good-looking enough, and he had the worst case of cheap-gold-overload she’d seen since that awful gangsta-rap crew’s album launch in LA last summer.

  ‘In my dreams,’ the man drawled, still grinning. ‘I’ll give you the best fucking dreams you’ve ever had, darlin’.’

  ‘Will you just piss off!’ she hissed, giving him a dirty look. ‘I’m not interested – all right?’

  Coming up behind her now, sandwiching her in between his mates and the bar, one of the men ran a hand over her backside, whispering, ‘Nice arse, love. Be even nicer with my dick in it.’

  ‘Get your fucking hands off me!’ Melody yelped, jerking her arm back to elbow him in the stomach.

  Laughing, the first man grabbed her wrist and held on to it. ‘Now, now, no need for violence, Pammy. We’ll play fair, won’t we, lads?’

  ‘Yeah, we’ll pay,’ the second one said. ‘I’ve got a tenner to spare. What’ll you do for a tenner, love?’

  ‘All three of us, by the look of her,’ the third one quipped, sliding a hand up her thigh. ‘Get that bruised gob sucking cock, did you?’

  ‘Back the fuck off!’ Melody shouted, twisting angrily around so that her back was against the bar. ‘If my boyfriend sees what you’re doing, he’ll kill you!’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ the first man laughed. ‘And who’s your boyfriend, then? David fucking Has-a-toss?’

  Feeling a tap on the shoulder, he was still laughing when he turned around. The head-butt came from nowhere, splitting the bridge of his nose and knocking him spark out.

  ‘Fuck are you playing at, y’ cunt!’ one of his mates snarled, launching himself at Eddie as the other one snatched a bottle out of a girl’s hand and smashed it on the bar.

  ‘FABIAN!’ Maurice yelled at the top of his voice, pushing the kitchen door open. ‘Get in here quick! Those blokes are attacking that big ugly American!’

  Halfway out of the back door, Fabian groaned. He didn’t want to get involved, but he could hardly justify running out in the middle of a situation now that he’d been told about it.

  ‘Get security,’ he told Maurice, coming back in.

  Back out in the bar, bar stools were going down and people were leaping out of the way as feet and fists started flying. The man with the bottle was dancing around his mate and Eddie, trying to get a clear shot with the jagged edge.

  Hand over her mouth, Melody pressed herself back against the bar as Eddie sidestepped one of the men and brought his elbow down hard on the back of his neck, sending him sprawling on the floor. Then, grabbing the other one’s arm, he twisted it around and pulled it high up his back, making him drop the bottle and fall to his knees in agony. But just as he was about to snap the arm, three of the doormen waded in and pulled them apart.

  ‘Right, you, out!’ Jacko barked, gripping the lapel of Eddie’s jacket. ‘You’re barred.’

  ‘Don’t!’ Melody yelled fearfully, seeing the smile on Eddie’s lips.

  Thinking she was talking to him, Jacko said, ‘Sorry, love, but he’s out. Can’t have shit like that going on in here.’

  ‘It wasn’t him,’ Fabian said, coming around the bar just then. ‘It was them.’ He nodded at the other three who were being held by Bobby and Flex now. ‘They were harassing the lady, and he was just helping her out.’

  Nodding, Jacko let go of Eddie. ‘Sorry, sir.’ Then, jerking his head at his guys, he said, ‘Get ’em out.’

  Holding on to his bleeding nose, the first man gave Eddie the evil eye as Bobby dragged him past. ‘Big mistake, pal. We’ll be seeing you again.’

  Staring intensely back at him, Eddie’s smile deepened.

  Shuddering, Melody folded her arms. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen Eddie fight, but it never ceased to shock her when he did because he was like a robot: no noise, no emotion, just vicious, economical action. And that smile was seriously creepy.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Tony asked, reaching them just then. ‘You all right, Melody?’

  Nodding, she said, ‘Those blokes were harassing me. But Eddie sorted them out.’

  ‘I thought you were supposed to be looking after her?’ Tony turned on Fabian angrily.

  ‘He wasn’t here.’ Melody jumped in quickly. ‘He was out back, and I was waiting for him when those guys started feeling me up.’

  ‘Feeling you up?’ Eyes murderously dark, Tony glared at Fabian. ‘What the fuck are you running here? Some kind of whorehouse, that the men think they can come in and have any woman they lay fucking eyes on?’

  ‘I really had no idea what was happening,’ Fabian replied honestly. ‘If I had, I’d have dealt with it.’

  ‘Oh yeah? How?’ Tony sneered. ‘Hit ’em with your fucking purse?’

  ‘Leave it, Tone,’ Melody said, looping an arm around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. ‘It wasn’t his fault. Anyway, I told them to get the fuck away from me or you’d kill them.’ Giggling now, she added, ‘Then Eddie came and nearly did it for you. Should have seen him, hon – he was a monster.’

  ‘Yeah, well, they’d better not come back,’ Tony growled, still eyeballing Fabian. ‘I see them in here again, your guys best stay clear, ’cos they’re mine. Got that?’

  Fabian was relieved that Eddie obviously hadn’t been watching Melody because of him, but this was something he couldn’t afford to agree to. There were procedures, and they had to be followed to the letter.

  ‘Much as I’d love to okay that, Mr Allen, I’m afraid I can’t,’ he said, flapping his hands in a nothing-I-can-do-about-it gesture. ‘My guys are highly trained, fully licensed doormen, but our insurance doesn’t provide for unauthorised persons interfering with troublemakers. I’m sure you understand?’

  ‘All I understand is that you ain’t got a fucking clue about real security,’ Tony retorted sharply. ‘Eddie had it in hand way before your lot got involved – but what would have happened to Melody if he hadn’t got to her in time?’

  ‘I can only apologise for that.’

  ‘Yeah, well, apologies don’t mean shit when you got blood on your hands.’

  Melody’s beautifully lifte
d brow puckered into a ghost of a frown as it suddenly occurred to her to wonder how come Eddie had managed to get to her so quickly. Her confrontation with those men couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, but even if he’d seen it start he’d never have made it down the stairs and through the crowd in that time. He’d have had to have jumped over the balcony and run like mad, in which case there would have been a pile of bodies in the wake of his enormous frame. But there weren’t, so he must have already been down here – close enough to reach her in time to rescue her, but not so close that she had noticed him.

  He’d been following her!

  Shocked by the realisation, Melody cast a nervous glance at Tony, thinking exactly what Fabian had thought: that it had to have been on Tony’s orders. But why? What did he suspect?

  Turning up just then, having been told about a disturbance at the lower bar, Jenna caught the antagonism in Tony’s eyes as he glared at Fabian.

  ‘Everything all right?’ she asked.

  ‘Fine – now,’ Tony spat, shooting a poisonous look at Fabian as he added, ‘No thanks to him. He was nowhere to be fucking seen while she was out here being molested by some dirty bastards.’

  ‘Molested?’ Jenna gasped, turning to Melody. ‘Are you okay? What happened?’ Spotting the bruise on her lip, she said, ‘Oh, please don’t tell me they did that to you? Let me go and call the police. They need to be caught and punished.’

  ‘No!’ Self-consciously raising a hand to her mouth, Melody shook her head. ‘I did this on a door. Those guys were just trying it on, but Eddie sorted it out, so there’s nothing to worry about.’

  ‘Well, as long as you’re sure?’ Jenna said. Then, turning to Fabian, she said, ‘Where are those men now?’

  ‘Jacko and some of the boys are throwing them out,’ he told her, folding his arms.

  ‘Good. And make sure they don’t get back in again, because I don’t want that kind of customer.’

  ‘Now, that’s the response I expected,’ Tony said, sneering at Fabian. ‘That’s all you’d have had to do to show me you was taking this seriously. None of this shit about insurance and “unauthorised interfering”.’

  Coming to Fabian’s defence, Jenna said, ‘To be fair, Tony, there are strict guidelines when it comes to security.’

  Looking at her for a moment, Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair. ‘Sure there are. Sorry. I just get kinda heated when anyone disrespects Melody like that.’

  Fabian raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut. The bastard could apologise to Jenna, but not to the person he’d been yelling at. But that was fine. Fabian didn’t need an insincere apology, anyway. And at least he didn’t have to leave the country just yet. But if this had taught him anything it was that this thing with Melody had to stop – now. And he would tell her so the first chance he got. Once she realised that it was for her own good as well as his, he was sure that she’d back off.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ Jenna was asking Tony now.

  Glancing at Melody, pale and shaking beside him, Tony shook his head. ‘I think I’d best just get her back to the hotel.’

  ‘Of course,’ Jenna said, peering at Melody with concern. ‘I’m so sorry your night ended like this. But I hope it won’t put you off coming back?’

  ‘The hell it will!’Tony snorted. ‘Take more than a couple of idiots to run us out of town. See you tomorrow.’ Putting an arm around Melody’s shoulder, he walked her out, with Eddie following on behind.

  ‘That man is so bloody ignorant,’ Fabian complained under his breath.

  ‘Don’t take it personally,’ Jenna said, smiling at his outraged expression. ‘He was only angry because somebody disrespected Melody. I’m sure you’d be the same if it was your girlfriend.’

  ‘Mmmm,’ Fabian murmured, thinking that she couldn’t be more wrong. There were too many maniacs in this world to risk getting beaten, stabbed – or worse – over a woman. And in a city like this, where everybody seemed to think that fear represented respect, ‘worse’was the more likely outcome of any confrontation these days.

  Which reminded him . . .

  ‘I’d better have a word with Jacko and make sure they keep the front doors locked.’ Fabian glanced at his watch. ‘There’s still a couple of hours to go, and those guys might come back mob-handed.’

  ‘Just because they got kicked out?’ Jenna asked. ‘Surely not.’

  ‘No, because they got a good kicking,’ Fabian said, pointing to the floor behind her. ‘One of them left that – and I don’t think he’s going to just crawl away and forget about it.’

  Glancing to where he was pointing, Jenna grimaced when she saw the pool of blood. ‘My God. What happened?’

  ‘Eddie knocked seven shades out of them.’

  ‘All of them?’

  ‘Yep.’ Fabian nodded slowly.

  Exhaling loudly, Jenna said, ‘Bloody hell. I guess your sources were right about him being a minder. And a bloody good one, too, by the look of it.’

  Fabian stared at her, amazed that she was treating it as a joke. Tony Allen and his goon were serious trouble waiting to happen, but she didn’t seem to have a bad word to say about them.

  ‘You’re probably right about locking the doors,’ Jenna said now. ‘But if anything happens, we’ll call the police and let them deal with it.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever,’ Fabian said distractedly. ‘See you in a bit.’

  Watching as he walked away, Jenna frowned. Had she just imagined it, or had he been a bit off with her just now? She couldn’t see why, though, so maybe he was just upset about Melody and those guys.

  Shrugging it off, she turned back to the bar and called, ‘Maurice – could you get someone to come and mop this mess up, please?’

  8

  The men didn’t come back that night, or the next, and Jenna forgot all about them as, all too soon, Sunday came around.

  Determined not to disgrace herself and reveal her true feelings about Vibes leaving, Jenna forced herself to smile and chat to the customers as usual as the night wore on. She noticed that the rest of the staff were a little subdued, but that was only to be expected, she supposed, because none of them were looking forward to saying goodbye to him.

  At the end of the night, when the music stopped, the house lights came up, and the last of the customers had finally left, she locked the doors. Then she called the staff together on the dance floor.

  Going up to the DJ’s booth, where Vibes was quietly gathering his stuff together, Jenna asked him for his radio mike. Then she went out onto the top step and jerked her head for him to follow.

  Frowning questioningly, he came out and looked down at everyone standing below. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘You’ll see,’ Jenna told him quietly. Switching the mike on then, she said, ‘Thanks for staying behind, everyone. Now, as you know, Vibes is leaving us tonight . . .’

  Down below, Kalli shushed Austin when he let out a loud sob.

  Smiling sadly because she knew exactly how he was feeling, Jenna took a deep breath.

  ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘I’m sure you’d all like to join me in wishing him the best for the future – wherever and whatever that may be.’ Pausing as a cheer went up, she took the gift-wrapped box out of her pocket. Waiting until she had quiet again, she said, ‘As a mark of our appreciation, I’d like to present this to Vibes.’

  ‘What’s she doing?’ Fabian muttered, folding his arms. ‘She didn’t tell me about this.’

  ‘I think she wanted it to be a surprise,’ Kalli said, glancing innocently up at him. Smiling then, she went back to watching the presentation, aware that Fabian was fuming beside her because she had obviously been in on the secret and he hadn’t.

  ‘So, Vibes . . .’ Jenna turned to him now. ‘This is for you – from all of us.’

  Taking the box, Vibes shook his head. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Don’t say anything – just open it!’ one of the waitresses yelled.

  ‘Okay,
okay!’ Laughing, Vibes tore the paper off and opened the box. Seeing the watch, his mouth dropped open and, wide-eyed, he turned to Jenna. ‘You shouldn’t have done this,’ he whispered. ‘It’s way too much.’

  ‘You deserve it,’ she whispered back.

  Taking the watch out of the box, Vibes turned it over in his hand. Seeing the engraved logo, he shook his head and traced his finger over it.

  ‘To remind you of us,’ Jenna said, getting a little choked as she saw the tears in his eyes.

  ‘I could never forget you,’ he murmured, looking into her eyes and then glancing quickly away. Then, pulling himself together with an effort, he looked down at the people below and smiled. ‘Thanks, y’all. This means the world.’

  ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow . . .’ Austin start singing in a choked voice, urging the others to join in. ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow . . .’

  A short time later, when he’d said his goodbyes and most of the staff had gone, Vibes brought the last box of albums up to Jenna’s office and put it behind the couch with the others.

  ‘All done,’ he said, rubbing the dust off his hands. ‘Sure it won’t be in your way?’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Jenna assured him. ‘Join me for a last drink?’ she asked then, holding up a bottle of brandy.

  ‘Love to.’ Sitting down on the couch, Vibes leaned his head back and exhaled wearily. ‘Man, I’m gonna miss this place.’

  ‘Aw, you’ll forget all about us once you’re back home with your friends, seeing all the old sights,’ Jenna said over her shoulder.

  ‘No, I won’t,’ Vibes murmured truthfully. ‘How could I, with this to remind me?’ Flipping the box open for the umpteenth time, he gazed at the watch and shook his head. ‘You really, really shouldn’t have done this. These things cost the earth.’

  ‘Everybody chipped in,’ Jenna lied, bringing their drinks back and sitting down. ‘And if it’s any consolation, I think it’s a fake.’

  ‘Hope so,’ Vibes chuckled, knowing full well that she was joking. ‘I can just see them letting a black guy through Customs with a genuine Rolex without tossing his ass in jail.’