by Nicole Fox
I placed my hand on the bar and found that a shot of whiskey was waiting for me; Jess’s doing, surely. I knocked the drink back and scanned the crowd. They murmured angrily to one another, shooting occasional annoyed glances in my direction.
“I think this fire needs to get put out before it spreads, boss,” said Jess. “But that’s just my opinion.”
I nodded—he was right.
I slipped my phone out and fired off a quick pair of texts to Rex and Motor, ones that said I needed them here and ready to rock in no more than thirty minutes. The plan set, I bounded onto the stage just as the remaining members of Roxy’s band were finishing up and stepping off.
“Hey, y’all,” I said, speaking into the mic. “We had some, ah, unforeseen circumstances pop up, and it’s looking like you’re gonna have to wait another week for the debut of Vampire Hideaway as our regular Monday-night show. So, as a little ‘sorry for the delay,’ I’m gonna have the rest of the boys from Revv head down here and put on a surprise secret show for y’all. How does that sound?”
The chatting among the crowd turned from irritated and frustrated to excited. I figured that did the trick.
“And hey, how about a round of drinks on me while we wait for the rest of the boys to show up?”
That managed to get some cheers. I gestured to Jess and he gave me a thumbs-up back. The crowd all headed up to the bar and began barking out orders. A cool wave of relief washed over me now that the situation was under control.
Now there was still the matter of just what the hell had happened.
Before I could think about it for too long, Rex and Motor burst into the bar, gear in hand, like they’d come home from war. Cheers sounded out as they grabbed the drinks that awaited them and rushed up to the stage.
“What the hell’s going on?” asked Motor. “Happy to play, boss, but where’s the girl?”
“We’ll talk about it after the show. Let’s do a quick thirty-minute set of some of those new tracks we’ve been working on.”
I slid onto the stool behind the curly-haired kid’s drums and Rex and Motor took their places on stage. The crowd packed to the front and with a clack of my sticks, we were off.
The crowd got huge over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so—word must’ve spread fast about the secret show. We finished up with one of our biggest hits and by the time we were done, the crowd was drunk and happy.
“In the back office, now,” I said to Rex and Motor.
They nodded and followed me off the stage. Once back there, I filled them in on what I knew so far.
“Fucking bullshit,” said Rex before knocking back his glass of whiskey. “Can’t believe that bitch would do you dirty like that.
“I dunno,” said Motor. “I barely know the girl but something tells me she’s not exactly the scheming type. I’ve seen her type before—hardass rocker chick on the outside, but a softie on the inside.”
That was my thinking, too. But you never knew with girls in this town.
“And Buck’s been keeping his distance from us,” said Motor. “He wouldn’t be doing that unless he had something cooking behind that ugly mug of his.”
I poured myself another drink and sank deeper into my buzz. Normally, I wouldn’t be letting myself get drunk on a night that I had to work. But this was an exception. Despite how cool I was keeping my exterior, deep down I was boiling with the hot rush of betrayal. I needed to get even for this bullshit, but I knew that wasn’t going to be possible tonight.
So, drinking it fucking was.
“I knew it was all too easy when we confronted him at Boozehounds,” said Motor. “You know how that asshole is—always looking for a fight. We made him look like a damn fool on his own turf and then he ran off like a whipped pup. You know that’s not how he normally rolls.”
I nodded, taking another shot.
“The piece of shit is scheming something,” I said. “Can’t be the girl.”
“But … you don’t know that,” said Rex.
I raised my eyebrows.
“Sure,” he went on, “Motor might be right that she’s all hat and no cattle. But who’s to say that she wasn’t in on the whole thing with Buck? I mean, think about it—what do you really know about her?”
“No,” I said, my voice stern.
But I knew that I was trying, more than anything, to convince myself. The truth of the matter was that I didn’t know Roxy all that well, and the more I thought about it, the more her whole act might’ve been some kind of long con to making me lower my guard. I had a soft spot for girls like her, after all.
I had tried to play it smart by not sleeping with her while she was working here, but I should’ve extended the rule to not sleeping with her at all. If I had, I wouldn’t be in this goddamn mess. But I’d let my heart get the better of me. No making that mistake again.
One more shot, then another. When I stood up, I was unsteady on my feet.
“Thanks, boys,” I said. “But I need to get some thinking done.”
They nodded and were off. I turned to the bottle and spent the rest of the night drinking and fuming at whatever this was I’d gotten myself into.
Chapter 20
Zane
I woke up the next morning on the couch in my office, my head pounding. The alarm on my phone blared and I wanted to whip that fucking thing across the room and watch it smash into a million goddamn pieces against the wall. Instead, I let out a groan and turned the alarm off.
After coming to terms with just how bad my hangover was, I rolled off the couch and onto my feet. I opened the bottom-left drawer on my desk, revealing bottles of water and packets of aspirin. It was my hangover desk, and mornings like this made me glad that I’d had the foresight to always make sure it was fully stocked and ready to go.
I tossed back a half-dozen aspirin and washed it all down with an entire bottle of water. Once it was all down the hatch, I fell back into my desk chair and made a silent prayer to the hangover gods that this wouldn’t last too long. I just had too much shit on my plate to be dealing with feeling under the weather.
After about a half-hour of letting the water and pills do their work, my phone blared again. This time it wasn’t the alarm, however—it was an incoming call. I heaved myself out of my chair and made my way over to the phone. Checking the call showed that it was an unknown number. Normally, I’d let a call like this go. But something told me that this one was important.
I answered and held the phone up to my ear.
“Morning, Zaney.”
I didn’t need to ask to know just who the shitty voice on the other end belonged to.
“What the fuck do you want, Buck?” I asked.
“What, a couple of fellas in the same industry can’t have a little morning chat?”
Something about his tone made me wish I could reach into the damn phone and strangle him where he sat. Instead, I gritted my teeth for a moment before speaking.
“Whatever it is, get to the point. I’m not in the mood to be dealing with your bullshit.”
“So testy!” he said. “I mean, I guess I can’t blame you after how things went for you last night. Though I heard your little secret show was the hottest scene of the evening. I mean, hardly anyone was at Boozehounds last night on account of it. But I think it was worth it.”
“You’ve got about five seconds to cut out the cryptic bullshit and tell me just what the fuck you’re calling me for.”
But I knew. Deep down, I knew.
“I just wanted to chat and fill you in on some of the questions that might be rattling around in your brain after everything that went down yesterday. I hope you’re sitting, Zaney, because you’re not gonna like a single word of what I have to say.”
I gritted my teeth so hard I worried for a moment that they might shatter in my mouth.
“Talk,” I commanded, my voice low and harsh.
“So I’m thinking your little head is a whirlwind of guesses and suspicions about just what’
s going on, just why you’ve got some girl pressing rape charges against you and having the NYPD visit your club in the middle of the evening. And I bet you’re wondering how much you really know this girl.”
“Well, I’m afraid the answer, Zaney, is that you don’t know her a damn bit. Here’s the thing: Roxy did press rape charges against you. And she was able to do that because you couldn’t resist fucking her. And hell, I don’t blame you for that one bit. Piece of ass that hot doesn’t just come strolling down the damn block every day. Man, I’m getting kinda horned up here in the morning just thinkin’ about her!”
“Get to it, Buck,” I growled.
“Patience, patience,” he said. “Anyway, I’ll tell you what’s up as bluntly as I can, just to rip that damn Band-Aid right off, you know? Here it is: Roxy’s working with me, and she’s been working with me from the start.”
The words hit me like a shotgun blast to the face. I was so angry that I couldn’t even see straight. Buck was right for wanting to have this conversation on the phone—if he had been here right in front of me there was a very, very good chance that I wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to take him apart, limb from limb.
“Tell me everything,” I demanded.
“It was a setup, buddy—every last bit of it. From her coming in to work for you, to her little lost-girl act, hell, even that incident in the parking lot where you got to play fucking white knight was a little show that the two of us put on for you. And there were some bumps along the way—when Roxy told me that you weren’t gonna take her up on her very, very generous offer of pay-for-play, we were a little worried that the plan might not work. But sure enough, you weren’t able to resist her for long, just like I thought.”
“So it’s all true—she was a honey trap and you stepped right into it. Right now the officers down at the local NYPD station are probably figuring out when the best time is to come down to pick you up. Maybe now, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning! Who knows, and that’s part of the fun!”
I took in several slow, deep breaths, trying to manage the anger that boiled in every inch of my body.
“But we can make this all go away,” he went on. “Roxy can recant her statement, tell them that it was all a mix-up with you guys, maybe that you two were having a little lover’s quarrel or some such bullshit. We’ll figure it out, but that’s only if you play ball. You ready to hear about how you can play ball, Zaney?”
I said nothing.
“Gonna need a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ from you, bud.”
“Yes.”
“Good! Here’s the arrangement: You sell Amped to me at a bargain basement price. Now, the bar becomes mine, but I’ll be nice enough to let you stay on as general manager, so long as you follow whatever orders I have down to the letter. I’m a really nice-guy of a boss, so you don’t need to worry about me riding you too hard.”
“So there’s that. Also, you’re going to disband the Marauders and have the top men of your crew join my MC. Ah, what else? Oh, you’re going to be looking after Boozehounds, too. You know, try as I might, I can’t seem to turn this place into the success that you’ve made Amped. So, I figure part of being a mature adult is recognizing your strengths and weaknesses. I’m thinking you’re better with the hands-on role, and I can be sort of the ideas guy, you know? Might be a lot for you to handle, but I think you can manage. What’s a few hundred-hour work weeks here and there?”
Then his tone turned grave.
“And one last thing: You’re gonna keep your fucking hands off of Roxy. That ass is mine now, Zaney, and the faster you accept that, the better. If I even get so much of a whiff that you’re putting the moves on her, you’re fucking done, got it? It’s already making my stomach turn to know I had to get her to fuck you once.”
With that, his mocking, chipper tone returned.
“And that’s that! You say ‘yes,’ and we can get this whole thing in motion. You say ‘no,’ and, well, I hope you’ve got a good fucking lawyer on retainer, because you’re gonna be in for the shitshow to end all shitshows. So, what’ll it be?”
I didn’t even need a second to decide.
“Fuck you.”
Then I hung up.
My rage was so intense by this point that my hangover was long gone. Nothing but clear and focused anger was in me then. I knew what I needed to do: I needed to talk to Roxy.
I didn’t know if Buck was telling the truth. Hell, there was a really good chance that every word he’d just told me was a lie. But I had to talk to Roxy to find out one way or another. Maybe she betrayed me, maybe she didn’t.
I was going to find out.
I pulled open my file cabinet and found her application. On it was her address, which I knew was the couch of some friend. I shoved the application into my pocket and headed out.
I spent the drive down to Bushwick in such a state of anger that I could hardly believe it. By the time I pulled up in front of her four-story walkup I felt as though I was being powered by pure anger.
I pressed the button on the intercom for her apartment, and seconds later her voice came out.
“Yes?”
“It’s me.”
Chapter 21
Roxy
I was beyond thrilled to hear Zane’s voice. Part of me had been worried that he wasn’t going to want to talk to me, that he’d opt to put as much distance between him and me as possible. But now that he’d showed up I’d be able to speak to him directly and set the record straight. Everything would get sorted out and we could start putting things back to normal.
At least, as normal as things could be between us.
Last night at the station had been strange and dreamlike. The officers had led me into a small interview room where they’d gone over everything that they’d been told about me and Zane’s relationship. Somehow, they’d been under the impression that he’d used his position as my boss to force me into a sexual relationship that I didn’t want. It was embarrassing having to tell them about such personal details, but I let them know that he and I had only slept together after I’d stopped working for him, and that everything was consensual.
I’d hoped that that would be enough, but when they told me they were done and that I was free to go, it still seemed like there was lingering doubt, like they didn’t believe me or something. Maybe I couldn’t smooth things over with the cops so easily, but I was sure that Zane would be open to hearing me out.
A hard knock sounded on the front door of the tiny apartment where I was crashing. It could only be Zane. I hurried to the door and undid all the locks and opened it up.
There he stood, his handsome face tightened into a hard expression.
“Um, come in,” I said.
I stepped aside and he strode into the apartment and looked around. The place wasn’t much, just a small living room with the couch that I’d been sleeping on. The bedroom belonged to a friend of mine who was frequently out of town for work, and I was glad that she wasn’t going to be home during this conversation.
“Do you want something to drink?” I asked. “I can make some coffee, or there’s orange ju—”
“What the fuck did you do?” barked Zane, cutting me off.
I was taken aback. Zane glared at me hard, pure hate in his eyes.
“I didn’t do anything!” I shot back. “The cops took me down to the station and I told them that you didn’t rape me! I don’t even know how they knew that we slept together!”
Zane shook his head and began pacing the cramped space of the apartment. I realized right then and there that this wasn’t going to be a simple conversation.
“I’m sick of this bullshit,” he said. “I’m sick of the fucking lies. I don’t know what that’s come out of your mouth since we met has been true, and what’s been something that you made up out of fucking whole cloth.”
“It’s … it’s all true!” I said. “I haven’t lied to you about anything!”
That didn’t seem to do me any good. For some reason
, Zane was convinced that I’d been lying to him. And if simply telling him that I’d been truthful wasn’t enough, how was I supposed to convince him otherwise?
“I don’t believe a goddamn word out of your mouth anymore,” he said. “My life’s been turned upside down, and it all started when you walked into my life. So, as far as I’m concerned, you and I are fucking done.”
I dropped back onto the couch, not knowing what to say. His words were like shards of glass.
“I didn’t come here to argue or negotiate with you. I came here to tell you how things are gonna be from here on out. And if you give even the slightest trace of a damn, then you’re gonna keep your mouth shut and listen. Got it?”
