“You can sleep here tonight if you want too babe, but my bed is much more comfortable.” She wiggled her brows at me and laughed. Rubbing my hand over my jaw, I sighed in defeat and got in.
“You’re in for it tomorrow, Goddess.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it, Reaper.” She winked at me before starting the car up and heading back to her place.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ellie
Everything was going smoothly. JD and the boys hadn’t had any more threats against them and everything with the Phoenix was running well. I knew it was too good to be true. I had no idea though that one night would change us forever. The night started just like any other Friday. Our girls were booked out, but we had a few on hand in case we had any walk ins came in looking for someone and the bar was busy. We had to call in extra security because there were some faces we had never seen before and weren’t sure what they would do. A couple of the Reapers were in here too which was an added bonus, but even with all of that, a rat still slipped through. I left JD in charge of the bar and went in the back to deal with the girls to make sure they were all good. Checking the schedules to see that all the rooms were in use, I pulled out my phone and dialed up Mischa’s next customer.
“Hi, Mr Roberts, it’s Ellie from the Flaming Phoenix. I know you had an appointment tonight at eight, but our rooms are currently in use. Do you mind terribly if we push you back to eight thirty and I will discount your night for the inconvenience.”
“Hi Ellie, that’s fine. Got room in the bar for me?”
“For you, I will make room.”
“Ah, you are too sweet, Darlin’. I’ll see you soon.”
“Thank you so much, Mr Roberts. I will see you when you come in.” I hung up the phone and wrote up on the board that room ten was now booked at eight thirty and no one else was to use that room for the rest of the night. I loved the girls, but they weren’t the brightest.
“Melissa, can you please make sure that rooms one, three, five, seven, nine and ten are for bookings only. Walk-ins get two, four, six and eight. If those rooms are in use, then they wait in the bar. I have just had to push a well paying client back because of this.”
“I’m sorry, Ellie. It won’t happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t or his discount will be getting cut from your pay.” She gave me a nod and I headed for my office. I knew it was only a matter of time before Mischa came charging in here, if she finished a little early, pissed off that her client was pushed back when no one else’s was but there was nothing I could do about it now. Checking my watch, I switched the cameras to the hall that the rooms came off. Seeing that ten was now open, I changed back to the waiting room and saw the cleaners moving in. Curiosity getting the better of me, I checked on the camera’s in the bar. I saw Mischa with her arm around someone. His back was to the camera as she stood beside him though so I couldn’t see who it was, but I just assumed it was someone she knew with the way she was standing so close. Watching as she turned around, she put something into her bra and I hit a new level of suspicious. Mischa moved to the bar and got JD’s attention. I could only assume that she was getting drinks but as I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t be certain. Normally she would have Champagne taken into her room so why she was drinking now, I had no idea.
The sound of my phone ringing pulled my attention from what was happening in the bar. Sliding my thumb across the screen, I put the phone to my ear.
“Ellie speaking.”
“Hi Ellie, it’s Mr Roberts. I am really sorry to do this, but I am going to have to cancel my appointment with Mischa tonight.”
“Oh no! Is everything okay?”
“Well no, not really. I just walked into the bar to see her with someone else. I know we pushed our time back, but fifteen minutes from the new appointment time, one would think she should be getting ready don’t you?”
“I completely agree with you and I am going to speak with her about that. I know she isn’t your usual, but we have Roxy on tonight and I know she is your next favorite of my girls. She is free now if you want to keep your appointment?” The line was silent so I got up and left my office. He was clearly thinking about it so she would need to be ready quickly if I was going to keep this customer happy.
“Okay, I will see Roxy tonight. Are you able to change her to my top preference? I think Mischa needs to learn a lesson.”
“For you Mr Roberts, I can do that. Come in and I will have a complimentary bottle of champagne brought in to make up for it.”
“Thank you, dear. You are too kind.”
“I’ll see you soon.” After he said goodbye, I hung up and scratched Mr Roberts’ name from under Mischa and put him under Roxy.
“Ellie, we have a problem.” I turned around to see Sasha, our head cleaner behind me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Room Ten is completely trashed and I don’t have enough to fix it before eight thirty.” When she hung her head, I placed my hand on her shoulder and squeezed it softly.
“Hey, it’s not your fault. It’s okay. Room ten is now free until later but could you go ahead and make sure the VIP suite is ready to go please?”
“Of course. Is JD using it?”
“No, it’s reserved for someone else.”
“No problem! My girls are just finishing in there, so I will put the reserved sign on the door.”
“Thank you, Sasha.” I took one of the ice buckets with me and went to fill it up in the bar. Noticing that Mischa and her male friend were nowhere to be seen, I expected to see JD behind the bar, but he was gone too. I filled up the ice bucket with a frown and took a bottle from the fridge and sat it in the ice. Tucking it and two glasses in one arm, I took some strawberries from the fridge and made my way back to the VIP room to make sure it was good to go. I was trying not to worry about why JD wasn’t in the bar. Maybe he was just in the bathroom or something.
“Ellie!” I spun to see Roxy coming towards me.
“What’s wrong, Roxy?”
“Why do I have one of Mischa’s bookings? Mr Roberts is hers! She is going to kill me!”
“Okay, stop for a minute. First of all, Mr Roberts cancelled on her so I suggested that he keep the appointment and go with you instead. Second of all, she is nowhere to be seen so I would say you are safe. If she wants to act out like this then she can deal with the consequences. Are you okay with Mr Roberts though?” She nodded.
“I like him. He is a darling man who always treats us well.”
“Good. He is now your regular. You know what he likes so please see to it that he is happy. He is one of our best clients so if you have any reservations then please speak now. I don’t want to mess him around anymore then Mischa already has. If I see you with another man before you are due to be with him, I will fire you like I am about to do with her.”
“Scouts honor, El. I will not let you down.” I handed her the champagne, glasses and strawberries and she moved into the VIP room to get ready.
“Roxy, you haven’t seen JD have you? He was in the bar last I saw but he wasn’t just now.”
“Yeah, I saw him and Mischa heading into room two.”
“Can you do me a favor? Go into the bar and see if anyone from the club is still here and send them this way please. Something isn’t right.” Okay, something wasn’t adding up. She wasn’t up my ass about pushing her time back nor about losing one of her regulars and he would never in his right mind do anything with her when he was single let alone now he was in a relationship with me. I stormed down the hall toward room two and turned the handle, finding it locked. Taking my keys out of my pocket, I found my master key and unlocked it. Pushing the door open, it slammed against the wall. Sitting in his lap before me was the skank who resembled a deer in headlights and my boyfriend, whose head could barely stay upright, hands cuffed behind his back in the chair. I looked down at the ropes on his ankles. What the actual fuck was wrong with this woman?! Did she not understand the word no or have any bou
ndaries what-so-ever? I had never been an overly angry person but something inside me snapped. Seeing the man you love, clearly being fucked against his will and powerless to stop her, I slipped off my heels and moved slowly toward her as though I was a lion stalking his prey.
“What the fuck have you done to him?”
“Only what he wanted!” I closed my fist and raised my hand, slamming it hard against her jaw.
“You sick fuck! He wouldn’t touch a skank like you! He never wanted you, so you had to resort to raping him?!”
“No, you told him what he wanted! You are so controlling you have kept us apart from each other! Now, I can finally get what is rightfully mine.” I turned and picked up my heel. Holding it tightly in my hand, I pulled my arm back and went to bring it down against her but before it could make contact, I felt a hand tightening around my wrist. I turned slowly to glare at the person in my way of killing this bitch, only to see Thomas standing there. Looking past him, I saw the rest of the guys standing behind him.
“El, that’s enough. Let us take it from here. Go call Tucker.” I tried to fight him to get my hand back, but he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me from the room, closing the door behind us.
“No! Let me go! I want to kill her!”
“Shhh, no, El. You need to calm down for me. For JD, don’t do this. Go call Tucker. He needs a doctor. Please.” He led me into my office and left me there. I could feel a tightness in my chest as I thought about what just happened. I was going to kill her for this and they better not stop me!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JD
I couldn’t help but groan when I woke up the next morning, feeling like I had been hit by a truck. The worst part of it all was that I couldn’t remember drinking anything. The last thing I can recall was working in the bar, chatting with some guys from the club when the she-devil came over wanting drinks. Everything after that is a haze of cloudiness. I wondered how pissed off Ellie was gonna be or where the hell I was. I opened my eyes slowly and looked up at the ceiling. I waited a few minutes before turning my head and trying to see around me. I must have been in deep shit because I couldn’t feel Ellie beside me. I tried hard to think about what happened the night before so that I knew what I was in for with her, but I couldn’t remember anything. I guess I would just have to take it. Looking around the room, I saw all Ellie’s things around the room and a few of mine mixed in. I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t at home so that was a bonus. I didn’t repeat history and royally fuck things up. Small silver lining I guess. Where was she though?
I sat up and leant back against the headboard. I was about to call out to her or attempt to get out of bed when the door opened and the last two people I expected to see walked through it.
“Raven? Chaos? What are you doing here?”
“We came to check on you.”
“Where’s Ellie?”
“In the kitchen, having coffee. She’ll be in soon, she just needs a minute.” I sighed.
“How bad did I fuck up?”
“What do you remember about last night?”
“Not a lot. I remember being in the bar, getting drinks for Mischa and her date then nothing. I have been racking my brains trying to remember something but it’s all coming up hazy. How bad was it?”
“We need to tell you something and it won’t be easy for you to hear.” Uh oh. I really didn’t like the sound of that. What the fuck was going on? Not saying anything though, I just nodded.
“A ghost from your past is back and took their first shot last night.” I frowned confused. What ghost?
“Last night, Mischa was acting strange according to Ellie. She was in the bar when she should have been getting ready for her regular. The client walked in, saw her with someone else and left. Ellie was able to talk him into seeing one of the other girls but then Mischa disappeared while Ellie was cleaning up the mess she had left in her wake. When she went into the bar, she noticed that you weren’t there. She asked one of the girls if they had seen you and she told them that you and Mischa had gone into one of the rooms.” I went to open my mouth to argue the point, but I couldn’t. I had no idea what happened. Swallowing the bile that was threatening to come up at that news, I nodded for them to continue and closed my eyes. Please don’t let me have fucked the whore. There was no way Ellie would forgive me if I had. I was a dead man.
“We had Tucker come and check you out. You were given a pretty large dose of GHB and it could have been lethal had Ellie not found you when she did.” I blinked my eyes opened.
“I’m sorry? What the fuck did you just say?”
“This is the part you aren’t going to like.”
“There’s more?! What the fuck else is there! Please tell me that Ellie wasn’t hurt. I swear to God if anything has happened to her then someone is going to die.”
“Stop. She is fine. Pissed off and ready to murder someone. At the moment us because we won’t let her at Mischa, but she is uninjured.”
“Then why is she not in here?”
“It was hard enough for her to see it the first time let alone having to relive it over in her head. Hearing us tell you what happened isn’t what she needs right now.” I took a deep breath.
“Okay what else.” I wasn’t going to lie. Her not being here was like someone had punched me hard in the stomach but I couldn’t be selfish.
“She was paid to drug you by Jai. He wanted you taken down and then she was to go and drug Ellie but she panicked and gave you too much. When Mischa realized what she’d done, she couldn’t correct it. She was to rape you while you were under then they were going to turn the tables and say you raped her. With Ellie not being able to give you an alibi you would have been put away again.” They stopped, and I watched them turn to look at each other.
“What? There is something you aren’t telling me.”
“He got away. Before we knew what was happening, Jai was gone. He’ll know we are on to him now and we are a little concerned about what he might do.”
“You need to keep your eyes on Ellie. Get her a bodyguard or some shit. I can take care of myself. If he is going to get to me, he will use her to do it. Please, promise me.”
“We’ll keep her safe, bud. She is one of ours and always has been. You don’t even need to ask.” Rubbing my hands over my face, I pulled the covers back and went to stand up. I needed to see for myself that Ellie was okay. Chaos was quickly at my side and pushing me into bed.
“Stop. Tucker needs to check you over again before you can move in case the GHB isn’t all out of your system and one of the other side effects shows.”
“I need to go and check on Ellie.”
“No, you need to keep your ass in bed and stop being so fucking stubborn. Just once would you listen to what you are fucking told.” I rolled my eyes and pushed back against him. He shoved me backwards and right now, I wanted to get up and beat the living shit out of him.
“Fine, get him here fast then because I am not staying put longer than I need to.” Chaos shook his head and stepped back. “What are we doing about finding Jai?”
“We’ve got his numbers and shit from Mischa and are using them to try and lure him back. Duke has a trace on his phone though in case he tries to make contact. As soon as we knew what we were dealing with, the nomads rode out and split up to try and cover more ground. We are doing everything we can and we are taking what we did wrong with Ollie and making sure it doesn’t happen again. We haven’t ruled out that he is still in town, so we have the local boy’s kicking rocks to try and find him as well.” By now, my head was killing me. Why the fuck did it have to be him?
“You okay?” I shook my head no.
“Tucker needs to hurry up. I need something for my head but not if I still have shit in my system because of the dumb slut. I need water but if I try and move, you’ll just fight me on it and why the fuck couldn’t it have been anyone else. Why Jai and why now? Has he been watching or something? Waiting until I had finally put all that sh
it with Paige behind me. I want to check on Ellie, but I know, again, I won’t be allowed to move and if the dumbass over there shoves me one more time then I will put him on his ass.” Raven shot me an exasperated look and I shrugged. “You asked.”
“Yeah and I bet he regrets that!” Ignoring Chaos, I rubbed my head.
“Can you get one of the boys to run me home later?” Raven looked at me with a frown.
“Yeah, why?”
“I need to feed my cat.”
“You don’t have a cat, idiot. Want to try that one again?” There was silence as I focused on anything but them. I didn’t want to tell them that I didn’t want to be a burden on Ellie. She would need some time to get her head around what happened and so did I. I didn’t want the forced conversation or awkwardness between us. She was clearly staying away for a reason. Maybe she had re-thought everything while I was passed out.
“Don’t you dare do this.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t you dare walk away from her like this! I swear to God, if you hurt her, I am going to kill you myself and save Jai the fucking trouble! Who the fuck do you think you are? You can’t just build someone up so you can bring them down again.” I watched Chaos curl his fist as he yelled. I raised my brow at him.
“You done, Clown?” He took a step forward, but Raven put his hand out to stop him. He was quiet for a minute as he watched me. Sure if you knew me then you would assume that I was running in an attempt not to deal with my problems but as easy as it was to revert to my old ways, I couldn’t hurt Ellie like that. I wouldn’t, I gave her my word. I just need a minute to breathe.
“He’s not running. He wouldn’t have asked us if he was. JD, if you are worried about Ellie, she is a strong girl. You would have been proud of the way she put Mischa on her ass. If Chaos didn’t get there when he did, she no doubt would have killed her with her shoe.”
“It’s not that. I know how strong she is and just what she is capable of. I just need to digest all of this. Surely you can both understand? What you went through with Katy, Chaos. Wasn’t there ever just a moment that you just didn’t want to deal with anyone or anything? I don’t want to put my shit on her shoulders along with her own. I just need to take the night, sort my head out and come back ready to kick ass tomorrow.” More silence hung in the air as my words began to sink in. Ultimately though, it wasn’t them I was worried about. Hopefully out of everyone, Ellie would understand.
JD's Redemption Page 7
