by Sebastian Ex
At that one moment I stop the attack on Lucifer and look up to see Matthew standing beside me. Lucifer’s two bodyguards have disappeared and are nowhere to be seen. Wimps.
Slowly I get up off a bloody Lucifer. His nose is dripping blood, his mouth is split and I’ve managed to open a cut in his eyebrow. “Get out,” I say as I stand beside Matthew. “The club’s closed. Get the fuck out,” I yell to everyone in here.
“Keep your cool, man,” Matthew whispers. “Keep your cool.” I walk away from the scene before I take another swing at Lucifer.
“Watch your back,” Lucifer says, as he spits on the faded and destroyed carpet. Blood and a tooth come out of his mouth. “I’ll fucking take that girl, and you’ll never see her again.”
“You need to leave before I let him kill you,” Matthew says to Lucifer. The club now virtually a ghost town.
“I have some things to get from my office,” Lucifer says, in more of a panic then what it’s worth.
“We’ll mail them to you,” Matthew says, grabbing Lucifer by his collar.
“I have connections, and all your little sluts better watch themselves.”
Matthew rears his hand back, and punches Lucifer once, hard enough to make him stumble back a couple of steps. “Now get out,” Matthew says while flexing his hand. He then grabs Lucifer’s shirt and pulls him out the door.
I go over to the bar and sit, just trying to calm down. My mind hasn’t stopped turning, mostly because I’m now worried about all the girls. Lucifer is a low-level dick whose connections end with his owing them money. But the threat alone is enough to make me worry. I take my phone out, and look through my contact list, getting Billy’s number up. Billy is the head of security at the Onyx Club.
First though, I need to calm down so I can talk rationally to him. I pick my soda up and drink it slowly, but the turmoil in my mind isn’t easing.
A few moments pass and Matthew comes back into the club.
“Everything alright?” I ask.
“It is now,” he answers.
“Did you kill him?” I’d never put that past Matthew. Anyone threatens our girls, and he’d do whatever is in his power to make sure the threat is never actualized.
“I gave him my car as payment to fuck off. Told him I’d burn the car with him strapped inside if he ever came near our girls, or even thought about coming near us. The look on his face, told me he knows I meant every word I said.”
I’m not sure I heard him right. “You gave him your Shelby Cobra?” I ask.
“I did.”
“You fucking love that car.”
“Not as much as I love Ella. Or Penny. Or Bianca. I did this for our girls.” I stand from my seat and walk over to Matthew. “The girls aren’t to know,” Matthew says.
“Of course not.” He fucking gave up his car. “Let’s get the locks changed, and see what he was hiding in his office,” I say. I know Matthew doesn’t want to make a big deal out of what he’s done. He’s not a pompous asshole who needs the attention or the gratifcation.
He’s a Dom who looks after his friends, his family, and his possessions.
I grab my phone and dial Billy. “Mr. Edwards, how can I help you?” Billy answers the phone.
“Who’s not working security tonight?” I ask.
“Ted’s got three nights off, Kyle had last night and tonight, Cameron is on vacation until tomorrow and Robert has a split weekend. And the three new ones you’ve asked me to train for the new club are all off tonight.”
“Get in touch with Ted and Kyle, get them over to the new building we bought. Tell them they’ll be here all night.”
“Will do, Mr. Edwards. Anything else?”
“No, thanks.” I hang up.
“I got in contact with the locksmith, he’ll be here within the hour,” Matthew says. He puts his phone in his pocket and we both head toward the office.
“I’ve got Ted and Kyle coming in. They’ll be here all night.”
We walk into the office Lucifer once had and it’s more of a mess then when we paid him a visit all those weeks ago. “This place is a fucking mess, why the hell does he need damn pizza boxes in here for? Fucking animal. Look at this place.”
I sit in the uncomfortable, old chair and start going through the drawers of the desk. I open the first drawer and find a black box. Opening it, I see drug paraphernalia. A rubber tourniquet, a needle, a spoon, a lighter and a small baggie filled with white powder. “Fucking drugs,” I say to Matthew holding open the black box and showing him.
“I hate to think what else we’ll find,” Matthew says.
I throw the box in the trash, and open the next drawer. It’s filled with wrappers, and papers loosely strewn about. “This place is such a mess,” I say taking the drawer out and emptying it in the trash can. “Thank God we have our industrial cleaners coming through this place. I’m just going to throw everything out.” I open the third drawer down and see three white log books no larger than a sheet of paper. On the front in black pen on the first one is the letter P, the second has the letters CF and the third says TAX.
I flick through the one with the letters CF, and see the contents are accounts. Or I should say a pathetic attempt at keeping accounts. I grab the one with P and notice it too has the same information, the third the same. However, when I lay them out on the table, I compare the information and see all three are for the same time period though greatly vary in figures.
“What’s that?” Matthew asks as I look among them.
“Books, all quite interesting, all very different.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Brandon?”
“Three sets of accounting books, all the same time period, all with different figures.”
“How does that work out?”
“Clearly, they’re for three different groups of people. This one is marked with a P, and has the biggest cash flow. This one is marked TAX, and has the second biggest cash flow, though considerably less than the first one. And the third, marked CF, has the least amount of cash flow.”
“It’s clear the one which says ‘tax’ is for the IRS. But who the hell are the other two meant for?”
I shrug my shoulders. “I imagine the one with the ‘P’ is most likely personal. But I have no idea what the CF means.”
I put the three books aside, keeping them for us in case we need them. And continue to empty the drawers. I open the last drawer and find a used condom in it. “Fuck me,” I say.
Matthew chuckles as he steps over some boxes to come look inside the open drawer. “Disgusting.” He walks away and shudders.
“Do you know what? Let’s leave everything and just get the cleaners in to do their thing tomorrow. As of tomorrow afternoon, everything’s getting torn out regardless.”
“No wonder this place is such a dump. I’m going out to the bar to see what’s going on there,” Matthew says as he leaves.
I grab the three lots of books and step over all the shit carelessly spread out everywhere and follow him. I don’t bother closing the door, or doing anything other than walking out.
Matthew’s already checking behind the bar and shaking his head. “Look at this,” he says, motioning for me to come over. “Tea, already mixed ready to go.” He holds up a large container with the lid off as he sniffs it. “When someone is drunk enough, they’d give them tea instead of scotch and charge them for the alcohol.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
As Matthew and I look behind the bar the front door opens, Ted and Kyle walking in. “Mr. Edwards, Mr. Weston,” Ted says as he looks around the large empty room.
“Gentlemen, thank you for coming in on your nights off. I need you both to stay until after the cleaners leave in the morning,” I say while walking out from behind the bar.
“Sure thing,” Ted says and turns to Kyle. They begin to talk about how they’re going to secure the premises tonight.
The next couple of hours are spent with the locksmith and going over the place fro
m top to bottom.
It’s a fucking mess.
TWENTY-FIVE
Three days have passed and the Velvet Room officially no longer exists. The cleaning crew came in and got rid of everything, gutting the place and throwing everything out. Matthew arranged for a security system to be installed in the club and Justin’s already well underway with the remodeling and decorating.
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I take it out, seeing it’s Ted. “Mr. Edwards, there seems to be a problem down at the Onyx Room. There’s a gentleman here waiting for his payment.”
“Who is it?” I ask getting up from my chair in my office at the Onyx Club, grabbing my car keys about to head downstairs.
“Sir, he seems to be here for protection money,” Ted answers in a low voice.
“Protection money?” I stop at the door, perplexed by what Ted is saying.
“Yes, Sir. He says his name is Joseph Cabriatti, and the previous owner owes him money for protection.”
Fuck, I think I know what’s going on. “Tell him to wait, I’ll be there soon.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I walk over to Matthew’s office and he’s sitting in there, working on his computer. “We gotta go, there’s a problem.”
Matthew’s on his feet and ready to leave by the time I’ve finished the sentence. But I jog back into my office and grab the white ledger books I found. “What’s going on?” Matthew asks as he meets me in the corridor and we begin down the stairs.
“’CF’ I think is Cabriatti Family. Ted just called, said some guy named Joseph Cabriatti is waiting at the club for protection money. I have a feeling, ‘protection money’ is the money Lucifer owed him for gambling.”
“That’s not our problem,” Matthew says as we get in my car and head toward the Onyx Room.
“It’s not, but our club is in the middle of it. If we don’t deal with it now, then we’ll come back to a club on fire.”
“I’ll call Nathan, see what he knows about this guy.”
As I drive toward the club, Matthew calls Nathan and puts him on speaker.
“What’s happening?” Nathan answers the phone.
“The guy Lucifer owed the money to, was it a Joseph Cabriatti?” Matthew asks.
“Yeah, small-timer. No real clout, just runs a few drugs, loan shark, nothing big time. Is there an issue?”
“He’s showed up at the Onyx Room wanting protection money from Lucifer. Obviously Lucifer is no longer around, so we’re going to deal with it.”
“I can be there in a few minutes,” Nathan offers.
“No need, I think I may have something else of interest for him,” I say.
“Do I want to know?” Nathan asks.
“Not while you’re still a cop,” I add with a chuckle.
“Call me if you need me.” Nathan hangs up.
“What have you got in mind?” Matthew asks as we speed toward the club.
“We’re not thugs; we aren’t going to hire him for protection. But I do have something I’m sure he’d be interested in.”
“I see. I wonder if it has anything to do with that back page,” Matthew says with a smile as he continues to look ahead.
We pull up in no time and Ted’s outside with a guy in a leather jacket and short dark hair. Matthew and I get out and walk over to Ted.
“Joseph?” I say, holding my hand out to shake his.
“Who are you?” he asks, as he cautiously takes my hand, then Matthews.
“I’m Brandon, this is my business partner Matthew. We now own this club, but come in so we can talk.”
“You own the club?” he asks, surprised.
“Please,” I say indicating for him to come inside the shell of the club.
Everything’s been ripped out, and right now there’s only a painting crew in here and Justin, along with his personal assistant. “Give us ten, guys,” Matthew says to them all.
We need everyone out so if anything is said no one’s there to hear it.
“As we were saying outside, Matthew and I now own the club. Lucifer’s no longer around here.”
“Guy owes me money,” Joseph says.
“I’m sure he does,” Matthew says with a snide smile.
“Problem is, I provided protection for this place and because of it, Fredericks’ owes me money,” Joseph says trying to flex his authority with us. But Matthew and I know it’s not protection, it’s the gambling debt he’s owed for.
But to me, and undoubtedly to Matthew, he looks like a bottom feeder. No one interesting, no one to cause us a problem.
“We can’t help you with that.”
“Do you know who I am?” he asks.
“Joseph Cabriatti. But here’s what we know, Joseph. You’re small-time, but ambitious, and really want to make it through the ranks. I respect that, but we’re not interested paying you protection. Because as you can see, we have our own security.” I gesture around the club and point to the cameras installed everywhere.
Joseph’s top lip curls slightly and I can see agitation slowly creeping over him.
“But here’s the thing. I’m sure I can provide something to you to help you rise through those ranks quicker, if you’d like,” I add.
“How so?” He plants his feet hip width apart and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“With these,” I say holding up the ledgers.
“What are those?” he asks, his eyebrows knitting together.
And now I know I’ve got him. “Books. More specifically I found three ledgers, all with differing figures. One for the IRS, one that was Lucifer’s personal ledger, and one with the letters ‘CF’ which I assume is you. He was giving you dodgy numbers, and these prove it. Now if I was trying to rise through the ranks and be taken seriously, maybe making someone an example is what needs to be done. But hey, what do I know?” I ask Joseph but look at Matthew, shrugging my shoulders.
“Can I have a look at those books?” Joseph asks.
“You can, but just so we’re clear, I have copies of them in a secure spot. Actually if you turn to the back of the ‘CF’ book, there are some detailed reports about some activities he saw you involved with. Just out of curiosity, how’s that guy doing – you know, the one who was in the alley that night?”
Joseph takes the book and starts flipping through it.
“You know, the dates and times there could be dangerous in the wrong hands. For example, take that convenience store robbery, where the guy got shot in the leg. Man, it wouldn’t be good for the police to discover that,” Matthew says.
“Are you threatening me?” Joseph asks.
“We’re not interested in whatever thug you took down. We don’t give a damn. But this club, this concerns us, and we want your assurance we can do business in peace, in exchange for that book.” And there’s my offer. Walk away, don’t come back, and he can have the book to do with as he wishes.
“You can turn me in.”
“What need would we have to do that if we never cross paths again?” Matthew asks.
Joseph smiles and nods his head. Right now a very clear understanding has been reached.
“Gentlemen, nice doing business with you,” Joseph says. He takes the books, and leaves.
And hopefully soon, we’ll hear of a certain prick with concrete boots at the bottom of the river.
TWENTY-SIX
2 MONTHS LATER
Last week Matthew came into my office and threw a newspaper on my desk. He sat down quietly, sniggering to himself as he brought his arms up and rested them on his head.
“What do you want?” I asked him as I picked up the paper.
Matthew’s chin jutted toward the paper and he kept smirking. The headline read, “Dismembered body found in trash bags skirting river’s edge.” As I read the article it was clear to me that Joseph Cabriatti was most certainly using Lucifer as a warning to anyone else who thought to cross him.
Lucifer’s body had been hacked, placed in several trash bags, and dumped in shall
ow water. It seemed to me Cabriatti had done this to ensure Lucifer would be found and his demise interpreted as a warning.
When I finished reading the article, Matthew, still smirking, stood as quietly as he had entered my office, shrugged his shoulders and walked out…whistling.
That was the highlight of my week. Now though, this is the highlight of my month.
Petal’s kneeling beside me, wearing a tight, see-thru black dress. Bianca is kneeling by Nathan in just a collar and her leash, and Ella is sitting on Matthew’s lap in a thong and bra. Matthew and Ella have delayed their trip to France, Matthew saying he wanted to be here for the grand opening of the Onyx Room.
“Mr. Edwards, Mr. Weston, Mr. Stone, can I get you gentlemen a drink?” Lucy, our head waitress, asks.
We’re sitting in the VIP section of the Onyx Room watching a scene on the main stage. Tonight’s the grand opening of our BDSM club, and Nathan already told us we’re going to be at capacity. Doms, Dommes, Masters and their submissives have all turned out to see the new club. Word of the Velvet Room being taken over by the owners of the Onyx Club spread quite quickly.
Doms and Masters wanted to come and have a look at what we’ve done.
The club is split into a main viewing stage, equipped with everything a Dom would want or need for a scene. We also have three smaller stages, surrounded by smaller viewing areas, which can easily be converted to private rooms. Submissives not owned, have a choice of colored bands they wear around their wrists, which tell Doms their availability for play. Blue is for submissives only wanting to watch. Green is new submissives still learning, and red is for experienced submissives wanting to play.
Being the first night, we have the section set aside for unaccompanied submissives, filled with eager ladies and men wanting to watch and be played with.
“I’ll have a Grey Goose and a water,” I say to Lucy.
“Ardbeg Scotch and a soda,” Matthew says, then leans across and kisses Ella’s forehead.
“Water for us, thank you, Lucy,” Nathan says to her.
Lucy turns and leaves to get us our drinks.
“I thought you were going easy on the alcohol,” I say to Matthew as I pet Petal’s hair. Petal’s on her knees, her chin down, eyes down. Her hands are palm side up on her knees, telling me she’s ready to be played with.
