“What? No answer? You still want to stick with your story, that it was some kind of joke?”
“It’s just that Fiona was a bad fit! She doesn’t belong with us. You all have to see that!” she yelled, obviously frustrated. Looking at Crow, I thought Dolly would plead for his help again, but it was Reaper she set her eyes on this time.
“Prez, you of all people have to see that I was just helping. She was going to tear the club apart! She was already putting wedges between the Brothers and the club girls. I was doing what wasbest for everyone!” Dolly yelled defiantly. In an instant, Reaper had pushed himself off the wall until he was right in her face.
“You are in no position to say what is or is not good for the club. I don’t know where this sense of authority came from, but hear me when I say this. You have no right, no ability, to determine what happens at the club. You are responsible for your actions, and that means you fucking tell us what we need to know.” All color left Dolly’s face as she struggled to find a response. Drawing her attention back to me, I started on the questions I needed answers to.
“Where did you get the GHB?”
“A friend gave it to me and said it was a party drug. That if I slipped someone a little, they would finally let loose. I just wanted you to have a good time,” she sputtered.
“Which friend gave it to you?” I asked, not liking the way she was avoiding eye contact.
“Just a friend. Why does that matter? ” She was speaking quickly now, her words almost fighting each other to get out.
“Of course it matters. If there are drugs in the club, we need to know where they’re coming from,” I followed up, getting fed up with her half-assed responses.
“It wasn’t like I was dealing! It was for personal use, and it wasn’t a regular thing.”
“How long can you hold your breath, Dolly? Scythe, you think pliers would do the trick, or should we take this up a notch?” I asked, and watched a scary smile spread across his face.
“I’ve heard she’s a screamer. The pliers might get a little hard on our eardrums. I’m all for good old-fashioned waterboarding,” Scythe said, with something near glee in his tone. Dolly looked around at him, trying to gauge if he was serious.
“So? What’s it gonna be, Dolly? You ready to start talking, or should I let Scythe have his fun?” I demanded.
“It was Trish! Trish gave me the GHB and told me what to do with it,” she admitted finally.
“Trish?” I barked out as the guys gave each other a look. “What does she have to do with this?”
“We’ve been friends for a few years. She was the bar manager before Ginger, when I was stripping at Honeys. The three of us get together for drinks and stuff when we can. When she told me Fiona got her banned and asked for my help, I agreed.”
Alarm bells rang in my head at the mention of Honeys, especially now that I knew Trish was scheming behind the scenes. I glanced over to Reaper, and he gave me a look, indicating we were on the same wavelength.
“When Ginger took over for Trish, how long were you still working at Honeys?” Reaper asked in a deceptively calm voice.
“I don’t know, maybe for like a month? You guys moved me to another club that needed more dancers around that time, since Honeys was fully staffed,” she replied.
From her response and blank look, it was clear that she didn’t have any additional information regarding the missing money or knowledge of what we were referring to. Pushing that aside for the moment, I got back on track with the questioning.
“How many of my beers did you spike?” I pivoted.
“Just the one. Your last one. I don’t know how much I put in it. I didn’t want to hurt anyone! I just wanted to break you guys up, get Fiona out of the picture so things would go back to normal!” She wailed, sobbing now, ugly, deep cries.
“Normal how?” I asked, confused, since I’d never had much interaction with Dolly in the past.
“Well, you had been with Trish. She knew how things worked, and was a better match for you. I was just trying to look out for you. For the club.”
“What exactly did she tell you?” I prodded.
“She told me how you guys had been together for years. That you took breaks because you had your needs, like most of the Brothers, but you always came back to her. She said Fiona had poisoned you against her, she already got the other girls on her side, and she would shove me out too!”
“What the fuck?” Scythe and Bull said at the same time.
“Why would Fee care about you? What sort of help did you agree to give Trish?” I asked.
“And when did she give you the GHB?” Reaper followed up.
“A week or two ago? We knew that Fiona doesn’t get what this world was really like, that she’s too snobby to handle a man like you. Trish suggested that I find out what Bash was drinking and make sure I was the one who refilled his next bottle. You know, so I could make sure he was the only one who took the drug. That way, Fiona could see what he was like when he was acting like his regular self.”
