“School is over,” she says turning to face me now. “And there’s no time like the present.” She grabs my hand and pushes the door open for me.
I let Savannah pull me by the arm as we walk down the hall heading back to the bar. I cringe as the music blares the closer we get. As we come up to the bar, she comes to a stop, and I run into the back of her.
“Seriously,” I hiss as I try to hold up my drink, or what’s left of it.I’ve worn enough of it already.
She spins around to face me. “Blane’s gone,” she announces over the music. Before I can respond, she gets up on her tiptoes and looks around the club for him.
I do the same, and when I come up with nothing, I look back down the hallway from which we just came. “Maybe he went to the bathroom?” I offer.
She bites her lip nervously and then nods her head. I’m not all that nervous because he wouldn’t leave us here. I start to walk back down where we just came from when I see one of those private room doors is open. I look into it as we pass and see the back of my brother as he sits down in a chair. Without thinking, I walk in.
“Blane, what are you doing …?” My words trail off when he jumps up from his seat, and my eyes land on the black coffee table sitting in front of him. “What the hell, Blane?” I shriek as I see a baggie full of pills on the coffee table. “Are those drugs?” I demand. My brother doesn’t take any kind of medication. He doesn’t even like to take Tylenol when he has a headache.
“Is there a problem?” a man who sits across from my brother demands as he jumps to his feet. He glares at my brother in question.
“I assure you, there’s not.” Blane places his hands up in surrender. He then turns to face me and narrows his eyes at me. “Is there, Taylor?” he snaps.
“Of course …” Savannah grabs my arm and yanks me backward. I can feel her body physically shake as I press against her.
“Please, shut up,” she begs in my ear.
“But …” She digs her nails into my skin, and I grind my teeth together. I take a deep, calming breath and nod my head. Speaking wouldn’t be good at the moment.
I look up at the man who still stands in front of my brother. I now realize he was the man I saw standing on the stairs earlier. His body is stiff and his hands are fisted by his sides; his tense posture pulls at his tattoos on his arms as he stares down at me with narrowed blue eyes.
“No problem,” I say trying to defuse this situation. I sure as hell didn’t get out of bed to get my ass kicked by a man who looks like he wants me dead.
“You need to leave,” he demands with a deep voice.
I blink a few times as he directs his attention to Savannah and me. “Excuse me?” I question. You hear about situations like this all the time—drug deals gone bad. Is that what this is? Oh, my God, is my brother selling or buying drugs? I suck in a shaky breath. “Blane …”
The man cuts me off. “Leave.” He delivers the one, simple word as a demand with the promise that if I don’t walk out right now, there will be consequences.
My heart beats hard against my chest, but I square my shoulders and lift my chin. Trying to find some courage, I swallow nervously, but my brother has made no attempt to tell the man otherwise. But I refuse to leave without him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see something move and turn to see what it is. My heart stops beating completely when I see it’s the security guy who stood at the bottom of the stairs by the entrance. As I turn to face him, I take a step back. He looks much bigger as he stands in front of me. I can see why someone would choose him for security. He’s gotta be over six-foot-four. And it’s not only his height. He’s massive everywhere else as well. His shoulders are wide as if he once were an NFL player. One of his thighs is bigger than my waist. His black security shirt is tighter than most pairs of jeans I own.
I give him a nervous smile trying not to show him that I’m terrified of his size. The smile he returns to me is nothing less than threatening. It makes the hair on my neck stand up.
The security guy takes a couple of steps toward me, and the man speaks again. “If you don’t leave this room right now, I will have you escorted out.”
I panic as my eyes fly from the security and to the other guy. “I’m not leaving without Blane,” I find the courage to say.
“I’ll be right there,” Blane assures us before he tosses the security guy a hateful look. “Just wait for me by the bar.”
“But …”
“Go!” Blane shouts getting pissed at me.
I take a deep breath as I try to calm my racing heart. I throw the guy dressed in all black one last look before I grab Savannah by the hand and storm past the security guard and out the door.
CASE
I stand in one of my private rooms as I stare at the guy in front of me. Blane knows he fucked up. “I didn’t know I had to inform you not to bring bitches to our meetings,” I grind out.
He was watching the door as the two women left. At my words, he turns to face me. “I tried to leave them behind. I thought I could do it without getting caught,” he snaps.
I raise an eyebrow at his tone. He takes a calming breath. “And they’re not just bitches, so don’t call them that.”
