I don’t care what it says in the blurb. Just because HEA is guaranteed, how is it going to happen when Lester and the entire fucking NYPD are shutting down my club?
Just as Austin got a phone call and stepped outside to take it, my own cellphone started to buzz. I picked it up, unlocked it, and now here I am, standing in the middle of my office while big bold letters, all in caps, seem to scream out me.
TIME’S UP, Lester's message reads, and I feel his dark and ominous shadow cast over my club.
He’s coming for me, and once he comes …
A loud bang drowns out the music. It's an explosion, a loud one, coming from the club’s main room. My feet carry me out of my office and into the balcony that overlooks the stage.
Everyone is screaming and running around aimlessly, empty space forming around a can in the middle of the room. Then that small can starts to spit out a white cloud of smoke and I realize with a sinking feeling that I really underestimated Lester.
He isn’t coming for me with a notice for me to close the place for inspection.
No, he’s coming for me with guns blazing, blood in his eyes.
“What the fuck is going on?” Lux screams at me, appearing at my side from God knows where.
“Lester,” I simply whisper, and her eyes become as wide as golden coins. She grabs the balcony railings to steady herself and then looks at me with a worried expression her face.
“You don’t mean to say that--”
“Yeah, I do,” I tell her, cutting her off. “He’s going to raid us, and make sure we close down for good,” I say gravely.
That’s when a small army of men in NYPD tactical uniforms storm through the place.
They’re all wearing gas masks to protect them from the smoke grenade, and they’re all holding rifles, not regular service pistols.
Lester is hitting me with a fucking SWAT team. Up until now, I thought that Lester was one of these guys, brimming with threats but never having the balls to act on them.
Why did I think that, hun?
Why was I so fucking stupid?
Because look at me now!
I was wrong. Jesus, I’ve never been so wrong, and the Dirty Destiny and all my girls are going to pay for my mistake.
Fucking Christ!
Another explosion in the distance.
Fucking fuck.
Excuse my language, okay? I’m just watching everything I built go up in flames.
I smell smoke now.
Fucking FUCK!
Okay, I need to keep it together. I need to act. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves and then look at Lux.
“Lux, I want you to get as far away from here as you can. Take every girl you find with you, and guide as many of them out of here,” I tell her as she looks at me with wide eyes. “I don’t want Lester to lay his dirty hands on any of my girls,” I say, and she simply nods and bolts.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” One SWAT guys starts yelling at the customers, all of them with their hands up in the air. They look like confused cockroaches, their eyes squinted because of the smoke, but they finally start lying down on the ground.
I look around, trying to pick Austin from the crowd, but I can’t recognize him from up here, the smoke covering the room like a blanket.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” I hear another yell, and then a gun goes off, the bright glow of the bullet being fired like a punch to my throat.