“I’m going to make sure you never forget what it’s like to feel pain. Until your cousin tells my boss what he wants to know, you won’t rest. I’ll keep putting this needle inside you, making your body stay awake even when you’re exhausted.”
His evil laughter rings in my mind, something I’ll never forget. The pain bringer is the antagonist in all of my nightmares. It’s been two years, and he still haunts my dreams. I guess I should be thankful the worst thing is the nightmares. In the beginning I used to be startled at sudden movements, had the most negative self-thoughts I think I’ve ever had. For a long time after that I felt shame, like it was my own fault I was put in that situation. I’d wondered what life would’ve been like if my uncle never took custody of me after my parents died, or if I would’ve left when I turned eighteen. After a while I realized that regardless of what happened, even if I had left, those people would’ve hunted me down and still used me to try to get Benita to turn on her father.
A knock comes to the door and I rise, needing desperately to get out of my own head as well as away from Benita. I just need some fucking space. Pulling open the door, I see Maia, who’s one of the club’s barmaids. She and Cali are going to be the head bartenders at Pawns & Knights, the club’s restaurant that should be opening up in the next few weeks.
“Hey, I need some extra help down at the restaurant. Would you mind coming down and lending me a hand?” Maia asks. She’s one of the sweeter girls, so I never mind helping out when she needs it.
“Sure,” I immediately reply, grabbing my crossbody purse from the hook by the door, I look back to Benita. “I’m going to help Maia out at the bar, I’ll be back later.” Walking out of the house alongside Maia, I shut the door behind us and we walk over to her car.
Maia and I haven’t always been on the best terms, but it’s completely my fault because I was a raging bitch a few months back when I first came to the club. And I mean raging. I had this intense crush on Mammoth after he fucked me in Puerto Rico and then he came back here to the States with us. Within a really short time he started dating Riva and I was a bit cunty to her too, but it’s all in the past. These days things are different, although I’m sure my apology really helped the situation.
“Did you have some sort of tingling feeling that I needed help?” I ask Maia jokingly.
She looks over to me in confusion, drawing her brows together. “No, why?”
“Benita was just . . . overwhelming me,” I explain. No one here at the club knows about our past. It’s a hidden secret between Benita and I, but it’s not like I want to come out and tell the entire club I’m the niece of a man who works for a drug lord, who stole a kilo of cocaine, and then proceeded to be the reason I was tortured for months on end.
“Gosh, I don’t know how you two get on each other’s nerves so much sometimes.”
I shrug my shoulders. “We’re Latina, it’s second nature.”
Maia busts out laughing at what I’ve said and elbows me in my side. “Well, I lucked out you were annoyed with her. Otherwise you might’ve told me to ask one of the other ladies.”
She’s not wrong. There’s been plenty of other times I’ve done the same shit to her. “Yeah, and the last thing you want is Gigi to help you at the bar.”
Maia huffs and doesn’t hold back her eyeroll. “Yeah, I don’t need more broken glasses. Gamble was so annoyed when I told her we needed to order another case of pilsners.”
“I can only imagine. It would’ve been different if the chick slipped and fell, but she just dropped them when she saw Mugshot, so.”
Maia grumbles, “The girl needs to be less worried about Mugshot and more worried about helping out the club when we ask. But whatever, I’ll just ask you to lend a hand, especially when it helps you get a break from Benita too.” Maia opens the driver’s side door and I open the passenger side one. We both get in, buckle up, and before I know it, we’re on our way to Pawns & Knights.
The ride takes a little less than ten minutes because Maia drives like a damn lunatic, but I’m not complaining. She definitely knows how to keep your adrenaline pumping and your heart rate up. She pulls behind the restaurant, parks her car, and we both get out. We go in through the back entrance after punching the keycode into the door.
We go through a narrow hallway, passing the two offices, the storage room, and head straight into the kitchen. Cutting through the kitchen, we push open the double doors and are behind the bar. Gamble had a custom redwood bar top shipped from this guy out in California. I don’t even want to know how much she paid for it, but it’s fucking beautiful. The bar alone can probably seat thirty people because of its massive size. She had the remnants of the redwood put together to make table tops for the circular ones, and the booths.
“What did you need help with tonight?” I ask Maia, figuring it’s something to do with setting up. The bar should be opening in a couple weeks, so hopefully it’s nothing too crazy. I have to film with King later tonight for a video we’re shooting, so I need to make sure I have enough time to get back to the house, freshen up, and all that.
King and I aren’t in a relationship, but we work together, and he sure knows how to use his dick. God, thinking about it makes my core fire right up. He’s a hot man with his caramel skin and buzz cut, and god, if he’s wearing those gold-rimmed glasses it really magnifies the bad boy in him, but he’s not someone I could date. He’s total fuckboy material.
“Honestly, I need help organizing. I want to put the pilsners here, then wine glasses, drafts, pints, martini glasses, etc. And I’m thinking I’ll put the normal glasses over in this cabinet with some of the ones that don’t have a stem on the bottom to be hung. Do you think that makes sense?”
Why in the hell is she asking me? I put a hand on my hip and stare right at her. “You and Cali are the ones manning the bar, you should be asking her, not me.”
Maia rolls her eyes. Ah, I see. She and Cali got into it. That’s why she isn’t here helping and Maia came to me. “Look, I don’t ask you about your shit with Benita, so don’t ask me about my shit with Cali. ‘Kay?”
I raise my hands in surrender. “I wasn’t even gonna think about it. But, I have about an hour and a half before I need to head back to the club and get ready for my shoot with King.”
“I’ll have you back around then, promise.”
“Alright,” I reply, heading over to the edge of the bar where some of the glasses are sitting. “These clean, or am I doing dishes tonight too?”
“They’re clean, we just need to put them up, and . . . I don’t know if I’ve said it yet, but thanks for your help tonight, Flora. I really appreciate it.”
Chapter Three
“There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.”
~ Robert Jordan
Needles
Oddly enough, this is the first time I’ve been in our clubhouse other than when I’ve been helping build it. For once, my ass is planted on the pleated leather couch underneath me. With my feet hanging up on the opposite side of the couch, the only other people in here with me right now are Gamble, Hart, and Ace. Ace is walking around, wobbling a little bit, but according to Gamble it’s normal given her brain injury. Though, through therapy they’re hoping she’ll be able to walk normally when the time comes.