Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
Ivy
A few days later
“Table six,” the bartender says, scooting the tray with drinks toward me.
“Got it.” I make my way through the crowd of people dancing to a table on the left of the club where I recognize a girl from university—Sunny Reed, Silas’s cousin, is laughing with her friends, all wearing extravagant, over-the-top outfits covered in glitter. Her long, black-and-green hair falls beautifully over her tattooed skin, and she looks like she sparkles in the club lights.
I place the order in front of the group, and they cheer in unison, grabbing their drinks.
“Happy birthday, Sunny!”
“Can I please take these off?” she grumbles, picking at the hat on her head that’s covered in bright lights.
“Nope!” another girl says, and she takes a picture. “It’s just for your birthday, promise.”
“The last one, yeah,” she adds. “Because I’ll definitely throw myself off the bridge after tonight.”
The rest of the girls holler at her, and she grabs her drink and chugs it down in one go, then hands it back to me. “Another one.”
“Sure,” I say, smiling awkwardly, but the stone-cold look on the face of the girl just won’t budge.
I’ve never seen anyone this pissed off to be a birthday girl.
I shrug and turn around but feel woozy all of a sudden, and I catch myself on one of the booths. My legs have started quaking from the lack of energy, but I have to keep going. No time to slack off. I’ll catch up on sleep during some off hours at the university. I need this goddamn money more.
I pick up the next order at the bar. “Table twenty. In the back.”
“Got it,” I say, swiftly placing everything on a tray before I whisk it away.
Even if the work is tedious, I’m grateful to be able to do this on the side with my studies. It provides just enough money for me to ensure Cora has a warm home and a full belly. Everything else is gravy on top.
And even though this is a RIVERA club, I feel relatively safe here because there’s no way Silas knows any of the people who work here at his mom and dad’s establishments. There’s no way those fuckers would come looking for me here. They’re too busy playing the rich and popular guys to even notice a girl like me.
Besides, what I took from them was peanuts of the wealth they have. I’m sure they’ll have forgotten about that tiny amount of money I stole before the week is over.
Heath
From the booth in the back of the RIVERA club downtown in Crescent Vale City, I watch the server with the flowy dark-brown hair and the downturned smile bring the drinks and food to customers while weaving her way through the crowd. She’s expertly dodging people like she’s done this a million times before, but after every delivery, she takes a moment to catch her breath against some piece of furniture while her knees wobble.
It’s almost like she’s overexerting herself, pushing herself to the limit until she can no longer function. And for what? A few measly dollars?
I wish I understood.
How does a girl who works here have the money to go to such a prestigious university, let alone the time? If she’s studying during the day and working at night, when does she sleep?
I’m intrigued.
Too much to let Max have all the fun.
She moves effortlessly between the people dancing on the floor as she serves the customers like her life quite literally depends on it, wearing a fake red-tinged smile and sweet eyes like she’s skilled at faking it.
I wonder what else she’s skilled at … and I won’t wait for Max to squeeze his way into her life before I find out more.
I roll the hearing aid between my fingers and look away as she approaches the table behind me. I hide my face in my hoodie and turn toward the wall, but when she passes me, I grasp her wrist.
She stops in her tracks and looks at me with that fake smile on her face, and seeing the realization of who I am slowly dawn is nothing short of perfection as her smile withers away into oblivion.
“Out of all the places you could work … a RIVERA club is the one you chose?” I muse, staring at her from underneath my hoodie.
“What the—”
She tries to jerk free of my grip, but my hand easily encompasses her entire wrist. “No. You answer to me now.”
I briefly flash a knife under the table until she’s spotted it and immediately stops resisting.
She places the tray she was holding down on my table. “What are you doing here?”
I raise a brow. “I can ask you the same thing. What kind of girl chooses to work at the place of the man she robbed?” Her face turns snow white as a smirk creeps onto my face. “Sit. Down.” I eye the seat in front of me until she understands she’s not going anywhere.
She swallows and nods, after which I release her, and she gently shuffles into the seat in front of me.
I get it now, why Silas called her a twig. She’s so thin I could probably fit my whole hand around her thigh too. Sickly thin. Like she could end up in the hospital if I so much as sneezed in her direction.
“What do you want from me?” she asks, folding her arms.
I grab one of the drinks she was supposed to serve off the tray. Taking a sip, I recoil at the taste.
Apple juice? Who orders apple juice at an adult club?
“I want to know why you stole from us.”
She snorts. “Good luck figuring that out.”
My eyes narrow. “So you admit it?”
“I don’t admit to shit.” She scoffs. “You came here to spy on me, didn’t you?” She sucks in a breath. “How did you know where to find me?”
She’s quick. I like that. “It was easy to figure out once Silas told me your name. A lot of Spine Ridge University students come here. They talk.” I pause to glare at her intently. “I make them.”
Her eyes glance toward the knife I’m still clutching underneath the table. There’s not a hint of fear in her deep brown eyes, only rage, and it puts a smile on my face because now I’m only more intrigued.
“Now … care to tell me why you stole from us?”
She merely stares at me like she can’t believe I had the audacity to follow her here and ask her to tell me the truth.
She sits back in her seat with folded arms and says, “No.”
Her eyes sparkle with defiance, and it rouses my cock.
“Like I said, I didn’t do anything.”
This girl …
Even with the threat of us looming over her, she refuses to give in.
I like her.
“You have something that belongs to us,” I say. “I have something that belongs to you.”
I fish in my pocket and take out the hearing aid, placing it on the table in front of her.
Her eyes widen as she realizes what it is.
“Go on. Take it.”
“This is a trap, isn’t it?” she mutters. “You wouldn’t just give this back to me.”
“I have nothing more to gain from keeping it,” I answer. “I’ve already learned everything I need to know.”
Her face slowly turns ghostly, and I can’t help but wonder what kind of thoughts swirl through her head. If she’s wondering whether I know more about her than just where she works.
The answer is yes.
She tries to snatch the hearing aid off the table, but I grab her hand and stop her when she’s covered it with her hand. Even if there is no fear in her eyes, I can feel it oozing off her skin, the terror exciting the darkest parts of my soul.
This is the only part where Silas and I are alike.
“You think you’re safe, hiding out here in a crowd. But there is nowhere you can hide from us. We know it was you.” I lean across the table. “And whether you tell us the truth or not, you will pay for your crime.”
She stares me down for a second, refusing to back off. Then she jerks her hand free, along with the hearing aid, jumps off the seat, and marches straight toward the exit of the establishment without even saying a single word to the man who hired her.
Guess I really frightened her.
A wicked smile forms on my face.
Good.
Ivy
“What are you doing?” the barkeeper yells as I grab my bike out of the stand.
“I can’t do it anymore. I quit.”
“What?!” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. “But I need you tonight! It’s packed in there!”
I sigh and take a moment. “I’m sorry.”
The disappointment on his face hurts, but there’s nothing I can do.
I can’t go back there.
I can’t ever go back there because they’ll be waiting for me, and I can’t risk it.
I jump on the bike and race off before I change my mind.
Fuck .
I have to get out of here.
The wheels spin as fast as possible as I make my way across several intersections and weave through traffic, getting as far away as I can from Club RIVERA. My heartbeat is shooting through the roof as I pedal wildly, crisscrossing the streets in the dark, barely avoiding an oncoming car. I stop for nothing, not even a red light, and nearly getting myself killed almost feels like the easier option.
Until that sweet little face pops into my mind again, and I immediately slow down.
Cora … she’s waiting for me to come back, to hug her and tell her everything will be okay. She depends on me.
And I’m failing her, over and over.
I have to go home.
I breathe through the pain and swallow back the tears as I keep biking through the city, but every car and every motorcycle that passes me makes me do a double take.
What if they’re following me?
What if Heath only gave me back the hearing aid and said all those things to gauge my reaction? To see how far he could push me before I snapped?
To watch me leave … and follow me straight to my own damn home?
No.
I shiver in the cold and head right into one of the many city parks, where I stop near a bench and sit down. I pull my phone from my pocket and ring the neighbor until she picks up.
“Hey. It’s me.”
“How long ’til you’re home?”
“I … I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“Can you watch Cora and my cat for me?”
“What do you mean? Like … at night?”
“Yeah,” I say, still shivering.
“Oh fu—”
“Please.” I’m not opposed to begging. “I can’t come home.”
“Why?” She sounds like she’s suspicious of me.
“It’s not safe.”
She grumbles for a moment, and I can tell it’s hard on her too, but I can’t tell her the truth or she’d never help me out.
“Please, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” I say. “Just for a few days. I promise I’ll be back.”
She sighs out loud. “Fine. But you owe me. Big time.”
A load falls off my shoulders. “Thank you. I’ll pay you.”
“You’d better.”
“Yes, definitely,” I assure her. “I’ll give you double.”
“Good. Because I have other things to do.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Thank you. Thank you for helping me out.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She hangs up the phone before I can say anything else, and tears immediately spring to my eyes.
That’s it. It’s done.
No more Cora.
At least not for a little while.
And even though I should feel relieved for not having to take care of a young kid for a while, the tears still stain my eyes at the thought of disappointing her, too.
I promised her I’d keep her safe. I promised her I’d make a life for us.
And now I lost the only job I had to get us some extra much-needed cash because of those fuckers who stalked me there. All because my hearing aid fell out.
I fish it out of my pocket and stare at it for a moment.
Those boys are ruining my only chance at staying at this university, ruining my job, ruining everything I worked so hard to achieve. And for what? Money that means the world to me yet is pocket change to them.
They’re almost making me regret stealing from them.
Almost.
But I need that money more than them.
I need it more than I need my sanity.
And if this is the game they intend to play with me …
Then I will fucking give it my all to bring them down.