Chapter Twenty Three
Charley
Being back on wait staff duty is not what I was expecting, but that is where I find myself while the others are up dancing or doing whatever else in the back rooms. I’ve avoided being questioned by anyone about Callum by staying out of the dressing room.
Lily keeps trying to get my attention, but I have avoided her as well.
I’m not mad, especially given what happened between me and Callum and he told me he didn’t speak to her much, just grabbed my things and left. I just want her to stew a little because she gave me up way too easy. In all likelihood it won’t be long before we’re talking again.
I meant what I said to Callum, it feels like I’ve found the place where I’m supposed to be, where I can be happy.
It’s Saturday night, and after the unexpected closure of the club yesterday, we’re at capacity tonight so I’m run off my feet.
Ellie has been walking the floor talking to people and making sure everyone has what they need. I notice her talking to a couple of men in suits who remind me of the asshole who tried to assault me at the private party.
It amazes me how she handles people, when one of them puts his hand on her lower back, two of his fingers grazing down between the crack of her ass. She bats her lashes and laughs at whatever they’re saying while twisting herself away, but taking hold of his other hand so he doesn’t feel rejected.
“She’s a master at the art of get the fuck off me.” A voice says from behind me.
My guard immediately goes up but when I see the cut, I relax. Marginally. He’s eyeing me in much the same way the suited guy was to Ellie.
“I’ve been watching you,” he says, leaning one elbow against the bar where I’m waiting to collect a drink order.
“Did you need to order a drink?” I ask, not looking at him.
“Not like that sweetheart,” he leans forward to get my attention on him.
I give him a cursory look and a small smile then turn back to Max loading drinks onto my tray. He drops a couple of straws into the tall glasses and looks at the man. He can’t say anything because Max is an employee, and this guy is in the Disciples.
“It’s really busy, I have to get these drinks out, can I catch you later?”
He looks disappointed, but he nods and I lift the tray and walk away. It’s heavier than normal but I’ve got this down to a fine art now and move like a pro through the tables, delivering drinks to booths in my section.
Lily is on the stage when I set down my last drink and I glance up at her.
She winks as she turns around and looks over her shoulder at me, wiggling her ass.
It makes me laugh and I take one of my twenty-dollar tips out of my apron and slot the bill under the waist of her G-string, making her laugh too.
“That was hot,” the guy at the table next to me says. “Why aren’t you up there?”
“Who would bring your drinks if I was up there,” I smile and walk away before he starts any more conversation.
I glance around my area to see if anyone is waiting for a drink and notice Ellie with that same man from before. He’s standing quite close to her and I’m about to turn away because Ellie is good at getting rid of men but he pulls her into him.
Ellie’s back arches in a way that makes me think something must have bashed into her stomach. The guy must be drunk. Looking around, I spot Walker and wave a hand to get his attention, but he doesn’t see me. When I glance back, the man is helping Ellie into an empty booth.
Shit, is she sick? I start towards them as the man backs up, and that is when I see what is in his hand. At first it looks like a trick of the light but I got used to carrying a knife when I lived at that house. I watch in horror as he slams it into her again.
I scream as loud as I can, startling the people around me, and the man looks over at me.
I don’t think, I just react and throw my tray at his head. I’m close enough that the impact is hard, and he stumbles backward, grabbing onto whatever he can to stop himself hitting the ground.
Grabbing a bottle of beer off the nearest table I run at the man and swing it at him, clipping his chin. He thrusts the knife toward me and I use the bottle again, slamming it down on his arm. His fingers open and he drops it, yelling out in pain. Before I can hit him again, he turns and runs away.
The commotion has finally got the attention of Walker and some of the other bouncers and people are hurrying over. Leo reaches me first.
“That man, he attacked Ellie, grab him!”
“What? I just watched you assault a customer.”
“Walker!” I scream, frustrated at Leo for not listening. “Grab him!” I point at the fleeing man.
Walker doesn’t question me the way this other asshole is and I elbow my way past Leo, falling to my knees at the booth where Ellie is now slumped to the side. Her eyes open as I touch her.
“Ellie,” I reach for her trying to pull her up. “Are you okay?”
“He…” her hands drop to her waist and when the red lights above flash blue I can see the blood.
“Call 911!” I scream at Leo, who is finally fucking realizing something is wrong.
I jump up and tug the cloth off the table, bottles and glasses flying everywhere, then press it to her waist.
“You’re going to be okay, I promise,” I tell her. “Try not to move okay. An ambulance is coming.”
Behind me I can hear Leo calling for help. People still don’t know what is happening but the girls on the stage have all stopped dancing and are looking over at me. The men who work here are running around, starting to clear people away.
“Charley,” Lily comes up behind me, takes one look at Ellie and her mouth drops open.
“Don’t panic,” I tell her. “Move that chair, help me keep her upright, push here.” I take her hands and press them down on the cloth over Ellie’s wounds.
Everything I say, she does and the other girls come over and form a barricade around Ellie. She might be hard and aloof but she loves this club, and she loves the dancers. She would fight to the ends of the earth for any one of us.
The girls get the table out of the way and I move around to Ellie’s side and sit down, taking her hand, and helping Lily keep the cloth in place to try to stop the bleeding.
“Stay with me Ellie, okay, open your eyes.”
Her lids flutter but the pain is clear all over her face. She tilts her head toward me and opens her eyes, trying to speak.
“Don’t talk,” I tell her, putting my arm around her and holding her tight.
“Have… to,” she whispers, a groan following.
Even with stab wounds she is being stoic. She is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met in my life. Her elbow nudges my side as she tries to lift her arm. There is a card between her fingers. It’s covered in blood. I’ll worry about it later, but she pushes it at me.
“Tell Beast… tell him… it’s about storm.”
“Storm? What storm? Ellie, please don’t talk.”
Two men run up and move the dancers out of the way. One has a first aid bag, but they’re not paramedics. The lights go up and I notice the club has been cleared of everyone but staff and members of the MC.
Lily backs up and lets one of the men kneel down by Ellie. I lift the tablecloth, and she cries out as he touches her.
“Be careful!” I yell at him.
“I need to find the wound,” he says, not in the least bit concerned about me shouting at him.
Ellie winces and I stroke her hair, squeezing her hand. A tear squeezes from one eye and runs down her perfectly made up cheek.
“Ellie, you can’t let this asshole beat you,” I tell her. “Fuck him for thinking he can take you down. You’re not going to let him do this. You fight. Okay, you fight, don’t stop fighting, promise me.”
“You think… I’m going to… let that loser…” she closes her eyes.
“Ellie,” I turn and touch her face as the man cuts her dress. There is blood everywhere. It takes great effort not to show the horror on my face.
“Paramedics are here.”
“Walker,” I look up at him, my nose and eyes are burning as I fight tears.
“She’s gonna be fine,” he assures me, then turns to clear the way for the paramedics.
They take over and ask me to move.
A roar from behind me makes me jump and I turn to see Beast storming across the room. Walker jumps in the way to hold him back so the medics can get Ellie on the stretcher and get her out to the ambulance.
“Let them do their job.”
“Get the fuck off me!”
“Beast, fucking calm down.”
“Who the fuck did this?” he screams.
That’s when I remember the card in my hand. I walk over and grab Walker’s arm. He moves back as if he is about to tell whoever it is to fuck off but he frowns when he sees me. Beast’s eyes are wild, I can finally see what Callum means when he says he lives up to his name when he has to.
“Beast.”
He turns to me and looks down at my clothes, his eyes full of horror. I’m covered in Ellie’s blood so I get why but I don’t have time to worry about it.
“No offence Charley but you need to get out of the way.”
“I saw him.”
He pauses and looks at me again. Walker explains that it was me who raised the alarm and that I’d interacted with the guy. Beast shoves Walker off and steps right up close to me. If I didn’t know him, or if I hadn’t seen him with Ellie, I’d be terrified of the way he is looking at me.
“What did he say to you?”
Looking around, I see everyone is watching, all of them looking shocked, scared or angry.
“Clear them out,” Beast says to Walker, then holds out his hand to me. He starts walking to the exit, following after the medics who are rushing out to the waiting ambulance. “What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything, but I saw him… stab her. I tried to stop him but he ran.”
He winces when I say stab but he doesn’t lose the intensity in his eyes. We walk out into the dark night, punctuated by the red and blue flashes of the ambulance.
“He gave her this,” I hold out the card. Beast takes it and turns it over. It’s hard to read the writing, so he pockets it and goes to walk away but I grab his arm. “She told me something.”
“What?” he takes my arm, squeezing tighter than he needs to but I don’t try to pull free.
“She said there was a storm, or it had to do with the storm.”
His face changes immediately, his whole body goes tense. I have no idea what is going on but whatever the message Ellie was trying to give him, has made his whole body lock up and his eyes go cold. He turns to the ambulance and looks torn. Before they can close the doors, he pulls me over to them.
“She goes with her,” he tells the man who has just loaded her into the back and he looks down at me. “Stay with her, Charley. There will be men following and they’ll meet you there. Only men in Disciples cuts get near her. Keep her…” he chokes up then sucks in a breath. “Don’t leave her alone.”
He doesn’t mean he wants me there to protect her.
He means she needs someone there that she knows, someone that can give her comfort.
I haven’t been around here long and am sure one of the other girls would be better to go along but Beast doesn’t hesitate to guide me nearer.
I glance down at my outfit, the paramedic is staring too, wide-eyed.
“Get her a coat,” Beast snarls at him.
The man opens a cupboard in the ambulance and hands over a padded red jacket that says BCFD on the back and sleeves.
I’m grateful for it, it’s cold out here.
Not that it does much to cover my legs, but it helps with my top half which is only covered by the apron, I haven’t bothered with the nipple covers since I did the dance with the other girls.
Beast helps me into the ambulance and glares at the paramedic.
“Do not let her die,” he threatens.
Fair play to the guy, he doesn’t make any promises that he can’t keep which only worries me more. Beast steps back and slams the door, shutting us inside.
I stay out of the way as the man gets back to doing what he can to stabilize Ellie. I notice her eyes are open and she blinks at me. An oxygen mask covers the lower half of her face.
“You’re going to be okay Ellie,” I reach over and touch her shoulder.
It takes a little over five minutes to get to the hospital and I hang back when they pull her out and wheel her through the ER doors.
The rumble of bikes alerts me to the Disciples arriving. No one can stop them going inside, ushering me along with them. They form a barrier around the bay where Ellie is taken, not getting in the way of the doctors, but not allowing anyone else to get near her either.
Almost immediately they come out saying she needs to be taken to surgery. One of the men talks to a nurse and after Ellie has been wheeled out, we follow along, one man going with them after some low and persistent conversation.
Another nurse takes us to a waiting area where we’re left. The third man who went with Ellie arrives a few minutes later and says she has gone into theater, where he can’t follow.
And now we wait. They don’t introduce themselves to me but one of them gets me a coffee, while another produces a blanket to wrap around my legs. My phone is still in my bag in the dressing room at Elegance so I have no way of getting in touch with anyone.
My mind is on Callum. I’m sure he knows what has happened by now, I just don’t know if the man in charge of his club is going to let him come here, or they’re going to be looking for the man who hurt Ellie.