75. Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Four
Riley
The nightmare is always the same. Every single time. Like my thoughts are stuck in a loop.
It’s after midnight, and the penthouse suite party has been raging for close to an hour.
I’m talking to a cute fan who seems a little too sweet for this party.
She’s twenty-two, so she’s old enough to be sitting here, drinking vodka and acting flirty, but she’s not like the other girls who usually show up to these things.
I think she might like me too much.
She’s not a party-girl like the others.
No. This girl wants more from tonight than a fun experience.
If we do something, she’s going to think it means more than it does.
I’m not into breaking hearts, so I give Larry the signal, and he swoops in to lead the girl out of the room. He’ll call her a cab and wait with her downstairs. She might be confused, but that’s better than she would have been if she’d stayed.
I can’t have a serious girl’s heartbreak on my conscience.
The other groupies surround me on the couch after a minute, and I realize I’ve been with all of them, more than once. Most of them are semi-regulars. They come to some of the gigs, and they probably hang around other bands, too. They’re fun and they don’t expect much.
That’s more my speed. I let them refresh my drink and get flirty with me, and each other.
The night is starting to get interesting.
One girl offers me cocaine, and two of them are getting each other off in front of me.
Now, this is what I call a party.
I snort the line and that’s when Larry comes back.
He has a girl with him. Not the one I asked him to escort out.
This is someone else. Someone I’ve never seen before.
He ushers her into the bathroom and closes the door.
Kinda weird, but whatever.
Larry usually gets lucky with one of the semi-regulars.
New girls are always welcome, but it’s usually Xane and I who vet them, and it’s not just about vibes.
Strangers can add dangerous elements.
Drugs, weapons, recording devices.
Xane and I know what to look for.
Larry knows, but he’s not as thorough once he decides he likes someone.
If that girl flirted her way up here, who the hell knows what she might be hiding.
“Excuse me, ladies. I need to use the bathroom.”
I disentangle myself from the party girls and make my way over to the door Larry just closed.
I knock, loudly, twice, before I turn the handle.
It’s locked.
The girl hasn’t been vetted, and now Larry’s locked himself in a room with her.
One red flag could be a mistake. Two feels intentional.
I guess I’m breaking a door.
I roll my neck and crack my knuckles before I kick the door until it bursts open.
The room is dark. The only light that’s on is the one above the bathroom mirror.
I can hear soft moaning, and when my eyes adjust enough to take it in, I can see Larry holding the girl over the bathtub. She’s half-dressed and basically completely out of it, and he’s giving me a guilty look.
“I can explain …” he starts.
No one who ever says those words has a good explanation for whatever they’ve been caught doing, and I know from one glance that he’s no exception.
I take a step forward, and a hand lands on my shoulder, making me stop.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Xane asks. “Did you break this door?”
Words are gone for me. All I can feel is anger.
I don’t know if it’s because of the drugs.
All I do know is Larry is dead to me.
He lets go of the girl, leaving her slouched over the bathtub, skirt pushed up, panties torn …
A growl escapes my lips, and Larry’s face turns deathly pale.
“Larry …” Xane murmurs. “What did you do?”
Larry looks from me to Xane, panic swelling up as he paces in the enclosed space that I’m blocking him from leaving.
“It’s not what it looks like. It’s not. She was … She wanted to be alone with me. She said that when we were in the lobby.”
“Let me past,” Xane asks, calm as always.
He touches my arm, and I know he can feel how tense I am, how ready I am to attack this bastard. I move to let my lead Alpha into the room.
Larry lets out a relieved sigh. “Thank God. Xane, I …”
“Shut up,” Xane snaps. “I’m only coming in to check on the girl. You can go to hell.”
He grabs the front of Larry’s shirt, pulls him closer and then pushes him toward me.
Our manager lands in a snivelling heap at my feet.
I grab him by the back of the neck, waiting for Xane to check on the girl.
He checks her pulse before he adjusts her skirt to cover her better.
“She’s alive, but she’s out of it. What did you give her?”
“Nothing! I swear. It wasn’t like that …”
Xane opens the trash can under the sink.
He grabs a tissue and picks something out of there.
An empty syringe.
“What’s this?” he asks, voice cold as ice.
I grab Larry’s neck harder and he groans.
“It’s not … It’s not what you think.”
“Then what the fuck is it, Larry?” Xane looks at the syringe and looks back at him with pure venom in his gaze. “You know, I think there’s a drop left in this. Why don’t we see what it does to you?”
He grasps the syringe like a weapon and raises it above Larry.
“Fucking hell, no!” Larry shrieks. “Stop!”
Xane rolls his eyes, lowering the syringe.
“Talk, and you get to walk out of here,” Xane tells him.
He gives the bastard an expectant look, and Larry breathes heavily for a few seconds before he mutters, “All right. Fine. Give me a second.”
“Second’s over,” Xane snaps.
“I’m so fucking sick of your fucking rules,” Larry mutters. “You know no other bands give a shit what age the girls are or if they’re wasted or whatever, right? In fact, some of them encourage …”
I dig my nails into his skin, and he lets out a yelp.
“Not the point,” he goes on, voice strained.
“This one flirted with me downstairs. I saw she was underage, but she’s not some coy little virgin.
She was high, and she wanted more. So, I brought her up here.
I was gonna send her home safe like always.
Another ten minutes and she would have been gone. ”
Xane closes his eyes briefly, before he puts the syringe back into the trash.
“You’re a piece of shit,” Xane tells him. “You can do what you want to him, Riley. I’ll look after the girl.”
“Fuck no,” Larry blurts. “You said I could walk out of here if I talked.”
“What did you give her?” Xane asks.
“It’s only a sedative. She was already high. I thought it would chill her out.”
Xane doesn’t look convinced. I don’t blame him.
It doesn’t make sense.
We thought Larry was like us.
But he’s not, and I was right. Nothing he says can excuse what he did.
I drag him out of the bathroom so Xane can help the girl in peace.
A chorus of shocked gasps from the quartet of semi-dressed party girls in the main room of the suite does something to my brain. I get back the ability to talk.
“Night’s over, ladies. Pack up and call a cab. There’s cash on the nightstand in my bedroom.”
These girls know how to hustle. They move like I told them to get it done yesterday.
The first blonde stops on her way out, and kicks Larry in the leg.
“That’s for telling me I could stand to lose a few pounds.”
He groans as she walks away.
The others do the same.
“That’s for what you said to her.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I hope Riley rearranges your stupid face.”
Then, they’re gone, and I’m alone with my punching bag.
I toss him against the couch, and I get ready to unleash my anger.
It feels like an ending, but it’s only the start of a terrible chain of events.
My knuckles are bloody and my body is tired by the time I’m tossing Larry’s dumb ass out into the hallway. He has broken bones, cuts and bruises, but he’ll live. I’m not sorry for what I did to him, but my own nightmare is only beginning.