Chapter 11 Harrison
HARRISON
I put my hand in Bianca’s. God, her skin is soft. Does she bathe in olive oil or something?
“How are they going to move the body out of the club?” I ask Bianca. “Are they going to have to clear all the patrons to make space? I don’t want anyone panicking.”
She shakes her head. “That won’t be necessary. We’ve had incidents like this before. I mean, never in the middle of…” She swallows. “Rouge has a process for dealing with these things delicately.”
I drop my jaw. “Wait, people dying here is so commonplace that you have a procedure in place to handle them?”
Maybe I don’t have to feel so guilty about the old man after all…
But what I said earlier was true. There may have been a chance to save his life. We’ll never know, because I chose to fuck Bianca instead.
Damn.
She sighs. “You have to remember that Aces Underground started as an illegal speakeasy during Prohibition. Everything is by the books now, at least on paper. But Chet has often looked the other way when people bring in narcotics and other hard drugs. Sometimes we have to deal with an overdose.”
“How have you not gotten shut down?” I ask. “Aren’t clubs like Aces liable for any illegal goings-on on their premises?”
Bianca huffs. “You clearly don’t know my sister. She’s got everyone with a lick of power in this town wrapped around her little finger. She does whatever the hell she wants and has never faced any consequences for her actions.”
“But even someone as powerful as Rouge can’t just bring a dead body through the front door of the club,” I say.
“Who says Mr. Calloway is going out the way we came?”
I lift an eyebrow. “There are other entrances to the club?”
But then I remember. Rouge told me that there is a separate entrance for the club’s waitstaff. Maybe she can take care of this with discretion.
“There are several. Usually the overdoses occur either in private areas like the one we’re currently in, or in the bathrooms. There are ways to move people around efficiently without disrupting the clubgoers.”
“Damn.” I rub at the back of my neck. “What the fuck kind of a circus have I gotten myself into?”
“A circus with only acrobats. No clowns.”
I’m not sure what she means by that, but now isn’t the time. We have a dead body to deal with.
“I’ll tell Rouge about the body,” I say. “You should get ready for your set.”
She darts her gaze from one corner of the room to the other for a moment before nodding. “Okay.” She gets on her tiptoes and kisses me on the cheek. “Thank you, my white knight.”
She heads back into the main area of Aces.
I follow behind her but split off as she heads to the Hearts section. Rouge is mingling with patrons in Clubs. I cross toward her, steeling myself for what I’m expecting will be another weird interaction with her.
She raises an eyebrow as I approach. “Dr. O’Rourke. Lovely to see you again. I trust you’re enjoying your evening?”
“I’m having a great time.”
Not a lie. Fucking Bianca was the most fun I’ve had in years.
She nods. “Wonderful.” She then turns back to the other patrons in the Clubs section and continues her conversation.
I tap her shoulder. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s an issue of some concern that I need to let you know about.”
“You can take your concern to one of the waitstaff and they can assist you.” She waves me away with her hand, her bright-green fingernails cutting through the misty cloud of smoke cloaking the space.
“Your sister specifically told me to find you,” I reply.
She blinks. “Ah, yes. Your”—her eyelids twitch—“date. Since she seems to be running things this evening, I suppose I’d better see what the matter is.” She nods to the guests flanking her. “My darlings, please excuse me.”
Rouge and I walk to a private corner of the club.
She narrows her eyes. “So what is this matter of such urgency that I had to leave a conversation with some of my most important patrons, Doctor?”
I lean in, my voice lowered. “One of your patrons has…passed away.”
“What?” She looks surprised, but there’s a glint of something familiar in her eyes.
Something I’ve seen in the hospital in patients dealing with the effects of a drug overdose.
When I tell them their bloodwork is showing traces of cocaine, or heroine, or whatever, they give me the exact same look of shock. As if they have no idea how the illicit substances got into their bodies.
But I can always tell by that strange glint in their eyes. The glint that tells me it’s all an act, that they’re not surprised at all.
And that’s exactly what I just saw in Rouge’s eyes. It’s subtler than in my patients, but it’s still there.
She’s not surprised by what I’ve just told her.
Maybe it’s just because she set her sister up with a man in his nineties. Odds were that something bad was going to happen if he overexerted himself.
Or maybe there’s more to the story…
“Which patron?” she asks.
I’m pretty sure she already knows. “His name is Mr. Calloway, I believe.”
“Dear me. Where was he?”
“In one of your curtained-off areas.”
She closes her eyes and lays a hand over her heart. “May he rest in peace.”
Again, I’m not convinced. But before I can call Rouge’s bluff, she reaches into her cleavage and pulls out a walkie talkie. “Kreuzer, can you please join me for a moment?”
A huge man emerges from the smoke of the Clubs section, easily clearing a path. He’s at least six and a half feet tall, with the broadest shoulders I’ve ever seen. Long dark hair, tanned skin, and a handlebar mustache.
He isn’t a club member. This must be one of Rouge’s Kings. The King of Clubs, I assume.
Rouge approaches him. He dwarfs her in height, but she somehow seems to be the taller one. “Kreuzer, dear. We have a code SQ5 in the grand suite. Please take care of it as inconspicuously as possible.”
“Yes, my Queen.” The King—Kreuzer, apparently—bows his head and then swiftly moves behind the velvet curtains.
Rouge turns back to me. “Dr. O’Rourke, I want to thank you for alerting me to this urgent matter.”
“Of course.” I turn toward the Clubs section so I can hear Bianca’s next set.
She grabs my wrist, forcing me to turn back to meet her gaze. “However, Doctor, the only way you could have known what had happened in the grand suite would be if you went in there without a reservation. That’s against the rules, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
“He died on top of her, Rouge. If I hadn’t intervened, your sister would be dead.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Be that as it may, that is the second rule you have broken since entering Aces Underground. I should have had you escorted out once I found out you were not here as the guest of a member. I’m afraid I must now put my foot down.
” She gestures toward the green door at the entrance to the club. “Leave Aces Underground immediately.”