Chapter 1
Chapter One
Fourteen years later
Silva
The bar is busy as I mix a drink while inclining my head toward the next client to get her order.
“Silva, I need something that’ll make me forget that douchey boys exist,” Mercy requests, sighing.
My brow raises as I hand over a rum and coke to the man next to her who appears amused. Widows Peak is very beta and omega populated, and a large portion of the town is out in force tonight since it’s the beginning of the weekend.
“Do I need to break his kneecaps with my tire iron?” I ask, already starting on her margarita.
Tequila tends to help drown a girl’s bad decisions, and the salt helps to cauterize the emotional wounds.
“What? No!” Mercy laughs, not thinking I’m serious.
She’s only been in town for about a month, so she doesn’t know I’m being deadly serious.
She came to fill a job as a new hairdresser.
“The asshole lied to me and told me he didn’t have a girlfriend.
I had no idea she’d been out of town visiting her sister. I’m an idiot.”
“Are you talking about Jason?” I ask.
We have about four thousand residents who live here, and I’ve made a point of knowing who they all are. Most of them have also had their backgrounds checked when they moved here. I don’t like to leave things to chance, and this is our safe haven. We worked damn hard to get here.
“Ugh, maybe I need to let you vet all of my hookups from now on,” she grumbles, making my lips twitch in amusement.
I don’t smile often, but my face is very expressive. If I don’t like you, I’ll tell you as much without saying a word.
“I’m not against it,” I say, shaking up her drink. “Salt ring?”
“The better to exorcise the demons with.” Mercy snorts, making me smirk.
I think she’ll be just fine. Finishing her drink, I set it in front of me and take her money.
“I know who everyone is and often who they’re fucking,” I say, winking at her. “Have fun.”
Moving to the next person, I pull a beer for them from the tap as I quickly glance around the club. Bodies are moving on the dance floor, the neon blue, green, and purple lights are bouncing over everyone, and business is really fucking good tonight.
Ten years ago, I escaped a sex trafficking operation with five other omegas because we didn’t want to be one of Gideon’s Dolls.
There’s no life in being an alpha’s perfect little whore.
I want to be loud, uncouth, and proud of it.
There’s nothing posh about me. It’s exactly how I like it.
I’m more likely to act out just because I can.
My sister walks across the club to talk to one of the bouncers, and that makes me smile as I place the beer in front of the man across from me.
Emmett is a good guy and an omega. I’m glad she has him, and that they finally made things official after years of close friendship. She deserves good things in her life.
“Do you want to open a tab?” I ask, waiting for the client’s answer as I set his beer in front of him.
“Sure. I think I’ll stay awhile,” he replies, handing me his card. He’s one of the cops from town, probably out to enjoy his night off. I don’t care enough to pull his name from my mind, so I nod and enter his card into my system.
Lark is a computer expert and our hacking blonde goddess, and she set up a lot of our systems for our businesses.
Anyone who can spend the time to explain my payment system to me without making things complicated is immediately moved to the front of the line as one of my favorite people.
I suppose it doesn’t hurt that we’ve spent so much time getting to know each other.
She’s definitely one of the good ones, despite the mess of trauma that binds us together.
“What can I get you?” I ask, continuing on to the next person.
I spend most of the night slinging drinks. I love being busy, the issue for me is when I’m alone at night with only my thoughts to keep me company. I much prefer being run off my feet, surrounded by people.
They help keep the memories of my past away.
Around midnight, I get a rare break from people coming up to the bar, and I sweep my gaze over the club. Briar is getting ready to get on stage to sing, and my bladder is beginning to scream at me. I need someone to take over for a second.
“Are you doing the ‘I need a bathroom’ dance?” Lexi asks, leaning over the bar.
I usually have someone else working with me, but she called out sick. I haven’t made it to the bathroom all night, so that’s exactly what I’m doing right now.
“Yes,” I tell her with a groan. “Do you feel like babysitting the liquor while I run out to pee?”
“Since I have no other choice, go,” she says, chuckling, coming around to take my place.
“Thank you,” I hiss, my bladder cramping as I limp toward the short hallway behind me.
I can hear Lexi at the bar announcing that the firefly had to fly, a play on the nickname she has for me, and I huff out a desperate sound.
There are bathrooms all over the club, but I’m headed toward the employees only section. Black candelabras hang from the wall with electric lighting to light my way, and they match the black chandeliers that I thrifted from a town just outside of Widows Peak.
I try not to leave often, but I got a tip that the store might have a few of the missing pieces I’d been looking for at the bar, so I jumped at the opportunity to go look. Lexi, Lark, Luna, Briar, and I own the club together, though it’s Lexi, Briar and I who work here.
Lexi does a lot of the bookkeeping and helps with serving, while I do the hiring and shopping for the club. We all chip in to help each other however we need to, and the town belongs to us as well.
We ran afoul of an evil man named Gideon, and this town was our prize for keeping quiet.
“Ow,” I whimper, running to the employee door that leads to our hallway. Entering the lock PIN number, I shove open the door and walk through it.
I make sure to kick the door closed before I continue on to the bathroom, pushing my way inside a stall for my bladder’s salvation.
“Fuck, I have to piss,” I gasp, peeling down my leather pants before collapsing on the toilet seat.
My eyes nearly cross in happiness as I do my business, and I’m breathing hard from how badly my bladder is cramping as I clean up and fix my pants. There’s nothing like having to pee so badly that you’re not sure if you’ll make it or not.
Opening the stall door, I walk over to the sink to wash my hands, dry them, and pull my hair down from its high bun. It’s beginning to give me a headache, and the AC is running high enough in the main club that I shouldn’t have any issues with overheating.
I fix my boobs in my corset top, knowing that’s the reason I don’t have to smile while behind the bar, and roll my eyes at the thought of having to be cute and sweet to earn a living. No, thank you.
Turning, I exit the room and walk quickly back to the bar. My heeled boots make a clipping sound on the floor as I hurry back, which I like to think of as a bitch walking with purpose. It’s the only way to walk, right?
Lexi likes to chat when she’s behind the bar, and I can see that she’s got a few people waiting.
Taking a deep breath I know makes my tits jiggle, I head back into the fray.
The club closes in two hours, and then we have more than enough staff to close up.
The cleaners will be in at five in the morning and have their own keys to handle whatever mess is left over from our customers.
They’ll clean the club from top to bottom so the town can party again in the small town style they’re accustomed to.
There are a lot of moving pieces to our business, and Hank was out here earlier in the day to save me from a heinous toilet situation. Seriously, it was a bad time.
“I haven’t seen Hank’s invoice yet,” Lexi says, stepping back to give me space to take over. We always seem to be on the same wavelength as twins. “The toilet was heinous. I want to make sure I pay him as soon as possible.”
“Whoever thought it would be funny to toss a rubber ducky in there and flush it is a monster.” I sigh, shuddering.
Yes, I’m serious. I was working last night, and it was an absolute mess. We had to close early, leaving me to beg Hank to come out to help. Thank god he thought it was funny as fuck once he fished it out of the pipes. The fucker was just big enough to get stuck.
“I paid him since I was here, and threw in a tip. He didn’t want to take it, but I claimed it was a duck's prerogative."
“That’s not a thing,” she says, laughing. Oops, my sister’s turning red from lack of oxygen.
I’m not really the type of person who is funny on purpose. It just kind of happens.
“He’s not going to be happy with that,” Lexi says, trying to catch her breath.
“Eh, he’ll just take it off our next emergency.” I shrug. “Hank’s handled though.”
She usually pays the bills when we have people come out to do maintenance, but I’ll do it if I’m around. Splitting up our duties is a dance that just seems to work.
“Thanks, you’re the best,” she says with a grin, leaving me to take back over my bar.
“A rubber duckie nearly took out Club 21?” Riley asks, a male omega who moved here three years ago. Everyone here has their own reasons for being in our protective bubble.
I’m fiercely protective of people who live here, and I plan to talk to Jacob about keeping his dick to himself the next time he’s in. Fucking beta asshole.
“Oh yeah,” I say, getting him another drink. “Water was everywhere, I had to turn it off at the valve. It was such a mess. We clean up well, huh?”
Riley gives my tits an appreciative glance. That’s not what I meant, but the twenty dollar tip is worth it.