31
Orion
My ears were still ringing as I drove away from the restaurant.
It was so much later than when I’d normally head for the club—some of that was thanks to trying to take Whitney to dinner.
I still didn’t know how to process any of it.
She had a right to be angry. I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to talk to me again.
Now we had the complication that a child was involved.
Fuck, this was exactly why I never wanted kids.
I was really no better than my father.
I pulled the truck over to the side of the road, resting my head on the steering wheel, trying to steady my racing thoughts.
The night had turned into such a huge mess.
What should have been a celebration of completing a career-changing job for me turned into my wife finding out I’d been unfaithful,learning she was pregnant, and that the person I had been with was a guy.
A police car raced by with its lights flashing. It normally wouldn’t have bothered me, but it was quickly followed by two more. They were heading in the direction of the club—my heart stuttered to a stop.
“Please, no.” The words came out in a whisper as I started back up the truck, yanking it back onto the road in the direction of the club.
It was as if the nightmare of my evening wouldn’t end. The place was completely surrounded. I’d never seen so many police cars in one place before. Not only that, but there were S.W.A.T. cars with men in bulletproof vests. Has something happened? Were Sable and Victor in danger?
My brain went on autopilot. I needed to get in there to find them.
To check on them, seeing with my own two eyes that they were okay.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if my entire world fell apart in one night.
At least I couldn’t see any ambulances, but that didn’t mean no one was hurt.
It just meant that no one needed to be taken to the hospital.
I reached for the police tape, attempting to lift it to get closer to the club when I was stopped.
“Sir, you can’t go in there.”
All the air rushed from my lungs as two armed officers stepped in my way. Everything around me spun. I needed to see inside. Where the hell was Sable? It was his work night, so he had to be in there.he thought of him being so damn scared…
“Please, my friend. He—he works in there. I need to check on him.”
The police officers looked at each other. “If that’s the case, he might have already been taken downtown.”
“What?” The statement had my ears ringing.
The officer looked at me in confusion. “Sir, are you aware of what this club is?”
I shook my head. “It’s a strip club.” It would be stupid to say more than that. If something else had gone down, I could end up associated with it.
The officer sighed. “We’re not really supposed to give a ton of information at this point. We received a tip-off about a drug and prostitution ring that was operating out of the joint.”
I looked up at the building again. My mouth ran dry.
I knew about the prostitution. I’d even taken part in it the one time I’d paid for Sable, but drugs?
Something felt wrong about that. After getting to know my tiny little dancer, I knew he wouldn’t have stayed had something like that been going on.
Victor hadn’t given off any of those vibes either.
Neither had Jayden, but I’d clearly watched my friend slide down that path, anyway.
“Sir?”
The question snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked back at the two officers in front of me. “Yeah?” I answered back.
“Do you know anything about any of that?”
I shook my head. It was better to play stupid.
Because I didn’t know anything for sure.
It was better to say I didn’t know anything.
There was no use in getting people into trouble, or myself for that matter.
I’d gotten to know the people inside Faded Sins over the last few months.
They had become a sort of fucked-up second family to me.
Ones that didn’t judge me for sleeping around on my wife.
Maybe that was why it was the first place I’d thought of going after the disaster of dinner.
The front doors opened, with a group of people being escorted out.
They were all in handcuffs.My eyes landed on the man in tiny shorts and a mesh tank top.
Fuck, it was Sable.He looked so damn scared.
I wanted to get to him. To hold him and tell him I would fix all of this, but part of me felt a little disconnected as well.
Drugs? Why the hell had that been involved?
But that question dropped from my mind when Jayden came out in the same group. Victor was also with them. He kept shooting angry glances over his shoulder at my supposed best friend.
It felt like I was breaking everything I touched. If I had stopped coming to the club, would Jayden have stopped coming as well? Would he have kept my father’s drug dealing far away from the people who were just trying to make a living?
It was wishful thinking. I knew how Jayden operated. He’d picked Faded Sins for a reason. He’d dragged me along for that same reason.
Instead of continuing to stand there with the two officers, I followed the group of handcuffed individuals as they were led to separate patrol cars.
“Sable,” I called his name before he was pushed into the backseat of one of them.
His eyes widened as he looked up to see me on the other side of the police tape.
“Orion!” he called. I wanted to say fuck it to the rules again. To get to him.
But it was as if the other officers in the area knew where my thoughts had wandered.
They stepped up to the tape, preventing me from getting any closer.
My whole body ached to touch Sable. I needed to get him away from all of this because he’d done nothing wrong.
He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was no use. I couldn’t get past the cops who were now yelling at me,threatening to arrest me as well if I didn’t stop. Car doors closed. I couldn’t see anyone anymore.
Red and blue lights flashed as the patrol cars pulled away. The only thing I could do was get to the police station to see what it would take to get them out.
Things weren’t any better downtown. The police station was crowded with people trying to figure out what the hell was happening. It was even harder for me because I was only there as a friend. They were prioritizing family members. It made sense. That didn’t make my panic subside at all.
It took three hours before I was finally able to talk to an officer about Sable, Victor, and Jayden.
Victor was being held on charges of being an accessory to the prostitution ring. His bail was probably the lowest of all of them.
Jayden had the highest bail. I could afford to get Sable and Victor, but I couldn’t help my best friend.
He sort of deserved to sit there for a bit because it sounded like all of this mess was sort of his fault.
The cops had raided the club after several people had gotten sick after getting dirty drugs from there.
It wasn’t that meth or ecstasy were great to begin with, but these had been laced with other things.
It was what had brought the club under their scrutiny.
I wanted to murder my father. To hurt Jayden. They’d put too many lives at risk to make a quick buck, and I was sick of it. But paying bail? That took all the money I’d just made from Mr. George. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t let innocent people sit behind bars because Jayden was a dumbass.
None of it was a fast process. It probably didn’t help that I was trying to post bail for two people, not just one. It was a lot of responsibility on my part because I was essentially saying that I was financially responsible for these two, who in the long run, I didn’t know all that well.
The sun was back up by the time everything was said and done.
To say I was tired was an understatement.
All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and go to sleep.
That was the thought that reminded me that I no longer knew where my bed was.
I couldn’t go home after last night. Maybe Sable would let me stay with him for a while?
That thought flew out the window the moment he and Victor came around the corner.
The shorter man marched right up to me, placed his hands on my chest, and shoved.
“What the actual fuck, Orion.”
My eyes widened in shock.
“What the hell? I just bailed you out.”
Sable scoffed. “And you shouldn’t have had to.”
He marched out of the building. Both Victor and I chased after him. To my surprise, when I got close, Victor grabbed my wrist, preventing me from reaching for Sable.
I spun on him—the look of venom in his eyes took me back. Why were they both mad at me? I hadn’t done a damn thing.
“You knew.” The words flew out of Victor’s mouth, and I froze.
“What did I know?” Did I know that Jayden was selling? Yeah, but I had no clue it was happening at the club. Surely they weren’t holding that over my head. Though I guess if I knew he was selling period, they wouldn’t have even let him in the front door.
“He’s your fucking best friend. Don’t play stupid, Orion. You could have warned us—this whole thing could have been avoided.” Victor threw his arms in the air before he motioned around him.
He wasn’t wrong, but how the hell did I defend myself with that? That I wanted to play ignorant? Because it made me look just as fucking guilty. I might as well have been selling myself.
It wasn’t like I was done being yelled at for everything. Though I probably deserved it. There were people on the sidewalk, but it didn’t stop Sable from storming his way back over to me, turning me to face him and landing a slap across my face.
“Not only that, but how the fuck were you able to bail me out?”
“Kevin Spencer.” The name hung heavy in the air.
Sable’s eyes widened. “Where the hell—”
“The day I was at your apartment, we knocked over your mail. I didn’t mean to look, but it was right there. I knew they wouldn’t release you unless I knew your legal name.”
Tears welled in Sable’s eyes. “Fuck you,” was all he said as he turned on his heel and walked off down the street.
“You really went there?” I let out a heavy sigh at Victor’s question.
“He asked. What was I supposed to do? Lie to him?”
“Why not? You’ve been doing it for a while now.”
My eyebrows pinched in. “That’s not fair.”
Victor’s laugh was humorless. “Do us all a favor, forget you met any of us. Thanks for bailing us out, but we don’t need any more charity. This is a fucking mess.”
I was left standing there in the middle of the sidewalk as both men walked off in opposite directions.
This wasn’t how I saw any of it going. But what the hell had I really expected?
I was a fuck-up. The reason people had their lives ruined.
I’d ruined way too many of them in the last twenty-four hours.
There was no recovering from this.