Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Ezekiel
Wait until I have a word with you.
I’m still fuming after the encounter I had with that girl earlier. Not only did she wander somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be and witness me beating that guy senseless, but she also dared to kick me in the balls. No one kicks Ezekiel Kavanagh in the balls without paying for it.
“Is everything okay?” Malachi says, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Did the questioning go wrong?”
“It got us nowhere,” I try to make myself comfortable by spreading my legs and leaning forward but it doesn’t do much to ease the discomfort. “The guy doesn’t have a clue about who hired him. He doesn’t even know anyone above him.”
“So he just followed orders like a dog?” Malachi doesn’t even try to hide the disgust in his voice.
“Yeah, apparently he was in it for some easy cash,” I nod. “But don’t think I’m going to let him off so easily.”
“Never thought you would.” My brother, knowing me a little too well, hands me a cigarette and lights it up for me. “What the hell happened to you? You look like a car ran you over.”
Instead of answering, I give him a warning look and he backs off immediately. Malachi might be my advisor and strategist, as well as the second hand of the Kavanagh family, but he knows his place. Not even he gets to cross the line with me.
It’s one of the advantages of being the head of the Kavanagh family. Ever since I took over, the fear and the respect people have been showing me has been nothing short of amusing.
Nonetheless, every now and then, the thought of what life would look like if I hadn’t been born a Kavanagh slips in. Or if my parents were still alive and the crown hadn’t landed on my head.
But it’s useless.
The dead stay dead and there’s nothing anything can do about it.
Being the head of one of the most feared Irish-American crime families in the city means that the city knows my name.
And not just that, people fear me and they bend over backwards to please me.
They show me respect and no one dares to even look at me in the wrong way.
I have people doing the dirty work for me, even though I don’t hesitate to get my hands dirty when necessary.
And right now, all I’m able to think about is how I made a mistake and allowed that girl to humiliate me.
The music starts and the first girl starts dancing. Objectively, she’s very good looking and knows her way around the pole. Her act ends quickly and the next one comes on stage immediately. Malachi writes something down in his notes.
I should be focusing on the performance and evaluating each girl alongside Malachi, but my head is in a different place entirely. It doesn’t help that the girls are far from the standard that we’re looking for, making it even harder for me to focus on their dance.
“They’re missing the spark,” I say and my brother nods.
“I liked the first one,” Malachi shares his notes with me and I see that he’s been scribbling down ratings for each girl and their performance. “But she doesn’t have the stage presence we’re looking for here.”
“I agree,” I lean back on the couch, regretting it immediately when the pain spreads through my crotch.
The worst part isn’t even the pain. I’m no stranger to pain.
What makes my blood boil is that every twinge is a direct insult and a reminder that she caught me off guard for half a second.
That half a second was already half a second too long.
The other girls continue their performance, but not a single one of them stands out.
I make a mental note to have a chat with the person in charge of casting. Eden is an elite club; we don’t do mediocre. Whether it’s strippers or drinks, we only offer the best to our customers.
After some time, my mind goes to the incident from earlier again.
“There was someone in the corridor,” I tell Malachi and he leans in closer to hear me over the music blasting from the speakers. “She saw me, but she ran away before I could catch her.”
“Did you recognize her?” Malachi stops looking at the dancers and turns his entire focus on me.
“No,” I shake my head. “But we need to find her and see how much she saw. I gave an order earlier to keep the club under lockdown and not let anyone in or out.”
Before I came to join my brother and judge the auditions, I had a conversation with the head of security, instructing him to lock all the entrances and prepare the camera footage for me to check after the auditions. I’m not going to let anyone set foot out of Eden until I find the girl.
And maybe make her pay.
“Do you think she works for the Devlins?”
“It’s possible,” I nod. She could easily be a spy for the Devlin family, or anyone else foolish enough to try and go up against us.
We all know what happens to those who try to challenge the Kavanaghs.
“But whoever she is and whoever she might work for, she’s not going anywhere until I speak to her. ”
A lot of people came to the club today because we are also holding interviews for service at the club.
That’s what makes me uneasy, the girl could be just anyone.
Even if I go through all the names, it might take a while until I find her.
And if she’s smart enough, she w be terrified right now.
But that’ll also make things harder for me and more difficult to find her.
“I can’t believe this!” My brother throws his notes on the couch a little too aggressively, making the girl closest to us look in our direction. He lowers his voice when he realizes that people are watching. “Wasn’t there supposed to be a security guard making sure no one walks down the corridor?”
“There was,” I crush my cigarette into the ashtray. “But there was another incident, so he was missing from his post to take care of it.”
“We will have to have a serious conversation with the staff here,” he picks up his notes again, and starts scribbling, though I doubt he’s writing evaluations right now judging by how pissed he is.
“Oh, absolutely,” I agree. “The incident is not a valid excuse. He’ll still get the punishment he deserves.”
“You have enough on your plate, I can take care of it,” Malachi suggests and I nod. If there’s anyone I trust with something like this, it’s the oldest of my younger brothers. He is the most strategic and organized one.
Another girl catches my attention briefly, but her short pixie cut and the polished looks still don’t make her seem like she’s on the level of Eden.
“Where are Cain, Elijah and Levi?”
“They’re in the private room,” Malachi explains. “Waiting for us to finish here so we can discuss everything.”
“Good,” At least something is still going according to the plan.
Eden is the crown jewel of the Kavanagh empire, though you would never guess it from the velvet ropes and the neon facade.
To the outside world, it’s just an elite playground, but to my family, it’s the lifeblood of our operation.
This is where the city’s most dangerous and powerful men come to shed their skin.
They come to drown themselves in top-shelf liquor, buy expensive, temporary pleasure, and lose fortunes at tables hidden far from the public view.
More importantly, it’s where the real machinery moves.
Behind closed doors, deals are signed, and millions of dollars in dirty, blood-soaked cash are quietly funneled through our legitimate books.
It is, without a question, the most seamless, valuable laundering machine we own, all while being disguised beautifully as a den of sin.
But lately, Eden has started spiraling out of control.
Tonight’s pathetic lineup of auditions is undeniable proof of that downward trend.
People are scared to work here because of the many rumors going around.
A large number of girls suddenly quit, while others have disappeared.
And that’s something we cannot allow to keep happening.
Even though Malachi may be handling strategy and the family’s higher-level operations now, I still feel responsible for the club and this has been keeping me up at night.
I’m under the assumption that someone is trying to weaken the club and my gut is never wrong, so whoever that is, when I find them, they will regret the day they were born.
“We need to find a solution quickly,” Malachi says, more as a broadcast of his thoughts than a continuation of our conversation. “If we don’t, we’re screwed.”
He’s right about that and I agree with him. While from the outside it might look like no big deal to just open another club, we will be losing a lot more than just the income.
That’s why I’m here tonight, overseeing the new round of auditions, which is not something I usually participate in.
Even though officially I run things from my family’s main office building downtown, with Eden being our most profitable front, I spend a lot of time at the club.
But my job is taking care of the money, not watch the girls audition for a stripper.
Still, I can’t let things slip out of my hands.
Not when so much is on the line. And if that means personally taking care of every little thing in this place, I will do it without hesitation.
Really wanting to catch the son of the bitch that’s been trying to bury me and my family is a great motivator.
“Cain has been getting really impatient,” Malachi continues. “You know how obsessive he can get, and with all of this, he’s becoming more and more anxious about catching this person.”
“I can’t say I don’t relate to that feeling,” I pour myself a glass of whiskey before briefly glancing at the current dancer on stage.
She looks like another replica of every single girl that auditioned before her and I immediately lose interest. “But we can’t lose our heads with this. We have to play it smart.”
The hazel eyes staring straight into mine in that hallway earlier flash before my eyes and I take another sip of whiskey to calm myself down. I might not be able to catch whoever is trying to take us down tonight, but what I will make sure of is that I will take care of her.
“Agree,” I notice Malachi is still scribbling something down in his notes, evaluating the girls. His ability to multitask never fails to impress me.
He always thinks several moves ahead. Malachi doesn’t get distracted by minor inconveniences and his strategic mind has always been one of his strong suits.
I would dare to call him a cold-blooded, psychologically ruthless genius, and even if we weren’t blood related, I would want someone like him to be my right hand.
I do not envy those standing on the opposite side of him.
Just as I’m about to say something else, the music changes to a sensual song, one that I really like, and both Malachi and I look up at the girl dancing.
She’s a little stiff at first, as if she doesn’t feel comfortable being here, but once her body starts moving to the rhythm, something takes over her and I can see her immerse herself in the dance, the song taking control of her body.
It takes me a minute, but I recognize her as soon as I take a closer look, even with the lights dimmed.
Her features appear softer as she’s dancing, and I notice that her body is incredibly strong. She’s on the shorter side, but the taller girls who came before her pale in comparison to her natural talent and charisma.
My balls are what is making me eager to get her into my office and have a word or two with her. They aren’t so willing to forgive her for that kick earlier just because of her pretty face and hot body.
Her beauty is nothing like the practiced glamour of the girls in Eden, and it’s what makes her stand out even more.
Suddenly my pants feel tight and I try looking away, but the way her hips move to the beat keeps me captivated, making me even more eager to be alone with her and question her to find out what she knows.
Our eyes meet briefly but I know she doesn’t recognize me under the stage lights. She continues moving to the slow beat, her blonde hair catching the red neon lights, making her look almost ethereal.
I grin, taking another sip of whiskey.
She thinks she escaped me, but she has no idea she walked straight into my cage.
“This one,” I tell Malachi when she finishes her dance. She’s the last girl to audition and we are supposed to take some time and discuss the decision before announcing it. “I want this one. What’s her name?”
“Riley Monroe,” He responds after taking a quick look at his notes. “But we need to hire two girls, so we still need to share our evaluations and...”
“Did she come with a friend?”
My brother checks his notes once again before speaking. “Yes, someone named Mia Bennett.”
“We need to hire both of them immediately,” I put my drink down. “You can let the other girls go home and inform the security that there is no need for a lockdown anymore.” But I will still take a look at that security footage and see what Riley has been up to since the moment she sat foot inside.
“All right,” Without questioning my orders, Malachi gets up from the couch and steps up on the stage, announcing who the two selected girls are. “We want to thank all of you for auditioning tonight and we hope you had a great time. Thank you!”
I watch the look on her face turn from neutral and composed into a complete terror as she recognizes me when I get up and join my brother on the stage.
I grin, taking the microphone from him. “Riley Monroe, please head to the manager’s office to take care of all the paperwork and documentation.
As for Mia Bennett, everything will be taken care of right here. ”
My eyes never leave hers as I step down from the stage, and oddly enough she doesn’t break eye contact.
I can still see the terror behind her eyes, that same fear that made her kick me in the balls earlier.
Yet she remains composed and professional, making me wonder if she’s used to wearing a mask even when her entire world is crumbling.
I can’t wait to know more about you, Riley.
“What’s all of this about?” Malachi asks as I move past him, heading to the office.
“It’s her, Mal,” I turn around to face him as I put my hand on my brother’s shoulder. “The girl who saw me beating up that guy.”
My brother’s face turns pale. He doesn’t say anything, instead he nods, his eyes finding her. I can see him thinking and I recognize that look in his eyes. I would be willing to bet I have that same look.
“We need to find out how much she saw, who she really is and whether she’s just an unlucky girl who happened to witness something that she shouldn’t have,” I glance at her one more time. “Or if she’s another problem I have to bury.”