Better When He's Brave

On my hands and knees I scrambled across the floor, trying not to think about how gross that was, until I got to her. Her gray eyes were wide open and I could hear that she was gasping for air. A few moments ago she had tried to kick my ass and now she looked like she was dying right in front of me. I put my hands over the bullet wound and told her, “Hey, you can’t go anywhere. This place needs you.” I meant the city, not the sleazy strip club, and I hoped she knew that. “You get me, Keelyn.” Her eyes drifted closed and I pushed harder on the wound.

Her blood was hot and stick as it leaked through my fingers. “Key?” No response, so I pressed even harder and hollered, “Honor!”

Her eyes popped open and she snapped at me, “Don’t call me that.”

I laughed a little and then was roughly pushed aside by hard hands. I looked up at Nassir as he sank down on his knees next to us. Without a word he stripped off his expensive suit jacket and tossed it to the ground. It immediately got trampled under fleeing feet.

“You can’t die.” His voice was harsh as he pulled off his pristine white shirt and balled it up into a makeshift bandage as he pressed it to the nasty wound. The situation was dire, but even so I took a second to admire the landscape of smooth, burnished bronze skin he revealed. Nassir wasn’t built like a mountain like Titus, but he sure was pretty and I’d had no idea the enigmatic club owner had a massive tattoo that covered his entire back. From shoulder to shoulder and all the way down his spine and even into the top of his tailored slacks ink marked his skin. I couldn’t make out what the scene was and it wasn’t the right time to take a good look at it.

“I can do whatever the hell I want, Gates. You don’t own me.” Key wheezed the words out as she struggled to breathe.

To which he growled, “I would if you would let me.”

I was glad Key sounded like she had some of her natural fight back and now that some of the smoke had cleared I wanted to make sure Titus was all right. I didn’t know what was up with those two, Key and Nassir, but it was intense and slightly suffocating.

Titus was kneeling next to Chuck, who also seemed to be bleeding pretty heavily. My gaze darted to the stage and I cringed when I saw the dancer crumpled like a lifeless doll in a heap. I didn’t need to wonder if she was dead or not, the steady trickle of blood from the side of her head was a clear indicator. She was too young to meet an end like that. The gun was still clenched in her hand and there was scattered money and the scent of expelled gunpowder everywhere. It looked like a scene out of a Tarantino movie.

I made my way over to Titus and breathed a silent sigh of relief when his eyes darted up to mine.

“I knew something was off. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I kept staring at her, trying to figure out if I knew who she was or if I had seen her somewhere before . . . I thought she might have a warrant out or something. It was the fucking gun. I should’ve known it was real.”

Chuck grunted and asked Titus to help him up. “It’s my job, man. I’m the one that should’ve seen it.” His dark eyes drifted over to where Nassir was leaning over Keelyn. “Better get some help for her quick. If that girl dies he will lose his ever-loving mind.”

“I already called it in.” Titus put his hands on his hips and survived the carnage that surrounded us. “Who was she?”

Chuck was poking at his shoulder and I saw him totter on his feet a little as he prodded the wound. I reached out a hand to steady him and all three of us looked to where the girl had fallen. I wondered if it was Titus who had taken the shot or one of the other guys.

“I don’t really know. Nassir hired her on to replace the girl we lost on the docks. She told him she was a student and just needed some extra cash. You know how crazy he is about security. She would have had to pass his background check.”

Titus shifted on his feet and reached behind him to collect a kicked-over chair. He shoved it at the big bouncer. “Sit your ass down before you fall over.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the scene. “It could be Roark.”

I fidgeted nervously and nodded a little to show I agreed with his logic. “The girl he killed looked like me, but she also worked here. He knows how vital Spanky’s is to the Point and to Nassir and Race now that the Pit is gone. Conner could have planted her inside here.”

He didn’t say anything but I could see him considering my words carefully, so I added, “He’s handsome and charming. He knows exactly what to say to get you to believe you are the only one for him. She was young and probably was just an innocent college kid. He knows how to pick his targets. Maybe she was supposed to try and destroy Spanky’s from the inside out and he heard that we were here tonight, so he upped the game. She was staring at you, Titus. That first shot was meant for you.”

I was sure of it, and I was sure Conner had a hand in this and I could see by the stony expression on his face that Titus agreed. Just then the doors to the club burst open and EMTs with gurneys rushed in. Keelyn and Chuck weren’t the only ones injured in the cross fire and everyone was watching Nassir like he was a bomb about to go off.

Titus’s cop buddies showed up, and all of a sudden I was just the girl he was fooling around with in the bathroom and not the other half of the team that was here to take down a criminal mastermind. I sighed heavily and went over to the bar to pour myself a drink and wash even more blood off my hands.

There was always more blood, always more violence and mayhem, and I hated feeling like my decision to come back had increased the volume and frequency on both those things.