Then I raised myself up and put my ugly fist in her pretty face. And when I drew my fist back up, her face was bloody. I have never felt as satisfied to my very gut as I did then. I could feel the delicious rage that I had been keeping in check for so long course through my veins as I brought my fist down again and again.
But then there were hands biting into my arms and pulling me up. So I used my feet. I kicked out in angry arcs and I even managed to get Veronica in the ribs a couple of times before Leon’s voice broke through my rage-induced haze.
“C’mon, girl, stop it,” he said.
He held me back and Nicky bent down over Veronica. “Goddamn it, it looks like you broke her nose. Now I’m going to have to take her to the hospital. Leon, get Davie outta here.”
The rage had drained away, and I was left mesmerized by the sight of Veronica on the floor. Blood was streaming out of her nose and running down her face. And her eyes were dazed and unfocused.
“No,” I said, “I want to stay.”
But Nicky wasn’t having it. “Leon,” he barked. “Take her up to her apartment and keep her there. I’ll take this one out the back door.”
Leon pulled me out of the dressing room before I could protest again. The last thing I saw was Chloe puking into a waste basket before Nicky kicked the door closed.
. . .
Leon ended up depositing me in my apartment, which smelled a little stale from disuse, since I had been staying at Mike’s for over a month now. “What do you want me to tell the Puppy?” he asked.
The Puppy is what everyone at the restaurant had taken to calling Mike, because he followed me around everywhere.
“Tell him I won’t be working tonight, and I need a ride back to his house. I’ll meet him down in front of the club, so that we don’t run into Nicky taking Veronica out.”
Leon hesitated, torn between following Nicky’s command to the letter and knowing that he still had a security detail to get back to downstairs at the club. Babysitting me was definitely outside his job parameters.
After some more reasonable arguing on my part, he caved and called down to the head waiter, Tyrone, who went and got Mike at the bar. But before we left the apartment to meet Mike in the parking lot, Leon made me put a jacket on over my waiter’s uniform. That’s when I realized that there was now blood all over my white shirt.
. . .
Nicky called, sounding tired, just as Mike and I were walking in the door.
“So you broke her nose and bruised her ribs.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Yeah, well . . .” he answered. “It could have been worse. You could have killed her, and you would’ve maybe gotten away with it, too, since according to Chloe you messed her up in self-defense. Plus I got her on trespassing for sure. Do you know that bitch actually broke the lock on the back door to the club? I’m going to have to replace it.”
That made me smile. “Nicky, you sound a whole lot more upset about having to spend money on a new lock than about me nearly losing my eye,” I said.
Sadly, I don’t think he was joking when he answered, “Them locks ain’t cheap.”
“You should make Veronica pay for it then.”
“Trust me, that’s exactly what I’m going to make Miss Priss do—as soon as she get done with the nose doctor.”
. . .
After I hung up with Nicky, I changed out of my uniform into a Strokes T-shirt and jeans. Then I came back downstairs and asked Mike if he had gotten a chance to eat at the club.
“I was almost finished when Tyrone came to get me,” Mike answered. “I’m pretty full.”
“Good,” I said. “Because I need to go out for a while. But I’ll be back later tonight.” I leveled him with my best mama stare. “I’m going to trust you here alone, because I know that you’re stronger than your addiction.”
Mike nodded. For once he didn’t look stricken when I said I was going to have to leave him for a little bit.
. . .
Twenty minutes later, I was idling outside of James’s gate in my Toyota.