How had I been so stupid? If she was in danger, it was my fault. It was all my fault. I was in a surveillance van. If anyone could have scoped out her date and made sure he wasn’t some freak, it was me. I owed her. She’d given me so much in my life. Not just our night of passion, but over the years, she’d given me so much more than I ever deserved. She was the reason I’d been able to push through my bad habits and become the man I was. Everything was because of her. And I hadn’t checked out this Rob guy to make sure he was safe.
I tore through the streets at breakneck speed. The van wasn’t built for it, and behind me, the surveillance equipment flew all over the place. I didn’t care. I rounded the corner and pulled to a skidding halt outside the club as if being chased by a fleet of police cars. The crowd waiting outside the club all turned to look.
I stormed out of the van and approached the door. Luckily for the security guard, he recognized me. I know I said slime balls frequented Club Viper, but I wasn’t exactly a stranger to the place myself. I’ll admit it, I sometimes like to party.
“Grant,” the guard said, stepping out of my way.
“You see a blonde come in here with a douchebag named Rob?” I said.
I was about to pull my wallet from my pants. No one knows this but I have a picture of Lacey in there, in a tight compartment at the back, behind my credit cards. I look at it sometimes when I think of her.
“They came in,” he said, “but the girl already left.”
“What?”
“She left about twenty minutes ago. Went that way.” He pointed down the street. “She looked like a million bucks.”
“Who did she leave with?”
“She was alone?”
“Alone? In a neighborhood like this?”
“If I’d known she was a friend of yours, Grant.”
“She’s more than a friend.”
The guard looked at me helplessly.
“Fuck. Did she at least get a cab or something?”
“She walked.”
“In heels and a short dress?”
The guard nodded.
“Fuck, man. You know what can happen to a girl around here.”
“I didn’t know she was your friend, man.”
“She’s not my friend. She’s my fucking family. She’s everything.”
The guard shrugged. I peered down the street in the direction he said she’d gone.
“Did she look okay?”
“She looked like she was in a hurry, but she was fine. No one followed her or nothing.”
“So the guy she came with is still inside?”
“Rob? Yeah, why?”
“Show me the fucker.”
“Grant. You’re not going to cause trouble, are you? As far as I know, nothing bad happened to your friend.”
I pushed past him into the club. He followed at my side.
“Call her my friend again and I’ll lose my temper,” I said.
The guard was a good kid and he knew me well. He brought me to the VIP area and pointed at a table surrounded by a couple of the slime balls I mentioned earlier, and their groupie whores.
“I’ll take it from here,” I told him.
“You sure? They’re nasty.”
“I’m just going to talk to them,” I lied.
He seemed relieved and waited at the entrance of the VIP area while I proceeded alone up the steps.
“What’s this?” one of the slime balls said, a martini glass in his hand.
I smiled at him. The girls all looked up at me, real interested in what I was going to say. Girls like that have always been drawn to me. I’ll be damned if I know why.
“Which one of you fucks is Rob?” I said.
“Hey,” the guy with the martini glass said. “You can’t talk like that about Rob.”
Another guy, a big guy with a beard, stood up. “And who the fuck is asking?” he said.
“If you guy’s aren’t Rob, there’s no reason for you to get hurt,” I said. “That’s the only warning I’ll give.”
The guy with the beard looked at the guy with the martini glass. Then they looked over their shoulders at three heavies who were watching everything. All five guys started approaching me.
I shook my head. I didn’t have time to smash up a bar. I had to find Lacey.
It was the guy with the beard that reached me first. He swung a punch, which I dodged, then grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him, face first, into a tray of champagne flutes. A heavy was next, his lumbering movements pathetically slow. I swung my knee into his groin and then slammed him down on top of the bearded guy. A second heavy landed a fist on my shoulder but I leaned away from it and he stumbled forward. A fist on his chin, followed my another on his neck, took care of him. The last heavy and the guy with the martini glass hesitated at this point. It was a wise decision.
The entire club was watching.
“Rob,” I said again. “This is the last time I ask nice. After this, it’ll be time to start calling paramedics.”
They looked at their friends in a crumpled mess on the floor.
“Fuck you,” the guy with the martini glass said.