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I SANK BACK AGAINST the plush leather seats behind me, and watched as the girl in the cage next to the door rolled her body this way and that. She really knew how to move. Had I seen her before? At a certain point, all of the girls who worked for me started to blur together.
Either way, this one was good, and I could already see a couple of guys hanging out near her, looking to hit her up for a private dance as soon as they were able to. I hoped she took them for all they were worth – the house got a cut of it, after all, and I knew every dollar in her pocket was a few cents in mine, too.
“Your turn,” Ian, one of the gambling regulars I was playing with, prompted me. I turned my attention back to our game – I wasn’t even sure what we were playing, to be honest, but something that was easy for my booze-addled mind to make sense of – and looked down at my cards.
Reaching for my drink, I took a long sip to play for time. I didn’t want to play yet, not until I was sure of the move I was going to make. That was something I had learned from my father – no point in doing anything until you’re sure it’s going to benefit you, and that wasn’t something I was going to let get away from me.
Finally, I laid down a couple of cards on the small, glossed black table between us, and looked up at Ian, cocking an eyebrow. He sighed, tossed down the rest of the cards he had been holding, and shrugged.
“Guess I’m getting the next round.”
“Guess you are,” I agreed, and I grinned as he rose to his feet and headed to the bar. A little time to myself meant a little time to check out how things were going in the club – it was buzzing tonight, mostly with clientele who had been here with the previous owner. When I bought this place up, I had known that I was stepping into an already-crowded nightclub scene, but I had picked out this particular club because I knew it was in a good enough location to keep people coming in and out no matter what.
Grisham’s was the kind of club that your girlfriend didn’t want you to go to. Full of dancers – in cages, on stages, in private rooms at the back – and gambling and booze, where plenty of bad decisions were welcome. That was just how I liked it. We’d only been open a couple of weeks under my ownership, but I could tell it was going to be a lucrative new venture for me. And a fun one, too.
I had always picked out new purchases I knew I was going to get something out of. What was the point of doing it otherwise, honestly? My father had solidified us in this city, which meant I could relax and look into stuff that I genuinely enjoyed. Which was exactly what I was intending to do.
I had already picked up a wrestling team, a minor-league baseball team, a paper company, and now this made the second of my clubs. I had been a little surprised when Harry, the previous owner, had agreed to sell it to me, given that it had always been pretty successful under his watch, but then, people didn’t really turn down our family. If we came to you with an offer, then you would do well to take it.
“Besides, I’ve been wanting to retire,” Harry had told me as he handed over the deeds to confirm this place was mine.
“I’m just getting started,” I replied, and he had given me a nervous smile. I knew people were always going to be like this around me, given the reputation my father had earned for himself in this city, but I didn’t mind that. It meant I didn’t have to go out of my way to ensure that everyone respected me. They just did it automatically, and that was how I liked it.
And this club... well, it had already turned out to be a good idea. The girls who worked here were the hottest in the city, the ones who had people coming back for more - I was pretty sure there were a few guys there planning proposals to some of the chicks who were throwing it back for them right now. And the atmosphere was buzzing and bright. Everyone was here to have a good time and make sure they didn’t miss out on the chance to get a seat at one of the best spots in the city.
I could already think of all the ways that I could make this bigger, better. I knew that we could expand into a new upstairs area, maybe a champagne room for the girls who wanted to rinse the really big spenders. Get a few drinks in them, get them a little horny, and dudes would put down pretty much anything it took to ensure they got a shot with the girls here.
I’d been like that once, too, but I was smarter now. I knew it was just a performance for them, that they headed backstage when it was done and called their boyfriends or babysitters and headed home. But as far as I was concerned, Hennesey’s was about keeping the fantasy alive for the guys who hadn’t figured out the truth yet.
I glanced over at Ian, who was having a hard time catching the bartender’s eye at the bar, and reached for my drink. Just whiskey over ice, nothing fancy. I didn’t need anything more than that. I was here to have a good time, same as everyone else, but I wasn’t going to let myself get sloppy. I didn’t want anyone thinking they could get the better of me, just because I was having fun like the rest of them.
The smell of perfume mixed with vodka hung in the air, the sharp mix of sweetness and bitterness enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I loved being in places like this, feeling the anticipation crackling around me, knowing that pretty much anything could happen as long as I decided it sounded fun enough....
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, thinking it might be one of the girls letting me know that she was going to be in late or something. But when I saw who it was, I felt a cold wash of fear hit me hard.
“Crap,” I muttered. It was Mauro. And I knew Mauro wouldn’t have been reaching out to me right now unless something serious was going on. He knew there was little point in coming looking for me past nine in the evening, that I would be out having the time of my damn life and loving every moment of it. If he was reaching out, it was because something serious had happened.
“Call me .”
That was all the message said. The fear didn’t dissipate. I grabbed my drink and headed to the back door of the club to get a little air, the thumping music fading away as worry started to ring in my ears.
“Mauro, what’s going on?” I demanded, as soon as he answered his phone.
“I’m at the office,” he told me. “Come down, as soon as you can.”
He hung up after that. He was never a man of many words at the best of times, but it was clear this was far from that for him. Mauro had worked with my father for years now, was pretty much his right-hand man, and I knew that we owed him a hell of a lot. He was one of the reasons I had been able to shift towards a more legit business, and I knew that he wanted it to stay that way. As much as my father looked out for me, Mauro was the one who steered me in the right direction when I was getting a little too caught up in one thing or another, and I needed to remember that.
I was starting to sober up already as I climbed into the cab that I flagged down. I had been tipsy, maybe heading towards drunk, but nothing was enough to pull me out of it like the sound of Mauro talking something serious. He was never someone who overstated anything – in fact, he was more likely to play down something than to make a big deal of it, and I knew the fact he was reaching out to me with all of this had to be bad news.
I hated this. Jesus. I knew that it was serious. And the fact that it hadn’t been my father calling me... had something happened to him? He and I weren’t exactly chatty, but we kept in touch, and if something big had happened then he would be the one to do something about it. But if he couldn’t talk to me, Mauro would step in to take control...
I climbed out of the cab outside the office building that Mauro worked from and looked up at it with some apprehension. I didn’t want to go up there. There wasn’t a hell of a lot that scared me, but the thought of what might be waiting in the small room that Mauro worked out of was more than I was willing to handle.
But I headed up the stairs anyway. Whatever it was, he needed me, and I had to prove I wasn’t going to flake out when that happened. The sound of the club was still ringing in my ears, or maybe that was just the panic starting to take control.
I reached his door and pushed it open without bothering to knock. The two of us had known each other long enough now that we were past the point of playing games. If there was something he needed me to know, I wasn’t going to sit around waiting for it.
Mauro looked up as soon as I came through the door, his face set in a grim expression. His glasses were on the top of his head, and he looked exhausted. He got to his feet, greeted me with a handshake, always formal, even after all these years.
“Thank you for coming down here so quickly,” he told me, and he inhaled deeply. “I think you should sit down.”
“Mauro, will you just tell me what’s going on?” I demanded. I couldn’t handle this any longer. I needed to know. Needed to know what the hell had been so important that he had decided he was going to drag me in here in the middle of the night.
Even though I knew there was only one thing that would come close.
“It’s your father,” he explained. A jolt ran through me. Even though I had suspected it was to do with dad, hearing it come out of his mouth like that was something else entirely.
“What about him?” I asked, ignoring my panic. I needed to stay in control right now, more than anything. The booze had dissipated from my brain, and I was just focused on this, here, now.
“He’s in the hospital,” Mauro explained. “He’s had a heart attack. And, Andreas, I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s not looking good...”
I sank down into the seat, my knees threatening to buckle out from underneath me. Just as I had suspected – something worse than I ever could have imagined.
And I knew that, whether I liked it or not, everything in my life was about to change in a way I might not be able to get back to.
