Charming Charly (English Edition) (Lords of Arr'Carthian 3) (17 page)

A group of young girls entered the reception area. They stared at Kordan and Amano with obvious interest and Lamin put on a beaming smile as he walked towards them.
 

“Ladies. Lovely to see you. The Step Aerobics is in Studio 3 today.”

He disappeared behind the counter and handed the girls the locker keys.
They disappeared, giggling, through one of the doors, but not without casting curious
glances at Amano and Kordan.
 

“Lamin,” said Lory. “We’ve come because we need help. Is Luke in his office? We need a few things for Kordan and Amano. So that they don’t stand out so much.”

Lamin laughed almost hysterically.

“Don’t stand out so much? Baby, have you noticed that Goliath here is over seven feet tall?”

“seven feet two,” Lory corrected him.

“Sweetie, your men will always stand out here, no matter what they wear on their hot … ummm … on their well-proportioned bottoms.”

Kordan growled and Lory glanced at him angrily.

“So, what about Luke?” Lory persisted.

“Yes, he’s here,” answered Lamin. “But back to the point. Where do they come from? What’s that sign on their shirts?” He laughed. “Spaceship Enterprise?”

“Not Enterprise, but you’re close,” said Lory and Lamin’s jaw dropped.
 

“Holy shit! I mean … Wow! That’s …”

“No one …” said Lory quietly and forcefully. “… no one is to know about this. OK? Not even Luke. And as far as anyone else is concerned they’re both Russian MMA fighter. Understand?”

Lamin nodded. His eyes wandered to Amano, then to Charly.

“Is she also …?”

Charly laughed. “No, I’m an American.”

Lamin was still shaking his head cluelessly.

“I … I’ll call Luke quickly, then, so that … so that you can be on your way.”

“That would be lovely,” said Lory.

Chapter 11

“Now I’m really curious to see what you think of this,” said Lory, smiling.

They were sitting in
Burger King
, each with a tray of burgers, chips and coke in front of them. After Lory’s friend, Luke
,
had equipped Amano and Kordan with oversized trousers, shirts and leather jackets, they had come straight here. Luke was the coach for the
Steel Brothers
, three massive wrestlers, and he had searched through the brothers’ outfits until they had found something suitable. Because of what Lory told him, Luke believed that Amano and Kordan were Russian MMA fighters who had lost their luggage during the flight. Luke was happy to be able to help them and had taken a great interest in the two Carthians.
 
He had even gone as far as to ask Lory whether they might be interested in moving to America and converting to wrestling to fight for him.

“I’m curious, too,” said Kordan, looking at the double whopper in his hands. “It doesn’t look bad and it smells good, too. But it’s very thick. How do you manage to bite into this with your little mouth?”

“Well, very easily. Like this!” said Lory, biting enthusiastically into her burger.
 

Charly took a big gulp of coke and sighed. Only now did she realize how much she had missed such simple things as an ice-cold coke.
 

“How good is that!” she said in raptures, smiling happily.

Amano and Kordan looked at one another, shrugged their shoulders and bit decisively into their burgers. They chewed, swallowed and took another bite. Charly grinned.

“Good,” mumbled Amano with a full mouth.
 

“Hmm,” said Kordan, washing his bite down with coke.

“I like quick food,” said Amano, likewise taking a gulp of coke.

Charly and Lory laughed, then the men joined in.

“And tomorrow we’ll go to an Italian restaurant. There we’ll eat pizza,” suggested Charly.

“Great idea,” agreed Lory. “And we’ll go ice-skating.”

“Ice-skating?” asked Amano skeptically. “Whatever’s that?”

“Great fun, that’s what that will be. Great fun!” cried Charly enthusiastically. “It’ll definitely be fun seeing you two on skates. I just wonder whether they’ll have your size at the skate hire.”

“If necessary they have sort of blades,” said Lory. “That you can strap on under your own shoes. We’ll manage somehow. I don’t want to miss out on that entertainment. We only have a few weeks to show you boys everything here, so brace yourselves!”

“As long as your plans also contain a few night time activities for two, I have no problem with that,” said Kordan, looking longingly into Lory’s eyes.

“Oh, I’ve got a whole load of ideas for night time activities,” murmured Lory seductively. “But first we’re going to go dancing.

Amano put his arm round Charly and she leant her head on his shoulder. She felt better than she had done for a long time. How could she ever have doubted Amano’s intentions? He had cured her of the horror of her past and given her so much love and passion that it more than compensated for all the bad years before.

“First of all we should find ourselves a hotel and go shopping for a few things,” said Lory.

“Yes, that sounds good,” Charly agreed. “The chaps could do with a few more things. We ought to go to the tailor that Luke recommended to us so that he can make up a few things. We can get shirts and shoes at
Uncle Sam’s
, but trousers will be difficult.”

“OK!” said Lory. “Here’s the plan: let’s find a hotel now and once we’ve checked in, we go to
Uncle Sam’s
and to that tailor. After that
,
let’s go to the cinema because it’s too early for the club. After the cinema we go to the
Glass House.
Have you ever been to that club?”

“No,” replied Charly. “But I’ve heard of it. OK, sounds like a good plan. What do you say, chaps?”

“That’s fine by me,” said Amano.

“You know your way round here, so let’s do whatever you say,” responded Kordan, shrugging.

“Great!” cried Charly and Lory as one.

“That was an interesting film,” said Amano as they walked out of the
Cine Palace.
For a race that hasn’t made it further than the neighboring planet, you have interesting ideas with regards to space travel.”

Lory laughed.

“Yes. I think you males particularly liked that machine that men could use to model themselves a woman, huh?”

Kordan snorted.
 

“Our planet may be suffering from a lack of females, but I doubt that there’s a single Carthian who wants a female who only has breasts but no brain.”

“That would be no good for me either,” said Amano. “But the warrior robot was really cool.”

Charly waved down a taxi and they drove to the
Glass House
where a long queue was already waiting to be let in at the entrance.
 

“Wow, we’re going to be standing there for an hour, for sure,” said Charly.

“What?” said Lory. “We’re going in through the back door. Come on!”

Charly glanced in surprise at Lory.
 

“How often did you go to this club?” she asked.

“Oh,” said Lory. “Quite often. Mostly professionally, of course. Undercover,” she grinned.

“I should have been an FBI agent,” Charly joked.

“Best not,” Amano joined in, grinning. “I prefer you not having any tricks for throwing me to the ground.”

Kordan groaned.

“That was only because I wasn’t expecting it,” he defended his honor. “She wouldn’t be able to do that now.”

“Shall we try it?” asked Lory, challenging him.

“Right, are we going to go in here now or what?” Kordan changed the subject and Amano laughed quietly which earned him a warning glance from his cousin.
 

“Yes, let’s go,” said Charly, quickly putting her arm through Amano’s.

Lory led them to the back door. There was a small, lockable window set into the heavy metal door. When Lory knocked on the door, the shutter opened and someone looked through it, then closed the window again and opened the door.
 

Charly looked at the man critically. He did not look very trustworthy. His whole body was tattooed. Even his closely shaven head had not been spared tattoos. He was wearing black leather trousers and a muscle shirt. Close to six feet six tall and almost as broad as Amano, he was not a man that they would mess with.
 

“Hey, girl,” he said to Lory, smiling and showing the gaps between his teeth.

“Hi, Ink. Long time no see. Everything OK?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Everything’s OK. Come on in.”

They followed the man into the dark corridor and he locked the door behind them. Charly did not fail to notice Amano’s and Kordan’s glances as they appraised the situation. Even they seemed to feel uneasy about his chap. But Charly trusted Lory. If she thought the bloke was not a threat to them, then all was fine. She reached for Amano’s hand and squeezed it.

It was crowded and loud inside the club. What was more, it was quite dark and the flashing light made every movement appear jerky.

Lory led them confidently through the crowd, nodding or waving to a few people now and then.
 

“How many men do you know here?” she heard Kordan grumbled.

“Jealous, pussy cat?” responded Lory with a hint of mockery.

Lory led them to a bar and turned round to face them.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Beer,” answered Charly.

“I’ll have what she’s having,” said Amano. “I don’t know your drinks here anyway.”

Lory turned to the girl behind the bar.

“Four Buds.”

The girl took four glasses from the shelf and began to pour the beer.

“Is anything on today?” asked Lory.

The girl nodded. She finished pouring the beers and put them in front of them. Lory pushed the money across the bar and passed the beer on to Charly, Amano and Kordan.
 

Charly took a large mouthful.
There was nothing quite like a freshly poured, cool beer. She smiled at Amano who had emptied his glass in one go and was now licking the froth off his upper lip.

“Good,” he said, grinning.

Kordan had emptied his glass, too.
 

“Not bad,” he judged.
 

“Gene, pour another two!” Lory called over her shoulder and the girl poured two more beers.

“What’s meant to be on today?” asked Charly curiously.

Lory grinned. She first took the two beers from the waitress, passed them to Amano and Kordan and took her time paying for the drinks, before turning back round to them.
 

“That …,” she said with a wicked grin.”… is a little surprise. But let’s drink our beer up first.” She looked at her mobile that she had just bought. “It’s still too early. We’ll go down just before eleven.”

“Down?” asked Charly, full of curiosity. “Down, as in: into the basement?”

“Just before eleven,” was all that Lory replied and sipped on her beer.
 

“It says here: NO ENTRY,” said Charly, as Lory reached out for the door.

“I can read, Charly,” replied Lory, amused.

She knocked and, shortly after, the door opened. Without a word, a man with a blond ponytail dressed in military clothing let them in. Lory went in first, followed by Kordan, then Charly and Amano. They went down a steep, dark staircase and ended up in a corridor that was even darker.
 

“Are there no lights here?” Charly cursed as she staggered through the darkness.
 

“We’re nearly there,” said Lory.

Without warning, she opened a door and Charly was blown away by the sudden brightness and the noise. She could now see that it was a thick, soundproofed door and they were entering a large arena full of people. Three sides were filled with rows of tiered seating. On the other side was a gallery with bars, and on the wall below a massive screen had been installed. But even more interesting was what was right at the bottom.

“A cage?” asked Charly and looked at Lory puzzled. “What is this place?”

Lory raised her eyebrow mockingly.

“Well, what does it look like, sweetie? Like the local dove-breeding club?”

“What are dove-breeders?” asked Kordan.

“Oh nothing,” said Lory, dismissing the question.

“So, what is this then?” Amano joined in.

“In a good …” Lory looked at her mobile. “… in a good quarter of an hour an underground MMA event is going to begin.”

“MMA?” Charly cried enthusiastically.

“Shhh,” said Lory, looking round, but no one seemed to have taken any notice of Charly’s outburst. “Yes, Mixed Martial Arts. Precisely that. Unofficially of course. Only the initiated know about these fights here.”

“How exciting,” whispered Charly, looking around in amazement. “Wow!”