Risk It All (Risqué #2) (15 page)

Anything that took Blaser away from Risqué had to be serious, especially since their dinner with Mattie last night had diverted his attention from the club for a couple of hours. After dinner, Blase had taken her home and then come back to the club, he really wanted to make this place work and he was terrible at relinquishing control to anyone.

He said that he didn’t like to burden others with his responsibilities, but she knew what he really meant, he didn’t trust people not to let him down, and that in itself was very sad. He could rely on her and she would prove that to him because she didn’t want him to take her on as just another of his obligations.

Destiny finished her act and Ivy told Bri about her own time on the stripper pole. Bri was really surprised to hear how much experience Ivy had in everything – especially given that Ivy was three years her junior.

In fact, it was now, as Ivy and Bri tried to convince the barman to let them have a go on stage that Dax and Blaser came in.

‘Nobody has to know,’ Ivy laughed, leaning over the bar toward the bartender. ‘I just want to see if I’ve still got it.’

‘I don’t think so,’ the bartender laughed. ‘I think your husband would skin me alive.’

‘Skin you for what?’ Dax asked, approaching Ivy’s side as Blaser went around behind the bar.

‘Oh don’t worry about him, I can handle Dax,’ Ivy said.

Dax came in behind his wife and closed his arms around her, placing his own hands on the bar while pinning her chest to it; Ivy kept on grinning. Dax buried his face in her hair and began to whisper. The smile on Ivy’s face completely disappeared and the intense expression that took its place made Bri frown.

‘What are you doing here?’

Blaser’s question stole Bri’s attention from the couple at her side. ‘I didn’t want to sit in my apartment alone all night, so I asked Ivy if she wanted to have a drink with me. Where were you?’

‘We went to see Rafe.’

‘You what?’ Her own enjoyment fled and she came to her feet. ‘Why did you do that? What do you mean “see Rafe”? Did you hurt him?’

‘Never laid a finger on him.’

Bri was smart enough to pick up on the distinction he’d made. ‘Did Dax hurt him?

‘Are you kidding? His enforcing rates are ridiculous.’

Glancing to the side, she was going to ask Dax what had happened and if he was still involved in criminality. But Ivy’s eyes were closed and her head was resting back on her husband’s shoulder. The look of bliss on her friend’s face made Bri’s eyes widen, especially when she saw that Dax now had a hand up his wife’s skirt.

Not wanting to be the obvious tattletale, Bri tried to make eye contact with Blaser to indicate what the couple were doing, but Blaser was getting a debrief from his security man and preparing to take over bar duties again.

It was at least two minutes later before Blaser came back to her after dispensing with the other guy. ‘We’re going to take off,’ Dax said, lifting Ivy from her stool. ‘Bri, do you want to come with us or are you gonna wait for Blaser?’

On arriving it hadn’t been her intention to be here until closing time, so it was unlikely that she would wait for Blaser. But she also wasn’t going to crash what the couple had started, so she just smiled and shook her head. ‘I’ll wait.’

Dax and Ivy said their goodbyes and disappeared out of the club. As soon as they were gone, Blaser bent to rest his forearms on the bar, bringing his face to within an inch of hers. ‘Colt has a widescreen TV in his office. If you want to hang out up there, you can.’

‘You don’t want company?’ she asked. With Dax and Ivy gone, Colt, Lyssa, and Suzette not here, he’d be staffing the bar without distraction.

‘I’ve worked plenty nights in here without friends around the bar, besides Crystal’s around somewhere. If I need entertainment, she’ll do.’

‘Crystal,’ Bri said. Finding her courage, she asked the question she’d been pondering. ‘Have you had sex with her?’

‘Crystal’s my best friend,’ he said, glancing back when a patron shouted for service. ‘You don’t have to worry about her, Doll. Go upstairs and find yourself something to watch on the TV, I’ll bring you up a drink in a minute.’

Reaching under the bar, he produced a key which he slid toward her then disappeared to serve a patron. Bri wasn’t satisfied with his answer, but she’d just been dismissed so she couldn’t push the issue now.

Less than a week later Dax gave him the nod, this was it, they were going to raise all of the money Rafe wanted and they were going to do it in one night. Blaser provided the venue, which meant that he got the largest cut of the door money. The fighters got their money from the bookies who made a fortune from the audience coming to watch the show.

The type of men who frequented Risqué on a daily basis were very different from the men here tonight. Tonight the place was filled with money and muscle, each of which was easily differentiated from the other.

Blaser had nothing against his usual patrons, they were mostly mid-level types ranging from working to middle-class. They were men who liked to blow off some steam with a drink and a good view.

The men who liked to watch a fight liked to bet big and those guys dressed well, drank expensive alcohol, and had no problem flashing the cash. The others were tattooed, some were bulky biker types and others were lean and athletic, but they all mingled, happy to stand around shouting at the sparring men in the ring.

Dax had come through and Blaser was amazed. He’d planned to serve drinks upstairs, play music, offer a quiet lounge for those who wanted it, but no one did. No one had been in the main club at all.

Patrons came in the security covered rear entrance and went downstairs straight away, fighters went into the locker room upstairs, except Dax who had been dealing with bookies and then had retreated up to Blaser’s office to make a phone call.  

The timing of the night couldn’t have been better. Colt and Lyssa were having dinner with his parents tonight. Blaser knew that when Lyssa and his mother got together talk of babies and procreation took over, so they would stay late, and Lyssa would expect Colt to perform when they got home because her impetus to have a baby would be at its height.

Bri didn’t work on Monday nights and he told the rest of the girls to take the night off too because he was fixing the problem with the air conditioning. They were all happy to accept that because they’d been whining at him about it. To ensure there were no questions from them he had booked an engineer to come and fix the unit in the morning. The girls didn’t need to be any the wiser about who had done the fixing.

Blaser ran up the stairs to let Dax know that there was another fight in progress. Dax’s contacts had pulled this together in record time and had done it with amazing ease. Blaser was beginning to understand from whispers around the joint that Dax was something of a legend, a bigshot in this arena; Blaser would never have known it. Dax kept his secrets well hidden leaving Blaser to speculate about what other talents his latest employee might be concealing.

Entering his office he was surprised to see Dax at the desk, on the phone, with his head bowed, resting on his palm.

‘Babygirl, you don’t want to be here,’ Dax said into the phone. ‘I’ll be home in a couple of hours… no, you don’t… you don’t… you’re jerking my chain, Minx, what have I told you about riling me…?’

Blaser cleared his throat because he didn’t want to witness anything too personal. Dax straightened and held up a hand.

‘Babe, I’ve gotta go… yeah, yeah, you don’t forget your place.’ Dax hung up without waiting for a response then pulled himself in at Blaser’s desk.

‘Ivy, I guess?’

‘Yeah,’ Dax said. ‘She’s pissed that I wouldn’t let her come.’

‘Why wouldn’t you let her come?’ Blaser asked, closing the door and leaning back against it.

‘She talks too much,’ Dax said, but Blaser knew that wasn’t true. ‘I also told her to make sure that Bri stayed home tonight. You haven’t told her about this, have you?’ Blaser shook his head. ‘None of my business, but if you ask me…’

‘Ask you what?’

‘Ivy’s a pain in the ass. She bitches at me and never lets me away with anything, she calls me on all of my bullshit.’

‘Romantic,’ Blaser mumbled. ‘What’s your point?’

‘There’s something sorta cool about her accepting all the crap, you know? I’ve done some low shit in my time, some real bottom of the barrel scum-sucking shit, you know? She accepts it and loves me anyway. For as much as she gives me crap, she gives me as much love, I can’t get her to stop fucking telling me it.’

Blaser smirked just to give him some shit of his own. ‘I had no idea you were such a sap.’

‘Bri finds out about this after it happens, she’ll freak and probably dump you,’ Dax said, dropping his hands to the table and pushing up onto his feet. ‘If Ivy taught me anything it’s that it takes a real man to own up and take responsibility. Lying to her isn’t protecting her, man, it is teaching her that she can’t trust you. After everything she’s been through with this Rafe guy and her friends screwing her over… she needs to trust her man.’

‘You need to start working more day shifts, dude. You’re watching too much of that daytime shit.’

‘Whatever,’ Dax said, crossing toward him. ‘But I got my female down the aisle, you can’t even get yours in the same house as you.’ That was a point Blaser couldn’t argue with. Blaser would guess this wisdom came from Ivy, which would suggest to him that in private this couple shared everything.

‘Would you tell her?’ Blaser said. ‘I promised her I’d stay on the up-and-up, promised my brothers too.’

‘Lying and going back on a promise? This is gonna come back and bite you in the ass.’

Blaser didn’t need Dax to tell him what he already knew, but he hadn’t seen another available avenue to fix this. ‘Even if I lose her, at least I know she’ll be safe.’

Dax’s mouth remained flat, but his cheek twitched. ‘Yeah, that’s what I tried to tell The Minx, but she knows best.’ Dax slapped his shoulder and reached for the door.

‘Wait,’ Blaser said. ‘Is Ivy going to tell Bri about this?’

‘Nah,’ Dax said. ‘She’ll say anything in the world to me, but Mrs Harrow knows how to keep a secret, believe me on that.’

Removing himself from Dax’s path, Blaser let his new friend depart then exhaled as he looked back into his office. Dax seemed like a decent guy and that was worrying because there was no way he was the lawful type. Making the decision to throw his lot in with a guy who was a criminal on a level far above anything Blaser himself had ever been was dangerous, but he would risk it all for Bri and it hit him now that’s exactly what he was doing.

For this one decision, this one night, he could go back to jail, lose the businesses and any remaining support he had in the family. And if Bri decided to turn her back on him too then he would be left with nothing. But she would be safe, and that was all that mattered to him.

Tonight had been quite the learning curve for him. Fight after fight had taken place in his basement, but he was superfluous to the action. The fights grew in length as more experienced fighters took to the ring, which had been set up by Dax’s associates as little more than some gym mats cordoned off by rope wound around the existing support pillars of the building. 

Down here wasn’t used for anything except storage. All of the clutter had been removed by the guys Dax had brought in earlier in the afternoon before the event got started.

Choosing to keep an eye on things was more about protecting his own interests than curiosity about the proceedings. The third fight had just wrapped and money was being exchanged and counted out under the watchful eye of monitors who worked on a hierarchy scheme based on experience from what Blaser could tell. He assumed that participants didn’t get far in this sphere if they weren’t fair and honest… at least as honest as crooks could be.

The audience that he was strolling through, only pausing when he noted something of interest, most probably guessed that he was just security. No one paid him much heed and he was happy with that. The fewer people who remembered his face, the better. Blending in was the key to success in most criminal ventures at his level.

He hated that he had a level and Dax’s words from the office were playing on a loop in his head. Bri wouldn’t be happy that he’d lied by omission and his belief that he could talk her round was based on who she was when they were together, not on who she was now.

Considering how her reaction might be different given all that she’d been through, he passed a group huddled around a bookie. Lifting his head to check his path, he saw two people in the corner who wouldn’t have been granted entry by his men: it was Gary’s friend, Marshall, and the blonde man with the eyebrow scar who had attacked Bri outside Risqué on the night he put her in Colt’s apartment.

Struck by the fact that they were hidden in a shadowy corner, Blaser wondered if they were here to spy on him. But that left the question of who they’d be spying for, would it be Gary or Rafe? Something smelled off and to ensure Bri would be safe from even her own family, he would have to get to the bottom of this one.

Dax had mentioned an alliance before. If Rafe’s men bore witness to the shooting or heard about it after, then they had to be somehow aligned with Gary and his crew. Figuring that he couldn’t just stalk over there and start a fight because he’d probably find himself being ejected from his own club, he spun around with ideas of seeking out Dax.

Blaser had been away from crime for too long and he wasn’t used to acting alone. There was a time when he’d have recognised every face in the room, but now they were nothing but strangers.

Everyone here lived their lives surrounded by debauchery and greed and he was detached from all of that now, floating above it… at least he had been. Now he was right back where he started and it made him nauseous.

Before he got to the stairs, the entrance he was heading for became the focus of everyone in the room. Blaser had to pause to see what had caught the attention of the audience. They were watching Dax coming down the stairs behind a skinny blonde woman with red streaks in her hair. From the holler that went around the basement Blaser guessed it was Dax’s turn to fight, acting on his discovery would have to wait for now.

It was surprising how quickly Risqué could be put back together. After Dax’s fight people quickly gathered their money and started to disperse. By their actions he could tell that this was an elite, almost close-knit group of people, who only ever got admitted by invitation because they’d proved themselves or been vouched for by someone. This wasn’t your standard fight club, this was premium pay-per-view.

They didn’t leave in droves, which might make it obvious to outside eyes what was going on. They staggered their exits and since vehicles weren’t allowed to park outside there was little sign from an external point of view that this hundred or so people had been occupying Risqué.

The fighters left after their fights, so by the time Dax was done, the men brought in to work security had put the locker room back to how it had been. The ring was dismantled and everything was returned to its previous position. So just like that, it was as if nothing happened.

Locking up was the last thing that he had to take care of and he did it with a pounding heart. They’d got away with it and from the money bound in brown envelopes in the safe in his office, he had more than covered Bri’s debt. He wasn’t hanging around tonight, he wanted to get home and pretend this whole mess hadn’t happened. His sweaty palms and pounding adrenaline betrayed to him that he wasn’t cut out for this anymore.

The buzz had been part of the thrill when he was younger and he loved it. Now it just made him feel sick, he’d promised people that he loved that he would never return to anything like this, and he’d broken that promise. He couldn’t get on his righteous high-horse when Colt judged him, not anymore, because it turned out that his twin had been right all along.

Racing back to the apartments, Blaser jumped out of his truck and got inside fast, praying that no one was interested in what was going on at this time of night. As soon as he got inside his apartment the quivering anxiety took on new meaning when he saw Bri standing there at the end of the hallway that led to his bedroom wearing his tee-shirt.

‘Babe, I—‘

‘Don’t,’ she said and with one step forward she came into the light and he saw the streaks of wetness on her cheeks. ‘Where were you, Blase?’

It was like going back in time, exactly like it, this had been his life for years, coming home to see the woman he loved crying because she didn’t know where he was or if he’d been safe.

‘I… I, uh…’

‘I want you to think before you answer me,’ she said. ‘I want you to think about it because if you lie to me—‘

‘I was at the club,’ he said. ‘I was at Risqué.’ That wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. It should have occurred to him that Marshall would have ratted him out because getting her away from him would have been Gary’s first command to his subordinate. ‘I didn’t know that… how did you get in here?’

‘I told Gus I was planning a romantic surprise,’ she said, wiping her nose on the back of her index finger as she sniffed. ‘Maybe the next time you consider lying to me, you should let your cousin in on it first.’

He had chosen to tell as few people as possible for two reasons, he didn’t want to drag anyone else into the trouble, and because it was harder for a large group of people to keep a secret. Gus was a great guy, but no criminal mastermind.

‘How long have you been here?’ he asked.