Page 1 of Fighting a Riot

Chapter 1

Story of My Life

Yak

For once the cleaning crew finished early, which meant Yak would get out of Platinum’s Strip club before sunrise. He wandered through the main floor inspecting the freshly mopped floors. They looked clean, though they still felt sticky. Between the Florida humidity, spilled booze, and other shit, Yak wasn’t sure if the floors would ever not feel sticky.

He hit the light switch for the main floor. In the complete darkness, he noticed light coming out from under the door of a private room. Had his timing been different, he’d probably have missed it. Still, there was no reason for any light to shine from that room. No, that wasn’t true. The lights in the private rooms were hooked up to motion detectors, and they were sensitive.

“It better be a palmetto bug or some shit,” he mumbled. While bugs freaked him out, palmetto bugs freaked him way the fuck out, because those assholes could fly. Yeah, on the off-chance he made it through the Pearly Gates, his first question for God would be what kind of punk-ass prank were those bugs? Talk about dirty pool.

He shook his head at the thoughts swirling in his mind. As he opened the door to the private room, he saw chairs put up on tables and those tables shoved to the side of the room.

Except one table wasn’t flush to the wall.

Yak stepped inside and crouched down. A figure lay between the wall and the table. No, not just a figure, but a female figure.

“The fuck?” he whispered.

He dragged the table to the side. The woman looked like a princess. A tiara sat askew in her hair, some kind of sash was draped around her torso, and she wore all white. Yak groaned. How did a bachelorette party leave the bachelorette behind? And at a strip club operated by a motorcycle club of all places?

“Goddammit,” he hissed.

As gently and carefully as he could, he moved her to a sitting position, slumped against the wall.

“Hello. Lady, wake up.”

Her eyes didn’t open very far, but she groaned and rubbed at her face.

“Are you okay?”

She shook her head. Then she did the craziest thing… she said his name. “Noah…”

“How do you know my given name?”

For some reason that got her attention. “I didn’t say your name.”

“You said, ‘Noah.’ I was right here when it happened.”

Her fake smile pummeled his chest… if he saw a real smile from her it would probably knock him over.

“Right, but I said, ‘No, uh,’ and trailed off because I couldn’t get my thoughts together.”

He shook his head. “Fine. Can you stand up? Or do you need some help? And how about you tell me your name since you already know mine.”

After a deep breath, she stood and so did Yak. He towered over her. Normally that bothered him, but with this woman, he found he liked it.

“I’m Elenora, but most people call me Nora.”

“That’s a pretty name, not one I hear every day.”

“You would if you read romance.” She groaned. “Oh my God, why did I have to go and mention romance novels.”

Yak fought against his laughter. She wasn’t drunk. Instead, he suspected she didn’t handle her nerves well. “Are you a novelist?”

She sighed. “No way. I was referring to Nora Roberts, the romance writer, who my mom wanted to name me after, but she wimped out and put down Elenora instead.”

He chuckled. “Okay, princess, let’s get you in an Uber.”

---