Page 81 of Darkness

“No. Touching, yes.” She smiles. Then looks around some more, walking over to the rail she looks at the floors below.

“So do all your staff have to look a certain way? Or do you mix it up? And who hired them? What was the interview-”

I slam my lips onto hers to shut her up, when she rambles, she can go on for hours if I let her. Pulling away from her, hereyes are locked with mine. “You’re not even letting me answer. Would you like a booth?” I ask her, and her beautiful lips curl into a bigger smile. “Man or woman stripper?” I ask her. I only have eyes for one woman, and it’s not like I will look at them, anyway.

I can’t even remember the last time I came to this floor to watch any of the staff. Now I used to be on the sixth floor, quite a few times just to get away from the demons in my head.

“I would love a booth, and a woman. I have a sexy man who will get naked for me,” she laughs, and I shake my head at her. She looks at me. “What? You're not getting naked for me?”

“You keep talking like that, I’ll take you now.” I walk over to the bar and find my empty booth. I made this one for me, if I ever wanted to come up here. Now the boys use it, I let them use it whenever they want.

“A drink and a strip show first,” she slides into the booth, and I tell the woman behind the bar what we want and which dancer. Sitting next to Autumn, I kiss the side of her neck.

“You know if I take you to the sixth floor, you have to do one thing up there.” She turns to face me, and her expression makes me laugh. “You have to do a striptease for me.”

“On a pole, I’ll fall flat on my face.” Her reply makes me laugh. Thanking the waiter for our drinks, I sit back, as the dancer steps up onto the table and spins around the pole. Autumn watches with a smile.

“And no not on a pole, but you will strip for me,” I tell her as she leans in closer to me, watching the woman as she slowly strips out of her clothes.

Not looking at the dancer, I watch Autumn enjoying the show, and also glancing around at what’s happening in the other booths. There is a lot for her to be looking at, and I’m going to sit back and let her enjoy the show.

It’s been a long night, Autumn loved the fifth floor to the point she agreed to do a striptease for me. I told her she could go up to the fifth floor every night if she promised me things like this.

The door opens to the apartment, and Autumn continues to talk about how much she enjoyed the evening. I smile as she looks at me, while telling me how much she loves the club, and can’t believe someone could have thought of the idea.

I can’t stop smiling at her excitement from the night, she’s telling me every detail as if I’ve never seen it before. The reason I’m smiling is because it’s the first time I’ve got to hear about my club from someone else’s point of view. The guys are here, but they only care about the women working here, so hearing what she’s loved makes me happy.

She walks over to the couch, as I throw my jacket onto the kitchen counter then make my way over to her. That’s when my body takes over as I see the red dot on Autumn’s chest. I hear the window shatter as I reach Autumn and push her to the side, a sharp searing pain in my side. I ignore the pain. I have to protect Autumn.

“Cain!” Autumn shouts.

“Stay down!” I shout at her, when another bullet hits my chest. Fuck that burns. I cough. and when I see the blood coming out of my mouth, I know what Yang has done. I feel the blood soaking my shirt. Fuck. “Pho… cell…Lin…Lincoln.” I try hard to get the words out.

Autumn's eyes are wide and filled with terror. “Cain-”

“No, stay…do…down,” I cough out more blood. “Poisi…posio…” I can’t get out the words.

Yang’s fucking poisoned the bullets, this is something he talked about, I remember him talking about it in The Pit.

My vision blurs, and the darkness begins to creep in from the edges, but I need to make sure Autumn is safe. Fight this Cain. I shout to myself.

Twenty-Nine

Autumn-Rose

My heart poundsin my chest, each beat louder than the last. My hands are trembling as I look over at Cain. I try to move closer to him but stop, when another bullet comes through the window, which makes me scream.

“Stay.there.” Cain tries to shout, but the words are just about coming out in a whisper. I give him a nod, but I can’t see clearly through the tears. “Lin.Lincoln.”

With a deep breath, I try hard to steady myself, but the fear running through me has its grip tightly around me. I look around for my cell, it was in my hand, but then Cain pushed me and I don’t know where I dropped it.

I see a light in the corner of my eye, my cell. I have to call Lincoln, but I'm too scared to talk in case someone hears me. How do I explain what’s happened? Just the thought is making me sick.

Finding the courage I finally hit Lincoln's name on the screen. The ringing echoes in my ear, but it’s still not as loud as the banging on my heart. I don’t know if I should move or not.

“Cain.” I call his name but nothing. “Cain!” I shout, still nothing.

“Autumn?” Lincoln's voice hits me hard, has he been calling me for a while.

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