Page 12 of Forbidden Deviant Games

I pause, the tray half lifted into my arms. I gently set it back down and turn back to her. “What do you mean?” I ask curiously.

Veronica turns away as another ticket spits out of her order machine and she gets to work, pulling glasses from their places. “Every month it seems like another waitress goes AWOL,” she huffs out. “I don’t know what’s going on, but more than a few have just stopped coming in for their shifts and we can’t reach them by phone or anything.”

“They just … disappear?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “Not exactly. It’s stupid—there’s this new drug on the scene and you know a lot of girls who work in clubs get a little too close to a few regulars—they promise things and suddenly they’re off working ‘private parties.’” I wince at her comment, knowing exactly what she means and it has nothing to do with alcohol.

What really concerns me is that if Veronica is aware of this new drug and Viks is investigating it … then it’s bigger than I thought. But I can’t dwell on it anymore now. Veronica runs through her drinks and I move back to my tray, lifting it half onto my shoulder and holding it on the other side with the flat of my palm as I move out from behind the bar and through the room.

I deliver the drinks and step sideways, narrowly avoiding a cluster of familiar-faced sorority girls that I have no doubt go to Eastpoint. I scrub a hand down my face, truly exhausted and I’m barely halfway through my shift. I’m so focused on avoiding colliding with the already drunk girls, that I nearly miss the man standing against the wall wearing a familiar pair of sunglasses.

Oh my fucking god. It’s him. He’s here.I freeze right where I’m standing and almost as soon as I do, someone slams into my back and I go careening towards the ground, the tray in my grasp flying out of my hand.

No one stops as my knees hit the hard floor of the club, but even if they had my mind is short-circuiting. The dealer—the guy that I pointed out to Viks—is here.What do I do?

Absently, I recognize that I’m moving. Reaching for my tray once more and tucking it under my arm as I climb back to my feet. I know I’m doing it, but I don’t feel it. All I can feel is the prickling sensation under my skin.

Do I tell Viks?He said he was coming tonight. Will he come faster if I tell him that the guy is here?What if he disappears before he gets here?Even knowing that Veronica is probably going to get swamped with customers demanding drinks if I don’t hurry back, I can’t help but stop and contemplate my options.

In the end, there really is only one option to choose. I hurry to a small alcove on the bottom floor of Club Outsider—somewhere nearby, just out of people’s path, but not so far that I can’t see the man standing against the wall of the club talking to another man with a baseball cap drawn down low over his eyes. Who the fuck wears a baseball cap to a club? Someone with something to hide.

I yank my phone out of my pocket and quickly type a reply back to Viks.

Haley:Dealer is here. What do you want me to do?

Not even thirty seconds go by before there’s a reply.

Asshole Boss:I’m on my way. DO NOT DO ANYTHING. Stay the fuck away from him.

Stay away from him? Is he serious? What if he moves?I have to keep my eyes on him. I grit my teeth and peek out of the alcove to make sure the man hasn’t moved. He hasn’t, but I can tell by the shuffling of feet of his companion that their conversation is ending soon. There’s no telling how long he’ll remain there.

Haley:What if he leaves?

Again, there’s virtually no time between when I send my message to when he texts back. I fucking hope he’s not texting and driving.

Asshole Boss:Do not fucking approach him, Haley. I mean it.

I bite down on my thumbnail, my heart hammering in my chest. Viks sends another text.

Asshole Boss:Haley?

I groan and send a reply.

Haley:Fine. I won’t approach him, but you should hurry. I think he’s leaving soon.

I shove my phone back in my pocket and continue to chew on my nail. My mind is rioting with all sorts of scenarios. What if Viks doesn’t get here in time and this guy just disappears? What can I even do to stop him? I stare across the room, watching the man wearing the baseball cap nod to the man in the sunglasses and then stalk off. Shit. He’s leaving.

Before I can think better of it, I launch myself out of the alcove as the dealer turns and starts to head off.Don’t approach. Don’t approach. Don’t approach.Viks’ warning circles in my head.Fine,I think.I won’t approach him. But that doesn’t mean I can’t follow him and just keep him in my sights.

So, I do exactly that. As the dealer weaves in and out of the crowd, making his way across the club, I start to trail him—shifting through parties of people and pausing every so often as more than one group of people cuts off my path.

The man slips towards a back hallway—the same one that leads to the back exit and the bathrooms. I bite down on my lower lip, glancing around. There are still clubbers around, though not as many. My chances of getting caught rise significantly the second I step into that hallway. I pray Viks gets here sooner rather than later because there’s no fucking way I can just let this guy get away.

Rounding the corner, I scan the hallway in surprise. The man’s already fucking gone. Without thinking, I start to run towards the exit. I get about halfway down the hallway when a hand whips out, grabbing me by the hair and yanking me into one of the storage rooms across from the bathrooms.

A startled scream erupts from my throat only to be cut off a moment later as a leather encased hand slaps over it. He’s wearing gloves and as he pinches down on my nose and covers my mouth in one go, my eyes widen in shock and panic as my air is cut off.

“What have I caught here?” The man’s voice is deep and gravelly, almost a rasp—as if he’s smoked more than half a pack of cigarettes every day of his entire life. “A little mouse trying to follow me home?”

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