Page 33 of Wicked Little Game
“Babe, calm down,” says one of the girls that are with her. Brave.
“He dumped her for you. You know he loves you. Sarah, please calm the fuck down and stop overreacting. Don’t give her the satisfaction of seeing you make a scene. Remember, he’s with you for what now, a year? Do you really think he’d throw that away for her? He didn’t want her, babe, he wanted you. So get yourself together.”
My stomach drops, and not because of the booze I had. That’s a lot to swallow. Brian did not dump me, I dumped him, but it’s still nice to know that the two people I let get close to me played me like that. They really deserve each other.
The old Ruby would want to storm out here and give Sarah the scene she seems to want so desperately, but whatever I turned into during the last months just wants to keep onsitting here in this tiny stall to bawl my eyes out. Either that or just have Dom drive me to the airport so that I can catch a flight to God knows where.
None of this is an option, though.
I get up, fix my outfit, and bite down on the inside of my cheek so hard that I taste blood.
Five pairs of eyes are on me as I leave the stall. Sarah scowls at me, the girls around her looking like they are waiting for a screaming match. I just smile as I walk past them, acting like I haven’t heard every single word. A lot of things make sense right in this second and I want to drown those realizations before I can think too much about them.
Jonah sees right through my act as I sit down at the bar, but he’s nice enough not to press the issue and prepares another cocktail for me instead. Good, because I fear that the shock got me to sober up.
“Should have told you, Ruby, I’m sorry,” he says, but I just dismiss him with a smile and a wave of my hand.
“It’s alright, really, not your fault.”
Nothing is alright, but the alcohol does its job, slowly making me believe my bullshit.
I need a distraction. The kind of distraction I can’t get at home because Samuel still has a stick up his ass.
Two cocktails and a few shots later, I’m drunk enough that my anger subsides as I make my way over to the dance floor. I came here to have fun, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do now.
Maybe I could shoot my shot with one of the bouncers. Bouncers and bodyguards, that’s almost the same thing and with the power of imagination, and a bit more booze, I could act like one of them is Sam.
But it seems like I don’t have to make any kind of effort, because after around five minutes on the dance floor, I feel someone comingup behind me.
He must be tall, his big hands resting on my waist as I grind my ass against him.Big hands, just like Sam’s, I think with a giggle as I try to envision him in the setting of this club. He would surely hate it.
Suddenly, the man's grip on my waist tightens, and before I can yell anything or call for help, he throws me over his shoulder like I’m a bag of potatoes. He walks up the stairs, carrying me out of the club and I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or wishful thinking, but I could swear that the guy smells just like Sam.
14
SAMUEL
Ruby thinks I’m dumb. That’s an understatement. She seems to think I have the intellect of a rock. And even a rock would have caught her pathetic act.
But maybe I’m really stupid because instead of snatching her back inside like the last two times, I watched her as she got into a car, closely following behind her. I could have easily interrupted her adventure right from the start, but something inside me wanted to see what she was up to.
And judging by her outfit, she was up to no good.
I had no trouble getting into the club just five minutes after her. I switched my balaclava for a black surgical mask, which in hindsight was a good idea, because the bouncers seemed to think I was one of them. They fist-bumped me as I walked through the door and right down the stairs.
I could, and probably should, have sacked Ruby right in that second, but something about seeing her like that was strangely fascinating. What wasn’t fascinating was the way the other men in the club looked at her. Especially a scrawny one in one of the VIP booths. If one of those bastards had tried to touch her, I would have taken care of him in a dark alleyway.
Somehow, I was too focused on plotting murder, because I just caught a glimpse of Ruby as she walked towards the bathrooms. I followed her, but then a group of girls almost ran into me and inside the bathroom. There was a bit of commotion inside, like in Ruby’s horrible TV shows, just in real life this time, and then Ruby herself walked past me with a stone-cold expression on her face.
She made her way right over to the bar and a minute later, the group of girls came out again. One of them seemed furious, shooting glares in Ruby’s direction as they walked over to the VIP area, right to the booth with the scrawny guy.
He took care of the hysterical brunette while I wondered why I was even invested in this high school type of drama.
Ruby downed shot after shot at the bar and that was the third time I should have stepped in and hauled her bratty ass out of the bar, but once again, I wasn’t thinking properly.
Just as I got myself under control, she got up and walked over to the dance floor like she was just born to turn heads. That’s when I knew I had to stop this before I really had to get rid of a corpse in the alleyway.
I made my way through the crowd, coming to a halt right behind her. Her skirt was way too short, again, her body way too hot against mine, and I don’t know what got into me as I put my hands on her waist. As if I was here to have a fun night out with her.
