Live For It

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"You're gonna crash hard if you drink with that, Ro," Koven laughs, nudging his brother in the shoulder. Rowen smiles stupidly and wipes the access cocaine off the table, scattering in small clouds in front of me and Koven. I stare down the table, wishing I could just go home. 

Rowen downs his whiskey and pushes the glass across the table, landing right in front of me. 

"Get me another, why don't you, Zhara," Rowen slurs, causing my eyes to sting slightly. 

"Rowen-" Ajax starts, but I grab the glass and stand up abruptly, interrupting him as I walk away from the table. I exit the VIP section and keep my head down as I make my way towards the bar. 

People pass me as I go by miserably, hoping to forget the rest of this night. 

I set the empty glass on the bar counter and nod at Rodney, notifying him to refill. I lean against the edge of the bar and study the people in the building. 

That woman swinging around with her friends is hiding something. The way she keeps looking over her shoulder each time something vibrates on her phone. The way her eyes drift off of her friends and she starts gazing off to the side, her mind caught up in something. She does not do a good job at faking it. 

The man drinking a glass of scotch over near the private rooms is pretending to be rich. He is wearing too many expensive clothes that even my own father wouldn't wear. He wants to blind people into thinking he is rich, even though he is dead broke. He buys expensive things just to impress others, even when no one else really cares how much money he has. He barely has any money to tailor the suits either, they are too big on him. 

The old guy sitting by the bathrooms recently lost his job, his tie undone and eyes sunken. He has kept looking over to the bottles of alcohol but shakes his head to himself. He cannot afford to drink more expensive liquor now that he will have to struggle to make ends meet. 

"Drowning your sorrows?"

I snap my head over to the source of the deep voice that ends my trance. A man in a suit jacket with his dress shirt casually unbuttoned at the top. His dark eyes seem slightly familiar, as well as his light-brown hair. His features are rough and defined, and his eyes narrow when I meet their gaze. 

"Not necessarily," I reply, watching his brows furrow a little. A small smile grows on his face, creating indents on his skin where the side of his mouth ends. 

"Then what exactly are you doing?" he asks, leaning on his arm as his elbow props himself up on the counter. I raise an eyebrow in his direction, parting my lips to speak, but the voice of Rodney cuts me off. 

"Here you are, Miss Di Maggio-" the minute the words leave his mouth, the man in front of me stands up straight and his face hardens. I quickly take the glass from Rodney and hurry off, feeling the man's stare on the back of my head. 

I swear I know him from somewhere...and the only problem is I think he now knows me, too. If I were to tell one of my brothers what happened they would only believe what my father said. 

I shake off the worries in my mind and make my way over to the table. Quickly setting the glass down in front of Rowen, I keep my eyes off of my brothers. I stand back up and hear someone say my name, but I ignore it and head back towards the employee's break room. Pushing through a few workers as I walk into the room, I spot my coat hanging up in the designated hanging area. I quickly grab it and slip it on, fighting every urge to turn around as I do so. 

I hurry through the back door and the immediate fresh air hitting my skin calms me, it gives me air to breathe as if I was just suffocating. 

I walk further into the alleyway and take deep breaths as I spot the same matte black Mercedes-Benz from last night, only fueling my panic.