Rainy Day | Rhea Ripley

Chapter 18

Leaving the past to the grave 

so we can reincarnate

- Reincarnate by Motionless in White

Apart from the name that was spelled on the front of the establishment in neon letters (except it said Te Oymp instead of The Olymp because whoever had put them up there hadn't bothered maintaining them and some had gone dark), the building we were standing in front of had little to no similarity with the one on the brochure in my hand.

The paint on the outside walls was coming off in flakes, the windows were so dirty you could barely see through them and one of them had apparently been broken into and then patched up with cardboard and duct tape.

We had come here straight from Alex's apartment but now that we had arrived neither of us had a plan on what to do next.

"We can't just walk in there without knowing what exactly we are going to do" Damian stated the obvious.

I thought about that for a second.

"Actually, I can't just walk in there. You can. Here, take this off" I pulled on the sleeve of his fancy leather jacket.

"Why?" he shook off my hand.

"Because that thing costs more than my rent and I don't want you to get robbed, now give it to me" He did, along with the silver cross necklace he was wearing. 

Now his outfit consisted of black ripped jeans and a white T-Shirt. The leather dress shoes weren't ideal but they would have to do.

"Alright, so what am I supposed to do once I am in there?" he wanted to know.

"Just blend in. Order a drink, sit in a corner somewhere, and pay attention to your surroundings." I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my gallery until I found the photo of Xav and the guy Alex had called Sullivan.

"This is what the guys look like, their names are Xav and Sullivan. Just try and find out something, I will wait here for you and watch the outside" I assured him.

He nodded and disappeared into the bar.

A garbage container on the other side of the road was standing conveniently placed in a corner, leaving a small space between a wall and the container, making it the perfect hiding place.

I crouched down in the space, tried not to think about the fact that I was literally huddled up by the trash, and kept my eyes locked on the opposite building.

It was almost impossible to see what was going on inside of the bar but I could make out Damian entering and sitting down at the bar, talking to a girl who was bartending despite barely looking old enough to even drink alcohol.

From my angle, I could only see the counter, not the rest of the room, but Damian seemed to be very intently watching something going on on the other side of the room, still continuing his conversation with the bartender.

After a while he finished his drink, paid and returned to me.

"They weren't there, at least not in the main room but I heard two guys talking in the back, I'm pretty sure one of them mentioned someone named Xav in the apartment above the bar. The girl at the bar, Lilly, who by the way is totally underage said that there was a private gathering being hosted there by a friend of the owner of the bar every couple of days. He also seems to live there right now but she wasn't sure" He reported.

"Okay, so if we piece this together then Xav is running his little gambling organization from there and he's holding Alex there to help him" I concluded.

"You don't know that Demi. We have no space for mistakes here, everything we do from now on needs to be calculated"

I nodded begrudgingly. My impulse was to storm the building, look through every room and get Alex out of there if it was the last thing I ever did. But he was right, I would be risking way too much.

"We need to get Dom and Finn involved" he added, which I protested immediately.

"Didn't you hear Dom on the phone? He would never agree to that"

Damian wasn't phased by my impulsive reaction.

"Finn talked to him, and I did too. Dominik is not unreasonable, you know that but this was a lot for him to process. He is willing to hear you out but you need to give him space to feel the emotions he understandably has regarding all of this."

"Okay," I finally agreed. "Are we gonna meet them at Dominik's hotel?" Damian shook his head, grinning.

"Nope, we are meeting them at the gym."

"At the gym? Damian it's 10 pm." I reminded him.

"Good thing it's open 24/7. You have been completely wired all day and if you don't get some of this nervous energy out of your system you are going to do something stupid. And you won't be able to have any kind of sensible conversation. So let's go" He placed his hand on my shoulder and walked me to the car.

"I'm gonna have to stop by my place and get some gym clothes" I argued.

"No, you won't, your stuff is in the trunk." He had planned this. I wasn't sure whether I was pissed or impressed.

We got to the gym and I suddenly couldn't wait to get started. I got changed much faster than him but when I went into the main room I got distracted by the floor-length mirror.

"Stop it" a voice next to me suddenly said. I hadn't even seen Dominik approach me in the mirror, I had been too focused on squeezing at my stomach.

"Stop what?" I turned to him.

"Picking on yourself. You do that when you're stressed, you obsess over your body and you don't notice it but you can spend literal hours bodychecking and your mental state gets worse with every second you do it. Please don't do that to yourself, Demi. I'm so sorry for leaving" 

His voice was quiet and tired.

Instead of replying I gathered him in a hug and couldn't stop the tears from falling as I felt his familiar warmth and smelt the faint scent of his shampoo.

"She's gone, Dom" I sobbed in his shirt.

"I know, Mami" he replied, "But we will get her back".