Madison felt her stomach churn.
Everything that was happening right now was mostly her fault, and suddenly she began to regret coming to the club in the first place.
A few steps away from her, she could see Gina staring at the men in horror, and as though Gina could sense her looking in her direction, she swiftly turned to Madison, quickly rushing to her side.
"M-Madison are you okay?" She asked, using her free hand to rub her back in circles, but Madison had stopped listening.
Her eyes had gone to the middle of the room where the men had gathered in a heated argument, and in her haze she had only remembered that someone had yelled at them, startling everyone, but she hadn't seen who it was.
No she had seen whom it was, but she didn't want to believe her eyes at all.
And again she caught sight of him... Of Damien and her eyes widened in disbelief.
What the hell was he doing here? She wondered, her disbelief slowly changing to anger and without thinking, she yanked her hand out of her friend's grip, straightening up as she began to walk towards him.
He was also coming to meet her, and soon they caught themselves at a crossroad, staring intently at each other.
"Mad..." He began to say but she cut him to it.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" She seethed, clenching her fists, "Why can't you ever just stay in your..."
Just the way she had interrupted his speech earlier, Damien paid no heed to her and he placed a hand on her shoulders his eyes looking at her from head to toe, as if he was checking for something probably injuries or whatsoever.
"What the hell... what... what are you doing?" She stuttered, trying to get his hands of her as she staggered back drunkenly but he didn't stop checking her without saying a word.
When he finally dropped his hands down from her shoulders, he then straightened and she opened her mouth to say something again but before she knew what was happening, he was out of her way.
Just like in the movies, because this was definitely not real, she watched as he rushed to the men who had harassed her earlier.
From the side of his face which she could see, she noted that his expression was contorted with a kind of rage she had never seen, and before she could even scream already having an inkling about what was going to happen, he had grabbed the first one forward by the collar, swinging his arm forward and connecting it to the man's jaw.
The sound of the man's nose cracking sent Madison reeling backwards in fright.
Blood spurted from the man's nose, and as he fell to the floor, Damien rushed the second guy, tackling him to the ground as he tried to run away.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Damien yelled, grabbing hold of the man's arm and twisting it at an awkward angle.
Madison held her hands to her ears in shock as the man's piercing screams mixed with the sound of his bones cracking filled the air, and tears started to stream down her face.
"Please stop!" She started to yell with all her might, taking steps towards Damien, and trying her best to stop the fight that was already erupting.
"Damien please stop!" She begged this time with a yell still, but he didn't listen and he continued to beat the men up in turns.
He was not listening at all, he never listened!
Blood had already begun to spill on the floor and even splashed on his face but still he continued to beat them up, while Madison watched in horror.
The bouncers and security guards in the club had already gathered around them, watching too but for some reason, they made no move to separate them or try to stop the fight and Madison was stunned.
Turning to face them, her jaw slacked further when she saw them standing and just staring like someone was not about dying due to the blows delivered by Damien.
Wasn't it their job to maintain peace and order here? She wondered.
It seemed Gina also had the same thought to, because Madison watched as her best friend rushed to one of them, begging them to intervene before someone got really hurt but the security guards only shrugged, saying that their hands were tied and that they could do absolutely nothing.
Asking them to move away from the scene before they got hurt, the security guards continued to watch and Madison staggered backwards in confusion, her eyes moving back to the scene in front of her.
She shuddered at the energy oozing off Damien as he pulverized their faces, hitting and hitting, not stopping at all despite their screams.
She continued to yell in desperation, begging someone to intervene... anyone at all but no one made a single move. On the contrary, people in the club had already whipped out their phones and begun to record the whole thing, and just then Madison felt something crackle in her chest.
Every time Damien was around, cameras would be around, this was for sure, Madison had hoped that she had left all the publicity and media when she left New York, but now Damien was here, it was right back.
She had a sinking feeling that this would probably end up in another magazine, and no doubt she would be recognized as the same waitress from before.
Then again the rumors would start up once again, and with the way Damien was beating up the men, she was sure to be blamed for the whole fiasco.
Why was all this happening again? What was this going to mean for her too? What the hell was this? Why had Damien come to her rescue too, when they both knew he wanted nothing to do with her, despite their recent conversations amongst other things?
Her chest heaved, and although she tried hard to stop the tears, they continued to fall.
She was in the kind of situation she had vowed never to encounter again, and even though she felt shame and embarrassment all over, she hated being at the center of attention once again.
Everyone's eyes were on her, and with the short dress she was wearing, they probably believed she was a hooker.
Already beginning to feel exposed, the tears falling in rivulets, Madison slowly wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she continued to yell at Damien to stop all to no avail.
Even more desperate than before, she walked back to where the bouncers stood, "Please do something, he's going to kill them! Are you just going to stand here and watch?"
One of them shook his head, telling Madison to move away from the scene but she didn't budge.
She wasn't going anywhere at all, not until this was fucking stopped. "P-please... could you at least inform your boss? The owner of the club.. I'm sure he'll be able to do something. Please, I beg you! This is becoming disastrous."
They all ignored her, and as though they had thought it through, two of the bouncers walked to where she stood with Gina, pulling them both away from the scene amidst their protest.
When they had gone a short distance, one of them whispered to the ladies, motioning to Damien.
"One of you mentioned something about talking to our boss right?" He asked and Madison all too eagerly nodded.
"Well, that man right there... beating the men up for you, he's the boss. He's the owner of the club. So there's absolutely nothing we can do but wait. That's why we've made no move to stop him at all."
Madison gasped in shock, her eyes moving back to Damien. He was the owner? No freaking way!
She snapped her head back up to the guard, and a pained giggle erupting from her throat she said, "-you're lying... he can't be the owner. That's not possible."
Instead of obliging her or trying to prove that they were saying the truth, this time the guards didn't care and instead they pulled them away towards the exit of the club, while Madison struggled to be let off.
She still couldn't believe that Damien was the owner, and as she struggled she still thought about it over and over again and then it all began to make sense.
The fact that no one had raised a finger to do anything, and they had just stood watching was because if they tried to intervene, they stood at risk of losing their jobs.
She sighed heavily, her stomach churning once more, as different feelings assailed her. She was also going to throw up anytime soon, she felt it.
Still weak and wobbly from drinking so much, Madison tried so much to steady herself.
The fight had upped her adrenaline and made her nervous, but now it had died down, and her fatigue was slowly returning.
As the men dragged her and Gina out of the club, Gina in question motioned to her, asking if she was okay and looking back at the scene, Madison just fell silent not knowing what to say.
She couldn't see them clearly, but from the cahoots and the crowd still gathered she could tell that Damien had not relented or stopped whatever he was doing. Clearly he was still landing heavy blows to the men's faces, and now the crowd had tripled, meaning more cameras and flashing lights which shone through.
Turning away from the scene, Madison grabbed a glass of wine from a waiter that was passing by, and tipped the glass, swallowing the contents although Grace tried to stop her.
She was anything but okay and so she wouldn't stop until she was a bit fine maybe. Her chest still heaving, she grabbed another drink and let the bouncers lead them out of the club albeit slowly.
She had given up! She just wanted to get out of this place.
.......
Damien felt fire flow through his veins as he landed the final blow on the bloodied face of the last man, and then he stood up kicking hard at the both of them.
He was still shaking all over with anger.
"This should be the last time you ever lay hands on any woman, lest especially my w..." He paused and instead said, "This should be the last time you both ever treat women like that again!" He yelled at them.
They were too weak to respond so they both shook their heads weekly, and still seething, Damien motioned to the security guards to take the men out and clean the mess up.
He would have killed them already, but he had controlled himself and the fury rising up from the pit of his stomach.
Instantly making his way to the bathroom to clean up, Damien began to wash his hands under the tap, the color of the water slowly changing to red, and the image of that man groping Madison all over resurfaced in his head again.
He swore under his breath, hating the image that flashed through his head.
How dare that fucker touch her like that? How dare they grope something he owned and make her look like a fool, in front of other men.
Suddenly, Damien hissed, wishing he had done more damage. He tried to will himself to think about something else, and at that thought, he realized something he had not taken note of before.
The cameras. The phones and flashlights about and the people recording. The damn cameras!
"Fuck!" Damien cursed.
Of course people would definitely record this fight, and with his past experiences he had sorely taught himself what he would probably expect nonetheless.
In these kinds of situations, the news would probably circulate by daybreak, and raking his fingers through his hair he muttered 'not again' so many consecutive times.
To make matters worse and sour Madison was involved in this again, and now it seemed like he was always the reason why she ended up on the news.
She would never forgive him if this went viral, and again he was struck with the realization that he had caused this.
He should have tried to calm down, and just warn the men but he hadn't been able to control himself at all. Even now he was glad he had beat the pussies out of those motherfuckers.
Sighing, he wiped his hands and stepped out of the bathroom to analyze the situation.
When he stepped out in the club, to his surprise, everything had died down very quickly.
The security guards had cleaned up the mess, the bloodied men were nowhere in sight, and all phones and cameras were also kept at bay and nowhere in sight too. They had done it much quicker than he expected, and if he hadn't just been involved in the whole thing, he never would've believed that a fight had just occurred in the very building he was in.
The people in the club had gone back to drinking and talking and dancing as though nothing had happened, and Damien shrugged. Maybe it was better off this way.
Making his way to where the bouncers stood, he motioned to one of them, asking, "The two ladies who were involved in all this... The ladies who cause this... where are they?"
The bouncer nodded at his question, informing Damien that both ladies were outside with some of the other guards and he breathed out slowly.
They were still here and safe, thankfully. Nodding, he asked the bouncer how they were.
"They're both very drunk, sir. One of them is thoroughly wasted, but the other lady isn't as drunk. She's still able to answer questions, which shows that she might be very much sober still."
Damien nodded in response, his mind wandering again as he began to wonder why Madison was in a club in the first place?
The last time he had seen her in a club, she was working there, and that was only because she had no other choice and desperately needed a job, one he had properly truncated. Now though she was here for fun, and he never imagined her going to a club to relax. In that tight dress she wore and those strawberry blonde tresses of hers splaying out, she had been drinking so much that she could barely stand.
A thought suddenly came to him and he faced the bouncer.
"Those ladies, do you happen to know them? I mean, are they regular members here?" He asked, holding his breath for the answer, and internally Damien hoped the answer he would get wasn't one he was scared of hearing.
"No, sir." The bouncer finally replied, "This is my first time seeing either of them. And if I had seen them before, I surely would've remembered."
Damien had heard all he needed to, and since it was her first time here that was a relief maybe but at the same time again anger surged through him.
Her first time in this club, his club actually and she had been dressed like that! She had been groped illicitly, and his jaw tightened as he remembered that man's hand on her waist... her body.
"Absolutely no one should touch her like that." Damien mumbled internally, suddenly feeling a surge of possessiveness over Madison, hating the fact that she had been touched like that by someone who was not him.
Muttering a string of curses under his breath, he gestured to the bouncer, "Take me to them."
Nodding, the bouncer quickly turned towards the exit, and led Damien out of the club and straight to them.
.......
Thanks for reading. 💕