With my and Mickey's complicated schedules, I wasn't able to enact phase one of my plan until Thursday evening. We had just finished dinner, in which Mickey had made a few announcements about pack rules and loyalty and some other stuff that didn't much interest me, and now the two of us were upstairs getting ready to go out.
"So wait, just tell me one more time, so that I've got it right. We're going out to the bar where Max works with Nic and his girl of the week. And we're bringing Ross...April...and Monica. Is that right?"
"Mhmm."
"I'm sorry, why are we bringing them again?" Mickey asked as he pulled on a dark grey v-neck shirt that clung to his muscles in all the right places. I had to stop myself from purring at him, or I knew he'd ruin the plan before it had even started.
I stepped into my black velvet dress, wiggling from side to side to shimmy the form-fitting fabric up the length of my body.
"Because, I'm trying to help April talk to Max, and Monica talk to Ross."
"So this is like...a group date or something?"
Smack. I got the straps in place and turned to roll my eyes at my husband.
"No, not like a group date. Just a group of friends going out to a bar on a Thursday night. That's all."
"And who made you Ms. Matchmaker?" Mickey asked playfully, stepping over the piles of rejected clothes at my feet to grab my waist and pull me against his chest.
"You look really hot, by the way," he leaned in to whisper in my ear, and I laughed softly.
"Thank you. So do you."
Mickey looked good enough to eat in his dark jeans, tight shirt, and brown leather jacket to ward off the evening chill. His hair was messier than usual, and the grey in his t-shirt brought out the grey in his eyes, almost making them glow.
"Come on, I bet we're keeping everyone waiting," I said finally, pushing back against his chest and grabbing my black heeled booties. When I exited the closet, Mickey followed closely behind me, running his hands over my velvet-covered ass and groaning.
"I'm happy that you're branching out and making friends, babygirl, but couldn't you do it from the comfort of our bed? Maybe naked, possibly with me beside you?"
I just laughed.
"Or inside you," Mickey breathed down my neck, and a shiver shot down my spine even as I grabbed my purse and checked my makeup in the mirror one last time.
"Shut up," I retorted playfully, snagging Mickey's hand in mine and dragging him behind me, out of our bedroom, and down the stairs. He pretended to pout for a second, but brightened right up when Nic appeared in the foyer, arm wrapped around a petite redhead.
"Hey bro, this is Cindy. Cindy, this is my man Mickey, and his girl Benny," Nic introduced us, and luckily we were spared any awkward small talk with his fuck-buddy when Ross staggered down the hall towards us.
"What, d'you start without us, man?" Mickey exclaimed, and the guys laughed. I didn't find Ross's intoxication quite as funny. He'd been drinking a lot lately, even more than he had when he was on my personal guard detail. I made a mental note to bring it up with Mickey the next time we were alone.
"So who else are we waiting for? Let's get going!"
"Um, April and Monica are joining us. They should be down any minute," I cut in, halting Nic in his path to the door. He stopped in his tracks, a laugh bubbling out of him seemingly before he could stop it.
"No shit. Goodytwoshoes schoolteacher April and that depressed chick are coming with us? To a bar?"
I bridled at his use of "depressed," but only Mickey seemed to notice.
"Yeah, I know, man, I was shocked, too. But they're, uh...friends with Benny. Isn't that right, Ben?"
"Uh, yeah. They are. My friends, I mean," I stammered, taken aback by Mickey's use of a cute nickname. I knew he only called me "babygirl" in the utmost privacy, but I liked "Ben." It was cute and personal without being too gushy or sickening for other people. It was intimate.
Nic's eyebrows remained raised, but he didn't say anything more on the subject. Ross snuck a drink out of a flask from inside his jacket pocket, and Mickey brushed his hand down my back ever-so-lightly. I shivered.
"Sorry, so sorry to keep everyone waiting! We're ready, we're here, we're ready!" April's high-pitched voice sang from the third-floor landing, and then she and Monica were stumbling down the stairs in the high heels I'd picked out for them. Now, I may not have known a lot about the art of seduction, but I did know how to look hot, and that's exactly what I'd done with the pair of them.
April's petite frame was elongated with some high-waisted jeans that hugged her body and gave the illusion of curves where there were none. The icy blue satin bodysuit she had on underneath pushed her small boobs up, with the aid of one of my push-up bras, and her hair hung in loose waves that contrasted beautifully with her blunt bangs. The blue in her shirt brought out the blue in her eyes, and her makeup was glowy and bright and made her look like an ice queen. Monica, on the other hand, had her naturally-long legs on display in a short black lace-up mini-skirt that I'd lent her, with thigh-high black boots bringing the right kind of attention to her thighs and oozing sex appeal. Her short black-and-purple hair was braided flat against her head in two messy cornrows, courtesy of me, which brought her hair out of her face for once and allowed her large grey-blue eyes to pop. The black mesh long-sleeved shirt she had on complimented her modest chest, and exposed the smallest sliver of her midriff.
"No worries, we just got down here!" I assured her, and Nic shot me an exasperated look.
"Are we ready to go now?"
The seven of us migrated from the foyer to the garage, and then finally out into the cool, crisp Los Angeles night. Darkness had settled on the city like a heavy blanket, but the streets were alight and alive. Mickey backed the SUV out of the garage, and the rest of us piled in. I sat up front with Mickey, who was driving, and Nic and his girl sat in the row behind us, leaving Ross, Monica, and April to pile into the very back together. First success! I peered in the rearview mirror to see if Ross and Monica were talking. They weren't.
"Uh, so who wants to listen to some music?" I said quickly to try to break the silence, punching the radio button and flipping the dial until Fall Out Boy came on. Peeking in the rearview mirror again, I saw Ross roll his eyes, and I swiftly turned the dial again.
The bumping bass of Kendrick Lamar came flooding out of the speakers, much to Ross's delight. Mickey shot me a confused look, turning up the volume until the bass shook the car as we sped down the freeway. Luckily, he didn't comment on my music choice, and we listened to Ross and Nic rap along to "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" until we got to the bar.
"You guys go ahead and get out, I'll go park the SUV," Mickey said as he rolled to a graceful stop in front of the entrance to the bar. It had started to drizzle while we were driving, and he knew we wouldn't want to ruin our hair walking in the rain. Leaning over to kiss him quickly on the cheek, I slid out of the car and led the way into the bar. As soon as we walked in, the crowd let out a loud cheer, and Max's blonde head turned to the door.
"Hey y'all!" Nic yelled, bolstering their energy and leading his redhead straight to the bar to order a drink. Ross followed, leaving April and Monica with me as we cowered slightly in the corner. I hated crowds, especially at bars, but I realized I was tasked with leading them out of our collective comfort zone, so I pushed us forward, waving at Max.
"Benny! You came!" Surprise colored Max's tone as he reached over the bar to wrap his arms around me and ruffle my hair.
"Yeah! We all did. Nic, Ross, Mickey's parking the car...and you know April, right?"
"Uh, yeah, hey, April. And...Melonie?" He said, pointing behind her to where Monica stood with her arms crossed over her chest, looking uncomfortable.
"Monica." She scowled.
"H-hi, Max!" April squeaked, and Max smiled. His charm was powerful, but unfortunately for April, it was so powerful that girls were pushing and shoving around his section of the bar to get a chance to talk to him as well. With his blonde hair, muscled arms, and shining green eyes, it was a miracle we weren't literally shoved out of the way. It only took a few minutes for us to stumble and trip to the back of the bar, where I went up on my tiptoes to look for Mickey. Still no sign of him.
I did, however, recognize the tattoo-covered arms and silky black hair of Callie from the clinic; she was across the room, talking up some guy with warm brown skin and a dazzling smile. I still was unsure where we stood, so I tried to avoid her gaze, but when she turned to get something out of her purse, her eyes landed on me and lit up with recognition.
"Benny!"
*** *** ***
Mickey's POV
I struggled to find a parking spot big enough to accommodate the SUV in that little side-road parking lot, so I ended up parking in the next lot over, in front of some bougie restaurant and wine store. Inside, I could see the fancy guests in their suit jackets and high heels dining like the upper class do. In the back of my head, I vaguely wondered why I wasn't one of them; I was an NBA player now, with enough money to take Benny somewhere nice like that restaurant. And we were husband and wife. Instead, we were spending one of my few nights home at a dive bar with horny members of the pack, trying to set them up together.
I clicked the button to lock the SUV as I strode towards the sidewalk, heading back to Dagger, the bar where Max worked. I was almost on the edge of the parking lot when someone stepped out in front of me, dressed in black slacks and a tan suit jacket.
"Kohl. I'm surprised to see you here."
"Yeah, well, I needed to talk to you. Alone."
I crossed my arms across my chest, trying to pull myself up to my full six foot four height to disguise the nervousness I truly felt. My heart was pounding in my chest.
"About what?"
Kohl's eyes had fallen to where I'd crossed my arms, and I was tempted to look down but didn't want to show weakness. What's he looking at?
"Is that...a ring?" He choked out, his jaw clenched so tightly that I was worried he was going to pop a vein. Oh fuck. Benny had told me that he would freak out if he knew, and now I'd gone and exposed our secret when she wasn't even here. She's gonna be pissed.
"Yeah. We got married last Saturday."
Kohl's jaw unclenched suddenly, and his fists loosened. His expression was inscrutable.
"Listen to me closely, Lafitte. If you think for a second I'm going to sit back and let my baby sister become a Beverly Hills housewife to a second-rate NBA player, you are gravely mistaken. I may not have been there to protect Benny when she was younger, but I'll be damned if I let her down now. You'll be seeing me again."
He was so calm it was weirdly even worse than if he'd blown up and yelled at me. I knew how to handle anger; I knew how to handle yelling. I even would've known what to do if he had swung at me. But he was so calm it was chilling.
I walked into Dagger's feeling a little unnerved. I didn't know what to expect from Kohl. He hated me inexplicably, and didn't want the two of us to be together. But we were married. Benny had said she loved me. I wasn't going to lose her to him, no matter what he tried to do. Was I?
When I walked in, my attention was drawn immediately to three separate crises. The first was Nic in some guy's face, cursing him out in Spanish while his girl looked on with tears streaming down her face. A crowd had begun to gather around them, and Nic looked mad enough to kill. I wasn't immediately concerned because I knew Nic could handle himself, but I also knew he had a temper like a matchstick. Shit.
The second was Ross, stumbling so badly that he had to grab onto passersby and bar stools to stay upright. He was slurring something about one of the bartenders, but as I looked, he lost his balance for good and took down a nearby waitress as he went. Drinks came crashing down around them, and Ross's full 6'6" frame crushed the young woman underneath him. Yells and curses rang out in the bar now as people flocked to Ross and the waitress, tearing at him to get off her. He looked to be passed out cold.
The third, and most pressing, crisis that came to my immediate attention was the fact that Benny had disappeared from the bar.
*** *** ***
Benny's POV
"Callie, I don't know anything, I swear--"
"Shut up, Chambers. I know you saw us that night. You've been acting weird ever since. Now follow me." Callie tugged on my arm again, dragging me beside her as we got further and further away from Dagger and I started to panic a little. The drizzle from earlier had turned into a full-on downpour, and we were both instantly soaked. I didn't think Callie would honestly hurt me, but I sensed that she was mixed up in something dangerous and I wanted no part of it.
"Callie, no, I swear--"
"Shut up!" She hissed, yanking on my arm painfully, and I stopped protesting.
Finally, we got to the very back of the alley behind Dagger, where a black sedan was parked conspicuously, engine running. A surge of panic and fear shot through my chest, and I prayed that Mickey would sense where I was and come looking. My hair was plastered to my head, my velvet dress uncomfortably molded to my body. I was shivering from the icy rain whipping against my bare legs and arms.
"Now, listen, Chambers. I know you think we're some criminals or something but we're not. We're just trying to make a little extra money; God knows we all need it." Callie's dark eyes were staring into mine intensely, and I quickly nodded, blinking water out of my eyes as my makeup streamed down my face.
"We just skim a little of the extra supplies from the clinic and sell it online. Trevor here delivers it to our buyers, and we pay him a small cut of what we make," she explained in a hushed voice, gesturing to the sedan again. That's when I noticed Mindy and Alex from the clinic striding across the parking lot towards us, black duffle bags hanging off their shoulders and jackets pulled up to cover their heads from the rain.
"I brought you along with me so that you would be complicit in this. Now you can't rat on us without implicating yourself. Got it?"
I opened my mouth to protest, and Callie's grip on my arm tightened painfully. The rain had transformed her Gothic facade into a black and white smeared clown display; her shiny black hair hung in stringy locks beside her flushed cheeks, and her fishnet tights glinted with water underneath the dingy street lamp above us.
"And don't even think about telling that little NBA player boyfriend of yours, got it? Because I've got proof of him buying steroids off of us and I wouldn't hesitate to show it to the National Athletics Advisory Board. And what do you think they would do if they found out their precious little rookie was doping?"
My mouth gaped open, and I found the strength to snatch my arm from her grasp as a clap of thunder boomed in the background.
"How dare you threaten Mickey," I hissed back, my anger boiling over the fear and anxiety and burning through my veins like fire.
"He would never take steroids, I know you're full of shit!"
"It's amazing what you can forge when you run an underground operation, Chambers. I have proof that he bought drugs off of us. If you don't believe me, go and tell him. Test me." Callie's eyes had gone flat black, her jaw clenching and unclenching like a rabid dog chomping at the bit. I didn't want to test her.
Without me even realizing it, the entire deal had gone down while Callie was threatening me to stay silent. The sedan roared its engine and sped off, and as fast as they had come, Mindy, Alex, and Callie disappeared. I was left in the alley, shaken and cold and terrifyingly alone.