CHAPTER 19
ZIGGY
“Lucky, don’t!” I demanded. There’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere. Especially now that the motherfucker was playing with us.
We’re fired?!
“Over my dead fucking body.”
“It’s not up to you, Ziggy,” Lucky said, flinging her words at me like daggers.
“We’ll all sit down and talk about this,” I insisted, doing my best to sound mature and reasonable. “We can work it out. It won’t happen again.”
I swallowed the frantic helplessness that threatened to bubble up, knowing full well this woman was absolutely and completely in charge and that I didn’t have a say in her choices. I’m merely the hired help. But that didn’t keep me from doing what any man in my shoes would do — I puffed up my fucking chest and stood my ground. I crossed my arms and stopped short of stomping my foot for emphasis.
Unfazed, she stepped forward and lowered her voice, “There’s nothing to talk about. Ziggy, I appreciate your effort but it wasn’t enough. We both know this is nothing more than a failed experiment. You’re sweet to try, but I never should have asked this of you and your friends. I get what you’re trying to do, I do, but I’m fucking tired. I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of trying to win. All I want is to - to - well, fuck, I don’t know what I want, but —.”
“—Lucky don’t give up on us. We made a mistake. I made a mistake. I’ll own that, right out of the gate. But this isn’t a game to me and it’s not some fucking experiment. I — I —.”
“—Don’t even think about professing feelings for me!”
I slammed my mouth closed. Was that what I was about to do?
My head was spinning so fast, I didn’t know which way was up. Did I have feelings for her? Was that even possible this soon? All I knew for sure was that I couldn’t leave her side.
She squinted her eyes, nodding slowly as I remained silent, sizing me up.
“That’s what I thought,” she whispered, turning away from me. The door burst open just then, followed by a bumbling Becky that promptly began fussing over her, pulling her away from me and leaving me standing there like a fool with my dick in my hand.
“Fuck,” I murmured, not sure what to do. She clearly wanted me to leave her alone. She’d downright told us to all leave. Struggling with my pride, I shuffled out of the room, seeking some sort of advice from the only people I respected — the Gods.
They were pacing outside in the hall, a wall of them blocking the entrance. Ryder and Riot were talking quietly together a few feet away and I walked over to them, trying to wrap my head around what just happened.
“We figured out how he got in,” Riot said, shoving his phone in my face. I glanced down at a grainy surveillance video. “It was the donut guy. Or, rather it wasn’t. Turns out, Tres Shannon, the owner of Voodoo Donuts isn’t even in town right now. He’s quite a character, actually. Looks like a brightly dressed muppet, in a way. Kinda crazy anyone could pull off impersonating him.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “She fired us.”
“She did?” Ryder asked, shaking his head. “That’s too bad.”
“Well, obviously we can’t leave!” I protested.
“It’s a job, Ziggy. If we’re fired, we’re fired. We have to respect that.”
“We can’t just leave her unprotected!”
“She’ll find someone else, man,” Ryder said, putting his hand on my arm. “You got to let this one go. I don’t blame her, either. We fucked up. We failed. We deserve to be fired.”
“Can’t win ‘em all,” Slade said, walking up with his stupid fucking crooked grin. I was in no mood for his jokes right now. This was serious shit. Nicholai was a serious threat and there’s no way in hell I’m just going to walk away and leave Lucky completely exposed to some crazy asshole’s madness. Who knows what he’ll do next?
“Riot, get everyone together, we’re heading out,” Ryder instructed. He looked over at me and nodded somberly. “Come on, Ziggy. You gotta do the right thing here, brother.”
I glanced back at Lucky’s door, still barricaded by a wall of tattooed flesh, my heart twisting in pain.
Yeah, okay, I guess I have feelings for her.
Would it hurt this much to walk away if I didn’t?
I shuffled along with the other guys, heading out of the arena through the maze of hallways, our heavy footsteps echoing off the concrete walls.
“I can’t believe this shit,” I said, my spinning head quickly turning into a pounding, angry headache. I turned to look at Nate, walking along with Fury and Eli, all of whom had been as silent as could be throughout this whole thing. “Why didn’t you stop him? Why did you let him in?”
“What?” Nate asked.
“The three of you. You were guarding the door. You let the asshole inside. To deliver fucking donuts? What were you thinking?”
“It’s a trendy donut shop,” he shrugged. “I read in the paper that they deliver donuts to all the stars that come through town. It’s their schtick,” Eli said.
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, the rage building. “Did you also remember that it’s Nicholai’s schtick to impersonate other people or did you conveniently fucking forget that fact?”
I was screaming now, my voice bouncing off the walls around us. My fingers clenched into fists at my side, the anger begging to explode into violence. My eyes darted from Nate to Fury to Eli as I contemplated which one to hit first. They stared back at me in shock.
“Dude, you need to calm down,” Slade said, stepping between us. “These guys didn’t know. It’s not their fault.”
“Not their fault?” I shouted with disbelief. Was he really defending them?
“No, man, it wasn’t, and you need to cool your jets,” he repeated, sending my rage into overdrive. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. But all of a sudden, my fist, which was hanging at my side one second, was flying through the air the next, my knuckles crashing into Slade’s trademark grin like a wrecking ball.
Despite the force of the punch, he merely stumbled backwards one shaky step, his hand reaching up to touch his mouth as he smiled at me.
“There you go!” he laughed. “Feel better now?”
I froze, the reality of what I’d done washing over me like a wave. How could I have done that? How could I have blamed the other guys?
We’re in this together and I’ve just shown my ass in a big way.
“Dude, I’m so fucking sorry,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s cool, man,” he laughed again, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. “It felt good, actually.”
I looked over at the others, “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t know. I’m just really fucking rattled.”
“We understand, Zig,” Ryder said, smiling knowingly. “Guess it’s not just a job, is it?”
“I guess not,” I sighed. “What the fuck do I do?”
“I think you know what to do,” Riot said.
I nodded slowly. They were right.
I turned away, walking back the way we came, my step more determined than ever.