“I said guess.”

Keela groaned. “Aliens have taken over Earth?”

“Close. Skull and I didn’t have sex.”

Keela choked on air.

“What?” she rasped. “Why not?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “We had a talk on the way to the club and it turns out he wants to settle down. He thinks he is gettin’ too old for one-night stands. He wants to find his main chick.”

“Wow.”

Yep. Wow.

“I know—it sucks for me though. I wanted sex tonight. I’m so disappointed.”

Keela snorted. “I’m sorry for your vagina’s loss.”

I dramatically sighed, “So am I. No one can turn her out like Skull can.”

Keela burst into laughter making me smile.

“I’m goin’ to go home. I’ll text you when I get there, okay?”

“Okay, I’m going back to bed. I’ll set me phone to vibrate and when I hear it vibrate from your text I’ll know you’re okay.”

I used my left hand to grab some toilet roll and wipe myself. I stood up, pulled up my underwear, and adjusted my dress. I turned and flushed the toilet and laughed when Keela cursed.

“I fuckin’ hate when you call me in the jacks!”

I snorted. “I know, sorry. Love you. Bye.”

I hung up giggling while Keela went on about how disgusting I was. I bent down and picked my clutch up off the floor, stood up straight, and adjusted my dress once more then dropped my phone into my bag. I exited the stall and went straight to the sinks where I washed my hands.

The bathroom was crowded, and I could hear multiple females talking and laughing. I was so tired that everything felt like it was far off in the distance instead of happening around me. I glanced left and right and looked at all the baby faces of the women in the bathroom and groaned.

Maybe I was getting too old for this shite.

I sighed to myself, gripped my clutch and walked out of the bathroom. Instead of looking up at where I was going, I looked down at the ground. As a result, I walked head first into another person and the force of the impact knocked me back onto my behind.

“What the fuck?” a female voice hollered. “Watch where you’re fuckin’ goin’!”

I groaned and rubbed my head. “Sorry.”

I pushed myself up to my feet and used my left hand to rub my behind to try to take the sting away. I yelped when I felt a sudden sharp pain spread out across my head. It took me a second to realise that someone had hold of my hair, and they were pulling at it.

Hell no.

I didn’t reach up for the person’s hair to pull back, no, I placed my hands on their hands and dug my nails into their flesh. Seconds later, the hands retreated from my head. I swung my head back, located the bitch who attacked me ,and charged.

I dived on the girl, fists flying and legs kicking. It was a blur of punches, slaps, and screeches. It felt like it lasted forever, but in reality, I was lifted off the girl ten or so seconds into the fight.

“That’s enough!” a familiar male’s voice bellowed into my ear.

A very familiar male’s voice.

Uh-oh.

“Sorry,” I squeaked and looked up to Skull’s blazing eyes.

“Aideen,” he sighed, his tone irritated as he set me down on the ground.

I instantly pointed at the girl across from us. “She hit me first. I was only defendin’ meself.”

Skull looked at the girl who was looking at me like she was going to rip me to shreds the second she got the opportunity.

“Is that true?” Skull asked the she-devil.

“She knocked me to the ground, that’s why I hit the fat bitch!”

Fat?

Oh, hell no.

I stepped forward. “Listen to me you STD-ridden little toothpick. Havin’ an arse and tits doesn’t make me fat, it makes me desirable, just ask your fella. He’s been starin’ at both since the moment I walked into you, which, by the way, I apologised for.”

The girl screamed and tried to come at me with outstretched hands, but Skull stood in front of me and kept the she-devil at bay. I made the situation worse by laughing at her.

“Damn it, Aideen,” Skull grunted then barked orders at the other bouncers before he turned, bent down and threw me over his shoulder and walked away from the pubescent teenager who was having the mother of all tantrums.

I didn’t struggle against Skull’s hold on me. I’d learned from previous experiences that beating on his back and spewing threats didn’t work on him. I relaxed as much as I could and simply enjoyed the ride. That was until he brought me somewhere I had never been in Darkness before. He brought me straight through a set of double doors and into a collection of long hallways with multiple rooms.

Where in the hell was I?

“What is this place?” I asked Skull when he placed me on the floor.

Skull closed the doors that led to the nightclub and instantly the noise lessened. You could hear music, but it wasn’t loud. Not loud enough to make you think a club was on the other side of the door.

“This is an area for VIPs,” Skull replied to me when he turned around.

I raised an eyebrow. “Bullshit, I’ve been a VIP for years.”

He smirked. “I mean the paid VIPs. Associates of the boss, if you will.”

Oh.

“Ah, dodgy businessmen? Got it.”

Skull grinned again. “Go on down to the end of the hallway, take a left and then go into the first room on the right. Lock the door behind you and I’ll be down to get you when my shift ends.”

I tilted my head and smirked. “I thought we weren’t goin’ to be havin’ sex tonight.”

“We aren’t,” Skull said, but he grinned as he said it.

I laughed as I turned around.

“Take the first left then go into the first room on your right,” Skull called after me.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.” I yawned.

I heard him chuckle then a loud burst of music filled the hallway only to be cut off seconds later. I glanced over my shoulder and saw I was alone in the empty hallway. I was alone in an unfamiliar place.

Keela would kill me for walking around an unfamiliar place on my own.

“Shit, Keela,” I mumbled.

With the thought of her, I remembered my promise to text her when I was home so she could go to sleep. I took out my phone, thumbed a message that I was safe and going to sleep and then slipped my phone back into my clutch after I hit send.

I turned and continued to walk down the hallway, and just as I came up to the left turn Skull told me to make, I heard a door slam and male voices bellowing at one another from the end of the hallway on my right. I jumped with fright and balled my hands into fists to keep them steady.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my breathing sped up. I inched my way down the hallway towards the voices, even though every fibre in my body screamed at me to turn and walk in the opposite direction. I rounded a corner and followed the voices taking a left turn, then a right.

I ignored my gut and continued my slow and steady walk down the hallway. I only stopped when I came to a door that wasn’t shut all the way. I glanced at the door looking for a number or something to say what the room was for, but there was nothing but dark varnished wood.

There was a space between the door and doorframe and I took it upon myself to look through the gap to see what all the commotion was about. I closed one eye and scanned the section of the brightly lit room that I could see, and when a bloodied man bound to a chair came into my line of sight, I couldn’t help but gasp.

I instantly covered my mouth with my hand and ceased to function altogether in fear I would make another unnecessary noise. I remained frozen until a few seconds passed by and nothing happened. I lowered my hand and gently exhaled a relieved breath.

That was close.

I flinched when I looked back into the room just as a tall man rounded into my view and punched the bound man across the face. The poor man’s head snapped to the right, and a moan of pain escaped him. Other than that one moan, he made no sound—not one.