He isn’t coming for me with a notice for me to close the place for inspection.
No, he’s coming for me with guns blazing, blood in his eyes.
“What the fuck is going on?” Lux screams at me, appearing at my side from God knows where.
“Lester,” I simply whisper, and her eyes become as wide as golden coins. She grabs the balcony railings to steady herself and then looks at me with a worried expression her face.
“You don’t mean to say that--”
“Yeah, I do,” I tell her, cutting her off. “He’s going to raid us, and make sure we close down for good,” I say gravely.
That’s when a small army of men in NYPD tactical uniforms storm through the place.
They’re all wearing gas masks to protect them from the smoke grenade, and they’re all holding rifles, not regular service pistols.
Lester is hitting me with a fucking SWAT team. Up until now, I thought that Lester was one of these guys, brimming with threats but never having the balls to act on them.
Why did I think that, hun?
Why was I so fucking stupid?
Because look at me now!
I was wrong. Jesus, I’ve never been so wrong, and the Dirty Destiny and all my girls are going to pay for my mistake.
Fucking Christ!
Another explosion in the distance.
Fucking fuck.
Excuse my language, okay? I’m just watching everything I built go up in flames.
I smell smoke now.
Fucking FUCK!
Okay, I need to keep it together. I need to act. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves and then look at Lux.
“Lux, I want you to get as far away from here as you can. Take every girl you find with you, and guide as many of them out of here,” I tell her as she looks at me with wide eyes. “I don’t want Lester to lay his dirty hands on any of my girls,” I say, and she simply nods and bolts.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” One SWAT guys starts yelling at the customers, all of them with their hands up in the air. They look like confused cockroaches, their eyes squinted because of the smoke, but they finally start lying down on the ground.
I look around, trying to pick Austin from the crowd, but I can’t recognize him from up here, the smoke covering the room like a blanket.
“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” I hear another yell, and then a gun goes off, the bright glow of the bullet being fired like a punch to my throat.
Rubber bullets, please, let it be rubber bullets, I pray to myself as I turn on my heels and enter my office, heading straight for the power switch I keep under my desk. I press it in a hurry, and all the lights go out at once, and I know that all of the security doors I have on the main room have opened.
I won’t make it easy for Lester. I have no idea what lies he told the courts to get a SWAT team to storm my club, but it can’t be good; I want to let as many of my customers and girls escape.
I can already see the police handcuff some of the men on the floor and drag them out into the street.
I grit my teeth as I imagine what Lester has in mind; he’s probably going to take them into court and bury them in made-up charges.
But first he’s going to walk them in public and shame them.
He’s making sure that Dirty Destiny will never open its door again if I don’t play nice, and he doesn’t care about who goes down in the process.
Motherfucker!
If I could I’d choke the life out of that fucking limp dick loser right now.
“EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM,” I hear someone roar, and I recognize Lester’s voice among the confused cries and the shouts from the police. “FOCUS ON THE GIRLS,” he shouts again, and I feel a violent rage growing inside of me.
I’m grabbing at the rails so hard that there’s no blood left in my hands, and I realize that I’m shaking with fury.
Then, as if the Devil himself had set his pitch black eyes on me, there’s an opening in the smoke and my eyes meet Lester’s. He looks at me with a grin, his eyes small and evil, and he raises his arm and points at me.
“THERE!” he yells, spit coming out of his mouth. “SHE’S UP ON THE BALCONY, GET HER!”
I have to get out of here—now.
There’s nothing I can do; I sure as hell can’t face a SWAT squad by myself, so I turn on my heels and head out of the service door, a headache brewing inside my skull. I run down the cramped corridor and I push the exit door with as much strength as I can. It swings open and I step into the cold New York night, my breath pluming out of my mouth in a white cloud. I can hear heavy boots running down the corridor, and I keep running.
I go as fast as I can down the fire escape, the metallic stairs creaking and groaning as I run down.
The moment my heels hit the concrete, I look over my shoulder as two men holding revolvers look down the fire escape. They’re not wearing any uniforms, but they sure as hell seem hell bent on getting their hands on me.