Red

C H A P T E R S E V E N

The atmosphere at the club was lively, drunken men stumbled everywhere. Guns lay scattered and I noted a couple of idiots playing toss with a knife not too long after I arrived.

“Why is everyone acting crazy when the boss is here?” I asked Blondie, she did a quick scan of the room and then shook her head.

“He’s not here.” She informed me, passing a couple of beer bottles my way.

“He’s over there.” I pointed to a man across the room, the same build as Ace, wearing the same kind of expensive black and white suit - just like the ones he wears so well. His dark hair slightly disheveled but not too much, worn in the same style and shade as Ace wears his.

“That’s a decoy Red, look.” She pointed in different areas around the room and my eyes zoned in on the many variations of Ace. I counted at least eleven. My mind was blown.

“He intentionally hires people that look like him?” I couldn’t stop noticing all of his look-a-likes. Why hadn’t I seen them before?

“Indeed he does, he has decoy everything. Decoy people, decoy cars, decoy houses. That man over there is a real perv, stay away from him.” I sat myself down on the bar stools and looked around in awe, there were about fifteen decoys - no, sixteen - no, seventeen. That was a genius game plan, one the family would be very interested to hear about.

I mean, we have the twins but that was nothing compared to this. Bardo and Enzo were the warriors of the family, with intensely great fighting skills. They double team, catch people off guard with their identical appearance. My father was extremely excited about the prospect of male twins and created a whole regimen based entirely on their DNA.

In Aces absence I learnt a lot about his club. His men got away with absolutely everything when he wasn’t here. Being rotten and falling out of line was like second nature to them. But I also learnt that the women could get away with absolutely everything as well. So there I was, heels off, ass down and a royal flush deep in a poker game with three of his mafia men.

I hadn’t poured anyone a drink for three hours but I had punched a guy until he fell unconscious, drank a whole bottle of some top shelf champagne and won three hundred dollars during a card game.

Dare I say it, Aces club without Ace was actually fun. I could see the appeal of his club, it was an escapism and after doing the job that he does, seeing the things he sees, an escape is exactly what he needed.

I searched through all of the liquor in the bar, reading each of the labels and then I decided to set them all out on the bars surface taking it in turns to try a glass of each one. My choices ranged from gins to wines to tequilas and then I just thought ‘fuck it’ and started mixing them all together.

“Red, you better hope one of those bozos don’t stitch you up to the boss.” Blondie warned, eyeing up all of the alcohol.

“Shhh Blondie, I don’t care. I’ve made a lot of friends here tonight. Pretty sure they like me better than him.” I sipped the concoction of liquid in front of me and pulled a repulsed face.

“They might like you better but they’re terrified of him and fear wins always.” She pointed out. I waved her off with very imprecise movements.

•••

“Hey, red?” I darted up right, half of my vision was lost and I frantically fixed the mask on my face so I could see. Blondie was leaning over me. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve been sleeping off your intoxication for hours. The sun is up, it’s time to leave but you’ve gotta clean up all of your mess before you go.”

“Shit” I complained, looking around at all of the empty glasses and beverage bottles.

“Are you going to get home okay?” She questioned with care. I nodded my head and offered her a reassuring smile. She grabbed her bag and coat and then left.

Very carefully I stood up, feeling the room move beneath my feet. The same six or seven guys remained, passed out on their own tables. I managed to hold six glasses in my two hands and took them over to the bar, dumping them in the sink.

Then I looked at all of the bottles sitting on the bar counter top that I single handedly emptied. I took hold of each one, finishing off the last remaining drips from the bottom before dumping them into the trash can.

I noticed the speaker system located beneath the bar and I knelt down grabbing the iPod that it was connected to. I browsed through the music and landed on ‘Raise your glass’ by PINK. It started playing loudly throughout the whole club.

I skid in my stockings against the wooden floor, raising somebody’s beer bottle in the air and then used it as a microphone. Dancing around the comatose bodies who grunted whenever I touched them. I jumped up and down thankful not to have my heels on, thankful to not be listening to porn music. Just letting myself go, cleaning and dancing to the upbeat music.

I knelt down and sung loudly in Johnny’s ear but he didn’t acknowledge me at all. I spun like a ballerina in the middle of the room, whizzing around and around in my nylon stockings. I shook my ass, twerking down as low as I could and then burst out laughing because I nearly got stuck.

I raised my arms in the air, toyed with my hair and swung my hips to the beat of the music.

“Oh shit my glass is empty, that sucks” I threw the beer bottle behind me, ignoring the sound of shattering glass.

One of the decoys walked in and I beckoned him over to come dance with me using my index finger. He walked towards me slowly and I placed my hands on his shoulders, swaying my body next to his while he stood stiffly, I turned away from him, rubbing my ass against his front. Serenading him with my beautiful drunken tones.

The song changed over to ‘So What’ and I squealed like a high pitched teenager who just kissed their crush for the first time.

I pushed the decoy in the chest and sung to him aggressively, pointing my finger at him and moving my head with maximum sass as I sang the words like he was the man the song was written about. He stood emotionless, not knowing what to do with himself and definitely not making efforts to dance with me.

Eventually I got bored of him and backed away climbing up to stand on the VIP booth sofas, still singing my heart out. He crossed the room and entered the bar area, in a swift motion he pulled the wire out of the speakers and the music came to an abrupt end. I stopped dancing and singing and stood still.

“Why did you do that?” I jumped down from the sofa and marched over to the bar, slipping myself onto the bar stool. The decoy looked at me like I was from another planet. “Hello? Aren’t you going to say something?” I picked up a beer bottle and threw it towards him, it missed him by a hair just as I knew it would and landed in the trash can directly behind him. Slowly he turned his face, following the beer bottle.

I picked up another beer bottle, it was half full so I finished off the remains and then threw it into the trash can. The decoy watched me with silent interest, it was getting weird now. Someone had left a practically full glass of vodka on one of the tables, I chugged it back and then placed the glass in the sink but the decoy stood in my way before I could rinse it out.

“Move.” I ordered shoving his chest. He didn’t move so I shoved him again harder. He remained completely still so I punched his chest, pushed him and elbowed him until he grabbed my arms, spun me around and restrained me over the bar counter. “What the fuck?” I shouted trying to break free but his grip was too strong.

“I’m going to fucking kill you Red, nobody disrespects me like that.” Suddenly I stopped fighting and let my body go limp. His voice deep and stern, full of promise. Shit. It wasn’t a decoy.

I wanted to speak, answer back and protect myself but I had this feeling bubbling up inside of me. Like sour milk curdling in the pits of my stomach. There was a grumble of unsettledness coming from within me and I felt clammy.

“Oh no.” I groaned.

My body started heaving and Ace stepped back rapidly, freeing me. I thrust myself upwards and buried my head in the trash can throwing up everything that I had drank.

At this point I actually felt thankful that he was going to put me down like a dog. I needed putting out of my misery before the hangover set in.