A/N: Hey guys, so this is my first fic I've posted on and I'm gonna see how it rolls out. First VA fic also so I hope I can do the books justice. Hope you enjoy the first chapter!
The club pulsed and thrummed with life, the music shaking the floor on every beat. It smelled heavily of a unique drug cocktail and held the distinct smell of fine, aged alcohol. The people surrounding Rose wore a heavy mix of red and black, with a few neon newbies mixed in. Everyone knew it was easier to run if you could blend in with the night. She may not approve of the things her workplace supported and provided, but it was a job that paid for everything that she required. Abe made sure to pay his employees well to keep them quiet about his… business investments.
One thing Rose really did hate, though, were the idiots that felt entitled to her ass as she walked across the floor delivering drinks. Like the one that was currently rubbing his greasy fingers across it now. She turned around slowly, seductively, and laid her head on his shoulder. His ragged, intoxicated breath brushed against the crook of her neck, shaking with drunkenness and arousal, making her cringe. He mistook it for something else as he squeezed tighter. "Hands off now, or I rip you hand from your arm and nail it to the floor." She crooned into his ear, then pulled back and saw his eyes widen as he scurried away. A good threat and-every once in a while-kick to the groin usually worked to scare them off. Rose sighed and rubbed her temple as she stalked back to the bar. Only eleven o' clock and she'd already had to scare off two.
"Having a rough night?" Lissa, Rose's best friend and roommate, asked as she slammed the supply room door behind her. Lissa had taken on the responsibility of making sure that the club's inventory of alcohol was always stocked to Abe's content and that all of it was put in the right place, even though Rose wished she would stay at least 10 miles away from the club at all times. But, as Lissa often reminded her, she was an adult who could make her own decisions. Go figure.
"Just some asshats getting a little too handsy. Plus Abe's having me work a couple of extra hours again." Rose sunk to the floor needing just a couple of minutes. Maybe she could sneak in five before the other barista noticed she was missing.
"You can say no to him, you know. Don't let him guilt you into it all the time." There was amusement in her voice, a teasing tone.
"He doesn't guilt me, Liss. He just makes sure to throw in a few extra bucks. And we need another car so… yeah." Rose had no energy to argue with Lissa about her extra hours at the moment. "Why are you even here anyway? You promised me you would only work here before the bar opened." Lissa was her only family left for her and Rose didn't want her hanging around the bar's more… unsavory clientele. Lissa was surprisingly ignorant to Abe's less-than-legal business that he ran from the back alleyways of L.A. and Rose really didn't want her around if the cops decided to bust the place.
"Who else is going to keep an eye on you during clubbing hours?" Rose raised an eyebrow at her, knowing that Lissa was completely serious.
"It sure as hell ain't gonna be you." She knew that Lissa meant well, but that she couldn't help Rose fight off a fly if she got into real trouble. "Go back to the apartment, Lissa. I'll be good. And don't wait up for me." The last bottle of tequila she placed on the shelf clinked with finality as she sighed.
The worry and care that shone in Lissa's eyes always shocked Rose and made her feel loved when she looked at her. Honestly, she didn't know why Lissa still made the effort. "Make sure to kick at least one set of twigs and berries for me tonight, kay?" Rose laughed and nodded her agreement before ushering her out of the delivery entrance connected to the room. She locked the door, feeling guilty, but had to make sure that Lissa wouldn't come back. Rose didn't even know why she took the job as her family had plenty of money to support her. But Lissa insisted that she at least try to work first and only took enough to pay her share of the rent.
"Rose!" A squeaky voice called from the doorway. "Rose, you better not be taking a break! It's a shitstorm of customers out here!" Rose mentally bashed her head into the concrete wall in front of her. Why, oh why, did she have to get stuck with her when she was working extra hours? Mia Rinaldi was definitely the most annoying coworker Rose had ever had. Bitchy and demeaning, she was the human representation of a rat that wouldn't die no matter how much poison you fed it. She had no idea how Lissa was ever nice to her. She had no idea how Lissa was so nice to people in general, really.
Rose dragged a bottle of the nearest alcohol off of the shelf. "Nope, no break. Just restocking on the whiskey." She lied, trying to make her voice perky.
Mia snatched the bottle from Rose's hand as she tried to pass. "That's bourbon, smart one." She said, shoving the bottle back into Rose's chest and pushing past her back into the club.
"Bourbon then." Rose growled. An image of a shelf collapsing on top of Mia entered Rose's mind, but even that couldn't make her smile at this point. She stayed a few moments to play out the fantasy in her mind, but got back behind the bar to make Mia's incessant screeching stop.
No matter how much it hurt Rose's poor fragile soul to admit it, Mia was right. Disgruntled customers surrounded the bar and more flocked around it in droves, shouting out their orders and insults in the same breath. "Anybody else that calls me a bitch is getting their ass thrown out on the pavement with a boot print as a new tattoo!" She shouted, shutting some of them up, but the following hours were still filled with drink spilling, ass groping, sweat smelling customers and about an hour before Rose's shift ended she about killed a guy before one of the bouncers pulled her off of him. At least she got a good nut shot in before Pauley managed to drag her away.
"I swear to God you're actually a six foot seven guy packing some serious muscles, Rosie." He tried to hide it, but the man's voice was breathy as he led Rose back across the bar and shoved Rose's offender out the door. "Seriously, what the fuck do you eat every day? Are you on steroids?"
Rose laughed, cheered up by his attempt at humor. "Sounds like you just need to get your ass back in the gym, Pauley. All the free drinks are giving you a beer gut." She poked him in his stomach, feeling nothing but solid muscle.
His eyes narrowed playfully. "You keep talking like that and I'll have to tell Abe about the incident we just had here." He threatened, but his joking tone betrayed him.
"We both know you would never do that buddy boy." Rose had had many of these-as Pauley so politely termed it-incidents before. Pauley, the nice guy he was, had never mentioned one of them to Abe. Rose expressed her gratitude by using him as her guinea pig for every new drink idea she had. "Now get back to work, son!" She teased, deepening her voice on the last word.
The crowd was starting to slow at this point, the river of people entering the club slowing to a stream with many people exiting the doors, heels gripped in their hands as their feet stumbled across the dance floor and out the door. Unfortunately for Rose, the people left still had the asshole gene.
At the end of the bar sat a prissy, preppy looking boy that looked to be 24, Rose's age. "Hey darlin'. What'll it take to get you outta this joint and back to my place?" He flipped his black, curled hair and leaned back on his barstool, jade green eyes floating over Rose appreciatively.
What she really wanted to do was take the glass she was currently polishing and throw it at his head, but she decided to make this, what Lissa would call, a "learning experience". "Yeah, I'm not your darlin'." The glass gave an angry screech when she slammed it on the bar. "If you need one, you can go down about two blocks. Talk to Tammy, tell her Rose Hathaway sent you. She'll give you a nice first time discount. Now, can I get you anything to drink, darlin'?" His face was tight and Rose would've noticed the steady anger there if she wasn't so caught up in her own. If it had been earlier in the night and she hadn't had to work overtime, she probably would've dealt with his advances with a bit more tact. But one too many pissy drunks had pushed her to her tipping point.
He leaned forward, his hands now fists on the countertop and shoulders hunched towards her. "You see, Rose Hathaway, though you don't know me, I am used to getting what I want. And what I want this evening is you. So name your price so I can have you." There were some pretty forward people that Rose had dealt with, but Rose was pretty sure that Preppy Boy was hitting a new level.
"These legs aren't open for business, pal. Not even if you had two dicks and a million bucks." His mouth opened, ready to retort, until a looming figure distracted him.
"Everything good here?" Pauley asked as he sauntered over. Took you long enough, Rose thought.
"Get this fucker outta here, Pauley." Pauley grabbed his shoulder without a word and led Preppy Boy towards the back entrance.
"You're gonna regret this decision, Rose Hathaway." He spoke her name as if it was a threat, a knife to cut her with. Rose shivered, suddenly a bit shaken by the guy.
"Why don't you head out, Rose. I can handle the closing crowd." Rose snapped her head to the side so quickly that she'd probably have whiplash. Rose was tempted to feel Mia's forehead for a fever as she saw that it was her who spoke. "What the fuck's gotten into you?" She questioned, thinking that maybe she'd hit her head earlier and didn't remember.
Mia shrugged, her brow and mouth bending into a frown. She hesitated before speaking. "I know the feeling of being groped and threatened one too many times… in a shift. Go home and take a shower or something before I change my mind." She turned her back to Rose, shoulders hunched over the bottle of tequila she was using in her latest concoction.
Rose muttered her thanks, gathering her bag and scurrying towards the back door. The small apartment that she and Lissa shared was a few miles south of the club and Lissa had taken the car. Not that Rose minded, it was safer for Lissa and her boyfriend, Christian, would kill Rose if she made Lissa take the bus home, but the bus wasn't exactly Rose's favorite way of transportation either. She double checked her bag for the knife and gun she always carried on her and stepped out the door way into the back alley of the club.
Rose knew Abe liked to run his business deals out of the alleyway, but he usually warned her to take the front entrance out so there was no chance for her to get caught in the crossfire of a meet up. Which was why she was surprised to see two groups of men huddled together in the alley, a dark sedan left running behind the group facing her. None of them were too shy to show that they were packing some heavy heat either. Everyone seemed to have a gun strapped somewhere to their body and a few were already grasping firearms in their hands, looking a little too eager to use them. These weren't the usual suspects that Abe garnered his product from. Abe probably had no idea this was going on in his own backyard.
"Shit." She whispered, summing up the situation thoroughly. She would have to go back into the bar and risk Mia having her stay for the rest of the shift. The nice Mia thing could only last for a short period time before she went back to her regular bitchy self. Not that she would rather face about ten gun-toting, drug-dealing criminals or anything, but she just really didn't want to have to serve another drink tonight. She clutched for the door handle behind her, making sure not to take her eyes off of the scene playing out in front of her.
She turned the door handle. The door didn't open. She gave it a nice shove for good measure; maybe it was just a sticky lock. Yeah, the door was still a no go. Her heartbeat rushed through her ears and her palms started to sweat as she realized that there wasn't a way out.
"Double shit." Rose whispered, panic now showing in her voice. Maybe she could stay in the shadowed corner until the deal was over. The all black uniform she was required to wear to work would help her blend in. It seemed that was the only plan she could come up with. It was still a workable plan, though, right?
Rose hunkered down in the door frame, glad Abe had never bothered to replace the single burnt out light bulb that hung from a measly string hooked above the door. She examined the men of the two groups; the ones facing away from her looked, from what little light shone on them, to have darker skin. They were most likely Caza. She knew that the Caza cartel still did deals in L.A., though they had lost a lot of their empire once the Russian Dashkov cartel had moved into the city. She knew Abe closely worked with them from the snooping she had done in his office. The man really placed too much trust in his employees. Not that she would ever tell him that.
Rose froze as she spotted a familiar face in the crowd. One that she had tossed out of the bar not ten minutes ago. "Triple shit." Her voice was high, pitched up an octave and barely audible to her own ears. She was completely still, not daring to move an inch. Drunken assholes in a club she could handle. Even have a little fun while doing it; this was scaring her out of her mind. One wrong move and she would be taken hostage or shot. She really didn't know which was better.
She jumped as shouting sounded from all of the men, thinking they had spotted her. Relief rushed through her for a split second as the one at the center of the Caza group raised his hands. Rose couldn't hear what he was saying, but his tone was pleading, his stance open as if he was trying to make himself non-threatening.
Time seemed to slow as Preppy Boy reached into the back of his pants. He raised the gun to the group facing across from him. Anger shone in his eyes, his stance tight and to the side. The perfect stance to fire the gun in his hand. "He's a fucking rat, you idiots!" He roared.
Gunfire was loud in Rose's ears as three shots were fired into the man's chest. She could see the dark spatters across the shooter's light colored shirt, could smell the gunpowder and the blood as its metallic tang filled the air. The light of the gunfire was stamped across her eyes and sirens sounded from somewhere outside of the alley way.
"HOLY FUCK!" She hadn't meant to shout, but sometimes the human body had a mind of its own.
Preppy Boy's eyes had just enough time to meet hers before he was whisked away into the dark sedan.
The Caza didn't seem to care about her and fled the scene, leaving the man bleeding out on the ground. She ran over to him, desperate for something to do. She clutched at him, tearing off her jacket, leaving her in her tight, black uniform t-shirt. She pressed the jacket into his chest trying to staunch the bleeding, too busy to notice the armed men in FBI and DEA uniforms flooding the alleyway around her. She didn't know why she cared. She should've been running as fast as her feet could take her. They could come back and take her or shoot her or torture her. But she had to at least try to save the man in front of her.
"You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay." She chanted and looked into his eyes. They were blue, blank, and glassy. She didn't have a chance to cry out as she was grabbed roughly from behind and spun around. The man had his helmet off and dark, chestnut brown hair stuck out unevenly across his head.
"Who the fuck are you?"
A/N: Well, did you like? And who do you think our shooter is? Our agent that grabbed Rose? Brownie points to anyone who can guess. Please review, just a few words if you want cuz I'd love to hear your thoughts. Until the next update!