Chapter 2

Maya walked for hours. Night came out by the fact people walked around with long plastic glasses, laughter flowing from loose mouths. The coat Madam Miser had given her concealed what Maya was hiding.

She clutched her stomach as she stopped and leaned against a wall. One group of people with take-out containers from a casino buffet approached. Maya watched them as they neared a trash can and then passed it without throwing the food away. Maya's eyes burned but tears didn't run. If she cried it would hurt worse.

The stairs to one of the casinos opened up and a woman in her fifties or sixties walked towards her. Her peppery brown hair bounced and her nice pantsuit was gorgeous compared to what Maya was wearing. She definitely wasn't a walking skeleton. The woman hailed a cab, got in and was taken away in a matter of minutes. Maya wished she could follow but knew that would never happen.

"Hey man, what about this place?" She heard a man nearby say.

"That's an upscale titty bar." The second man said. "They charge to get in, man."

"Well, that's what's Daddy's money is for." The first guy said, which was followed by a laugh.

The two of them didn't walk up the stairs to the Rockers Casino. They walked to the side where a set of stairs led down into a sunken side alleyway. One of the men almost fell down the stairs but the other caught him before he fell on his face.

Pushing away from the wall, Maya followed them. She hugged her new jacket closer around her as she glanced over her shoulder. No one followed her. Maya stopped at the door and dropped her backpack, pushing it behind the waist-high trash can next to a potted bush plant thing. There was no security outside but inside a tall man with a beard resided behind a sort of podium.

"Come on, Man." One of the drunks said. "We're paying good money to get in."

The security guard was too focused on the two drunks guys she had followed in. So Maya moved to the doorway that went down into the main part of the club. She headed down a set of small lit stairs, following the steady thump of the music.

The call for food brought her into an almost heavy rock strip club. Her mouth fell open as the bright redhead woman on stage took off something that looked like a top and the men in the place went nuts.

The place was full of men watching women undress. As unappealing as it was, and mild shock aside, Maya knew why she was there. If there were other rich daddy's boys in the place and they were drunk then they wouldn't miss some money. Not like they would notice anyway.

The only women in there were the performers on stage and the women carrying around large trays of drinks. She'd have to steer clear of them. Then there were the leather jacket men standing around looking like Terminators, two were near the stage and one was milling about in the center of the main floor. This only meant that Maya needed an easy mark, someone who wouldn't realize his wallet was gone.

Maya's gaze drew her to the long bar at the other end of the club. There was a man sitting at the bar, wearing black clothing, maybe a suit, with black hair pulled back into a bun at the name of his neck. He had a wallet that was begging to be plucked. Her empty stomach begged for food, which was all the more reason to choose him. He was big, he didn't seem to be having any food shortage as he laughed and talked to the bald bartender.

Maya hugged the wall of pillars that made up an area closer to the front of the club, The man at the bar hadn't moved, he was in deep conversation with the bartender. If she kept looking around then someone may have noticed her; she instead waded through the crowd of people. Maya almost ran into a woman with blonde and pink-tipped hair who was serving a standing table of six men but she dodged the server at the last minute.

The man with the wallet leaned forward and the wallet leaned out of his back pocket. Maya licked her lip as she got to the bar and walked towards the tempting wallet.

"Good one, Cesaro!" The man cackled.

With her thumb and index fingers, Maya plucked the wallet and pulled her hand up into her sleeve. She knew she couldn't walk fast because she didn't need to draw attention to her. The pillars towards the front side of the club became her new destination. It meant ditching the wallet after taking some cash would be a problem. She had to bypass several more serving women to get there but she was sure no one noticed her.

The wallet weight heavy in her hand as she leaned against one of the pillars. She ignored the multitude of created cards, rather, going directly to the inner cash section. There was a lot of green bills in there, five of which were hundred dollar bills.

Five hundred could get her a bed at that hotel for ex-cons and drug addicts, even food and…

She took three of the bills but stopped. Maya grabbed a single hundred knowing that the man wouldn't miss it. Maya dropped the wallet and pushed it next to the pillar with her foot to keep it out of the way. At least some cash was better than none and leaving with a hundred dollars was good enough.

Maya made her way back to the entrance of the club. While the music changed from a sultry rock to an interlude song the women on stage seemed to be waiting for something. Maya turned her gaze from the partially dressed women as she made it to the entrance stairs.

A large hand grasped Maya's entire upper arm and hot breath hit her ear

"And where do you think you're going, you little thief?" The voice asked.

Dean saw the little woman straight off. She showed up on her own, no man on her arm or vise versa. He had been standing next to the stage, trying to ignore Eva Marie's breasts when he saw the little woman. She was dwarfed by the black coat she wore, another red flag for any security guard to notice, which apparently Zak Ryder didn't.

Dean left his VIP lookout spot as she neared the people at the bar. She walked behind them, even passing Seth as he chatted with Cesaro. Seth's overstuffed wallet went missing after the woman by. He growled and went after her.

Pushing his way through the throngs of loud men milling about on the main floor, Dean lost sight of the brown-haired woman. He turned one way to see if she hoofed it back to the entrance. As he turned to look he saw the black coat over by the pillars before it moved towards the entryway stairs. That little mouse was quick and Dean had to be quicker just to catch up to her.

Grabbing her arm, he leaned down to her ear. "And where do you think you're going, you little thief?"

Even though she wore that coat, Dean's fingers completely closed around her upper arm. The face that gaped at him was too angular, sunken cheeks and chapped lips. She was too white, vampire-like in some way. Ignoring her big wide eyes, Dean looked at her right clenched hand.

"Please," she whimpered, which he barely made out.

He pulled a single hundred dollar bill from her hand. "Where's the rest of it? Where's the damn wallet you stole?" He shook her for good measure.

"Back there, at the pillar." She pointed over her shoulder as her eyes began to shine.

"Show me. And don't think about running away, you little mouse."

Wrenching her around, Dean made the woman walk back to the pillar. She pointed to one of the potted plants and sure enough, on the floor was Seth's leather-bound wallet. Dean picked it up, checked to see if all the cards were there- they surprisingly were- and dragged the mousy brown-haired woman towards the black door next to the bar.

"Hey, Rollins, need you in the office!" Dean yelled during a lull in the music.

Seth looked up, Cesaro turned as well. Some of the patrons watched as Dean shove open the black door and pulled the woman in after him. The door slammed shut behind her.

He took her down the hall that went to the office he'd been to earlier. Dean slammed the office door open, Neville jumped as a result.

"Bleeding hell, Dean!" The Englishman adjusted his glasses.

"Sorry, Nevs, but I caught this woman stealing Seth's wallet." He shoved the chick into the chair in front of the desk. "Wait right here, you little mouse."

Neville and he made eye contact briefly before Dean left. Seth walked up just as Dean closed the door behind him.

"What's going on, man?"

Dean held up Seth's wallet. "Missing something?"

His friend patted his back pockets. "What the fuck?"

"Some chick picked your wallet. The thing is she only took a hundred bill, no other cash or cards were taken"

"Why?"

Dean shrugged. "My guess is she's starving. My fingers could touch around her arm when I grabbed her."

"Anorexic?"

"From the smell, I would say homeless."

Seth looked at his wallet. He was thinking about how to help the woman, she wouldn't have been the first Seth tried helping. If he was anything like Diane, he was thinking a few steps ahead.

"Come on, I want to talk to her," Seth said.

Dean slammed the door open.

"Do you have to do that?" Neville asked but caught sight of Seth. "Ah, I see. Do you want me to call the police, Seth?"

"Could you hold off on that, Nevs? I want to talk to our guest first." Seth said as he looked down at the woman.

There was no mistaking the shaking in the woman's shoulders. Dean smiled as he circled around to stand behind her as Seth stood directly in front of her.

"I'm Seth Rollins, owner of Rockers and Rollins' Rockers. Who are you?"

"Maya Gilbert." She said in a quiet and shaky voice.

"And why would you steal this?" Seth waved the hundred in her face.

"I, I was hungry." She looked down.

"Hungry, huh?" Dean asked as he leaned over her shoulder. "What made you think you could steal from my best friend?"

"Drunks are easy to pick." SHe said.

Dean wrapped his hand under her chin to make her look up at Seth. "Hate to break it to you but Seth doesn't drink on the job, my little mouse."

"You're scaring the girl, Dean," Neville said.

"I know." He smiled at the Englishman.

"So now we have to figure out what to do with you, Ms. Gilbert," Seth said.

"We should call the police." Neville closed his ledger book. "A thief should never be trusted."

"What do you think, Dean?" Seth asked.

Dean rubbed her bony cheek with his thumb. "I could think of something useful."

"Oh brother," mumbled Neville.

"We'd have to fatten her up first. She is pretty; pretty skinny." Dean said.

"Yeah but I don't trust a pretty girl not to come back, especially a pretty little thief," Seth said as he rubbed his bearded chin.

"I'm not babysitting," Neville said. "I'd rather be alone. I'm better with my numbers." Neville picked up his jacket as he stood but looked at Dean and Seth.

"Unfortunately my place is being renovated and Roman has been nice to put me up until it's done." Seth flicked his gaze over to Dean. "Think you can behave, Dean?"

"Do I get an early night?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Fine by me. I don't have a problem with that."

"We'll just worry about her later. I'll let Roman know what's going on and we'll be up at your place sometime tomorrow morning." Seth said.

"Great for you," Neville said. "Might I suggest letting her take a shower. She's rather pungent right now."

"Up you go, Maya Mouse." Dean grabbed her arm and pulled her from the chair. "We're leaving."

She whined or squeaked. Yes, squeaked. She really was a mouse, at least Dean thought so.

They left the office and head towards the women's lounge where some of the performers were prepping for the second main act of the night.

"Hello ladies," Dean said walking in.

None of them freaked out that he was there at all. There was a chorus of greeting from the women and even some waves.

"Dean, did you come to see me?" Eva Marie asked as she turned with her breasts on full display.

Dean only smiled when the red in Eva Marie's hair went to her face and that smile she wore faded fast. No doubt because of Maya with him.

"Nope. Just passing through. Hey, Bliss, do you have some extra clothes that Maya Gilbert here can have?" He tugged her front and center for all of them to see.

The blond with the pink-tipped highlights stood up from her vanity. Her hair was long and straight and she had bright pink lips that offset her moderate chest and black leather top and shorts. She had been one of the barmaids Maya hadn't really paid attention, the only reason she did was how much smaller she was than the other women.

"Actually I do. I put on the weight since working here. Some of my old clothes need to be gotten rid of." She snapped her fingers and headed over to a bay of lockers towards the back of the room.

"So, is she another performer?" A woman with vibrant red hair asked, looking her over. "Another anorexic that Seth wants to save?"

"I heard that Eva Marie!" Alexa yelled from the back. Alexa smiled when she came back with a pile of clothes in her arms. "Here you go. It's nice to meet you. I'm Alexa Bliss, by the way."

Maya didn't know what to do, much less say. She nodded as she hugged the clothes to her chest. The room full of women started to trickle out a back door, where there was a man standing, probably Ryder or Roman doing their job. Eva Marie stayed behind, her eyes looking Maya over.

"Got a problem, Eva?" Dean asked.

She shook her head. "Nah, baby."

Dean's face soured. "Don't call me that."

"Come on, we both know you can handle a redhead. You prefer blondes, we all know that." She stuck her more than gracious chest out for full view even behind the tiny straps of cloth called a top.

Maya found herself looking at her feet. She heard the woman laugh before she went to change, pretty much out in the open.

"Come on, mouse." Dean grabbed her arm, though he didn't grab her as tight as his voice was. "Go change in that bathroom." He motioned to a side door in the changing room.

Not wanting to see Eva change, she went into the bathroom.

It gave Maya a chance to look at herself. Her hunger, her inability to survive on the streets had led her to looking emaciated and skeletal. Her face was too angular, her collar bone was protruding. Pale, yes, but still filthy even with all the prep she did before sneaking into the bar. Her ribs showed as she put the nicer shirt on. Maya refused to acknowledge the bruise that was on her lower stomach. In the meantime, Maya did a quick rinse of her hair in the sink, using some hand soap so that her hair could at least look presentable.

She left the bathroom a few moments later only to squeak out a gasp as she ran into Dean on the other side of the door.

"Come on, Maya Mouse." He pulled on her elbow to get her to move again.

The room had emptied out, Maya realized as they headed towards the back of the room.

The back entrance through the women's lounge led out to the alley between Rockers Casino and the buffet next door. They headed towards the street, which bypassed the club's entrance.

"Wait, please. My backpack." She said as she put on the brakes.

He turned to her. "Where?"

She pointed to a trash can that was mostly hidden behind a potted plant. There was a backpack hiding there and Dean grabbed it.

Maya reached for it but Dean pulled it up and out of her reach.

"Uh-huh, no way, Maya Mouse. I'm going to check it just in case you have a nasty surprise for me. I'll check it when we get home." He grabbed her arm again then pulled her along.

Yep, there you go. Be back soon.