I own nothing but Nicki

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies."

She slunk through the door as quietly as possible. The place was deserted. As Nicki's eyes scanned Fish Mooney's club, she could help but notice that the formerly comforting red lighting now seemed ominous to her. Warm like honey set for a trap. Not seeing anyone she hurried over the bar where she remembered leaving it. She looked all across the marble surface, but saw nothing. With a sigh she leaned on the bar, putting her head in her hands. Clearly nothing was going to come easily for her tonight. Or today? She looked at the clock above the shelves of liquor. 4 a.m. Well if all of this nightmare had began yesterday, today was clearly planning to follow suit-

She heard a door open and immediately reacted by hopping over the bar and crouching down on the other side. As she dropped down onto her haunches, she heard Butch's voice and another she didn't recognize. Deep and scratchy, probably another one of Fish's boys. They were coming near the bar but stopped a few feet away. She heard the sound of chairs moving and realized that they were sitting down at one of the tables.

"…yeah he's a weird little dude. Not sure why Fish hired him in the first place," she heard Butch's voice carry over to her. Biting her finger in frustration, she resigned herself to lean agains the inside of the counter. She would probably be here for a while. Part of her realized that it was silly to be hiding. This was technically her new family, her new job now. But she new without a doubt that talking to any of them right now was not on her to-do list this morning. She just wanted to go home, go to bed, and pretend like this had all just been some terrible dream.

"Kinda creepy too, have you seen how he looks when you call him…what is it again?" the other man asked.

"Penguin," Butch replied with a chuckle. "Yeah, if looks could kill right?"

They were talking about Oswald, Nicki realized. She felt a rush of sympathy for the poor man. He had been the only person who had been sincere with her here. Or at all, now that she thought about it. She wiggled her back against the counter, trying to get comfortable, but something was behind her that was making it difficult. Finally turning she saw it was her helmet.

With a silent cheer, she snatched it up. At least something was finally going her way. Now to get out of here. She peaked over the bar, and saw that both men were facing away from her. Good, she could get out unnoticed.

"He's got his uses though I guess," Butch was continuing. Nicki silently hopped over the counter and ducked behind some stacked crates on the other side, she immediately recognized them as booze from Maroni. Attempting to rush behind him, she heard the floor creak and froze. Testing it with her foot, she realized that it was a sizeable soft spot in the floor boards. "He sure did alright with charming Nick."

Her heart dropped. "charming Nick"? She felt the blood starting to rush to her ears as she realized what he was saying. Oswald had been on it as well.

Her blood boiled. Of course, she thought to herself, of course he was in on it. Everything was probably staged from the start. And he was in on it, the scheming, the whole time.

Now she had to get out of here. She couldn't stand to be in this place another second. She had never felt so hurt, so used, so betrayed. Tears of frustration were burning her eyes and she knew now more than ever that she had to get out unseen. There was no way she could face Butch right now. Regarding the crates she got a plan. She used to climb on them a lot when she was younger, them being so weighted and having so many hand hold opportunities. She could probably use them to get over the weak spot in the floor without making any noise and then she had a straight shot at the door.

There were three stacks that were three tall each. She climbed up on the first, hooking her feet into the slats and holding on the top of the second box her left hand clutching her helmet. She shimmied over the second row. Easy. Then she took hold of the third, moved her feet, and felt herself falling. With a panic, she realized that the top box was empty and without its weight, the whole row was crashing down. She let out a yelp as the column fell down on top of her, breaking and spilling sharp smelling liquids all over her and the floor. In all the broken glass and busted wood she just laid as she heard Butch and the other man rushing over. With a look of defeat, she met their startled eyes with a dead look. "Hey boys."

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