Deadly as trust

Three: Miriam

I was here in the club again. The place where my night began and ended. I had time to myself since it seemed that nobody wanted to meet me, Majoress would not be too happy, but what did I care?

I sipped a little of the soft drink I ordered and thought a little about some things, I thought about leaving the brothel I lived in — The harem — and about the money I had saved. It was not enough yet. How could so much work yield nothing? I cursed under my breath. I needed a faster way.

"You want to dance?", it was masculine voice behind me.
I turned around to face him but I couldn't make out his face in the dim light. His hand was outstretched towards me and I looked at it.
What exactly did he want?

"Well?", he tried again.

"Do you want a night?"

"What?"

He sounded surprised, was this a game?

"Do you want a night? This is a night club with prostitutes around, it's where men like you come to spend the night with prostitutes, or didn't you know that?"

His hand dropped.

"Are you one of them?", he asked, "I mean the prostitutes, are you one of them?"

"Who is asking? What about it?"

I had to be careful, I've heard of the police coming in disguise to shut down nightclubs and arrest some people, but there were also the ritualists that chose to use prostitutes for their business.

"Well, I didn't know. I came with a friend actually, Dave, he's a regular here."

Dave?

If he was a regular then I shouldn't have problem remembering his name. I had a good memory.

"Anyways, he was looking for a somebody to spend the night with."

I sighed and stood, work begins now.

"Where is he?"

He took my hand and led me to his friend. Something felt wrong, why didn't he come to look for a companion for the night on his own?

They made small talk and it felt that he was introducing me to the person I guessed was Dave. Then Dave turned to me, I squinted in an attempt to make out the faces before me but the more I tried, the less I saw. Eventually, I gave up.

"Well, how much do you charge for a night?"

"Depends on how long."

"I mean the entire night, you'll be by my side."

I told him the price and he ordered more alcohol. I looked at the alcohol as one of the attendants brought it, I couldn't afford to be drunk. A few people had died that way, I didn't want to be one of them.

He opened one out of two bottles and poured some of the content into a glass cup. I couldn't make out the colour of the content too. I had to be careful not to get drugged because he was paying for an entire night and it could get risky.

I excused myself and went to the bar to order another bottle of soft drink. When I got back to the table, he was done with the first cup and was pouring himself another cup. His friend who I learned was called Alfred was gone. We were alone on the table now.

"Take some.", he handed me the cup.

I politely refused it, telling him that I didn't drink. He seemed annoyed and looked at the cup before looking at me again, he wanted me to take it. Warning signs flashed in my mind but I took the cup. His eyes watched me as I pretended to take a sip. He seemed satisfied, I was almost sure he wanted to drug me.

"When are we going to get this over with?", I blurted.

He laughed lightly.

"Are you in a hurry to get laid?"

I pretended not to hear that and just patiently watched him. I took an empty cup nearby, poured my soft drink in it and sipped from it.

Alfred came back and they started talking again. After so much waiting, he finally signalled to me to stand. I scoffed before standing.

Alfred left and in a matter of minutes, I was in a room with him and a bottle of alcohol.
I watched him drink himself to stupor as we sat on the bed.

He began mumbling.

"Bad day I guess.", I thought loudly.

I knew people with problems normally get themselves drunk to try to forget their problems.

"The operation... It didn't work out. I need to get rid of the money. The police is on my case. I have a deal with Gabriel, he's warned me."

I blinked completely confused at what he was saying. Was he some kind of gang member? I tried not to think about it too much. He was drunk, he didn't know what he was saying.

"Dave."

My hand was on his shoulder now.

"Calm down, you're at the night club now."

He looked at me and hiccuped. He held both my shoulders and pulled me in, his right hand slowly went down my body and stopped on my lap. I closed my eyes expecting him to do something. Then I heard the door bolt open.

Dave swore under his breath.

"Get down."

The voice was a strong masculine one, my senses kicked in in full force and my heartbeat accelerated.

Gunmen.

Somebody turned the lights on as I scrambled to the floor. I snuck a look at the people there. I could make out all their features and the picture stuck in my mind.

They held Dave and I on gunpoint. I seemed like the people at the club were oblivious to everything happening because I still heard the usual sounds.

"So you decided to come here to hide huh? And have fun with a whore."

Whore.

That term he used did more damage than it was supposed to.

"So what about our deal? You owe me and I've given you time but it seems like you're just interested in hiding everything for yourself till your name goes down.", this was a new voice.

"You didn't give me enough time."

"Is that your excuse? You do know that I'm not a patient man, right?"

Dave didn't reply.

"I'm going to make sure you don't double-cross me… ever."

I could hear the sound of the safety on his gun flick off. I imagined him slowly pulling the trigger and braced myself for death when somebody rushed in.

"Gabe, it's time to go. They've found us."

Who is "they"?

The person I suspected was Gabe groaned.

"I'll have to kill the idiot first."

He must have used a silencer on his gun because I didn't hear a thing till the sound of the bullet sinking into Dave's head came to my hearing, I felt Dave's body go stiff. Then I couldn't control myself, I screamed.

"Hey! Halt!"

Gabe swore under his breath as the sound of heavy footsteps, like somebody was running towards us, was heard.

Everything happened slowly after that. Gabe made several careless shots at me, I felt a strong stinging pain in my hand and just when I screamed I saw Gabe's shadow disappear in the dark hallway and a new person enter the room. Before I could say anything else, I passed out.