Rubble (Riders of Apollo #7)

Chapter Ten: Asa Michaels

I've never gone home from the club so early in my life. I've always been one of the ones to close the place up with the younger members of the club considering the mated Riders hardly ever stay out past one am.

I have an inkling of why now, after feeling worried about Juni the entire night, watching as she danced with the women with a smile on her face, I'm exhausted.

I could tell that this wasn't her scene the minute she left the pink room and no one else seemed to notice the way her eyes jumped around and her body tensed whenever someone came close to her. Even people she knows. I just wanted to be there for her and I definitely don't regret it as she closes the front door behind her.

I want to stay for many reasons but I know that it's not my place, I can worry from a safe distance. Considering her wariness around new people and her new environment, I'm surprised she even let me help her.

I start the engine and start off towards the nightclub, this car will likely be used later to get some of the drunken idiots home so I best not keep it. I can just walk back to the clubhouse.

I park the car where it was before, pass the keys to one of the prospects and head off towards the clubhouse. I could go back inside and get absolutely plastered like I was planning to but for some strange reason, I don't want to anymore.

After the shit show that is my life, alcohol is normally the only way to quiet the noise in my head and I like getting blackout so I don't have to remember anything.

It's been getting better since Riley got here, I mean she gets me to drink and all that but she's my best friend and she helps me understand what the fuck is going on with me.

I'm still grieving Lou, even now, and I'm grieving the family that I never had. I was in a dark place for a long time and I've only just come out the other side and with this new peace, I don't have a clue what to do with myself.

Riley is staying here, I have a secure place in the club with a family that actually talks to me and cares now, I may not have a specific purpose right now but I think that's something I can definitely work out later. As I walk down one of the many back alleys, trying to avoid taking the longer route, I hear a muffled scream and a vicious smack.

I didn't bring my gun to the club so I have to be more cautious with how I handle whatever this is. I poke my head around the corner into a dead-end where five men are crowded around one of our girls.

I recognise her from the strip club, she's a bartender, very pretty and quiet. She looks scared out of her mind, her eyes flicking everywhere as she kicks and scratches fruitlessly. I pull my leather gloves from my pocket and slip them onto my hands. I may not be the best fighter in the clubhouse but I am one of the best, I always have been, and this is one of our women that need the help even if I am sorely outnumbered.

"You gonna leave her alone, boys?" I ask, stepping out into the clearing, finishing up with my gloves. I know she recognises me as her eyes flash with hope, she knows I'm not going to leave her here.

"Fuck off! Get your own whore." The big guy growls at me, his hand still flat against her mouth and his body pressing her against the wall.

"The thing is that woman there is one of ours, she works in our club so is under our protection. I gather you didn't know that or you wouldn't have pulled this shit in our territory. Let her go and I won't beat you into the ground like the dogs you are." I wouldn't actually let them get away with this shit, there's a camera right above my head and I could get Romeo to find them in seconds.

I know they have no intention of releasing her so I roll my shoulders and step up nonchalantly. "Well if you don't let her go then I've going to have to intervene and trust me, you won't enjoy it."

"What makes you think she isn't having fun?" A flat-nosed idiot approaches me, his face inches away from mine as he bares his disgusting teeth at me. He doesn't even see it coming. I punch him. He hits the floor. The others have the gall to look surprised.

"You gonna pick on someone your own size or stand there looking stupid?" The surrounding idiots, except the guy with his hands on the woman, walk towards me with anger in their eyes. I'm not even sorry for ruining their fun, we may be criminals but people like this are not welcome around here, we've made that clear.

The first one to attack is a redhead with a skinny body and white powder on his nose. He's relatively easy to dispatch, well-aimed blows to his stomach and his head have him face down on the floor within seconds of getting near me. His friend is taller than him and a little bit broader but definitely has murder in his eyes, this one isn't high either.

He starts with the hammer fists, aiming for my stomach with unrelenting anger. I only just avoid it and manage to shove him into the wall from behind, causing his face to smash into the wall in front of him. He turns around, his face half scraped from the brick and seems that much more murderous.

I kick out at his knee, relishing in the shattering sound, before punching him in the mouth and feeling my knuckles split under the pressure. He collapses in a heap on top of the ginger and I'm ambushed by another one who grabs me by the waist and rams me into the wall. I grit my teeth and bring my elbow down on the back of his neck before kneeing him in the stomach.

He throws up on the floor and I cringe at the stench, in the end, I just push him over and fight a laugh as he lays on the ground semi-conscious in his own vomit. The final guy punches me in the face and my cheekbone takes the brunt of the force, I twist his wrist hard enough to break the bone and bring him down to drive my knee into his armpit.

He crumbles into a groaning mess as I turn on the big guy who is still holding the woman with a malicious grin on his face. He releases her and she rests against the wall, her face red and streaming with tears.

This guy has a knife and he slices across my upper arm and down my chest, it stings a lot but it's not deep enough to cause me pain just extreme discomfort. I grab the blade with my gloved hand and yank it from his grip before using the weight of the knife to knock him out hard and fast.

I drop the knife on the floor next to his head and text the Chief of Police to come and pick these idiots up. We'll send him the footage tomorrow and these bastards will go away for a while. The woman cowers in the corner and I avoid reaching out to her, I doubt that'll make her feel safer. I crouch down in front of her with what I hope is a kind smile.

"Hey, can I walk you home?" I ask gently and she looks up from the palm of her hands to look at me. I can see the fear in her eyes but she rises from her seated position and gestures for me to follow her.

I keep my distance, leaving about a metre and a half between us as we walk in silence to her apartment complex. The only thing I can hear is her sniffles as she rubs her arms in comfort. I open the doors for her and just as I'm about to leave she grabs my arm. "Thank you for helping me."

"If you need lifts home or someone to walk you, you know you can ask your manager right?" She looks confused at the statement and tilts her head, prompting me to carry on. "There's a clause in your contract that any working girl can request a lift or an escort from the club, security normally does it."

"But I'm not a working girl."

"I know you're a bartender, the clause doesn't just apply to the dancers and the escorts, love. They apply to any woman who has to travel alone. Talk to your manager, arrange something and I'll come to check on you soon, okay?"

"Okay, thank you..."

"Rubble."

"Daisy." She nods with a smile and closes the door, I wait for the click of the lock before heading back to the clubhouse where I tend to my wounds and get into bed with a heavy sigh.