Page 66 of Chaos & Carnage

Indie tipped his head, signalling something to his brother, and Demon slowly led the dog out of the room. And now it was just me and the grey-haired man I watched choke Cade out the other night. I hadn’t meant to take a step backward, but as panic rose in my body, I’d already put a couple of feet of distance between us.

“It’s alright, Alice,” his voice was low, a little louder than a whisper. “We don’t hurt women in my club. I just wanted to say, whatever is going on with Chaos and Carnage. Please sort it out. I cannot put up with their whiny faces in my club. Whatever this was,” he circled a tattooed hand in the air in front of us, “it’s really fucking bothered them. I need them at their best right now. Either finish it or don’t let them go.”

“Them?”

“We could all see how they both looked at you. Choose one, the other or both, if you must. But I need them focused, and right now they’re like kids mourning their first break-up.”

“I…err….”

“Thank you,” he ended, even though I hadn’t said I would do anything. “And thank you for saving Demon’s dog. You’ll never know what you’ve done by doing that. But you saved us a lot of shit. I’ll sort the bill on the way out.”

*****

“You doing the on-call shift tonight?” Abbie asked as we closed the practice up for the night.

I nodded, cleaning the last of the instruments and loading them into the steriliser.

“You’re back to that, then?”

“Back to what?”

“Doing all the emergency shifts and having no life.”

“I don’t have a life.”

“You nearly did.”

I frowned. For a short while, it had been exciting. I had thought it might lead to something. Something better than the constant late nights, the tiny snatches of sleep, the constant stress.

“He’s been texting and ringing,” I said eventually.

“I know. I’ve been listening to your phone vibrating constantly. I don’t know what’s worse. That incessant vibrating you’ve been ignoring, or the sex noises.”

I frowned again. I was going to get a gutter in the middle of my eyebrows if I didn’t stop.

And soon, as Abbie left for the night, and it was just me and my patients, the practice plunged into almost silence. The only noises now came from the room of patients, tucked up in their cages, the odd squawk of a machine and the occasional chirrup of a cat at its neighbour. I finished paperwork at the desk in the corner of the room of cages and kennels, entering details onto the computer, finalising bills.

That was until I heard the footsteps. I shrugged them off at first, Stuart coming in for something he’d forgotten. It wasn’t unusual. But the multiple set of footsteps was. Two people? Three people? The footsteps were heavy, an army of feet. And now I could hear voices, deep, rumbling, harsh.

Moving to the door, I held my breath, cracking it open just a sliver, slowly, quietly, praying that someone wasn’t passing.

“I can’t get you any more,” Stuart sounded panicked. “That’s all we have.”

“You know the deal,” another voice growled. “And you’re not delivering on it. Know what happens when you don’t deliver?”

I couldn’t hear Stuart’s answer. I could only imagine he’d either whispered it, or he simply stood there quiet. Whoever they were, I had a feeling any answer he gave wouldn’t help him right now, either. Someone moved in the hallway, turning in my direction, and I ducked away from the crack I’d made in the door.

“I can order more. I can get it by Monday.”

“We need it tomorrow, mate. We have people waiting for this stuff. Where did it all go, anyway? I told you how much we needed.”

Silence again. Slowly, I moved back to the crack.

“You’ve been snorting it, haven’t you? Thought we wouldn’t notice a bit less?”

Silence.

“Stealing from us. I’ll fucking teach you to steal you jumped up middle-class crack cunt.”