Chapter 15

A few days later, Aaron called me.

“Can you come to the club tonight?” He asked.

“Sure.”

I left the girls in a pile on the living room floor. They were all watching some reality dating show as Kayla was mixing up drinks. She was convinced that putting Vodka in blood made it easier to drink, so she was playing bartender. I had a feeling that things were about to get out of control, so I was relieved to get out of the house.

“No one leaves the house. Clear?” I said in a stern voice.

“Sure Dad. We’ll be fine. Go! Get out of here.” Kayla laughed, clearly tipsy.

I drove to the club and found Aaron waiting in the parking lot with a man I didn’t recognize.

“Come on inside. This is Chris.”

“Scott.” I replied. Chris nodded at me as we walked inside the empty club.

“Chris is a real estate agent and has lots of vampire connections.” Aaron explained as we sat down in one of the booths.

“Cool. What do you know?” I asked.

“A lot has happened in the last week. Aaron called me and I started digging into the actual ownership of the club. Turns out the club, and Steve’s house were owned by a company.” Chris said.

“What company?” I asked.

“A fake one.” Aaron replied.

“Fake? How does that work?” I asked, clearly confused.

“It’s a real company, but it’s a shell. Based in another country. They have a US address, but it’s a PO Box. Typical for a business that wants to hide what it’s doing.” Chris replied.

“Like what?”

Chris shrugged.

“Money laundering, drugs. Whatever.” He replied.

“Tell him about the phone call.” Aaron said.

“What call?” I asked.

“A few days after I started poking around, I got a strange phone call. I’m pretty sure that they were using a voice changer because it didn’t sound normal.”

“What did they want?” I asked.

“To sell me the club.”

“Why?”

“Money first, and to cover their tracks second. If the place went abandoned, someone would break in and look around, or worse, the city would buy it up. We don’t know what sort of things went on here and I’m sure that it’s something that we don’t want the humans finding. By keeping it in vampire hands, it minimized the risk.”

“So what are you going to do?” I asked.

“We bought it.” Aaron said.

“We?”

Chris nodded.

“Aaron and I went in on it together. We both agreed that we needed to keep the club and keep it open. It’s a good place for vampires to meet and mingle and felt that it was important.” Chris explained.

I nodded.

“So, we’ll open like normal. I’ve spent the last week going through records and working on suppliers. The customers shouldn’t notice anything different.”

“Except Steve isn’t here.” I said.

Chris nodded.

“And Liz. I swear to fuck, if I see her again, I’m gonna kill her.”

“Just don’t do it at the club, OK?” Chris said as he stood up.

“I’ll do my best.” I replied as I stood up.

A week later.

“You’re going without me?” Kayla shrieked.

“Yes. You need to stay here with the girls. I need to do something.”

“I can’t believe you’re gonna go to the club and leave me here.” Kayla pouted.

“I NEED you to take care of them. I got stuff I need to do. Besides, I can’t afford to buy outfits for 6 more girls.” I laughed.

“FINE!” Kayla said, stomping her foot and crossing her arms over her chest.

“I know you guys are getting a little stir crazy, we’ll go out soon.”

“Promise?” Kayla asked.

“Promise.”

I wanted to see how the night at the club would go without Steve.

I also needed to find someone.

Aaron was at his standard post at the door. He gave me a head nod and waived me to the front of the line. I felt like a rock star as I walked past the line and into the club.

It was pretty early in the night, so the club wasn’t jam packed yet. On reflex, I made my way to the bar.

Surprisingly, Raven was behind the counter.

“What are you doing here?” I asked angrily.

“Apparently vampire friendly bartenders are hard to find. I got bills to pay.” Raven said in a flat voice.

“Uh huh.” I said in a wary voice.

Raven slid me a blood shot and a beer.

“Hey stranger.” Came a familiar voice.

I turned around in my stool.

“Well, just the girl I was looking for.” I grinned.

“Yeah? You miss me?” Chelsea grinned.