Page 88 of King of Clubs

I knew I couldn’t go in guns blazing and demand she tell me because there was the chance she did have a fucking headache – a bullshit small chance if I was being realistic but a chance all the same.

Although, my gut told me there was more to it and the fear that she would find herself in trouble and try to manage things on her own was palpable.

I gave her the space she wanted last night and didn’t push her this morning but the damn phone stared at me all night enticing me to just check for myself. I couldn’t breach her privacy again though, which was why I was now pacing the floor of the club waiting for both Andy and Wayne to arrive.

I was stumped. I’d read over the information on Lucas more times than I could count and still had no idea what I was missing. Nothing made sense. He was a decrepit, desperate piece of shit, but I couldn’t argue with the fact none of the phones he owned showed contact with Marlee. I wanted to call her, tell her to come home from work and stay with me until she was able to open up and talk. Even just to hear her voice. She still hadn’t replied to my earlier message wishing her a good day though so she wasn’t going to answer my calls.

Either she was busy or I’d unknowingly messed up.

When the door to Nexus finally opened to Andy with Arna and Felicity hot on his heels, I threw my hands in the air.

“I didn’t realise I invited the entire city?” I was never one to mince my words but Andy only grinned in response.

“Sorry, bro. There was no other option. I’ll keep her calm,” he had the decency to at least look contrite.

“You’re dreaming if you think you can callhimbecause you’re worried aboutmybest-friend and not tell me.” Her hands were flailing as she stamped her foot punctuating her point. Andy shrugged apologetically in my direction, before smiling at her adoringly.For fuck sake.

“I thought you were going to keep her calm?” It was clear that Andy bloody loved the fire in her and wasn’t about to do anything other than enjoy the show.

“There is no keeping her calm,” Flick said from one of the bar stools.

“Oh, sweetie. If you thinkthisis anger you have no fucking idea. Now tell me what’s going on because I spoke to her this morning and she seemed fine. So what have you done?”

Throwing her handbag down, she walked behind the bar and began making herself at home as Felicity jumped from her spot and followed. She made a fair point and I couldn’t even muster the energy to argue when I knew how much she cared about Marlee. But I also had no idea what was wrong or where to even start.

“Well, I guess–”

Wayne appeared with two bags of food interrupting what I was going to say and I wiped my hands down my face as he placed it on the bar. He moved to shake hands with Andy and nodded in the direction of where the women were preparing God knows what.

“What’s so important that I couldn’t finish my training session? By the looks of things, I’m going to say Marlee hasn’t replied to one of your messages,” he said good-humouredly.

Andy, who was already shovelling food down his throat, laughed around a mouthful of chips,“She left you with blue balls or something?” I did my best not to lose my shit at these clowns who were testing my already thin patience.

“I don’t actually know what’s wrong. But something isn’t right!”

My hands slapped the bar in front of me, causing Arna to jump and spill some of the drink she was handing Felicity.

“Geez, Seb, relax,” she said, wiping liquid from her wrist.

“Something is fucking wrong, okay!” I snapped, my voice denoting my stress. “If you could all just listen instead of telling me shit I don’t need to know, maybe we could determine what that actually is!” Arna flinched, my restraint wavering.

“What the heck is wrong with you? She’s okay. She literally texted me as she was walking into work this morning to see if I wanted to go for a drink tonight. And we definitely didn’t discuss any cases of blue balls,” Arna was clearly frustrated but she didn’t understand.

“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Wayne said, moving to stand next to me, “tell us what happened.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “She met my mum last night and everything was great, like, dinner went well and she was her regular self winning over my family. But then I walked Mum out of the building and when I came back she was as white as a ghost. Eva was there too and said she was normal one minute and then lost all colour in her face. I asked her what was wrong but she said she was fine and had a headache. Which I’m fairly sure was bullshit.”

“So you didn’t speak to her after she went to bed?” Felicity asked. “Like even this morning?”

“I mean we spoke about general things but not really. She said she still had a headache but would be okay and I didn’t want to push, after…” I left the rest unsaid, assuming they would all already know about our argument.

“Did you deal with that doorman of yours or could he still be harassing her?” I asked Andy.

“Of course I managed that little fucker. Unless he has a death wish, he’s leaving her alone. He isn’t in our building anymore anyway,” his voice portrayed his agitation that I would even ask.

“Correct,” Arna confirmed with a nod. “Andy threatened to leave the building which meant Adam lost his job and we have had a basket of muffins delivered to the door each day for a week,” Arna was grinning as she threw a cherry into her mouth.

“Arns, what about the headphones?” Flick said to Arna.

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