Page 41 of Lucifer's Revenge
“No, I took an Uber.”
“Good, I’m going to call you one. I want you to go home, sleep this off, and I slipped a note in your purse. When you’re not being fueled by alcohol, call me. I’ll wait. I may have a way to get back at this Lily Richards.”
“Really? Why would you help me? A perfect stranger.”
“Because Lilith is a bitch, and needs to be put in her place. Call me in two days. I’ll start things in motion.” She used the bar’s phone to call a ride for Brenda, and once the other woman was gone, she grabbed a notebook and started making lists. Thank goodness it was dead in the bar, so she had plenty of time to start plotting her revenge. It was because of Lilith that Sally was making barely minimum wage in a fucking bar, which caused Trent to break up with her because she was being unpure while serving alcohol to other men.
*****
Three days later, Sally opened the door to her apartment and welcomed Brenda inside. “Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for inviting me. I’m a little confused though. Why would you want to help me?”
“First, I have a few questions for you. How do you know that Lily Richards is dating the guy you like?”
Brenda looked around sheepishly, then she lifted her head and looked down her nose at her. “I may or may not have seen them out together. It wasn’t like I was stalking them. I happened to be driving by, and saw them together.” She pulled out her phone, and accessed some photos. “This is the woman I always see him with, so I’m assuming they are dating.”
Sally took the phone with shaking hands and clenched her teeth when she saw her former friend and boss standing with her arm around the man she had warned her about months ago. She handed the phone back, went to the kitchen and offered Brenda something to drink.
“Have a seat,” she pointed to the table in the corner. “I have something to say.” They sat down with their coffee and it took two hours for Sally to tell Brenda everything she knew about Lilith Richards. How Lilith caused her to lose her job, preventing her from being able to collect unemployment, and other things that she perceived in her mind as some slight Lilith had done to her. It wouldn’t be until weeks later, when the shit hit the fan that Brenda realized her and Sally’s revenge was all based on lies. From both sides.
After Sally told her version of the truth to Brenda, they took hours to plot their revenge on the couple who had done them wrong. They had plotted for so long that they ordered pizza delivery, and finished two bottles of wine between the two of them. By the time Brenda left the next morning, because shewas too drunk to even get down the stairs, they had their plan ready to go, they just had to wait until they could implement it. Both women were satisfied at how epic it would be to make the woman who made both their lives miserable pay for her misdeeds. At one point in their plotting, Brenda voiced her concern over what Lucius King might do, but Sally waved that off, saying he was nothing but a scummy biker and a bar owner. He wasn’t smart enough to think for himself, let alone get back at them. The alcohol in her system had Brenda believing her.
Chapter 18
“What do you think?” Brad Tiggs looked at Lucius with a hopeful expression. They were standing in the newly built, designed, and furnished extension to Hell’s Coffin bar and restaurant.
Lucius stood there in shock. He did an extremely slow three hundred and sixty degree turn, and by the time he faced Brad again, he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. “This is exactly what I had in mind. With both the club and bar being named Hell’s Coffin, I wanted this new event space to represent what Hell might look like. In my opinion, you nailed it.”
“Thank you,” Brad said with a sigh of relief. He walked over to the new bar and picked up a framed document to bring back to hand to Luc.
“What’s this?”
“This is from the Fire Marshall. He did a walk through and has set the occupancy level at six hundred people.” He turned and pointed to several locations. “He also approved of the fire exit maps, and the placement of the fire extinguishers.”
“You did all that?”
“I did. All permits are filed, all regulations have been met, the only thing stopping you is opening your doors.”
“Wow,” Luc said with a shake of his head. He walked around, opened doors, inspected things, and when he opened one door, he turned back to Brad with a frown. “What’s up there?” He pointed to the set of stairs that led up.
“Go on up. As you know, your current bar and this one are connected by the kitchens. The only way to get from one building to the next is outside. Since you wanted to keep this for special occasions, we didn’t think it would be wise to have them connected publicly.” At Luc’s scow, Brad grinned. “Do you allow your customers into the kitchen?”
“Fuck no.”
“Exactly. From the bar to here, you can only go through the kitchen. Up here, the way this was built, the top of both buildings share a wall. Instead of leaving them solid, the foreman on the construction site, I forget his name.”
“His club name is Gargoyle, his real name is Gregg.”
“Oh, okay, Gregg said it would be better to have a door connecting the two building up here. He was also able to make more rooms up here, out of the way of the patrons. Something about storage for the bottles of stock.”
“God, that would be wonderful, right now, we’re walking all around the boxes on delivery day. Having someplace to store them would be wonderful.” He walked down the hall and stood in the doorway of the four rooms and nodded. He looked at Brad with a grin. “Love the shelves.”
“Gregg said you would.” Brad waited for him to go to the door at the end of the hall, and had him wait. “Gregg said that this was especially for you.” He leaned around Luc and pushed the door open, making sure to snap on the lights as he did so. He watched Luc’s expression and was pleased with himself.
“Again, Gregg said you needed a bigger office. The guys you call patch holders took this past weekend to move everything from the room downstairs up to here.”
“What’s in my old office?”
