Page 27 of Queenpin
I hiss at him. “Sure, you didn’t. You also didn’t know that this is my fort, did you? I bet you didn’t buy anything either!”
The East Side guy drops his gun on the ground with a thud and the force shoots off a round. One single bullet is shot through the whole metal casing surrounding the fort. It echoes as it flings past everyone and then everyone takes out their guns and begins shooting at everyone.
It’s mass hysteria for about a minute. It takes only a moment to empty each clip here and for the sounds of sirens to come charging towards us.
“Grab the bag!” I yell at Raul.
I look around the mess to see if I can see any of our guys down. There’s none but I do see one of my members on the ground. What a shame. The guy wasn’t even twenty-one years and he lost his life because he got addicted to the fast life.
I turn around to see two police officers holding out badges for me to get a better look at.
Fuck.
***
Every Tuesday and Friday I go to my appointment to discuss my life and how I’m feeling. The judge made this court mandated and my counselor sends all of his notes to the judge to show that I am acclimating to the world.
Or some shit.
After my Tuesday appointment, I’m feeling pretty fucking shrunk and all I can think about is getting immersed in my work at the club. It’s the first of October and this is the day that everyone pays their dues for their membership.
I’m in serious need of a vacation. A good one.
For the past two years, I have worked every single day of those seven hundred and thirty damn days. See, the problem with being a woman in the business world is I have to work extra fucking hard. What sucks the most is when they find out who I used to be.
I haven’t always been this woman. I once was a scared little girl who saw things no one should have to have seen and I did whatever it took to survive. So, what if I’m rough around the edges. It is what is.
By the time I get to my office, I see the outline of a man standing in front of my closed door. “May I help you?” I ask with a voice that tells how I’m not in the mood. Because I’m not. I’m in the mood to count some money and then drink some gin.
Fuck that damn counselor.How does that make you feel, Ms. McGrace?
All that Ms. McGrace shit is enough to send me to the psych ward.
The body turned and I fall back a step. Holy hell. I did not expect Mason to come to me so soon.Fuck. I didn’t expect him to come at all.
I take the three steps until I’m standing in front of him. He’s not much taller than me while I’m in my heels but my eyes are leveled with his nose. Mason smells amazing in this fresh cologne and the outdoors.
“You’re here.”
“I’m here.”
My eyes greedily climb up and down his body and settle on his eyes. “This is going to be fun.” I take my keys out of my purse and separate them so he can have the house key. As I roll it off the ring, I look at his nervous face. “Oh, don’t get nervous on me now, Mason.” I hand the key to him and he takes it. Once his fingers were holding the key in his hand, I say, “My penthouse is on the top floor. I want you to go there and wait for me. You will know it’s my penthouse. I will be there in thirty minutes.”
Before he could say anything, I flick my hand off to the side, so he knows I am done talking. Walking into my office, I feel excitement as I think about all of the things I’m about to do to and with Mason. I’m not sure if he knows what I am into but it’s about time he realized something… I have control over everything. There are no exceptions to that rule.
I kick my heels off and sit on the couch that is kiddy corner to my desk. Once I’m tucked into the corner of the couch, I close my eyes. I can’t seem too over excited about this because that would be fucking embarrassing.
It’s going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine. We are going to get along well and it’s going to be the start of a good relationship.
First things first, I need to clear my schedule for the week. It’s important that Mason and I have enough time to get better acquainted with each other so we can understand one another. Also, I like to spend the extra time to make sure that Mason is what I want. Could you imagine how much it would fucking suck if I dedicated a lot of my time to him and he turned out to be a dud?
I hit the button for the intercom, probably too hard, and waited for Trina to answer. “Yes, Ms. McGrace?” Her voice is always pleasant, but I have the feeling that she is a slut when she is not here with me.
I wonder if anyone else gets such impressions about someone.
Oh well. She’s a good employee and she doesn’t ask me questions about what I do. “I need you to clear my schedule for the week and know that I am not to be reached. At all. I don’t give a fuck if the Pope comes and wants to meet me. I don’t want to be bothered. Is that clear?” I know I’m very terse, but this is important to me and it’s important to my relationship with Mason.
“Of course. I will see you next week.”
