Page 14 of Promise of Hellfire

I peered into the mirror and Ignacio raised his eyebrows at me, his mouth set in a thin line. “Why Ethan?” he asked, tapping on the window.

Hunter gave him a once over. “Because he has the most experience out of all of us with picking locks, except maybe Rayne. That is unless there’s something you want to tell us,” he laughed, but all traces of humor were absent. Rayne gave me a half-smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes.

Ignacio muttered under his breath and leaned further back into his seat. “You’re right. I just hate being sat on the sidelines.”

“You’re not,” I told him. “You’re going to cover our backs and make sure we don’t get caught.”

The city blurred by the window as we drove. New buildings fell away to older decaying structures. I pulled into the lot and removed the key from the ignition, sitting in silence for several moments and taking in the establishment before me. The three-story brick building was painted a dark pink, and the windows were blacked out, making it impossible to peek inside. A large, hot pink neon sign with a rose flickered over the door. A girl sat on a bench to the left of the building in white thigh-high leather boots and a red sequined bikini. The red ember on the end of a cigarette glowed in the darkness, smoke lingering in the night air. I pulled my jacket around me tighter, wondering how she could bear to sit there wearing practically nothing in the frigid air.

“Dom, you ready?” Ethan asked from the seat behind mine.

I gave him a stiff nod as I opened the vehicle’s door and stepped out into the night. After locking the doors, I shoved my keys into my pocket and slipped my usual mask of indifference back into place. Later, when I was alone, I would deal with whatever horrors I encountered. Right now it was important to keep myself together. We approached the door as a unit, moving together. The bouncer at the door ignored us as we strolled in, too preoccupied with a girl leaning against the wall next to him topless.

The warm air inside the building felt almost stifling. The scent of stale tobacco, sweat, cheap beer, and even cheaper perfume was nearly cloying, forcing me to stifle a gag.

“Lovely establishment, isn’t it?” Ethan said where no one else could hear him. Over the sound system, someone announced that Vixen would take the stage next, and we made our way to a table across the room. Five steps away was a hallway, and that was the first place I wanted to search.

A woman who appeared to be in her thirties approached us when we sat down, swaying her hips in an exaggerated manner. Her pupils were the size of saucers and her lips were painted cherry red. “What can I get for you gentlemen?” she asked, rubbing her barely covered chest against Hunter’s arm. He politely sat back several inches, trying to position himself out of her reach.

“Five bottles of beer,” he said, giving her a tight smile.

She winked at him, pushing her lips out in what I am assuming was supposed to be a seductive manner. “Sure thing, honey,” she purred and internally I cringed.

When she was out of earshot, I stared at the three men surrounding me. “What the fuck?” I whispered. I’d been to strip clubs before, but nothing could have prepared me for this. The neon lights of the stage cast a glow around the room, only seeming to further illuminate the griminess of the place. Women stumbled around on tall heels, high or drunk. A few of them were nothing more than skin and bones, and I watched as one exchanged a wad of cash for a dime-size baggy of some substance.

Rayne leaned toward me and lowered her voice. “You’re too used to how Oliver does business. It’s not like that on this side of town.” I grimaced at her knowing she was right. “Oliver has always made sure that all of his employees stay clean and keeps all of that shit out of his place.” She glanced towards where I had just watched the drug deal go down and frowned. “He does bad things sometimes, but really he’s a softie.” Ignacio nodded at her words, his eyes darting around the room.

She was right. Oliver made sure that everything was legitimate. The waitress from earlier sauntered back over to our table and gave me a smile. I tried to return it to her and attempted not to stare at the bruises lining her thin, pale arms.

“I need something stronger than this,” Ethan stated, gesturing to the unopened bottle in front of him.

Hunter sighed and patted him on the back. “Yeah me too, but the five of us can wait. I didn’t want to chance drinking something unopened from here. It was beer or bottles of water.”

I popped the cap off of the bottle and wiped the exterior with a napkin from my pocket, wrinkling my nose. The entire place seemed unsanitary, but hopefully, the nominal amount of alcohol would kill any germs left on the bottle’s exterior. Hunter chuckled as he watched me before tilting his head back and taking a large gulp of the beer.

“How long do we have to sit here?” Ethan asked, leaning on the wall behind him.

Ignacio shook his head. “I know patience isn’t one of your strong suits, but I am going to strongly encourage you to chill out right now. We just need to sit here for a few dances, try to figure out who’s security, and then we make a move.”

The music got louder and a sultry number played over the speakers as the dancer called Vixen sashayed onto the stage. Vixen seemed to physically be in better shape than a lot of the other women scattered across the club’s interior. At least from where I sat, I couldn’t see all of her ribs or any track marks on her arms. Straight blond hair cascaded down her back as she danced around the stage, slowly moving her body to the beat.

I averted my gaze when the straps of her red glittery dress fell, bile rising in the back of my throat. Men whooped and yelled, cat-calling her from all over the room. Did they know about the things that went on here behind closed doors? The better question was would they care? I sat patiently, and we murmured amongst ourselves, careful not to draw any attention to our table.

The same waitress from earlier stumbled back to our table, and we ordered another round of beers. Before she left, Ignacio caught her elbow. “Hey, sweetie, where is the restroom?” he asked, giving her a sly look.

“Oh, if you go down that hallway, it’s the last door on the left,” she giggled.

He excused himself as she ran a hand across the top of her hair. I wasn’t foolish enough to think he was actually using the restroom. I knew he was trying to scope out the rest of the building and see where security was located. They wouldn’t leave the girls being auctioned off completely unattended.

Five minutes later, he sat back at the table and rubbed his eyes. He leaned towards me and lowered his voice. “I don’t think they have any major security up here at the front of the house except those three,” he said, tilting his head towards a dark corner across the room. “One of the bouncers seems preoccupied with the show and the girl clinging to his arm right now.” Ignacio peeled the label from the beer bottle in front of him. “Back hallway seems clear as well for the moment. I don’t know how many people they have in those rooms or on any of the other floors. There are four doors on the left side of the hallway. My bet is that one of them is the door you’re looking for. Be careful.”

The other floors. This floor masqueraded as nothing more than a strip club with the usual VIP rooms. The top floor was rumored to be used for prostitution. How stereotypical. No one knew what horrors we would find in the basement.

I sucked in a deep breath, steeling myself for my next move. Vixen sashayed off the stage, swinging her hips wearing nothing but a sequined G-string. Her ass jiggled as she walked off and the DJ announced the next girl.

All eyes were on her and I looked around making sure that no one was watching us before I stood up. I nodded to Ethan and Rayne and walked to the back hallway, waiting in the shadows for them to catch up to me.

Putting my ear against the first door on the left, I was met with nothing but silence. My palms were sweating as I tried the handle. It was unlocked, and I pushed it open a fraction of an inch, taking a quick peek around. No one was in this room. All it held was a desk with paperwork and a few filing cabinets.

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