17. Felix

17

Felix

Garret was helping out in the bar, so I sat down at a table, perched in the corner that offered ample views to watch what was going on around the club. I enjoyed watching him too, of course. I was lost in my element, blending in like a wallflower while I attempted to observe everything going on around me.

My goal was to determine whether all the customers and members seemed happy and satisfied, so I could report my findings back to Garret. He hadn't asked me to do it, but I wanted to help him in any way I could. He was so stressed out and needed a lending hand anywhere he could get one. He couldn't stay on top of everything and I wanted to help out by spotting little things that he might miss.

For the most part, everyone seemed to be having a good time, and spirits seemed high. Of course, I was only viewing it from a surface level. It wasn't like I could walk around to every member and survey whether they were having an enjoyable time, let alone if they would be honest with me in the first place.

After a while of nothing interesting to note, and nothing exciting happening, in particular, I stood up from my chair and walked to the bathroom down the hall.

When I resurfaced a couple minutes later, I didn't see Garret behind the bar or mingling with any of the members like he had been doing when I'd left. I didn't want to panic yet, so I walked through the room and decided to check our private room to see if he had entered it to take a breather or something.

It wasn't uncommon for Garret to disappear into the private room, but most of the time, he had me with him. I arrived at the door and hesitated to open it, afraid of what I might find on the other side.

Much to my relief, after swinging the door open, I discovered it empty. It would have been a nightmare for me to find him swinging from the ceiling with someone else or something even more horrifying than my mind could conjure, but I still had to find Garret.

I decided to check his office. If he wasn't there, I might allow some worry to filter into my brain.

I walked up the stairs and found Carol working at her desk. The door was cracked open. "Hey Carol," I whispered and motioned to Garret's office behind her. The door was open. "Is he in there?"

"Garret?" Carol asked. She shook her head. "I haven't seen him come up here in a while."

I frowned. "Okay, thanks."

"Do you need me to look for him?"

I managed to give her a reassuring smile. "No, that's okay. I can find him. I'm sure he's just in the bathroom or something."

I waved my hand dismissively, but my heart was drumming nervously in my chest.

Carol nodded, but there was a flicker in her eyes that led me to believe she was unconvinced by my act. I left before she had a chance to ask any further questions. I didn't want to raise any alarm bells with her. The poor woman had enough stress on her plate as it was.

I checked out the remaining unlocked rooms in the club and then headed back downstairs, feeling frustrated. I was getting ready to call him but decided to check outside first. I couldn't explain the sensation, but I just had a gut feeling that I should go out there.

Sure enough, as soon as I stepped out onto the sidewalk and into the bitter, crisp night air, I found Garret standing in the middle of the street at the corner.

He had a shocked expression on his face. His eyes looked wide and stunned, and his mouth was hanging partially open.

"Garret?" I whispered, cautiously approaching him. "Is everything… all right?"

He turned to face me. His eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was appalled and raw.

Garret blinked, acknowledging that he had at least heard me talking to him, but he didn't respond right away, which further concerned me.

"What happened?" I glanced around the area, trying to detect anything out of the ordinary on my own.

The street was empty. Garret was alone, and from what I could see, there was no one else standing by him, or fleeing the area.

"Are you in trouble?" I asked, trying a different tactic. "Are you hurt?"

He didn't appear to be physically injured.

"You have no idea." Garret's eyes were red-rimmed with anger. His cheeks were flushed and hot to the touch when I reached out and caressed them.

"Tell me exactly what happened out here," I whispered soothingly. "Walk me through it, so that I can better understand and help you."

"Three thugs… they… came out of nowhere…"

"Three… thugs?" I frowned, questioning him. "Garret, I don't see anybody," I pointed out as gently as I could.

Was he delusional and delirious? Perhaps he was hallucinating. Had he taken some kind of pill and wandered out into the street while I was in the bathroom? My stomach twisted into tight, anxious knots.

"They're gone now," he said with a scowl.

"Where did they go?" I pressed.

"They took off on foot. I wanted to chase after them, but with everything going on right now, I was afraid to leave the club unattended…"

He trailed off as if he couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. I wished he would elaborate on the details already, but I didn't want to push him too hard.

"What did they say to you?" I continued my attempts at pulling the story from him.

"They got scared off by a passing car and ran away." He pointed abstractly in the general direction.

"But what did they say to you?" I asked. "Did they physically try to harm you?"

Garret finally made eye contact with me, and I felt like he was finally seeing me, his blank stare finally gone.

"I think that they would have, or at least tried to if the car hadn't driven down the street at that exact moment. I probably could have taken them though," he added with a smug expression. Even under pressure, he always tried to remain tough on the exterior.

"Did they have weapons?" I asked, feeling panicked. "Guns or knives?"

"Nothing that serious, but they still spooked me," Garret mentioned.

"What did they have?" I stared at him.

This conversation was like pulling teeth, and I was growing increasingly frustrated by his aloof vagueness.

"They had bats," Garret said.

"Bats? Like… baseball bats?" I quizzed.

"Yes," Garret affirmed with a sullen nod. "They held them up as if they were ready to swing them at my arms and legs at any seconds. The goons. They wanted to pound me to the ground."

"Thank goodness the car came by at the right moment and scared them off," I said.

"They scampered off in every direction. Cowards if you ask me." Garret's jaw visibly tightened.

"Do you think they would have really hit you with the bats?" I found it unlikely, given the surveillance cameras around the club, but at the same time, I didn't know what to believe anymore.

Garret looked at me with a cold and calculated expression. "I know for a fact that they would have tried to beat me to a pulp."

"Did you get a good look at them? Maybe we could go to the police and have a description drawn—"

"They were wearing black ski masks and black tracksuits," Garret said, "so I wasn't able to get a good look at their faces."

"How did you even know they were out here?" I asked, feeling even more baffled than I was when I had initially walked outside.

"I came outside to see if there were any other club members trying to get in. It's too cold to have the doors open. The club looks closed because it's not very busy. I was going to see if I could wrangle any people into coming inside for a good time."

I tried not to give him a pitying glance, but his account was extremely sad. "And they just happened to be walking up at the same time you came outside?"

"Either that or they might have been waiting for me to exit the club."

Garret's eyes burned with anger. There was no telling what kind of revenge tactics were brewing in his mind, running rampant. I had to prevent him from doing something reckless that might end up jeopardizing everything he had worked so hard to achieve.

"We both know that Nelson did this," Garret said in a sinister tone. "He's going to have to answer to his crimes."

"I know, but we really have to think this through," I said as rationally as I could. I didn't want Garret's anger to explode on me, either.

Before Garret could retort, a black Mustang sped up to us and screeched to a grinding halt right in front of the club where we stood.

Nelson was in the driver's seat and he appeared to be alone in the car. He had a condescending look on his face. His eyes flickered patronizingly.

"Are you prepared to hear my new offer?" he asked in the snidest tone possible.

The only thing Garret was prepared to do was breathe fire. He was livid beside me. He didn't respond, but Nelson spouted out the new offer anyway.

Garret glared at him. "Even if I wanted to accept that offer, it's ten percent less than your original one."

"Exactly." Nelson looked proud of himself. "And the cost of dawdling around with indecision is going to keep going up until you grow a brain in that thick skull of yours and come around. It's time you smarten up and realize what's at stake here."

Without another word, Nelson peeled out down the street. His taillights disappeared as he rounded a corner. Nelson was gone, but his threat still lingered in the air between me and Garret.

I glanced at him to see how he was holding up, and what I saw wasn't reassuring. The color had completely drained from Garret's face and he was positively ashen. His mouth was curved into an oval of shock.

"What he said before…" Garret said and trailed off. "That's exactly what those street thugs told me."

I studied Garret, waiting for him to elaborate. "What did they say?"

Garret slowly turned to look at me. His features were haunted. "They told me that I better smarten up or else more bad things would keep happening. The words… are still echoing in my mind."

"It's going to be okay." I patted his back repeated the words over and over, but no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it was true, my mind wouldn't believe it.