Chapter Eight

The Varnish closed its doors at 1:00 a.m. every morning. After closing, while the waitresses collected all the glasses and cleaned up the tables, Terry would cash up and do a stock check before wiping down the bar and mopping its floor to the point of shining. All that done, Terry, the waitresses and the management would sometimes grab a beer together at the bar and shoot the breeze for a while before finally heading home. That night, though, only Terry and Sabrina, one of the two cocktail waitresses that had been working the floor that Thursday, were in the mood for a beer.

Terry lived alone in a small one-bedroom apartment in East LA, about seven miles from Downtown, which in a city as large as Los Angeles was considered to be ‘just around the corner'. At that time in the morning, it would take him less than twenty minutes to drive home. But Terry wasn't exactly ready to call it a night yet.

Back inside The Varnish, as Terry and Sabrina worked through a bottle of Bud and a chaser each, they shared a couple of lines of cocaine in the bathroom.

Terry and Sabrina weren't a couple, but they had slept together plenty of times before, mainly when they were both drunk and high. The fact that they only had sex when they were a little off their heads had never really bothered either of them. Casual, drunken-and-wasted sex was a thing in LA. But that night, even though Terry did make a move as they shared their second line of coke, Sabrina politely declined, saying that she had a dentist's appointment in the morning, which was actually true.

‘Are you sure I can't come over for a little while?' Terry tried again, as he and Sabrina emerged from The Varnish. ‘I'll be quick. I promise.' A devilish smile on his lips.

Sabrina walked up to him, stretched her body onto her tiptoes, and gave him a friendly peck on the lips. ‘You know that "quick" is never the case with you, Terry.'

Terry chuckled. ‘You're making it sound like that's a bad thing.'

‘Definitely not.' As she came back to a flat-foot position, Sabrina purposely allowed her hand to gently brush against Terry's groin. ‘Wow!' She smiled an even more devilish smile than Terry's. Her eyes moved down to where her hand was. ‘I can feel and see how much you'd really like to come over.'

‘Uh-huh.' Terry nodded. ‘You know that's right, baby.'

Sabrina kept her hand right where it was for another second before stepping back. Her eyebrows pointed inward and down, creating a sad expression. ‘Pity that tonight really is a "no-no" for me.'

‘Ohhh, that's so cold.' Terry looked down at the volume in his pants. ‘Are you really just gonna leave me hanging here like a dog with blue balls?'

‘I'm sure that you can take care of that yourself,' Sabrina said, as she waved Terry goodbye. ‘You've got big hands, big boy.'

‘Damn, girl, that's freezing cold. I ain't getting nothing?'

‘You've got tomorrow off, right?' Sabrina asked.

‘That's right. We can party all night.'

‘No, I'm good. I'll see you on Saturday.'

‘Don't you even want a ride?' Terry tried one last shot. ‘We could fool around in the car.'

‘Nope, I'm good. I've got my bike.'

Still not quite believing that Sabrina had simply left him there, Terry watched her disappear around the corner.

‘Damn!' he whispered to himself, reaching into his pocket for his car keys. ‘And now I'm horny.'

Inside his pocket, his fingertips brushed against the small cellophane bag filled with cocaine that he and Sabrina had shared moments earlier.

‘Umm…' Terry bit his bottom lip while he thought about it for an instant.

On the weekends, instead of going straight home after his shifts, Terry would sometimes go to an underground club – the kind that stayed open until the break of dawn… the kind where he could easily get his kicks – and in LA, the weekend started on Wednesday.

Terry crossed the road and turned the corner to get to where his car was parked. The street was almost empty, with the exception of his blue Chevy Cruze and a dark-colored pickup truck that was parked to its left. Leaning against the side of the truck, facing the opposite direction, a tall man was smoking a cigarette. It was only when Terry got to about five feet from his car that he recognized who the man was.

‘Liam?' Terry frowned, pausing by his driver's door.

Liam turned on the balls of his feet. ‘Hey, Terry.' He nodded before flicking what was still left of his cigarette over the truck to the other side. ‘Just finished work?'

‘Umm… yeah.' Terry subtly shook his head, as if trying to wake up from a quick nap. ‘What are you doing out here?'

‘I was smoking a cigarette.'

Terry frowned again. A little harder this time. ‘No… I mean… I thought you'd be home by now. You left about an hour ago.'

‘I did,' Liam agreed, rounding the truck to get a little closer to Terry. ‘I needed to get some fresh air.'

‘I'm not surprised,' Terry said, sounding impressed. ‘You managed to down two of those Amnesia cocktails. Those puppies were strong, man. I know. I mixed them.'

Liam dismissed the feat with a careless shrug. Once the bar got busier, it had been easy for him to keep on tipping some of his drink into glasses left at the bar without anyone noticing it.

‘Is this your truck?' Terry asked.

Liam nodded. ‘Yep.'

‘Are you sure you're OK to drive? Do you want me to call you a cab?'

‘No, I'm good,' Liam replied, tucking his left hand deep into his jacket pocket. ‘But I wanted to show you something that is a bit shocking, if you don't mind.' He took two steps forward to be within an arm's reach of Terry.

‘Shocking.' Terry craned his neck forward. ‘What is it?'

Liam smiled, and in one very fast move pulled a Taser out of his pocket and brought it to Terry's neck. One effortless click of the trigger and fifty thousand volts were discharged throughout the bartender's body, immediately causing neuromuscular incapacitation. Terry's eyes disappeared into his head, while his whole body shook uncontrollably for about three seconds before his legs gave way and he collapsed. Liam was ready for it and grabbed Terry before his head hit the ground.

‘I wanted to show you something that's a bit shocking,' Liam chuckled to himself, as he dropped the tailgate on his truck and dragged an unconscious Terry into the truck's cargo bed. ‘What a fantastic joke.'