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We Come Out At Night 3
Chapter 20
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2 days later
Gates
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Kristina showed up at my office right on time for work. We had only spoke a few words since the night Shadows and I put her back in her place and everything we did speak about was work related.
Shadows and I sat in the living room while she was sorting paperwork in the office. We had been discussing his plan to get Izzy back. Shadows was a very smart man and his plan if it worked could mean the end of Marco once and for all.
Unfortunately for Vengeance, Shadows plan involved Marisol and I was the lucky one who had to explain it to him. I glanced over at the office and from where I sat I could see Kristina stifle a yawn. My thoughts went to that horrible bed in her room that I once sat on when she told me that she wanted to read The Outsiders. She picked up her coffee and sipped from the paper cup. Normally, she would come in and make a pot of coffee before heading into the office, but Shadows told her she was limited to the office when she was up here so, she brought her own.
“Are you listening to me?” Shadows asked snapping me from my thoughts and forcing me to look back at him.
“Yeah, sorry.” He turned his gaze to the office and looked back to me.
“Say the word and I’ll put everything back the way it was.” he said before turning back to me.
I just shook my head. “That’s easier said than done.”
“Ok. Then could you pay attention to the conversation and forget about her?”
Forget about her? Probably not, but for his sake I would find a way to focus my attention on him. “Sure.” I nodded.
We had continued with our discussion about Marco and it was decided that the best way to get Izzy out would be to get Marco on our territory. If anything was going to go down, it would go down here. Everything seemed all mapped out in Shadows mind. He had an answer for every question that I asked him. Obviously, he had thought about this for a while and I thought it was a good plan. It could work, however, it could also get Kristina killed.
When the conversation ended, he got up and went downstairs. I gave Kristina a list of things that I needed her to do while I was at the mansion talking to Vengeance. She didn’t even look up at me when she took the list. She just nodded her head and set it down on the desk.
When I walked out of the office I looked back at her one last time before leaving. She didn’t look sad, or mad or happy or anything. Her face showed no emotion at all. While I walked to my car I thought about the situation. There was one thing that was eating at me and that was the fact that I never bothered to sit her down and give her a chance to explain herself. That seemed to be the way we treated her from the beginning. We all wrote her off as a whore from day one.
When I pulled up to the mansion, Christ was sitting in his car outside. I walked up and knocked on the window and when he rolled it down I bent down to talk to him.
“Anything going on?”
“Nah. I almost wish something would happen, this is pretty fucking boring.” He said.
I nodded. “Ok, why don’t you get out of here, I’ll take the heat from Shadows.” I didn’t have to tell him twice, he started his car and drove off. Now comes the hard part, facing Vengeance.
I walked up the path to the door and when I got to the door it opened and Vengeance stood in front of the doorway. “What the fuck do you want?” He asked standing there in a defensive stance with his arms folded.
“Yeah right.” I chuckled and pushed him aside as I walked through the door.
I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch sprawling my arms out along the back. When he walked back in he stood in the middle of the living room and glared at me.
“Where’s Marisol?”
“Sleeping. What do you want?”
“Sit down.” I said and he huffed before walking over to a chair and taking a seat.
“Shadows has a plan to get Izzy back. We’re not going to hand over Marisol, but we do need her in order for the plan to work”
“No. No fucking way.” He shook his head vehemently denying our request. Too bad for him, it wasn’t a request and if he didn’t start to see it my way, I would leave, but Shadows would be back and he’d be leaving with Marisol.
“Just hear me out.” I said and he sat there waiting for me to continue.
“All we need is for her to be at the casino for five minutes. That’s all. Just long enough for Marco to see that she is there and then you can take her and leave.”
“You think it’s that fucking easy?” He leaned forward as he spoke.
“Yeah. I do. I swear on my own life, nothing will happen to her.”
“I don’t know man.” He shook his head.
“Do you want Izzy to die?” I asked him and he lowered his gaze to the floor.
I really didn’t think that the question I asked was one that had to be thought about, but this was Vengeance I was dealing with and we didn’t call him that for nothing.
“Ok. Fine. You get five minutes, but that’s it. If anything happens to Mari, it’s your head I’m coming for.”
I nodded. “Dude, if anything happens to Mari, I will hand you my own gun.”
After he agreed we chatted about everything else that was going on at the casino while he was at the mansion. I filled him in on everything that was happening with London and Kristina. He seemed most surprised though by the fact that Christ had taken over my job as testing the new brothel girls. Vengeance told me about what was happening with him and Mari although Shadows and I already knew. We had her pegged as the girl who would bring him to his knees the first time we saw them together in the basement. Poor bastard doesn’t know what hit him. It was after 5 when I finally did leave and head back to the casino. Kristina’s shift would have ended by now and she would be long gone.
When I did walk back into the casino I found Shadows sitting in the bar talking to Chelsea. He asked her to take over behind the bar for a while until we found a replacement and she agreed.
I was explaining to him that Shadows had agreed to the plan when he tapped my arm and nodded towards the front door of the casino. Kristina had just walked in and she looked really upset about something. Christ was following behind her, but when he caught sight of Shadows and me, he walked over to us.
“What was that about?” Shadows asked as Christ stood in front of us.
“I was getting out of my car just as she was getting out of hers and we were walking back in together. When we got to the front of the casino there were some guys outside who kept cat-calling Kristina. She tried to ignore it, but they kept calling her Ruby and making lewd comments about the things they wanted to do to her.”
It takes a lot to really piss me off, but that really pissed me off.
“I’m going to go see if she’s ok.” Christ said before leaving and going up to Kristina’s room.
Shadows looked at me and he must have known I was pissed off. “So, you gonna let Christ save the day?”
I shrugged. “What the hell am I supposed to do about it?”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “Come on.” I walked with him over to the elevator and we headed up to Kristina’s floor. When we got off the elevator we walked down the long hall to the last door. We stood outside listening to her and Christ.
“What are you doing?” He asked her.
“I’m leaving.” I could hear her rummaging around the room. She must have been gathering her things.
“So, just like that you are going to leave? Just because a few punks said some stupid things to you.”
“It’s not just that”
“Well, what is it? You can tell me, I’m neutral here.”
“I can’t do this anymore Johnny.” I could hear her voice starting to crack. She must have been crying.
“Do what?”
“This. Do you know what it’s like to have people constantly telling me who I am and what I should and shouldn’t be? I was a whore when I came here and you know what? It didn’t seem to bother anyone. Nothing hurt me, nothing bothered me, because I was playing a roll and I didn’t have to feel anything. Once I stopped working in the brothel and had to leave Ruby behind and be Kristina, the pain was unavoidable.”
“Kristina, don’t get me wrong, I love Shadows and Gates, but no one has the right to tell you how to live or who you are supposed to be. Fuck them, stick up for yourself and be who you are.”
I turned and looked at Shadows and with an eyebrow raised I mouth the words “fuck them?” as Shadows started cracking his knuckles.
“It’s not that easy Johnny. I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but there seems to be a double standard around here.”
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“I mean the whole Izzy thing. I like Izzy and all, but it bothers me when I see her with Gates and I don’t think he ever cared how it made me feel. Yet, when I go and do pretty much the same thing Izzy does, they call me what I’ve always been. A whore and you know what? They’ll never see me as anything more than that.”
I hoped that wasn’t as bad as it sounded because if it was as bad as it sounded then Shadows and I were real fucking bastards.
“Ok, I know we don’t know each other that well, but here’s my take on this whole thing. You’re not a whore. Your job when you first got here was that of a whore, yes, but that was just a job, it’s not who you are. Gates is a dumb fuck.”
I turned my head to Shadows who was trying not to laugh at me.
“He’s not the greatest when it comes to expressing his feelings, but I do know that he did have strong ones for you. You, on the other hand are just as dumb as he is. I’m saying that because if you were upset about the whole Izzy thing, then you should have just gone and talked to him about it, but you didn’t. You went back to being Ruby, because you thought that it was ok.”
He had a point, but I’m not a dumb fuck.
“How can it be ok for Izzy and not for me?”
“Ok, fucking stop. This is not about Izzy, it’s about YOU. I don’t care what she did or who she slept with. Right now, I only care about making sure you are ok. You have absolutely no respect for yourself and that has to change starting right now.”
“Don’t you get it Johnny? When I was being Ruby, they liked me. They paid attention to me. When I am Kristina, it’s hard not to feel ashamed of who I was before. Being Ruby took all that pain away. I didn’t have to know what a broken heart felt like being Ruby. I didn’t have to care if I made a mistake because people expected it from Ruby. It didn’t matter if I didn’t know everything because Ruby’s fucking stupid and that was acceptable.”
“Do you think I don’t know how you feel? I get teased on a daily basis and sure sometimes it does bother me, but if I changed my personality every time someone said something about me, I’d have to be fucking committed to a looney bin. Just let it roll off your back. I know it sounds cliché, but it will make you stronger.”
“It’s hard sometimes.”
“I know, but if you leave then they win. So, how about you stay and I’ll be your go to guy. If something’s bothering you or if you feel like you need someone to talk to you can call me. If you want to get away from here for a while, just call. I’ll be here. Whatever it is, but you cant leave. You just gotta hold your head up high and be yourself.”
“I don’t know who I am Johnny. That’s the problem.”
“Well, I think you’ll figure that out soon enough. You have to actually like yourself before you can figure out who you are. Why don’t you start by taking all the good things about Ruby and all the good things about Kristina and putting them together to make one hell of a chic? I think people would really like her.”
“Why are you trying so hard to get me to stay?”
“Because I think you’re pretty fucking rad. That and the fact that you are about the same size as me and the casino could use another midget. Just sayin..”
She laughed at his attempt at a joke. “So, will you stay?”
“Ok”
Shadows tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked back at him he nodded towards the elevator. I followed him back down to the bar and about 15 minutes later Christ came down and joined us.
“Just in time!” I said as he walked up. He looked at me a bit cautiously.
“In time for what?”
Shadows turned in his stool and smiled at Johnny. “Chelsea, whom I believe you already know, was just about to go out. Only she was going by herself. You know how this town is, not a place a girl like Chelsea should be by herself at night. Don’t you agree Gates?”
“Yup. I hate to think of what could happen if she went out by herself. I really think you should keep her company. What do you think Shadows?”
The look on Johnny’s face was priceless.
“I couldn’t agree more. I think you would be the perfect guy to keep Chelsea company for a night out on the town. So, are you up for it?”He stood there practically dumbfounded. Chelsea was smiling at him from behind the bar and he was starting to blush.
“I can see if The Rev is free.” I told Shadows and that seemed to get Johnny’s attention.
“Uh…no…I ..I can do it”
“Are you sure?” Shadows asked. “We wouldn’t want to inconvenience you or anything.”
“No, it’s fine. Really, I don’t have any plans.”
Chelsea came out from behind the bar and stood in front of him. “Hi Johnny.” She smiled and he took her hand and led her out of the bar. Getting him laid was the least I could do after what he just did for me. I wanted to talk to Kristina really bad, but if the plan was going to work, then tomorrow night she would have to be Ruby one more time.
Only she didn’t know it yet.
2 days later
Gates
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Kristina showed up at my office right on time for work. We had only spoke a few words since the night Shadows and I put her back in her place and everything we did speak about was work related.
Shadows and I sat in the living room while she was sorting paperwork in the office. We had been discussing his plan to get Izzy back. Shadows was a very smart man and his plan if it worked could mean the end of Marco once and for all.
Unfortunately for Vengeance, Shadows plan involved Marisol and I was the lucky one who had to explain it to him. I glanced over at the office and from where I sat I could see Kristina stifle a yawn. My thoughts went to that horrible bed in her room that I once sat on when she told me that she wanted to read The Outsiders. She picked up her coffee and sipped from the paper cup. Normally, she would come in and make a pot of coffee before heading into the office, but Shadows told her she was limited to the office when she was up here so, she brought her own.
“Are you listening to me?” Shadows asked snapping me from my thoughts and forcing me to look back at him.
“Yeah, sorry.” He turned his gaze to the office and looked back to me.
“Say the word and I’ll put everything back the way it was.” he said before turning back to me.
I just shook my head. “That’s easier said than done.”
“Ok. Then could you pay attention to the conversation and forget about her?”
Forget about her? Probably not, but for his sake I would find a way to focus my attention on him. “Sure.” I nodded.
We had continued with our discussion about Marco and it was decided that the best way to get Izzy out would be to get Marco on our territory. If anything was going to go down, it would go down here. Everything seemed all mapped out in Shadows mind. He had an answer for every question that I asked him. Obviously, he had thought about this for a while and I thought it was a good plan. It could work, however, it could also get Kristina killed.
When the conversation ended, he got up and went downstairs. I gave Kristina a list of things that I needed her to do while I was at the mansion talking to Vengeance. She didn’t even look up at me when she took the list. She just nodded her head and set it down on the desk.
When I walked out of the office I looked back at her one last time before leaving. She didn’t look sad, or mad or happy or anything. Her face showed no emotion at all. While I walked to my car I thought about the situation. There was one thing that was eating at me and that was the fact that I never bothered to sit her down and give her a chance to explain herself. That seemed to be the way we treated her from the beginning. We all wrote her off as a whore from day one.
When I pulled up to the mansion, Christ was sitting in his car outside. I walked up and knocked on the window and when he rolled it down I bent down to talk to him.
“Anything going on?”
“Nah. I almost wish something would happen, this is pretty fucking boring.” He said.
I nodded. “Ok, why don’t you get out of here, I’ll take the heat from Shadows.” I didn’t have to tell him twice, he started his car and drove off. Now comes the hard part, facing Vengeance.
I walked up the path to the door and when I got to the door it opened and Vengeance stood in front of the doorway. “What the fuck do you want?” He asked standing there in a defensive stance with his arms folded.
“Yeah right.” I chuckled and pushed him aside as I walked through the door.
I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch sprawling my arms out along the back. When he walked back in he stood in the middle of the living room and glared at me.
“Where’s Marisol?”
“Sleeping. What do you want?”
“Sit down.” I said and he huffed before walking over to a chair and taking a seat.
“Shadows has a plan to get Izzy back. We’re not going to hand over Marisol, but we do need her in order for the plan to work”
“No. No fucking way.” He shook his head vehemently denying our request. Too bad for him, it wasn’t a request and if he didn’t start to see it my way, I would leave, but Shadows would be back and he’d be leaving with Marisol.
“Just hear me out.” I said and he sat there waiting for me to continue.
“All we need is for her to be at the casino for five minutes. That’s all. Just long enough for Marco to see that she is there and then you can take her and leave.”
“You think it’s that fucking easy?” He leaned forward as he spoke.
“Yeah. I do. I swear on my own life, nothing will happen to her.”
“I don’t know man.” He shook his head.
“Do you want Izzy to die?” I asked him and he lowered his gaze to the floor.
I really didn’t think that the question I asked was one that had to be thought about, but this was Vengeance I was dealing with and we didn’t call him that for nothing.
“Ok. Fine. You get five minutes, but that’s it. If anything happens to Mari, it’s your head I’m coming for.”
I nodded. “Dude, if anything happens to Mari, I will hand you my own gun.”
After he agreed we chatted about everything else that was going on at the casino while he was at the mansion. I filled him in on everything that was happening with London and Kristina. He seemed most surprised though by the fact that Christ had taken over my job as testing the new brothel girls. Vengeance told me about what was happening with him and Mari although Shadows and I already knew. We had her pegged as the girl who would bring him to his knees the first time we saw them together in the basement. Poor bastard doesn’t know what hit him. It was after 5 when I finally did leave and head back to the casino. Kristina’s shift would have ended by now and she would be long gone.
When I did walk back into the casino I found Shadows sitting in the bar talking to Chelsea. He asked her to take over behind the bar for a while until we found a replacement and she agreed.
I was explaining to him that Shadows had agreed to the plan when he tapped my arm and nodded towards the front door of the casino. Kristina had just walked in and she looked really upset about something. Christ was following behind her, but when he caught sight of Shadows and me, he walked over to us.
“What was that about?” Shadows asked as Christ stood in front of us.
“I was getting out of my car just as she was getting out of hers and we were walking back in together. When we got to the front of the casino there were some guys outside who kept cat-calling Kristina. She tried to ignore it, but they kept calling her Ruby and making lewd comments about the things they wanted to do to her.”
It takes a lot to really piss me off, but that really pissed me off.
“I’m going to go see if she’s ok.” Christ said before leaving and going up to Kristina’s room.
Shadows looked at me and he must have known I was pissed off. “So, you gonna let Christ save the day?”
I shrugged. “What the hell am I supposed to do about it?”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “Come on.” I walked with him over to the elevator and we headed up to Kristina’s floor. When we got off the elevator we walked down the long hall to the last door. We stood outside listening to her and Christ.
“What are you doing?” He asked her.
“I’m leaving.” I could hear her rummaging around the room. She must have been gathering her things.
“So, just like that you are going to leave? Just because a few punks said some stupid things to you.”
“It’s not just that”
“Well, what is it? You can tell me, I’m neutral here.”
“I can’t do this anymore Johnny.” I could hear her voice starting to crack. She must have been crying.
“Do what?”
“This. Do you know what it’s like to have people constantly telling me who I am and what I should and shouldn’t be? I was a whore when I came here and you know what? It didn’t seem to bother anyone. Nothing hurt me, nothing bothered me, because I was playing a roll and I didn’t have to feel anything. Once I stopped working in the brothel and had to leave Ruby behind and be Kristina, the pain was unavoidable.”
“Kristina, don’t get me wrong, I love Shadows and Gates, but no one has the right to tell you how to live or who you are supposed to be. Fuck them, stick up for yourself and be who you are.”
I turned and looked at Shadows and with an eyebrow raised I mouth the words “fuck them?” as Shadows started cracking his knuckles.
“It’s not that easy Johnny. I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but there seems to be a double standard around here.”
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“I mean the whole Izzy thing. I like Izzy and all, but it bothers me when I see her with Gates and I don’t think he ever cared how it made me feel. Yet, when I go and do pretty much the same thing Izzy does, they call me what I’ve always been. A whore and you know what? They’ll never see me as anything more than that.”
I hoped that wasn’t as bad as it sounded because if it was as bad as it sounded then Shadows and I were real fucking bastards.
“Ok, I know we don’t know each other that well, but here’s my take on this whole thing. You’re not a whore. Your job when you first got here was that of a whore, yes, but that was just a job, it’s not who you are. Gates is a dumb fuck.”
I turned my head to Shadows who was trying not to laugh at me.
“He’s not the greatest when it comes to expressing his feelings, but I do know that he did have strong ones for you. You, on the other hand are just as dumb as he is. I’m saying that because if you were upset about the whole Izzy thing, then you should have just gone and talked to him about it, but you didn’t. You went back to being Ruby, because you thought that it was ok.”
He had a point, but I’m not a dumb fuck.
“How can it be ok for Izzy and not for me?”
“Ok, fucking stop. This is not about Izzy, it’s about YOU. I don’t care what she did or who she slept with. Right now, I only care about making sure you are ok. You have absolutely no respect for yourself and that has to change starting right now.”
“Don’t you get it Johnny? When I was being Ruby, they liked me. They paid attention to me. When I am Kristina, it’s hard not to feel ashamed of who I was before. Being Ruby took all that pain away. I didn’t have to know what a broken heart felt like being Ruby. I didn’t have to care if I made a mistake because people expected it from Ruby. It didn’t matter if I didn’t know everything because Ruby’s fucking stupid and that was acceptable.”
“Do you think I don’t know how you feel? I get teased on a daily basis and sure sometimes it does bother me, but if I changed my personality every time someone said something about me, I’d have to be fucking committed to a looney bin. Just let it roll off your back. I know it sounds cliché, but it will make you stronger.”
“It’s hard sometimes.”
“I know, but if you leave then they win. So, how about you stay and I’ll be your go to guy. If something’s bothering you or if you feel like you need someone to talk to you can call me. If you want to get away from here for a while, just call. I’ll be here. Whatever it is, but you cant leave. You just gotta hold your head up high and be yourself.”
“I don’t know who I am Johnny. That’s the problem.”
“Well, I think you’ll figure that out soon enough. You have to actually like yourself before you can figure out who you are. Why don’t you start by taking all the good things about Ruby and all the good things about Kristina and putting them together to make one hell of a chic? I think people would really like her.”
“Why are you trying so hard to get me to stay?”
“Because I think you’re pretty fucking rad. That and the fact that you are about the same size as me and the casino could use another midget. Just sayin..”
She laughed at his attempt at a joke. “So, will you stay?”
“Ok”
Shadows tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked back at him he nodded towards the elevator. I followed him back down to the bar and about 15 minutes later Christ came down and joined us.
“Just in time!” I said as he walked up. He looked at me a bit cautiously.
“In time for what?”
Shadows turned in his stool and smiled at Johnny. “Chelsea, whom I believe you already know, was just about to go out. Only she was going by herself. You know how this town is, not a place a girl like Chelsea should be by herself at night. Don’t you agree Gates?”
“Yup. I hate to think of what could happen if she went out by herself. I really think you should keep her company. What do you think Shadows?”
The look on Johnny’s face was priceless.
“I couldn’t agree more. I think you would be the perfect guy to keep Chelsea company for a night out on the town. So, are you up for it?”He stood there practically dumbfounded. Chelsea was smiling at him from behind the bar and he was starting to blush.
“I can see if The Rev is free.” I told Shadows and that seemed to get Johnny’s attention.
“Uh…no…I ..I can do it”
“Are you sure?” Shadows asked. “We wouldn’t want to inconvenience you or anything.”
“No, it’s fine. Really, I don’t have any plans.”
Chelsea came out from behind the bar and stood in front of him. “Hi Johnny.” She smiled and he took her hand and led her out of the bar. Getting him laid was the least I could do after what he just did for me. I wanted to talk to Kristina really bad, but if the plan was going to work, then tomorrow night she would have to be Ruby one more time.
Only she didn’t know it yet.
♠ ♠ ♠
I really thought that you would have guess London was the other daughter when I posted the conversation between Izzy and Matt about her meeting one of two daughters.P.S. I am getting asked a lot about the character photos and who they are. Truth is, I don't know. I just put in a hair and eye color in google images and pick the one that I think fits my character the best. The only time I used a few actual actors is in "The Family" series because some actors had the look I wanted.