The Night of Seven by Nadia Siddiqui (each kindness read aloud .TXT) 📗

to. She told him far more than she probably should have, but Stefan is coming to learn that people might just start doing that from here on out. He didn’t know how to help her, but she is just another reason why he felt so strongly that he needed to own a gun. At least he knew how to get his hands on one. Olivia cried, and she told him how scared she was. She was terrified that he was going to come after her, that he was going to hurt her worse than the black eye. She said that he was just a boyfriend, but the things that she repeated gave the impression that he thought that he owned her. Stefan had experience with men like that. His own father was a man like that. He can’t even remember how many times his father put his Mama in the hospital whenever he got into one of his “fits”. Honestly, Stefan thought that Olivia was going to quit. She told him that she might. She told him that she might go home to her own Mama’s house to hide for a while. He was half hoping that she wouldn’t simply because she loves her job so, and Stefan hates to see men like that win. He doesn’t believe that men like that should ever get what they want.

It has to be him.

He has to be the one making her plead like that.

He’s come to get even with her, and if the family that he belongs to is powerful enough, he will get away with doing it right here in the middle of this dressing room, even with all of these witnesses.

Though maybe he can do something about it.

Stefan is not a brave boy. He’s not a person who can speak in front of crowds or say anything without looking at his feet three times a sentence. He can try though. He can try to help his friend.

Olivia screams in pain, and he knows that he can’t stand here. He can’t hide while his friend is hurt like that. There are things that people can and cannot live with. He cannot live with himself if he stays here, hiding, while something horrible happens to such a nice girl.

Stefan pulls the gun from inside of his uniform and signals for the girls to stay put, no matter what. Slowly, he moves around the wall of vanity booths and stands tall. His hands are threatening to shake, but he can’t let them. He can’t. He steps into view and raises the cocked gun, pointing right at the man holding Olivia by her pretty hair.

“Let her go.”

Chapter Eight

N athan & Cruz

Nathan has been pretending to be a security guard for a week now. It’s shocking to him that for a casino with such high end, top of the line security, that there appears to be very little attention paid to people who do and do not work there. It appears to Nathan that they must have such a high turnover rate for these positions that they aren’t paying attention to who comes in and out of such important places. The only one that pays him any mind is a tall man named Cruz. He likes to give Nathan sideways glances that Nathan isn’t certain how to take from a man who looks like a rock formation took human form. However, it doesn’t matter. Nathan will only be here for tonight. Whatever has been predicted, is going to happen tonight. There are cameras even in the dressing rooms of the dancers. Nathan is sure that has to be some sort of security violation of some kind, but it’s also not his place to question it. He arrived early tonight so that he can watch as much of the footage as possible. The limited information that the company provided him with doesn’t even tell him who is going to be the victim. Though, in a matter of hours, it will be clear. So long as he is here and available, then he can take whoever needs to be down, down. The only obstacle that he can think of is going to be the big man that likes to somehow move so silently that he can pop up in the most random of places, right whenever Nathan is effectively snooping around.

There are heavy Mafia ties to this casino. That much he knows for sure. The company has dug up all of the records going into and out of this place, and they have been backed by the very influential Carilles family since the Casino switched to its current management some ten years ago. Still a baby by casino standards, it seems to be doing well for itself. Too well. It doesn’t make nearly as much money in revenue as it pours into reconstruction and remodels. Though there seems to be three or four different building plans registered with the city. Then all records of what actually gets built simply just disappear, and nobody even knows what happens to it. It simply doesn’t make any sense. It’s clearly a figurehead. Though, Nathan doesn’t know if it’s just covering up for money laundering or if it’s something even more than that.

There is a flurry of movement from one of the cameras that catches Nathan’s eye; he can see the line dancers darting off to one side of their dressing room, and he doesn’t have to stop to look more closely to know that this is why he is here. The event is happening now. He tears out of the security office, comfortable in the knowledge that whatever is going to happen in here, he can handle. As he gets closer, he can hear just one voice wailing for mercy. The victim, no doubt...and then a second. Nathan slips into the door nearly unnoticed and can hear the conversation happening in front of him.

“Look, I’m