Raging Barons MC – Book Three – Silver

-:- EDEN -:-

Waking on the back seat of my junker is not a good way to start any day, but, with the start of my job at Club Whisky, things are looking up. I just have to be careful and stay out of the way during the night. The last thing I need is some asshole finding me asleep.

Pouring a little water from my drinking water bottle, I rinse my hands and face. Brush my teeth and use another small amount to rinse and spit. Looking up the dirt track as I brush my hair, I’m thankful that no-one has found me staying here.

Checking the small amount of cash I have, I see it will not keep me going long. I’m going to run out before I get paid, I’m sure. Seems like hungry is going to be my middle name for a few days.

I tidy the back seat of my vehicle, making sure that everything is neat and packed into the foot area as I don’t want anyone knowing I’m sleeping in the damn thing. I was lucky that my background check showed my parent’s home as my known address, but that luck will only run so long.

I’m wearing old jeans and a t-shirt as we’re going to be cleaning everywhere today at the club, ready for opening night. I hope some of the women work faster than they did yesterday. It was pretty painful watching them emptying boxes.

Reaching the club, I enter through the back door and walk up the corridor to the staff area. I leave my purse in the locker that I had assigned to me yesterday and I quickly use the washroom.

Linda walks in and gives me a big smile. “Hi Eden, are you ready to clean today?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, how about you?”

“I don’t mind cleaning, and most of this is just dust from all the renovations that were done. I’m sure if we work alongside each other, we’ll soon get through it.” She has old coveralls on which have me smiling. She must think we are going to shovel dirt out of here.

“I can see you laughing at me, Eden.” She cackles, then wraps her arm around my neck and pulls me out into the corridor.

“What are you two doing? Not up to no-good, I hope.” Making us both jump as we didn’t realize that Silver was even in his office as we passed.

“We’re all ready to start.” I quickly say and both myself and Linda grab cleaning equipment ready to make a start.

“Start at the stage and work forward. Make sure everything is dust free, and the floor is gleaming. I want the stage to be a focal point, so it needs to be spotless.” Silver states, folding his arms over his chest and giving us both a steady look.

“No problem, boss,” Linda responds, and we both scuttle off to start work.

It takes an hour to dust the whole area, mop it all and then polish it up, but it was worth the effort, turning I notice the three stooges are not here.

“Linda, have you seen Carol, Twig or Sue arrive?”

“No, I haven’t, now you mention it. Typical, but they were that slow yesterday. They would have stuck to the floor if we didn’t keep pushing them.”

Nodding, I pick up the mop bucket and head outside to empty it down the drain, then notice a man leaning against an old van. It’s rusty as shit and looks like it needs scrapping.

When he notices I’m standing here, he walks towards me, but I’m no idiot. I quickly go back inside and close the back door. When I have a bad feeling in my gut I listen and I sure had a bad feeling when I saw him. I tip my head to the side and place my ear near the door, listening for any movement outside, because if he opens this door, I’m gonna scream so loud.

A tap on my shoulder and a male voice, “What are you doing?” has me screaming loudly, jumping into the air, turning fast and holding my heart as it’s beating out of my chest.

“Oh my god, Silver, you nearly gave me a heart-attack.”

“What are you doing? Listening for something?”

“There was a man in the back, he was standing near a van. When he noticed me, he started towards me, but he gave me a bad feeling so I got inside quick and slammed the door.” I stutter out, still with a racing heart and a red face.

Silver takes my forearm and moves me away from the door, then exits, closing the door behind him. I’m not sure if I should stand here and wait or get back to work, so I hang about a few minutes and jump again when Silver comes back in.

“Nobody around Eden. Be alert and if you see him again, let me know.”

Nodding, “I will.”

“Okay, get back to work.” Silver states, then walks into his office, while I go and help Linda.

Both Linda and I look up when the three stooges wander in. Not dressed for cleaning either, I notice. Linda shakes her head and leans over to me. “Christ, they are stupid bitches.”

Giggling as I cannot help but agree, but I try not to let the three see me laughing at their expense. I actually like Twig and Sue, but I’m not sure the dumb blonde is going to work with me in the long run.

Twig waves and shouts over to us, “Hi you two, have you been here long?” Linda laughs, “Yeah, we’ve done three hours, so you have some catching up to do.”

Silver walks through and folds his arms over his chest, “Where the fuck have you three been? You’re three hours late and I’m not fucking impressed.”

Sue smiles at what I think is supposed to be teasing or seductive. Who can tell? As it looks like, she’s constipated. “We didn’t know what time to come in, so we arranged to meet up and come in together.”

“Well, Eden and Linda have done most of the work in here, so Sue you can do the restrooms and staff kitchen. Twig, you can do the corridors and Carol, you can do the rest of the club area with Eden and Linda.” Silver looks pretty pissed off at these three, but I’m wise enough to stay quiet.

Once Silver has walked away the three of them grumble, but I grin as they keep their voices low, obviously not wanting Silver to hear them. Linda and I continue cleaning the dance floor area and point out the tables and chairs that need wiping down when Carol asks what she needs to do.

****SILVER****

After checking the parking lot and seeing nothing out of place, I re-enter the club through the back door, check the lock is in place and has not been tampered with, because that is my first thought, why else would someone be hanging around?

Something feels off, I have to admit, even though nothing seems out of place. I enter the office after making sure the women are all working. Carol, Sue and Twig I’ll be watching as they are late, and not showing any embarrassment about it, either.

Picking up the phone, I make a call to Specs, leaning back in my chair and wait for him to pick up. “Specs speaking.” He states and has me smirking because that is how he always answers.

“Hi Specs, it’s Silver. Can you check the club cameras for someone hanging around? Happened about fifteen minutes ago.” I know he’s looking already as I can hear the clicking of his keyboard.

“Yeah, a van, no plates, he is leaning on the van and when the woman comes out the back door, he notices her and starts towards her. She hightails it back inside when she notices, and that is what you would hope they would do. After she shuts the door, he turns and heads back to his van, sits a couple of minutes, then drives away.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll tell them to keep the back door locked, as we want nothing happening. Can you get a decent picture of him and send it to me? I’ll ask the women if they know him.” I stand and head to the kitchen, as I can hear Tony talking.

“Will do Silver.”

Placing my cellphone in the back pocket of my jeans, I walk into the kitchen and see Tony and Fiona talking while they work. They are wiping all the workspaces, but I can see one of the fryers is on and looks like Tony is cooking something.

“Hi Silver. We’re ready for opening night. I’m going to give you a couple of things to try before I put them on the menu. They will be about twenty minutes.” Tony states, then shakes out a selection of spices into a bowl, stirs them up and pours it all into a storage jar.

“What’s that?” I ask, as I have no idea what he’s just made.

“It’s the coating for these fries. My momma used to make these for us when we were kids and she would never tell what it was, but she died six years ago and I inherited her recipe book. It was messy, but I eventually wrote them all out and salvaged this coating.”

Taking the fries out, he shakes them into a large colander, shakes it around to get the oil off, then sprinkles the coating over, re-shakes the fries, then tips them onto a plate, pushing it towards me.

I pick one up, blow as the damn thing is red hot, and take a bite. The spices hit my tongue and a hint of garlic warms my mouth, not sure what the other spices are, but shit, it’s good.

“Wow, that is damn good. I think that will be a hit.” I push the plate over to Fiona to try and she tentatively takes one, takes a bite, then hums, closes her eyes and obviously enjoys it.

Tony laughs. “Yeah, that’s the reaction it usually gets. So, you okay with it going on the menu? I’m gonna try it with chicken as a coating as I think it’ll work well too.”

“Yeah, I’m good with it on the menu. It’s the shit.” I pick up a couple more in each hand, then head back to the office.

Licking my fingers, I cannot help but smirk because if Tony serves food that tastes that good, it won’t be long before we’ll need more staff to serve it all. That coating was something else and I can imagine on chicken it’ll be a hit too.

Checking my desk, I see a list of items that Tony needs ordered for opening night, so I give TwoCents a call as we can’t afford to not be organized and have everything we need the night we open.

I spend the rest of the day making sure everything is perfectly clean, organized, and ready. I let the ladies go home and check Tony and Fiona are finished and left. Then I lock up and make sure I set the alarm before heading to the clubhouse and hope we have something to eat as my stomach thinks my throats cut.