Chapter 3
First Night

Montrose, Mississippi

As the sun began to shine through the curtains the lone figure sitting in the recliner began to stir awake. He opened his eyes only to be met with a shooting pain making him feel like his head could split in two at any given moment. Cursing himself for having that last beer last night he forced his eyes open and stared at the time display on the VCR.

Sighing in relief he brought his hands up and rubbed them across his face. With it only being 7:30 in the morning he had some time before he had to be up and off to work. Maybe he would get Rachel up so she could make him something to eat, and then maybe he would force her to give him something else.

Shaking his head he padded across the room to the hallway and began to go up the stairs. "Maybe Rachel picked them up before she went to bad last night." As he came to the top of the stairs he stopped and looked towards there room. The door was open which was unusual for her she always closed the door when she went to bed. He walked the couple of steps to the room and stood in the doorway.

He noted the bed was made, thinking maybe she was already up and in the bathroom he walked to it and his brow furrowed when there was no sign of her. "Rachel?" he called out knowing he would get no answer. His anger began to boil when he saw her closet open and her bag missing along with a couple of pictures off the nightstand of her parents.

"You fucking bitch." He seethed now knowing why he had only drank one bottle of beer last night. "She fucking drugged me." Curling his fists into tight balls he stomped out of the room an on down the stairs to the phone. Picking up the receiver he quickly dialed a number and put it up to his ear.

"Hello?" a soft voice spoke into his ear.

"Is Rachel there?" Drake asked trying to restrain the rage that was currently boiling through his body.

"Oh hi drake honey, no she's not."

"She has to be because she is not here, and her backpack is gone."

"Well she's not. Maybe she went to a friends."

"She didn't go to a friends." He seethed then as if a light bulb went off in his head he figured out where she was. "You helped her leave didn't you? I knew I should have kept her away from you. On another note maybe I should have killed you, because I knew you would be a problem from day one! Better yet I'll kill you now so you won't be a problem in the future."

"You'll never find my daughter. She's gone Drake accept that, and move on she don't want anything to do with you. An I honestly don't think you could keep her away from me if you tried." Amelia said with as much venom as she could muster, she didn't want him to know that his threat had worried her.

"Want to make a fucking bet bitch? When I find her you'll never see you daughter again." He screamed into the phone and slammed the receiver down. He turned on his heel and swiped his arm across the counter causing the contents on top to crash to the floor. Stomping towards the fridge he yanked it open and grabbed a bottle of beer.

After yanking off the cap he put the bottle to his lips and chugged a good portion. After wiping his mouth and taking a couple of deep breaths he picked up the phone and dialed the familiar digits of the local police station.

Pebble Beach, California

Blaze

After everyone had left his office he leaned back in his chair and let out a long tired sigh. He couldn't believe what a whirlwind couple of months it had been, since he had decided to open this club. The building, designing, deciding on different things to make it different from the rest of his clubs, had really taken a lot out of him, then the hiring of people to work the club hadn't been easy either.

One Interview after another had been tiring, and the search for the right employees had seemed endless which is why he had switched a few of his older ones from his other places on to this one, just to fill up the staff for opening night. It should have been easy to decide who to bring over, or so he thought it was just as tough as hiring staff. He had to go through the 100's of employees he had and decide who was good enough to bring over.

But after it was all said and done, he was pleased with the outcome, the staff was full except for one position but as far as he concerned Nikeia was hired permanently, he just had this feeling she would be and asset to the club. Not just from her looks or voice for that matter, it was something about her that called out to him

Something he could see in those blues eyes that pleaded for help, but what got him was what she needed help with. He was thinking getting the job, but it seemed to easy. There was something about her that was different from all of the other girls in the world. She carried herself different, it was as if she was afraid something was going to pop out and bite her. She hid it very well but alas he was a people watcher so he noticed more than the average person would.

There was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind to figure out what was going on with her, and he planned on taking the hint an doing so. He wouldn't give up till he knew exactly what made Nikeia Taylor tick.

She was so different from other girls her age, but maybe that was what was drawing her to him. She kind of had that country girl look to her, but he wasn't sure. He would ask trace tonight what he thought. But knowing Trace it would be all about the getting into her pants part of life.

Shaking his head at his best friend he rose from his desk giving up on the thought of work for just a few hours. After pushing his desk chair in he padded across the room to the door and opened it up. Pulling the door shut behind him he padded down the red hallway and on down the stairs to the main floor of the club.

Looking a round he watched as everyone ran around like ants to get every thing set up for the night, glancing down at his watch he noted the time and made a beeline for the door, he knew exactly what he needed and that was some food, before both his feet made it out the door he heard someone yell out his name which made him stop in his tracks.

Turning on his heel he looked up at his best friend and gave him a small smile. "Yeah bro?"

"Where ya going?" Trace asked coming to a stop next to him.

"Going to get something to eat, want to join?"

"Sure let's go down to that café we always go to."

"Aight." Justin agreed stepping out of the door an into the sun.

Montrose, Mississippi

After talking to the local P.D. he had grabbed another beer and brought it out on the porch to sit in the old wicker chair to wait for the cops to show up. He knew in his gut that her mother had helped her escape, no one else would they were to afraid of him to even attempt it. His plan now was to put out a missing persons report then to get a hold of his friends in the detectives department and have them help him find her.

He could feel the rage from the current situation building in side of him, he just needed to keep it together till after the cops left, he needed to play the concerned boyfriend to get them to believe there was no real reason why she would leave him. Chuckling softly he knew they would be chasing their tails in reasons why she left, from kidnapping to just plain getting lost. It just showed how stupid the police department in a small hick town were.

Taking a sip of his beer he looked out towards the horizon, he still couldn't get over the fact that she had the balls to actually think about leaving him, let alone actually doing it. He thought he had more control over her then he did, he'd been drilling it in her head since she got with him that he was boss, but then it was nicely now it was force but that was the only way he could keep her, by force.

Thinking back now he knew he never loved her it was more of a possession than love, because there was no way in a million years a girl like her would be a boy like him. He'd always been the farm boy, yeah he had looks but he didn't have the charm to keep a good girl like her. So he had to resort to force, it was slow at first but then it became a way of getting his aggression out at his own stupid mistakes.

As the sound of tires against rocks hit his ears he shook his head of his own thoughts and looked up to find a small police car pulling up his drive way. He chugged the rest of his beer then stood up to his full height, and watched as the two cops in the car opened there doors then proceeded to walk up his drive.

"Mr. Reynolds?" The shorter of the two asked as he stopped in front of him. "We got a call from you saying you're girlfriend was missing?"

"That's right." Drake replied with as much sadness as he could muster.

"I'm Officer Fredrickson and this is my partner Officer Cutless." He said pointing to the younger one standing next to him. He pulled out a small notebook out of his breast pocket opened it up and began his questioning. "What is you're girlfriends full name?"

"Rachel-Lynn Carter"

"Date of birth?"

"April 17, 1985"

"Can you give us a picture or a description of what she looks like?"

After thinking for a minute he looked up at the officer and smiled wistfully. "She has black hair, green eyes, about 5'7 135 pounds."

After jotting down the information he received he looked up one last time. "When was the last time you seen her?"

"Before I went to bed last night."

"Did you two happen to have a fight? She could have just left to cool off."

"No we did not have a fight."

"Can you tell me what you two did last night?"

"Well I came home from work, she made me dinner, we had a couple of drinks. Watched TV for a little while then went to bed. And when I woke up this morning she wasn't there." Drake lied, he couldn't believe how easy the lies were rolling off his tongue, and the way he was pulling off the concerned boyfriend act. It was as easy as stealing candy from a baby.

"Does she have any enemies that you know of? Or someone that would wish her harm?"

"No one that I can think of really. She's a really special person, everyone likes her."

"Okay I think that is enough for now, we will contact you if we have any further questions." Officer Fredrickson said "If you can think of anything else please contact us right away."

"I will do that." Drake replied and watched as the two cops got back into the car and reversed out of the drive. Letting a evil smile grace his lips he sat back down in the chair and grabbed his cell phone. "Now it's time to find the stupid bitch."

Blaze

Oh my god I can't believe I'm doing this. Nikeia thought to herself as she walked in the doors of Blaze. I am going to kick some ass tonight She thought again. Clad in a short very un-Rachel like black skirt and the tightest shirt ever made, she found herself in front of a woman who would only look pretty in the club lights.

"You must be the new girl." She stated after a nod of confirmation from Nikeia she continued. "I'm Nina head waitress, Justin told me to show you your section and help you get better acquainted with the club and give you a short run down of who is going to be hear tonight."

Motioning with her hand for Nikeia to follow her, she lead them to a roped off area of the club that held the VIP room. "You'll be waiting on the VIPS, not a large job, but not an easy one at that. Tonight is the Gallagher party a big money group, basically a business party. They'll be a bunch of drunks before this is over. You'll have to deal with the guys who are used to bossing people around." As Nina continued on with the do's and don'ts, Nikeia took the time to really get a feel for the place.

She really thought she was going to get to see Justin or the other one Trace, the one who called her a walking orgasm. Chuckling softly to herself she turned her attention to Nina and nodded to tell her she understood. "So basically all I'm doing tonight is serving drinks to a bunch of drunken business assholes?"

"Yep. Oh and be for warned this group of guys are very touchy-feely hands, take it with a grain of salt. But don't be surprised if you get groped by four guys in the same hour." Nina said as she put an arm around her shoulders. "I think I'm going to like you kid, keep that I don't give a shit attitude and you'll go far."

"Thanks I think." Nikeia replied with a soft smile gracing her lips.

"Alright, let's get you an apron and a tray before the party goers start arriving."

Justin sat at his office desk, he knew the exact moment that she walked in. He'd been sitting glued to the security cam feed on his laptop for the past half hour or so waiting for her to walk in. An when she did walk in he was again hit with the thought of I'm fucked.

He still couldn't get over the feeling that there was something to her that he needed to figure out about her. He was determined to figure out and hopefully gain a friendship with her. Even if he had to give up everything he had. "I might lose my mind " He mumbled to himself and possibly my heart He thought to himself as he got up an walked to the door of his office. "Here goes nothing." He sighed opening the door and stepping out.

After ten minutes into the party Nikeia had witnessed first hand what kind of people she was serving. She'd already had had her ass grabbed twice and three had asked for her number, and to top it off she had declined two offers to find a nearest closet. Shaking her head with disbelief she walked towards to the bar to fill yet another drink order but was intercepted by Nina.

"You're doing great girl, just keep that eat shit look on you're face and the night will be over before you know it."

"God I hope so." She replied brushing her hair back over her shoulder.

The next three hours seemed to pass in a blur with even more ass grabbing and propositions which she politely declined. After filling a rather large order Nina had told her to go take a ten minute break. She wiped at her forehead with the back of her hand to clean some of the sweat off and pushed her way through the back door where she ran into one of the more sober VIPS.

She had seen him give her the once over a couple times before, and honestly he had given her the creeps, as she drew closer to him she felt her hands flex for some reason and sat down on the steps and took in a deep breath of clean air.

Thinking over her first reaction of him she realized he reminded her of someone her past, the old feeling of wanting to tremble in fear from a non-existent hit began to creep up on her, and in the back of her mind she knew she could defend herself with Nick's training.

"Must be raking in the bucks eh?" The man said breaking her out of her thoughts.

Thinking back to all the tips she had already received she smiled slightly. "Yep." She replied softly letting her gaze drift up towards the sky.

After stubbing out his cigarette he turned his attention to her and subconsciously licked his lips. "You know I bet you could triple that if you come back to my place with me?"

She let out a slight scoff and turned her attention towards him. "The only thing sold here is alcohol, not sex, but I bet you can get that down the street."

The mans face turned from slightly amused to unreadable, but she noticed his eyes they had a fire burning that wasn't there only couple seconds before. "Let me rephrase that. you will come to my place with me, and it will be a great experience for the both of us."

"An allow me to rephrase my own." She looked him up and down a couple of times then stared him straight in the eyes. "No fucking way sleaze ball." she snapped then stood up and began to make her way back into the club.

Before hse could make it all the way back to the dance floor she felt a hand grasp her elbow and spin her around. When she came face to face with the guy from outside she noted he looked a lot more redder than he did before.

"Listen bitch, you've been flaunting that ass of yours all damn night ask any guy in this room! So you have two choices. One you can come quietly back to place or two I can make you come quietly. Which one will it be?"

With her free she made a fist and brought it up and connected it with his face, then brought her knee up between his legs which caused him fall down to his knees in a blood curdling scream. "Neither." She screamed raising her fist to punch him again only to have it grabbed before she could swing.

Justin looked between the man holding his nose and his crotch to the girl he was currently holding back from punching the before said guy. With a mixture of amusement and rage displayed on his face he pointed at Nikeia to take a seat then crouched down and let a small smile play across his lips.

"Now Brent, If I'm correct you're the CEO of this wonderful company here and it might not go over to great with your co-workers if they found out how you like to treat the ladies. So this wont leave this room but you are going to leave this club and if you show your face any where near here I will let your company know what a great guy you are."

Without another word Brent pulled himself to his feet and ran out the back door.

Stifling a laugh Justin looked towards Nikeia, she was sitting against the wall with her legs up against her chest, he noticed she was rubbing her right hand with her left which only caused him to smile. Clearing his face of any emotion he walked towards her and crouched down so he was at eye level.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked softly staring into her blue eyes.

"Fine." She snapped the rage she felt clearly being displayed on her face.

"Hey I was just asking a question." Justin replied holding his hands up in defense.

"Who the hell did that sleaze think he is? Treating girls that way, I mean seriously are we only a sex object to you man? Are we supposed to bow to you're every god damn whim, and if we don't do we really deserve to be punished?" she ranted not exactly registering Justin was in front of her.

"Uhm, I don't know how to answer that, and frankly I really don't want you to go all G. I Jane over my ass so I'll leave you alone."

Looking up she felt her face heat up, she honestly didn't know someone was standing there in front of her let alone her boss as she went off on a tangent. "Oh god." She moaned covering her face with her hands. "I can't believe I just went off like that, I'm so sorry Justin. I shouldn't have punched that creep even though he deserved it."

"Don't worry about it, you're the first girl that has ever defended herself against him. An honestly it was a funny thing to watch you put ole Brent Christensen in his place" he replied grabbing her hands and pulling them away from her face. "How about you go work at the bar with Jack. Show the guy what you got?"

"Okay." She replied standing up and dusting off the back of her skirt. As she went to walk away she turned her head and looked at Justin. "So you're not going to fire me?"

"Hell no." Justin smiled then motioned for her to go.

Giving a short smile she walked behind the bar and began to help Jack fill the drink orders. After living with Drake she pretty much knew all the drink mixtures and how to do them so it was a piece of cake. Which impressed most of the people there she got them out fast and correctly which only made the next couple of hours go by quicker.

After she helped clean up, she went to grab her stuff only to be met by trace on the way.

"Here is you're pay and all of you're tips for the night." He said with a brilliant smile gracing his lips. "An along with it is my number, address, cell and pager if you need anything at all."

A wry smile spread across her lips. "How bout you're social security number?"

Trace nodded, "Sure why not throw in my life savings, all of my accounts, my house, my car, my body its all yours. Any time just ask." He winked

She slipped on her jacket and looked up at him. "Thanks. So same time tomorrow?"

"Huh, what? Oh yeah, um Justin wanted me to tell you to come in about 5 and we'll work out your schedule." She nodded and walked out the door towards the car.

"WAIT!" Trace yelled as he burst out the door and jogged up to her. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Great job tonight. See you tomorrow." With another silent nod she walked the rest of the way to the car.