Loving A STRANGER

One of the men came over. He took one look at Fannie and Dinah, and then he leaned in close to Ken"s left ear. 

"Brother," he whispered, "are you flirting with these three girls? If you are not willing to go when you are summoned, at the very least, could you share one of the ladies with me?"

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Ken snarled as he slapped him across the face and said. "I am a one-girl guy. "

Ken took a look over his shoulder and grimaced. Dinah looked back at Kylie and raised her left eyebrow as if to say, "What"s the story, Morning Glory?"

Kylie returned the look and said, "Why don"t you go back first? I will return later."

"No," Dinah replied. "Lord Ethan asked me to protect you. How can I protect you if we aren"t together? If you go, then I will go with you."

Kylie gently pinched Dinah and looked in the direction of Ken. "These guys are all here," she said, "They will keep me safe."

Ken smiled and took a cigarette from one of his peons. His eyes looked very strange, neither evil nor kind, but blank. He looked at Kylie in a way that suggested that he was waiting for her to sit beside him. When Kylie didn"t respond right away, he turned to Dinah and shrugged.

Kylie looked at Ken and said, "What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

She knew that Ken was not going to tell her anything about what had happened twenty years ago, but she couldn"t help but push for answers. So far, it hadn"t gotten her anywhere.

Ken snapped his fingers to get the attention of one of his peons. One man turned quickly and said, "What do you need, boss?"

"The service is terrible here," he said, "Fetch some beer."

Before he left, the man took another look at Kylie. He didn"t know why, but he felt like he knew her, or, at least, he felt that he"d seen her somewhere. He couldn"t figure out where, though, so he slipped out the door.

The moment he opened the door, though, smoke billowed into their private room, and Kylie began to cough. She reacted instinctively and covered her nose and mouth, but it was too late.

"This is f.u.c.king ridiculous," Kylie yelled. "We paid for a private room, but we have to smoke everyone"s G.o.d d.a.m.ned cigarettes right along with them!"

A guy who had been following Ken recognized Kylie. He hurriedly got up and moved a chair over to Ken, and then he ran to the window and pushed it open. Slowly, the smoke in the room dissipated. The air was much better after that, and Kylie was able to bring her hand down from her mouth.

Ken took up his gla.s.s and said, "Guys, everyone, let"s welcome our new friend. Cheers."

Kylie looked over, and she was shocked to see who was sitting next to Ken. It was Tom. He wore a delicate white shirt with a luxurious gold watch on his wrist. He was smoking an expensive cigar. The two looked like they were thicker than thieves.

For the life of her, Kylie couldn"t imagine what they would be doing together. Tom turned to look at her, and then he looked back at Ken. Ken smiled, took a large drink from his beer bottle, and he said, "I am in a good mood today. Drinks are on me."

Ken"s peons saw their boss drinking, and they took it as permission for them to drink. There was some tension between Tom and Kylie, but the mood remained festive. One of the men raised his gla.s.s, and he said, "Let"s have a toast to Kylie."

Another man raised his gla.s.s in support of the first. "A toast for Kylie!"

Tom spoke to Kylie then, for the first time that evening. "Kylie," he wondered, "are you hungry? What would you like to eat?"

"You don"t need to worry about that," Ken interrupted. "If she is hungry, I will take care of her needs. I am still in the probation period of our relationship. If you take care of her physical needs and leave me, where will you find such a beautiful girl for me?"

Kylie scowled and stepped hard on Ken"s foot, and he cried out. She didn"t care that she"d hurt him. She didn"t like it when men got it into their heads that they owned her. She turned to Tom and said, "Sorry about that..."

Tom squinted, and the smile on his lips made Kylie wish that she hadn"t apologized. She still didn"t know why Tom was here, or if Ken knew about Tom"s relationship with Dora. If Ken did know, she didn"t know what to make of this seemingly spontaneous meet-up. She was completely confused.

Suddenly, Kylie heard a noisy sound outside the window, followed by the heavy sound of footsteps racing up the stairs. It wasn"t until everyone had put down their gla.s.ses that the door was finally opened.

Dinah first came with Ethan. She pointed at Ken and said, "Lord Ethan. It"s him."

Dinah had worried that Kylie might be in danger, so she contacted Ethan right away. Of course, she didn"t expect that Ethan would be able to come so fast. As soon as he entered the room, he cleared his throat, and everything became quiet – and an inexplicable chill came upon them.

His eyes were as sharp as an eagle, and he looked in each one of their eyes. Finally, he faced Kylie. He held out his hand to her and, "Come here."

Kylie was about to stand up, but Ken pulled her back down. "You promised me that you would accompany me today," he whined.

"Let me go," Kylie growled. She wanted him to let go, but she hadn"t shaken his hand off yet. Suddenly Tom grabbed an empty bottle and threw it at the back of Ken"s head. "How dare you go against Lord Ethan?" He hissed.

Incredibly, the bottle bounced off of Ken"s head and shattered on the floor – but Ken seemed unaffected. He jumped to his feet, pointed at Tom, and shouted, "You G.o.dd.a.m.ned no good yellow belly piece of – "

Before Ken could finish his rant, Tom stepped forward, grabbed his finger, and snapped it backward. The sound was deafening. Tom smirked and said, "I don"t like people pointing at me!"

Seeing that their boss had been hurt, Ken"s peons began to flip tables and pull out weapons. Seeing this, Tom pulled out two guns from the back of his jeans. Ken"s men hadn"t expected this, so Tom had a draw on them. "Put those f.u.c.king things down," Tom ordered.

The men began to sulk, but they did as they were told.

 Not knowing what else to do, but wanting to defuse the situation, Kylie said, "I am starting to get hungry…"

She got up, walked over to Ethan, and took his hand. He looked down and said, "Alright, let"s go somewhere else."

 ***

As Ethan and Kylie left the bar, they happened to see Fannie, who was standing at the entrance. Ethan got her attention and said, "Don"t come here anymore. It"s not safe."

Fannie frowned, and as she followed them out, she said, "I"m sorry, Lord Ethan, but I don"t know what you mean…"

"Just come," Kylie sighed, "It won"t take long to explain."

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