Jacquie could smell something foul in the air. Was it stale beer or sweet and sour cocktail juice? No. And it wasn't body odor or anti- bacterial hand sanitizer either.
It was frustration and hormones. The
room was full of it, and it was the right mix to make anger. Rage. Disaster.
Somebody was in for a world of hurt. The Damsel strip club was divided into
seven arenas of various sizes. The largest arena, center stage, was occupied by
Cherry Valentine. In the front row was her obsessed stalker, Lorenzo El
Scorcho, a fellow Gun Bearer but not a friend of any kind to Jacquie and Simon.
It was while Simon was in the back
retrieving his girl, Kitten, when Jacquie got the smell of trouble. His first
guess was that El Scorcho was the source, but noticing things around the room
quickly changed his mind. It wasn't coming from any one source. A spilt drink
on a man's lap caused him to jump up. Another man tried to grab a dancer's leg,
the dancer slapped him hard across the face. Two men at the doorway of a
private dance room were playing tug of war with a one dancer, arguing over who
had asked her for a dance first. The bouncers started to move in to their
targeted areas but the front door was starting to pour in with patrons and the
room was filling up fast.
All it took was one single punch to send
the levels of rage in the room through the roof. One punch to spark a chain
reaction of small fights throughout the club.
Jacquie looked across the room at
Lorenzo, Lorenzo stared back. Neither man moved. They were Gun Bearers. The
time wasn't right and it wasn't their fight.
Suddenly a voice very close to Jacquie's
ear yelled very loudly, "Look out!"
Jacquie squatted low beneath the bar he
was standing next to and then moved out and away from it. As he moved, a
cocktail table slammed down on the bar above him. What the fuck? thought
Jacquie. Liquids, wood splinters, and broken glass rained down on him. The shot
had been fired, the Gun Bearers had joined the fight. Jacquie jumped up and
located the man responsible for throwing he table and quickly put him on the
ground with a swift punch to the throat. The next chance Jacquie got he looked
for Cherry. He located Lorenzo about 10 feet away waist deep in knocked out
bodies. Cherry was still on stage trying to avoid flying bottles while picking
up the remains of her tips. As Jacquie kept one eye on Cherry and the other on
whoever he was punching, a muscle bound man jumped up on stage with Cherry. A
strong arm lashed out and tried to grab Cherry, she turned and instead he ripped
off one strap of her bra. Jacquie quickly fought his way toward the stage.
Lorenzo suddenly took a hard right hook to the temple. Simon burst from behind a
satin red curtain with an arm wrapped around a sultry young blonde. Jacquie
jumped on stage behind the large drunk patron. The drunk man dropped Cherry's
bra strap and pulled out a switch blade knife. Lorenzo reared back from the
blow with his hand on his colt .45. Simon's face grew hot as he assessed the
destruction in the club. The blade shined in Cherry's direction.
A booming Ba-KLOW! froze the room like a
fast action camera.
All eyes fell on Jacquie, who held a
smoking Beretta 93R machine pistol.
The drunken man with the knife was the
first to break the silence screaming in pain as he held his bleeding leg.
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