Leather & Lace

Chapter 15

“Brett?” Lacey said in a raspy voice. Her throat was dry and scratchy. The sun was blinding her, making it harder for her to see. Brett was still asleep and Lacey watched as his chest rose and fell. She saw that his fingers were intertwined with hers. She noticed Eric wasn’t around.

“Brett,” she called again, this time he lightly opened his eyes. When they landed on her, he opened them wider.

“Lacey?” He tried to get up but forgot he was in a recliner and almost fell.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, it just took me by surprise. How do you feel?”

Lacey raised her brow. “I’m fine. Did you stay here all night?”

“Kinda.”

She frowned as she looked around. “Where’s Eric?”

Brett’s heart dropped, but he composed himself. “He’s at home.” He didn’t want to tell her that they fought yesterday, especially over her. He watched her as she quietly. She was lost in her thoughts.

“Lacey?”

“Hmm,” she looked at him.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked as he held her hand. She flashed him a smile but it didn’t reach her eyes. He wanted to do whatever he could to make that smile reach farther than it was.

“Why would someone want to hurt me?” Lacey pondered on what happened to her. She was finally trying to get over her family drama and finally unwind. She was having a great time with Brett and Eric. She remembered that she had several drinks, but she also knew that it wasn’t to the point where she had an out of body experience. She tried to put the pieces together, but nothing was making sense.

“I’m not sure,” Brett responded. “But I’m meeting up with Eric to find out and I promise you that when I do, all hell will break loose. ” He looked deep into her eyes, reassuring her that he would stop at nothing to figure it out.

“Thank you,” she smiled. “Please be careful.

I don’t want you or Eric putting yourselves in danger for

me.”

“I promise I will be careful, beautiful.”

There was a silent pause for a while. Brett didn’t want to leave her all alone. He cleared his throat. “I have to go, but I’ll be back to see you later, okay?”

She nodded her head as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. She let him linger his lips longer than necessary. She loved the warmth that consumed her entire body whenever he touched her. When he stepped back, she felt the cool air kiss where his lips just were. As he walked out, Izzy was walking in. They did a small greeting before he disappeared into the halls.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said as she leaned to hug Lacey. “Why didn’t you call me? You know I would’ve been there for you. Izzy sat in the recliner and sat her bag on the bench by the window.

“I know you would’ve, but you have your own life, Izz. Besides, I’m sure you were preoccupied with that one guy.” Izzy blushed. “Speaking of men, who was that fine specimen of a man that just walked out of here?”

Lacey turned red. “That’s Brett.”

“Brett? Is that the married man? The one you slept with on the first night?”

“In a flesh,” Lacey answered awkwardly.

“Damn girl, we could’ve tagged him together,” Izzy joked.

“Isabella!” Lacey shrieked.

“I’m just saying, when you’re tired and need to tap out, tap me in. I got your back.”

“You are a hot mess,” Lacey chuckled. Despite what happened last night, she felt better today. The nurse finally came in and performed a set of vitals. After she left, Izzy and Lacey just talked.

Izzy told her about the guy from the club whose name was Sean. She practically gushed whenever she spoke about him.

“He seems like a nice guy.”

“Oh he is, Lace. He’s the whole package,”

Izzy gushed.

“Sounds like Someone’s in love.”

“Love, not quite. But I really like him a lot and I never expected myself to even try to commit to one person, but he may just be worth it.” Commuting wasn’t the issue with Lacey. It’s her liking two men at the same time. With Eric, she can see herself being happy with him. She was scared of falling for him because that meant she would have to let go of Brett and she wasn’t ready to do that. Brett, the man that made her heart beat harder than any drug that was in her drink. He made her more free, always letting her choose the things she wanted in life. He put her first. He showed her that she’s in control of her life.

“What about you?” Izzy il turned the tables on her.

“What about me?” Lacey tried to pretend she didn’t know what Izzy was going to ask her.

“Do you love Brett?”

“I can’t love him.”

Izzy frowned. “You can’t or won’t.”

“I will not allow myself to fall for a man that’s forbidden. Besides, I’m his lawyer for his divorce case.” It dawned on Izzy that he was the one that Lacey was mad about.

“Lacey, is Brett the guy-“

She nodded her head.

“What the hell?” Izzy shouted. “This is crazy. You f****d your client who was married!”

“The first two times, I didn’t know he was married,” she confessed.

“Was there another time?”

Lacey huffed. “Yeah it was. But it was goodbye sex.”

“You know you have my unconditional love, but please be careful, this is a dangerous game.”

“Trust me, I haven’t been with him that way in a long time.”

Izzy grabbed Lacey’s hand, which surprised. Lacey because this is the first time Izzy has shown concern in a long time. She is usually playful, but there wasn’t a smile

on her face, no humor in her tone, just plain worry.

“Please just be careful. You see what just happened to you. What if it was his wife that drugged you?”

Lacey shook her head. She didn’t want to believe that. “She doesn’t even know about us.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because she thinks I’m dating Eric. She doesn’t know that I’ve met Brett before.”

“Okay, but I still don’t like this. I have a bad feeling about the outcome of this. Please, whatever happens, just be careful.”

Izzy leaned in and hugged her. “Love you. I have to go. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay, love you too.” Izzy left leaving Lacey with a bunch of questions in her head.

Meanwhile…

“Okay, so we sat here last night before going onto the dance floor,” Eric gestured as he recalled last night's events. “We were all drinking, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is finding who put something in her drink.”

“And how,” Brett interjected. Something caught his eye as he scanned the now emptied club. A camera right above the bar. “There,” he pointed. “The camera at the bar. We need to ask someone about the footage.”A man wearing dark clothing walked past and Brett called out to him.

“Hey, is there any way that you can direct us to where you store your security footage?” The man was hesitant at first, but that quickly changed when Brett pulled out a few hundred dollar bills. The man smiled, accepting the cash and putting it in his pocket. He gestured for them to follow him and led them to a small and dark room. A chill ran through Brett, he felt uneasy but they were so close to see who’d want to hurt Lacey that he chose to ignore it.

They thanked the man and he sat and began to replay the footage. It was all stamped with a date and time.

As they examined the videos, they were noticing small things such as a twitch in certain parts of the camera. When the video from the bar camera showed up, it was blurry unlike the rest of them. They were unable to recognize anyone from that video. Brett and Eric looked at each other. They were both thinking the same thing. All of a sudden, there was a loud knock on the door. As the man got up to open it, Eric and Brett frowned.

“Something is wrong,” Eric mouthed.

The men spoke in a foreign language and Brett knew that trouble was heading for them. As the other guy came in through the door aggressively towards, Eric didn’t miss the gun that was on his hip. The man was about to grab Brett’s shoulder when Brett punched him in the face. Eric quickly attacked the other man. Brett rammed the armed man into the wall and held him by his throat. His fist connected with the man’s jaw, causing his lip and nose to bleed. The man was barely able to stand and Eric knew he needed to stop Brett before he killed the guy.

“That’s enough, Brett!” Eric noticed there was a blank stare in his eyes. Just pure emptiness. “Brett, stop! Get a hold of yourself!” Eric grabbed Brett away from the man.

“No, I want to make sure he isn’t able to move when I’m done with him.” Brett looked at his bloodied hands and wiped them on his pants. Luckily, he decided to wear black jeans. Eric grabbed the gun and put it on hip under his shirt.

The other man was afraid, unsure of what Brett and Eric would do. “Please…Don’t kill me.”

“All we want is the footage from last night,” Eric demanded.

“It’s not here.”

“What do you mean it’s not here?” Brett shouted. “If it’s not here, then where the hell is it?”

“It’s gone!” The man’s voice twitched. Some man paid me to take the video. It was a lot of money and he knew that you would come looking for it.”

“What man, Eric probed. When he didn’t answer, Eric leaned closer. “If you don’t give me an answer, you’ll end up like your friend over there.

“I swear I don’t know! He just gave me money for it, that's all.”

Eric looked over at Brett. “You believe him?”

“Unfortunately,” Brett rolled his eyes.

“So now what?” Eric asked.

“We take the rest of these videos with us to see if we missed the guy coming into the club.” Eric agreed and had the man give them whatever they needed and then they left.