Fallon and Flint: The Stripper and the Schoolteacher

The Kidnapping Attempt

Fallon

I don’t typically spend much time with the other dancers at Atlantis. I don’t think they like me much, but I don’t blame them. I get all the attention, the good hours, and the best pay, and I haven’t been there as long as most of them. Besides that, because I don’t force conversation or quality time with them, they probably assume I judge them, s**t-talk them, or dislike them. None of those are actually the case; I have nothing against any of them. It’s just that Atlantis is about me—about my freedom and my escape from reality—and I’m not there to make friends.

Besides, if they did become my friends, and we spent time together away from the club, it would mean bringing my work home with me. And Damon wouldn’t like that.

But that night, a slow Monday night where our boss lets us all off early, I take them up on their invitation to go out with them. I’m not sure why, exactly. Maybe it’s because I’m tired of Damon controlling me. Maybe it’s because I’m realizing how desperately in need of friends I am. Whatever the reason, I join four other dancers to one of the tamer bars in the area, and for the first time, I really get to know them.

Their names are Naomi, Scarlett, Crystal, and Cassidy. I always assumed that all or most of them adopted fake names for the stage, but I learn that night that, like mine, their stage names are their real names. They were all born and raised in Dodger, like me, and they all have dependents—legal or non-legal—like me.

Scarlett and Crystal are mothers. Scarlett has a little boy, and Crystal has three little girls. Naomi, like me, has a niece she helps look after; her sister works nights on the streets. Cassidy lives with her bedridden mother, spending every spare dollar she earns paying Damon for her HIV medication, which he has somehow claimed a monopoly on in Dodger. I make a mental note to try to convince him to lower his rate for her.

It’s more comforting to me than I would have guessed, spending time with these girls. I’m not alone, I realize. f****d up as my situation is, it’s entirely similar to all of theirs. Compared to some of them, my life is even…easy.

I’m in the middle of asking Cassidy about her mother’s symptoms when my phone rings. I steal a glance at the clock hanging above the bar: midnight. No one would call me while they thought I was dancing unless it was an emergency. I sigh and look at the caller ID: Mel.

“Hello?” I answer, barely hiding the annoyance from my voice.

“Fallon.” I instantly straighten at the serious tone in my sister’s voice. “She’s gone, Fallon. He took her. He took her, and he’s not home, and he’s not answering, and neither is she.”

“Slow down.” I jerk up from my seat, heading for a quieter spot. A few of the girls glance at me to make sure everything is okay, which I truly appreciate. I wave as nonchalantly as I can under present circumstances as my heart begins to pound. “Who are you talking about? Lacey? Lacey’s gone?”

“Yes, Lacey! Hugh picked her up from school today, and I haven’t heard from either one of them since!”

I start to pace. There are so many things wrong with this situation, I can’t even pick one. “It’s midnight, Mel. Why the hell didn’t you call me sooner?”

“I don’t know! She’s been staying at school later these days, and then I just assumed she’d grabbed dinner with you, or with some friends, and then I sort of…forgot…and then—”

“All right.” This is too important to let her drone on any longer. “You’re absolutely sure they’re not at the house?”

“Yes! I’m here right now! And I know they’re not at mine, either—I left a friend there, and he’s going to call me if they show up—”

“Stay there. I’ll find her.”

I hang up in disgust.

Where could they be? Where could Hugh even go? He doesn’t have a car. He doesn’t have a license. He doesn’t have money. He definitely doesn’t own other property…

“Girls,” I say, coming back over to the other dancers. “I need a really big favor. My niece has disappeared with my dad, which I know doesn’t sound bad, but—”

“What do you need?” Naomi interrupts, seeming to gauge the intensity of the situation.

“If you guys could just call people—anyone who would be up right now—anyone who’d be out and about at restaurants, bars, or clubs…Tell them to look for a middle-aged man and a pretty, blond girl, fourteen years old.”

“Of course,” Naomi says quickly, and the others agree, pulling their phones out.

“Thank you so much. I owe you all a big one. I’ve got to go start looking—please call the moment you hear anything.”

And I head for the door.

I have to call Damon.

It won’t be pretty. He’ll definitely be working, and worse, he’ll know that I should be working. If he finds out Atlantis closed early and I didn’t call him right away, he’ll be pissed. He’ll be even more pissed to hear that I went drinking with the other dancers. But, then, if I walk back to Atlantis and wait for him there, he’ll see that it's closed and know that I lied to him.

Honesty. I’ll have to go with honesty. Maybe he won’t ask.

I dial his number with shaky hands as I walk down the strip of bars, squinting through the windows.

He answers on the first ring, tone immediately sharp. “Why aren’t you working?”

“Slow night. Atlantis closed. Listen—”

“I’m sorry babe, I really can’t pick you up right now. Can you get one of the girls to give you a ride back? I’ll swing by later.”

“Damon,” I plead desperately. A tear slides down my cheek. I don’t know where Lacey is, and it scares the hell out of me. Worse, it makes me indescribably, infuriatingly angry that I trust my father this little. “It’s Lacey.”

Pause. He knows how much Lacey means to me. He knows this is important. “What is it?”

“She’s missing. Hugh picked her up from school, and no one’s heard from them since. They’re not at my place, and they’re not answering their phones.”

He curses. “All right. I’ll start calling people—get my boys on it.”

I exhale. He’s being good. Thank God for that. If he had chosen this moment to fight me, or even to ask me where I was…“Thank you,” I whisper.

“I’ve gotta go,” he says, but doesn’t hang up. “We’ll find her, baby. I promise.”

Another tear streams down my cheek as I allow myself a tiny smile. We’ll find her.

The moment I hang up, my phone rings again. It’s Scarlett. 

“West and 22nd. My husband just saw them in the alley next to the Flying Monkey. Mike’s with them now, but he doesn’t want to be kept waiting. You’d better hurry.”

I would kiss her through the phone if I could. “I’m on my way. Scarlett, you have no idea how grateful—”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says fondly. “See you tomorrow, troublemaker.”

I smile as I hang up, then take off at a run. West and 22nd… West and 22nd… Why does that sound familiar? I pass 17th, then 18th, not slowing for a second, focusing on where I know the intersection from. It has to do with Damon. He’s hurt someone there before, I realize…a rival. A drug dealer.

Hugh is buying.

I curse and run faster, until I can’t breathe, and then some. Finally I reach them, my niece and my father and Scarlett’s husband Mike, and before I even come to a stop, I’ve tackled my father to the ground.

“How dare you?” I scream at him, grabbing blindly at each and every one of his pockets until I rip the stash from him. “What the f**k is wrong with you? After everything I do for you, you dared to take Lacey—and to buy drugs—”

“Fallon!” Lacey shrieks. There are tears in her voice, and that alone is enough to make me freeze. “Fallon, please!”

“Fallon,” says Mike, crossing his arms. “I was waiting for you. Are you—”

“Thank you so much,” I say quickly, wiping my tears as I stand. “I’m so sorry you had to do this. Please don’t blame Scarlett for any of this—I was… really desperate.”

“Don’t worry,” he says surprisingly gently. “I’m not one of them.”

Those five words are enough to momentarily distract me from my father enough to actually look at Mike for the first time. I’m not one of them. Is it really that simple? There are men who hit and hurt and cheat, and men who don’t?

But he takes his leave of us before I get the chance to ask.

“I’m okay,” Lacey tells me the moment he’s out of earshot. “He didn’t do anything, Fal. He just…told me he wanted to spend some time with me. Told me not to call anyone.”

I want to yell at Lacey, to scream at her, to tell her that nothing Hugh says should ever trump anything Mel or I say. But I don’t. I can clearly see that all Lacey wants is to spend some time with him.

“It shouldn’t have to be this way,” I admit softly. “I’m so sorry, Lace.”

Lacey smiles sadly, reaching out to hug me. We both ignore Hugh as he stumbles back to his feet. When we pull away, I pull out my phone.

“I’m calling Damon,” I tell Hugh as I dial. “I’m telling him we’re taking a cab home and that we all need some rest. But you had better hope to God he gets over this quickly.” I don’t even want to think about what Damon would do to Hugh if he was here right now.

Hugh nods fearfully as I hit the “call” button.

“I found them,” I tell him when he answers. “One of the dancers’ husbands was walking past…” Pause. If Damon knew that, on top of everything else, Hugh was buying from a rival dealer… “Just on the streets somewhere.”

“Thank God.” His tone suggests that he believes me. “Do you need a ride?”

“No, it’s okay—we can take a cab back. I got good tips today.”

“Of course, you did.” A hint of animosity there; he doesn’t like thinking about other men shoving dollar bills into my G-string. “I’ll come over in an hour or so.”

The last thing I need is to deal with Damon tonight on everything else. “Baby,” I say in my huskiest voice, “you have no idea how badly I want to see you tonight, but I think it’s best for everybody if I just take Lacey to Mel’s and crash there. I don’t want to leave Lacey yet, and besides, I just ran the whole way here, and I’m…exhausted.”

He probably knows I’m lying, but for some reason, he doesn’t fight me. “Okay—I get it. But I wanna see you, baby. I was worried. I had all my boys out looking, you know.”

He wants a reward. Typical Damon. “I wanna see you, too. Tomorrow, any time, say the word and I’m yours. Okay?”

“Okay. I gotta go.”

When he hangs up, I can finally breathe.

“Okay,” I say, turning to Lacey. “You have your phone?”

Lacey nods sheepishly. 

“Call us a cab. I’m calling Mel.”

Her eyes widen in fear. “No—please, Fal. Let me stay at your place. I’m begging you.”

I wish I could say yes. But after everything that happened, I’m not ready to deal with Hugh just yet. And as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t deserve to be around Lacey for quite some time.

But Mel doesn’t answer.

She doesn’t answer the second call, either.

I start to pace again. What the hell is wrong with her? What the hell is wrong with all of these people? Am I the only one who understands the meaning of the word “crisis?” 

I call again.

Mel answers this time, but it isn’t pretty. “Yeah, I can’t talk right now.” Her words are more slurred than I’ve ever heard them. A man’s guttural laugh resonates in the background.

I hang up in utter disgust.

The cab has arrived.

“I can’t go home, can I?” Lacey asks me as we enter the cab. Hugh stumbles in after us, only half conscious at this point. I give the driver his address as I try to think of a place to take Lacey. “She doesn’t even want me, does she? Just let me stay at your place, Fal. I did the other night—”

“Yeah, the other night, when my father hadn’t kidnapped you and sent me on a wild goose chase around town looking for you. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Every single dancer at Atlantis, not to mention Damon, was calling everyone they knew. And to think that you had your cell phone that entire time…”

“I’m sorry. I am. But—”

“You know what your problem is, Fallon?” Hugh asks me. My head snaps around, and I dare him with my seething look to continue. For some foolish reason, he does. “You take everything way too seriously.”

“That’s it,” I say, yanking out my phone. There’s no way in hell Lacey is staying in the same house as him that night. I’m strongly reconsidering even living with him myself anymore.

Damon's is out of the question. It’d be safer than my place or Mel’s, but it would set a precedent I’m not willing to set. We’re not a family; Lacey isn’t his. There’s only one idea left—a stupid one—an insane one. But it’s the only one I have.

I force myself to dial Flint’s number before I can change my mind. He gave it to me during our talk earlier that day, and told me to feel free to call if I needed anything. I can only hope that he meant it, though I’m sure this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

He doesn’t answer on the first ring or the second. By the time he does, we’ve reached the house and I’m shoving Hugh out of the car. Lacey just stares at me, confused by what’s going on. The driver awaits further instructions.

“Fallon?” Flint asks groggily. I’ve definitely woken him up. He sounds confused.

“You have no idea how sorry and embarrassed I am to be making this call,” I say, swallowing. “But I have to ask… did you mean it when you said to call if I needed anything?”

I hear a rustling of a comforter, and his voice becomes much more serious. “What’s wrong?”

“I have a bit of a… situation. With Lacey. I know how inappropriate this is, but I literally had no one else to call.” No one else who wouldn’t ruin Lacey’s night even more than it already has been ruined, at least. “She needs a place to stay tonight, and I don’t have one for her. We’re in a cab right now, and I just need…”

“578 Mulberry Street, apartment 507.”