The Night of Seven by Nadia Siddiqui (read a book TXT) 📕

she cannot wait for him to peel off of her. Really, in her mind, she’s already fantasized about him sneaking backstage and finding her in the dressing room where she can pretend to be shocked until they end up doing it any number of places in that dressing room. She made sure to even wear her good makeup today and that special perfume that she knows that Madden likes. He might not marry her, but she sure wants to get a ring out of him, and soon. She wants to pretend. She can be his Vegas wife, and then he can have his Ohio wife. Personally, Olivia doesn’t see anything wrong with that setup.

Olivia clocks in and starts to head out of the employee room and across the floor to the stage. There seem to be more people than normal on the floor tonight, wasting whatever money that they can on whatever games strike their fancy. Olivia waves at a couple of the regulars; she knows that if she’s nice to them, then they are more likely to send tips in her direction after the show.

“Good evening, Cruz,” Olivia flirts, batting her eyelash extensions in his direction, not that he ever budges. She is pretty sure that he’s going to die a virgin. Nobody can get past his fort Knox Limp-dicked. She’s tried so many times. “I see you staring at the guy in that weird looking tie over there; is he the reason that you won’t give me the time of day? I can save you a seat at my show?”

Cruz rolls his eyes.

“You sure know how to make a girl feel special, Cruz, you know that?” Olivia knows better than to take it personally; she saw Cruz escorting an injured bird into a pet ambulance once, which is just about the nicest thing that she’s ever seen in her life, so clearly, he does have a heart somewhere in that overly huge, rock-solid chest of his. “Oh, your friend with the tie disappeared. Want me to find him for you?” Olivia chuckles, and Cruz points in the direction of the dressing rooms. Clearly, he doesn’t want her distracting him any longer. “So pushy.” Though, she heads in that direction anyway. “Oh! Did you see Stefan? I didn’t see him at the front, he’s not sick or anything is he?”

Cruz actually checks over his shoulder. Everybody loves that kid. He’s the quiet, shy type that doesn’t like to make any trouble, but he’s the best-damned janitor that this place has ever seen. Nobody knows where he came from, and he doesn’t like to talk about it, but he has always been there for her any time that she needs somebody to walk her to her car, or just to sit with at lunch. He really is the best guy. She hopes that he’s not sick. “Tell him I was looking for him if you see him?”

Cruz nods, and she ducks into the hallway with the dressing room for all of the line dancers.

The moment that she’s inside of the doors, she starts to strip, she needs to check the time to see how much time she actually has before curtain call. Her mirror is lined up for her with her name written on tape stuck to the top, just like it has been for the past five years. Olivia flings her bag over the back of her little chair and starts to trade out her regular clothes for her show tonight, a couple of the other girls are in various states of dress at different booths further down the line from her.

Olivia is swiping a healthy amount of blush onto her cheeks when it happens. Somebody grabs her by her hair and wrenches her body backward. Pain lances up the back of her head and explodes in an instant tension headache across her whole head. “Ah!” Olivia cries out, startling the other girls who instantly look over and start scrambling to get as far away from the event as possible.

Olivia is hurled backward until the chair underneath her turns over, and her body falls to the floor, her ass hitting too heavy and nearly knocking the wind out of her. For half a second, she feels like the hand in her hair is going to detach the top of her skull from her very body, and the tears explode from her eyes. Her hands fly to the hand in her hair attempting to pull herself along and alleviate any of that pressure to her head...but something cold and metal is shoved into the top of her forehead and her eyes jerk up to see the barrel of a gun pointed straight at her...and everything around her feels like it freezes. She can’t breathe. She can’t think. She can’t see who is holding her.

Somebody has come to kill her.

“Please,” Olivia sobs. “Please don’t hurt me. Please.”

What else can she do?

Chapter Seven

S tefan

Stefan hears the screaming before he can see it.

Call it a gut feeling, but he knew that tonight was going to be exactly the reason that he purchased the gun. He didn’t know how or why, but he knew.

Stefan likes to think that he is the sort of man who can get along with just about anybody. Stefan might not have come from the best sort of upbringing, and he might have had to do some shady things in his past, but college really was the best thing that could have happened to him. He had gone; he had run and did very well in all of his classes so that he could maintain his athletic scholarship. He was able to experience life the way that other people lived. For the first time, and as the only person in his bloodline to have ever attended college, it was a very important experience for him. He learned that not everything had to