Once again, the music overpowered her words, but Reed seemed to know exactly what she’d meant. His features hardened, broad shoulders stiffer than two-by-fours.
“Wait here.” He stepped in front of her, gently moving her to the side before jerking aside the curtain and bounding into the alcove.
Darcy was too curious not to follow. She ducked in after him, blinking to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. When she spotted the two people huddled there, she gasped. She didn’t recognize the skinny blonde in the tight top, but the man behind the curtain? It wasn’t the Wizard of Oz, nor was it a little man pretending to be the Great and Powerful—it was Jeff, the bouncer she’d seen at the club dozens of times before.
“Son of a bitch.” Reed sounded livid as he laid eyes on his employee, and then, when he glimpsed the small plastic baggie in the beefy man’s hand, he cursed up a blue streak.
Jeff’s face paled. “Reed, it’s not what you—”
“Shut up,” Reed snapped. He turned to glare at the female customer. “Get out of here. Now. Before I call the cops.”
The girl scurried out of the alcove with such speed that Darcy couldn’t help but be impressed.
Once she was gone, Reed directed that icy glare at the bouncer, his tone dripping with disgust as he took a menacing step forward. “Give me the bag, Jeff.”
The other man was shorter than Reed, but had at least fifty pounds on his boss. Reed didn’t seem deterred by that fact. When Jeff didn’t hand over the drugs, Reed’s arm shot out with lightning speed to snatch the baggie.
“Seriously? It was you all along?” Reed spat out. “All this time you were pretending to help us find the dealer, and it was you? You goddamn son of a bitch. Do you realize that Sin could’ve been shut down over this?”
Jeff sputtered out a denial. “It’s not what it looks like. I wasn’t selling those, I swear. That chick is just a friend of mine and we were, uh, gonna get high together.”
Reed’s expression became incredulous. “One, that doesn’t make this any f**king better, admitting you were about to get high on the job. And two? Bull-fucking-shit.” He let out an angry curse. “I vouched for you! I asked Gage to hire you and this is how you repay me? By putting my job and everyone else’s at risk?”
Reed suddenly looked stricken, sounding so betrayed that Darcy experienced a pang of sympathy. She hadn’t realized he’d been the one to recommend Jeff for the security gig, and she couldn’t imagine how awful he must feel knowing he’d allowed someone like that to work at the club.
With a lethal scowl, Reed clicked the earpiece Darcy hadn’t even noticed he was wearing. “AJ,” he barked. “Call Vinnie. I just found our ass**le. And get Gage down here. The alcove near the emergency exit. It’s one of our guys—”
Reed had barely finished his sentence when Jeff the bouncer slash drug dealer lunged at the doorway, trying to make his great escape.
He only made it two steps before Reed’s fist slammed into the side of his face. The bouncer’s head was thrown back from the impact, but rather than cower or surrender, a wild gleam entered his eyes and he went on the attack.
Darcy cried out when the man’s meaty fist flew back at Reed. A sharp thwack and a grunt of pain sliced through the air, both sounds muffled thanks to the music pouring in from the narrow doorway. The alcove was too small to accommodate a violent fistfight, but that was precisely what the confrontation turned into.
Eyes wide, Darcy pressed her back against the wall as the two men came at each other in a blur of punches and jabs and undercuts that made her gasp each time knuckles collided with flesh.
“Reed, stop!” she yelled when he tackled the bouncer and slammed him into the wall.
Her voice temporarily distracted him, and Darcy cursed herself for opening her mouth, because it cost Reed his advantage.
Suddenly he was the one pinned to the wall, while Jeff’s thick forearm rammed into his throat and elicited a choking sound from Reed as his windpipe was crushed in the powerful grip.
“Let him go, you stupid brute!”
Darcy hurtled forward without thinking and threw herself at Jeff. She collided into him with a thud, grabbing his hair with both hands and pulling hard.
The man roared in outrage, and then his elbow shot back and clipped her right in the face. She flew backward, promptly losing her footing and falling on the floor with an ungraceful thump.
The curtain suddenly whipped open, AJ’s incensed voice rising over the music. “What the hell?”
Chapter Eleven
Reed struggled for air as his lungs began working again. AJ had yanked Jeff off him, and the bouncer was now being restrained by both AJ and Gage, who’d hurled themselves into the fray.
Panting out ragged breaths, Reed wildly searched the dark space for Darcy. His chest tightened right back up again when he spotted her on the ground.
Her palm was pressed to her left cheek, and the vulnerable, protective gesture smashed apart the last bit of his control. Growling, he threw himself at Jeff, whose arms had been yanked behind his back by Gage.
Reed bunched up the bouncer’s collar, digging his fingers into the flesh at the base of the man’s neck. He still couldn’t believe Jeff was the culprit. His supposed friend, the man he’d done a solid for by giving him this job. That error of judgment, combined with the fact that Jeff had laid a hand on Darcy, was enough to make him go postal.
“You better hope the cops lock you up tonight,” Reed hissed out. “Because if I find out you’re not behind bars, I’m going to hunt you down and kill you.”