Cold Hearted Bastard

Chapter 31

Las Vegas was everything I ever imagined.

Brightly lit casino lights, girls dressed in ten-inch platform heels, waving their boobs at any bystander that passed. There was even the mini Eiffel tower perched on one of the buildings that looked like the exact replica of the real thing.

It was a city that reeked of drugs and money. A city that was home to Aspen.

That worried me.

Luca had graciously agreed to help me find Aspen and confront him face on. We both knew that if I was the one to talk to Aspen he'd clammer up. If he knew Luca and I were plotting against him, he'd drop all his trust in his lifelong friend.

The only option we both could think of was I show up at his front door.

So that's what I was currently doing as the taxi driver dropped me off with only a knapsack in my hand outside a large apartment building. I took a deep breath in and out, psyching myself up to not back out. It was too late to do that anyway. I was already there and no matter what I was going to make Aspen forgive himself.

I pressed the buzzer to apartment number 321 and waited. And waited. But nothing.

I pressed it several other times, but I realised he wasn't there after thirty minutes of waiting. Luca had told me that since it was a Friday Aspen may have been at one of the local bars they usually went to.

He had given me the name of the bar but warned me it would have been best to just wait until the morning to try again. I knew Aspen enough to know that he might have been a ticking bomb waiting to go off.

I was sure he blamed himself for what had happened to me.

The bar Luca had been talking about was only ten minutes away. It was called Skeleton Key and had a bright neon pink flashing skull at the top of the building. The outside of the black building was painted in neon graffiti and screamed a place that a small girl from Chesterbrook shouldn't have been. There were no windows from what I could see, but the loud echo of rock music coming from within the walls was enough to tell me that I had been at the right place.

I tried to calm my anxiety as I made my way through individuals that watched me with the eyes only of a predator and cursed myself for wearing a denim skirt to come. I reached the metal door on the side of the alleyway where the bouncer had his meaty arms crossed. He gave me one look up and down with his scarred face before scoffing.

"You're in the wrong place, sweetie." He said as I tried to ignore the chuckles of the men behind me who were gathered in a circle smoking, overhearing our conversation.

"I'm here to meet a friend," I replied calmly as I took out my ID with a shaky hand. He glanced at it and looked disbelievingly at me.

"Babe, word of advice, anyone in this joint isn't worth being your friend."

I ignored his advice and waited as he checked out my ID and handed it back to me.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged his shoulders and opened the metal door for me. I forced my dry throat to swallow as I walked up the concrete steps, the music louder than before as I entered.

He had been right. It felt like everyone's eyes averted to me the moment I stepped in. I looked out of place, surely an outcast in a mass of people who were all acquainted with one another. I saw a group of women, dressed in skin-tight clothing, leaving nothing for the imagination, watch me up and down with faces full of makeup and disgust.

One man leaning against the edge of the bar on my left licked his lips slowly. His eyes left goosebumps on every piece of exposed flesh I bore. My stomach churned.