The Starling Saviour

Chapter 72

'Still no customers,' I grinned at Tommy from behind the bar. 'I think Mondays are our least popular day of the week.'

The club had been virtually dead all night, the weekdays a good time to sort through paperwork and stock.

'It's a good job they are, because if we had as much people as we did on a weekend every day of the week, we would have no drinks to give to them,' Tommy said as he went through the books. 'And, ironically, the thing we need to order in ASAP is coke.'

'Those drunks and their soda,' I joked, making Tommy laugh.

'So there I am, sitting at our favourite sushi restaurant, a bottle of Saki, and the only thing that's missing is my boyfriend,' Laurel's rather irritated voice came towards us.

Tommy made a guilty face at me, I raising my eyebrows at him in response, and he made his way over to her in order to somehow make up for what he had done.

'God, I'm so sorry, baby,' Tommy apologised hastily. 'I just... Have a lot going on here.'

'Tommy, whatever's going on with you, I want you to know I believe you,' Laurel reassured him very kindly. 'I'm here for you.'

If Laurel knew that Tommy had recently found out that two of his friends were vigilantes, I'm not sure she would be saying the same thing. The two kissed each other slowly, their public display of affection slightly disgusting me. Was it because I found them over-the-top, or was it just because it was Tommy? I had a feeling I would never get to the bottom of that one.

Oliver halted their make out session as he hurried down the steps from the club office, awkwardly apologising for interrupting them. I guessed he had the same attitude to them kissing as I did.

Oliver looked pent up about something, but I wasn't sure what that was. Had his fight against Vertigo failed? What was he so upset about?

'Ollie,' Laurel spoke up, sensing his angst and stress in his face. 'What's wrong?'

'Bad night,' Oliver replied shortly, doing his best to go downstairs without any more questions.

'It's about to get worse,' Detective Lance was now joining the party, at the club once again. 'Mr Merlyn, as requested, a warrant to search these premises.'

Lance held up a very professional-looking sheet of paper, his daughter grabbing it out of his hand to read over it.

'I can't believe you're doing this,' Laurel confronted her father in distaste.

'Believe it,' Lance stated, officers already searching the club floor, one rudely pushing past me to look through the bar.

'Detective, I'm not an attorney, but on what grounds are you searching my club?' Oliver queried, offended.

'One of your two general managers bribed a government official to keep him from inspecting the entirety of your building,' Lance informed us all, directing it especially at Oliver.

'What?' Oliver drawled, not believing what the detective had to say.

'Because he's selling Vertigo out of this club,' Lance told us his sweeping statement of a theory.

'Ollie, it's valid,' Laurel confirmed her father's inquiry.

'Thank you,' Lance uttered sarcastically, taking his officers towards the door of the Arrowcave. 'A sub level is not listed on the inspection's floor plans, however, I pulled the county records. There's something down there. I'm gonna see for myself what it is.'

Quickly, I ran out from behind the bar and followed Lance, just able to see and hear what he was about to do.

'Oh, look at that,' Lance commented as he found the thick, key-coded door that hid our vigilante identities from the rest of the world. 'Open the door.'