(Calla)

The sound of Dominik's heavy breathing is the signal I've been waiting for. Sneaking out isn't easy when he's right there, but thankfully, it's not impossible. As I sneak out of my room, I peek around the corner to ensure he's asleep.

He looks so peaceful wrapped around his black body pillow. His bare upper half shows off his family crest tattoo on his right shoulder blade. It's actually quite beautiful: two crossed swords with tiger handles and their name written on a banner draped over them.

His chest rises and falls in a sound slumber. Perfect.

I quietly tip-toe down the hall in his room with my boots in hand before tentatively opening the door and latching it gently behind me to avoid the click. The house is dark and quiet, but enough moonlight filters in that it makes the trek down the stairs easy. The glistening black grand piano sits in the middle of the room, begging to be played, but not tonight. I've got places to be and people's money to take.

The dark hall that leads to the laundry room and Lily's room beacons me on. With no light from outside, I paw my way down the hall. "Lily?" I hiss, hoping she's out of her room already.

"Right here," Lily whispers back, her head peaking out of her bedroom door.

"Why the hell is it so dark in here?" I ask when no light floods in from her room. "Dominik wouldn't shut the hell up about the amount of windows you have in there."

Stepping out of her room and quietly shutting the door behind her, Lily says, "Yeah, well now I have a fake boyfriend/bodyguard living in the pool house across from me. He's got a direct view of my bed, so I had to close the curtains."

"Right." I nod. I knew about it. Dominik was actually upfront about that change pretty quickly. I guess kicking his ass over his head worked. Well, worked to get him to keep me informed anyway. I might have knocked a few screws loose for him to come up with the dumbass plan that led to Mother wanting a fake relationship between her and Kwan. "We better get going, I have an uber scheduled to meet us."

I lead the way into the laundry room and out the servants' door. There's a gate that leads to the driveway, but we have to time it just right. I stop at the gate and peer through the slender gap between the fence, waiting for the patrol to walk past. We'll have a grand total of five minutes to creep out into the shadows, climb the large tree that hangs over the front fence, and drop down the other side.

When the man walks out of sight, I count under my breath to ten, knowing I need him to get out of the line of sight before I unlatch the gate. Both of us sneak through, and I carefully shut it, not wanting to leave any trace of us behind, before we slide through the shadows toward the large elm tree. I give Lily a hand up before following after.

Sneaking out of houses has become second nature for both of us. We did it at home all the time. Lily drops down on the other side, hardly making any noise, before I drop behind her. My bare feet hit the cold concrete, but like Lily, it's almost silent. I slip my boots on and walk to the end of the block as far away from Dominik's house as I can get to meet the Uber I ordered. Thankfully the car is waiting there for us.

Lily and I get in the back as the woman in the car smiles back at us. " "I was a little worried you wouldn't show," she says.

"It's been a long night of partying," I tell her. "Thanks for waiting here parking in this area can be a bitch."

We keep a fun, light-hearted conversation with our driver, hoping not to raise too much suspension when we have her drop us off at a convenience store at the other end of town, near the warehouse district.

"This was so much easier to do when we had our own cars," I grumble as I stuff my hands into my leather jacket and head toward the FunHouse.

The buildings are run down here, and a lot of them are mostly condemned, perfect for our little underground operation. A weight lifts off my shoulders as we get closer to The Funhouse. It's the one place we can let loose and be free. No obligation to stick to family expectations.

The building we have the FunHouse in looks vacant, but underneath it is a mesh pit of some of the man's worst sins.

I rap on the door, and a little metal window opens. A face peers out, and I recognize it as that of my guards hired to keep track of who comes in and out of our place. You're not allowed at the FunHouse without a personal invitation from Lily or me. He opens the door with a mischievous grin. "Hurricane and Candy. Long time no see." He uses our code names. No one here except for a very select few know who we are. It's all part of how Lily and I stay so undercover.

"Too long," I agree as he opens the door for us. I follow Lily past the lobby area, where two other guards stand and open the double doors for us. Music pours into the lobby, the party already in full gear.

Floor workers weave in and out of the patrons, who are bringing drinks and exchanging money for chips. Girls are already dancing on the stage, and the clank of the billiard balls adds to the music's beat. Familiarity already floods over me like a calm wave.

Lily looks at ease as well. Her eyes sparkle when she looks at the stage where the girls are seductively dancing, gaining the attention of many people. My mother would return me to the sender if she knew I 'let' Lily indulge in her passion for overly suggestive dancing.

"Have fun," I tell Lily before she heads back to the dressing room. I then head to the back, where the cashier's office is. The large room is shielded in bulletproof glass.

I walk past the four pool tables, approach the desk, and slip my jacket off. Behind the glass, the tall, dark brown-haired guy doesn't notice me until I knock on the window. When he glances up, his brown eyes grow wide.

"Ca-" he stops himself, knowing he isn't supposed to use my real name here. "Can't believe you're here."

"You should have known we were coming. Candy made sure that the word was spread." I hang my jacket up on a hook next to the window.

Cash nods as his gaze travels over me. "I know, I just wasn't sure you'd still show up tonight, you know. Since I'm here."

Great, he's going to make this awkward. "Let's not do this, Cash. Not right now."

"When then?" He leans across the desk and gets closer to the glass. "Because I've been texting you non-stop for days. You can't drop a, sorry, getting a married bomb on me through a text. I deserve an explanation."

"I'm not sure what more explanation you want, Cash. Like I said, I'm getting married. That's that." I shrug before turning and walking toward the pool tables.

"C-" He cuts himself off again before calling after me. "Hurricane." Several heads rise as soon as he drops the handle that I use here at the FunHouse.

One group in particular seems extra interested. "You're Hurricane?" a short-haired man asks as I walk up to the rack and start searching for a pool stick.

"Maybe. Why, who's asking?" I ask, looking down into the man's green eyes.

He scoffs and looks back at his friends. The feisty guy has a tattoo of a jack card just behind his left ear and 'Lucky' written across his thumb and fingers. His gaze turns back to me in an overconfident smirk. "You're not what I was expecting."

"Oh?" I say, raising an eyebrow. I smile back, trying to show him I'm not intimidated by his attitude. "What were you expecting?" I challenge.

"Well, a dude for starters." He chuckles as his attention slowly slides over me.

"Ah," I nod. It's not the first time some dumbass assumed that I was a guy. No doubt it will be the last. "And should I know who you are?"

That gets the man to stand a little straighter and look slightly irritated. "Shamus. Shamus Finnegan."

There's a long pause as he watches my face like I should know who he is, but nothing rings a bell. He starts to fidget as I stare blankly back at him. "Haven't you heard of me?"

"No," I point blanck tell him. I've never even heard the name in passing.

"I'm of the Finnegan Five." He holds his scruffy chin a little higher.

Still, nothing clicks, but I slowly nod. "Congratulations."

He chuckles and glances over at his friends. "You act like you've never heard of us. Cute."

Don't kill him for calling you cute. You don't need the cops snooping around here and then gaining the attention of Mother and the other families.

"I'm a afraid I haven't." I take a deep breath in and focus on the pool stick in my hand.

Shamus laughs; his cackle sounds like the annoying squawks of a seagull, and it's all I can do not to break my pool stick over his head.

"She doesn't know about us, guys. Poor thing must not get around much." He turns his attention back to me before licking his lips. "I could help fix that."

I slam the butt of my stick onto the hard concrete floor. The wack makes a few people nearby jump. A smile stretches across my face as irritation swirls like a building storm inside me. "Pool, Mr. Finnegan. Do you play?"

Shamus tosses his stick up in the air and catches it. "The best, of course if you had heard about-"

"The best out of the supposed five you're part of, Mr. Finnegan, or the best in the city?" I cut him off before he goes on and on about a bunch of no-names I don't care about.

His smirk falls from his face, filling me with glee. "The best in the city." His voice drops low and threatening, not that I find it scary. There's guards stationed in every corner of this place. If he tried anything, they'd squish him like a bug.

"Wanna put a wager on that?" I taunt.

Shamus looks a little hesitant for a moment, but my confident smile stirs his pride. "Fine. Fastest money I'll every make."

"Maybe so, Mr. Finnegan." I walk over to the table his friends are standing by. "Say race to five for five hundred?"

"Five hundred?" One of his friends speaks up, a little shocked.

Shamus looks a little nervous himself but nods. "Sure. If you got it that is."

I wave one of our cashiers over before pulling a wad of bills out of my bra. When she comes over, I count out five hundred. "Race to five hundred on table three," I tell her.

Shamus slowly hands over his money, longingly looking at it, before she takes it over to Cash and relays the message to him.

~~~~

Four hours, fifteen games later, and five thousand dollars in the hole after we upped the wager a couple of times, Mr. Finnegan is sweating bullets. His friends are on edge, too, when I sink my last ball, winning the last game.

"Let it go man." One of his buddies tells him as Shamus runs a shaky hand over his face.

"Alright there, Mr. Finnegan?" I ask, pleased as punch that I've got him so nervous. "I'll tell you what." I pick up the chalk cube and rub it on the tip of my stick. "It looks like I've put you in a bit of a bind. How about we say double or nothing? You win and you get your money back. I win and I maybe walk away with the grand."

Shamus's eyes dart nervously around as his friend next to him shakes his head. "Don't do it man. You don't have another five thousand, You've already spent more than you can afford and are in deep shit."

"The cashier will gladly give you a loan." I point toward Cash behind the glass. Of course, it's our way of making a shit ton of money. The interest rate here is outrageous, but it's the name of the game.

"You haven't won the last fifteen cames, Shamus. Let it the fuck go." His friend warns.

"I gotta get my money back," Shamus snaps at his friend before gnawing at his lip and looking back up at me. "I win, and I get the five grand back?"

I nod, hoping to lure him into this trap. "As simple as that. In about fifteen minutes, you can walk away with your money in your pocket."

"Fine," Shamus nods as he dryly swallows.

"No," one of his other friends steps in. He's bigger, taller, and much more forceful. He is forceful enough that he has some of The FunHouse guards on alert. "No, he's done."

"I think that's for Mr. Finnegan to decide, isn't it?" I keep my attention on Shamus in an almost taunting manner.

"She's messing with you, man." His friends warn him.

The warning seems to snap him out of it, too, unfortunately. "They're right. I ain't got the money to pay The FunHouse back. I'm calling it." Shamus tosses his stick onto the table.

Damn, so close.

The friend group walk away, several of which cast me a glare over their shoulder before leaving. A smirk pulls at the corner of my lip as my gaze drifts over to the stage where Lily is performing her last dance. I love watching her in her element. She's a beautiful dancer. The way she moves her body is entrancing. Even though the girls don't strip, they dance on poles, using them as extensions of their own bodies and making it look like they can fly.

One in particular seems to be enjoying Lily's dance a little too much for my comfort. My hand tightens around the que pole in my hand as I stride across the room. The guy starts to climb over the table sitting in front of the stage, but Lily uses her heel to push him back down. She's kinder than I am as she smiles at him and continues her dance. The guy doesn't take the hint, though, as he starts to climb up again.

This time though, I make sure he gets the message. I pull my pole back and swing. The stick cracks across the guy's head, catching the attention of our guards and sending the guy rolling.

"What the fuck!" The guy grabs the side of his head to check if it's bleeding. He glares up at me when he pulls it back and sees the bright red spot on his palm. "Oh you're gonna pay for that bitch."

I hold the splintered end of my stick to his neck. "This isn't a petting zoo, mother fucker. Keep your hands off the girls." My gaze flicks up to the guards that surround the guy. "Get this trash out of here. Make sure he doesn't come back."

Our guards pick him up and start dragging him off, not that it shuts the guy up. "You can't throw me out. I was personally invited by the Puppeteers."

I scoff, knowing that isn't true. Lily and I are the Puppeteers. We might have approved his invite, but I sure as hell didn't invite him.

The man keeps yelling as I walk up to the stage and wave Lily over. "You might as well cut it short tonight. We're going to be closing up soon, and we need to get back to the house before anyone wakes up."

Lily adjusts her bustier top and nods. "That sounds good. Do you need me to hang back and help close up?"

I shake my head. "Don't worry about it tonight. I'll make sure everythings closed up, and be right behind you. Do you want me to get you a ride with someone?"

"Sure. I'll go change if you can get the ride lined up."

I nod before she turns to head to the back. I get her set up with one of the other dancers before cleaning up my mess. The FunHouse slowly starts to clear out as patrons head back to whatever hole they climbed out of.

Once everyone is mostly gone, clean-up is pretty quick. I set the last chair upside down on the table.

"Cal," Cash comes up behind me. His green eyes run over me in a sad puppy stare.

"You have to stop using my name when we're here, Cash." I want to remain anonymous for a reason. I don't want it getting back to my mother that I'm here and what I'm doing.

"No one's here now," he points out before handing me my jacket.

I shake my head as I slip my jacket on. "No but you almost dropped it twice earlier."

Cash sighs before digging into his back pocket. "Here. Your winnings tonight, after the house tax was taken off."

I take the white envelope and slide it into a pocket on the inside of my coat. "Good night, Cash."

I only get a couple of steps away before he grabs my arm and stops me. "Talk to me, Calla."

"I was talking to you." I glare down at his hand before removing it from my arm.

"I meant about us. Talk to me about us." He begs.

"There is no us, Cash." I sigh. Why can't he get it in his head that it's over?

"I wanna know why, though. One minute you're texting me, you're looking forward to seeing me. The next you're saying we're through because you're getting married."

"Exactly." So he does get it. I turn away from him and start walking.

He follows close behind, his voice pleading with me, "Exactly, what? What the hell is going on?" He throws his hands in the air. "We dated for two years. How are you suddenly getting married to someone else? I think I at least derver an explanation."

I stop as I get to the front door and look back at him. I don't see the point, but I suppose since we did decate two years to each other, maybe I should give him more than a goodbye text. I check my watch, and it's already five in the morning. "I've only got about an hour."

Hope fills Cash's green eyes. "How about we go to the Waffle House?"