Chapter 248: Stella
The entrance opened onto a short tunnel, the walls lined with strips of blue light that pulsed slowly in time with the bass coming from somewhere beyond, the corridor narrow enough that they had to walk single file for a few steps before it widened.
Kelvin nudged Liam hard with his elbow.
"You bastard," he said, his voice low, leaning in close. "How the hell do you know her. And why did she call you sir."
Liam scratched the back of his head. "It’s kind of a long—"
"We met and made a bet," she said.
Both of them turned.
She was a few steps ahead, walking with her back straight and her eyes forward, not looking at either of them. "It was a game. The loser had to do anything the winner asked." A pause. "He asked me to call him sir from now on."
She kept walking. Did not smile. Did not turn around.
Liam and Kelvin stopped walking entirely for a second.
Kelvin leaned in, his voice dropping even lower than before, his lips barely moving. "You crazy bastard. The loser had to do anything. Anything. And you picked her calling you sir?"
"That’s what I wanted," Liam said. "And it got us in, didn’t it."
"Fine," Kelvin said. "But you’re an idiot. I would have made her squeeze my chest."
"What did you say?" she said.
Neither of them had seen her turn. She hadn’t turned. She was still walking ahead of them, still facing forward, her voice arriving over her shoulder like she had simply decided to participate in their conversation from a distance.
"Nothing," Kelvin said immediately, his voice jumping half an octave. "I swear. Nothing at all."
He leaned toward Liam, his eyes wide. "How can she still hear me from there."
"I don’t know man," Liam said, smiling, already walking again. "Let’s go enjoy ourselves."
The tunnel opened into the main floor and the sound hit them properly for the first time, the bass no longer something felt through walls but something filling the entire space, the music loud and layered, lights moving across the ceiling and walls in long sweeping patterns of blue and purple and white.
The dance floor stretched out below a raised platform where a DJ was working, bodies moving everywhere, the air warm and thick with the smell of perfume and sweat and spilled drinks.
Liam and Kelvin stood at the edge of it for a moment, taking it in.
Then Kelvin turned to him, his face lit up, and shouted something.
"What?" Liam shouted back.
Kelvin leaned closer, cupping a hand near Liam’s ear. "I SAID I TOLD YOU THIS PLACE WAS GOING TO BE LIT."
"I CAN HEAR YOU FINE NOW," Liam shouted back, even though there was no real reason to still be shouting.
Kelvin grinned and grabbed his arm. "Come on, let’s get into the crowd. Dance."
"Alright, alright," Liam said.
They moved into the crowd together, the bodies closing around them, the music carrying everyone in roughly the same direction, and they danced for a while, the lights moving overhead, the bass working through the floor and up through Liam’s shoes.
After a while Liam leaned toward Kelvin. "I’m gonna sit this one out for a bit. Tired."
"Okay man," Kelvin said, already turning back toward the crowd, completely unbothered, moving with the music like he had been born specifically for this room.
Liam worked his way through the crowd toward the edge of the floor, away from the main speakers, until the sound dropped from overwhelming to merely loud. He found a spot near a low wall that ran along the side of the room, the lights here dimmer, a few people scattered around in small groups talking with their heads close together.
He leaned against the wall and exhaled.
"You’re not having fun, I see."
He looked up.
She was there, the black gown catching the low light, her arms loosely crossed.
"I’m overwhelmed right now," Liam said. "Just here to relax for a bit before I head back in."
She laughed. Short, genuine, the first real laugh he had heard from her. "That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all night," she said. "Why are you even here then."
Sorry what’s your name again? Because you were too busy trying to drain my brains out for me to ask. Liam said mockingly
Very funny. I’m Stella but you were too busy fucking my brains out to bother asking.
"True.. so Stella i came to have fun," he said. He looked around the room, at the lights and the crowd and the bar along the far wall. "I could ask you the same thing. Or is this where you drain people’s life forces."
"For your information," she said, "I own this place."
Liam blinked. "You—" He looked around again, at the scale of it, the lighting rig, the size of the floor. "You own this."
"And you’re not completely wrong about the other thing either," she said. "But I don’t do it just for myself." She gestured vaguely at the room around them, at the people moving through it. "There are others like me. We have arrangements."
She didn’t elaborate further. She just smiled at him, the kind of smile that wasn’t meant to invite questions, and then her expression shifted, the smile thinning slightly.
"Just because I’m enslaved to you," she said, her voice dropping, "doesn’t mean you get to use me however you want. Like earlier."
Liam smiled. "That’s exactly what it means."
She glared at him.
"Also," he said, "if you hate me that much, why did you help with my friend back there? You could have just left us standing in that line."
She looked at him for a moment. "It would have been a pain if you couldn’t come up with an excuse and figured something out yourself," she said. "Something stupid that might have caused a scene. That would have reflected badly on the club. So I helped." She shrugged slightly. "I figured it was for your sake."
"Right," Liam said.
"Yeah," she said. Her smile came back, sharper this time. "Because even your friend knows you’re a level below me."
The words landed.
Liam felt them land. Something tightened in his jaw, his teeth pressing together, the easy smile he’d been wearing flattening into something else.
He looked at her.
"Okay," he said. "Time to make you regret that."
He smiled at her.
Her smile was still there when he said it.
Then it shrank. Just slightly. The edges of it pulling back, something flickering behind her eyes that hadn’t been there a second ago.
"I think I should be the last thing on your mind right now," she said, nudging her head toward the crowd.
Liam looked.
Kelvin was there, near the middle of the floor, and there were girls around him, two of them, moving close, their hands on him, their eyes catching the light in a way that didn’t quite match the room.
Liam watched for a second.
Kelvin was just dancing. Grinning. Completely unbothered, completely in it, the way he always was.
Then it clicked.
Liam’s hand moved before he’d fully decided to move it. He reached out and closed his fingers around Stella’s throat, not hard, but there, and she didn’t flinch. She just looked at him, still smiling, her eyes level with his.
"Call them off," he said.
"I can’t," she said. "They’re their own."
"Get your hands off Miss Stella. Right now."
Liam turned.
It was the same guy from outside. The one who had laughed at them in the line. He was standing a few feet away, his jacket still pristine, his chin lifted, looking at Liam’s hand like the sight of it personally offended him.
Liam didn’t move his hand.
"Didn’t I make myself clear?" the guy said, stepping closer. "Let her go." He glanced at Stella, then back. "And how the hell did you even get in here. You must have sneaked in." His eyes went to Stella. "Did he sneak in? Because you caught him, didn’t you."
Liam looked at Stella.
"Send him out," he said. Quiet. Not a question.
"I can’t just ban my best customer," she said. The smile hadn’t moved. "His father is—"
"I don’t care," Liam said. "Send him out now."
She held his gaze for a moment. Then she exhaled through her nose, slow, and turned her head toward the guy.
"Mr. Richwood," she said, her voice perfectly even, perfectly calm, his hand still around her throat. "You’re permanently banned from the club. Please leave before I have security remove you."
The guy stared at her. His mouth opened slightly.
"Are you serious?" he said. "Do you even know what you’re—" He looked between them. "Does this guy have something on you? What is this?"
"Go," Liam said, looking at him dead in the eye.
"Do you know who my father is?"
"Mr. Richwood," Stella said again. Same tone. Same calm. "Please leave now."
He looked at her. Then at Liam. Then he scoffed, short and sharp, and turned and walked away without another word, disappearing into the crowd.
Liam let go of her throat.
She lifted her hand and touched her neck slowly, her fingers moving over it.
"Are you happy now?" she asked.
"Not yet," he said, and turned to walk away.
"Stay."
He stopped.
She turned. "What?"
He looked back at her. His expression hadn’t changed. "Is there a problem?"
She opened her mouth. Looked at him. Then she shook her head slightly. "Don’t worry about it," she said.
Liam moved through the crowd until he reached the girl closest to Kelvin. He leaned in close, near her ear, his voice low enough that no one else would catch it.
"If you try anything," he said, "I will kill you."
She went still. Completely still, the kind that had nothing to do with the music stopping. Then she pulled back, and without a word she was gone, slipping away into the bodies around them, and a second later the other one followed.
Kelvin blinked and looked around, suddenly alone in a small pocket of space.
"What did you say to her, man?" he asked, turning to Liam.
"She said she’d be right back," Liam said. "But I have to step out for a bit. I’ll be back soon."
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