6 Chapter 6

Ari woke up the next morning in a strange bed. She tried to remember what had happened after leaving Blake's. She checked under the blanket to find herself still fully clothed, just no shoes. She rolled over in the queen sized bed, which was empty besides her.

Finally sitting up, she saw her shoes laying on the floor as if she'd kicked them off. Looking around the rest of the room, she noticed it was very small and simple. Blue and grey sheets on the bed, greyish hardwood, with a similar grey painted on the walls, there was black night stand and matching dresser, and a 45' TV mounted to the wall. This must be the room Sid told her she could stay in.

There was a closet; the door folded over to open, and two other doors. One was closed completely, and the other was open a few inches, so Ari went over to see what was on the other side of it.

It was a bathroom. She pulled the door all the way open and walked in. The bathroom was huge, and right across from the door she was standing in, was another open door. It was left open more than half way, and when Ari looked to see where it lead, she was sure she was staring at Sid sleeping in his own bed. Did they seriously have an adjoining bathroom? She grabbed the door and closed it quietly, turning back into her room to close that door too.

She climbed back into the bed feeling defeated. Life over the last 12 hours was starting to sink in, and though it wasn't that bad yet, the thought of what might be coming, worried her. Like knowing if she left this room she might run into Daniel, and she really didn't want to do that alone.

She drifted off back to sleep at some point, and didn't wake up again until she heard someone saying her name.

"Huh?"

She opened her eyes to find a blurry Sid sitting on the bed beside her.

"I said, wow, you really don't want to wake up, do you?" Sid said, making Ari finally realize blurry Sid was actual Sid.

"Sorry. I can't believe I passed out." She rubbed her head as he shrugged.

"You had a long day. Jonah was pretty excited to carry you up here when we couldn't wake you up."

Ari grumbled in response, burying her face in her blanket.

"Shower, meet us in my room when your ready. Don't take too long."

Sid stood up after that, and walked back into his room, closing the bathroom door on his side. Ari got up when he left and hurried to shower.

She finished her shower quickly and hurried back into her room to get dressed. She found her pair of black skinny jeans and favourite boots. Throwing on a t-shirt and leather jacket over top and her hair thrown into a bun, because it was still wet, she knocked on the door to Sids room through the bathroom, and walked in.

Sid was standing next to Jonah and the guy who drove them home last night.

"Ari, this is Jamal." Sid nodded at him.

"Nice to meet you." She said

"Yeah, you too."Jamal responded.

He had gorgeous caramel coloured skin, buzz cut black hair and brown eyes. He was closely comparable to Jonah in size, though Jonah was still taller.

A couple minutes of mostly silence, Sids door opened rather abruptly. Sid and Jonah were still standing and Ari swore they were staring at the door, before the door had even opened. Ari looked over to see someone new standing in the doorway, but she didn't recognized him.

He was an an inch or two shorter then Sid but still fairly muscular, from what she could tell. He looked younger then them, yet his hair was grey with almost a silvery shine. It was a tapered cut, where the longer hair at the top was parted to the side, similar to Sids. He had four long scars across his face, almost as if he lost a fight to a grizzly bear.

"Downstairs. Now." He snapped at the brothers. The expression on his face was enough to make Ari worry.

As the brothers got to the doorway, the stranger turned to look at Ari, who still sat on the floor watching.

"Stay put." he said.

She nodded, watching them all leave and close the door. If that guy could have Sid and Jonah react like that, he was clearly not someone she should disobey either. She turned on the TV in Sid's trying to distract her thoughts from her seemingly uncertain future.

Unfortunately the longer she stayed here, the more people she realized had control over Sid and Jonah, and the more she worried about their ability to keep her safe.

It was more than an hour before Sid's door opened again, Sid stood by it looking in for Ari. She stood up and started walking up towards him, the look of concern on her face made Sid frown at her.

"What wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing. I'm just tired." Ari rubbed her eyes, lying.

"If you say so. Come on, you and I are gunna take off for a bit." He reached over and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the room. She went along with him, curious to find out where they were going.

Sid lead her to the elevator and let go of her hand to pull out his phone, it seemed like he was texting someone. When the doors opened on the first floor, he walked out the front glass doors of the building. Wherever they were going, they must be walking there.

She caught up with him to walk side by side as he walked down the street. She took two steps for every one of his, but she had no issue keeping the pace.

"We need to do deposits tonight. We'll pick this one up, drop it off back here to Daniel and we'll drive to the next one." Sid said to her.

"Why walk to this one?" She asked.

Sid shrugged. "I just like too. It's just up here."

They walked further down the street, Ari could see two bouncers standing out front of a door, they were talking to each other and laughing. When they saw Sid walk up they straightened up with serious expressions again. She could hear the music playing from outside.

"Evening, Mr. Holland." One said, the other nodded politely and opened the door for them.

Sid nodded back and moved over to let Ari go in first. The bouncers looked down at her, but she got no greeting, just staring. She ignored them the best she could and walked straight into the main room. It was an actual dance club, people everywhere. All Dancing, or sitting, standing, drinking, talking, yelling, everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Sid lead her passed some of the crowd to the bar, where she watched the bartender wave and lift a part of the bar for Sid to cross over, he must have seen Ari following because he waited for her to come back too.

After Sid leaned in and spoke to the bartender, he nodded back in response. He held out his hand yelling "Matt" to Ari, and she shook his silently, but smiling, he winked and walked back to work. Ari followed Sid again to a small hall still behind the bar with two doors, one had a little window, so she could see it lead to a kitchen. The other, Sid opened, was to an office.

Ari followed him in, closing the door behind her and turned to see the room wasn't empty. She saw Blake and a guy she also saw from that same night, but didn't meet him directly.

"Hey, shorty." Blake smiled at her.

She couldn't help but smile brightly up at Blake, he was really nice to her yesterday. The other guy didn't seem to impressed see her there, so she simply ignored him.

"Hey, Blake." she replied.

The other guy went into the safe behind the big desk and grabbed a sealed bag from inside it, handing the bag over to Sid. Sid handed it to Ari, who said nothing; though surprised, rolling the bag up and sticking it under her armpit in her jacket sleeve. Couldn't even tell it was there, but it was a little too big for a pocket.

"You guys good? Need anything?" Sid asked.

Blake shook his head. "All good, man."

Sid nodded, and turned to Ari. "Go take that back, I'll meet you at the front doors with the car in 20 minutes."

She raised her eyesbrow at him, but knew he wouldn't have said it if he wasn't being serious.

"You got it, boss." She smirked, speaking sarcastically as she left the room.

As she walked passed Matt the bartender, he raised his hand to give her a high five, she had too jump for it. Matt laughed continuing back to work without a word, she knew was she going to like Matt.

She followed the same path Sid lead her in, back out of the bar, and nodded to the bouncers as they turned to see who was leaving. The one raised his eyebrow, maybe because she was without her original companion. She didn't care, she just wanted to get back to Daniel.

She walked down the street at a quick pace, but made sure not to run. She made it back safely, walking in the front door to head to Daniel's office on the same floor. When she turned the last corner, not far from his office she spotted two guys walking in her direction. She stopped and started to back up, realizing one of them was the grey haired guy who disappeared with Jonah and Sid, and Jonah had yet to reappear.

"Where do you think your going?" He called out.

Ari stopped moving and looked up at him without an answer. He and his companion stopped a few feet away from her, glaring. She got the feeling they were not big fans of her being around.

"Pretty sure I asked you a question." He said again.

"Just going to see Daniel." Ari answered.

"Did you go pick up the deposits yet with Sid? Give them to me, I'll make sure Daniel gets them." He said holding out his hand. The guy besides him was smiling now.

"No. Thank you." Ari stepped back.

He stepped forward.

"Hand them over, bitch. Now."

Ari tried to hide her anger. She was a little worried, but she didn't like this guy which made her feel more inclined to put him in his place. Unfortunately, his place was clearly higher above hers here.

"No." She answered.

He jumped forward to try and grab her jacket, but she jumped back again.

"DANIEL!!" She screamed out, angry.

The two of them looked like they were about to try again when Daniel appeared at his door.

"Jackson..."

"Fine.."

Jackson turned to Daniel, exchanging a grin with him before he moved out of Ari's way so she could walk passed. She did, without showing hesitation.

So, this is guys name was apparently Jackson. Ari considered maybe he worked right under Daniel. He doesn't seem as bothered by Daniels presence as most others do, they actually seemed to respect and like each other.

She passed Daniel, and walked straight into his office. He closed the door, following her in. He seemed to be in a better mood now, as she pulled the money out of her jacket.

"Sid will meet me out front to get the others. " She said looking up at him as he took the sealed bag. He nodded and waved her out of his office without a word. She left.

She didn't see Jackson on her way back out to meet Sid in his car, who was already there waiting. She got into the passenger seat without a word.