Women Were Bad News

Scott ran into no less than three more of those women without being able to catch them over the following month. It was driving him insane!

He had never realized women could be so crafty. He didn't get involved with them terribly often because they only ever caused trouble back in his days with the gangs. A woman was technically the reason he went to jail.

It was a really stupid reason too. The leader of his gang and a rival gang were into the same girl. She didn't seem like anything special to Scott but he tried to stay out of it until he couldn't.

The gang leaders fought over her and Scott was sent to rough one of them up but it was a trap. The rival gang leader specifically rigged it so he would get caught. He ended up with a second-degree assault charge and had to serve four years but, honestly, he had gotten off lucky. It could have been worse. He hadn't gotten out of prison until he was twenty-three.

Scott was determined to go straight after that because his gang leader had really screwed him over but it was difficult when no one was willing to hire an ex-con. He was very lucky to get a job with Richie.

That woman had ruined his life for a while, though he was doing pretty well for himself now. She hadn't even done anything intentionally! Her only fault was being too pretty for two rival gang leaders to resist but it could have cost him his whole future and he wasn't even the one involved with her.

Women were bad news. He certainly didn't want to get involved with one.

Now he was involved with a whole bunch of them without wanting to because they were targeting his club. He wasn't about to let them ruin his hard work with all the effort it had taken to get here.

Scott usually made $100,000-$120,000 a year because his club was in one of the ritzier parts of town and rich people bought a lot of drinks. That was a big deal to him because he had come from nothing.

He could still remember what it was like going to bed hungry. Not having lunch money or field trip money or any sort of money at school. Living in a rough neighborhood where you had to learn how to win a fight to survive.

He was not willing to give up what he had attained for anything. These days, he lived in a building with a doorman, had a nice watch, and drove a Mercedes-Benz. If his revenue took a hit because of these crazy women…

No. Scott was going to get to the bottom of this. He had seen them several times now. He was going to catch one of them in the act!

The question was when. It would only be a matter of time before he managed to find one of them. And when he did, they were going to pay for causing him trouble.

In the meantime, life went on as usual. The club was open from 10 PM-6 AM every day so he usually slept from 7 AM-4 PM. His apartment had some great blackout curtains. A lot better than the ones he could afford when he was first starting out as a bouncer. Sleeping back then was rough.

Scott didn't have much of a life outside of the club. He usually hung around at home watching recorded sports games or reading car magazines and ordered takeout so he didn't have to leave.

Unfortunately, he still had to run errands. He was heading out to buy more laundry detergent when he ran smack into a girl who wasn't watching where she was going. He was about a foot taller than her and much more solid so she bounced right off of him and hit the pavement.

Rather than crying because she skinned her hands and knees, she cursed. Kids these days!

Her red hair was in braids and she wore a blue romper and white sneakers. She had freckles on her face and he guessed she was maybe eleven.

Scott didn't have much experience with kids but he had to do something because she was bleeding pretty badly from scraping herself up on the sidewalk. "I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you get cleaned up."

She scowled at him but let him help her to her feet and winced. Her scrapes must really sting. It was a good thing he had gotten in the habit of carrying a first-aid kit on him back in his gang days because he never knew when he was going to get hurt.

He pulled out some antiseptic wipes and bandages and helped patch her up. She thanked him rather reluctantly and turned to leave.

"Hey, wait! Is your mom anywhere around here? Are you lost?" Scott asked.

He felt responsible for this kid since she had only gotten hurt because of him. He needed to make sure she was okay beyond getting her scrapes cleaned up or it would bother him.

"I'm not lost. See ya."

The girl waved before continuing in the direction she had been going before running into him. He didn't know where she was headed but it was dangerous for a kid her age to be out on her own. He hoped she made it wherever she was going okay.

Scott couldn't worry about her for long though. He still had to get that laundry detergent and get home to do a load before he had to go to work.

He didn't have time for any further distractions. He needed to be on his A game tonight to see if any of the women from that group were planning on going to his club to cause trouble.