The Dragon's Lair

January 23, 2012
The Dragon's Lair
The new files that Ari had left with me were very vague. I had become sort of expectant of ridiculously useless details regarding most of my targets—it was odd to only have the basics.
My newest target was a Chinese mob boss, who ran a quaint and cozy drug dealership out of the back of a club on the outskirts of Chinatown. Examining the blatantly lacking paperwork, I discovered that the man, a Mr. Chris Cheng, had been sought after by the Chicago police force for quite a few years. Somehow, they couldn't make any of their charges (murder, larceny, embezzlement, drug dealing, etc.) stick. Maybe Mr. Cheng had a good lawyer.
Either way, Ari had recommended me for this particular case, and I was very confused by that. He really didn't seem to want me to do anything—besides, of course, lay in bed and wait for him—so sending me off to a nightclub in order to rob the mob didn't seem like his usual kind of illogical logic.
Honestly, I was excited. My head still ached from yesterday's accident with the elevator, but the pain dulled a little as I plotted and schemed my big trick for that night. Besides the fact that I'm an adrenaline junkie, love a good (potential) fight, and enjoy thievery, today was the Chinese New Year. The likelihood of some excitement in Chicago's Chinatown on the night of the Chinese New Year was very high, and I was practically tingling with excitement.
Mooncakes! I couldn't help thinking, my mouth watering. I'm a sucker for those things, even though they're usually for the Harvest Moon Festival. Ari had been pretty nice to me lately—scary, I know—but had still neglected to provide me with a good "3 meal" daily routine… My stomach began to growl.
Get back to planning, Ivy! I thought, forcing my eyes back to the meager files. Smirking, I noticed the name of the nightclub that Cheng owned—"The Dragon's Lair." Seemed appropriate. It was the year of the dragon, after all.
Still examining the paperwork (my current sheet was a detailed report of Mr. Cheng's credit card purchases in the past month), I heard a small click. Looking up, I discovered that Ari had returned. He was grinning.
"Guess what?" he said to me, practically sprinting to his California King to attempt to snatch a kiss. I started to lean back, but before I could go anywhere, he had placed a soft little smooch on my cheek. I blinked.
"What?"
He leaned back from me, holding up a little bag. "I got you something! I think you'll actually sort of like this one… Maybe even as much as I do!" Then he reached into the bag and pulled out a piece of silky fabric. As he handed it to me I realized what it was.
"A-Ari… Is this a… Cheongsam?" I asked, holding up the little dress.
"Nope," he began, smirking and walking away. "It's a sexy, short, red cheongsam." I hopped off the bed to examine it better and hold it up. "Uh, no. You should put it on," Ari snickered at me—there wasn't really a choice to say no. I scowled but slipped into the bathroom momentarily to pull the short dress on.
I stared at myself in the mirror. My hair was its usual messy self, but somehow the blond waves complimented the red, Asian style dress. The dress itself was gorgeous. It came to about the middle of my thigh, and had a high, halter-top collar. Contrasting this, the back dropped down to just above my waist (and somehow still managed to conceal my wings), and there was a teardrop cutout on the chest that effectively made me look very conservative and loose at the same moment. I slipped back out to Ari's bedroom, feeling like I had fallen off a runway in Shanghai.
"Damn." Ari practically fell off of his bed as he spotted me. "It's… Perfect." Then he beamed, suddenly appearing directly in front of me. He put both of his hands on my sides and pulled me up to him. I had no time to argue—he pulled my mouth to his. I have to admit, although I was legitimately shorter than he, he didn't seem to have trouble effectively kissing girls of my height.
Before I could even start to consider enjoying his passion, he had pulled away. "I forgot these," he said, reaching down and hooking his fingers into the straps of a pair of shiny, black, open toe stilettos. He handed them to me and said, "We're leaving for Chinatown in half an hour. What shall we do until then?"
*****
I can't even tell you how odd it is to go from "street urchin" to "Asian princess." My whole life, I had flown wherever I needed to go. Car rides were rare—I was usually only in a car if I was being kidnapped. So, needless to say, getting in a limo on the arm of a gorgeous man, wearing stilettos and a stunning dress felt like a strange dream.
The ride from Itex's base to Chinatown was not very long, which was good. However, Ari did treat me to a root beer in the back seat along the way. When we finally stopped, I looked out the window at a glowing neon sign for "The Dragon's Lair."
"Guess we're here," I murmured.
"Let's get this party started," Ari joked, kissing my neck before hopping out to get the door for me. He extended a hand, and more or less pulled me to my feet in the icy, January, Chicago air. I pulled my black leather jacket tighter around my neck to keep myself warm as Ari took my arm and escorted me to the entrance of the club. Checking in was the way it always is in the movies. Some huge guy was standing by the front door with a clipboard.
"Name?" he grunted, as Ari and I reached him.
"Nick Morgan and Lucy Tucker," Ari said, before I had time to consider the question. The guy scanned his list, spotted our "names" and jerked his head towards the door.
I smiled at him charmingly. "Have a good night," I added. The guy seemed to forget where he was for a minute.
Once inside, I gasped. The "cozy" place I had imagined did not exist. The club was huge. There was a full bar on the right, and the rest of the building appeared to be used as a dance floor.
"Look up," Ari spoke in my ear, as he helped remove my jacket and reveal my lovely dress. I did as he told me, and noticed another floor above us. It resembled a fire escape, and even had a sliding ladder that was currently lifted up, unreachable from our height. However, I could see people moving around up there. "Now that is what we call exclusive."
"We need to look like we blend in here before we work our way up there," I shouted. The music was very loud, but it had a great beat. Ari nodded, and without a word led us over to the bar.
He ordered himself a nice hearty beer, and got me something that came with a little umbrella—knowing full well that I wasn't going to touch it. Somehow, he downed that beer in a few gulps, and then grabbed me roughly around the waist, spun me around, and pulled my back up against his chest. "Dance," he hissed at me.
I frowned a little, confused, but did begin to dance against him as he leaned back against the bar. From that position, I had a full view of the entire dance floor. Dancing blankly, I observed multiple awkward couples and was to entranced to notice Ari slip his hands around my hips, until he pulled me back and whispered, "Did you see him?"
"Who?" I asked, still staring at one man who was doing the robot and sporting a Hawaiian print shirt.
"Cheng!"
"Where?" Before he could answer, I spotted Chris Cheng across the dance floor. He was making his way towards the bottom of the ladder. As he reached it, the ladder descended, and he climbed it swiftly. His foot disappeared over the edge of the floor and the ladder was raised again. "Time to go up?" I asked, still dancing.
"Oh, I'm already up," Ari murmured, brushing his warm lips across my bare shoulder. "…But yes, I think it is." Then he sort of lifted me away from himself, and turned to the young bartender. "Hey, bud! I need to go up there! Can you tell them to lower the ladder? I need tot talk to Chris about this week's business!" The guy frowned a little, and then pulled the tap on a strange looking beer. No beer came out… but as I turned around, I noticed the ladder lowering itself again.
"That is awesome," I shouted at Ari. He grinned at me, put an arm around my waist and led me to the ladder. Then we both began to climb (FYI, very hard in stilettos), Ari first. As we reached the top, we were greeted by about five huge Asian men, all of who had their hands on something under their shirts. Ari seemed to be ready to throw them off the floor, but before anything could happen, I stepped up. "Hey, boys! How are you all doing tonight? Good? Now, I'm just dying for a drink! Can we sit down, please? My boyfriend here wanted to ask Mr. Cheng about a small business offer. I'm sure you're okay with that." And with that, I put my hand on one of the men's chest. I pushed him gently, and he stepped back, looking completely confused. He muttered something in Chinese to the others, who all nodded, staring at me.
Finally, one of them spoke. "Yes, we will take you to him. Follow us." He turned and began to walk farther along the floor. Ari walked beside me, and, smirking, I handed him the man's wallet—I had stolen it when I pushed him.
"You really are quite talented," Ari muttered, taking my hand, and the wallet in it. "I'm glad you're on my side." He winked at me. We both looked up to see Chris Cheng sitting in a huge padded chair, surrounded by multiple gorgeous women. He looked me over and then tilted his chin up—apparently I wasn't good enough for him. Ari seemed to pick up on this too, because he clenched my hand tighter. I think we both sort of took a deep breath, preparing to try to sweet talk Mr. Cheng long enough for me to snag our little item.
As we got even closer, though, I was completely oblivious to all the other things going on around me. So oblivious that I didn't hear one of the men pull out a nightstick and smack Ari across the back of the head with it. Shocked, Ari collapsed on top of me, and down we went. I was sprawled on the metal floor beneath his unconscious weight.
"What the—?" I started. Before I could extricate myself from Ari or figure out what had actually just happened, someone's boot flew towards my face. My head jerked to the side, and the thunking nightclub went dark.
Although I was fully unconscious, I remember hearing something like, "Trapped in the lair… Year of the Dragon… Happy New Year, Itex! That's how we do it in China."
Then again, I might have imagined it.