Delirium

.nineteen

The vape shop had a strong scent of incense and alcohol and while Cyan had grown use to the smell from his previous visits, he still cringed at how strong it was.

Like every other time Cyan had come here, Romano wasn't the one at the front counter. Instead, it was always the woman with a soft golden complexion as if she had tanned under the ancient Egyptian sun and vibrant green eyes that contrasted heavily against not only her skin but the black eyeliner around them. She always wore the same attire, a silk black dress that was so shamelessly see through that her black lace underwear could be seen matching the lacy undershirt that she wore.

The getup was no doubt for the male customers who could be seen gawking at her even before Cyan had walked into the familiar shop. A bell had sounded off at his arrival, the woman looking over her shoulder before smiling widely.

"Ah Cyan!" She excitedly beamed, her accent holding a thick French air to it as she strolled from around the counter to come over and place both hands on each side of his face. "Comment ça va, how are things." She asked, placing a light kiss on each of his cheeks before pulling back. Cyan only smiled gently, shrugging slightly at the question.

"It's going, I guess. Is Romano in?"

Her smile turned into a slight pout, turning to the beaded entrance behind the desk. "Monsieur... Yes. Though, he is with Madame Campbell and wishes not to be bothered..."

Oh what a lovely surprise this was going to be then. Cyan didn't want to sell Romano out to the police, much less while he was in the middle of visiting his favorite escort. It would be embarrassing, but he had no choice. To gain the police's trust, even just a little, would be beneficial to Elliot and that was all that mattered at the moment. Leaning close to the woman's ear, Cyan whispered the next words so that no one could hear him.

"Silvia, I want you to stay out of what about to happen okay." Cyan didn't need the woman to try and protect Romano like she would no doubt do. She loved the man as a father but Cyan personally liked her and didn't want to see her being handled roughly by the police.

Speaking of the police....

Cyan glanced out the corner of his eyes to the front door knowing that two or three officers were outside waiting for Cyan to get the location of where the next shipment would be and not only that but the sons of bitches actually wanted him to go and pick up the shipment. Elliot would no doubt question his plan when they met again but Cyan knew better than to put him in actual danger. He would rather die.

Cyan walked past the questioning woman and towards the back room where the smell of incense suddenly outweighed the alcohol and the room was hot and humid. It was dark inside, the only light coming from a couple of multicolored lava lamps that were sporadically placed around and tie-dyed tapestries hanging from the walls and cover the ground. In the corner was a queen sized bed with enough blankets to conceal the obvious motions of sex but not enough to cover the woman's moans.

"Romano," Cyan called out, walking over to the bed and grabbing the bottom blanket before flipping it off of him. He allowed a scoff of displeasure to pass his lips when faced with the man and woman's naked bodies and quickly turned around.

"Aye! Fucking hell man!" Romano yelled pissed. Romano was a slightly heavyset man with thick body hair that covered his chest and arms and always reeked of cheap cologne. Cyan couldn't help but wonder how much he was paying to get the whores to keep dealing with him because, putting the physical things aside, he was a complete asshole to them. It was all about sex to him before he cursed and screamed at them to get out of his face, not even giving them the money until they were making a huge commotion in the front of his store. Cyan had witnessed it a couple of times and even though he wasn't one to help whores, the way that Romano treated them pissed him off. It was to the point where if he witnessed it, he would go and get the money himself and that was something Romano did not wanna deal with. An upset Cyan lead to a murderous Elliot and Romano valued his life enough to just comply.