Beautiful Illusion by Aubrey Sage Page A

restaurant’s side doors, trying their best not to draw attention to anyone in the restaurant, I headed for Rick’s table. He was lifting a piece of jumbo shrimp to his mouth when he noticed me walking his way.
    He set the shrimp down and began wiping his hands on his napkin as I moved closer. “Well, if it isn’t the infamous Enigma.” He gave off a smile so large that it reminded me of the Joker from Batman.
    “Look, Rick. I don’t want any trouble, but Angel is leaving with me. She’s already out of the restaurant.”
    “What?” He said, his brow pinching tight. “Where is she?” He stood from his chair and looked around.
    “Angel is my friend. I can’t let you run your dirty game on her, and the fact that she’s…. I don’t know what you did to her but—“
    “Your friend?” he interrupted. “I thought it was pretty funny when I saw the video of you at McMillan. The same girl that told you to fuck off is the same girl who’s been begging to suck my cock for the past 6 months.”
    I clenched my teeth. I wanted to jump over the table and punch the rat’s lights out right there.
    “We didn’t know each other at the time, but now we’re friends. And you lied to her.”
    Rick took a deep breath and tilted his head down slightly, placing his fingertips on his forehead. “You’re something else, Enigma. You call yourself a pickup artist, but here you are trying to save a girl from me? A girl who fucked your career up?”
    “I know how to get women, but that’s not my career. My career is as an illusionist.”
    “More like a delusionist. Or just a fucking white knight! Haven’t you heard of the man code? Bros before hoes? I’ve been working on that bitch for months now.”
    “Look Rick. You’ve got plenty of girls, right? Just leave this one alone, okay?”
    Just then Cobra strolled up beside me and crossed his arms defiantly. A few of the restaurant’s staff were looking on in case a fight broke out.
    Rick shook his head and smiled comically, looking back and forth to me and Cobra. “Alright… Go ahead and take her. I’ll make sure that everyone in the community knows what team Enigma and his little henchmen are playing on.”
    “Go ahead,” I said and turned to walk away. “And nice to meet you too, Rick.”
    “Fuck off,” he barked as I headed for the door.

Chapter 16
    Angel
    I was hot . So hot. And I had a throbbing headache. I peeled open my sticky eyelids and looked up at the recessed lighting that was staring back at me. The brightness stung my eyes a little. I blinked a couple times and tilted my head to the side to see an abstract painting hanging on the wall, and I could see a coffee table with a large, flat screen television resting behind it. I was in some place—big, clean, and looked like it had been professionally decorated by some urban interior designer.
    I had no idea where I was, and that sudden realization made my heart kick into high gear. I pushed myself up on one of my elbows with a groan, and I felt a cold, wet washrag fall off of my forehead and onto the leather couch that I was laying on.
    I heard that sound of running water, and before I could even process that someone was in an adjacent room, the water stopped and Enigma appeared through the door wearing a pair of boxers and a wife beater.
    What the fuck? Why am I in a room with Enigma?
    “What’s going on? Where am I?” I asked.
    “This is my home. You weren’t in the right mind state to tell me where you lived, so I just brought you back here.”
    “Wait. Why am I in your home?” As soon as I said that, I looked down to my skimpy dress and remembered that I had a date with Dante.
    “You don’t remember anything?” he asked.
    I scanned my memory. “The last thing I remembered was walking towards the ladies’ bathroom at Lobster House and then… I don’t remember anything else.”
    “You were basically a zombie all the way over here. I could’ve gotten you to do anything.”
    “What? I