Former Ruby Tequila’s employees said they are fighting back after mass layoffs and closures left them struggling, many unable to pay their bills.

“I used to be here all the time every day,” Darci Ronan said. “Pretty much anything that they needed, I did.”

Ronan worked for the restaurant for over five years, doing everything from hostessing, to marketing, to bussing tables.

“It was like a second home. Home away from home. And now…this….an empty building,” she said.

Ronan said she loved her time at the restaurant, but new ownership took over this summer.

Ruby Tequila’s across Lubbock and Amarillo then abruptly shut their doors without any warning, or paychecks, for employees.

“Disturbing everybody. All their lives. Lot of em got ruined. People got evicted, people got their cars taken away,” Ronan said.

Ronan said things began to change after Fired Up Holdings began to take over. The company is now listed as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed in Amarillo by the upset employees.

“I don’t think that Fired Up Holdings had any right or any business buying this place,” Ronan said. “I thought they were just transitioning into the new ownership, and then boom this happened.”

They closed their doors one Monday, and workers were told they were getting finances in order for the ownership change. One day, though, turned into two, and then a week.

“They led us on like that for maybe a week,” Ronan said. “So I didn’t look for a job because I thought we were going to reopen. No, we are not going to reopen,” Ronan said.

Another employee, Briana Holland, said it was just a waiting game.

“We were all wondering when we were going to get paid…like, what’s our new pay day?” Holland said, but that pay day never came.

Ronan also commented on Richard Kevin Foote, who is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, saying she had heard rumors about his business practices.

Employees said they are fighting back in court because they were never paid for their last few weeks of work. They said management was even out two paychecks.

“It’s bad, it was bad, but we are slowly getting our lives back together again,” Ronan said. “But I want people to know this problem is not going away. We are going to get the people who did this to us, and hopefully stop this from ever happening to anybody else.”