Savvy Negotiator (Untraceable Succubus Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  “Why?” he whispered, trying for me again, but Kiera blocked him.

  “She told you to gag her, right?”

  “Yeah, I did, and I didn’t mean with O’Malley’s dick,” I sneered, both of the men flinching. I met Dylan’s gaze. “You’ve seen me get overwhelmed before. Just you and I basically begged you to do whatever to me, right? Seconds after saying I couldn’t hurt you. Did I say we could have sex? No, I said you shouldn’t touch me as I can’t feed then. So you both did. Much better.”

  “You waited until she was fucking drunk on lust focused on her and in specific ways, from over a hundred people, and then did what you wanted to her. You’re that guy that gets his date plastered and then brings in the friend and gets what he wants,” Kiera explained, sounding like she was going to pound them.

  “She didn’t object,” Dylan argued. “She never said cupcake or—you were begging for it.”

  I gave him the look he deserved. “I remember telling you point blank I didn’t trust O’Malley, and you just invite him? I was never going to tell him about any of this.”

  He winced. “Right, I know you didn’t, but I’ve looked into him and talked with him a lot so—”

  “I need to shower,” I muttered, shaking my head and unable to handle this. “If nothing else, I would think you understood that I never wanted to be that submissive around someone so demanding and controlling.”

  “Sweetie, wait, let me get you cleaned up.” He growled when Kiera blocked him from me until I shook my head. “I messed up. I didn’t understand. Please, can we talk? We’re having dinner, right?”

  He was making a scene, so I nodded, wanting to get cleaned up.

  “I’ll bring them to the private room. I’ll get your dress and stuff,” Kiera told me gently. “And I’ll set them right.”

  I nodded until that last part, snorting. Yeah, right. I had thought it pretty clear already. So much for either of them really caring. They just wanted to use me, to get what they wanted, feel the high and bliss of being with a succubus.

  So they were just like everyone else.

  I scrubbed all over, equal parts pissed I hadn’t stopped it even if it would have looked bad for the club and equal parts hurt. I squatted down when I thought I might really break. Could I even have stopped it? The desire had been so strong I would have begged them to peel my skin off of me if that had been what they wanted.

  It took me a bit longer, but I pulled myself together enough to finish up. I dried off with the towels there, but after I got dressed—minus my ruined undergarments, as Dylan had destroyed the corset—I couldn’t make myself face them.

  I couldn’t see O’Malley’s smug face he’d gotten what I’d said he never would again.

  I couldn’t see Dylan’s confused and upset gaze, knowing he would never understand what he’d done since I’d begged for it.

  “Go, I’ll glamour you,” Kiera said quietly from behind me when she found me frozen in the hallway.

  “Thanks,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. One can see through glamour.” I nodded when her eyes flashed shock. “The one I didn’t invite because I also wouldn’t ever do that to the others here.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t. Go get some food.” She gave me a gentle hug. “Did you get anything?”

  “Yeah, but nowhere near what I needed. I’ll have to feed this week still with all I’m doing on this case.”

  “Fuck. Okay, you go through Lewis’s maze and get home. Any message?”

  I snorted. “Never come near me again, but neither will probably listen.”

  “But you liked the first one, right?”

  “Yeah, my mistake,” I rasped, wiping my eyes again. “Sorry we fucked up your show. Guess it’s back to never getting attached.”

  “I’m sorry, Jasmine,” she breathed, one of the few who knew I didn’t feed like a normal lust demon and people got addicted and messed up in the head. It was the whole reason we’d put together the buffets for all demons working at the company. It helped all of us but also hid my peculiarities.

  It was just before noon Denver time when I arrived back at the condo. Everything tech was done and the new address left on the desk.

  Good, a distraction.

  I showered again, not making it a thing or analyzing it too much. Everyone always felt better after using their own stuff and getting clean. Besides, I was reeling from the whiplash I felt from what had just happened. It all changed and flopped around on me so I wasn’t sure I knew what I was feeling right then.

  I’d flipped around on the buffet and even giving Dylan a chance, and now I was spinning out when it had all gone so bad. I had not been prepared to see O’Malley, not even thinking of him really besides one dirty dream I would never have admitted… And now this?

  I pushed it all deep down in a corner as I finished up and got changed. I took the portal to the new place and found the guys still there getting the swank house corporate owned for what we needed. I picked one corner of the living room to set up my desks, preferring my own space and privacy for when I did my computer stuff, but there would be too much back and forth, and I needed the support.

  Besides, this would help the other “me” know when she could take over. I wouldn’t send her to a club as bad as the one I was working, certainly not with the owner and all the issues with other dancers. Nor to help the police, but she could definitely do some of the gossip legwork at the gym or spa and we could go from there.

  They told me food had already been ordered and was coming from one of the corporate kitchens, so I knew it would be good. Just as I crawled under the desk to hook up what I needed to, several people arrived with huge trays of catering. I finished up fast and joined them at the huge dining room.

  I nodded to Kyle when I saw him. He was head of the security on the acquisitions team, and he should still be on assignment at the last club we’d taken over.

  “They’ve got things well in hand,” he told me. “The area seems to be chill on clubs at the moment after the murders and finding out it was the preacher, so there’s not much to watch over until the new club is built. Half the dancers are training or getting help. You needed the backup on this.”

  “Thanks.” I wasn’t going to argue that as long as he had his stuff covered. He was the best at security and seemed to always know who was the problem or sticking out of the group. If he was on the feeds and monitors they were putting up, I felt worlds better. “Where do you want tapped in?”

  “We have your building, right?” he checked, spooning out huge portions of pasta for both of us when I nodded. “I want full everything on the club as soon as we can. I don’t like that the owner, security, and dancers are shit. Don’t drink anything you don’t watch poured or opened yourself.”

  I gave him a look like he shouldn’t insult my intelligence. I was always safe. Though if someone really wanted to get me, they would. People that evil or desperate wouldn’t care if they risked others in the process.

  “We’ll start listing people we want jackets on,” he told me after a moment. “You’ve got too much to dig into all the names. We’ll get them. As soon as you get access to the club’s system we’ll get more cameras in and whatnot.” He cleared his throat as if knowing I wasn’t going to like what he said next. “I think we make him need to hire a new guy and one of us go in.”

  “Fine,” I agreed after a moment. I smirked at his shock. “I already need another me, and now we’re not loving the cops of Denver and we’re going to be working with them. I’ll let you be overprotective and listen to Mindy, I promise. Last time I got ISLE on us and a stalker who can see through glamour that now knows too much and went to Berlin’s club because of me.”

  “I talked to Kiera,” he mumbled as he stabbed his food. “That wasn’t your fault. We can handle them.”

  “Can we?” I wondered more to myself than anything. Dylan was a tier three agent with ISLE who apparently had a hard on for me, for what I could do actually. And Aidan O’Malley was an ancient and
powerful vampire who wanted me as his and believed I was the only succubus alive and there was something to that.

  I know most would have been dying to know what, but I’d learned long ago that most secrets were beliefs, not fact, and tended to trap the ones who learned them. I wanted no part in that.

  I ate several plates’ worth and took more back to the desk. It was funny how I gobbled up plates of heavy pasta and now I was chomping on a huge salad and breadsticks. Next I’d have soup and totally flip everything around.

  It took me over an hour to get everything back to what I needed since it wasn’t just one computer tower and monitor I was plugging in. There were separate processors and servers I was using and working with, and multiple computers and monitors that hooked up into the surveillance monitors the guys were adding too so that one side of the living and dining rooms were walls of them.

  “Who got the cards I asked for?” I called over as I took apart one of the towers.

  “Black bag on the kitchen counter,” someone yelled back.

  I headed there, wanting something to drink, and froze when I saw Kiera. “Hey, sorry.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. I just wanted to check on you. You dealing?”

  I shrugged. “It’s like trying to remember what happened when super drunk. I can’t tell you what O’Malley was even wearing, and it’s all kind of a blur after it went so badly.”

  “The bear blew up at the vampire when I came in glamoured as you and O’Malley busted me,” she told me gently. “He said the deal was they would call, not crash whatever the fuck they wanted. He told O’Malley where because he was freaking you were going near ISLE. O’Malley showed on his own and joined in as well.”

  I shook my head. “Dylan’s seen how I get. I’ve explained it to him before. How could he not stop O’Malley? How does O’Malley just think he has an invite to whatever?”

  She blew out a harsh breath. “I thought it was ego, but that man is completely clueless. He’s destroyed you were so upset and just does not get it. To him you shared something awesome you both enjoyed and there is no logical reason to not do it again and again. It’s like his brain can’t process that you wouldn’t want him there when it felt good to be together.”

  I blinked at her a moment. “Is he like missing a sensitivity chip in his brain or something? And I don’t care about his logic or lack of understanding. I told him no and to leave me alone, and he just overrules it like I’m a child or too insignificant to get a vote when it’s me he wants.”

  “Yeah, he’s got a screw loose or several,” she agreed. “And he really doesn’t get how a demon gets overwhelmed and you especially. He kept arguing with me that it made no sense you would ask for something you didn’t want. Both of them even.”

  “Sorry,” I muttered, grabbing the bag and a bottle of water someone had already stocked in the fridge. “Thanks for setting up the buffet and handling them.”

  “No problem. People are raving about the show you put on, no clue it went off the rails and wanting to know when you’re doing another one.”

  “A few weeks after never,” I grumbled and headed back to work. Yeah, that sounded about right.

  Another few hours and we had everything in place and a lot of information for the team to comb through. I was going to help, but I was antsy, feeling cooped up, which was ridiculous given how big the place was.

  “I’m going to check out one of the clubs Lewis listed,” I announced when I couldn’t take it anymore. “Just to show my face and start a stir.”

  Kyle nodded. “Makes sense since you’re off. Which one?”

  I went over and checked out the list. “I’m going to the gay one because I might snap someone’s neck if guys get grabby.”

  “Yeah, good call,” he agreed, giving me a worried look.

  I ignored it and set a few scans on my system to start before heading out. There wasn’t much to do until I got more on the murders, and I had to play dumb until they let me in. If they didn’t, I wasn’t worried, as I would just hack it all.

  Once home, I changed into tiny leather shorts, a crop halter top that gave support, and black hooker boots. I did my hair down and wild so the colors there was all the color I needed. I drove over to the club and locked my purse in the car once I had out some cash, my ID, and car keys. There was an inside zipper pocket on the shorts so I could hide that in there at least.

  It was doing pretty well for a Sunday night. I headed to the bar and ordered a double of whiskey. After I paid and tossed it back, I dove right into the mix. The first few songs I got out of my system what I was feeling, but on one spin I saw they had a few poles off to the side for go-go dancers or whatever. There was more room than the stages at the club I was undercover at, and I found myself jealous.

  When Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too” came on, I couldn’t help myself. I hopped up on the stage and spun on my butt so I stood grabbing the pole. I went right into my routine and felt much better when the song was over and had definitely caused a stir, as I had just about every eye on me.

  “Well, you’re a professional,” one of the security guys called over from the edge of the stage. “Only employees are supposed to use those.”

  “Sorry, I’ll get down.”

  “No, it was awesome. You a dancer?” he asked as I sat down, offering me a hand to slide off the stage.

  “Yeah, I just started a week trial at a place.” I named it and chuckled when he made a face. “That seems to be the general opinion of it, but I checked out the club nearest to where I’m staying after I got into town.”

  “That’s how it always works,” he agreed. “I used to work strip clubs, but I got tired of not being allowed to jump in. It’s bullshit that the owners allow it if the dancers don’t call the customers on it. They lose tips if they do, and that’s why we’re supposed to. But they all want their clubs to be where people can get the most.”

  “Preaching to the choir,” I told him. “I’m Acadia.”

  “Tomas,” he said, offering his hand. He smiled when I took it. “If you’re into the gossip and who’s who on the dancer scene, I could take you to the gym we all use.”

  “Which one?” I asked, smiling when he named one I already had a pass to. “I just joined off a friend’s referral, but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. I’d love a workout buddy to show me the ropes if you’re free tomorrow?”

  He nodded. “As long as it’s not super early since I close here tonight. There’s a group of us that takes a five mile jog at the park right there at eleven and then heads there to lift.”

  “Sounds good.”

  He smiled at me. “I should warn you, the last one done buys lunch after.”

  I smiled right back. “Don’t tease me with free lunch. I eat a lot.”

  He chuckled, shaking his head before leaning in. “Just so we’re clear, I’m bi and totally hitting on you.”

  “Just so we’re clear, I’m into it, but I only play with a guy once, so figure out if you want that or to be friends.”

  He raised an eyebrow at that. “No exceptions and repeats ever?”

  I snorted. “No, and I’m still healing from the huge bite on my ass for breaking that, so I’m even more set on it than ever.”

  “Hot friend I fantasize about it is,” he grumbled.

  I laughed so hard I almost fell over. Nice.

  He told me which park, and I went back to dancing a bit longer. I made a few more friends that seemed dialed in on everything going on in Denver and then headed home to crash.

  6

  The next morning I had a list of people Kyle wanted me to pull full jackets and backgrounds on… Including a few drug dealers that apparently were working out of several strip clubs and kicking back the owners. Lovely.

  Of course Travis was one of them. Awesome.

  I got that done in enough time to arrive at the park at quarter to eleven, making sure I had the right club membership and everything I needed. I was stretching out when T
omas pulled in and got out of his Jeep. “You left off the part where it’s a mountain hiking trail the five miles were on.”

  “Oh, did I?” he chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. “We raze the possible inductees to the group.”

  “I better get a free meal if I’m going uphill and not used to jogging at this elevation.”

  He winced. “Yeah, it will take you a few weeks to get used to.”

  We used each other to stretch out as more guys arrived. I gave him a questioning look, sighing when he winced again.

  “If you guys are planning a gang bang in the mountains, I have a few black belts, and I prefer my kinkier endeavors to have a bed.” I smirked when two choked on the water they were drinking.

  “It’s not like that,” Tomas promised. “We’re all former military, and we do work out with a bunch of dancers and females who work at the same clubs, but they skip the jog on the trail or once it gets cold.”

  “I need more variety than always a treadmill.”

  Everyone was ready at eleven, and I made sure to go over the path with Tomas on the map. He told me there were tons of stakes that had painted colors on them to show what was what. We were following the orange path, and basically once we hit the solid orange stake, turn around.

  “Anyone mind if I sing?” I asked them when we headed for the trail.

  “You might want to hold off on that until you get a few runs at this elevation under your belt,” one of the other guys suggested. “Sorry, I was a medic and EMT now even if I still take shifts at another club.”

  “No, thanks, good point,” I agreed. I knelt down to fix one of my laces and stuffed my iPod in the pocket of my hoodie.

  “Wait, you’re human, right?” someone else asked.

  I flinched. “Does that matter?”

  He did a double take and held his hands out in surrender. “No, no, I’m cool with supes. The last person we invited though didn’t tell us and kept smoking us all. We mere humans can’t keep up with vamps or fuck, even elves.”

  “Ahhh, yeah, I’m human.” I put my hair up in my hat. “Well, once my unicorn hair is up.”