Ding!
That ding was creeping up the rankings of my most hated sounds.
The doors slid open, and I stared at the beauty within before cursing long and hard in my head.
It was one of them. A fucking bright eye.
“Basi,” she greeted, stepping out into the lobby. “We didn’t get a chance to meet yesterday. I’m Katerina. You’ll tag along with me for the next couple of weeks.”
A glance at Tommy confirmed she was open-mouthed and staring at the goddess before us. And Katerina had nothing on Angelica or him. Her eyes didn’t seem as intense. Muted somehow.
My heart raced, but my head wasn’t pounding in her presence like with Angelica.
“Hey,” I said, aware I had a charade to play along with. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Tommy slid a look at me, waiting for an introduction. Smiling widely, I slipped inside the elevator and studied the numbers.
“Sixty-six,” I muttered at her.
My friend’s brows shot up. There were a lot of high-rises in Bluff City. But even I hadn’t been in one with so many levels.
“Are you ready to go?” Katerina asked, glancing between the pair of us.
Tommy eyed me, a wrinkle appearing between her brows, but I wasn’t dragging her into this mess. No way. I was already cursing myself for using her last name on my forms. None of this, whatever this was, could come back on her.
I swung my hair back. “Sure. I’m ready.”
To Tommy, I said, “I’ll catch you tomorrow. You can tell me how your date goes.”
She blinked a few times, and her obvious hurt kicked me in the smalls. This type of interaction rubbed at scars she’d carried for a lot of years. But I’d rather hurt her a little by having her think I didn’t want to introduce her to my fancy friends than to actually bring harm to her door.
Tommy forced a smile. “Will do. Have a good day, Basil.”
Some of my tension drained away. “You too, girl.”
I focused my attention on Katerina, whose narrowed eyes showed sharp intelligence. Yikes.
The woman pointed to an entrance in the far corner that I hadn’t noticed. “My car is in the garage.”
Here was the moment I’d waited for. Tommy was gone. While Katerina’s presence wasn’t ideal, she was just one person. Freedom beckoned from mere steps away.
“Will we be at home visits for most of the day?” I asked, rushing through the maths in my head. Two days of pay could extract me from my predicament. For another week. One day of pay would only allow me to pay rent.
She cocked her head. “We’ll come back for your lunch break and go out again until later. There will be research to do in your office for the last hour of the day.”
In other words, today would be nothing like yesterday.
Every fibre of my being had resisted return. And yet now I was here…
I had to do it.
Eight hours of misery and I’d be about to afford rent for this week and the next. It was time to toughen up.
“Sounds good to me.” I lied.
I followed the woman into a low-ceilinged dark garage that appeared to occupy the entire ground floor. Row upon row of shining cars greeted my eyes—ruby reds, titanium, and black hues. I wasn’t a car enthusiast, but I could spot a rich car from a mile away. Everyone in this skyscraper was loaded.
Katerina led me to a royal blue car that I nearly had to crawl onto the passenger seat of. With a graceful twist, she eased onto the driver seat.
“Nice wheels.” I pulled my pack free and shoved it by my feet.
She patted the steering wheel. “I purchased this with the last commission I earned for securing a house.”
I brushed aside the urge to ask what securing meant. I wasn’t sticking around. I didn’t care. It was slang for their illegal dealings. “Nice.”
Without warning, Katerina zipped the car out of the park. The back tyres slid on the polished concrete, the rubber squealing.
My hands splayed against the window and dashboard in reflex. “Holy sh—”
“I like to drive fast,” she said apologetically.
No kidding. I was thrown to the left as she left the garage and entered traffic, slotting between two trucks. Reaching for my seat belt, I clicked it in place. “I can see that. While I’m in the car, would you mind driving slower?”
“You don’t like the way I drive?” Her voice dropped.
My heartbeat rocketed. “It’s not that,” I blurted. “I get car sick. I wouldn’t want to barf all over your Italian leather.”
Her cute upturned nose scrunched. “I see. I’ll go slow.”
She made it sound like I’d asked for a kidney. “Thank you.”
Slow turned out to be just over the speed limit—preferable to her audition for The Fast and the Furious.
She gave me a rundown as we left Grey. “We’re heading to a house in Green this morning. It’s owned by an elderly man.”
“He’s looking to sell?”
Katerina frowned, and the action drew my attention to her lips. Did she get injections because they were impossibly full and soft? Normally injections made lips look puffy and painful, but she was pulling it off.
“That’s what we’re hoping,” she answered.
I processed that. “He’s unsure?”
“They always are.”
Was this sage advice for the new trainee? It felt like she was saying something more with her words.
She followed the signs to Green and we screeched through street after street of emerald roofs. I’d visited this suburb a few times. They had cute winding streets with Instagrammable brunch spots. Grandmother and I had visited a few of them.
“You’re shadowing me,” Katerina said. “I’ll introduce you, and if the client talks to you, just answer politely. Otherwise, leave the business talk to me. Watch and listen. Tonight, I want you to take notes of everything you recall. There’s a kind of script we loosely adhere to.”
“I can do that.” It was a shame we didn’t start with this yesterday. Today was already miles better than Wednesday.
She slowed down when we reached a quiet corner in Green. The street sign read Gentry Street. Turning, she soon eased the car into a sweeping driveway with neat hedges.
“We have to drive slower on the street of sale in case a client is watching,” Katerina explained, baring her teeth.
I nearly chuckled at her bitter tone, except she was out of the car in a blink.
I extracted myself from the car and hurried after her. I caught up at the front door and she shot me a disapproving look. I grimaced a fake apology and spun as the front doors were pulled open.
“Mr Hartly,” Katerina said, smiling at full wattage.
The man paled. The staff at Live Right needed to stop smiling.
“Might we come in to continue our talk from the other day?”
Did the wolf use similar words when trying to get inside the houses of the three pigs?
The man swallowed and glimpsed at the screen door sitting between him and Katerina. I could almost hear him processing that the screen was flimsy and wouldn’t keep her out.
He nodded and pushed the screen ajar. His watering blue eyes rested on me and his shoulders visibly eased.
Not just me then.
Though I wasn’t having as much trouble with Katerina. Which made about as much sense as being afraid of teeth.
The man shuffled through the wide hall, almost side-on. He wasn’t comfortable with my mentor at his back? Poor old man had to be eighty or more.
I stepped in front of Katerina so I was between Mr Hartly and her.
Monkeys had to stick together.
There were a lot of strange things going on in my life, but the simple fact that I just inserted myself between two people—because my gut identified one as a fucking predator—should have sent me off the deep end. Except the work hangover I’d woken with was still rampant. It was almost like I was in some kind of autopilot survival mode. Either that
or I’d given up on my situation.
I had zero idea what was going on aside from my hypnotist mafia theory. And I wasn’t stupid enough to open Pandora’s box. I’d go with the flow until the end of the day, get my money, and get the hell away from them all.
Next time, I’d apply for the stupid paper run.
Mr Hartly led us to the lounge and eased onto the sole La-Z-Boy. Letting Katerina pass me, I caught her warning glare. This time I didn’t apologise. I connected far more with people of Mr Hartly’s age, being raised by my grandmother and her close-knit circle of friends.
Katerina walked to the sofa facing him and sat. I followed and perched at the opposite end. A low table sat between us and the older man, and I could tell he felt better for the buffer.
“Thank you for seeing us, Mr Hartly,” she said. “This is my trainee, Basi Tetley. She’s an up-and-coming star at Live Right Realty. Are you okay with her being here?”
“Y-Yes,” he wheezed, watery eyes begging me not to go.
I smiled, and his brow cleared a smidgen.
“As you know, Live Right is interested in purchasing your property.”
Hold the phone. We were buying off him? Not brokering a sale between him and a buyer?
Mr Hartly blinked several times. “Yes. I’m not sure I understand—”
Katerina dipped her head at his half question and interjected. “House prices in Green are forecasted to continue dropping over the next year. Lower house prices wouldn’t usually be an issue, except no one is rushing in to buy the bargains—and they haven’t for several years. In short, the house market is crashing, Mr Hartly, and Live Right wants to stop that happening.”
Was that a normal thing for real estate companies to do?
Mr Hartly was a step ahead of me. “So you’re buying a heap of houses so the properties don’t become worthless?”
“Correct,” she said. “And by doing so, we’re preventing thousands of owners from losing money on investments.”
“Then what?” he asked, eyes narrowing.
Phew. Go Mr Hartly.
“Then when the population does start buying again, we sell the houses back to the public for the price we paid,” she answered smoothly.
My doubt was echoed on the old man’s face. I wasn’t sure I swallowed any of that.
His bushy brows climbed. “I’m meant to believe a business of Live Right’s magnitude isn’t profiting from this at all? Why would any business take such a risk? You people must be forking out millions.”
Yeah, I was on his side. Her sales pitch was shit. Large businesses were after everything they could get, and having met the owner of Live Right, I felt extra safe agreeing with Mr Hartly. Kyros didn’t strike me as the charitable sort. Everything he did would have a benefit for him. My theory was based entirely off his shoes.
Katerina’s voice lowered. “This is a small city as you know, and although we are governed externally, we’re a self-sustaining economy. The small scale of that economy has its drawbacks in that our revenue base is smaller. It makes us more sensitive to change in any industry. Unlike a lot of other small economies, our largest industry isn’t agriculture—it’s real estate. So, Mr Hartly, the riskiest course of action—for Bluff City and for a realty company—would be for us to do nothing. We need business to continue being a business.”
Ferocious though she looked, her words rang of truth this time. While my training surrounded international business, I’d heard my grandmother and her friends talk enough on the subject to know Katerina was correct about the drawbacks of an economy of our size.
Mr Hartly glanced around the room. “I bought this home with my late wife. We raised three children here. None of them live in Bluff City anymore though, and this place is too big for me to take care of. I have to hire gardeners and cleaners to keep up with things. I mean, I have savings, but the pension isn’t big enough to cover all the costs, you know? I need to sell…”
I knew what he wanted to say. Katerina’s Cheshire smile was making him hesitate.
She’d told me to keep quiet, but I couldn’t. “You don’t want your home to become involved in anything bad.”
Blue beams trained on the side of my face. Eek.
Mr Hartly faced me.
“Yes,” he whispered. “How do I know this isn’t a scam? I’ve never heard of a real estate company buying up properties out of the goodness of their heart. It’s like that email I got last week—some Norwegian prince who wanted to give me a million dollars.”
I cracked a grin. “I get those too.”
The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened.
My heart raced under Katerina’s attention. Bracing myself, I turned to her, managing not to flinch under her blazing look. She didn’t appreciate my impromptu script, I could gather.
Who cares? I wasn’t sticking around, and I wouldn’t let her bully this man into a sale.
“What can you tell me about Live Right Realty?” the man asked, darting a look at Katerina, who’d smoothed her expression into pleasant blandness at his attention.
I could fill a book with my experience. “Not much, I’m afraid. I only started yesterday.”
The blue beams were back on me. Was she displeased I hadn’t lied?
Well, Katerina could join her boss in the act of sitting and rotating.
“But,” I added—because I also didn’t want to swim with the fishes, “the staff all have nice cars. Which I guess means they’re good at their job.”
The man scratched his chin. “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. Where are you from?”
The estates. “Orange,” I answered.
He hadn’t pegged me as rich?
Day made.
“A nice, honest girl then.” He nodded as if that had confirmed his opinion of me.
I guessed girls from the estates were mean and dishonest then. Which was fairly accurate, really. I just liked to believe I wasn’t one.
“I try my best,” I said, casting my gaze downward.
He shifted his focus to Katerina, who I could feel simmering beneath her smile. “Live Right hired a girl from Orange?”
Katerina leaped at the chance. “If a person possesses the professionalism we pride ourselves on at Live Right, they get the job, Mr Hartly. We don’t discriminate.”
Sure. Anyone with messed up eyes and teeth was welcome.
His lips pursed. He was considering her offer, I could tell.
Katerina could too.
“Last time we spoke, you decided to have your house valued privately. Can I ask if you went through with that?”
“Sure did,” he said, opening a small drawer in the table between us.
He extracted a file. “Bought this place for sixty thousand in the eighties. It was worth ten times that amount two years ago—now it’s worth eight. This was always our retirement plan.” His eyes misted.
Old people nearly crying was a new one for me. The elderly in my life were fucking ferocious on every front. The idea of them crying was almost laughable.
He passed the folder to Katerina, and she scanned the contents.
“All is in order here. Our own evaluation returned a figure of four hundred and fifty.”
“If I’m selling to you, I’ll be taking five hundred and ten thousand,” he said, setting his jaw. He paled again when she stilled.
“Five hundred and ten thousand?” she repeated in a low voice.
I darted a look between them, wondering if I’d have to leap in the middle and save Mr Hartly’s life.
He stumbled over his words. “I don’t know what it is you big folk are doing in that tower, but there’s something you aren’t telling me. You can pay five hundred and ten thousand or you can get out and I’ll sell to a good, honest person.”
Power to Mr Hartly. He wasn’t backing down.
Katerina’s tight-lipped expression made me wonder if that was the norm. Or was she intimidating him on purpose in some kind of realty bluff? Every so often, real estate
agents came to the estate, but they never behaved like this—if they managed to get through the gate at all. My grandmother would skin them alive if they tried.
Sitting here, witness to the old man’s fear, and Katerina’s scare tactics… it really was as though she was the mafia and Mr Hartly just an innocent citizen. Was Kyros a godfather? Bluff City had an undercurrent of crime like any city. Had I stumbled upon the above-ground face by accident? Were they all on drugs? Did that explain the weird eyes?
Weariness piled on my shoulders. This uncertainty was exhausting.
“I must speak to my supervisor,” Katerina said, tilting her chin.
Poor Mr Hartly was sweating up a storm.
She stood in a graceful movement that startled both of us. “I’ll be right back.”
Fuck me. If Katerina came back with a gun, I was out of here.
As soon as she left the room, Mr Hartly spun to me. “Is she scamming me?”
Did I think she was scamming him? Yes. But not with the money side of things. Part of the explanation she gave him rang true, but the rest didn’t. Like him, I could sense there was more than they were divulging. Something bad. And, as I’d already pegged, something highly illegal.
Katerina could be listening to this conversation.
Which was why my answer to him was a cool lie. “I believe they mean to prevent the market from crashing. The forecasts in Green really aren’t looking good. You’ll be in good hands with Live Right, Mr Hartly.”
He sighed. “I’m glad. I want to do right by the memories I’ve had in this house. I want others to have a chance to create such memories too. I may have lost the love of my life, but someone else is with their one-and-only right now, and the thought of them in this house brings me great comfort.”
I was going to hell.
Katerina glided back in like the criminal swan she was. “My supervisor cleared me to accept your offer on one condition.”
Mr Hartly tensed.
So did I.
This was the part where he signed over his soul, or Katerina cut off an ear.
She opened a folder of papers and twisted the top of the fountain-tip pen, holding it out to him.
Blood Trial: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 1) Page 8