by Dannika Dark
“He seems like a tough guy. No one lives forever, so why not let him do what he wants?” She rolled slowly beside me. “I know how he feels. Viktor’s always trying to protect me, but I’m also a Mage. Even though I’m small and don’t know how to fight, I can help. That’s how your father feels. He knows he’s mortal, but he just wants to help. Oh!” She gasped and spun in front of me. “He promised to bring over barbecue from that place we went to. Isn’t that divine? We hardly ever have guests, but now that he’s a trusted human, we can have him over all the time!”
Perish the thought.
The mere idea of Crush popping in unannounced while I was busy having sex with Christian made me shudder.
“Gem, don’t invite him over here without asking me first. I love him, but we need boundaries. I’m also afraid that he might volunteer himself too much in our business, and Viktor’s already recruited him once. You don’t know that man like I do. He doesn’t just look for trouble, he runs to it headfirst.”
She gave me an elfin grin and skated backward. “Sounds like a certain someone I know.”
After checking my internal clock, I decided it was time to go. “I need to call a cab before it gets too late.” I blew past her toward the end of the hall. “Have you gone swimming lately?”
“No,” she said tersely, rolling alongside me. “I’ve been too busy.”
That sounded like a lie.
“Raven?”
I stopped at the stairs and turned. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for believing in me. With Viktor, I mean. I won’t let everyone down.” She made a motion of crossing her heart.
“You never have.”
Chapter 25
Sad to leave Keystone, I called a cab and headed back to the hotel. Viktor wanted me to go straight to work, but Chitahs frequented the club, and wearing sex-on-a-roof-scented perfume would attract the wrong sort of customers to my station. After showering, I decided that following club rules wasn’t a priority. Now that we’d found our culprits, I just wanted to be comfortable. I took a pair of scissors to a threadbare T-shirt and cut it in half. It wasn’t a favorite, just an old concert T-shirt that Crush had bought me a while ago when I was staying with him. After getting ready for work, I headed out.
It was a crisp May night, and the smell of Chinese food hung in the air from a nearby buffet. When I heard a screech from a falcon, I glanced up and was struck in the face by a falling object. A silver chain slid down my nose and into the palm of my hand. At least Viktor hadn’t sent Crush this time. While walking, I switched out my onyx pendant to the new chain, which was shorter and much thicker.
Once I reached the White Owl, the bouncer let me through. Most of the outside crowd had dispersed, but inside the club was a different story. I’d put on perfume, something most Chitahs despised. They wrinkled their noses when I passed them to put my coat in the locker room. Now that the pressure was off on sniffing out the ringleader, I decided to enjoy myself and pretend to be like everyone else with a normal job.
“Didn’t think you would show,” Simone said over the music.
I joined her side at the bar. “Something came up.”
“Does he pay you well?” She tossed an empty bottle into a trash bin.
“Who?”
“The boss. For doing these special errands.” Simone reached around me for a stack of napkins. “I heard all about it from the manager. What’s he got you doing?”
I huffed out a sigh and handed a customer a bottle of Breed beer. “Personal stuff, and it’s not sex. Trust me, you wouldn’t be interested.”
“Wouldn’t I? Did you know someone stole all my tips during the fight? That’s what happens when no one is there to watch them.” Simone poured a drink for a woman in a cat mask. Then she leaned her arm on the bar and turned toward me. “Day and night I bust my butt to earn back what that scoundrel took from me.”
“Flynn said it was a mutual understanding.”
Her eyes rolled. “That boy doesn’t even know what a mutual fund is. If you decide that you don’t want these special errands, put in a good word for me. I work two jobs, and all I do is serve booze.”
“I figured you and Flynn would have schemed up a way to make money on the side. He seems like a good hustler.”
“You got that right. And I wouldn’t do business with Flynn if my life depended on it. If you’re smart, you’ll keep it friendly and nothing more.”
I wondered if she might have been the one to put Flynn up to all this. “Has he ever offered you anything?”
She chuckled and pulled a glass out. “His great big penis. It wasn’t draining my account that made me break it off with him. It was when he asked me to spike alcohol and sell it to a few of his friends. My money wasn’t enough, and he’d squandered some of it to purchase a storage unit filled with booze. He planned it all along.”
“You could have made a good profit.”
Simone shook her head. “A fool and his money will always part. I was a fool once,” she said, handing a customer a bottle of beer, “but never again.”
“Why didn’t you quit the club to get away from him?”
“Because I am the master of my fate, not Flynn. He knows he’ll pay me back one way or another. And if I find out he was the one who emptied my tips, I’ll spike his drink with erectile dysfunction.”
“I thought you still had feelings for him.”
Simone laughed. “Is that what he told you? Listen, we’re wandering into slander territory, but let’s just say that Flynn has a very active imagination.” She frowned at my shirt. “Where’s your work clothes?”
“I decided that Mistress White can get away with it. I also needed to let the girls out. They don’t like being locked up.”
Simone reached for an orange bottle behind me and spiked a drink for a customer. As her finger swirled in the glass, I felt bad for assuming she had something to do with all this. She could have been lying, but I was pretty good at spotting a liar. Well, except for Flynn, but maybe he was a professional. On top of that, Simone still had to see him every day. Most humans I knew would have never wanted to see a guy like that again, but who wants to spend their life making more enemies? Plus the tips here were too good to pass up. She busted her ass, working two shifts every night on top of a second day job. When the hell did she have time to sleep or have fun? In the time I’d spent at the White Owl, I hadn’t seen anyone pull their weight as much as Simone. Worst of all, I liked Flynn. He was wrapped up in nefarious activities, but underneath all that, he seemed like a nice guy who just took the wrong path.
But I had to put those feelings aside. Being a nice guy didn’t justify breaking the law.
The next day came and went, and because Viktor didn’t want me wandering outside the hotel, I spent the afternoon idling in my room. After five hours of game shows, courtroom dramas, and talk shows, I was ready to fling myself out the window. I was grateful Viktor hadn’t installed electricity in all the rooms, because I didn’t feel like myself after watching all that television. As much as I hated the atmosphere at the club, I eagerly looked forward to my shift. At least there would be a fight or two, and not all the patrons wanted my verbal abuse. Some were friendly.
I thought by Friday that Viktor might send me a message, but none came. Flynn invited me to meet him at a Chinese buffet near my hotel that afternoon, and due to the timing, I wondered if he knew about the second offer I received from Audrey.
“More drink?” the pretty server asked.
“Sure.”
She smiled at me and topped off my soda.
“Thank you.”
After she hustled off to attend to another table, I got up to fill my plate with seconds. I hadn’t eaten much in the past few days, and the food here was good. Fresh, hot, and plentiful. Dynasty Star Chicken was a spacious establishment. Nothing fancy, and most of the food was Chinese-American. Greeters stood behind the front register, summoning servers to escort people to their tables. Booths lined the outer walls, and ta
bles filled in the rest of the space. The buffet stations were in the center, sparkling chandeliers glittering over them. Short walls bordered the seating areas, and the recessed lighting did nothing to class up the amusingly bad paintings on the walls. Despite the crowd, I was able to find a quiet corner to enjoy my meal.
I hustled up to the meat station and scooped up more jalapeño chicken and shrimp. When I approached the station with the egg rolls, I bumped into a tall Chitah.
“My apologies, female,” he said, his voice as smooth as a blade. His shoulder-length hair obscured some of his formidable features, but I caught a glimpse of his golden eyes.
As I put three egg rolls on my plate, I noticed the Chitah filling his plate with nothing but sugar donuts. He took almost all of them and left only one in the serving pan.
When I returned to my booth by the window, I spied Flynn passing by outside. He had on his all-black work clothes but was also carrying a satchel. When he entered the restaurant, I signaled him over.
“Don’t mind if I do.” He snatched one of my egg rolls before he sat down. “I’m famished. Haven’t eaten all day since I was in the gym lifting weights.”
“Impressive,” I said flatly.
One bite demolished half his egg roll. “Simone says you took the night off. You should watch yourself. Can’t afford to lose a good job. That’s your safety net.” He glanced over his shoulder suspiciously.
“No Vamps in here,” I assured him. “Just a Chitah and some Shifters in the back.”
He gobbled up the rest of the egg roll. “How can you tell who the Shifters are?”
After chewing my chicken, I wiped my mouth. “I don’t know. Just a feeling, and they’re behaving like a pack of coyotes.”
“Band.”
I furrowed my brow. “Huh?”
“A band of coyotes. That’s the official name.”
“I don’t think you’re right.”
“Of course I am, love. I memorized it once. A clutch of chickens, a cast of hawks, a flock of geese, a band of coyotes, a horde of gorillas—or is it a band of gorillas and a horde of… what, exactly?”
When Flynn reached for another egg roll, I slammed my hand on top of his. Silverware and plates rattled, drawing a few curious eyes.
“If you’re hungry, pay the lady up front,” I said. “The buffet is over there, not on my plate.”
He sat back and folded his arms. “After all I’ve done for you.”
“You’re taking fifty percent of my pay, so I think I’m giving you enough.”
I glanced over at the Chitah, who had returned to his table. He extended his arm to the woman across from him, but all I could see of her was the back of her head. When he retracted his arm, I noticed a large bite in a donut he was holding.
Flynn shifted in his seat to have a look and then turned back around. “That’s a brave bloke.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Chitahs are usually the least likely to interbreed in public. Some classy restaurants will turn them away. Her energy was strong when I walked by the table, so I bet she’s a Mage. No wonder they’re hiding out in here.”
“Why did you want to meet?”
Flynn scratched his short beard, which looked freshly trimmed. It was more like a five-o’clock shadow trying to graduate to the next level. He lifted the satchel and slid it across the table. A warm smile lit up his face. “That’s a lot of money.”
I pulled the bag onto the bench and peered inside at the stack of bills.
“It’s all there.”
I flicked a cautious gaze his way. “I’ll count it later. You don’t exactly have a solid reputation when it comes to money.”
He removed his tinted glasses and set them on the table. “Is that where you’re going tonight?”
“You don’t know?”
He stared at my plate. “They tell me absolutely nothing. I collect the money and distribute it accordingly.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to pay fighters directly?”
“If someone discovered women coming out of that building at odd hours with a satchel filled with money, they might use them for information or more money.”
I smiled and dipped my egg roll in sweet-and-sour sauce. “Only a crazy person would set them up.”
“You got that right. I bloody hell wouldn’t want to cross them. And to what gain?” He scoffed. “I’d never be foolish enough.”
“How is it you can walk out with all that money?”
“I’m the runner. I take some of it to a banker in the light of day, and the rest goes to the fighters. It gives the boss time to legalize everything, that way if someone questions our transaction, they’ve got paperwork showing you sold an item in one of their public auctions. There’s also a receipt in the bag.”
“What if fights were to the death? Would that change your involvement?”
He twirled his glasses on the table and swung his gaze upward. “I don’t know. I suppose it depends on if they were both willing. Anyhow, that’s not the case. And if it were, I’d want a hell of a lot more money. That said, accidents happen. Take care of yourself.”
I got the feeling Flynn didn’t know a damn thing about the inner workings of that organization. But accidents might explain what had happened to the victims. I’d almost lost control and killed my opponent, so I could see how an inexperienced Mage without any control might take it too far. Until I found out what the second job offer was, it was all speculation.
“I’ve got another appointment with them tonight,” I admitted. “Are you working? I can fill you in on some of the details—especially if more money is involved.” I had no intention of filling him in, but I needed to know Flynn’s whereabouts in case Keystone moved in tonight.
“I don’t want to know.” He put on his orange glasses and smiled. “Well, if they cut you from the program, that I want to know.”
“You’re not even curious what happened the other night? How it went? Who won?”
“It’s quite obvious who won, love. When one bag weighs more than the other, I always know.”
I sipped my soda and then finished off the egg roll. “Maybe we should do this at your place next time. I don’t like public places, and my hotel has too many eyeballs in the lobby. Where do you live?”
“Miss White, are you trying to seduce me?”
“I’d rather seduce a tub of chocolate frosting. No offense. Doing this in a restaurant is amateurish. We’re not in a James Bond movie, and if I sit here too long, that Chitah might start to smell a bag full of money and wonder what’s going on.”
“That’s not my concern,” he said with a shrug. “Most people exchange money in public so the receiving party can deliver it to their banker. You should get one of those. You’ll need help.”
I pulled the strap of the bag over my shoulder and stood. “You might change your tune if that Chitah was an off-duty Regulator. Look, I don’t like the idea that someone might cut my throat for what’s in this bag. Until I get a banker, I’d rather do this at night in a private location. Where do you live? We’ll do the next one at your place, and it might be as early as tonight.”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
Perturbed, I turned to leave.
Flynn seized my wrist and gave me a peevish look. “You’re not thinking about screwing me over, are you?”
I swallowed hard. “I haven’t told a soul about this job.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He tightened his grip. “If I’m out of the picture, you get more money. Am I going to have to sleep with one eye open?”
“Is there a problem?” a man growled.
The hairs on my neck stood on end when I looked over my shoulder at the Chitah, who had left his table to join ours. His eyes locked on Flynn’s grip—God only knew what kind of scent we were putting out.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Do I look like someone who can’t take care of herself?”
His nostrils flared as he pulled in my scent, and then his
lips twitched. “You remind me of my female. If you need assistance, which I’m certain you don’t, I’m at your service.” He bowed and returned to his seat.
I wrenched my arm free and gave Flynn a scathing look. “That’s why we can’t do this in public anymore. I’m sure you don’t want to be wandering the streets with a bag full of money either.”
Flynn held up his hands. “Fine, fine. I’m at 23 Gooseberry Lane.”
I chortled. “Is that a real address?”
“Do not come over uninvited, and I don’t give out my address to anyone else. Karen knows, and probably the club owner, but that’s all.”
“Are you sure it’s not because you don’t want all your secret girlfriends running into each other?”
He smiled fiendishly. “We’ll do this at my place next time. Say, have you seen that sexy Chitah lately?”
“Which one? We have a lot of Chitahs who visit the club.”
“Clyde. Tall bloke with the round arse. Simone says she heard he quit, but I refuse to believe it. Do you happen to know where he resides?”
“No idea. The last time I talked to him, he was complaining about people grabbing him. Maybe he had enough.”
Flynn pulled my plate toward him. “Bloody shame,” he said, holding up my last egg roll. “I would have liked to see what he had under those shorts.”
I clapped his shoulder. “Don’t you mean his bank account? See you around.”
“You cheeky little devil,” he murmured while munching on his egg roll.
As I passed the Chitah, I gave him a nod, hoping he didn’t smell my satchel full of money. He probably did, but what could he do? Bust me for being rich? Now I just needed to stay focused on what was about to go down tonight. Danger was on the menu, and while I’d eaten that six-course meal before, I’d always had some kind of preparation. Tonight I had no idea what awaited me.
I just hoped Keystone would be able to find a way in, or I might not be able to find a way out.