by Jenna Black
I suppressed a shudder at the thought. “Your doorman said you had a three-month wait list.”
“I’d be willing to make an exception for you.”
I’m sure we both knew that Hell would freeze over before I joined, but I played along with her anyway. Trying to reel in my prey. Or just trying to give myself time to change my mind and walk away.
I raised my eyebrows. “Why would you do that?”
I had to resist the urge to shrink back when Shae reached out and hooked an elbow around my arm. “Because you provide boundless entertainment,” she said, trying to steer me toward the door into the heart of the club.
I dug in my heels. I didn’t want to go in there again, especially not on Shae’s arm. “Let’s cut the crap,” I said. “I have no interest is setting foot in your club again.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You already have.”
“You know what I mean. Is there somewhere quiet we can talk?”
She let go of my arm—thank God—and gazed at me curiously. I put on my blandest expression and hoped that I was getting better at hiding what I was feeling. Shae would have creeped me out even if I didn’t know she was an illegal demon. There was just something about her. Not evil, per se, but perhaps… chaotic.
Whatever she read or didn’t read in my face, Shae seemed satisfied. She smiled at me once more and gestured to the Employees Only door.
“Come along,” she said, heading that way. “We can talk in my office.”
I wasn’t surprised the door was locked, but I was a bit surprised to see it was key-carded. The card reader was hidden in a particularly deep shadow, and I hadn’t noticed it before. I wondered if following Shae through that door was a monumentally stupid thing to do. My Taser was in my purse, but I’d learned through hard experience that it didn’t do me a whole lot of good in there.
I grabbed the door, which was heavy and solid, but didn’t immediately follow. Shae turned back and raised an eyebrow.
“Is there a problem?” she asked, and her smile told me she knew exactly what the problem was.
“I’m expecting a call from Adam,” I told her, which was actually true. “I was just wondering if you get cell phone reception in here. It looks kind of… formidable.”
Yeah, okay, the “expected phone call” gambit was a cliché straight out of about three thousand suspense movies. Usually used to no avail, come to think of it. But it was the first thing that popped into my mind, and I didn’t have enough time to come up with something better.
Shae laughed, but at least she was kind enough not to berate me for my lack of originality.
“You’ll have no trouble getting a signal,” she assured me. “I use my cell in here all the time.”
It was time for me to make up my mind. Was I following Shae into the nether regions of her club, away from all possible witnesses, or would I play it safe, tell her we’d talk some other time, and get the hell out?
Playing it safe has never been one of my fortes, so of course I followed her.
I suppose I’d been expecting something mysterious-looking based on the key card entry. What I found instead was a hallway that could have been plucked out of any modest-sized office building in the city. On my right, a janitor’s closet. On my left, a supply room. Just past that was Shae’s office. At the very end of the hall, there was an unmarked door with a card reader beside it.
“What’s in there?” I asked Shae as she pushed open her office door and gestured me inside.
“Just more offices,” Shae answered, but I don’t think she expected me to believe her.
What was behind that door was none of my business, I reminded myself. I was here to see what I could find out about Tommy Brewster, not poke my nose into the shadier sides of Shae’s business.
Shae’s office was as striking as Shae herself. The walls were painted black, and the floor was covered with black, industrial-style carpet. Her desk was gleaming black lacquer with silver accents, and her chair was black mesh with silver tubing. On each side of her desk was a shiny metal bookcase, filled with very boring-looking business titles, and the only adornment on the walls were some black and white photographs of cityscapes, each framed in silver.
I found the effect cold and forbidding. But then, it went well with its owner.
Shae gestured me into a guest chair, then took a seat behind her desk and leaned back, crossing her hands behind her head. Her eyes gleamed with interest and speculation as she watched me sit. Under the guise of checking my phone, I opened my purse and made sure I had a clear shot at the Taser. I also armed it and glanced at the battery indicator. It was ready to go, should I need it.
“So,” Shae said, apparently impatient with my dithering, “what can I do for you, Ms. Kingsley?”
I had any number of suggestions, but I didn’t think voicing them would be conducive to a productive discussion. “I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about Tommy Brewster. I hear he’s a frequent visitor to your club, and I gather that the two of you have some kind of a business relationship.”
Shae blinked at me for a moment, then laughed—a deep, rich laughter that I’m sure many men would find sexy as hell. I merely found it irritating. But then, I’m sure that’s what she intended.
“I see you put as much value in subtlety as I do,” Shae said when she could stop laughing.
I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “Subtlety is highly overrated.”
She controlled her laughter, although amusement still tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I couldn’t agree more. So if we’re going to dispense with subtlety, let me ask you what the hell makes you think I’m going to answer any questions about Tommy?”
I considered pulling the Taser to give her some instant motivation. Then I recognized the fundamental problem with that idea. Many demons enjoyed pain, and it seemed likely that a demon who owned a club that catered to the S&M crowd would be one of them. That made threatening her with pain pointless.
“Do you have any personal loyalty to Tommy?” I asked instead.
Shae gave me a droll look. “Honey, do I look like the kind of person who’d have personal loyalty to anyone?”
“Just checking,” I muttered. “If it wouldn’t offend your delicate sensibilities, then, perhaps you and I can reach some kind of arrangement.” She’d played both sides of the fence before. No reason to think she wouldn’t do it again.
I could tell by the sudden glint in her eye that I’d sparked her interest, though her voice remained bland. “What kind of an arrangement did you have in mind?”
I’d never been involved in anything remotely resembling this kind of illicit negotiation, and I realized I didn’t know how to play it. How much should I offer her? I didn’t even know what a ballpark figure might be. When she’d helped me and Adam rescue Brian from Hell, she’d demanded way more money than I could afford, especially while I was still reeling from the financial impact of my house burning down.
When in doubt, lob the ball into the enemy’s court. “How much do you want?” Maybe if I got her to throw out a figure, I could then negotiate her down.
Shae laughed again, and I wished I could stop giving her fodder for amusement. “You don’t have the kind of money it would take to buy me,” she said. “But I’d be willing to consider other forms of payment.”
Remembering the “other form of payment” she’d demanded from Adam and Dominic in the past, I had to fight to suppress a shudder. Fat lot of good that did me, when my face insists on telegraphing everything I’m thinking.
“It all depends on how badly you want the information,” Shae continued. Her eyes traveled up and down the length of my body, and I most definitely did not want to know what she was seeing in her mind’s eye at the moment.
I pushed my chair back. This was a dumb idea. As dumb as coming to the club in search of Tommy Brewster the first time. “Not that badly, I guess. Thanks for the chat,” I said, turning to the door. My hand hovered near the opening of my pu
rse, just in case.
She let me step out into the hallway and close the door about halfway before she stopped me.
“Don’t leave angry,” she said. “I’m sure we can reach some kind of mutually acceptable arrangement.”
I stood in the doorway, hesitating. I had a feeling I was being drawn in like a fish on a hook. But I also had a feeling if I played my cards right, I’d get the information I wanted out of Shae. And really, what girl can’t afford to lose a pound of flesh from somewhere on her body?
“If the arrangement involves me setting foot anywhere near Hell, then no, we can’t.”
Her smile now was almost pleasant. “Honey, I may be mercenary, but I’m not stupid. There’s no point in bargaining for something I know I won’t get. Now, why don’t you shut the door and make yourself comfortable?”
Feeling very much like the fly to her spider, I shut the door. However, I didn’t sit down, and I decided it was time for more blatant self-defense. I drew the Taser out of my bag, but I didn’t point it at her. I tried my own pleasant smile, though I was glad there wasn’t a mirror nearby.
“I think now I’m as comfortable as I’m ever going to be in your presence,” I said. She might not mind the pain of being Tasered, but if I found myself needing to get out quick, I was prepared. Whatever she might think of the pain, the electricity would muck with her control of her host’s body, and she’d be helpless for a good ten to fifteen minutes. If I couldn’t get out in ten minutes, then I was already up shit’s creek.
The drawn weapon didn’t seem to faze Shae. “Suit yourself. You don’t need the Taser. Violence isn’t my style. But I don’t expect you to take my word for that.”
“Good,” I muttered, “because I won’t. Now, if my money’s not good enough to buy information on Brewster, and if you know full well I’m not providing you ‘entertainment,’ then what exactly are you hoping I’ll give you?”
“Information is a very useful currency. For every question I answer about Brewster, I get to ask you a question myself.”
Why was it the idea instantly made all the little hairs on my arms stand on end? How much useful information could I possibly give her? What would I know that she’d care about? Certainly she’d be fascinated to know about Lugh and Raphael, but it wasn’t like I was going to blurt anything out about them.
“How very Hannibal Lecter of you,” I said as I tried to make sense of the request.
She didn’t look insulted, which somehow didn’t surprise me. “Here’s how it would work. You ask me a question. Then I ask you a question. If you answer my question, then I answer yours. If you don’t answer my question, then I don’t answer yours, but you can ask a different one.” She smiled broadly, her teeth looking suddenly very white and deadly against her ebony skin. “You see, I’m even giving you a choice as to which questions you’re obligated to answer.”
If it sounds too good to be true… “What’s the catch?”
“There is no catch, save for the questions themselves.” Her eyes glinted with amusement. “I’m not going to ask what your favorite color is.”
I thought about it a long time, but I couldn’t see any concrete reason not to at least give it a try. I could answer or not answer as I saw fit, and while I felt sure she’d go for some pretty difficult questions if I asked something she didn’t want to tell me, at least I might be able to get a little bit of information out of her this way.
“Why do I have a feeling this is a bad idea?” I asked out loud as I once again sat in front of her desk. I kept the Taser out and ready, and I pushed my chair back enough to give me some reaction time if she decided to launch across the desk after me for some reason.
“Is that your first question?”
“Ha, ha.” It was surprisingly difficult to figure out what my first question should be. After all, I wasn’t really sure what I was fishing for. “What is your relationship with Tommy Brewster?” I asked, going for something vague and broad. Maybe she’d spill more than she meant to in answering that question. Hey, a girl can hope.
Shae gave me her shark smile. “What is your relationship with Adam White?”
That seemed like an almost innocuous question. I figured that meant I was going to get an answer as vague as my own question in return, but I might as well make an effort to play her game.
“Adam’s my friend,” I said, though I couldn’t speak those words without squirming. Adam was many things to me, but “friend” wasn’t one of them.
Shae arched a shapely brow. “I thought the point of this exchange of information was to get to the truth. If we’re going to deal in falsehoods, then I’ll say that Tommy Brewster is my long-lost cousin. Will that do either of us any good?”
I hate talking to people as sarcastic as I am, though of course she had a point. I squirmed a little more. This was not a question I could answer with any degree of specificity, not without bringing Lugh into the picture, which I wasn’t about to do. “All right,” I said, “I guess he’s not really a friend. It’s a little hard to stick a neat label on him. I guess I’d call him an ally.”
I had the sense Shae made more of that than I’d hoped, but it was too late to take it back. She nodded in satisfaction.
“Tommy Brewster is a business associate. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Ask a vague question, get a vague answer. Score one for Shae. “What kind of business arrangement do you have?”
“Why does an exorcist need a demon ally?”
Yeah, I could definitely see how things could go very, very wrong if I didn’t think carefully before I answered. I wasn’t entirely sure what Shae could do with any information I gave her, but I was entirely sure I didn’t want to find out.
I figured my best strategy was to give her stuff she already knew. “I’ve made a lot of enemies in my line of work, and most of them are demons. I need to have a demon on my side if I want to live to a ripe old age.”
It was the truth, though hardly the whole truth. Shae regarded me with an expression that bordered on contempt. “You get what you pay for. Are you sure you want to stick with that answer?”
I met her eyes, trying to project the image of a woman with nothing to hide. “I answered your question, and I told you the truth. What more do you want?”
Shae snorted. “Fine. My arrangement with Tommy is that he gives me money, and I keep my mouth shut.” When I glared at her, she said, “I answered your question, and I told you the truth. What more do you want?”
Yeah, I was definitely in over my head. I sure could use Brian’s lawyer skills right about now. If I had him here feeding me the answers, I bet I’d be able to answer all kinds of questions in great detail without giving away anything. I briefly considered giving up and asking Adam to interrogate Shae, but I knew without being told that that would never work. Shae cooperated with Adam at times because she had no choice, and Adam cooperated with Shae because he needed her help to catch certain illegal demons. That didn’t mean they would ever cooperate with one another when not forced, and there was no missing the deep-seated animosity between the two.
“I suppose asking you to tell the whole truth would be overly optimistic of me, huh?” I said, stalling a bit to give myself more time to think.
“Do I need to remind you again that this is a trade? You give me the whole truth, I give you the whole truth. You give me the tip of the iceberg, and…”
It made sense, but I wasn’t in a position to give her the whole truth. “Why do you want to know this stuff anyway?” I was still stalling. She probably knew that, but she didn’t call me on it. I didn’t expect her to answer, but she surprised me.
“I’ve managed to stay on the Mortal Plain for more than eighty years,” she said, which of course made me wonder how many hosts she’d gone through in that time. Certainly her current host wasn’t eighty years old. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that information is the most valuable currency anywhere in the world. And the funny thing is, you never know exactly what
information is going to come in handy in the future. Obviously, I know you have enemies in high places. Knowing the full story behind it may turn out to be absolutely useless to me.” Her eyes glittered. “Or maybe it won’t.”
It was the latter possibility that made me hesitate. What did I dare tell her? How badly did I need to know whatever it was she could tell me? Lugh shot me a brief stab of pain through the eye, but it was hard to determine what he was trying to communicate. Maybe I’d been better off when I could hear his voice in my head, after all.
I concentrated as hard as I could on a question for Lugh. Should I take some chances in what I reveal in order to maybe learn more about Tommy? Give me one stab for yes, two for no.
I guess he heard my question. Not being a masochist, I was glad his answer was yes. Let me know if you think I’m about to say something I shouldn’t.
I took a deep breath and then forced myself to meet Shae’s eyes. “All right,” I said. “I’ll tell you the whole truth. But the information you have on Tommy had better be worth it.”
“Fair enough.” She leaned forward in her chair, and I’d swear the look on her face was almost lust. “So tell me, what is your relationship with Adam White?”
“Like I said, we’re allies. He’s one of Lugh’s lieutenants, and I would very much rather see Lugh on the throne than Dougal.”
Shae was better at masking her expression than I was, but she couldn’t entirely hide her surprise. I would have thought she’d known that I was somehow involved in the war of succession after Dougal’s minions had paid her to hold Brian hostage. I had to remind myself once more that she was a mercenary. A mercenary who could be persuaded not to ask “why” if the price was high enough.
“You look surprised,” I told her, hoping to press my advantage. “Do you expect me to believe you knew nothing about any of this?”
She recovered her composure much more quickly than I’d have liked. The smile was back, sharp and cold as ever. “That sounds almost like another question.”
I scowled at her. “Just tell me what your deal is with Tommy Brewster. It’s late, I’m tired, and I want to go home.”
