by R. J. Blain
If it didn’t, we’d have to make a run for the roof, rig the gear, and hope the electromagnetic system checked out. At least falling from the top of a skyscraper beat a three-story drop. I had no hope of survival and it wouldn’t take long to hit the ground.
I stretched out my legs and tried not to think too hard about the risks associated with the job. If I struck out on this hit, I’d have to start from scratch, wait at least a week or two before the furore died down, and target the next address on Rob’s list.
When the driver’s side door opened, I glanced over. Rob glared at me, his face a deep red. “You sent me into a brothel,” he snarled.
I had completely forgotten the cache doubled as a brothel, and for a long moment, all I could do was blink at him. He had two large duffel bags, which he dropped at his feet.
Torn between the thought of a flustered Rob trying to dodge prostitutes and annoyance at myself for having forgotten the shop doubled as a brothel, I snorted and buckled my seatbelt. Determined to hide my flub, I replied, “And here I thought you’d have yourself a good time. A man as talented as yourself is a hit in there.”
“You set me up.”
I cocked my head to the side, wondering if I’d be able to spot any lipstick on him with his face so flushed. “Did you have a hard time getting the goods?”
At my innuendo, Rob’s mouth dropped open, and I laughed at the way he spluttered.
“Mommy,” Colby muttered, hopping into the car’s tiny backseat. Even my macaroni and cheese looked a bit crimson.
“You’re shy. You’re actually shy. It’s just a brothel, Rob.”
“Just a brothel?” he blurted.
I stared at him, not certain what to make of his behavior. Brothels were almost as common as grocers, and women from all castes worked at them—if they were pretty enough. It was one of the few jobs where caste didn’t matter. Elite men didn’t really care who they slept with, as long as she was pretty and showed them a good time. “You’re embarrassed?”
Pointing at the brick-faced building, he spluttered, “You sent me into a brothel.”
“If you’d like to see more of them, I’ll take you once we’re done with the real work. Really, Rob. It’s just a brothel. You could have taken your time if you really wanted.”
Rob’s eyes widened, and once again, he was rendered speechless for a long moment before choking out, “Miss Daegberht!”
“Did you get the gear?”
Rob moved his seat forward, glared at me, and loaded the bags into the back. “Yes.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Did Alli or Monica service you?” I somehow managed to keep my expression neutral.
Rob spluttered and shook his head, his face turning a deeper crimson.
“Monica,” I stated, allowing myself to scowl a little. “She’s the grand mistress of the quickie, or so the rumors say.”
Drawing a deep breath, Rob slid into the driver’s seat, closed the door, and said, “You could have warned me.”
“I didn’t know you needed to be warned,” I replied, lifting my chin and turning my head to stare out the window. “Surely you’re man enough to handle a brothel.”
“Not the entire brothel!”
Laughter bubbled out of me, and I doubled over in my effort to contain it. The first giggle emerged as a strangled squeak.
“I didn’t do anything with any of them,” he snapped.
With tears blurring my eyes, I shook my head, wondering what chaos I missed by waiting in the car. A good-looking, well-dressed man showing up at the brothel would have triggered a feeding frenzy among the women, especially Monica.
If I had walked in with him, the news would have reached Kenneth within an hour. My eyes widened, and I twisted around to stare at him. “Give me your jacket,” I demanded.
“What?”
“Your jacket. Don’t just sit there like you’re stupid. Give it to me.” I unbuckled, snapping my fingers at him. “Hurry up. I don’t have all night.”
He shrugged out of it and frowned at me. As soon as he was out of it, I shrugged out of my coat and holster, grabbed his jacket, and darted out of the car. “I’ll be right back.”
Revenge was a dish best served hot and sexy, and the instant Kenneth thought I was sleeping with Rob, there’d be a fight worth watching, and interesting things happened when elite duked it out.
I ran into the brothel in search of Monica and Alli wearing Rob’s jacket.
My plan backfired about twenty seconds after I stepped into the brothel. Monica caught sight of me, and she threw herself at me, catching me in a hug. I froze, and because I was so stunned she had jumped at me, I didn’t have time to stop her before she smeared kisses and lipstick all over my cheek.
It hurt like hell. Without my gloves on, I had to fend her off with my bare hands, which joined my face in itching and burning. “Christ, Monica. Off!”
Since when had Kenneth’s other bitch liked me enough to want to hug me, let alone kiss me?
“Alexa!” the entirely nude woman wailed, clinging to my arm. “We thought you were dead.”
She was as pretty as I remembered, and judging by the sheen of sweat and oil on her skin, she had just finished with a client. No wonder Rob had been flustered; Monica fresh off a man was enough to make most women question their sexuality, me included.
At the rate my face was throbbing, I probably would die if I didn’t get away from her. Determined not to shriek, scream, or otherwise humiliate myself, I stammered, “Sorry. I got roughed up.”
“How bad? You’ve been missing for weeks.” Monica cleared her throat, and I realized her voice was hoarser than I expected.
Great. Not only was she working a brothel, she was working it while sick with a cold. At least she’d be better off than Kelsie.
I’d come back and kick her ass if I caught her cold, though. The last thing I needed was another few weeks out of commission.
“Bad enough,” I confessed. While my throat wasn’t swelling closed as it had when Arthur had touched me, I wheezed enough to worry me—and quell any thoughts of testing my luck with the woman. I peeled her off and stepped out of her reach. “I’m fine. Well, mostly.” Lifting my left hand, I showed her the bandage. “It’ll heal soon enough.”
Monica pursued me and ducked her head close to mine to whisper, “That jacket. It belongs to that hunk who was just in here. You’re the one who gave him the passphrase?”
“Sure did,” I replied, careful to keep my voice low.
“Damn, woman. He’s a fine one, and he’s loaded to boot. If you get tired of him, bring him around. Better yet, bring him and yourself around sometime. We’ll have fun—a lot of fun.”
Fun was one way to put it; if Monica found out just how much fun I had enjoyed with Rob, she’d hunt him until her dying breath, determined to get a ride out of him herself. “I have to work, so give me the brief,” I hissed.
“Our boss is madder than hell. First, you get yourself killed, only for us to find out you’ve been put under watch because of that mess at the college. Be careful; he’s convinced you’ll lead the uppers right to his operations.”
“Shit. I’ll be careful,” I promised. “I’m off to do the sniffing he wanted, so he’ll be hearing from me soon enough.”
“Take care of yourself,” Monica said, giving my ass a slap before she spun and headed through the lobby of the brothel to hunt for another client. “Come around with that hunk, you hear?”
I stared after Monica and had a very, very bad feeling. Spinning around, I headed back to the car, muttering curses. Rob had his arms crossed over his chest and glared at me as I folded the seat and grabbed for the duffel bags.
“Mommy!” Colby climbed on top of the bag and, with a wet squish, smacked into my face where Monica had kissed me.
“Gah, Colby!” I tried to fend off my macaroni and cheese. At the rate people—and dae—were kissing me, I was going to be a touch-needy nutcase by the end of the week.
Because of Monica’s enthusiasm, I couldn’t even tell if Colby had added to my misery. Shaking my head, I unzipped the bag. It contained a harness rig. I returned to the front seat, buckled in, and snapped, “Find a dark parking lot or something. I need to check the gear over.”
I thought Rob was going to argue, but he started the engine and pulled away from the brothel. He didn’t go very far before parking in a dark alley. He killed the engine and twisted around to glare at me, turning on the overhead light with a jab of his finger.
“What the hell is going—” Rob’s eyes widened as he got a good look at my face. “Fuck. What happened?”
Without answering him, I twisted around and grabbed for the harness, yanking it between the seats along with the electromagnet anchors. Setting the mess of cables, straps, and discs on my lap, I went to work checking over them for any signs of sabotage. I was tempted to dismantle the whole thing.
There was no way Monica or Alli had enough time to rig the system to fail, was there? Rob hadn’t been in there very long, and unless one of the girls had caught a glimpse of me in the dark car, there was no way they knew I was associated with Rob, was there?
In any case, Monica had acted weird; she had never seemed to like me that much. Was her behavior as much of a warning as her report on Kenneth’s mood?
The thought of Kenneth getting rid of me to save his ass terrified me; he’d do it without hesitation. I knew it, and if he had been muttering about it, Monica knew it, too. If Monica knew it, all of Kenneth’s hounds knew it.
All that waited for a rejected hound was death, and if the past was any indication, it’d be a messy, brutal one.
“Miss Daegberht?”
“Got kissed by a girl. Didn’t like it,” I reported, situating the rig on my lap so I could do a test run of the system. It took less than ten minutes, and when I couldn’t find any problems, I tossed it in the back and grabbed the second bag, repeating the process.
“You let one of those women kiss you?”
“She just went and did it all on her own. She got excited to see me. Warned me Kenneth was pissed and thought I’d be a liability. It won’t be a problem if I show up with those drugs and sufficient cash. The naked woman slicked with sweat and oil, and fresh from sex was Monica, by the way.” I was proud of myself; I didn’t curse at Kenneth, Monica, or Rob, not once. I ducked my head and started the safety check on the second harness, which proved to be Rob’s. It, too, checked out.
Was I just being paranoid? I frowned, wondering if the card was a dud. A faulty access card would land us both in hot water fast, although with Rob around to help, I had a decent chance of escaping without ending up a permanent resident of some far-off detention center.
I was so focused on checking over Rob’s gear a second time he took me by surprise when he grabbed my shoulders, turned me towards him, and crushed his mouth against mine. As he had in bed, he pulled me to him with desperate need and desire. I kissed him back until my lungs burned with the need for air before I managed to tear myself away from him.
“The only woman I want to see fresh from sex and slicked up with my sweat is you,” he said, his voice husky. “And don’t you worry about Kenneth Smith. If he even thinks about hurting you, I’m going to take my time ruining him.”
Rob held me with one arm while reaching for the glove box with the other. He pulled out a syringe, flicked off the cap, and before I could stop him, he stabbed me in the thigh with it. I yelped, jerking in his hold. He depressed the plunger. With another flick of his wrist, he discarded the needle in the back.
“Mommy!” Colby squawked moments before diving after the syringe and eating the evidence that Rob had drugged me.
“What the hell!” I demanded, struggling to pull free of him. A tingle spread from my leg and swept upwards, leaving me numb and lethargic. When the sensation reached my head, it took all my strength to keep my eyes open.
“You were wheezing,” he informed me before brushing his lips against mine once more. “Don’t worry. You’ll only be out for an hour or so before it wears off, which gives us plenty of time to finish Smith’s dirty work tonight so we can be rid of him once and for all.”
Twenty-Three
So glad you approve.
I woke to Rob patting my cheeks. When he noticed me blinking at him, he smiled at me.
Exhaustion robbed me of the ability to smack the smug expression off his face. “You drugged me again.”
My uncooperative tongue was thick in my mouth, and my words slurred into one another. While I remembered Monica kissing me in her enthusiasm, my face didn’t itch, burn, or feel swollen. I reached up to touch my cheek, puzzled by the lack of pain.
Rob caught my hand. “I put a bandage over it with anesthetic. No one is going to notice any marks unless they’re close and looking for it. If someone asks, you can make up a story, I’m sure. Really, Miss Daegberht. Couldn’t you have waited at least a couple of hours before undoing my hard work?”
Pulling free of his hold, I rubbed at my eyes. “What the hell did you drug me with?”
“An antihistamine coupled with a sedative and muscle relaxer. It’s designed to suppress an allergic reaction while reopening the airways. When you stopped wheezing, I used a secondary long-term suppressant. If you want me to cease drugging you, then stop putting yourself in a position where you require it.” Rob retreated to the driver’s side of the car, resting his elbow on the steering wheel. “We have work to do. We’re parked three blocks away from the skyscraper; it’s the closest they’re letting vehicles to the place right now. That’s good for us, because not even the residents are able to get their cars in and out of there.”
“What’s going on?”
“It’s from a few weeks ago. Fighting dae tore up the roads, and they haven’t had a chance to fix them yet.”
“What time is it?”
“Three in the morning. While you were napping, I got more appropriate cases for the gear.” Rob gestured to the back seat. The duffel bags had been replaced by two large briefcases; there wouldn’t be room for much other than the harnesses, but they would have plenty of space for Kenneth’s drugs and cash if we found any.
They were made of metal and had straps for carrying over the shoulder.
“That’ll work,” I conceded.
“So glad you approve. I don’t suppose you’re going to fill me in on what our plan is now that I’ve spent a small fortune on this expedition?”
“Will you fit in one of those cases, Colby?” I asked.
“Mommy,” my roommate confirmed.
“Rob, you’re playing a lawyer, and you’re delivering important time-sensitive documentation due in the morning to a client. If asked, you’re going to stubbornly refuse to give the name and apartment number of your client in the interest of preserving their confidentiality. You’ll give them the floor we’re going to and state you will be waiting for signatures before you leave.” The ruse was a trick I’d learned from Kenneth; important business negotiations often happened in the dead of night to help prevent others from overhearing and acting on a new deal.
“I can do that.”
“You won’t have to work very hard to pull it off,” I muttered. Yawning, I unbuckled my seatbelt and sat straighter. “Colby, you’re going to be our guard and clock watcher for this. Rob, you’re going to help me do the search of the place once we’re in. From the moment we get by the security desk, we’ll have a maximum of thirty minutes. With the entry card, we can pretend the door has been answered and walk in, so it’ll look good for the hallway cameras.”
“You’ve done this before.”
Clapping, I glowered at the dae beside me. “Shocking. Colby, it seems Captain Obvious has seen fit to join us. I thought my shopping list would have tipped you off.”
Colby snickered, “Mommy.”
“You really do have a nasty mouth,” Rob muttered. “Don’t side with her, Colby.”
“Mommy.”
“Well, I
see where your allegiances are. Thanks, Colby. Thanks a lot.”
“Okay, get Colby into one of the cases, Rob. Since prissy elite don’t carry their own things, I’ll be playing your delivery woman.”
“You’ll keep your pretty mouth closed, then. I don’t let my mules talk when I’m working,” Rob countered.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you for that comment alone,” I hissed at him through clenched teeth.
Smirking at me, the dae got out of the car. “You do your job and I’ll do mine, Miss Daegberht. And don’t worry, I do plan on enjoying every minute of it. Now, get out of the car and grab the cases. Your job is to be seen, not heard.”
Spitting curses at him, I obeyed. Rob didn’t lift a finger to help me situate our things for the heist, leaving me to adjust the case with my harness to make room for Colby inside. I cursed him the entire time.
He smiled.
Rob led the way, and I followed him hauling the two heavy cases. My shoulders throbbed by the time we made it to the building, but like every other worker fortunate enough to be hired by the elite, I kept my chin up and hid my discomfort behind a forced smile.
Once upon a time, the downtown core had been part of the Inner Harbor, but engineers had reconfigured the river port after the creation of the caste system, leaving many of the city’s skyscrapers a safer distance from the shore. I’m sure the building had a name before the overhaul of the United States government system, but I didn’t know what it was. Most just called the structure the Ivory Tower despite the fact it was a blue-gray steel and glass monstrosity.
That Terry Moore lived on the top floor was a boon to our efforts. It wasn’t the tallest skyscraper in the area, but if we ran out of time, it’d be easy enough to get to the roof, which boasted a garden and plenty of hiding places. Unless things had changed, they didn’t actively monitor the stairwell from the fortieth floor to the gardens.
