by Jenna Black
“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 purse, 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 h
ide. “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 deepseated 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.”
She gave me a long, piercing, probing look before she answered. I suspect she was trying to determine if she could wring anything else out of me. She must have come to the correct conclusion.
“You might say I’m serving as his matchmaker,” she said with a wry twist of her lips that might have been a smile.
“Huh?” I responded intelligently.
Shae stood up, and my hand tightened on the Taser. She held both her hands up, her eyebrows arching. “Now, now,” she said. “Don’t shoot me before I give you the information you want.”
I kept the Taser pointed at her as I eased out of my chair. “You can talk just fine sitting down.”
“If you want the answer to your question, you’ll follow me and I’ll show you. You can keep your Taser handy if I make you that nervous.”
Her condescending tone suggested I was somehow being a coward for insisting on the weapon, but I didn’t feel any particular sense of shame. As far as I was concerned, it was an entirely practical safety measure.
I kept a wide distance between us as Shae walked to the door, her hands still in plain sight. But when she stepped through the door out into the hallway, I followed.
I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I suppose I wasn’t all that surprised when she headed toward the mysterious door at the end of the hall. The door that led to “more offices.” The door opened with a beep when Shae swiped her card. I had to get closer to her than I’d have liked to catch the door before it slammed shut behind her.
There were indeed a couple of other office-like rooms behind that door. However, of far greater importance was the massive, space-age security center that Shae showed off with a flourish.
There were at least a couple dozen screens, each displaying a different image of the club. And not all of them were of the main room. My stomach twisted as my eyes finally focused on one screen and I realized what the two men and the one naked woman were doing. I jerked my gaze away, only to find myself looking at an even more unsettling image—a woman wearing nothing but a black hood that covered her entire head except for her mouth down on her knees with her hands cuffed behind her as she fellated the disgusting no-neck man who’d tried to pick me up the other night. It was all I could do not to hurl.
Shae reached up and tapped her finger on one of the other screens, drawing my eye once again. And there was good old Tommy Brewster, his naked ass pumping as he fucked a pretty young woman who was bound spread-eagled on the bed. The look on her face told me she wasn’t there against her will. If that wasn’t already more than I wanted to know, I could see two more young women, both blond, naked, and eagerlooking, watching the proceedings, apparently waiting their turn.
I’m nowhere near a good enough actress to hide my disgust and embarrassment, so I didn’t bother trying. Instead I focused on Shae’s face and tried to convince myself I had no peripheral vision.
“Isn’t there some kind of law against videotaping people having sex without their knowledge?”
Shae grinned. “How do you know it’s without their knowledge?”
I knew that most people who frequented this club would find me prudish in the extreme. I also knew that there was no way they were all so uninhibited that they didn’t mind being taped in the act. But what was I going to do about it? I sighed as I came to the inevitable conclusion: nothing.
I wanted to cross my arms over my chest, my favorite defensive gesture, but that would mean hindering my Taser hand, and I wasn’t about to do that.
“What does this have to do with anything?” I asked. “I already knew Tommy was into the kinky stuff, and I really don’t give a shit.”
“I told you I was his matchmaker,” Shae said. Once more she tapped a nail against the screen, three times, once for each girl. “I handpicked these for him.”
I shook my head. “Why does he need you to pick his girls?”
“Those girls are all regulars here. Real groupies. They’d do just about anything a demon wants them to do.”
I hate to imagine what kind of face I must hav
e been making. “I still don’t see why this is relevant.”
“As you may have noticed, I’m in the information business. Among other things.”
I gave her a keep talking motion.
“So let’s just say I know a lot about my regulars. Things that they wouldn’t usually share with their one-night stands.”
“Like what?” I asked, still making absolutely no sense out of what she was saying.
“Like, for instance, their family medical history. Tommy’s particularly interested in girls who have a family history of cancer. And he also likes those who put a little too much faith in condoms.”
“What the hell. .?” I muttered. “Why?” I asked out loud.
“Which of these screens turns you on the most?” Shae asked with a sweeping gesture to indicate the bank of monitors that showed the sickening “playrooms” from Hell. “And don’t tell me none of them, because I’ll know that’s a lie.”
I was about to voice an indignant objection, until my brain caught up and realized this was her quid pro quo question. I also realized that I didn’t need her to tell me why Tommy was targeting these particular girls. I bet I could come up with a perfectly good guess myself.
For reasons I yet had no clue about, Tommy was continuing the Houston breeding project. Only he was taking his genes out into the general human population.
I shook my head yet again. I didn’t know exactly what he was up to. I didn’t know what would happen to these chicks if they happened to get pregnant. I didn’t know what would happen to their children. What I did know was that none of this could possibly be good for the human race.
Tearing my eyes away from the monitors, I gave Shae my best sneer. “If I weren’t worried that too many people had seen me come in here, I swear I’d shoot you full of juice and exorcize you so fast. .”
“Sticks and stones, sugar. Now, I think we’ve concluded our business here, don’t you?”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
CHAPTER 20
It was late when I got home, and my body and mind were both complaining that I hadn’t recovered from my sleep deprivation yet. Working almost on autopilot, I checked my answering machine, wondering why I hadn’t heard from Adam yet. Had he chickened out about approaching Dom? Or had he gotten an answer he didn’t like? Right now, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but there was no way I could go to sleep with three unplayed messages on my machine under the circumstances.
