by Petra J Knox
She was too close.
Pepper was finally alone.
And I was frozen in place.
She laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you like that. I didn’t know you’d be leaving.”
I stared at her. Her head came to about my chest. She was tiny. Funny, when she was on stage, she didn’t seem that small.
A look of concern, maybe wariness, made her dainty blue eyebrows pinch.
I swallowed, realizing she was waiting for some kind of response from me. Instead, I stepped a pace back and practically fell back into my booth once more, knocking my elbow hard on the table.
She half-giggled, half-gasped. “Oh no! Are you okay?” Her hand went out to touch me, but I leaned away from her and tucked myself into the booth.
There was no way I’d let her touch me.
She frowned. “Let me buy you a drink, at least.” She turned around to look for the nearest server. I followed her gaze and watched as Cotton Candy caught her attention. Blue waved her over; then, much to my surprise, the singer sat down on the other side of my booth.
A relaxed sigh escaped her, chased on the heels of a small groan of pleasure which made my eyes go immediately to her pink painted lips. “Oh, it feels good to finally sit down! I’ve been on my feet all night.” She laughed again, and I began to think laughter was just part of this woman’s being.
I never laughed. Sometimes Medoro would do something that created a sensation in my gut that bubbled up, a strange fullness in my chest which triggered me to smile. But even those times were rare.
“—but I’m new, so there’s that,” she was saying.
Under the table my hands fisted. I had missed what she’d said.
She must think I’m a fool, soft in the head. Harmless, too, if her body language was any indication. Where she had been stiff and guarded when at the goons’ table, here with me she was relaxed, like she was sitting here with a friend.
Or her cat.
I didn’t know what to think of that, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Cotton Candy appeared. She took one look at me and quickly glanced away. “Hey, Blue. Want something to drink?”
Blue took off her mask with deft fingers. “Yeah, two bourbons.” She looked at me questionably then. “Is that alright with you?”
My head nodded slowly as if someone, somewhere were controlling my movements like a damn puppet. My fists tightened again.
Without her mask… she was breathtaking. It was like standing on the roof of a tall building and looking down. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but I honestly believed that, right then, I was afraid of her. Terrified.
“Got it, hon,” Cotton said, leaving us.
Blue stretched her arms out across the table, her fingers nearly reaching toward the edge, on my side. I leaned back just in time.
She sat up straight and repeated the stretch, this time over her head. When she was done, she smiled. “You don’t talk much, do you? That’s okay. I like your company anyway.” She stared at me, seeming to want to say more. “My name’s Blue.”
“Pinn.” My voice came out husky, and her eyes widened for some reason. I wanted to know why.
“I just moved here about… a week or two ago?” She looked up at the ceiling in thought and nodded. “Yep, two weeks ago.”
The bourbons arrived. Blue grabbed hers, mine stayed on the table.
“Where you from, Pinn?” When her mouth made contact with the rim of the glass, my heart stopped. Her delicate throat moved, swallowing the amber liquid down. When her little pink tongue licked the rim where a drop was missed, my cock twitched. I blinked.
No thought of Pepper now. No thought of Pop and missions. My whole focus was on her mouth. My reality and reason for living was in this club, at this table, watching this creature that beguiled me and scared the shit out of me at the same time.
“I was born here,” I heard myself reply.
“Really? Wow! I can’t even imagine that.” Her eyes had a dreamy look about them as she looked at me. “You must have seen a lot of shit. Hell, I’d be broke, well, more broke than I am now.” She laughed and the sound was like cool water on a hot day.
I needed to get out of here. This woman was dangerous. Her laugh, her eyes, her smile. Her fucking mouth.
“But, yeah… wow.” She held the glass against her cheek, leaning forward on an elbow. “You must think everything here’s boring, huh? The wonder all spent, the secrets all revealed, the sites dull.” Something passed over her face then, sadness.
I didn’t like that look on her. This woman should never be sad. Ever.
I shook my head, swallowing. “This city’s a living, breathing thing. Always changing, always something more to see.”
Her mouth made a little O shape, then quickly formed a wide smile that showed her white teeth. “I like that. A lot.”
A shadow fell over the table.
The owner of Mesmer looked like the stereotypical librarian. Bunny was tall and thin, with a quiet energy that had nothing in common with the vices she catered to.
Wearing a matching maroon jacket and skirt, her hair in a long, dark plait down her back, her severity was chilling. Until she smiled. Then her whole face transformed, and her eyes became living things that made the hair on the back of my neck rise a bit.
“Blue, it’s about time to close your set. Just wanted to remind you.” Bunny gave a stiff nod at her, her eyes barely passing over me, before she breezed away to do whatever it is she did to make Mesmer run so smoothly.
“Damn. Well, Pinn, it’s been nice talking with you,” Blue said, bringing my attention back to her. She slammed the rest of her drink, tugged her mask back on, and with a parting wave, wiggled out of the booth. “See ya around.”
I watched her leave, suddenly cold. Her presence had been the sun on a winter’s day, and now that she was gone, the ice hardened inside me again.
Shaking myself, I remembered why the hell I was here.
I looked over and to the right. The goon table was now empty, no sign of Pepper and his animal friends.
Fuck.
I stood and walked to the restrooms, hoping that maybe my luck would change, that Pepper was still in there. As soon as I entered the hall, he exited. I turned and faced the wall, pretending something was on my shoe. As he passed, I quickly straightened, counted a few beats, and followed him out of Mesmer, just as the lights turned blue.
4
When on Venus
Of all the jobs Pop had given me over the years, none had proven to be more of a challenge than chasing this wanna-be dandy Pepper all over the damn city.
At this point, I was willing to believe that the man really was a ghost, some figment of my imagination. It had been two nights now that I’d lost him since following him from Mesmer’s the night I’d sat with Blue at the booth. He had been right within sight, but when I turned the corner out of the Night District, he had vanished.
Again.
I was running out of excuses for why I couldn’t seal the deal. Pop wasn’t going to believe anything more from me until the deed was done. If it were just Pop that wanted the man out of the city, I’d have some wiggle room. But it wasn’t just him—even Pop had people he answered to, and those people weren’t about to let another rat eat their scraps.
It wasn’t a hopeless case yet—I just needed a new plan, better leads. Getting leads were easy, though. I had my own network of spiders along the City’s web.
I’d decided when I woke up around sunset that I needed to start and end at the root, and that meant going to Pepper Stone himself.
He was staying at The Venusian on Drury Lane. It didn’t surprise me that he’d hang his hat in one of the lower-class hotels while he spent his nights living like he had all the money in the world to burn. Whatever his goal truly was, I had to admit he did have some sense. Why waste money on where you slept if you weren’t awake to enjoy it?
So I’d leashed up Medoro and dropped him off, after a chat
with Mrs. Baker across the shop. The old lady had gladly agreed to take him for a few days.
It was around nine-o-clock when I headed over to Drury Lane. I knew Pepper rose with the setting sun, just like I did most nights. I’d seen him at the gaming halls and clubs, heard how he preferred hitting the tables first thing. He’d been in the City long enough to have established some semblance of a routine. But unfortunately for me, that routine only accounted for the early hours of the night. Whatever he did in the wee hours of dawn, I never knew.
But I was determined to find out.
As far as the public knew, the City of Lights had four prominent sections to it: the wealthy area, the visitor attractions, the restaurants and lodging, and the vendor malls. To those who worked and lived here, like me, there was another section—The Rough, which was between the wharf and the lodging section. The closer to the Rough you were while enjoying your stay at the City, the less likely you were to be loaded.
The Venusian was a stone’s throw away from the Rough.
The streets and sounds around me were pretty tame compared to the inside of the City around this time of night. A few trolleys and private cable cars passed by, most bleating the “Welcome to the City of Lights!” message through its speakers.
I walked the sidewalk silently, in between the tall buildings. Hotel and hostel windows were swung open to let in the cool night air. Colorful towels and women’s stockings hung to dry on makeshift close lines of party lights and strings of lanterns. I could hear the sounds of people living their lives from inside their personal domains, see the City’s visitors getting ready for the night ahead.
I had left Pop a note on the fridge before I’d left, telling him I wouldn’t be home until our friend was good and gone no matter what. Pop wouldn’t worry about me not coming back. The thought of anything other than returning wasn’t even in my head. There was no such thing as running away.
All it took was one time, many years ago, for such thoughts to burn themselves away into oblivion.
I was around seven or so, still living in the cage during the day and half the night. By then, Pop had been letting me out more, bit by bit. That week, he had chained me up to the back door in the alley while he sat on a metal bucket washing parts. It had to have been only an hour at a time, just long enough for him to run the hose and fill buckets with sudsy water used for soaking and rinsing. But it had felt like blissful hours to me. I remember being in heaven. Just the smells and the feel of fresh air were enough to tempt me to forget. Forget the cage, forget the shop, forget the man who held me down with an invisible boot upon my back. And one night, I forgot myself and fled. But not fast enough.
I shook my head now, the memories of that boy fading away.
It seemed like ever since I’d stepped foot inside Mesmer that night, the night I saw Blue for the first time, I just couldn’t get my head on straight. Feelings I wanted nothing to do with, thoughts that ran through my mind that had no purpose. The worst, though, was as I was drifting off to sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, there she was—Blue, her eyes, her mouth, her laugh. Before I knew it, my hand would find my cock, hard as fucking marble, and I’d catch myself fisting it, only to wrench my hand away in aggravation.
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew I was attracted to her. But I didn’t like how it made me feel; out of control and left wanting. Stupid. Hopeful.
There was no room for anything less in my life than now.
A woman passed by me a little too closely, breaking me out of my thoughts. I moved closer to the buildings on my left, my eyes scanning for Pepper’s hotel. A good five minutes more of walking, and I’d found it.
The entrance to The Venusian was basically a glass door that led into a dingy lobby the size of a closet. The woman behind the partition was filing her long, red nails. When she saw me, she slid the little glass window open.
“Twenty for a room, fella.” She smacked her chewing gum with her teeth and held her hand out, palm up.
I pulled out a fifty but laid it on the little shelf between us. “Two nights. Keep the change.”
She shrugged, grabbed the cash, and reached above her to grab the room key. “Name?”
“Barnum Bailey.”
While she scribbled my alias down on her pad of paper, I studied the office behind her. No cameras. One filing cabinet. A few shelves with dusty books. A strongbox. An open door that led to the hallway.
“Here’s the key. You’re in room sixty-eight. Elevators are at the end of the hall, through there,” she said, waving a hand at the door to my right. “Have a nice stay.”
As soon as she slid the key my way, I went in search of the elevator and room number fifty, Pepper’s room.
The place had six floors, which meant I’d be close to the roof. It was perfect. So far, everything was finally going as planned. Until I realized The Venusian didn’t have an elevator that ran on electric. Rather, it was one of those cage ones with a pulley system.
Yeah, fuck that.
I shoved open the door next to me and took the stairs instead, my steps echoing softly in the silence. Once on the fifth floor, I studied the hallway. Five rooms per side. Pepper’s room was at the end.
A tray had been placed on the floor by his door. It looked like a tea service, and a linen napkin had been thrown on top. That told me he was still in his room, probably having just finished eating his first meal of the night.
With plenty of time to kill while I waited for him to leave the hotel for his nightly jaunt, I went upstairs to find room sixty-eight. I had just put the key in the door when the door across mine opened.
“Pinn?”
The key in my fingers rattled, the metal breaking in half inside the lock.
Fuck me. I didn’t even need to turn around to know whose voice that was.
I closed my eyes and dropped my hand, the other part of the key falling to the carpeted floor.
This couldn’t be happening. There was no way that a random room in a random hotel in a city this big was the room next to Blue’s. Or…
My eyes opened.
Images of some asshole fucking her in this seedy hotel assaulted me. A shadowy figure with his disgusting, meaty hands on… on her tits, her ass. His lips on her beautiful mouth….
My fist met the door, and the echo of pain stabled me.
“Pinn, are you okay?”
And then I felt her soft touch on my back through the cotton of my sweatshirt. Frozen, I inhaled slowly, suddenly shaky and weak. Surprisingly, the touch didn’t burn.
No. Instead, it was cool. Like mist. But it was too much, and I moved away, turning to look at her. Blue’s eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed, eyebrows turned down in concern.
Breathe, dammit. It’s just a woman.
“Yeah. I’m okay,” I managed to say, my voice gruff and low.
She looked down at my feet, then to the doorknob with the broken key sticking out of it. She giggled. Fucking giggled.
“Oh, Pinn. It seems like I’m always spooking you!” She smiled sweetly and reached down, picking up the broken key and looked at it closely. “Well, guess I’ll call the office for a new one. Come on, I was just going to check my laundry, but it can wait.” She turned and walked to her door, waving at me to go inside with her. “I’ll make us some coffee.”
She opened her door and walked right inside, knowing instinctively that I’d follow her. Me, a complete stranger, someone who had barely said more than five words to her. The woman was either very brave or very stupid.
It was me, though, who was really the idiot, as I followed behind her like a lost puppy.
I closed the door behind me once I was inside and looked around the room, automatically filing away the layout. The room was arranged in an L shape, with a small kitchen area to my immediate left, a sofa and chair ahead of me, and in the back, there was a balcony that was tucked away into what I assumed was the bedroom.
At the thought, I felt my skin grow hot and my cock come to life, reminding me instantly, stu
pidly, that I was a man and she was a woman. Reminding me that I had no fucking business being with her when there was a job to do, a man to take out.
What in the hell had I been thinking, coming inside her room? Alone.
Something crashed to the floor by the sink.
“Shit!” she said, bending over to pick up broken pieces of what look like crockery.
I groaned. She was wearing skimpy shorts that showed off way too much ass. Her top was too big and yet too short, the shoulder falling off mid-arm, the hem of the top rising to where a bra strap would be if she had one on. Her gorgeous, azure mane sat haphazardly on the top of her head, tied in place by a wide, white ribbon.
“I…uh…” I started to make an excuse, ordering my feet to move, to run away from this fucking hotel. Screw Pop. If he wanted Pepper taken off the grid, he could do it himself.
Blue pivoted on the balls of her feet, looking up at me, still kneeing. “I suck at this hosting stuff, huh?” She shook her head, smiling. “Please, go make yourself at home. Let me just clean this up.”
Instead, I waved my hand and motioned her to move. “You’re going to cut yourself.” Then I knelt and picked up all the pieces myself as she grabbed her trash can.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. Thank you, Pinn.”
I nodded, avoiding her eyes as I put the pieces in the trash one by one.
“How about a beer instead?” she asked. “I have the night off, so I can start the night early. No need to worry about Bunny.”
I watched as she opened her mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of Hopps. She popped the tops of each like a professional and smiled.
Even though I wasn’t a drinker, I accepted the cool bottle anyway, careful to avoid touching her fingers as she handed it to me.
“Now, come sit down. Actually, let’s go on the balcony!” She led the way, her sultry hips swaying in her too-short shorts.
A radio sat on a table near the French doors which were already open to the night. Blue walked to the radio, and with a press of a button, smooth jazz started playing softly through the speakers, completely transforming the space from a drab hotel room to a cozy setting.
