Chapter 14
‘I’ll come with you,’ Alice said when I explained the situation to her as vaguely as I could.
‘No,’ I replied immediately.
‘Why not?’ she asked, clearly hurt.
‘It’s not safe.’ I reached out and squeezed her hand gently. ‘It’s really, really not safe for you, Alice.’
‘But it’s safe for you?’ she asked.
‘No,’ I said with a laugh. ‘But I’m used to the risk. And anyway, I know Wilson, you don’t. I can’t take you there.’
‘Well, I’ll just follow you then,’ she said defiantly. However much I liked her, right now I wanted to wring her neck.
I shook my head. ‘Please let me keep you out of this.’
‘I don’t see the problem. You’re just going to meet this guy.’
For a second I considered not telling her, but we were way past that now. Whether I liked it or not, we were in this together.
‘I’ve heard a rumor,’ I said. ‘That he was the one who killed my mom.’
‘Holy shit, Kendra,’ Alice said, her eyes going wide.
‘And that’s not it … he’s also the person who sold us your jewelry.’
Alice gasped. ‘And then he killed her when he found it was worth a lot more than she paid him for it?’
‘Yes,’ I said, then forced myself to unclench my jaw.
‘So do you think he wants you to meet him so he can interrogate you?’
‘Probably,’ I muttered. I couldn’t stand the thought of willingly going to him, but not going, and him coming after me, was definitely worse.
Alice pressed her fingers to her mouth. ‘I can’t let you go there, Kendra. What if he hurts you too?’
‘He won’t,’ I said grimly. ‘Not until he gets what he wants from me. Do you see why you can’t come, now?’
She sighed. ‘Where are you meeting him?’
‘Tanoshimu. He owns it.’
‘The club?’ she asked, and why wasn’t I surprised that she knew it. We weren’t old enough to be allowed in, legally, but of course Alice recognized all of New York’s hottest clubs.
‘Yeah,’ I said reluctantly.
‘Okay,’ she replied. ‘I’ll dress up and wait in the line outside. You can go in, speak to him, then when you’re done, I’m pretty sure I’ll still be in that line. If anything goes wrong, you can call me, and I’ll be right there.’
If anything went wrong then I’d be cashing in favors from others, not relying on Alice.
‘Alice, I hate this,’ I said seriously. ‘I want you to stay here. Where it’s safe.’
‘I’m not letting you go there alone,’ she said stubbornly.
I had a feeling this stalemate wasn’t going to end well. Alice folded her arms over her chest and glared at me, and I sighed. Keeping her outside was the lesser of two evils. She would blend in with the other people waiting in line and no one would know who she was.
‘Fine,’ I finally conceded. ‘But if you’re coming, I think we need to dress up a bit, sort of like a disguise, so we don’t stand out.’
‘A disguise,’ Alice echoed. ‘Do you ever dress up and go to clubs?’
‘Not if I can help it.’
She smiled to herself.
‘No,’ I said firmly. ‘Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no.’
‘But you wanted a disguise,’ she said. ‘To not look like your usual self.’
I wanted to throw Wilson off – to let him think that I was about to go and meet another client, maybe even a rival of his, or that I was just stopping in to see him in between other Saturday-night plans.
He wasn’t my only contact, and I really wanted to remind him that even when he snapped his fingers and demanded my presence, I wasn’t working for him alone.
‘Okay, whatever,’ I said. ‘But nothing pink.’
‘I can work with that,’ Alice replied, and grabbed my hand to drag me to her closet.
I ended up with a short, black, satin dress that was almost backless and had an enormous bow sitting right at the bottom of my spine.
Like almost everything in Alice’s and Sienna’s wardrobes, it was totally not my style, and that suited me just fine.
Alice had a pair of low, blocky heels that were much better that stilettos, and I took longer than usual convincing my hair to fall in elegant, glossy curls instead of its usual untamable madness.
‘You look amazing,’ Alice murmured when I stepped out of the bathroom.
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘So do you.’
She’d changed into a pink velvet dress that would have looked hideous on me, but she managed to pull it off with the kind of flare I envied.
We took a cab to the bar because I was definitely not going to let Alice call her car service for this one.
It might have been safer, but I really didn’t want to advertise who was with me or create a way for Alice’s family to track where we’d been – or, worse still, for Wilson to connect me to the Mulligans …
I still absolutely hated that she was with me, but I had to pick my battles, and the risk of Alice following me to Tanoshimu was one I wasn’t willing to take. At least if she was in the line outside, she was out of the line of fire.
‘Go join the line,’ I murmured when we got out of the car. ‘Keep your phone on you, and don’t get noticed.’
‘I’ll be good,’ she promised sweetly.
I ignored the people queued up along the block and walked straight up to the enormous security guard in a tailored black suit. Not Lucas this time, some other guy.
‘Kendra Walker,’ I said, and he nodded.
‘He told me you were coming,’ he replied. His eyes slid over to where Alice was walking up the block, trying to find the end of the line. ‘He didn’t say you’d have company, though.’
My heart started to thunder in my chest. No one was supposed to notice Alice.
‘We just shared a ride,’ I said quickly – too quickly. He didn’t buy it.
‘She wants to come in?’ he said.
‘I guess.’ I forced a nonchalant shrug.
‘Then,’ he said firmly, ‘we’ll bring her in.’
I broke out into a cold sweat. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. But I knew if I said anything, I’d only make it worse, so I kept my mouth shut while the security guy murmured into his radio, presumably telling another member of staff to go and pull Alice out of line.
I folded my arms over my chest, hoping to look irritated at the delay, until Alice was brought to the entrance of the club. This security guy was shorter, but he had his hand wrapped round Alice’s upper arm. Her eyes were panicked, and I tried to silently tell her to take a breath.
They had to know who she was. Or Wilson’s stalkers had seen me with her recently and recognized her when she got out of the cab. I knew bringing her here was a bad idea. I should have left her at home.
‘Come in,’ the security guy said, and lifted the rope for us to enter.
Even though I wanted to grab Alice, I forced myself to keep my hands to myself as we walked up the industrial metal stairs to the main part of the bar.
A DJ was already pumping out music, and very beautiful, well-dressed people were sitting at tall tables or huddled into booths, drinking ridiculously expensive cocktails.
‘Hang out here until I’m done,’ I said to Alice, raising my voice over the sound of the music.
Alice was looking around, a little wide-eyed. I hoped the conversation with Wilson was going to be quick, before someone found her and decided to eat her alive. Or before I lost my shit in there and started screaming about what he’d done to my mom.
I forced myself to take a few slow, calming breaths. Losing my shit now would definitely not help anything, and I had to put on the best poker face of my life.
I turned around, heading for Wilson’s private room, and bumped straight into Lucas.
‘Hi,’ I said.
He didn’t smile. ‘Wilson said she comes too.’
‘What?’ I replied, trying to keep the concern out of my voice.
Lucas nodded at Alice. ‘Bring the girl with you.’
Shit. Fuck. Shit.
I shouldn’t have talked to Alice once we got in here – it didn’t help the ‘I don’t know her’ cover story. I was making one mistake after another tonight and that didn’t bode well for what was to come.
We crossed the club in silence, and I tried to telepathically tell Alice to stay calm and shut up. Lucas paused in front of the double door and held out his hand.
‘I need your phones,’ he said.
‘What?’ I exclaimed. ‘We never do this, Lucas.’
His expression was pinched and tight, and I really couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
‘Give me your phones,’ he said with a sigh, like I was being unreasonable.
‘In that case, we’ll just leave,’ I snapped.
‘Kendra,’ he said, and I felt his frustration in the way he ground out my name. ‘I need your phones, and then you’re going to go in there to talk to Wilson, okay?’
‘It’s fine,’ Alice said, putting her hand on my arm. She dug out her phone from her purse and handed it to Lucas. I reluctantly copied her.
‘Great. Go in,’ Lucas said as he opened the door to Wilson’s private room for us. As soon as it closed, the noise from the bar dropped considerably.
Wilson was sprawled in one of his fancy wingback chairs, wearing a very fashionable, eggplant-colored suit. Unlike our last meeting, he was clearly in business mode tonight.
The sight of him made me feel sick. My skin broke out in goosebumps and my breathing hitched, threatening to send me into a full-blown panic attack if I didn’t get a hold of myself quickly.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘It’s you again.’
‘I was summoned,’ I replied.
‘Ah, yes. I forgot about that.’ He smirked.
I fought the urge to punch him right in the middle of his smug fucking face.
Alice shuffled half a step closer to me. She was staying perfectly silent, and I was grateful for that, but it was clear she felt out of her depth. I didn’t blame her.
‘Shall we get to it?’ Wilson suggested. ‘I could offer you both a drink, but …’
‘We don’t need drinks,’ I said briskly.
‘Who’s your friend?’ he asked as if he hadn’t demanded she come in with me.
‘Maddie Lawson.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Alice offered.
‘Sure,’ he said, eyes narrowed.
‘What can I do for you, Wilson?’ I asked, desperate to get this over as quickly as possible.
‘Sit down,’ he demanded.
We both did as we were told.
‘About nine months ago,’ Wilson said, leaning forward a little in his seat. Just enough to show how engaged he was in this conversation. ‘I sold your mother a box of jewelry. Now I need it back.’