Chapter 8
Maya had worked in plenty of unsavory establishments over the years, but the Lucky Penny was in a league of its own.
Dirty floors, cheap liquor, and an obscenely high turnover rate for employees put it at the top of the list of places to avoid. It being Friday didn’t even help, since most locals were wise enough to spend their hard-earned cash elsewhere.
The faster this job was over, the better for everyone involved.
“I’m at a dead end,” Maya said into the phone, keeping her voice low. “I’ve been here for weeks, and that’s longer than I would like. As it turns out, convincing a group of near-strangers to make a five-hour drive north isn’t easy.”
“And you thought to ask me for assistance? I’m flattered.” Angela’s voice was even, suggesting her focus was on something other than the current conversation.
During her time with the Chains, Maya had found exactly two people she felt at ease around: Diana and the work-addicted Court witch. Angela was both too busy and too covered in arcane defensive charms to worry about Maya’s sordid reputation.
“You shouldn’t be flattered,” Maya said. “I’m not popular at Court, so I can’t ask anyone else for advice. You’re a necessary evil.”
“Aw, now you’ve gone and hurt my feelings. That isn’t nice.”
“Since when do you care about being nice?”
There was a long pause. Then Angela snorted. “Yeah, you have a point there.”
At first, Angela had treated Maya with the same general apathy she showed most things, but it had only taken a couple of conversations for that to change. Maya wasn’t the only one among the Chains who lacked friends. Angela had just spent the past decade being too busy to notice.
They could have made those conversations more than friendly, too, but neither of them had made a genuine move towards anything deeper. Even if Angela hadn’t recently broken her streak of situationships by finding the love of her life, she and Maya worked far better as friends than lovers.
“What’s the problem exactly?” Angela asked. “From what I have observed, you’re doing fairly well.”
Maya frowned. “Observed?”
“Natalya is invested in this job. Since she isn’t vibrating with fury, you have to be doing something right.
” Angela paused, and Maya just knew she was smirking.
“But that might be because you’re keeping a few details out of your reports.
Going by your texts, you’re making very good progress with at least one of your charges.
Maybe so much that you’re getting distracted? ”
Maya’s fingers tightened around the phone. “I’m not distracted.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. I’ve barely done anything these past few weeks but walk around this damn city. I’m here even when I don’t have a shift, just to make sure there isn’t a bunch of wolves lying in ambush somewhere. I’ve never been more focused than I am on her—this.”
The correction came a moment too late, as was clear from Angela’s sudden silence. Just like her smirk was all but audible, so was that contemplative brow furrow that appeared whenever she noticed something interesting.
“Just help me,” Maya continued. “You’re the best problem-solver I know. I have a problem I don’t know how to solve. That should be like catnip to you.”
Angela still didn’t answer, but whether it was due to her considering the presented issue or picking apart Maya’s words for more information was unclear.
Though, most likely, it was both.
Maya caught movement at the corner of her eye. The current conversation needed privacy, so she was standing in the shadowy hallway connecting the staff rooms to the clubroom, giving her a clear view of it. And the petite, platinum blonde woman moving across the dancefloor.
Harper looked like a cat that had just gotten dunked in a bathtub. She’d been on the stage when Maya stepped out, and going by her annoyed expression, the experience hadn’t been lucrative.
She stopped halfway through the room, eyes drifting to the empty bar. Disappointment flashed over her face before she shook it off and headed towards the nearby tables. The other performers had gathered there in small groups, enjoying each other’s company since no one was present to pay for it.
Harper didn’t approach any of them. Instead, she ignored the glares being shot her way and sat down in an empty booth.
“Maya? Hello?”
Maya wrenched her eyes away from the dancefloor.
“Sorry, I was—”
“Distracted?” Angela said evenly.
Maya bit the inside of her cheek, wondering just how personally Angela would take it if she was told to shut the hell up.
“Preoccupied. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that your attention being on a single person might not be a bad thing. Maybe you don’t need to convince all of them.”
“Are you trying to get me killed? If I leave one or more of them behind, on purpose, Natalya will tear my head off.”
“That’s not what I meant. The three of them are pretty tight-knit, right? If you talk Harper into making the drive to Chicago, she’ll be able to convince the other two better than you ever could.”
Maya opened her mouth, dismissal at the ready, but it died on her lips.
“That’s… not a bad idea, actually.” She let out a low chuckle. “I’m surprised, Angela. Where did this sudden understanding of human behavior come from?”
“Nowhere. I might suck with people, but I’m great at being efficient.” Angela cleared her throat. “And at identifying issues. If something is wrong, you can talk to me about it.”
Maya started to shake her head, but her shrugging off the concern didn’t get further than that.
There wasn’t even an issue to confront. She was just dealing with a crush that had incredibly poor timing. There were other, far more tangible problems to deal with than her feelings, and her being a bit lovesick was just an impractical but simple snag that would pass soon enough.
Except, it didn’t feel simple. And it didn’t feel like a crush, either. She’d dealt with that just recently, and this was so much more than that. More wanting, more consuming, more… violent.
She often found herself reliving that first night in the parking lot.
Picturing Kieran pressing Harper up against her car, smiling as he held her in place, but this time Diana didn’t intervene.
Instead, Maya grated the man’s face against the asphalt and tore his throat apart so severely that not even the healing light of the moon could save him.
The last time she felt anything close to that urge, people had died.
“Something is off.”
“Off how?” Angela asked.
“I can’t explain it. It just feels… intense. That’s the only word for it.” Maya shook her head, dismissing the ugly thoughts before they could settle. “It doesn’t matter. And I have to go. I’ll text you later.”
She hung up before Angela could start the array of questions she undoubtedly had ready. They weren’t fit for that evening. There were more important things to worry about than how nightmarish her daydreams had gotten.
Pocketing the phone, Maya stepped out of the hallway and headed back to the bar. The familiar smell of spilled alcohol and cigarette smoke hit her like a wall, deafening music covering up the conversations scattered around the clubroom.
None of it surrounded Harper, though. She was still sitting by herself, fingers tapping against an abandoned beer glass as she looked over a few bills splayed out on the table. As though they would multiply if she stared at them long enough.
She looked so small sitting there. Her quick wit and sharp tongue were captivating enough that you could easily forget all the hardship they were hiding. How much sorrow and grief she was carrying around.
It could all be removed with a few simple words. Not for the first time, Maya longed to do just that. To say something—do something—that would make that crestfallen look fade from her baby blue eyes.
“Who were you talking to?”
Maya nearly jumped, darting her eyes toward the voice.
Nell was sitting at the end of the bar, robe closed and dark-blonde curls cascading past her shoulders. And since her soft voice was the opposite of startling, Maya really needed to get her act together.
“Just a friend.” Maya started cleaning up a tray of used glasses. “Everything okay? That guy you were with didn’t bother you, right?”
“It’s not your job to handle that kind of thing.” Nell smiled carefully. “But no. He didn’t bother me. George can be a bit of an over-sharer, but he’s harmless, all things considered.”
Despite her assurance, her eyes were more distant now than they had been an hour before, when a middle-aged, red-faced man had eagerly followed her into the private room.
From what Maya had heard, all Nell did with her regulars was talk. But with how she sagged against the bar, it looked more like they were sucking the life out of her.
Maya set a rum and Coke down on the bar. “Here you go. My treat.”
“I can pay for it myself.”
“You could. Or you can use the drink as the excuse it is and hang out with me for a while.” Maya gave her a smile. “You don’t even have to talk. Take a break. Looks like you need it, especially since you weren’t supposed to be working tonight.”
Nell looked like she was about to protest. Then she sighed and accepted the glass.
Maya had gotten friendly with most of the Penny staff, but Nell was an exception.
Not on purpose, from either of them, but simply because she was so quiet that you often forgot she was present.
Maya would have described her as shy if she hadn’t seen how confidently she handled her plentiful regulars.
But it wasn’t Nell doing that, granted. Venus was a different person than the tired-looking woman currently leaning against the bar.
“Thanks,” Nell mumbled. “There was a change of plans. Figured I would be of more use here than at home.” She looked towards Harper’s booth, shoulders falling. “Doesn’t feel like it’s doing much, to be honest.”
Maya followed her line of sight. Most of the other dancers were looking Harper’s way, too. Some were even glaring.
“Why is she sitting by herself?” Maya asked. Nell sipped on her drink.
“You know why. You must have heard the stories by now.”
She’d only heard enough to know not to pay attention to them. Making small talk at the bar was a fast way of getting information, but in this case, the sources were questionable.
“I don’t pay attention to rumors,” Maya said. “They don’t match what I’ve experienced myself. Harper may have teeth, but to me, it doesn’t seem like she uses them without reason.”
Nell’s gaze turned curious, head tilting as she looked Maya over. Then a smile tugged at her lips.
“It’s a shame that you work here. But I guess it would have been too perfect if you didn’t.”
She looked towards the front door, where a few people had just walked in. Taking a deep breath, she dialed her smile into a more charming version and left the bar.
Venus was back. And ready to talk someone out of a sizeable amount of money, by the look of it.
Harper looked their way, too, tracking Nell as she walked up to one of the men. She tugged at his tie, laughed, and then led him towards the back, leaving the other new arrival alone. Harper did the same, looking away from him.
Just like the first night Maya had seen her, she wanted nothing more than to go over there and help her. But Harper didn’t want company. Otherwise, Nell would have been sitting with her, and the young man who’d just arrived would have already been cornered.
Though… no one else had approached him either.
Maya inspected him in more detail. He stood out from his surroundings, wearing expensive clothes and a cocky grin. It faded as he scanned the groups of women sitting around the room, getting actively ignored by the lot of them.
Odd. A guy like that had money to burn. The dancers should have flocked him like piranhas did a chunk of meat.
Then his eyes stopped, settling on Harper. His grin returned, and he ran a hand through his greasy hair before sauntering towards the booth.
Something dark and fiery formed in Maya’s chest. A flicker rather than a blaze, but it still burned through her body with such speed that she had to grab the bar to keep from immediately pouncing on the guy.
Where did that feeling come from? These past few weeks, she’d had a front-row seat to Harper dragging off dozens of strangers, like a lioness would a slain gazelle, and she’d never been even slightly upset about it.
Which she should have been, frankly. This crush was serious enough that some jealousy was expected.
It might be because she literally couldn’t read into what she was seeing.
Harper was good at her job, and her alluring act was convincing, but it was still an act.
The only desire Maya sensed came from the men she made salivate.
If anything, seeing Harper pull them along as though her voice was a leash only made it harder not to stare at her.
But this was different. This was wrong. Every cell in Maya’s body screamed that this was wrong.
Wrenching her eyes away from the man, she scanned the room, looking for the person being paid to handle situations like this.
When she found him, she nearly rolled her eyes.
Colton was leaning against the wall right next to the bar and, as usual, his attention was elsewhere than on his responsibilities.
“Hey,” she snapped. The man flinched. “Are you going to handle that?”
She gestured at Harper’s booth, which the young man was now leaning over. Going by Harper’s sneering expression and the guy’s triumphant smile as he sat next to her, only one of them was enjoying the conversation.
Colton shrugged. “They’re just talking. No need to get involved.”
Maya’s fingers dug into the bar top. They might even have left indentations.
“Really earning your paychecks, huh?”
Colton had the audacity to look confused. The only person who could somewhat keep him in line was Trish, and since she wasn’t working that night, Colton was slacking his way through his shift.
This place really was a fucking shithole.