Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
STASIE
The base vibrated in my chest and lights flashed across the dance floor.
I threw my arms up and swung my hips, letting the beat take over every part of my body.
A sheen of sweat covered my skin, and I loved the way I could lose myself to music.
The club was little more than an underground factory with its flaws hidden by shadows and flashing lights.
Drinks in flimsy plastic cups were spread everywhere.
My friends danced beside me with wide smiles on their faces.
After the events of the day, we were all on a little high.
We were in a hidden town that hugged the base of the mountains and catered to the thrill seekers who came here to explore the surrounding jungle and jump from the bridge.
This club was the kind of place where tourists would go missing, and yet the edge of danger always brought them here.
Hell, it brought me here. In the back corner of the club a group of VIPs gathered in a corner seating area.
It was roped off and bodyguards stood there watching the rest of the crowd.
High-priced bottles sat on the low tables, and for a moment I debated waltzing my way in there.
But my night was far from over, and getting myself into that VIP lounge would guarantee it would be.
I turned from it and spun around, colliding with a warm, thick chest. I took a step back and looked up into Jack’s emerald eyes.
He nodded his chin toward a door just to the side of the DJ’s stage.
Smoke crept on the floor in front of it and the bright green lights gave it a neon glow.
I glanced around at my friends who were lost to the music, as well as all the drinks they’d consumed.
They’d never notice I was missing in this crowd.
Jack melted into the throng of writhing bodies, and I followed behind him.
People simply danced around us, letting us effortlessly glide across the floor and right toward that door.
Jack didn’t hesitate as he pushed it wide open and stepped to the side, letting me walk in beside him. Once we were in the dark hallway, he let the door fall shut behind us and the music dulled to a low hum. I sucked in a few deep breaths. “This is unconventional.”
“We have an unconventional client.” He narrowed his eyes down at me. “Can you handle this?”
I rolled my eyes at him and pushed my hair back from my face. “When can’t I handle things?”
“Fair point.” The corner of his lip pulled up in a smirk. “Nice outfit.”
I glanced down at my low-riding denim shorts and white tank top. I untied the light jacket around my hips and shoved my arms into it, then pulled it in tight around my body. “Better?”
He nodded. “Better.”
“Didn’t realize I had to dress up for this meeting.” I motioned to the dark hallway. “Let’s go.”
He held up his finger. “We’re waiting.”
“What for?”
He pointed toward a little black furry blob walking toward us through the creeping smoke on the floor. It was still that unsettling neon green, even though the lights from the club had faded once we’d closed the door.
“How does that do that?” I muttered to myself. The little ball of fur seemed to pass right through it . . . or it spread around it.
A one-eyed black cat came to a stop and sat in front of us. It licked at its paw and then rubbed it over its head. Jack nodded toward the cat. “For that.”
“What?”
The cat let out a meow and turned from us. Jack followed behind it. “Don’t keep them waiting.”
This was all too weird. We were meeting our clients in the back of a dodgy club, and now we were following a one-eyed black cat down a dark hall with neon smoke that made no sense.
My heart raced in my chest and a tiny spike of adrenaline flowed through my body.
A smile tugged at my lips. “What have you gotten me into?”
“Don’t I always bring you the adventures of a lifetime?”
The cat turned down another hallway, and we followed. “You do indeed.”
“Trust me. I’d never hurt you, Stasie.” His voice was smooth yet serious, almost like his words were a promise.
The cat stopped in front of a large metal door with no handle.
The outside was dented and rusted. More of that smoke flowed from under the door, and it made the goosebumps on the back of my neck rise.
Without warning it flew wide open and smacked into the wall behind it with a loud bang.
The cat strode forward into the dark room, and I followed.
Jack stepped in behind me and the door slammed shut with the same amount of force, making the walls shake.
I startled and looked back over my shoulder. “This is some real haunted house type shit.”
“You have no idea,” Jack muttered under his breath.
The hallway opened up into a smaller room that was equally as dark.
A ramshackle-looking round table sat in the middle of the room.
Behind it was a large man with inky black hair that fell down to his chin.
His eyes were an uncanny green color that nearly matched the smoke flowing over the floor.
It seemed to hover around his body, outlining his sinister looks.
A woman with wild, curly blonde hair sat next to him in a trench coat that was five sizes too big.
It hung loose on her arms and pooled on the floor around her.
They sat with a deck of cards in front of them and pushed cards back and forth, having some kind of unspoken conversation.
The cat leapt on the table and tiptoed its way over to them.
The man reached into one of the pockets of his army pants and pulled out a single chicken nugget and handed it to the cat. “Well done.”
The cat let the nugget sit between the two of them and just stared at the man with that one bright eye. He hissed at him and the guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a brown paper bag with oil stains on it. He dropped the bag in front of the cat. “Save me some or I’m not getting you anymore.”
The blonde woman chuckled. “You’re going to make him too fat to move.”
“He likes it.” The man shrugged.
The cat hissed at him once more, then grabbed the bag with its mouth and leapt off the table and ran into the darkness.
My brow furrowed at this whole exchange.
Why the hell did this cat have so much power?
Why was there still smoke surrounding us?
And how could these two possibly be our clients?
I was used to the buttoned-up wealthy type who wanted to reclaim a piece of their lost history, but the only kind of history I could imagine for these two was jail time.
The man motioned toward the two chairs sitting across from them. I glanced toward Jack, but when he stepped forward, I followed suit and sat down next to him. Jack motioned toward me. “This is Anastasia.”
“Stasie,” I corrected.
Jack’s lip twitched as he fought not to smile. He drummed his fingers on the table in front of him. “What can we do for you, Mr. Maze?”
“Just Maze,” the man corrected, then glanced at the woman beside him. “This is Tilly.”
“What can I do for you . . . Maze?” I leaned back in the chair and crossed my legs, aiming for a more casual tone, though this meeting was anything but casual.
There was tension in the room, and I wasn’t sure why.
I was here to provide a service, and they were here to pay for it.
It was a simple exchange, yet there was a dangerous undercurrent coming from these two that I couldn’t put my finger on.
Everything in me told me to flee and never look back, but I’d never once turned from this feeling in my life.
No, I usually ran right toward it, like I would now.
Maze shuffled the cards in front of him and met my eye. “Do you believe in fate, Stasie?”
I pursed my lips, considering his question. “I suppose everyone has some kind of fate to live out, yes.”
“And what if you were bound to it?”
I shrugged. “Aren’t we all in some kind of way?”
He pulled a card from the deck and placed it on the table between us. My eyebrows shot up. These weren’t regular cards, they were tarot cards. He pushed the card toward me and smirked. “The Devil.”
“Does that mean I’m evil or something?” I knew nothing about tarot cards.
All I knew was anytime I tried to go into one of those little shops to get a reading, the readers would chase me out screaming something about death.
But I didn’t fear death, and I had yet to die even as they claimed I would always walk with it. Whatever that meant.
“You are tempted by your own worldly vices.” He leaned forward. “The question is what are those vices? Is it fame, money, wealth, or sex you seek? Or is it something else?”
I waved his words away. “Everyone has their own temptations.”
“Indeed.” He flipped another card and sat it next to the other. “It seems your past was all temptations, but your present is more interesting.”
“What does this have to do with our deal?” I didn’t want to get a free reading by some eccentric dude and his girlfriend. I wanted to make the arrangements and be on my way.
“Everything.” His eyes flashed from green to milky white and back again.
I jolted at the sudden change, but when I glanced toward Jack, there was no reaction.
Was I seeing things? Was it a trick of the barely existing light?
Or was it something more. I’d always believed there was more to this world but finding it in the back room of a shady club hardly seemed believable.
I let my eyes fall on the next card. “Eight of swords. What’s that mean? ”
A woman lay across the card. She was bound with a crimson ribbon and surrounded with eight sharp swords. A blindfold was draped over her eyes. Tilly sat forward. “What if I told you that you are in a world of your own making?”
I scoffed. “I’d say you’re damn right.”
“Even though you feel bound and helpless?”
“I’m never helpless.” I was in control of everything I did. It didn’t matter if I was recovering items for my clients or jumping off a bridge, it was all my own choice.
Maze tilted his head to the side, studying me. “Yes, and that endless yearning. That dark hole you feel is also of your own making.”
What the actual fuck? I never told anyone about that, nor would I ever. How could these two complete strangers surmise so much in the mere minutes we’d been together? I cleared my throat. “What is it you’re wanting from me exactly?”
Tilly chuckled and shook her head. “They never listen.”
“No, they never do.” Maze agreed then turned his attention back to me. “We wish to acquire an artifact that was stolen from my family generations ago. Our research tells us that it is hidden on an island far out in the Caribbean.”
“What kind of artifact?” This was all too fanciful.
“It’s a gold box that was made during the Grecian era.” Tilly pulled a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her huge trench coat and slid it across the table to me.
I took it and unfolded the paper. It was simple-looking with ancient Greek lettering carved on each side of the box. A thick lock was soldered closed on the front of it. I folded the paper back up and shoved it into my pocket. “This was taken from your family?”
Maze nodded. “It was given to my family to protect but was stolen in the middle of the night and has been lost for some time now. I’d like it back.”
I glanced toward Jack. “And you have the coordinates of this island?”
“I do.”
“You know what we’re walking into?”
“For the most part.” He shrugged. “I think it is something you are up for.”
“Very well.” I rose to my feet, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. “Give the information to Jack, and I will be in touch when I have your box.”
Jack chuckled. “You’ll have to forgive Stasie’s impatience. She loves her work.”
“As do I.” Maze rose to his feet and stood to his towering height, his black T-shirt pulled tight over his broad chest and shoulders. My body went on high alert, my stomach twisted into knots, and I felt danger rolling off of him.
“Then we have a deal. Jack will see to the details.” Meaning, Jack would make sure I get paid the hefty sum I was going to charge these two.
Some of my customers were sweet older people who just wanted a family painting returned to them, but these two set me on edge.
This job felt way more complicated than the usual.
Hell, I was traveling to an island, not just a hidden building or a museum.
Oh, I’d make them pay heavily for my services.
“We do.” Tilly leaned back in her chair and smirked up at me. “We’ll be seeing you, Anastasia.”
Another card flew from out of nowhere and landed on the table between us. I took a step back. “What the fuck?”
No one touched the card. That green smoke seeped over the table toward the cards. Maze didn’t look away from me. He just stared at me with those freaky eyes. My eyes shot down to the card between us, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
Maze gave a dark chuckle. “Death is coming for you.”
I threw my shoulders back. “I’m not afraid to die.”
His lips curled up into a full sinister smile. “Death is never the end, Stasie. It is a new beginning.”