Chapter 24
Afew evenings later, Asha left home at the agreed-upon time and headed toward the clubhouse.
Despite the August heat, she wore a long, dark coat, buttoned in the front.
It belonged to one of the clubhouse girls—a young woman called Nina who was in on the assassination plot.
She’d been feeding information to Cade for months, and she loaned Asha her coat and the unusual outfit she wore underneath.
Asha didn’t want to think too closely about that, or she’d lose her nerve.
With her, she carried a bag filled with her belongings…
and everything else she needed to complete her mission.
When she arrived at the clubhouse, she sought out Lana, who looked dismayed by her predicament.
“I can’t believe that Cade just…dumped you like that,” she said with a shake of her head. “You two were so…when we were all together…ugh, I just can’t believe that man. I thought he was one of the better ones. What the fuck?”
This would be the hardest part for Asha: deceiving Lana, who knew nothing of the plot because Cade had judged her as being too close to Angel.
Lana benefited from Angel’s rule as his favourite, he’d reasoned, and couldn’t be trusted to turn against him, as unfair as that judgment seemed to Asha.
She hated lying to her, especially after the incredible night they’d had together, but there was nothing else to be done now.
“There was a lot of stuff behind closed doors,” Asha said, and it wasn’t difficult for her to look crestfallen, since that was how she’d felt so often in the days after her old life had ended. “I just…I’ll talk about it more when I’m ready. Right now, I just want to forget it.”
“Of course, sugar,” Lana replied, rubbing her upper arm sympathetically. “Let’s get you a bunk, and then I’ll see about getting Tara to bring you something to eat.”
She led Asha to the dormitory and showed her to her old bunk, chattering away about how they’d look after Asha in the wake of Cade ditching her. Asha felt horrible by the end of it, but she had to stick to the plan.
“Do you think you could get me a visit with Angel tonight?” she asked Lana, trying her best to seem sorrowful but resigned.
Lana balked. “Why would you want that? Cade’s already been to tell him your new situation, so I—”
“I want to try and smooth things over,” Asha said, adding just the right amount of hesitation to her voice. “Things didn’t go well with him before, with Cade. And now that I’m unattached, I…I need to appeal to him, don’t I? I don’t want him to get rid of me.”
Lana bit her lip, and Asha knew her words rang true. Currying Angel’s favour as an unattached woman was undeniably important in this hellhole, and Lana’s silence told her that Angel getting rid of her in the wake of her new status was very much a possibility.
That fucking asshole, she raged, but she forced her mouth into a thin, hard line, suppressing her emotion. He wouldn’t be in charge for much longer.
“I can try,” Lana said after a moment. “He doesn’t always agree to see every girl. Only ones he’s interested in.”
Asha—and Cade, for that matter—was confident that Angel would agree. The thought of Asha coming to him on bended knee, begging for his favour, would be too tempting a proposition for his sadistic side.
“If you could just ask, that’d be…well, I’d really appreciate it.”
Lana kissed her cheek. “Of course. Anything you need, sugar.”
She left Asha to get settled into her bunk, and Asha wondered if the bubbling cauldron of guilt in her gut would ever go away.
Lana returned only a half hour later, telling Asha that Angel would see her that night at approximately ten o’clock.
She then led Asha to the kitchen to eat, since the evening meal had already been served and cleaned up.
On a counter, exactly where Cade had told her it would be, Asha spotted a basket of red wine that they’d brought back from the Settlements.
“You really shouldn’t take it too hard, girl,” Tara was saying to her as she ladled soup into a bowl. She was a short blonde girl with a sweet disposition. “I always thought Cade seemed kinda stuck up, anyway. With his special soldiers, thinking he’s better than everyone else.”
Asha’s stomach was doing flip-flops, but she merely nodded. Lana remained silent, looking as perturbed as she had earlier at Asha’s situation. Asha only hoped she wasn’t doubting the story too much.
She ate her soup in silence, sneaking furtive glances at the wine basket. When she finished eating, she went to pick up a bottle.
“Maybe I could bring this to Angel tonight?” she asked Lana, hoping the nervousness in her voice came off as appropriate. “As a peace offering?”
Her guilt returned with a vengeance when Lana gave her a gentle smile and said, “Of course. He likes to be served, and, well, you know his weakness for drink. It might make him a little less…”
“Violent?” Asha offered, unable to help herself.
Lana bit her lip. “Try to get him to drink a couple glasses before you offer yourself.”
In no way would she ever offer herself to that man, but Asha nodded as though she appreciated the advice.
She sat back at the table and waited for the kitchens to clear out as the women either went to bed or took a rare moment for themselves.
Eventually, even Lana left to check on her little sister.
As soon as she was alone, Asha seized the wine bottle and uncorked it. From her bag, she withdrew a smaller bag loaded with a white powder.
“Odourless, tasteless, and invisible once dissolved,” Leo had told her in a hushed voice. “It’s a powerful sedative and poison, but it’ll take some time to achieve full effect. You’ll have to stall until then.”
Asha took a deep breath. “Alright.”
He pressed the bag into her palm and closed her fingers around it.
“Be careful, Asha,” he said seriously before he released her. “Do not drink the wine. Not even a sip. I have no antidote.”
On that ominous note, she’d kissed Cade goodbye.
“While you’re with Angel, we’ll take care of the rest,” he’d said. “After we’re done taking out Angel’s inner circle, I’ll come get you. Don’t leave Angel’s Wing until I do. Understood?”
She’d nodded, and now, looking around her to make sure there were no witnesses, she dumped the white powder into the wine and sloshed it around so it mixed well.
She hadn’t thought it would be so easy—that Lana would’ve asked more questions.
But then, that was why Cade had chosen her for this mission: they underestimated her.
As a woman in this brutal micro-society, her role was victim, not threat.
How wrong they would be. She re-corked the bottle with a tool Cade had given her, went to the dormitory, and waited on her bunk for the end of life as she knew it.
I experience way more of those moments than seems fair for one person.
As night fell, Lana made Asha up with her homemade cosmetics and teased her dark hair into a high, voluminous ponytail.
Asha did her best to push down her nausea when she saw herself in the cracked mirror on the wall.
She hated being painted and sent like a pig for slaughter, but there was no choice.
She had to kill Angel before the real fight began.
He would be dead before he could rally any of his allies, before he even knew what was happening.
When it was finally time to visit Angel, his new doorman—another mountain of a man who called himself Slade—came to fetch her.
“Get a move on,” Slade grunted. “We don’t got all night.”
Asha was tempted to ask what else Angel had to do that was so important, but she bit her tongue.
Instead, she shed the jacket she was wearing, letting it fall back on her bunk.
The dress was more like lingerie than clothing: a bright red chemise that highlighted her cleavage and fell just past her ass, paired with black leather boots.
What no one could see was the small, sheathed dagger strapped to her inner thigh.
Slade gave a crude whistle. “Lucky Angel. You got extra there for me, sweetie?”
“Yeah,” Asha replied, showing him her middle finger. “Right here.”
He laughed, she rolled her eyes, and he led her to Angel’s Wing.
As they stood in front of the blue doors, her heart was pounding in her ears, and the bottom of her stomach felt like it was about to fall out.
She hadn’t been anywhere near this place since Cade had returned to rescue her from Angel’s clutches. She was struck with the urge to run.
But she had a job to do. A role to play.
So, she took a deep breath, pulled herself together, and walked through the door that Slade held open. And when it closed behind her with an ominous thud, she focused solely on carrying the wine bottle between her sweaty palms, taking care not to drop it.
Angel was in his bedroom, reclining lazily on the enormous bed. There were empty bottles and cups already strewn about the room, and the strong stench of stale alcohol. His eyes were already somewhat glazed, indicating he’d already been drinking.
“Asha,” he said in greeting, a lascivious grin spreading across his horrible features. His eyes scanned her outfit, her body, and Asha immediately felt dirty.
“My favourite lay is back for another date.”
It took all of Asha’s energy not to react with rage and disgust.
Instead, she wet her lips and said, “It didn’t seem like I was your favourite at the time. Isn’t that Lana, anyway?”
He shrugged, still grinning. “Lana’s good for when I just need a good, mindless fuck. Just a warm, wet hole that lies there and lets me do what I want. But when I want a real challenge…well, you gave me the fight of my life, sweet pea. Something real thrilling about that, isn’t there?”
She was going to vomit, for Lana as much as herself. Lana, her friend, who was smart and sweet and so fucking sexy, and he described her like a blow-up doll. Vile.