Chapter 27
HATCH
I’m late back from my break, and I can’t find Lucy any-fucking-where, which means I’m going to have to murder her father obviously.
Kian McKennon held me on the phone for forty-five goddamn minutes, peppering me with questions I wasn’t going to answer about a daughter I’m not going to let him find.
By the time I got him off the line, I’d already missed my call window with Dash.
Now his phone goes straight to voicemail, which makes me murderous all over again.
Something’s going down, Hatch. If I go MIA, don’t come looking. I’ll contact you, not the other way around. I have to fix this for her.
I called back seven times after that message. Then eight. Then I lost count somewhere around the point his phone stopped ringing entirely.
Orion is with his fiancée visiting New Orleans and messaged back that he hadn’t heard from Dash. I almost called King, but I didn’t want to blow Dash’s cover if he has some plan he thinks our father will fuck up.
So I’m a livewire, on edge and I need my fix. I need to see Lucy safe.
And again, I can’t find her any-fucking-where, and I’m going to blow this goddamn building up if I don’t get an answer STAT.
“Yo, Mariposa.” I sound so freaking calm as I super-casually lean over the bar—ever-stoic Dash would be so proud. “Where’s Alice?”
Mariposa stiffens for one alarming second but doesn’t look up from the glass she’s wiping.
“She’s doing her job. Like you should be, newbie. No boyfriends. Remember?”
“I am doing my job.” I plant both hands on the bar, then sound out each word through gritted teeth. “Part of my job is knowing where all the dancers are. So where the hell is Alice?”
Pretty sure I look and sound like a psychopath—a suspicion I can confirm when Mariposa does a double take and swallows thickly as she puts a glass down. Then she takes a long drag from her hookah, blows a perfect smoke ring directly in my face, and waits for my reaction.
“For fuck’s sake, Mari.” I wave it away, cursing. “Why do you keep doing that?”
“It really doesn’t work on you, does it? Is that why he’s trying to figure you out?” Her gaze roams over my face. “Why doesn’t it work on you?”
“Mariposa?” I prompt, a hint of warning in my voice. “Cut the cryptic shit. Where. Is. Alice?”
She grimaces. “Look, kid, you really don’t wanna know.”
My heartbeat skyrockets. “Tell me where she is.”
“Fine, but I warned you.” She sighs and takes another drag before jutting her chin to the far side of the club. “Smoke and Mirrors.”
“Dammit, Mari, I said cut the cryptic—”
“The room, idiot.” She turns her back to pour a drink for someone down the bar. “We call it the Mirrors Room usually. And usually it’s closed. Tonight, Castle’s got Smoke pouring in heavy, so the Mirror Room goes by its other name.”
Heat moves like a wildfire in my chest that I have to tamp down with all my willpower. “That’s a VIP Room.” I grip the edge of the bar. “What’s she doing in there?”
Mariposa blinks those heavy green lashes once. Then looks around before giving me another pointed look.
“I mean, do you want a diagram or…?”
Fuck.
Emotion weighs heavy in my chest, clogging my throat.
I was Lucy’s first VIP “client” days ago, so I naively assumed she didn’t do VIP rooms. Turns out I just popped her VIP cherry I guess.
It’s a job.
Get over yourself, dude.
She’s not yours.
“Yeah. Alright.” I knock my knuckles lightly on the bar. “Thanks.”
Her wince follows me as I turn to go. “For what it’s worth? It wasn’t her choice. Castle’s orders.”
I stop.
Those two words claw icy cold fingers down my spine. I turn around.
“What does that mean?”
Mariposa’s not one to waste time or suffer fools, so the fact it takes her so long to answer—pressing her glittery blue lips together like she’s measuring exactly what she can afford to give away—only ramps my paranoia up.
“We all have to do privates, and Castle wanted all hands on deck and us on our best behavior since he’s out of town for a few days.
Apparently, he caught wind that Alice has been avoiding them and decided tonight was the night she stopped.
” She watches me the way a hawk watches a snake realize it picked the wrong road to cross. “He assigned her a client, Hatter.”
“He assigned…fuck.” I swallow roughly. “Is she… is she safe with this client?”
She holds my gaze, her expression going carefully, completely blank while my blood pressure skyrockets.
“Fuck. Thanks, Mari,” I grunt, already turning to go.
“Don’t go barging in there!” she calls after me before I’ve taken more than a step.
I look back over my shoulder. “If she’s not safe, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
She shakes her head. “The Smoke in that room is concentrated. She told Duchy she tried to up her antihistamines, but she was afraid of OD’ing.
There’s no over-the-counter dosage that’s going to cut it in there.
” Her voice drops as I step closer. “You go crashing through that door, you’ll scare the hell out of her and traumatize her on top of whatever’s already going on in that room. ”
Don’t go in half-cocked and guns blazing.
“Noted. Thanks.”
Plan changed, I find X near the main stage, one eye on the floor and the other on Duchess working the pole. I can’t see half his face thanks to the balaclava, but from what I can see, it looks suspiciously like he’s watching her with… awe.
Curious.
He still clocks me the second I break from the crowd, his posture instantly shifting into a defensive stance as I hold out my hand.
“Give me your phone.”
“The fuck, Hatter? No.” He steps away.
“Give me your phone, X.”
“Tell me why.” He folds his arms over his chest.
I bite down until my back teeth ache. “I need access to the cameras.”
“No.”
“It’s to check on Alice.”
He scoffs. “Hell no.”
“She’s in the Smoke and Mirrors Room. Mariposa just told me.” I watch his face, trying to see if he’s finally earned his reserved spot on my shit list yet.
But something changes in him, moving quickly through his expression before getting locked down tight. It’s the same alarm I saw flash across Mariposa’s face before she went blank.
“Lucy can’t be in there,” he insists, though he already sounds unsure. “Castle doesn’t use that room.”
“Apparently, he does. And apparently the client is the type that has a death wish.” I wiggle my fingers. “Now let. Me see. Your. Phone.”
X curses under his breath but pulls it from his back pocket. His fingers swipe through the security app, then through camera feeds until he finds the right one.
He goes still.
“Fuck.”
My stomach drops.
“Fuck? What do you mean fuck?” I snatch the phone out of his hand before he can answer.
And I’m fine for about two seconds. I really am. But within those two seconds, I learn everything I need to know, and my heart stops.
I shove the phone back into his chest and start moving.
I shoot him in both kneecaps and drive my knife into his eye, then twirl it around before stabbing again. I slice and slice until his hands cut clean off and Lucy’s wrapped safe in my arms—
“Hatter, stop!”
X jumps in front of me, and I rear back to cold-cock him, but he dodges and throws both hands up in surrender.
“Stop. You go in there like this and you’re gonna scare the shit out of her.”
“You saw her.” My voice comes out broken. “You don’t think she’s already terrified?”
“It’s the Smoke. She probably doesn’t even know what’s happening right now,” he rushes out. “That room is pumped full of it. It’s not like the floor. Everything’s heightened for her in weird and wrong ways because of it.”
“X.” I point toward the door and swallow past the lump in my throat. “Why the fuck is she in there, man? Like that. With him?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head, confusion and concern furrowing his brow. “But we’ll figure it out. We just have to be smart.”
“Smart.” The word tastes like ash. “Fine. What do I do?”
My voice breaks on the last word, and I thread my fingers on the back of my head to stop myself from putting them through a wall.
X glances up at the dark skybox. Castle didn’t come in tonight. Now I’m wondering the real reason why.
“X, talk to me.”
He exhales. “We go in calm and quick so we don’t get hit with the Smoke.”
“Get hit with it? Who gives a fuck if we get hit with it?”
“You don’t get it. The amount of Smoke in that room means anybody who goes in doesn’t come out in their right minds. If we go in hot, both of them are gonna panic. Trust me, you do not want him to panic.” His eyes lock onto me. “You understand me? Be. Calm. And don’t breathe.”
“Right. Don’t fucking breathe. That’ll work.” I snap. “Come on.”
I push past him to the VIP room tucked into the far corner of the club, X keeping pace behind me. When I reach the door, I force myself to stop, one hand flat against the wood, and breathe.
“Be cool, man,” X says low behind me as he hands me the keys. “This is bad. Really fucking bad. But don’t make it worse.”
Be cool? I want to punch him in the fucking face, and images of burying my knife into the guy beyond this door paint my vision red. But I shove it all down with one forceful exhale.
“Okay. Here goes.”
I unlock the door, push it open… and my world shatters.