Chapter 1 #3
In her mind, she entertained images of stabbing Xan Ravenwood right in the heart.
Bashing his head in with a club. Lighting his shoelaces on fire and watching him burn.
When she had these fantasies, her blood rushed, adrenaline pumping in her veins like gas pumped into semis.
Propane tanks. Exploding. Fire and brimstone raining upon the man who killed her sister and God knew how many other people because…
well, she still didn’t know the details.
All Nala had was her gut, and her gut told her to find Ravenwood.
The rest would fall into place after that.
Maybe I’ll play the plucky young and driven gal who wants a job. Infiltrate his company. Lure him out of his shell. I’ll… She stood up, stumbling from the whole glass of rum and Coke. She wasn’t drunk, but she was tipsy. I’ll fall down.
There was one problem. The door said “Private,” and it was not a large room full of shadows to lurk in.
If Nala got up and tried to go in, someone would certainly spot her.
This wasn’t a dive bar where the worst that happened was getting a stern talking to.
If Xan Ravenwood, resident billionaire who owned half of a major city, lurked behind that door, then…
well, Nala could probably kiss her life in Portland goodbye.
I won’t know if I don’t try.
Maybe it was the alcohol that made her so brazen.
If she were 100% sober, she may go home and regroup with her new information, but she wanted to find out now.
So she went to a table by the door, stocked with water in a dispenser and many small glasses.
She picked one up and slowly filled it with water, biding her time until nobody looked at her.
The place wasn’t busy. That meant she didn’t have to wait long, but it also meant she was so conspicuous that a blind man could spot her.
The bartender was washing glasses at the far end of the bar. The hostess played coy with a single man in another corner. The two people in suits at the bar were getting up and shaking hands, paying her no mind. Now was the time to go for it. She could regret it later.
There were many things she could regret later.
Nala slipped her hand over the handle and found it deceptively unlocked.
It opened, slowly, shadows filtering into the lounge.
Good. It was a hallway. An unlit hallway she could fumble around in.
Good thing I wore a black dress and have dark hair.
While everyone in the lounge was still distracted, Nala ducked behind the door and shut it behind her.
Regret.
She waited. Assessed her environment. Listened for someone coming after her.
Nothing happened. The hall was boring. More shadows.
A long, long tunnel with a staircase at the bottom.
Nala felt a lock on the handle behind her and wondered if that woman and her Starling were supposed to turn it on their way out.
She proceeded. Each step was heavier than the last as if every one of those steps attached five more pounds of weight to her flats. This is wrong. She was trespassing now. One thing to go to Ravenwood’s lounge and order a drink. This? This wasn’t legal.
Although she didn’t care, that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of her heart fluttering in her chest and her forehead sweating.
Ravenwood was somewhere around here. Probably at the bottom of those stairs.
Sure enough, she heard the sounds of a party.
Laughter. Shouts of glee. Applause. Any private party Xan Ravenwood threw was probably full of the Pacific elite. She didn’t want to know them.
“Thatta girl!” she vaguely heard. Whispers in the constricted air. “Enjoy that!”
Smack.
Smack!
Nala didn’t know what she heard, but people were having a good time. Something about that genuinely irked her. Why do they get to have a good time while I…
She didn’t see the first step. Not in those shadows. So when her foot took an unceremonious step over the edge without her permission, Nala’s beating heart surged into her throat and threatened to jump out of her mouth, bounce on the steps, and land dead at the bottom.
Or maybe that was her.
“Ah!” She was falling. Fell. Fallen. Her body lurched forward, arms shooting out to catch her fall, for all the good it would do her.
I’m going to die. Or break my arms. Amazing what people thought when they were in the middle of falling down some stairs.
It almost felt commonplace. Like it was naturally something one did every day.
Brush teeth. Check mail. Fall down stairs.
Okay, ready for bed! Nala wanted to berate herself, but she was sort of busy falling down some forbidden stairs.
Before her hands caught on a narrow step and took the rest of her body with her, however, something miraculous happened. When one was falling down some stairs, having a strong hand snatch out and grab said faller was miraculous at the time.
“Oh, my God!” Nala stared into the dark maw of the staircase, frozen in time and space. Someone’s hand was around her wrist, slowly pulling her back up to the top of the stairs as her feet tripped again and her heart gradually slowed down. “Oh, my God, thank y…”
She looked straight into the soft countenance of the younger woman from the bar.
For some reason, Nala wanted to vomit.