Chapter 20

That fucker.

He didn"t even ask me if I wanted to go.

I opened my bedroom door, ready to head downstairs and grab some food. I bet Beasty already had her food by now. He at least could have taken her to Snatched where the surveillance fed right to my phone.

All the doors were shut. Lake was in his office, and Kim was in his room. He got food earlier so who knew what he was doing.

I didn"t have any interest if it didn"t involve Beasty.

But Joaquin would pay for this. Maybe I"d take him to the Black Room and get him up on the platform. If I could get Beasty on board, I"d have her edge him until he never tried to keep me out again.

He'd hate it.

At the bottom of the stairs, I still had one hand on the banister when the office door slammed and Lake came barreling through the house. He didn"t even glance at me as he raced out and slammed the door shut behind him.

That couldn"t be good.

But again, not my concern. My concern was in a diner where Joaquin was with Beasty.

After I'd eaten, my phone dinged and I checked the screen. Security.

Security:

Someone is on their way up the driveway.

Irritation scratched the inside of my chest. Joaquin and Lake took care of business. I was the pretty face. It worked for me, allowing me to spend most of my time doing the things I loved.

With the club, I pulled my weight in different ways. Handling random house calls on a weekday wasn"t part of it.

It wasn"t like we could have security stop them either. Not if it could be the cops or feds. That would be too fucking suspicious.

I pulled up the feed from the doorbell and watched the SUV pull up. The door opened and a dainty foot in a clog stepped out.

Well, well. The Mediator was here.

Sonia slammed her door shut, righted her rainbow overalls, and pushed her sparkling sunglasses on top of her head. Her expression was pained as she walked up the steps. She didn"t like me much. Thought I had bad energy.

Snorting to myself, I opened the door before she had the chance to knock.

"What a surprise." I smirked.

We"d been working with her since about a year after we left West Virginia. We made an acquaintance of an acquaintance who introduced us to Sonia. For the most part, she was a nice woman.

For what she did.

Every time I"d seen her, she was dressed like a 70"s reject and acted like a cuckoo bird. There was no way this was who she was. As she did jobs for us, it would have gotten around that a woman in rainbows and sparkles gave ultimatums that people couldn"t resist.

That hadn"t happened yet, so there was more to Sonia than what met the eye.

"Lake here?" She asked, her voice light but blunt.

"Well, hello to you too."

"No? How about Kim? Anyone but you, really. I guess Joaquin is okay, but he still owes me fifty bucks." She sniffed and glanced around the foyer as I shut the door behind her.

"He won that money because you"re terrible at Blackjack," I said as I walked by her. We might as well have this conversation in the living room.

"You don"t steal money from a lady," she returned hotly. But it wasn"t serious. It never was, otherwise, she would have stolen the money from him a few years ago. Or added an extra fee on her services.

"Right..." I humored her. "Lake called you?"

"Joaquin, actually." She flopped down on the couch and one of her clogs fell off her foot. "A few days ago. He said you needed my services."

Shit, that could be anything. Or anyone. The judge, the Pescis, Adrian because he got on Joaquin"s nerves. But that wasn"t his style. My money was on the judge.

"He didn"t give me any information. I"ll call him." I held up one finger and dialed Joaquin. He answered on the second ring.

Loud chatter was in the background as an attendant called out a number.

"Tell me you"re not at Snatched." I wished I was upstairs so I could get my laptop and pull Beasty up on the cameras. My phone was okay, but I preferred the largest screen possible.

"What the hell do you want?" It was almost unintelligible.

My stomach dropped to the floor. There were many things that would get Joaquin shitfaced, but there were only so many that would push him to this when he was out with Beasty. I didn"t like any of them.

"I"ll be right back," I tossed over my shoulder at Sonia as I ran upstairs. I pounded on Kim"s door and when he opened it, he gave me a bleary-eyed stare as if he"d been sleeping. I pointed downstairs. "Sonia is here. Go watch her."

She was a smart woman. She knew we had cameras up, but if Kim was there, she"d be less likely to snoop or cause trouble.

Kim didn"t need any other prompting as he made his way toward the living room.

Inside our room, I put the phone on speaker as I sat on the couch, pulling up the footage for Snatched on my laptop. The Gold Room was the only place Joaquin would be.

"Where"s Beasty?" The Gold Room was up. There was Joaquin, slumped over at a Blackjack table with an empty glass in front of him.

"Gone."

Jumping up, my laptop fell to the floor. "What the hell do you mean gone?" I shouted. Air stopped flowing as I tried to swallow and my vision started to go black.

"Left her with Rory. She"s fine. Lake"s on his way to get her." And that asshole left without me?

Everyone was going to pay. This wasn"t part of the plan.

I opened my mouth to spew some shit at Joaquin, but I snapped it shut. He"d be handled later. Right now, there were more important things to deal with. "Why did you call Sonia?"

"Oh," he grumbled. "We got the file on Danny Pesci. And Stevo."

Sonia wasn"t going to help with Stevo. Stevo was fucking dead and she worked with breathing clients only.

"What was the point of that?" I asked, opening my laptop and checking the GPS on Lake"s phone. He was about five minutes from Snatched on a back road.

I texted him while I waited on Joaquin.

"Just to have more info. Lake has some on Donnie. But I have the file on Danny."

"And what is Sonia here for?" I gritted through my teeth. Dealing with a plastered Joaquin was worse than getting a newbie make-up artist who had no fucking idea how to work with different skin tones.

"To work on Danny."

"Where"s the file?" Lake hadn"t responded. What the hell was he doing? He hadn"t moved since I"d pulled up his location. I sent a text to Rory next.

"In my bag."

"Got it. We"ll chat about this later."

"Yeah, whatever," he snarked.

Pulling the phone away from my face, I looked at Joaquin on the screen. What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn"t done this since before the club opened. He was lucky Parker Adair went to his damned rescue. Otherwise, he could have been chewed up at that Viper"s nest.

And the fucker hung up on me.

Grabbing the file from his bag, I checked my messages again. Still nothing from Lake, but Rory had responded.

Rory:

Lake is with her. She"s ok, just upset.

Dropping my head back, I rolled it side to side in controlled movements, enjoying the cracks. She was fine. Lake would bring her home, then I would barricade her in my room and demand answers.

She might not give them willingly, but that was what I hoped for.

I flipped through the file. Danny was a busy guy, hanging out at Mary Sue"s, one of the Pescis' hangouts. Original name. Not.

He had a baby with an ex. Nothing crazy there. Rumors that he was a wife-beater. I didn"t need to check the facts, he had that look.

The last page was a black and white image of Danny with a woman, hitting it from behind while he pulled her hair to tip her head up.

In black sharpie, there was an arrow drawn to her and the words, Donnie"s wife.

Hell, yes. Exactly what we needed. Which resource did Joaquin tap to get this gem?

I checked Lake"s location one more time before I left the room. He was still in the same spot. Sonia would only take a minute, then I"d go to that location and lay my own eyes on her.

Already, my nerves were starting to fray at the edges just knowing she wasn"t in view of any of the cameras. Now that she was back and we had surveillance everywhere, the compulsion to watch her was almost unbearable. I needed to see her, or at least know where she was at every second I was awake.

And this? I knew where she was at, but not knowing what happened or why she was half a mile from the diner, was a poison working through my blood, leaving my skin hot and itchy.

Downstairs, Kim sat on the arm of the chair across from where Sonia sat on the couch. Kim, the subtle flirt he could be, had Sonia giggling like a twelve-year-old schoolgirl.

"I"m telling you, Snatched is the place you need to be. You"d fit right in in the Urban Room, and the performers are absolute artists." He leaned in, not even caring about his ruffled bedhead. "And it"s quite seductive. If you love that, we have other more...private rooms for our favorite guests to enjoy." He winked and she giggled, tapping her bare feet on the rug.

She glanced up when I rounded the chair and cleared her throat. Oh, she really did not like me.

"Well?" Sonia asked primly.

"I have a file on Danny Pesci. He"s fucking his brother"s wife." I walked over to hand her the file, and once she took it, I sat in one of the other chairs. My hands itched to check Lake"s location, but I could wait a little bit.

Sonia whistled. "The Pescis, huh? I"ve heard plenty about them, but they"re out of my normal territory. Does this have to do with Lake"s arrest?"

She knew enough people in the law circuit, so it wasn"t a surprise she knew about his arrest. Interesting that she didn"t mention Joaquin"s. "We"ve made them a little angry by taking away one of their toys." I traced my fingers over the seam at the end of each arm. "They surprised us when they went to the cops."

Kim glanced at me and back to Sonia, his smile completely gone now.

Flipping through the file, she stuck her tongue out to the side. Then she hummed when she got to the last picture.

Sonia closed it and set it down across her thighs. "You know that they"re never going to take this to court. They"re going to drop the charges, and from what I hear, there"s not enough evidence to make the charges stick. You sure you want me to take this job? Seems like a waste to me."

I wouldn"t bother with it, but Joaquin thought it was important, and I never doubted him on things like this. He was too good at stacking the odds in our favor.

Shrugging, I raised a lazy hand. "I don"t question Joaquin."

We spent the next several minutes ironing out how she was going to position this and what our preferences were on the interaction. I didn't have any and if Joaquin wanted a say, he should have fucking been here.

The front door unlocked, and footsteps echoed through the house as they drew closer.

Anticipation lit up in my stomach and my head snapped toward the hall.

Lake came through first, thunder in his expression until he saw Sonia sitting on the couch. His posture loosened and he stepped to the side.

I expected Beasty, but she didn"t come through.

"Where is she?" I demanded, standing up.

"Leave her alone for a little while." Lake scrubbed a hand over his face. Then he glanced at Sonia, completely disregarding me. That was fine. I enjoyed the few times I blended into the background.

But Lake was high if he thought I was going to let Beasty be alone.

"What"s today"s call for?" He addressed Sonia directly as he walked deeper into the room.

"Oh, you know, a job that"s not worth the money."

I didn"t wait to hear the rest of the exchange. I ran up the stairs, taking them three at a time. At the mouth of the hallway, I slowed down. Instead of knocking on her door or heading straight to my room, I pulled up the video feed on my phone, making sure it was silenced just in case she was talking.

The rooms were soundproof, but I hadn"t gotten as good at watching Beasty by being thoughtless and making assumptions.

The video was clear, yet Beasty"s body language was all wrong.

She had her back to the stand that held her pet, slumped over her knees with drooping lines. There was so much despair rolling off of her, I couldn"t stand it.

Beasty needed to be punished. She needed to pay. But on my terms. Not like this.

My heart twisted inside my chest as I fisted my free hand. Just like when we were teenagers, the best thing I could do for her was let her know she wasn"t alone.

I opened her door and her head popped up. Beasty should have locked it if she wanted to be alone.

She didn"t say anything, just looked off to the side, like she didn"t mind me here as long as she didn"t have to acknowledge me.

Sucking in a shallow breath, I walked closer, getting a good look at just how devastated she was.

There were no tears, but there had been. Her face was blotchy and the skin under her eyes was swollen. Even her lips were puffy like she"d bitten them too much.

If Kim were here, I doubt he could pass up the chance to photograph her. This was exactly his vibe.

Scratching the back of my head, I slipped my phone in my pocket and took a seat against the wall, only a few feet from her. I reached out a hand, then froze. What the hell was I doing?

Pulling it back, I dropped it to my lap.

It seemed wrong. I only touched her when I wanted to fuck her. Or when I knew she wanted to fuck me.

Right then, she was fragile. Brittle. One wrong touch and she could break.

"Whatever it is, it"s not worth the energy."

One side of her mouth slid up as if pulled by a loose string. "Joaquin isn"t worth the energy?"

I knew that motherfucker was the reason for this as soon as I heard how plastered he was. I"d get the information from him when he was sober. Then I"d decide the best way to fuck him over.

But for now, I shook my head, trying not to clench my teeth.

"You"re worth ten of that asshole, Beasty. I promise."

Her eyes widened, but she remained frozen. We stared at each other until I couldn"t take it anymore.

If I stayed, I"d end up punching a hole in the wall, and that wouldn"t help either of us. I preferred my bad behaviors to manifest in different ways.

I hopped to my feet, glancing at the quiet enclosure. I"d have to meet this pet of hers someday.

"Atlas..."

"It will be okay, Beasty. Whatever it is, as long as we"re together, it will be okay."

Then I left her on the floor, not sure if I was saving us trouble or causing her more pain.

But I didn"t leave her alone completely. I set up my laptop in my room and took a seat on the floor against the wall. Then I watched her process her thoughts.

Just like I"d always done before.