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Chapter Seven
Rhia barely made it to her car before a flood of light spilled into the dark lot at the rear of Haven. At the late hour, not a soul populated the deserted area. All the same, a creepy vibe set her nerves on edge, and she could only imagine others felt it too. It was more of a wide alley than a real parking space. Ample enough to fit several cars with exits on either side that led to the side streets alongside Haven. Why Roman had suggested she park back here she would never know, but she sent up a silent prayer of thanks anyway.
Tucked low behind the wheel, Rhia watched through her rearview mirror as Dimitris exited the club with Maya a few paces behind him.
A single bulb joined the motion censored floodlight to fight back the darkness from atop the metal door. Unlike the side entrance the staff used, this one didn’t have a guard. And from what she could tell, it lacked security cameras too.
This was probably not the best-laid plan. She cringed inwardly. She wasn’t sure how to handle this, but something had to be done, and from the looks of it, Sevastyan had no intentions of stepping in. That ruled out Matteo, Roman, and Lucian. Indigo, she could forget about too. Looked like she was on her own.
Rain misted a hazy curtain over their part of town, and she hoped it held steady. Despite the rain, thick humidity clogged the night air and made breathing almost impossible. Coupled with her adrenaline-soaked blood her heart rate hit fourth gear and held.
Helpless, she watched through her rearview mirror as Dimitris slipped into a black BMW with blacker windows and tugged on that damn leash wrapped tight around the girth of his hand. Bjorn closed the car door for him after Maya entered after him.
Raw fury pressed against her chest and the weight made her breathing labored. “Maya. Hold on,” she gritted between clenched teeth. Hands around the wheel, she waited for Bjorn to pull out of the parking space.
He turned south, which led back toward her current home and the seedier part of town. How she didn’t see the signs her friend was in trouble she didn’t know but if they both survived this, a long talk made its way to the top of her agenda. Then again, had she pulled her head out of the sex-induced fog wrapped around her brain and focused on her true mission, her friend wouldn’t be in this predicament. She bet her guardian angel wished this were true. Rhia would already be back home with her father’s killer behind bars.
One detail at a time. She touched on each new piece of information she knew and came up with more holes in her mental pictures than a complete image. Nothing made sense. The first thing she had to do was help her friend, and in the process possibly find the missing containers and their contents. Then item number two, make sure she made it to that auction. Without a doubt, the answers she needed would be found there.
Rhia jammed the key in the ignition and turned over the engine a few seconds later and followed, letting a couple of cars slide in between her and Dimitris’ car. She pried herself from her fears and gripped the wheel until every knuckle on her hand turned white with determination.
Hidden behind several cars, she kept her focus on the taillights of the BMW and followed it across town to a warehouse tucked away on a deserted street.
Twenty minutes later they left the city lights behind, and she killed the headlights and engine as she rolled to a quiet stop across the street outside a private building that had seen better days. If creepy had a face it looked like a crumbling building in the bowels of Chicago.
A hulkish, hooded man slowed his pace opposite her side of the street, his eyes on her as he crossed a few paces beyond her car. Instinct forced her hand to the lock but if she played it safe, Maya could slip away.
It had that same eerie vibe as the back alley to Haven. Or maybe it was because of the present company which she didn’t rule out. Broken streetlamps cornerstoned the narrow road that lined the edge of the two-story building, once snowy white but now appearing grayed and smudged with age. No coincidence there. Shady deals called for shadier locals. And as cliché as it may be, the place reeked of human waste and bad decisions. Putrid and decay.
From her position tucked out of sight, she watched as Dimitris’ car pulled into a small entrance. A metal double door opened, and Bjorn guided the car inside before the doors closed behind them.
Leaving the keys in the ignition, Rhia grabbed her phone and slipped the compact device into her pocket, and stepped into the rain, the soft soles of her flats silent on the stones.
Rule number one, if she ever wrote a book on this, would be never to wear heels when doing recon. She silently thanked her past self for the foresight in footwear. Sometimes things just worked out. She tried to bring a light mood to help with the crippling fear that contracted around her thigh muscles and slowed her progress.
It didn’t help.
Hunched low, she crossed the narrow alley and skirted the side of the building. Long windows divided the two floors down the middle, the crystal darkened by someone’s handy use of black paint from the inside, by the looks of it. Someone who didn’t check their work. Several boxes or crates, she couldn’t tell which between the water, lack of light, and wet hair in her face, provided enough stability to where she could peer through a small portion of unpainted glass.
Perched on the corner of her makeshift booster, she rose to her toes to close the final inch of distance that allowed her to see in. It wasn’t much brighter on the inside with the headlights of Dimitris’ car as the only source of light.
Like a dutiful soldier, Bjorn stepped out of the driver’s side and held the car door open just as a hinged door opened on the far side of the warehouse and another car eased through the narrow passage.
Rhia wiped at the window for a better look to an avail. Smudged with what had to be years of grime, she squinted, barely able to make out Maya who exited the car first. Dimitris appeared next, of course. Both stood bathed in the light from now two sets of headlights, waiting for whoever was in the next car.
The second car’s door swung open, and Rhia’s eyes went wide and her lungs froze mid-breath. She rubbed at the window again with her wet palm. It couldn’t be. With her face plastered against the glass, Rhia’s eyes glued wide open.
Her brain struggled to catch up with the scene that played out before her.
Spiked heels and blonde hair came into view. “Why that bitch,” Rhia hissed against the glass.
Indigo slipped from the confines of the second car and walked up to Dimitris, saying something right before she locked lips with the devil himself.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Oh my God, you can’t be serious?” Her words came garbled and jagged like water running through crushed glass.
Heavy breaths fogged the window, and she had to force herself into a false calm as she refocused through the glass. She blinked rapidly to fight back the sudden pierce of pain to her chest. Maya had her back to Rhia, but by the slope of her shoulders the obvious stood out like a knife to the chest. Fear hung from her friend like an unbearable weight.
Bjorn came up to stand by Indigo, arms clasped behind his back as though he were at ease.
