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It didn’t look like all that much on the outside. A heritage building at the edge of the strip, taking up the full corner lot. Three levels. Well, if you knew about the basement, anyway.
On the top floor, cherry red curtains hung in the windows, backlit with diffused light. I’d heard talk that there was a brothel of sorts up there, but hadn’t confirmed it just yet. Couldn’t go asking too many questions of the locals, especially when they were so clearly as enamored with theirSaintlySt. Crow and his merry band of misfits as they were with themselves.
I bypassed the burgundy painted front entry of the pub and went around the side of the building to the nondescript black service door near the parking lot behind the bar.
I felt naked in the skin-tight black dress I wore after getting rid of my larger jacket and the rest of the cash. But the long sleeve little number was easy to move in, made the girls look killer, and hopefully, would help me blend in. I knocked. Waited.
The door opened three seconds later and the burly bouncer gave me a once over.
It was five to eleven now. I knew I wasn’t too late, but by the look on his face, he was going to turn me away.
“I think you’re in the wrong place, sweetheart.”
He began to close the door.
I tugged the cash from my thrifted designer purse and thrust out a palm to stop him.
He eyed the cash. “Don’t call me sweetheart,” I deadpanned. “You want my money or not?”
“Fighter?” he asked, his shoulders tensing as he frowned at me.
“Rook,” I replied. I didn’t even have to know a goddamned thing about his opponent to know where my money would be safest. If I could double it. The More the better.
But it still physically wounded me as Mr. Bouncer ushered me into the narrow space at the top of a set of stairs going down and took the wad of cash from my hands to feed it into a counter.
When it was done eating my spoils, he stuffed it into an envelope and wrote the amount on the front. “Name,” he barked gruffly.
“AJ,” I replied on a whim, kicking myself when it was too late to take it back. I had a cycle of names I usually used. All variations of Evangeline. That name hadso manyshort form variations. Eve, Eva, Evie, Vanna, Angie, Lina, Gilly, the list went on and on. Made it easier to remember and if I forgot I could just say Evangeline and they would connect the dots themselves.Voila.
ButAJ?Fucking, really?
I groaned inwardly, telling myself that AJ could stand for any number of things while mentally kicking myself.
He added the name beneath the amount and sealed the envelope before prying open a metal drop shoot in the wall and chucking it in.
Theshhhhhof the paper sliding down the metal shaft made a weight settle in my belly.
Bye-bye, my sweets, I’ll be seeing you and your cousins very soon,I promised each bill.
The bouncer looked me up and down, judging my ability to hide a weapon somehow beneath the skin-tight dress I was wearing. The heels, the ones Becca lent me the night at the docks, were strappy and wouldn’t conceal anything, either.
“Spread,” the bouncer decided, and I heard a few cheers erupt from deep below. I could hear the faint thud of music, too, but it was all so muffled up here, they must have invested a small fortune in soundproofing.
I lifted my arms and spread my legs as the guy completed a very thorough search. Above his head, I noted the blinking red light of a surveillance camera set into a nook on the ceiling. I wondered if they already knew I was here. I held no illusions that this disguise would fool the Crows, but if I managed to stay in the choked crowds of people I assumed would be surrounding the ring, I may skate by unnoticed.
“About finished?” I asked the burly fucker as his fingers trailed up my left thigh, hedging below the hem of my skirt. Another inch and he’d know exactly what I was hiding down there.
He frowned, but released me, snatching my small purse to look inside that, too. He grunted as he stepped out of my way and thrust the bag back at me.
I had a fake ID prepared, but it seemed my money was good enough to neglect the need for one even though I could smell the strong tang of mixed spirits and beer below.
“Good luck,” he barked as I took the first step down into the bowels of Sanctum. I heard the deadbolt slide shut behind me and my heart skipped a beat, mouth going dry.
This was going to be one interesting night.
“How is it?”Grey asked, finishing the wrap on my right hand. I flexed my fingers, making sure there was enough movement, but not so much that I’d easily break bones. I mean, I didn’t mind a few breaks, but like Corvus and Grey liked to keep reminding me, if I broke the bones in my hands any more than I already had over the years I wouldn’t be able to use them for shit when I got older.
Not to hold a gun.
