CHAPTER 2
Zaid
With her arms crossed over her chest, Heather was timid, hiding herself. Lily’s dress fit her well, but she was uncomfortable in it. She fidgeted. Tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. The cuffs dangling on the wall were a reminder that she wasn’t home. She wasn’t safe. I was at ease in a place like this, but Heather, she knew nothing of our kind. We were a few feet apart. The scent of her fear, a musky, vagrant smell, lingered between us. I sucked in a breath, masking it as a groan of annoyance.
But hell, that scent was intoxicating. And the way she molded to my hands, letting me take her in here.
The silence ate at her. She bit her lip. Afraid to speak. I could give her the grace of being first.
“Talking like that will get you in trouble,” I said. Getting herself killed was more accurate. But my gut told me to spare her that violence for now. She needed a break, even if only a small one. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for someone,” she said. Her voice stammered, but then her eyes darted forward, meeting mine, an oceanic brightness that beamed curiosity. “Hazel. My sister.” There was no doubt about that. But there was something different about Heather. I needed to figure it out. “Those people said something about Eric. Do you know anything about him?”
Everyone in Club Hades knew Eric. Lines had been drawn in the sand. Very few crossed that line. Even fewer returned. I made sure of that.
“Are you Eric?”
I scoffed. “I go by Zaid,” I said.
“How did you know my name?”
It was part of my job to know the ins and outs of anyone who attended an Afterglow event. Even the people who hovered nearby, daydreaming about what might be inside. Like Heather Maben. I had swiped her wallet as soon as she entered the warehouse.
“Tell the others you want Eric dead,” I said. “They’ll talk.”
“I don’t wish anyone dead.”
“Lie then.”
“I don’t lie, sir.”
I blinked slowly. The word on her tongue made me twitch.Sir.She meant nothing by it. A polite mannerism. A habit she had learned. And yet that instinct made me want to shackle her to the wall right there, to make her surrender to my every demand.
But this wasn’t about that. She had other intentions, as did I.
“What do you want with Eric?” I asked.
“Maybe he knows what happened to my sister. I haven’t heard from her in months.” She relaxed her arms by her side. I held the key she was looking for, quite literally. “They said they’re together now, or something like that. I don’t care about him; I just need to find her.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s my sister,” she said, her tone icy. The lines on her face, the resolute answer: shewastelling the truth. “Don’t you have a family?”
It was a simple assumption. But I hadn’t had a family in a long time.
“Why haven’t you gone to the police?” I asked.
“They’re never helpful.”
What was her true intention? Her motive? Anyone with a cursory knowledge of the underground of Las Vegas knew that Eric was an enemy. Someone not to be trusted. A man who had no problem taking a life, if he felt like it. Hazel was part of that. Was Heather a spy sent to gain information about the Afterglow? Eric was the type of person to abuse a family like that, using sisters as bait for each other. He had been an enemy of the Afterglow for a long time.
Studying her face, there was no ulterior motive. She simply wanted her sister. Still, she was better off without her.
“If you’re not willing to lie, then go,” I said. I gestured at the door. “You’re in over your head. Go home. You’re not safe here.”
“I don’t have a home,” she said. “I moved here. For this.”
All to find her sister, someone who, to her knowledge, had ghosted her. A stupid, foolish move.
