I make her too much money. A lot of the men come to the club to see me perform, both onstage and off.
But the other musicians might have told her that Pierce was the one who went with it first. That the rest of them felt they had no choice after he agreed.
Is Rouge the reason Pierce didn’t show up to work?
Is he locked away somewhere? Somewhere with Maddox, Alissa, Dishari, Tim, and countless other retired waitstaff from Rouge’s clubs?
Or worse…
Are they all dead?
31
HARRISON
We finished up our beer with Aus and then left the Jade Sanctum discreetly. Bianca and I wanted to regroup somewhere public where Rouge wouldn’t have a million eyes on us. We found a brewpub in a more remote part of downtown called Sander’s Batch, where we’re now sitting.
It’s the dictionary definition of a dive bar. Metal stools with worn-out cushioning around a long wooden counter. A disorderly collection of bottles behind the bartender, a broken jukebox in the corner, and a pool table with more scratches than felt on its surface. We take a seat at the bar and are served non-descript beers from a burly guy with an eyepatch—yeah, an eyepatch.
I take a sip from mine. “What’s the plan from here?”
Bianca closes her eyes and takes a deep breath in. “I think it’s pretty clear that Rouge is up to something pretty damned nefarious.”
“Definitely.”
She sighs. “There could be a logical explanation. Chicago is a big city. People go missing every day. People get shot, kidnapped.”
“They do. But these stories all carry a common thread.”
“Yeah. My sister.” She swallows. “And there’s something I thought of back at Jade. My drummer, Pierce.”
“What about him, babe?”
“When I sang that extra song at the end of my set. That night you came to the club. He was the one who urged the rest of the band to go along with it, even though it was against Rouge’s wishes.”
“Yikes.”
“You don’t know the half of it. The next evening, he didn’t show up. No explanation given. We had to rework the set around his absence at the last minute, and so much has been going on since then that I haven’t given it a second thought.”
I rub at my chin. “Fuck.”
“She was pissed at me that night. But obviously she couldn’t do anything to me. I make her a hell of a lot of money.”
“Plus she’s your sister.”
She scratches at her upper arm. “I don’t think that matters to Rouge. If I were more expendable to her, I’d be history by now. But she can get another drummer like that.” She snaps her fingers. “Aces pays well. More than most gigs across the city.” Her lip trembles. “I think Pierce was a message. A pawn in her little game.”
Chills snake up and down my spine.
This wasn’t real until tonight.
Up until now, everything was a theory.
We still don’t have any concrete evidence against Rouge, but something dark is going on.
I rake my hands through my hair as I try to process all this new information. “Okay. We have to look for more clues. Find one solid piece of evidence that Rouge is the person behind all of this.”
“I don’t think we should go to any more clubs.” Bianca stares at the scratched bar. “Any of those people we talked to could snitch on us. If Rouge catches wind of anything, we’re toast.”
