“Okay, what does this have to do with the price of tea in Boston?” I was happy I was learning more about Lane, but I wasn’t any closer to finding out if he really was all right.
“Don’t be impatient, sugar. The cops came by and arrested him for panhandling. They must not have had anything to do that night and just needed someone to mess with. Okay, I think to myself, he’s going to need his cards. I picked up the two decks he had on his table. You can’t deprive a working man of his tools.” Her mouth curved wider. “I took a peek. One deck was full of the Death card, and one was entirely the Lovers. You see, that boy knew the heart of people. Love and death, that’s how we all function.” She smirked. “Really, what he did was learn enough about people to tell them what they wanted to hear. Did they need a new beginning? Or something to fear?”
“He sure as hell isn’t a fortune teller now.”
She lifted her eyebrows and didn’t look like she agreed with me. “Hmm, but he’s handsome and interesting, traits of a true companion.” She reached out and brushed her fingers through my hair, and I shivered. “That night, I sent my lawyer to get him free because I was intrigued, and I was there for him today, too. I like Lane, Mr. Midberry. He might be turning tricks for pennies now, but when he gets bored of that, he’ll carry himself up and out of the shallow water he’s treading. His future is useful to me,” she finished, her words turning to ice. “And I will not see him hurt.”
“No, ma’am. I told the police he was my boyfriend.”
She came over and held out her hand. I passed back the card and was surprised when she ripped it in half. She pulled a pen out of the drawer where she’d had the card stored and wrote something on the silver back of one half before she passed it to me.
“There’s his address. I still think you should be putting your time to better use, but… go ahead. Make a mess of your life.” She smiled at me. “See what he has to say to the likes of you.”
“Thank you,” I said, and felt like I should do something silly like bow my way out of the room. Instead, I just turned to go before Darcy managed to set me on fire with his look alone.
“Oh, and Mr. Midberry?”
“Yeah?” I turned back to her.
She settled down on the couch and picked up her book, pursed her lips, and then pointed at me. “You aren’t welcome in my establishment until this blows over. I am not the police. I am not swayed by your position with the city. Money means nothing when it comes to protecting what is mine and the people under my care.”
Her smile was serene, and my blood ran cold. I nodded once and actually ran out of the door, my only thought getting to Stormy. I might have thrown his real name around with Madam Winters to try to get to him, but that’s how I knew him.
Stormy. And he was powerful and full of energy—just like his nickname—in all the right ways.
Outside again, I stood under the starry night sky and was humbled for a moment not to be in lockup. I opened my phone to order another Uber and scowled when I poked at the usual button but the cash for the ride wouldn’t go through. I got an email notification and checked it—my card wasn’t working, but that couldn’t be right. I tried again to order an Uber, and the same thing happened. Then I got another nasty shock when an email from my bank arrived.
“Your accounts have been frozen due to an order from law enforcement. Please wait to be contacted….” I blinked up at the sky and laughed as I turned to trudge in the direction of Stormy’s apartment building.
Prepare for communication issues to ruin a project.Fucking hell. Replace project withmy life, and it was definitely up in flames.
4
Lane
I woketo the sound of a rough banging on my door and groaned, nearly falling off the couch in my attempt to roll to my feet. Fatigue made it difficult to open my eyes fully as I stumbled toward the door. It was rare for someone to actually knock because Owen, or whoever was on shift at the time, called up first if I had visitors.
Yawning so widely my jaw cracked, I opened the door—and froze in surprise at who was on the other side. “Ross?” I blinked a few times, just to make sure I wasn’t imagining him. He was dressed in the suit he’d worn when we’d been caught, more disheveled than I’d ever seen him. This wasn’t the mayor of New Gothenburg I knew; he never looked like this, even after he’d spent the night fucking me before he left the Courtesan. “Are you okay?”
It didn’t occur to me to ask how he’d found out where I lived until after I grabbed his wrist and dragged him inside. I closed the door behind him. If it had been anyone else, I might have been worried, but he’d always been one of my best clients.
Ross smiled, but his expression wasn’t filled with anything except tiredness. “As okay as a mayor who’s been arrested can be. Well, technically I haven’t been arrested yet.”
“You haven’t?” I tugged him over to the couch and pushed him down onto the soft blue cushions before I took a seat beside him, drawing my feet up under myself. I turned toward him and touched his shoulder. “What happened?”
He leaned his elbows on his knees, dropping his face into his hands. While I waited for him to say something, his shoulders slumped forward. The wrecked appearance had me doubly worried as I slid my touch down to his arm, a vile taste coating my tongue as concern worked its way up my throat. “Tell me something, Stormy. Or should I call you Lane?”
I winced.Noneof my clients had ever known my real name, but I didn’t question his newfound knowledge. The cops probably told him just to piss me off because my safety sure wasn’t any of their concern. “You can call me whatever you want, sweetheart.” Moving my hand to his head, I ran my fingers through his hair, nails grazing his scalp just how he liked it when he fucked into me.
He shivered, and that was the reaction I’d expected. “What do the cops have on the Courtesan? I didn’t think they had anything.”
I frowned, biting at the corner of my lip in thought. “I don’t think they do.”
“They havesomething. Or they want it very badly. They’re threatening me, asking me to give them information about you and Madam Winters.”
“Me?” I chuckled and shuffled closer to him until my chest was pressed against his side. I hated what happened today and felt partly to blame. “Why?”
“That’s what I want to know.” He flopped against the couch and leaned his head back. “I already told Madam Winters I have no plans to tell them about the Courtesan or you. I don’t know anything personal about you anyway, not that I would tell them what I knew if I did.”
