“Don’t let the fantasy of pussy cloud your judgment,” Vince called toward me. I paused in the hallway as he continued, “We can’t afford another devil in our bed. Next time, it’ll beyouchoking on your own blood.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
acelynn
Three weeks of silence.That’s how long it had been since Logan had made his presence known on my bedroom walls. Three weeks of waiting for the next shadow to be him, the next chill to slide down my spine, the next sign he was still watching me.
I was on edge every second of the day. Astoria had tried to help, dragging me through all the boutiques in Lovelen, forcing me to focus on sequins and leather instead of spiraling. At night, I drown my thoughts by pouring booze for the locals and trying to keep up with the dance routines that Astoria had been coaching me through.
But tonight felt different.
The sun had barely slipped below the horizon when I pulled into the overgrown field behind an old red barn just out of town. It looked forgotten, like time had given up on it. And maybe that was why Parsons and Watson had insisted on meetinghere through nothing but a text with coordinates and a time. I had immediately deleted the message the second I saw it, not wanting to leave even a digital whisper of the meeting.
I killed the headlights and waited for a second, watching the dark structure as rain began to tap against my car’s windshield. My boots hit the gravel as I stepped out of the vehicle and made my way over to the entrance. My hand brushed against the loose hanging tarps in the doorway.
Cold air wrapped around my arms, biting at the space between my zip-up hoodie and bare skin. I paused, half of me already wanting to turn around, head back to the Queen’s Table, and pretend none of this was happening, but the shuffling of feet brought me back to my reality.
Detective Watson appeared first, offering me a light smile and nod. I returned it.
We both had a mutual respect for each other, and if I were only dealing with him, I think this might be easier, but just as my smile appeared, it vanished as Detective Parsons stepped around him.
Shadows covered half of his face in the dimly lit barn. The rain drummed harshly against the roof, adding to the tension that filled the air.
“You better have something big for us today, girl,”Parson sneered at me.
I stiffened. He was already irritated, which was never a good sign. The past few meetings, I had been so distracted by the looming threat of Logan that I wasn’t able to tell them anything useful. But last night, I got lucky.
The Knights of Lovelen were particularly good at keeping their dirty dealings hidden, but the new initiate had slipped up the other night when I had fed him one too many shots of whiskey.
“Come on, tell me just one secret,” I purred at him behind the bar, leaning ever so slightly against the top so the boy had a good view of my cleavage.
Oscar was the newest initiate for the Knights of Lovelen, and he followed them around like a lost puppy, his big brown eyes begging to learn and help in any way he could. The men completely disregarded the twenty-year-old except for using him as their designated errand boy.
Oscar blushed and shook his head, a few of his sandy-colored curls tumbling into his face. “You know I can’t, Acelynn.”
“You’re no fun,” I pouted, sticking my bottom lip out extra to get my point across.
Stepping away from him, I picked up the rag that lay across the bar and started toward another customer, but Oscar’s voice called me back. “Wait, there is one thing I might be able to tell you, but you have to promise not to say anything.”
A light hiccup came at the end of his sentence, causing a devilish smirk to pull at the corners of my mouth. I turned, watching him from hooded lids, and sauntered back to him.
“What is it?”
Oscar leaned fully over the bar, making it so his mouth was practically on my ear. “We are getting a shipment of Muze at the Excalibur on Thursday.”
“The nightclub?” I whisper-yelled back at him.
Muze was a highly addictive synthetic drug that gave the user a temporary euphoric high, but the hallucinations that followed were a dangerous side effect. The paranoia, psychosis, and physical sickness were just some of the milder effects that often plagued users. It was rumored the Knights produced it with a light amount of hemlock to ensure it didn’t kill those who partook in it. The feds had been itching to bust the Knights forthis operation for years as the drug became more popular in the recreational scene.
Oscar nodded eagerly. “Yeah, it’s probably the largest we have had in over a year.”
“The Knights will have a large delivery of Muze at the Excalibur tomorrow night,” I explained.
Parsons’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“You are positive about this?” Watson asked, his voice gentle but firm in his questioning.
Turning my gaze to the younger detective, I nodded once. With the confirmation, Watson dug in the front pocket of his uniform, pulling a replica of my spade necklace out for me. It was slightly bulkier than the one around my neck, but not enough to be noticed by anyone but me.
