“I’m not here to talk about your future business, Maz,” I replied. “I wanted to ask about your current one.”
The wraith rounded on me with a steady smile. “Something wrong with the service?”
I shook my head. “The service is fine.”
He pinched the cigar between his thumb and forefinger, then lifted it for a drag. When he spoke, a cloud of smoke chased his words. “Must be more than fine to keep you coming back. My doormen tell me you’ve been through almost every night for two weeks now.”
It wasn’t a crime to attend his club, so why did I feel like a child with my hand caught in a cookie jar?
Kicking one leg over the other, I tried to get comfortable in what was rapidly becoming an uncomfortable situation. “The aerial act is nice,” I said. “Less skin, more substance. Something you don’t often see in places like this.”
Maslow chuckled, and his gut bounced. He’d gotten bigger since I’d last seen him. His suit coat didn’t even button over his distended belly.
“You can call him by name, Beckett,” Maslow said. “My announcer does every time he takes the stage.”
And my being coy about it was more damning than anything.
“Zephyr,” I muttered grudgingly.
“Cherry,” Maslow corrected. “He’s a crowd favorite. Sweet young thing.”
He turned toward the window again, and I tracked his gaze to where Zephyr perched like a bird in his hoop. In a cropped sweatshirt and leg warmers, he looked cozy and comfortable. Soft. The same way his hair was soft against my skin, tickling when I nosed his neck in the moments I wished I could kiss him.
“My VIPs can’t get enough,” Maslow said. “That mouth, those eyes, that tight little body… He was made to open doors. Or legs. Whatever gets the job done.”
The wraith was clearly trying to get a rise out of me, and it was working. Somehow, this discussion had become about me, and I needed to turn it around.
“Speaking of opening doors,” I began. “He showed me something the other night.”
Again Maslow gave me his attention, peering past the plume of cigar smoke.
“A room in the back hallway,” I said. “Poster bed, padded walls, restraints… Not what I expected from the guided tour.” His lips pursed, but I didn’t pause. “You branching out, Maz? Because it looked a hell of a lot more like a brothel than a nightclub.”
The wraith’s eyes were small and beady in his plump face, but no less menacing as he narrowed them at me. “What kind of manager would I be if I didn’t provide for my employee’s needs? That incubus is a spider; all I did was build him a web. Don’t pout because you happen to be caught in it.”
I curled my fingers around the armrests of the chair. “I’m notcaught in anything,” I replied without fully believing it.
“Says the fly.” Maslow chortled. “But by all means, let’s untangle this. In the presence of all parties involved.” Grabbing the knob, he yanked the door open and leaned out to shout at the dancers below.
“Cherry! Get your ass up here!”
The door slammed hard enough to rattle the wall, and my lip curled.
“Do you always talk to them like that?”
Maslow waved his hand, then went to his desk chair and dropped into it. “I try not to talk to them at all. Just a bunch of common whores.”
I’d called Zephyr as much in my mind. Maybe a few times out loud, but it sounded so much worse coming from Maslow. It didn’t take me long to figure out the difference: he meant it.
“They make you a lot of money,” I reminded him, not bothering to keep the edge of irritation out of my voice.
Maslow took a final puff of his cigar, then stubbed it out in the crystal ashtray on the desktop. “If this were all about money, I’d have a lot more, and a fair bit of yours.”
“I don’t follow,” I said.
The office door opened, and Zephyr peeked in, purple eyes wide. He spotted me, and joy pulled at his features before confusion took its place.
“Come in,” Maslow commanded him, then pointed at the tufted leather chair next to mine. “Sit.” He said the word in the same blunt, unaffected voice one would use on a dog. And, like a dog, Zephyr obeyed, dropping into his designated seat with his lips pinned shut and his gaze on the floor. Shadows ringed his eyes and stained the skin beneath hischeekbones.
