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“HE’D BETTER BE HERE,” Aidan said to his long-time friend and second in command.
“I’m telling you, he’s here. And, he knows you’re coming to question him.” Colin tried to reassure him, but he was still doubtful.
“What makes you think so?” He didn’t mean to question his friend. It was just that this was so important. If the bartender couldn’t give him the information he needed about his father’s whereabouts, he’d be back to square one in the search for him. He couldn’t shake the sense that his father was in trouble. There was no other reason for his disappearance. He’d been running export deals for the Fae for ages, he knew trouble, and he knew how to stay as far away from it as possible.
Aidan shook his head. No, there was no way his dad would just up and vanish like he had unless something was very wrong. His gut sank, like the feeling of a stomach stuffed full of an all-you-can-eat buffet of buttermilk pancakes smothered in syrup, and a wave of nausea passed over him. He grabbed onto Colin’s shoulder, stopping him so he could catch his breath.
“Trust me, Aidan, I bribed him. I know he’ll be there.”
“Somehow, I think a fifty isn’t quite going to do the trick with this one. I’ve heard he’s shifty. In and out. He disappears for days, and just reappears.” He pulled his friend around to face him and latched onto Colin’s coat front with both hands. “How do we even know we can trust his information?”
Colin gently pried his friend’s fingers loose and patted Aidan’s chest. “When you meet him, you’ll understand. Plus, my dad and him knew each other for ages. I’m not sure how exactly, but I know they did. Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re having cold feet about entering the club.” One of Colin’s eyebrows rose.
Aidan turned and kept walking. “That’s crazy. It’s just a club.”
He said that, but as he walked the feeling of nausea increased, and he was afraid his friend might be right. Club Noir. He’d been warned about it by his father. A place where every unsavory character in the area would converge once it turned dark. It was a place to keep your distance from. What he didn’t understand was why his father would go there after warning him to stay away, and why was this bartender the only reliable source they could find.
He let out a breath. No use resisting. If the bartender had his father’s last know whereabouts, he might as well get the meeting over with. Besides, the sooner he got what he needed, the sooner he could get home to Ireland. He didn’t like leaving his father’s businesses unattended for long. For a few moments, he let the sound of his own footsteps drown out his thoughts. Clip, clop, clip, clop, as he followed his friend blindly down the crowded sidewalk the feeling of unease that had followed him all day spiked, and Aidan knew without looking up that they’d reached their destination. Gods, he hated this place. He paused in front of the massive building and looked up at the Gothic exterior of the night club and swallowed the lump in his throat.
Colin had already moved into action and was speaking with a brute of bouncer that stood guard outside the front doors. At his estimate, the bouncer stood a good seven feet tall. His large beefy arms were locked firmly in place, crossed tight against his chest. His feet shoulder width apart, with a meaningful scowl on his face. Aidan wouldn’t want to trade swings with that bloke, and he found himself hoping Colin was playing nicely. More often than not, his friend’s shenanigans ended them both up in messy situations, and more than a few of them they’d had to muscle their way out of.
The noise of the crowd drew his attention away from the building and the bouncer, and Aidan took a step backwards to observe. What seemed like a mile-long line formed at the front of the building as people of all different shapes and sizes and colors milled about like mindless animals being led to the slaughter. He shook his head. Disgusted. Didn’t they have anything better to do? He knew from experience that most of them would never even make it inside. The club was very select as to who they let enter, and the majority of those weren’t human.
“Ready,” Colin said from behind him.
“He’s letting us in that quick?”
“Technically, no.” Aidan shot him look. “The guy we’re looking for is out back. He’s on his ten.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with,” Aidan said.
At the corner of the building, they pushed their way through the crowd and snuck around the side. The two of them passed through the open gate and headed toward the back door in search of the bartender. The man they were looking for wasn’t far from the back door to the club, which he’d propped open with an empty beer bottle. He sat on an overturned 5-gallon white bucket, and as Aidan moved closer, he could make out the word OLIVES in big black print.
“We go through them like candy here,” the guy sitting on the bucket said.
“What’s that?” Colin asked.
But the guy looked right at Aidan as he answered, “The olives, we go through them like candy around here. You know, in the drinks?”
“Right, right.” Colin gave the guy an uneasy laugh and a weird look.
Aidan took a minute to size up the bartender. Although he was sitting, he seemed rather shorter than Aidan’d assumed he would be. He was an odd little man, wearing a sleek suit, too expensive to be just a barback, and a funny little hat. Dark brown hair swept down from the brim of his hat and crossed his brow, before it was tucked behind his ear on one side. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it was his eyes that made Aidan weary. They were bright silver shinning out from behind thick dark lashes and tanned skin. Aidan and Colin exchanged a look. It seemed their informant wasn’t quite human. Aidan couldn’t get a good read on him, and from the look on Colin’s face, he couldn’t either. Generally, they could tell within five feet of someone, what species they were, magic or human, but not this time.
“Perhaps another time, lad.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t say anything.” Aidan glared at him. Was he a mind reader? “You know what we came for?”
“I do.” He nodded his head for affect, and his hat threatened to fall from his head. “I saw your father here two weeks ago. He was trying to negotiate some kind of deal with the owners of the club. I told him not to get involved, but who wants to listen to a bartender, right?” His eyes twinkled as he mentioned his occupation.
“Do you have any idea where he is now? What happened to him?” Aidan asked.
The older man shook his head, and the hat slipped to the side. He left it there, crooked, as if unconcerned if it fell.
“Can you tell us anything else?” Colin asked.
“Oh, I can tell you a great many things, young man, but those secrets are for another day.”
Aidan took a threatening step closer, his hands fisted at his sides. It wasn’t in him to want to hurt someone as bad as he wanted to hit the man before him. Who the hell did he think he was with his smug little answers? Didn’t he know this was a matter of life and death? Colin put an arm out and it hit him across the chest with a thud, temporarily knocking some sense back into him.
“We meant any other news about Aidan’s father?” Colin said, testily.
“Nope, I don’t think I remember anything else. Course’ I see a lot of people in there every night.”
“He was in the club?” Another nod in answer.
Colin stepped forward and handed the bartender a card. Aidan knew what it was without looking at it. Call it a calling card. The front had the royal insignia of the queen, no writing, and the back was engraved with a special ink, the ward symbols of Aidan’s clan, a crest of the Guardians. It would be invisible to the naked human eye, but quite visible to someone with more interesting capabilities. Aidan watched the bartender closely as he examined the card, without any telling signs, and slipped it into his vest pocket.
“You’ll call us if you remember anything?” Colin asked.
“Will do,” he said and stood up. “Well, looks like my break’s just about over. I guess I’ll be headed back in.”
The back door squealed open behind the bartender, and all eyes turned toward the sound. A male with dark shoulder-length hair, stepped out from behind the door, and Aidan’s senses geared up to high alert. He was Fae. Full Fae. What the hell was he doing here, and why wasn’t he bothering to cloak himself? Aidan cleared his throat and glanced at Colin. It looked as though his friend also sensed the same thing, and he’d taken a step toward the approaching male.
“You’re a hard one to track down, old man,” the newcomer said. Something about him was familiar, but Aidan couldn’t place his face with a name.
The bartender turned back to Colin and handed him a folded piece of paper. “I believe what you’re looking for may be found here,” he said with a wink.
Colin took the paper and glanced over at Aidan. A nod was the only signal Aidan needed to know it was time to go, and they both turned.
“And I believe what you’re looking for will be here, as well.” Aidan heard him tell the other male, along with a light rustle with the exchange of paper, then the slamming of a door. The bottle rolled for a few seconds, and then hit something which sent it into a spin, but when Aidan turned to confront the dark-haired one, they were both gone. Aidan’s eyes traveled from the side of the brick building across the ally to a 15-foot, chain-link fence. Unless he went inside, and, judging from the bartender’s dismissiveness, he didn’t think that was the case, the dark-haired one had just vanished.
“Think we should take him in, boss?” Colin interrupted his thoughts.
Aidan paused to consider. He could. He’d be within rights, but something was telling him to wait and see what this guy was up to first. “No, I couldn’t get a reading on him.”
“Yeah, me either.”
“I don’t want to start an uproar, if we bring in someone not on the list. Plus, we have a lead on my dad, finally.”
“We heading there now?” Colin asked.
“Yes,” Aidan said. He just hoped they weren’t wasting their time chasing the rabbit. “What’s the paper say?”
Colin unfolded it and laughed. “It’s the name of another night club on the other side of the city.”
Aidan brushed a hand through his black hair, a habit when he was thinking. “What time do they open?”
“Says here 10 p.m. Looks like we have a few hours to kill.”
“We’ll head there as soon as it opens,” Aidan said and didn’t wait for a response. He looked at the watch on his wrist. Great, a three hour wait. Just what he needed. The bartender had better be right, and not just feeding them a line to get rid of them. They’d find out soon enough, he supposed, as he moved into step beside his friend.