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I WORKED MY WAY TO a dark corner of the room and leaned against the wall to think. My mind kept skittering away from what Lenny had just told me. Eventually, I forced myself to face it. Remembering back to the night I’d given Drake the diamond ring, I recalled it with vivid clarity. His face had been blank when he’d asked me if I was giving him the priceless gift of my own free will, yet his eyes had burned with a thousand unspoken words.
Now that I looked back, my instincts had taken over when I’d replied. I’d returned the diamond and the ring to him with a formal speech that hadn’t been like me at all. Sweat broke out on my palms when I remembered his response. He’d looked down at the ring for a long time before he’d taken it out of the box and had put it on.
He’d accepted the ring, sounding just as formal as I had and told me he would treasure it forever. The weird feeling I’d had at the time had intensified and it had felt like pressure building up. Then it had ebbed and seeped away.
“It can’t be,” I whispered shakily as the crowd began to count down to the new year. I didn’t want to face the truth, because I wasn’t sure I could handle it. Downing the glass of scotch in a couple of gulps, fire burned its way down to my belly, making my eyes water in reaction.
The crowd cheered when midnight stuck. Most patrons found someone to kiss. A werelion veered towards me, but my glower had him turning to someone else.
If what Lenny had said was true, then I was half engaged to Lord Gilden, ruler of the supernatural community in Nexus and my former boss.
Needing somewhere quiet to contemplate this shock, I pushed my way to the exit, fending off lips and groping hands. The werebear at the door was chatting to another shifter when I emerged. They were flirting heavily and barely noticed me as I skirted around them.
I headed for my car that I’d parked a block away and climbed inside. Taking my phone out of my handbag, I brought up my contact list, then stared at Drake’s number. “What if I’m jumping to conclusions?” I mumbled. “Lenny’s intel might be faulty.” He was just going on rumors he’d heard, after all. The last thing I needed was to embarrass myself by asking the dragon if we’d become engaged without my knowledge. Ruen would laugh himself into the grave if he heard about my ridiculous assumption.
My hand dropped to my lap and I stared unseeingly through the windscreen. Light snow had begun to fall. The flakes landed on my car, but did nothing to make it any prettier. It didn’t snow in Nexus very often. Pedestrians were exclaiming in wonder as they made their way to their next destinations.
I sat in my car for a long time, trying hard not to think about anything. Deep down, hope had blossomed that maybe this wasn’t all in my head. Maybe Drake wasn’t engaged to the bimbo from the party if she was already betrothed to someone else.
My phone suddenly rang, startling me into letting out a yelp. I checked the screen, expecting it to be Aurora, then frowned when I realized it was nearly one in the morning. Aurora had said she’d call me at midnight, but she hadn’t. It wasn’t like her not to follow through on a promise. It was her boss who was calling me instead. “Hey, Mekhi,” I said when I answered the call.
“Saige!” Mekhi said, sounding both frantic and scared. “I need to talk to you. Can you come to the studio?”
A different kind of chill went through me and I instinctively knew his call had something to do with my best friend. “I’m fifteen minutes away,” I said.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, then hung up.
Buckling myself in, I called Aurora after I took off, but it went to voicemail. I had a horrible feeling the demon was in trouble and put my foot down on the gas. God help anyone who tried to stop me as I sped across town. I pulled into the lot at the back of the studio to see Aurora’s red SUV was still there. The restaurant where they’d had their party was within walking distance.
Mekhi opened the back door for me and I stepped past him. In his thirties, he was part Samoan and had a tall, solid build. His long brown hair was styled into dreadlocks. He had a multitude of tattoos and several nose rings and earrings. Mekhi was wearing a black puffer jacket over his usual tank top. He didn’t notice I wasn’t wearing a winter coat. He smelled like beer, pasta and fear.
“Where’s Angela?” I asked when he couldn’t meet my gaze. I’d almost blurted out her real name, but remembered to use her alias as the last second. I spotted her purse sitting on a counter and my dread increased. It wasn’t like her not to have her handbag with her.
“She’s gone,” he said, voice cracking as he sank down onto one of his employee’s stools.
“What happened?” I asked, pulling another stool over to sit in front of him. I put my kill-bag on the counter and gave him my full attention.
“I never told you much about my life when I was a kid,” he said, rubbing his hands on his thighs. “My dad was in a gang and I was raised by some pretty rough people.”
He met my eyes briefly and I nodded to encourage him to keep talking. It looked like this wasn’t easy for him to get off his chest. Interrupting him would only make things worse.
“His gang wasn’t like the normal thugs in Nexus,” he said cryptically. “They knew a lot of really bad people. People you wouldn’t want to cross. Anyone who was stupid enough to cross them ended up dead.” His tone was bleak and bordered on being terrified.
“What does this have to do with Angela?” I asked when he remained silent for too long.
“My dad croaked a few months ago,” he said, dropping his eyes to his hands. “Apparently, he owed a bad guy a lot of money. Some of his henchmen tracked me down a week ago. They said their boss expects me to pay my dad’s debts. I told them I don’t have that kind of money. They came back tonight and crashed the party at the restaurant. They took one look at Angela and grabbed her. They said I have three days to come up with the money, or their boss will keep her.”
“How much did your dad owe them?” I asked in an eerily calm tone.
“Two million dollars,” he said with a slight hitch in his voice.
“I guess you can’t go to the cops,” I figured, wincing at the amount.
He shook his head and met my eyes. “You don’t understand what this gang is like. There are things out there that you wouldn’t believe if I told you about them.” He looked both haunted and defeated.
“Try me,” I said wryly. “You might be surprised at what I know about the underbelly of Nexus.”
Mekhi looked at me and seemed to really see me for the first time. He studied my purple hair and eyes, then took in the fact that it was freezing in here without the heat on, yet I didn’t even have goosebumps. “The people who took Angela aren’t human,” he said starkly. “They’re demons.”
I nodded in resignation as he confirmed my worst fears. “Yeah, I figured they must have been,” I said as fear slithered through me. I’d caught a faint whiff of sulfur on him, but hadn’t wanted to believe that they’d taken my best friend.
