The hotel did enough questionable business that the front desk clerk didn't blink when I handed her a man's card, with no man in tow. She just swiped it and handed it back, smacking her gum loudly before pointing at the hall behind her and handing over an actual key with a giant wooden keychain attached to it. "One night, honey. Be out by 11 tomorrow morning. Ice machines on each floor, near the stairs. You're on the second floor, back corner."
"Thanks." I took the key and ran, careful to keep my head tilted down so the security camera behind her wouldn't get my face. I needed a baseball hat or something, but going home to get a change of clothes meant picking up some of Val's watchdogs, no doubt. So I'd settled for helping myself to new clothes, although they were new from the thrift store. Another place that didn't care if I used my 'brother's' credit card.
The room wasn't particularly clean, but it would work for a night. I showered in the lukewarm water, though I kept my socks on to avoid a suspiciously fuzzy tile floor, and debated taking a nap before facing Val. The queen of the hyenas was not someone to face at less than your personal best, and I needed rest before I could un-fuck whatever went wrong with the ransom trade. I checked my phone again as I dried my hair with a white rag that might once have been a towel, but resembled something closer to sandpaper as it tangled around my head. No calls from Lacey, but no calls from Val, either.
As I paced and debated what to do, that damn lawyer's face kept distracting me. And his laugh, and the smile, and the twinkle in his eyes, and the way his hands flexed on the table like he wanted to hold my hand. My stomach tightened as I thought of him, and I readjusted the towel before digging through the bag of clothes. I didn't believe in buying thrift store underwear so my own would have to do; inside-out was better than someone else's drawers.
Benedict. What a ridiculous name.
I groaned and put my hands over my face. I couldn't afford the distraction. Val would find me, she would absolutely hunt me down, and then I would have to answer for what happened to her daughter. Even if it was totally, unequivocally not my fault.
It sure as shit was the last time I did Lacey a favor.
Chewing my lip, I dressed in jeans and t-shirt and hoodie. Everything dark and kind of bulky, so hopefully no one would recognize or remember me. My hair was still wet but it went up in a bun, out of the way. Everyone always remembered the hair. Thick ropes of dark, glossy glamour, as Mum used to say. Luring men to their doom, entangling them until their lives were forfeit. Every time I cut off the damn locks, they grew back overnight, just as long. All I'd ever wanted was a bob, or cute bangs, or — God forbid — a pixie cut.
God damn Gorgons. I gritted my teeth and shoved my own clothes into the shopping bag and kicked it behind a chair. But you couldn't run from blood. Gran said that, not Mum. Mum tried to run and it hadn't worked out for any of us. I had to reach Lacey, had to figure out what the fuck was going on before I faced her mother. And since Val could probably track my phone, I needed a pay phone. I slung my bag over my shoulder, threw open the door, and bit back a curse, rocking back on my heels.
Val, grizzled face more sour than usual, stood in the hall, flanked by two of her other daughters. "Eloise."
"Uh, Val." I stepped back so they could come in, though I glanced up and down the hall behind them to double check. Yep, two more daughters guarding the stairs, and another at the only viable window. Definitely not getting away unless Val said so. I cleared my throat and closed the door, though I didn't set the chain. Just in case I needed to get out in a hurry. I could deal with the ones in the hall, but my scary mojo generally didn't work on someone as tough as Val. "I was just going to look for you."
"Right." The queen of the hyenas looked like a tough version of every television grandma, her hair mostly white but cut short and spiked up in an aggressive style, and her cold brown eyes tracked me as I sauntered into the room and leaned against the wall. Even a foot shorter than me, she managed to loom menacingly from the door. "What happened?"
"I dropped the money exactly where you told me," I said. My phone charged on the table next to the bed, behind her. I'd never reach it in time. The window was a better option, all things considered. "I waited to see who picked it up, but there was a fight a couple of alleys over. Big ruckus. Cops everywhere, so I ran. I didn't see what happened to the bag, but when I went back later, it was gone. The cops were still there," I added under my breath.
"And yet you aren't in jail." Val's smooth cheeks grew lined with irritation. "Imagine my surprise."
"Serendipity." I eased a little closer to the window under the pretense of adjusting the curtains. "Some lawyer took a shining to me, that's all."
"Some lawyer?" The shorter of the two daughters snorted, biceps bulging as she folded her arms. "Benedict Chase isn't just some lawyer, kid."
Kid. My heart-rate dropped and my blood chilled. The cold gathered around my eyes until my sinuses felt full and heavy, my forehead stiff. Val might pose a problem, but her daughters could be easily disposed of if the scary mojo got offended. I didn't look at her directly but the timbre of my voice dropped significantly as I said, "Val, we have rules."
The hyena queen's upper lip curled, but she snapped, "Go wait in the hall," and the daughters obeyed without a single word. The short one gave me a dirty look, though I didn't care. Her mother just saved her damn life.
Val folded her arms over her chest and took a stalking step toward me once the door shut behind them. "She's right. Benedict Chase is not someone I want sniffing around my ... employees."
"Good thing I don't work for you." It came out more flippantly than I intended, by the way her expression darkened. I held up my hands, though my eyes burned with cold and fury. It would take hours before the mojo settled back down. "It was nothing. He wanted to be a white knight, I let him."
"He's dangerous for us." It wasn't exactly fear that gathered in the lines around her mouth, but it was just short of that. "His kind are trouble. They're lions, Eloise. They do not tolerate my kind, or yours."
I snorted and pinched the bridge of my nose, even though my hands trembled. Benedict fucking Chase. Of course. I should have looked at the business card. "He's not in the picture, as I said. And I don't know what to tell you about the money, Val. I'm sorry they didn't bring Lacey to the drop-off point. Did they try to call?"
Her mouth twisted and she flicked at the window curtains. "I have heard nothing from my daughter." She faced me again, expression composed to indifference once more. As if her daughter hadn't been kidnapped. "And here is my problem, Eloise. I paid ten thousand dollars to get my daughter back. You lost the money. Now I have neither ten thousand dollars, nor my daughter."
My heart dropped. "I didn't lose the money, Val. I left it exactly —"
"You had the money, the money disappeared, and no one saw where it went. Not even you." Her tawny skin wrinkled, almost cracked, as her teeth bared. "So forgive me for not taking the word of a petty criminal."
"I'm a damn good criminal," I shot back, too unnerved by her accusation to let it pass without challenge. If she thought I'd stolen her money and condemned Lacey to death, I was totally fucked. "Or you wouldn't claim me as an employee, would you? I did what you told me to do, Val. Maybe the wolves took it. Or the kidnappers aren't playing by the rules. How the fuck do I know?"
"Very well." She stalked closer and I stood my ground, though my heart plummeted. Her fingers, wizened and wrinkled and with thick nails twice as long as mine, pressed just below the hollow of my throat. "You get one more chance, little gorgon. Find my money, or find my daughter. If you don't, I own you until you repay the debt."
The cold rage prickled through my temples and out my eyes, and I debated testing out the mojo. I stared at her nose, close enough to her eyes that sweat broke out on her upper lip. "I'm not going to —"
"You have two days." She took a step back, eying me from head to toe. Her broad shoulders squared and she looked more like an aged prize fighter than someone's granny. "Fix it."
Whatever objection I might have offered died in my throat as she walked out. I massaged my temples to try to fix the magic that collected around my eyes. Not now. Really not the time. I'd have a fucking migraine for a week at this rate.
I grabbed my phone and checked to make sure the hall was clear. Lacey would have the answers. It seemed like a good idea at the time, scamming her mother out of seed money so Lacey and her boyfriend could start over in Europe, far away from hyena politics, but me ending up a wage slave to the hyena queen was not part of the plan. Lacey would have to call her mother and explain. Return the money or show proof of life. Something.
I couldn't be indebted to the hyena queen. Valentina Szdoka was almost as ruthless as the Chase brothers. I pinched the bridge of my nose. The CEO, Logan, was the worst, but his lawyer brother wasn't far behind. They were legendary among the city shifters for being cold-blooded negotiators and businessmen, unfeeling as they dismantled and sold and bought and traded. I fished the business card out of the jeans in the shopping bag, and almost threw it out the window. Benedict Chase.
But the memory of his smile comforted me as I headed out into the night to call Lacey. If what Val threatened came to pass, I would need a hell of a lawyer to extricate myself from her clutches. A lawyer who could turn into a lion might be worth the exorbitant retainer, particularly since the hyena queen seemed disconcerted by him already.
I wondered if he offered a payment plan.