Page 57 of Lawless in Leather

The show started again and was running smoothly. Crowded as the room was, those in the audience were getting into the groove of the burlesque acts and the group routines and the odd torch song that Brady liked to throw into the mix.

Raina came offstage after doing a quick fill-in while a costume emergency—a busted heel on one of Glynna’s shoes—was taken care of and almost ran into Luis. She came to a halt just in time, teetering on the spiked heels of her boots, which weren’t designed for fast stops. Luis steadied her by catching her arm. After an ungraceful wobble, she righted herself.

“Thanks.” Then she frowned. “What are you doing back here?” Luis rarely came backstage during a performance. “Is there a problem?”

He nodded. “You need to come up to your office for a while.”

“I’m in the middle of a show here.”

“I know. But someone just drove by and threw a bunch of firecrackers at the door. Luckily there isn’t a queue anymore but one of them went off right against the door and Tallie’s arm got burned. We’re lucky the place didn’t catch fire.”

“Shit.” Raina looked around for Brady, caught his eye. He saw Luis and was by their side in the next second.

“What’s up?” he demanded.

“Something I need to deal with,” Raina said. “Can you get Glynna to do the next few breaks, please? Or you can do it if you’re in the mood.”

Brady was brilliant at working the crowd when the mood struck him. But these days, he stayed mostly behind the scenes.

Brady nodded. “You go. We’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She followed Luis back to her office and dropped into the nearest chair. “Is Tallie okay?” she asked.

“I sent Rick with her to the ER to get the burn looked at,” Luis said. “And I sent Benji up to take the door with Eli. The cops will be here soon to take a look.”

“You called the cops?” Raina asked. Then nodded. “Good. It’s your call, of course, but if Tallie got hurt then they need to know.” She studied him a moment. “Who else did you call?”

Luis’s expression went flat. “I let Mal know, if that’s what you’re asking. He asked me to let him know if anything else happened.”

“It’s not exactly his business,” she said.

“It is,” Luis said. He ran his hand over his head. “For one thing you’re working for him, and for another you’re sleeping with him. So he has a right to know if you’re in danger.”

“I’m not in danger,” she protested. “And Brady has a big mouth.”

“I have eyes in my head. You two were practically setting each other on fire the other day. Brady didn’t need to tell me anything. And you don’t know if you’re in danger. This is an escalation. It’s one thing to spray-paint a door when the club is closed. Trying to set fire to the place when it’s open is another category altogether. And then there’s the email?—”

“You didn’t tell him about that, too, did you?” Raina asked.

Luis shook his head. “No. But you should.” He paused for a moment, and Raina heard the faint crackle of his earpiece. “Cops are here. You stay. I’ll bring them up. And yes, I’ll be discreet about it.”

He vanished and Raina fidgeted while she waited for him to return with the police. Who were perfectly polite and listened to Luis’s description of what had happened tonight and before. Including her car.

“Ma’am.” The older of the two cops, a woman with calm gray eyes and dark-brown hair pulled back into a neat bun at the back of her head, turned to Raina. “Do you agree with what he’s just told us?”

“Yes,” Raina said. “I didn’t see what happened tonight, I was inside. But I saw the graffiti. And my truck obviously.”

“The truck incident happened on Staten Island? Was a report filed there?”

She nodded. “I know the Saints’ security team filed a report. I’m meant to file one, too, but I didn’t have a chance to get to Staten Island today. I’m going tomorrow and I’ll do it then.”

“All right.” The woman—Officer Banks according to her name badge—nodded. “Make sure you file that report. I’m not sure there’s a lot we can do about tonight. Once you get a clearer look at the vehicle on your security tapes, let us know. But there’s not much left of the firecrackers apart from ashes. We’ll take some pictures and go talk to the woman in the ER. But please let us know if anything more happens.” She pulled out a card, handed it to Raina. “That’s my number. Call me direct if you need to.”

“Thank you,” Raina said. “I appreciate that.”

“Can’t stand creeps who target women,” Banks said. “We can’t get them all, more’s the pity, but maybe we can stop this one. Hopefully this was another stupid prank, but please, be sensible. You’ve had a lot of publicity with this Saints thing—yes, I know about that—and that can bring out the crazies. Be safe.”

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