Page 13 of Cursed

Chapter Five

Edeena snatched the card out of Marguerite’s hand before her sister had even finished speaking, but in her heart of hearts she knew how this was going to end. If she didn’t go with Marguerite right now, her resourceful sister would go exploring on her own. And unless Edeena wanted Marguerite dragging Rob or Cindy along as she discovered exactly what “VIP suite” meant in Sea Witch lingo, Edeena needed to go with her.

“I’ll be right back,” she said turning to Vince.

“We’ll both go.” His gaze was on the crowd again, face set. “You got that card from Janet?” At Marguerite’s blank look he clarified, “Tall blonde, works for the club.”

“Yes!” Marguerite brightened. “She’s been so nice. She gave Caro about two dozen drink tickets at the same time.”

“Yeah, she’s a regular saint.” He glanced to Edeena and gestured her to precede him out of the booth seat. “Now’s going to be the best time. It’ll only get more crowded back there later, as the alcohol starts to work on people’s wallets.”

Edeena grimaced at Marguerite as she pulled herself upright again. “You know that VIP suite is code for ‘come have sex in the back room,’ right?”

“Well, of course,” Marguerite said, holding out her hand for Edeena. “But what better way to see how sophisticated this place is? It could be completely scary or super high end, but we won’t know if we don’t see.”

“Fair enough.” Edeena turned, reaching for Vince, but he brushed by her to take the lead position in front of Marguerite. Apparently, Vince knew where the back rooms were. Edeena wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she let his shoulders lead the way. No use trying to push through the crowd when they had a snowplow at their disposal.

They skirted the dance floor and Edeena scanned the room, relieved when she caught sight of Caroline. Her sister was chatting with a group of young women about her age, handing out tickets to their evident delight, while Cindy Marks hovered in the background. She’d be fine for the next few minutes.

The music and laser light show dimmed to a slightly less panic-inducing level as Vince flashed the card to an attendant, then led them into a darkened passageway, which was lit with an odd purple glow.

“Black light?” Marguerite murmured, peering upward into the corners. “That’s still a thing?”

“Apparently.” Edeena squinted, trying to get her bearings.” After another dozen feet, the dark-painted walls gave way to a series of ornately trimmed doors . . . not tacky, exactly, but definitely over the top, each of them framed by faux wrought-iron flourishes—some black, some silver, some gold.

In spite of herself, Edeena couldn’t help being intrigued. “What’s the meaning of the different colors?” she asked.

“And which one is our keycard coded for?” Marguerite crowded close, peering at the card in Vince’s hand. The black and red plastic rectangle had a distinctively gold patch emblazoned on its front.

“Gold, I’m assuming?” Edeena looked at Vince, who nodded. He gestured to the light panels above the doors. All of them glowed softly green.

“Red means occupied, green means unoccupied, if I recall there’s also a yellow, which means occupied, but that additional partiers are welcome.”

Marguerite snorted. “Of course.”

He stopped in front of one of the doors surmounted by a green glow and framed in gold. With a swipe of the keycard, the door clicked open.

“Give me one second,” he said, and Edeena stayed Marguerite’s arm when she would have surged in after him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me with him scouting the place first,” her sister said. “If Dad is in there lying in wait for us, it’d totally be worth it.”

Vince’s soft call cut off Edeena’s need to respond, and she gestured Marguerite inside. Her sister darted in, Edeena following more slowly.

The room was dimly lit, but Edeena’s eyes had already adjusted to the darkness in the club and intervening corridor, so she could see easily. She looked around with as much curiosity as Marguerite did, and her disappointment echoed her sisters, as well.

“It looks like a man cave,” Marguerite said, turning to take in the whole space. “How is this a VIP room?”

She wasn’t wrong. There were at least a half dozen thick leather couches—or they looked like leather, anyway—a large flat screen TV, a wet bar and fridge and what she suspected was a stocked built-in pantry, and a wall covered with a heavy drape. A sound system was set up on the low table next to the couches.

“It’s . . . nice,” Edeena said, not wanting to tip Vince off to what she was expecting.

“Gold is the kingman room, master of all he surveys,” Vince said. He was fooling around with electronics over at the bar, and two walls of curtains parted to reveal large windows, both of which looked in to empty rooms. “You come to gold to watch and to party, you go to the others to party with or without an audience. Silver is for privacy. Black is for no privacy.”

Despite herself, Edeena peered at the rooms on either side of theirs with curiosity, soft light filtering through what she assumed was a one-way mirror. They looked a lot like this one—couches, chairs, stocked bar—but there was a large armoire set against the wall.

As if tracking her gaze, Vince spoke up again. “Armoire contains a fairly vanilla assortment of sex toys, bondage stuff mostly—collars, restraints, some low-grade flogs, brushes, that sort of thing. There’re hooks in the walls and beneath a couple of the couches.”

Edeena blinked, both intrigued and vaguely disturbed. Collars and hooks? Was all that really necessary? Maybe she was more of a prude than she gave herself credit for.

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