Page 1 of Escape From Me

ONE

zeiden

Spector events were dark,mysterious, and oozed the same air of too many rich pricks with sticks up their asses. Gold filigree on champagne glasses? Gold flakes swirling at the bottom? The whole vibe screamed excess. It was the polar opposite of the hard-edged chaos of Enigma—and it wasn’t going well.

“Well, Cali nailed it,” I muttered to X.

The masks were all identical. Some stupid blue and white design that reeked of faux elegance. The kicker? Just to score an invite and one of those masks, you had to cough up an obscene amount of money, all earmarked for auction items. Bidding didn’t even start before the twenty-grand mark. And what were we bidding on? A luxury getaway? Pathetic.

“I don’t think we are going to find what we need here. Not like this,” I said to Cas and X, frustration curling through my voice.

This was getting frustrating. Every damn angle was a dead end. Every time I thought I had some kind of lead, it fizzled or, worse, ended in a dead body. Not that I gave a shit about the bodies. Politics needed to be cleaned out from time to time. Theissue was, they were fucking with the infrastructure the Spectors had so carefully bought, lied, and stole to build.

“I need to get some air,” I said and turned away. No one here would have thought some gang lords or whatever they wanted to call us would be here. This was elite shit. I’d grown tired of watching the champagne flow and five-thousand-dollar wine bottles emptied by the caseload. This wasn’t us. We didn’t come from money, and that part was obvious. There was the new money side, the old money, and the bastards like us who had money that no one could quite pinpoint. And for that, we were either being ignored or being slyly interrogated by the wives of the rich, powerful, and unhappily married.

“Don’t go far. The vultures know there’s mysterious new meat, and, Zeid, you look good in a tux,” X said to me and laughed at his own joke.

“Speak for yourself. Not one of these high-class, low-standard wives gives a shit that Cali is on your arm.” I flipped him off. “I just need a second.”

I walked away without another word.

I’d thrown every bit of my energy into our business and into the business of knowing what was happening to our connections. We had deals that would die without the right backers, and unfortunately, those backers were being picked off.

And that fight? It was the damn knife to my side. What could have happened if we weren’t paranoid bastards? Why couldn’t I figure this out? I was the smart one. I figured out the things.

It was my talent. Figuring out what no one else could.

The rules had always been simple. Take care of our own and make money by any means possible. That and don’t get caught.

The doors to the private balcony were already open as I stepped outside. I hated this lifestyle. I couldn’t wait to get home and get out of this tux.

“Ouch,” said a feminine voice as I ran smack into someone. “This is my hiding spot. Find your own.”

It was habit to look for the darkest corner, and almost never did I find someone else already there. Until today.

“There aren’t many hiding spots here, princess.”

She folded her arms over her chest, accentuating the low cut of the strapless gown that probably cost more than my bike.

“Do not call me princess, prince asshole. How do you like it?”

I leaned against the wall and smirked.

“Prince asshole? It’s a first for me, but it’ll work just fine. If you don’t want to be called princess, maybe ditch the thirty-thousand-dollar gown and the tiara.”

She cocked her head to the side and lifted the pretentious mask just a bit.

“Who are you and how did you get in?” she asked.

I shrugged.

“What does it matter, Cinderella? I’m here. I had the cash, and that was the only prerequisite.”

She pulled the mask up to her forehead and let it rest there as she reached for mine. I stepped away.

“Fine, don’t show me your face. It’s probably just as bad as all the other assholes here. Money isn’t everything, you know.”

She pulled her mask down, but I’d already memorized exactly how she looked, from the soft curve of her nose to the way her eyes were set just far enough apart, and that she seemed to have nearly perfect symmetry. Fucking hell if my cock didn’t wake the fuck up and my heart didn’t beat a little faster. Not that I would show her that.

---