Page 37 of Shaken Knot Stirred

“Biggest bang for my buck,” she turned and put her hands on her hips. I squinted like my head hurt. Arguing with Moxie now that she was just in a bra and panties was bad for my health. Not for the first time, I wished I could read her aura and know what was going on in her head. She didn’t think like anybody I knew.

“Remember how we got you the Camaro? That shit club owner. What was his name?” She snapped her fingers “Right. Caster. He wanted me to dance at his bar. Caster offered me the car and a week’s pay up front. I had him sign over the title so I could get to work the next day.”

“Yeah, Caster was a fucking idiot.”

“Well, same thing here. I’ll get a pack interested, have them sign a pre-bond agreement to pay off my debts, and poof.” Moxie made an exploding gesture with her hands.

“This isn’t a car. You’re talking about bonds here.”

Lana handed Moxie another dress. This one was a dark blue and fell to her calves. It looked conservative until she moved. It was slit almost to the waist, showing off a teasing slice of her upper thigh.

“That’s the one.” Lana said.

“Have you lost your ever fucking loving mind?” I balled up a square of tissue paper, needing something to destroy.

“What choice do I have here, Nico? We all know what’s going to happen. Beg is going to make me work off the money I stole. Do you have any idea how long that is going to take in tips at theVig? And you know he’s going to escalate, and I’m going to find myself in a situation I can’t say no to.”

Lana turned away from Moxie, pointedly ignoring the cream envelope she’d dropped by the door. Could we do it? The three of us working together?

“This is just catfishing on a grand scale. Then I’ll blow off the mark and never set foot in the beautiful city of Port Haven ever again.”

Flat out panic from Lana swamped me. Betas weren’t supposed to be able to manipulate pack bonds, they couldn’t share or close off their feelings on purpose. Lana still looked stoic as fuck, calmly and quietly folding sheets of tissue paper, but on the inside, she was terrified. Of Moxie leaving?

“So either help or get out of the way, Nico. You put me into this situation and I’m going to get myself out.”

I’d fucked up the first full con I had tried to run and now here we were. She cocked her head and looked me up and down. She was seeing something in my aura that she didn’t understand. We had had a long-standing agreement that she would not use this extrasensory perception against me. She didn’t think it was fair.

“Not Twill,” I said flatly. “He’ll want to bond you before the ink is dry. I’d say go for the Lansing pack. Your chances are better with a pack that already has an omega. And Lansing has more money than sense.”

Moxie’s idea was not dumb, it was just risky. It put her life on the line in a way I wasn’t comfortable with. I knew exactly what it was like to be bonded to someone you hated, especially when there was someone you wanted that was just beyond your reach.

Chapter 20

Moxie

There should be arule that you couldn’t throw up in a pretty dress.

The convention center was packed. General admission tickets for the Gala were super cheap. The founding organizers believed that everyone should have the opportunity to mix and mingle and find a suitable pack. There were entire websites dedicated to best practices and “how to find your scent match in a crowd.” There was a whole documentary tracking omegas and their packs that had scent matched at the Gala over the years. And itwasn’t just people looking for a job or a pack. The Gala was the biggest social event of the year.

All the scents mingling in the air was enough to give me a contact high. But the auras? Everybody was excited and amped up, causing their auras to go off like fireworks. I put my hand to my stomach as if I could stop it from rolling over. Add my own nerves to that? Barfing was a definite possibility.

I’d spent a good chunk of cash on hair and nails, but now I was starting to regret it. The stylist got miffed that the dark blue dye hadn’t taken, leaving just a bare blue tint to my hair. I’d had to spin a story about another stylist who’d ruined my hair, needing a color correction, blah blah.

It looked nice. It was fine. But I was totally second-guessing my decision to forgo a wig. Lana seemed to think it could be a selling point, and she assured me that people’s first guess would be a fashion trend and not auracle. It had been a long time since I’d been out and about without a wig in public. I was starting to get those carnival barker vibes. “Come one, come all. See the freakish auracle and get your fortune told.” But I did not have time to regress into my childhood trauma.

I eyed Nico. He was in a suit that probably cost more than the Camaro we stole. I knew, ultimately, it wasn’t his money that bought it. Beg had an image to protect. He couldn’t let his pack look like shambles as they wandered through the Pax.

Lana had chosen a dress that made her basically invisible. It was a nude shade, with her fair hair and skin, she was basically all one color. The effect was that your eye skipped over her in the riot of color that poured into the convention center.

Everyone was dressed in their best. And that made me oddly nervous, too. I grew up in tent revivals where everyone showed up “well-heeled” as my mother would say. She would set me on a stool to look mystical and serene while I scanned the crowd for marks. The selection process started with shoes. She had trainedme to look for the best shoes in the room. No scuffs, no cracks in the leather, shiny polish. Wealthy people could afford special occasion shoes. Wealthy people could afford to have their auras read.

“You’re fucking gorgeous. Stop touching your hair. It’s your tell.” As Nico shifted around me, his scent gave me shivers. How messed up was it that I was forcing Nico to watch me pick out a new pack? I knew he was leaning in to scent me. It had to be driving him nuts that my scent was so weak. I had double dosed on the blockers today as a precaution. Your metabolism spiked when your aura was active, which could decrease the effectiveness of medication.

“The City of Port Haven, the Central Chamber of Commerce, Pinnacle Yacht Club, and The Paramour welcome you to the inaugural Gala.”

Lights dimmed as the soothing voice of the emcee began the program.

We all looked up at the projection screens that ringed the hall. They showed stunning panoramic drone footage of Ceto Bay as soaring music played.

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