Page 32 of Under Pressure

Whatever she had been about to say, he didn’t want to go there.

She pouted, perhaps involuntarily. “Should I be offended that you’re only ever business with me?”

“I wasn’t looking for a buddy when I took you under my wing,” he said.

“Then why’d you do it? Why did you take me on?”

He knew where she was headed and, once again, where she’d been driving their dynamic. She was pretty enough, in her own way—but he didn’t want that. Never had.

“If I don’t help you control what those hacks did to you, who the fuck will? The world doesn’t need any more evil,” he said.

“You’re not that.”

Sloughing her off, he paced around her and locked his focus on the destination. They were almost there. He couldn’t waste any time.

She called after him, “You need to let yourself live.”

“But I’m not alive,” he grumbled back, meaning something she would never understand. “Not anymore.”

Delta moved to the rear of the building, knocking on the large metal door that was rusted and chipped. The back entrance. He knew it well. It was an underground hangout for a certain type. Loud music emanated from behind the door—the typical thumping bass of nightclubs. The door quickly opened and a heavy-set man looked out on him, snarling. But then he recognized Delta’s face and nodded.

“Brother,” the doorman rumbled, opening the door wider to see Delta’s apprentice tagging behind. “Bringing a friend today?”

“You could say that,” Delta replied, stepping over the threshold and into the dark hallway where the music grew even louder.

Following the dim lighting down the hall, he moved into the open area in the club. Blacklights hanging off the ceilings illuminated the neon lingerie worn by dancing women all around. An audience of mostly men cheered and jeered as they watched the exotic dancers and threw cash on stage. Delta barely caught notice of them, moving deeper to the back, feeling Sky bringing up his tail.

He found a bench at the back wall of the club and slugged himself down to observe the room. He wasn’t there to mess around. He was fucking serious. He was there to get answers from the horse’s mouth.

He didn’t know how pervasive the problem was, but so far, he’d gotten enough leads to point him there. The leads they had all said the same thing. Someone was scouting test dummies, getting them hooked in and throwing them to the scientists. There was no out for them after that.

“You think your guy’s going to be here tonight?” Sky asked as she grabbed a seat beside him, overlooking the room. “The scout?”

“He better fucking be,” Delta grunted, feeling the barrel of his pistol pressing into his lower back. “No more soldiers are going to turn up dead—not on my watch.”

“What do you want me to do?” Sky started, staring him down again, placing her hand on his arm to pull him in, but she retracted as a dancer clad in electric green lingerie moved in on them.

“Hello there.” The seductive woman pushed into him as she sat beside him on the bench, flickering her glittery eyes at him. “Drinking anything tonight?”

“Nah, I’m off the sauce.” He shrugged casually, looking away and keeping his eyes on the crowd.

The dancer laughed hard, as if it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard, touching his arm flirtatiously. He inadvertently flexed at her touch, which seemed to only encourage her further. She flipped back her long black hair, which had a weird fake texture to it.

She gently pushed into him again. “And what’s your name?” Her long, fake eyelashes didn’t stop flickering, sending glitter dust onto his sleeve.

“Matt,” Delta replied, obfuscating and withholding his true reaction. But he found himself wondering what type of man went after all that fake shit.

“Hi, Matt, I’m Jade,” the dancer said, keeping the conversation going. “And are you two together?” She pointed back and forth between him and Sky, sussing out the details.

“I don’t know. Are we?” Sky said slowly, watching him, waiting for him to answer.

He shot Sky a warning look, seeing her scheming face. She was always up to something, which was good when he needed an ally—not an enemy.

Jade laughed again, taking that as her leave to flirt harder with Delta. He clenched his jaw, flexing more. Sandwiched between the two of them, he was getting sick of all the fakery.

“Look, Jade,” he began, trying to level with her. “You seem nice, but you might find a better customer over there.” He nodded toward the pit of energetic, drunken men in an obvious attempt to offload her.

Jade didn’t seem to get the memo and dropped her mouth in a fake-shocked way. “Am I going to have to convince you now to let me stay?” She lightly tapped him again and pulled a twenty out of the back of her thong.

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