Page 57 of Lucky or Knot
He cursed a lot, though, and I couldn’t tell if it was directed at me or at all the other drivers trying to survive being on the road with him.
By the time he jerked to a stop a few uncommunicative minutes later, I’d healed enough to hoist myself up onto the seat, breathing easier and able to think clearly, at least, if still battered enough to look and feel like I’d gone a few rounds with an angry meat grinder.
We were in the parking lot of Louie’s club, flashing neon pink lighting giving the interior of the car a surreal glow. My eyes met Raven’s in the rearview mirror. His were black pools, reflecting pink. On. Off. Pink again.
“I lost them for now,” he said, continuing to completely ignore the wholeI love everything about youthing. “But these cars all have GPS tracking. They’ll be here soon. So what now?”
“Now we go find Louie. He’s inside. I hope. And you make a deal.”
Raven grimaced and got out of the car without another word.
I followed him more slowly, but my strength had finally started to return now that most of the major damage to my body had healed. We limped the few yards to the door of the club, where a pair of bouncers stood staring, their cigarettes dangling forgotten from their fingers.
“Oh, hell to the no,” one of them said, and the other stepped forward and added, with more bravado than common sense, “Get the fuck out of here before I call the cops. You can’t come in here like that.”
Right. I was naked, covered with nothing but healing abrasions and blood.
I was also out of patience and time in a way that I couldn’t even begin to put into words. Instead, I extended my claws and flexed my hands. Both the bouncers took a step back.
“Go ahead,” I snarled, pretty confident in that offer. I’d been in this place a couple of times, and my professional eye had caught more than a few things the LVPD would’ve enjoyed levying heavy fines for, if not arresting everyone on the spot. “We’re here to see Louie. You going to stop me?”
“I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” the first bouncer muttered.
The other remained silent.
“That’s what I thought,” I said, and Raven and I walked past them and pushed open the door.
The pounding music and flashing lights hit like an assault, but I pushed ahead, past a cocktail waitress who leapt out of the way with a cry of surprise, through another bouncer whom I simply pushed into a booth, and around several tables of drunk guys and topless girls, who all whooped with laughter.
Louie always held court at the best booth near the far wall, a big circular table with a commanding view of the whole place.
He had a couple of goons with him, and they both crowded forward, starting to protest, while Louie himself, bald pate and gold chains gleaming in the lights from the stage, went still, drink halfway to his mouth.
“I’m here to pay you,” I called over the music, looking only at him and ignoring his men. “All of it, and then some.”
Louie stared for a moment longer, shook his head, and started to laugh. “Let him through,” he said, and his guys glanced at each other, clearly unhappy, but stood aside.
Raven slid in first, opposite Louie, and I started to sitdown next to him.
“Fuck no!” Louie said. “Your naked ass doesn’t go anywhere near my velvet seats.”
My distaste for Dominic’s jock strap and the locker room couch at Lucky or Knot flashed through my mind, and for the first and probably last time ever, I sympathized with Louie.
“Fine,” I said, and leaned down and braced my fists on the table instead. Let the goons ogle my naked ass instead. Not like I wasn’t used to it. “You’re talking to him, anyway.” I gestured at Raven, who looked up at me, lips tight and jaw set.
Come on, get it together, that look seemed to say.I need my straight line, and we’re in a hurry. I turned back to Louie, heart pounding. I’d staked everything on this throw of the dice. Everything for me, and everything for Raven. Cunningham’s furious security were about to bust through the door any minute. Our lives depended on my getting this right.
No fucking pressure or anything.
“When we talked yesterday, you said you owned me,” I told Louie. Only yesterday? Years, it felt like. Jesus. “He’s going to buy me.”
Louie’s eyebrows rose, and he took a long drink of his cocktail. “Buy him?” he said at last, laughing again, turning his attention to Raven. “Why? And with what, pretty boy? You got a suitcase full of cash hidden in those tight pants?”
My fists itched with the urge to knock that leer right off his smug face, but Raven drew himself up, back straight, chin lifted, eyes glittering dangerously, every inch a powerfully magical fae confident in his superiority. Even with his hair a tangled, matted mess, his clothing torn and disheveled, and the healing cuts and bruises, he managed to leave no doubt of what he was.
I could’ve kissed him. And a lot more than kissed him. Would he kill me if I took a moment to tell him again that I lovedhim? Yeah, probably.
“My kind deal in less vulgar payments than suitcases,” he said, voice crisp and hard and cold, somehow making the wordsuitcasesound like the kind of thing only a peasant would use. Louie wilted visibly, his cheeks going red. “I will give you this.”
