Page 78 of Tainted Princess
There were even a half a dozen bowling lanes at the very back, the noise of the pins being struck drowning out most of the other sounds, even the 80s hair band soundtrack playing over top everything.
“It is a bit like Disneyland on steroids. And testosterone. And cocaine.”
I snorted, watching a group of muscle heads in khaki shorts cheer one of their buddies on as he attempted to chug an entire pitcher of beer.
He succeeded.
“But the true magic, the thing that makesWraththe destination for all your bad boy desires, is the basement.”
I frowned, looking around. “I don’t see a basement.”
“Well, duh. That’s half the fun.” Grabbing my hand, Lexi headed across the space, waving to one of the bartenders on her way by, a gorgeous Asian woman with black lipstick on, before turning us down the hall to the bathrooms. “So, this building actually used to be a meat packing plant,” Lexi stated, pointing to the rows of iron beams going across the ceiling. “About thirty years ago, it was determined that the company could save a butt load of money if they shut this place down and shipped all their production overseas. Labor costs dropped to almost zero, the quality of the product went in the toilet, but thanks to some slick lobbying, the company was able to keep the same label and price for the cheap garbage hot dogs they sold, while raking in like, three times the profit.”
‘Sounds about right,” I said, and Lexi made a noise of frustrated agreement.
She turned us to the right, and I saw we were in a long hallway with doors on either side. The first set was for bathrooms, the second labeled ‘Janitor’, and the last one said, ‘Employees Only’ and had a muscular guy standing in front of it.
Right. Because that wasn’t suspicious at all.
“Hey, Benny,” Lexi greeted him, and he crossed his arms over his huge chest, but said nothing. “Oh, come on, Benny. Don’t be like that.”
“You said you’d call, Lexi,” the guy, Benny, apparently, grumbled.
“Yeah, well, I say a lot of things,” she went on, dropping my hand and tugging at the high collar of the sweater. “If it makes you feel better, I never call anyone. It’s this thing I do; dodge commitment and real feelings at all costs.”
Lexi continued to talk to Benny, trying to soothe over his hurt feelings, but I was distracted by my phone buzzing in my small clutch.
Myotherphone.
Digging it out, I stepped away to read the message.
Sway:The dogs is in town so theys fresh grass on the field.
What? I tipped the screen to Vinnie, hoping he’d be able to shed some light on the cryptic message, but he only shrugged. Unable to decipher it now, I simply marked the message as read and slid my phone away, lifting my head to see that Lexi had talked Benny into opening the door, even though he didn’t seem happy about it.
She placed a chaste kiss on his cheek before motioning me to follow her as she descended a narrow stairway that led down into the dark.
“As I was saying,” she went on as if her life hadn’t just played out like an episode ofOne Tree Hill,“after the company laid off all the workers, this place sat abandoned for a long time. It’s pretty far from the city and there’s not a whole lot out here.”
She was right; it was about a thirty-minute drive north of Las Vegas city limits to get toWrath, but I hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
“But Enzo didn’t buy it for the location,” I guessed.
“No, he did not.”
“Lexi, you sure know a lot about Enzo’s businesses,” I said pointedly, and let the question hang.
“Well, there’s not much people can hide from me if I’m in the mood to look,” she said with a sly smile. “Enzo figured early that it was better to have me on his side than not, so I’ve been working for him for a while now.Edentakes up the majority of my time these days, but I help out on specific projects when the need arises. Much like I did for you.”
We had reached the bottom of the stairs and moved down a second, shorter hallway, then descended a second set of stairs, traveling deeper underground. At the bottom of the stairs was a wide door, it’s textured silver surface and unique handle indicative of an industrial sized refrigerator like the ones in my grandfather’s restaurant. There was another large man standing by this one, and he gave Lexi and I a chin lift before moving to open the door.
“This,” Lexi said, turning to face me and gesturing beside her like some psychedelic Vanna White. “Is the reason Enzo bought the place.”
The door was swung open dramatically, and I was hit with a wave of sound and heat. Through the door was an entirely new club, this one much grittier and clearly rougher than the place upstairs. As Lexi and I wandered our way through the basement ofWrath, weaving between the tightly packed bodies all around, I could see an entirely different breed of clientele that appeared to span every demographic; there were businessmen in expensive suits standing next to a group of leather clad bikers. There was a group of Hispanic men with matching tattoos on their forearms casually eyeballing an Asian guy and his entourage as they ordered drinks at the bar. Each group separate, yet seemingly content to share space with no major issues.
And of course, scattered throughout it all, were hordes of exceedingly beautiful women, each one more made up than the last, with eyelashes and hair extensions and cleavage galore.
But it was what was at the center of the room that really caught my attention: an octagon.
