Page 126 of Retribution
I look at Pierre, who rolls his eyes again and mutters something in French that makes Shade’s eyes narrow at him.
I give a hesitant nod.
'Okay, but I'm the one who does it,’ I reiterate. ‘You guys stay out of sight. You can be in strategic parts of the club to make sure I'm safe if you want, but that’s it, okay?'
I get three slightly reluctant nods.
‘Promise?’
Shade’s jaw ticks. ‘Promise,’ he grinds out, not looking too happy.
'Mon Dieu,’ Sauvage says under his breath at the roof of the car. ‘Now that your querelle domestiquedomestic quarrelis finished… If you wish to go into my club, you dress appropriately.’
He sneers at the guys and gestures to the suit bags that are hanging next to him from the grab handle. I see now that they’re labelled with my guys’ names.
I think at the very least Blake is going to complain, but none of them say anything as they each take the bag with their name on it and put on the black suit inside. Sauvage's eyes flit aroundfrom my hair to my dress and heels impersonally, and he nods.
'Invisible enough,' he mutters to himself with a small smile.
The two-and-a-half-hour trip from Richmond, Connecticut to the heart of New York City is made mostly in silence after that. I look out the window when the city comes into view on the horizon, never having been in such a large one before. Philadelphia, where I lived for those few months after my dad died, wasn’t anywhere near this huge and sprawling. The towering buildings dwarf everything. It makes me feel very small, but also oddly secure. I suppose it’s because, if I needed to, I could get lost in the city and no one would ever find me.
It's good to know that it's here and relatively close if I do have to run in the future.
We enter the grid system. There are sounds of multiple sirens in the distance and cars everywhere. If not for the car’s tinted windows, I'm sure all the lights would bother me.
We roll up at the back entrance of a large, brick building.
It's raining, and Sauvage's driver gets out with a large black umbrella. He hands it to Sauvage, who leaves us to go inside first.
The driver takes me in with another, identical umbrella, so that I don't get wet, leaving the guys in the car to make their own way in. I give them an apologetic look as they dash through the wet and fall into step behind me as I follow Sauvage down the wide, red-carpeted hallway, deep into the building.
I can hear distant, thudding bass. Sauvage takes us to the end of the long corridor. There, two of his men are waiting. I don’t recognize them, but they’re dressed in the same suits that Shade and the others are now wearing.
I see the exactmoment they register this and I think Sauvage notices too because I’m sure I see his lip twitch.
'The cameras,' he points up before they can complain. 'They are off. No one will know that you were ever here. If your pill does not work as you intend?—'
I huff at him a little.
He puts his hands up in placation when he notices I’m affronted. ‘Of course I know it will, ma petite fleur, but un deuxième plana plan b? For safety?’
I give him a nod, my stomach starting to twist with nerves now that we’re here.
He turns to the guys and pulls out four identical earpieces. 'These are all on the same channel. Mine is as well. No one else will be able to hear. Now, you look like my men. Invisible as ma petite fleur, oui?’
He gives me the last one and I fit it into my ear. I immediately don’t like how the sound is muffled in just one ear, but I try to ignore it. Safety first.
Sauvage points at Shade. ‘You should go to the mezzanine. It will give you a view of all of the dance floor. Through the door and up the first stairs. Terry will show you. Hurry. Banderville is already in one of the VIP rooms. We run out of time.'
Shade gives me a quick kiss.
'Please be careful,' he says, caressing my cheek, and then he's gone, Terry leading the way.
‘You will be in the next room from him,’ he says to Mav. ‘It is empty. There is a small hole in the last wooden slat on the left. You will use it to watch the room.’
Mav nods. ‘If anything goes wrong, get out of there,’ he whispers to me.
One of the men waiting nearby gestures with his head to Mav, and with a quick squeeze of my hand, he goes through the same door that Shade disappeared through.
