Against the Dark (2 page)

“You ladies having fun?” he asked.

White Jenny smiled, red lips like a bloody slash against her pale skin. “Sure are.”

Next, Walter Borgola took Macy’s hand and kissed it—with a little tongue. “Ebony morsel,” Borgola said. Macy smiled her broad smile. Angel was struck by how slimy Borgola was in person. She had the sense that you could never pin him down, like he had no center. It chilled her.

Still holding Macy’s hand, he glanced at Angel. “Chiquita taco.”

Angel smiled. That was one thing that hadn’t changed in her straight life—certain kinds of white guys having some bullshit thing to say about her being Latina.

“You girls be good.” With that, Walter Borgola oozed off with his women.

Under her breath, Macy said, “Tell me when it’s safe to chop off my hand.”

“Did I see him give your hand some
tongue
?” Angel asked.

Macy drooped her eyelid, a famous expression of hers.

“Ugh,” Angel said.

White Jenny snorted. “Ebony morsel and chiquita taco? That makes me want to trash this place.” She turned to Angel. “Tell me you don’t want to ream him out of his rocks just on principle.”

Angel watched him greet the next group of girls. “Won’t be the saddest day of my life.”

Not ten minutes later, Jocko the chef sauntered up with a tray.

“What are you doing?” Macy asked.

Jocko pointed to a shrimp roll. “Try it,” he said.

“Grrreat. What’s it to?” Macy asked, taking shrimp roll and what Angel presumed was a key. Jocko was their inside guy. He’d provided maps of the place. He’d be getting a cut of anything they found beyond the gems.

“Locked pocket door to the security console,” Jocko said. “Nothing to freak about.” He turned to White Jenny. “Did you try the shrimp rolls?”

White Jenny looked unhappy. She always created virtual models of the buildings they planned to hit, so that they could run through every step of the job in virtual reality.
Rob the place before you rob it
—that was their motto. White Jenny had been proud to show Angel her new sophisticated building information modeling software when they’d run through the job this afternoon. BIM they called it.

Now there was an extra locked door? That changed things. “This might mean there are other locked doors,” White Jenny said, holding up her shrimp roll like she was asking a question about it. “It might mean surprises, and we don’t like any goddamn surprises.”

“No more surprises.”

“Jocko,” Macy said. “There’s a guy to my right leaning against the fountain. Light brown hair. Glasses. Nerd with baditude. Is he somebody?”

“He’s on the team,” Jocko said. “The security team.”

“No way,” Angel said. They’d all heard the rumors. The level of sadism on that team. Horrible things. She always went for guys whose rage manifested in self destruction, never cruelty.

“I’m telling you,” Jocko said. “Been on the team for months. Those security guys are bad shit.”

“He’s looking at Angel.” Macy asked. “You think he’s looking to play?”

“I don’t know,” Jocko said. “The team is tight, and they’re all on the job tonight. Though they do get breaks.” With that he moved on, offering shrimp rolls to another little group of hookers and men.

The men had all paid a lot to go to this party. The women were paid to show up and be willing.

“So what the hell? He’s either looking to screw Angel on his fifteen minute break, or he’s made her,” Macy said.

“How could he suspect us of anything?” White Jenny complained. “We haven’t even done anything yet.”

Angel studied the lime at the bottom of her drink. “This doesn’t make sense. My guys were never the cruel ones. That’s a whole different species.” She looked up to find her old friends both staring at her. “Yeah, yeah,” she sighed. “I’ll figure it out.”

If they’d drawn the attention of security, they had to make sure the interest was sexual. Which required talking to the guy.

Could her radar be so rusty that she couldn’t tell one type of badass from another?

“Angel?” White Jenny said. “Give the signal if you need rescuing. We got your back, honey. We’ll rejigger if he thinks we’re up to something.”

White Jenny had always been the motherly one. These girls had once been her life.

Angel turned and smiled at the guy. He didn’t smile back, he just stared, cool and hard. She turned back to her posse with that melty feeling again. He’d just engaged her. They were in a dance now.

“Just signal,” Macy said. The signal was kicking her leg up backward—the heel-to-butt signal, they called it.

“I got it.” Angel turned and headed for the guy, empty drink in hand. He watched her steadily as she approached.

His hair was grown out just enough that he had to tilt his head a little bit to keep it out of his eyes—like a clean-cut haircut gone to hell. His scruffy beard hadn’t seen a razor in days.

She smiled as if her pulse wasn’t going haywire. Tipped her head. “I’m Angel.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“That’s your real name?”

“That’s right, baby,” she said, playing the pouty hooker.

“Hey—” he motioned to the waiter who was passing by. “Drink?” he asked, eyeing her empty glass.

“Gin and tonic,” she said.

Their fingers brushed as he took the glass from her, creating a frisson of electricity that shot down her center. He set it on the waiter’s tray. “Thanks,” he said to the waiter.

The waiter left them alone.

He took up extra space even beyond where he stood. It was something a guy like this did. He would take, take, take, but she’d still want to save him.

Up close you could see his faint freckles and the pain and the fire in his eyes. He felt so familiar to her—that’s what was scary. She’d never met him, but she knew those eyes, that expression. He was drowning in something. She knew things like that about her guys on a primal level.

She forced herself to stay cool. Did he suspect them? That was what she needed to figure out.

A rogue lock of hair had fallen over his glasses and he flicked his head, sending it away, as though he wanted nothing to obstruct his view of her. “Now what are we going to do with you?” he asked with a hint of humor in his voice.

Focus,
she told herself.
You’re a hooker who doesn’t know he’s security.
She shrugged her shoulders.

He spread his legs open a little. “Come here.”

“You wanna play?” she asked, heart racing. It had been such a long since she’d been around a guy like this. He didn’t add up as a nerd. He didn’t add up as a member of Borgola’s security team. He didn’t make sense to her in a lot of ways. But she wanted him; that one fact cut through everything.

“I want you to come here,” he said.

She stepped in close. Her girls would grab her if she gave the signal, but she still couldn’t tell if his interest was professional or sexual. A real poker player, this guy.

He hooked a finger over the top of her bodice and pulled her even closer, and she allowed it. His skin felt electric near hers.

“There’re a lot of bad girls at this shindig,” he said, lips too close, filling her with need. But it was his eyes she worried about. He was seeing too much.

“I don’t need no muthafuckin’ memo to tell me there’s bad girls here,” she replied, throwing off her perfect grammar for the role she was playing.

He scrutinized her more. The intense intelligence that radiated off him scared her.

She looked away from his eyes, but that left her gazing at his straight, strong nose, and then his lips. Oh, yeah, his lips.

She knew that he’d kiss her moments before he did it, as though the kiss came from outside of them, pre-ordained by the universe. Wild energy danced in her chest as he drew in; at the last moment, he paused, letting her feel his heat. Then he closed his lips over hers.

His kiss was light and heavy at the same time, like summer fog, rich with mysterious magic. There, then gone.

“There are rules here,” he whispered.

His interest was sexual then. Panic and excitement shot through her. The rule was that the girls at the party would have sex with whoever wanted them. Somehow she didn’t think this guy was going to accept the ‘waiting for somebody’ brush-off.

She gave him a dopey look—this guy would dislike an airhead. It’s one of the things she could sense in him. “Rules?”

He eyed her, pressed a thumb over her lips. The pad of his thumb felt warm and thick. She tipped up her head and let the pad of his thumb dip a tiny bit into her mouth. He tasted deliciously destructive on every level. She wouldn’t go with him, but she could enjoy him a bit.

He dragged his thumb off the side of her lips and she made the mistake of looking up again at those wildcat eyes. Her body rose to attention, propelled by the force of five years of celibacy.

She should give the sign. But she had to be sure—it was all in the interest of science, right? Or getting away with burglary, anyway.

He nipped her lip, let his nose drag up against hers. Man, even the way he moved his nose was sexy.

Her eyes drifted shut as he kissed her again. He was invasive this time, moving his tongue along hers with a kind of erotic friction. Warmth bloomed between her legs as he slid his fingers down to her hips. She felt as if he was taking her over. No man had ever affected her like this.
Interest of science,
she thought dimly.
Burglary. Saving Aunt Aggie.

And then he moved his fingers lower.

Shit.

He pulled away, looking around while he discreetly pocketed her gun.

“What are you doing?”

He seemed disappointed that she’d ask such a stupid question. “Disarming you, of course. The man at the door could get into a lot of trouble for letting you in with this.”

She cast her eyes downward, studying the line of her dress. There was no way he could’ve seen it. It didn’t make a shape in the fabric even when she walked—that was the beauty of the dress.

“I
didn’t
see it,” he said, like he knew what she was thinking.

“Then how did you know it was there? Just out of curiosity.” She smiled coyly, but she really wanted to know. “What was your clue?”

He smirked. “Clues are for amateurs. And when you’re at Walter Borgola’s party you’re not supposed to be armed. I’ll check it under your name. Get it when you leave.”

With horror, she saw he had her safecracking tool in his hand, too. He unzipped the little pouch and looked inside at the earbuds and cord wound around the body of the instrument. She prayed for him not to pull it out—it was an acoustic, sonar-based sensor with a small oscilloscope. She’d worked with a techie to make it during her Fenton Furst apprenticeship. It was larger than any mp3 player on the market, but usually people didn’t notice. This guy might. This guy had detected her gun across the room. How? By the way she walked, maybe? He re-zipped it and handed it to her, scanning the party. His interest in her was over, apparently.

“You bring music? You listen to music while you’re doing ‘em?”

“Sometimes,” she said.

He squinted like he couldn’t quite understand.

“You wanna try it?”

“I’m working.”

“So am I,” she said.

“I’ve never heard of that,” he said. “The music thing. Don’t they at least want to believe you’re focused on them?”

He had a point—it
was
a little weird. But she’d said it now. She had to sell it. He was smart, but she was smart, too.

She shrugged. “I let them pick the music. Don’t knock it ‘til you tried it.”

“Like what? What do they pick?”

That was the problem with the smart guys—they had to know everything. She wondered if that’s what would land him on the slab in the morgue in the end. He still didn’t add up as Borgola security, but obviously that’s what he was.

“Well?” He was waiting.

Her mind raced; what would a guy pick for music? She was coming up blank. The whole damn thing was preposterous. No! He thought she was a hooker, and he was curious. She smiled and put a finger on his chest. “Let’s just say, it’s never ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA.”

His lips quirked.

She took that opportunity to snatch back the tool. “You sure, baby?”

“Yup.” He turned away then, scanning the party. He seemed to have flipped a switch, from interest to disdain. Like she already wasn’t there. He’d taken a little taste of her, stripped her of her gun, and now he was done with her.

He really did think she was a whore. Well, it’s what she’d wanted, right?

“Get lost,” he said.

She felt her face heat.
Get lost?
She spun around and left, feeling like an idiot.

“Asshole took my gun,” she said when she rejoined the gang.

“Shit,” Macy said. “You shouldn’t have tried to bring it in.”

“Well, I didn’t count on eagle eye over there taking it,” Angel said. “I bet half the people here smuggled in firearms.”

White Jenny looked confused. “I was watching the whole time, and I didn’t see him take it.”

“He took it.” Angel felt like he took other things too. Like her dignity. She hated him and wanted him. That old familiar feeling.

“Well, hell, that was one hot disarm,” White Jenny said.

“Just another pig,” Angel said, pulse still racing. “The good news is that he buys I’m a hooker.”

Macy frowned. “The bad news is that it’s going to look suspicious if you never go back and get your gun.” Their plans involved penetrating from the inside and leaving off the roof. They weren’t planning on exiting through the front door. “We’ll have to double back and act like you forgot it,” Macy said.

“Are you serious?” White Jenny said. “Hamburgle the perv and come back in the front door?”

“It’ll look more suspicious to never come and get it,” Angel said. “It’ll make us instant suspects for the job.”

“You’ll play the doped-up hooker,” Macy said. “It’ll be fine. They won’t know anything’s gone for a day or two. There’s not a choice. We have to do this job.”

They all knew it was true. The Flesh Boys wouldn’t release Aggie until they got Borgola’s prized diamonds, and no other diamonds would do—Macy had tried to negotiate that. The Flesh Boys weren’t killers, but they were bad guys, and they had some beef with Borgola. Angel doubted Borgola even knew who the Flesh Boys were, they were such small potatoes compared to Borgola’s multi-billion dollar crime operations.