Kill Switch (Blue-Eyed Bomb Book 2) Page 5

  The sidelong glance TS shot me confirmed my suspicion.

  “We need to narrow our search,” TS said. He had the attention of everyone crowded around the SUV.

  “To what exactly?”

  “I think TS is implying that it’s time for Sapphira to see the underbelly of Chicago.” Muses could not have looked more pleased if he’d tried. “We’re looking for strippers or ladies of the night, my dear girl. Whoever is taking them is using them in the sex trade somehow. We need to find out where and how. And quickly.”

  “Jesus,” I muttered to myself, my stomach rolling. Wasn’t it bad enough that they had been kidnapped—their minds presumably fucked with to accomplish that? Apparently not. Apparently the sick bastard behind this was even viler than I had bargained for. And that’s an impressive feat, given my healthy amount of cynicism. “Then let’s get moving.”

  I kept the “before the body count rises” to myself.

  Chapter Seven

  TS had a private call to make so he took Muses’ car, and the rest of us piled into the SUV. It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to what we’d just discovered about the missing girls, not that it was much to go on.

  “There are multiple strip clubs in town owned by supernaturals,” Ferris said from the passenger seat. “It won’t take long to shake those down for whatever information we need.”

  “And as far as hookers or underground brothels, I can only think of a handful of operations, all of which are run by vampires.” Cy’s addition did little to improve my mood. All I could think about was the girls being exploited against their will—or worse yet, not even realizing it was against their will. My blood boiled at the thought.

  Patience… my darker half warned. They will pay.

  “Not soon enough,” I muttered under my breath. Soon I had a vehicle full of men staring at me in the back seat.

  “Talking to yourself, sister?” Alek asked, though I could tell by his tone of voice that he knew it was more than that. That something else was going on.

  “You didn’t know?” Muses started, sounding superior as always. “Sapphira’s other half has a voice all her own. She’s really quite something. She calls herself Death.”

  “She did that to make a point. I don’t think that’s what she actually wants to be called.”

  It does seem fitting…

  “I refuse to refer to a part of me as Death, so no. Try again.”

  “Are you arguing with yourself?” Cy asked, his features twisted with disbelief.

  “Clearly you’ve never seen her mother in action,” Muses replied with a laugh.

  So what do you feel would be a suitable name, Sapphira? Surely you don’t wish to call me Emerald or Citrine…or God forbid, Topaz…

  “Cute. Very cute.”

  I’m quite serious.

  While I thought about something to call her other than my darker half or Death, I could hear the men carrying on about what Muses had seen when we went to see Damascus. What he thought about she-who-remained-nameless. Eventually, I tuned into his response.

  “She was cold and fearless with eyes as black as night—just like her father.”

  “Onyx!” I blurted out. “That’s her name. Onyx.”

  Not sold on that…

  “Fine. You can go by Nyx for short. She’s the Greek goddess of the night. I think that suits you better, don’t you?”

  She seemed to mull it over for a minute, saying nothing. The entire SUV full of warriors remained silent while they waited for the one-sided conversation to play out.

  Nyx…I think I like that. Yes. Nyx will suffice.

  “Great, now that we’ve got that sorted out, can we get back to this investigation?” I leaned forward on the seat back in front of me, sticking my head between Nico and Alek. “Ferris, I have concerns with going to these clubs so directly.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, suppose whoever is involved with this gets wind of our suspicions before we can find the victims. What would be the first thing they’d do?”

  He looked back at me with narrowed eyes.

  “Kill the girls and dispose of the evidence.”

  “Exactly. And I have to say, I’m not sure it’s a coincidence that the girl whose brother’s body we found was the one murdered.”

  “You think someone might know we’re onto them?”

  “I know the murderer said something in Iowa right before he killed the first victim we found—that his death would save the rest of the town. I think this guy knew that his playground had been compromised—that his actions had been reported to the PC.”

  “So he got rid of the tie he knew we might have had to it.”

  “Exactly.”

  Silence fell over us all as we pulled up to the warehouse. TS arrived at the same time. Once we were all out of the vehicles, Ferris filled TS in on our theory. TS’ brow furrowed, giving weight to the likelihood of it being true.

  “Phira is right to be concerned for the well-being of those that were taken if we do not approach this with discretion, but that doesn’t change the fact that we must find a way to track them down,” TS said. He looked past everyone to me. “There might be a way to deal with this. One that gets us the inside information we need without raising alarms.”

  “How do you propose that?” Cy asked.

  TS’ gaze never faltered from me. It begged me to see something in the subtext of his words. He wanted me to put the pieces together. Wanted it to be my idea.

  Then I realized what it was.

  “You want me to go undercover. You want me to find out which club/brothel it is and infiltrate it somehow.”

  He nodded once.

  In the split second of silence that lingered before holy hell broke out, I could see the distaste in his eyes. His contempt at the thought of me lowering myself to accomplish what we had to do. His hatred of the idea that I would have to exploit my body to save those girls.

  Then I felt his fear.

  The ruckus around us was so loud at that point that I could hardly hear myself think.

  “Shut up!” I yelled to no avail. Not one to be so easily beaten, I tried again. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Once my ears stopped crackling in the wake of my screaming, I spoke. “If the goal is to not only find where they’ve been put to work but actually figure out a way to recover them without getting them killed in the process, then I don’t know that we have another choice. I can do this. Nyx has my back. Nobody is going to get a chance to hurt me before I find out what’s going on. Once that happens, it’s show time.”

  “And your father,” Ferris started, still looking down at me. “What are we to tell him? That we have intentionally put you in harm’s way?”

  “I am PC, just like you. No more. No less. If one of you could do this for me, then you would. But you can’t, so I will do it. I have the advantage of being unknown, and others have always read me as a wolf when they met me—they won’t know who and what I am. Nobody can do this more easily than me. That is what I will tell my father, if need be. And he’ll agree to it.”

  “We’re still putting the cart before the horse,” Cy called out. “We need to find where the girl had been before she died.”

  “Leave that to me,” I said, sinking back into the seat beside my uncle. “All I need is someone to take me to all the options. I think the dead girl will do the rest.”

  An hour later, I found myself in the passenger seat of Zale’s Jeep, TS winding his way around Chicago past the locations Muses and Ferris had listed off. We’d already been past four with no sign of my translucent friend. I prayed that my assumption was right—that she might be there to help lead us to her killer. That said, I had no concrete evidence that that would happen. It was a long shot at best. At worst, it was an epic fail waiting to happen.

  “How many more are on the list?” I asked, looking out the window at the skyscrapers looming above.

  “Seven.”

  “Do you think this will work? That she’ll show?”


  He seemed to ponder my question, taking a moment to reply.

  “I think it is worth trying before exhausting what few options we have aside from it.” I leaned back in my seat and exhaled heavily. “You feel the weight of responsibility right now, don’t you?” he asked, hazarding a glance at me.

  “I feel like I have a lot to prove…to everyone.”

  “You have already proven yourself an asset, Phira.”

  “Why do I feel like that isn’t enough?”

  “Because as much as you are your mother’s daughter, you are also your father’s. I have watched him over centuries. I have seen how his position has weighed on him—the decisions he has had to make. The lives he’s held in his hands. Anyone born of the PC should feel the pressure of their position. The best, however, feel it the way your father does.”

  “So…you’re saying I’m not totally fucking this up?”

  I looked over to find the faintest look of amusement on his face, the corner of his mouth curling up ever so slightly.

  “Not yet.”

  That remark earned him a punch in the arm.

  “Have no fear, Ajax. The day ain’t over. Plenty of time for me to start living up to my potential.”

  “I would expect nothing less.”

  At that, I had to laugh.

  “Expectations are dangerous. Especially when they’re about me.”

  To that, he said nothing.

  “Up here.” He pointed to a building on the right. One with a gaudy sign that screamed lowbrow strip joint. He pulled up to the curb in front of it and looked at me expectantly. I stared at the building, doing everything I could think of to draw her out. Even if it was the wrong place, maybe she’d appear and point us in the right direction.

  Unfortunately for me, that didn’t happen.

  Sighing heavily, I shook my head no, and TS pulled back onto the road, headed to the next destination. Then another. Then another. Six more locations had been scouted and no sign of the dead girl. With only one place left, my faith in my already-shaky plan was hanging on by a thread.

  And that was soon cut.

  Outside the final building, I saw nothing. No dead girl. No ghosts at all. And no convenient dead bodies. It was just another seedy place for supernaturals and humans alike to get their rocks off. In short, it was a dead end.

  “Dammit!” I shouted, slamming my fist against the passenger door.

  “I will call Nico and let him know to start plan B.”

  “Why didn’t it work?” I asked myself under my breath. “It should have worked.”

  Who’s to say it didn’t? I rolled my eyes. First, don’t ever do that again. We may share this body, but I will kick your ass if need be just to prove a point. Trust me when I tell you, you won’t appreciate the gesture. Second, you don’t know that it didn’t work because you’re working off a very large assumption.

  “Which is?”

  That she can come to you whenever you need her to.

  It was a fair point, and it reinforced my fear that this gift was going to be completely unreliable. Not a huge asset to the PC to say the least.

  TS eyed me from across the car as he informed Nico of what had happened during our search. It was then that I realized that he’d been listening to my conversation with Nyx, probably wondering what in the hell was going on. I quickly explained, but judging by the look on his face, it was going to take a while for all of us to get used to that.

  I dismissed his curious expression with a wave of my hand. When he hung up the phone, he turned the car around and started heading for home. That left Nyx and me to contemplate how to make my ghostly connections work in our favor.

  But that conversation didn’t last long.

  As we drove through downtown, something flashed in my periphery, my head snapping to look out the window. I needed to confirm my suspicion. Sure enough, standing on the sidewalk, shrouded by the dark entrance to a building, was my ghost.

  “Stop the car!” I shouted. TS, never one to question, did exactly that, yanking the car up against the curb. I jumped out and ran toward where I’d seen her lurking. When I reached the place, she was gone, but that didn’t matter. I knew what her presence meant.

  We’d just found the first clue we needed.

  This particular location, unlike the others, screamed class—if a strip club could boast such a thing. The façade was sparse but tasteful. The signage of the non-neon variety. The building blended in well with all the other shops and restaurants surrounding it. In truth, if I hadn’t already known it was that kind of establishment from the evidence we’d found on the body, I never would have guessed. Sinful wasn’t an especially telling business name. Hell, I probably would have thought it was a kickass restaurant with a name like that. Something with decadent food and luscious desserts—not tits and ass.

  TS was soon at my side, his uncertainty rolling off of him.

  “I think we should establish a plan.”

  “The plan is I need to get a job here. That’s the plan.”

  “And if they aren’t hiring?”

  “I’ll make them hire me.”

  “I shudder to think of how you’re going to accomplish that. You need to remember, Phira, this club is owned by a human. You can’t go in there with your supernatural banner waving.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll keep it tucked away in my back pocket.”

  I started toward the entrance only to be stopped by TS as he caught my arm.

  “If you are not out in twenty minutes, I’m coming in.”

  I nodded, realizing the implication of his statement. If I didn’t come out, he would assume I was the next kidnapping victim.

  “I’ll be out in ten. Trust me.”

  With that, I strode toward the dark entrance, pulling open the black door. Seconds later I was surrounded by the smell of alcohol, perfume, and sex.

  “Strip club my ass,” I muttered to myself as a young male approached me. He was in his early twenties and my height but gawky, like he hadn’t inherited his grown-up body yet. He smiled at me as he neared and I forced one in return, doing my best to turn on whatever charming qualities I had.

  “You look like you might be in the wrong place,” he said, still smiling at me.

  “Well I’m not here for a lap dance, if that’s what you mean.”

  He laughed.

  “Then what can I do for you, funny girl?”

  “I want a job.”

  His smile faded.

  “Here?”

  “That’s why I’m standing in front of you.”

  “Are you a…?”

  He looked over his shoulder at the half-naked girl hanging upside down from the pole on the stage.

  “Stripper?”

  “Yeah. That.”

  “Do I look like a stripper?”

  “You’d be amazed. I can hardly pick them out of a crowd anymore, and I work here.”

  “Fair point. But no, I’m not looking to strip. I was hoping for something a little more—”

  “Clothing dependent?”

  “Yep. That’d be great.”

  “Dennis!” A huge mountain of a man—who really wasn’t a man at all—shouted at the young guy from across the room. “Time to queue the next song.”

  “Coming,” he replied before turning his attention back to me. “I’ll be right back.”

  He darted over to the DJ booth and fumbled through announcing the next girl. Once finished, he jogged back to me.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “You don’t seem so great with that thing,” I pointed out, looking at the booth with the sound system.”

  “Yeah…it’s not really my job here, but I had to take it over a couple of months ago.” I looked at him with a quirked brow, willing him to see what was evident to me. A moment later, realization dawned in his expression. “Hey…are you good with that stuff?”

  “I’m a quick study. And I love music.”

  “You’ve got a good voice, too. And the guys ar
ound here, well…I think they’d love looking at you a hell of a lot more than me.”

  “I’m inclined to agree,” I replied, leaning into him conspiratorially.

  “Let me go get the boss.”

  “You do that, Dennis.”

  He turned to make his way toward the back before stopping to ask me something.

  “What’s your name, funny girl?”

  “Tell him it’s DJ Sapphire. It’ll make me sound more official.”

  “It makes you sound like a stripper running the sound station.”

  With his smile returned, he walked into the back of the club. A minute later, he returned with a man whose appearance screamed ‘I’ve killed before’. Tall, built, with square shoulders—no fancy Armani suit could dress up his kind of badass. But he was human, that much was true. Unlike some of the others in that room—Dennis included—he didn’t emanate any supernatural energy at all.

  “Here she is,” Dennis announced as he approached, making a grand sweeping gesture in my direction.

  “So I see.” The Russian accent was impossible to mistake. Hearing it made me edgy. The Russian mob was no joke by human standards. And if I had to play human while there, it made me nervous. “Dennis tells me you would like a job.”

  “I would.”

  “But not on stage.”

  “Nope. Clothes on only. Those are my terms.”

  His eyes widened at my reply. I couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

  “Fine. I have enough girls to fill my stage.”

  I just bet he does…

  “Does that mean yes?”

  “No.”

  “Does it mean no?”

  “No.”

  I swallowed back my irritation.

  “Then what the fuck does it mean?”

  Apparently I didn’t swallow it back hard enough.

  The wall of Russian mobster took a step closer to loom above me. His eyes were menacing, and in that second, I knew I’d made a huge misstep. I’d hoped my reply would have inspired respect for me—an appreciation for a girl who doesn’t take shit and doesn’t dick around. Instead, it just seemed to piss him off.

  “You have a smart mouth.”