Kill Switch (Blue-Eyed Bomb Book 2) Page 7

  Maybe Dennis and I had a few more things in common than I’d imagined.

  “I’ve gotta go back out. Song’s just about over.” I nodded and turned toward the changing room door. “And Sapphire?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Try not to piss the boss off again.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  He headed off down the hall and around the corner, leaving me in the dark hallway alone. For a second, doubt plagued me. Could I pull this off? Could I do what needed to be done to find out what was happening to the girls, and could I do it fast enough for it to matter? Time wasn’t my friend in this endeavor, yet another obstacle to overcome. For my first foray into PC business, I wondered if I’d bitten off more than I could chew.

  I wondered if I’d choke on the magnitude of it all.

  But when I swung the dressing room door open, something in me changed. Doubt turned to determination. Uncertainty faded to conviction. Right in front of me, crammed into a room built for maybe eight at most, were fifteen or more young women running about, preparing for their turns on stage.

  And I recognized every one of them.

  Even the ghost staring at me from the back of the room.

  Chapter Nine

  “See something you like?” one of the girls asked, yanking me from my momentary stupor. She hadn’t been angry. There was no edge to her tone or energy. It was as if the question had been an honest one. I shuddered to think what she would have done if I’d said yes.

  “Sorry. It’s just more—crowded—than I expected it to be. Dennis told me to put my stuff back here somewhere.”

  Another girl pointed to a hook on the wall, and I walked over there, sliding past half-naked bodies along the way. I pulled my phone out and put it in my pocket before looping the handles of my bag over the hook.

  I started back toward the door, wondering what I should do next. Clearly I’d found many of the missing girls, but they were only a fraction of the total. Though I’d have liked to march them out the front door to safety, I didn’t have that luxury. I needed to get to know them. Overhear conversations. Get to know how the operation worked. Girls liked to talk. I figured it shouldn’t be that hard. But as I walked toward the door, I realized just how quiet it was in there. How atypical their behavior was.

  I looked back to find the dead girl standing closer to me now, only feet away.

  “He fucked with your mind, didn’t he?” I mumbled to her, hoping the others would pay no attention. She did nothing to affirm my assumption. But she didn’t deny it either. “Great.”

  Getting information from them was going to be harder than I’d hoped, but I had no choice. With a deep breath, I strode out of the room and down the hall until I reached the main club area. It was packed with businessmen. Most looked relatively clean cut; others not so much. And then there were the randoms that ran the gamut.

  I looked up to find Dennis waving me over frantically. Weaving my way through the tables, I finally reached the booth and climbed in with him. It was tight having both of us in there. Bodily contact was inevitable. Judging by the sheepish smile on his face, he sure didn’t seem to mind much.

  “I’ll show you the basics. If you have questions, I’ll be out front all night, okay?”

  “Sounds good.”

  He proceeded to show me everything I needed to know to queue songs and work the mic. He had a list of the girls’ names with the order in which they’d be performing. It all seemed simple enough, so I gave him the okay to leave and got ready to call out the next dancer.

  I spent the next few hours getting acquainted with my routine and trying my best to make mental notes about everything I saw. Which girls performed. What they were wearing. Who they went backstage with…

  My goal was to cross-reference what I saw with what we already knew from our investigations back in Iowa. To find a pattern. To understand what was going on. But amassing that intel would take time, and as I watched another lifeless pair of eyes stare out into the audience, I wondered how I’d be able to stand it. Torture came in many forms. Watching those girls silently suffer was almost unbearable.

  By the time the night was over, I was itching to escape. All I wanted to do was run out of there, go home, and shower until the guilt and disgust I felt disappeared down the drain. But I knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

  It never was.

  “Not too shabby for your first night.” Dennis ran up beside me as I walked toward the front entrance.

  “Well I’m not sure the boss agrees, but—”

  “Listen, you didn’t screw anything up. You didn’t hit that guy that grabbed your ass before I could get over there. And you didn’t insult him, so I’d call it a win.”

  “Fair enough.” I pushed the heavy black door open and started down the sidewalk to the bus stop. “See you tomorrow!”

  “Do you want a ride?” Dennis called after me.

  “Nah. I need to figure out this public transportation shit.”

  “You’re new to town?”

  “Yep. Just trying it on for size to see if I like it.”

  “Well I hope you do.” He paused for a moment. “Goodnight Sapphire.”

  “Later Dennis.”

  I pulled my phone out and texted Nico to let him know I was on my way back and that we were definitely on the right track. I kept my messages vague and cryptic on the off chance that someone ever decided to go through them. I didn’t expect that to be an issue, given that I planned to have it on me at all times, but I figured it best to plan for that possibility anyway.

  My phone began to buzz with an incoming call a few seconds later. I sighed and answered it, putting it up to my ear as I walked down the nearly vacant street.

  “You found them?”

  “Not sure this is the best time to have this talk.”

  “Yes or no.”

  “Some.”

  “They all work there?”

  “Of those some, yes.”

  “Good. Where did they go when they left the club?”

  I had to think about that for a minute. Then I realized that I had no idea. I was sure there had to be a back entrance, but I never saw it labeled on my tour of the place. I made a mental note to find that the next time I was there. Maybe they were shuttling the girls back and forth together somehow. All I knew was that none of them left through the main club entrance.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Fuck, Phira. The whole point of you being there—”

  “I’m well aware, Nico.” I looked around as I approached the bus stop, feeling a sudden blast of supernatural energy. Wolves—lots of them—were nearby. “We can talk about it when I get home. I gotta go.”

  I hung up, cutting off his angry reply. While I put my phone in my purse, I scanned the area, trying to pinpoint where the wolves were. Their collective energy was coming from somewhere behind me, so I checked the time quickly, not wanting to miss my bus, then headed toward the alleyway. The longer I walked, the more I could feel them, but from what I could tell, there wasn’t anything down the alley.

  Just when I was about to turn and go back, I heard the scraping sound of a metal door being forced open. A rush of sound escaped into the night—the sound of metal music and males laughing. One of those males stepped out into the darkness of the narrow pass and lit a cigarette. As he exhaled, his head turned in my direction. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel his stare as his eyes fell upon me.

  This is not what we need right now, Phira…

  “Agreed.” I turned and made my way back toward the street, hoping that the werewolf, who still seemed to think smoking was cool, wouldn’t follow. Much to my delight, he didn’t. He never said a word or made a move. Something about that was even more unnerving than if he had.

  Female wolves like my mother were rare. Most either died from the Change or became collateral damage of a testosterone-driven species. Knowing that to most other supernaturals I seemed to read “wolf,” I would have expected him to be really
interested in my presence. In fact, his ability to refrain from pursuing me spoke volumes about his control. Or it spoke to something else—something I couldn’t figure out in that moment.

  Either way, it made me nervous as hell.

  Thankfully, the bus pulled up right on time, enabling my escape from the club and the pack of wolves. I climbed the steps and took a seat at the very back. It was nearly empty; only a couple of humans, who were likely homeless, were riding along with me. Knowing I was safe, I pulled my headphones out of my purse and turned on my music, resting my head back against the wall. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and I knew I was going to be in for an epic interrogation when I got home. For whatever time I had, I wanted to just rest and enjoy the peace the bus offered at that hour.

  If only my mind would have let me.

  If only the Universe could follow through with my plans.

  Chapter Ten

  I dreamt of my childhood that night. Of my parents, my brothers—my town that was no more. I also dreamt of Jacob.

  The boy that took a piece of me I knew I’d never get back.

  My mind wrapped itself around the memory of how we met and wouldn’t let it go, playing it over and over again. How he looked over at me and smiled like I was the only thing in the room. How even my brothers couldn’t frighten him off. How I felt a static charge rip through my body the second his skin touched mine. He awoke something in me that, at the time, I couldn’t comprehend.

  Something that would eventually be the end of him.

  “Can I see you again?” he’d asked me when my brothers threatened to drag me from the movie theater if I didn’t get moving. Like any lovestruck young girl, I said yes, even though I knew neither my brothers nor my father would let that happen. But as I walked away from him, looking over my shoulder as I did, something told me that wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. That there was more to us than a chance meeting.

  It turned out that I was right. Whenever I went into town, whether with my brothers or with my mom to run errands, Jacob was always around, flashing me his warm smile that seared right into my bones. He was perfection—all vibrant blue eyes with shaggy blond hair. The best part was that he too wasn’t human. I thought that would make things easier, but for reasons I wouldn’t learn until later, it didn’t.

  One day I managed to convince my father to let me go into town alone—that if I was ever to be a warrior of the PC, he’d have to learn to let go. He was uneasy about it because, unlike my brothers, I hadn’t shown any extraordinary abilities beyond strength, speed, and my empath ability. He worried that something would happen to me, but I assured him I would be fine.

  That was the beginning of the end.

  I met up with Jacob that day, just as I met up with him every chance I could get. We’d sneak away to the woods and lie under the trees, talking for hours. He’d take my hand in his—so gentle. I eventually gave him everything a young girl could give. Loved him in ways my mind and body didn’t fully comprehend until his love started to wane.

  As his feelings appeared to fade while mine burned desperate, I found the source of his distraction when I went for a walk in the woods to clear my mind. To figure out what I’d done wrong to push him away. Not far ahead, in the spot where I’d first given myself to him, I saw him. And he wasn’t alone. On his lap was a giggling beauty, all ivory skin and ruby red hair, her laugh like tinkling bells. My heart slammed to a stop in my chest. He wrapped his hand into her hair as he’d so often done to my black curls and pulled her in for a kiss. My kiss.

  My body suddenly felt like it was being ripped in two. Like there was too much matter to be contained in one skin, but it grew nonetheless. It swelled and it soared and it burned until it could no longer be contained. With a scream that would silence a town, I let it out.

  And when I was done, there was nothing left but ash and ruin, and the memory of the boy who broke me.

  My body was coated in sweat when I shot up in bed. I could still feel the heat rolling off of the charred remains surrounding me in my dream. I could still smell the acrid stench of burnt wood and flesh.

  I rested my head against the wall behind me as I sagged into it, hoping it would offer me the stability I lacked in that moment. But then I felt the presence of someone and was once again sitting ramrod-straight in the middle of my bed. I searched the dark room but saw no one at first; then I noticed a patch of blackened air that somehow swallowed the light of the moon where it should have spilled across the room. I looked closer, willing myself to move nearer to the abyss in my room, but I didn’t need to. Instead, it took a step toward me.

  The movement was hard to discern at first, just a blur of black on black, barely perceptible to even my eyes. But as it neared, it seemed to take shape. And that was the moment I realized what it was. Another ghost stood beside my bed, but it wasn’t a dead girl. It was the ashen remains of Jacob taking the shape of his body.

  Shock kept me still for a moment, tethered in place, but when he took a final step closer, I jumped out of my bed on the opposite side, putting it between us. From that vantage point, it was so clear it was him, even though it really wasn’t him at all. I guessed that stood to reason, given I’d reduced him to ash when he died. He had no body to use in death.

  “Jacob…” My voice was hoarse from sleep and fear. “Jacob, why are you here?” Unlike the less-than-animated girl I’d met, he seemed to understand me and cocked his head to the side in response. “Why have you come?” Silence. I put a knee up on the bed—then the other. “Tell me why you’re here,” I said, walking on bent knees across my disheveled blankets toward him. “Can you tell me?”

  He shook his head made of swirling ashes.

  A sound in the hallway startled us both. I jumped up and ran to the door on quiet feet, locking it. Then I turned back to find Jacob exactly where I’d left him.

  “Can you tell me anything?” He shook his head again. I exhaled with a huff, frustration building inside me. There was so much I needed to say to him, but there was a lot I wanted to know as well. We needed to have a conversation, not a one-sided confession. “Then I’ll talk. I need to—”

  He held up his index finger to his black lips to quiet me.

  Then he disappeared.

  I rushed over to where he’d been standing. All that remained was a faint smell of smoke. I plopped down on the edge of the bed, doing all that I could to put what had just happened into context, but I failed miserably. Nothing about his appearance made any sense to me, other than maybe he wanted to haunt me for killing him. That seemed fair enough. But his presence lacked any hint of malice, so my mind continued to try to tease out the reason for his coming, to no avail.

  I lay back on the bed, contemplating what to do with this bizarre information—if I should tell the others. My kneejerk response was no. Jacob had nothing to do with PC matters. It was personal, and I wanted to keep it that way. But I knew what keeping secrets could do: how poorly that could end. I eventually decided that I would keep it to myself unless he showed up again. Then I would tell TS. His guidance had always proved advantageous, and he knew things that I did not. He would know what to make of Jacob’s appearance, even if I didn’t.

  TS was always good like that.

  With that matter settled for the moment, I tried to get some sleep. My job was to figure out who was behind the kidnappings and how to save the girls. I needed to have my wits about me to do that. My first night there hadn’t been especially fruitful, and I hoped that the next day would prove better. Or the day after. Or the day after that. So many people were counting on me.

  Too many lives were in my hands for me to fail.

  Chapter Eleven

  I’d been there for a week and learned next to nothing of importance. My already thin patience was running out by the minute.

  Though I’d had zero experience with how strip clubs operated, I found that the boys seemed to have a rather impressive knowledge base amongst them. Cy proved to be the most infor
mative of all. When I described what went on nightly—the girls came out, danced, worked the floor, then went back to private rooms—he frowned and said that sounded pretty ordinary. Not exactly what any of us had hoped for. He started to grill me after that, hoping to find some irregularities that maybe I hadn’t divulged.

  By the time he finished, we were no closer to answers.

  The PC boys did their best to hide their disappointment, but it was plain to me nonetheless.

  “Wait!” I shouted, remembering something that I hadn’t mentioned. “Is it normal for there to be different girls every night?”

  Cy’s brow furrowed.

  “Not really. I mean, you’re not going to have the exact same staff all the time, so I don’t think that’s necessarily weird—”

  “No!” I interrupted. “That’s not what I mean. I mean that I haven’t seen any of the girls more than once this week. Like they work one day and don’t return.”

  Cy’s eyes shot up to Ferris and Muses, who were standing beside one another, their dark expressions matching his own.

  “No. That’s not normal at all.”

  “I’ve been trying to keep track of the missing girls in my head—making sure that I can account for them all. That’s when I noticed that once I’d checked them off my list, so to speak, I didn’t see them again.”

  “You think they’ve been harmed?” TS asked, his tone businesslike.

  “I have no idea. I’m grasping at straws here, because nothing else about the place seems that off, according to what I see and what Cy just said.”

  “Tomorrow will be the first day of your second week. Perhaps that will be the most telling.”

  I realized the meaning behind his words.

  “You mean if the pattern repeats itself.” He nodded. “But what could it mean?”

  “It would mean they haven’t been removed or harmed, for one, which is helpful. How many of the missing have you not accounted for?”