Page 58 of H E R
Great, what the fuck else can happen?
He clicks a few keys, and an image pops up. It's Niki's ranch. He zooms in and the image grows hazy. It’s of three women riding horses through a pasture. Jason clicks a few more times, and the picture clears up.
“Thought you should know that your Justice is harboring two very prestigious and sought out fugitives.”
Why the fuck is my little fox hiding the two women? It has to be more than Niki just trying to get back at the mayor by keeping him away from what he currently wants most. For some reason, which I know is definitely not agoodone, his daughters ran off and want nothing to do with him. For weeks they were rumored to have lived in the streets posing as street workers. Why would they want that life instead of their supposed prime upbringing?
What does Niki know?
Carlton is a conniving political mastermind with hidden agendas. I know he’s involved with Vork and his crew. Jason and I were able to look over the surveillance of one of his warehouses before it was deleted. Carlton made a rare appearance and personally handed a case to Vork before they shook hands. We’re so close.
The scum chose an enclosed section on the second level, and Jason somehow already infiltrated his way into their numbers. He rolls away after almost an hour of being in their company and heads toward a table on the opposite side of the second floor that lowers into the first. Dominica is there, along with two others from the file I shared with him.
It’s funny how all these idiots think a simple mask over a part of their face will suffice in keeping their identities secret.
I keep my eyes away from their area and watch cautiously through my peripheral. The music tonight is dark, violent, but still emotional and captivating. The red and white strobe lights move slowly over the furniture and it gives the appearance that we’re all barely here. Ghosts in the otherwise black existence.
The lights break suddenly, a stark semblance of tar dripping over the walls, and the white chandelier in the center illuminates the club in soft red lights.
Niki steps out of the cage she was dancing in and hops onto the bar. She’s ignoring my presence, but I know she’s finally made the connection that it’s me.
Her skin is covered in a sheen of sweat, making her appear wet and sultry. The desire to run my tongue over her skin and taste her, to push her tossled hair back and stare into her expressive walnut-colored eyes is holding me fucking hostage. I can’t look away from her; the need to wrap her with my body is fiercer than ever. I grip the armrest of my chair to stop myself from walking over to her.
I want her to tell me everything I’ve failed to gather and understand about her. I need her lies to be mine. I want to unveil the secrets she keeps from everyone else and be the safe she needs to hold them.
After knocking back a shot of what I’m sure is tequila, she saunters to the backroom.
Jasmin is busy patrolling each floor, giving orders to every single bartender, and she stops in front of three security guards next and points to two sections, one being Carlton’s. Her face is tight, and a guarded frustration ripples through her tall frame.
I request a drink refill from the server nearest me and when she returns, she hands me a bottle of Jameson, a rare vintage liquor worth over five-hundred fucking dollars.
“From our guest dressed in red,” she explains.
I let her pour me a drink from the bottle and she places it on the glass table next to me. I look up and spot Dominica. She’s the only guest wearing a red dress, it matches her copper colored hair. She blows me a kiss and I elevate my glass, thanking her.
She smiles, her cherry red painted lips growing wide, and begins to make her way toward me slowly. The lights make it seem as if she’s moving in slow motion while everything else behind her whizzes past.
“Hello, handsome.” She extends an empty glass to me and I reach down for the bottle she delivered and fill her cup two fingers high. “Do you have a name?”
“The great thing about places such as these is complete anonymity.” I smile casually and hand her the bottle.
“It’s yours, a gift.”
“Normally, when someone makes a gesture as grand as this one, it’s for a reason.” I lower the bottle onto the table and we both take a sip from our glasses. The redhead reaches for my forearm and squeezes gently, then she smooths her hand up and toward my face.
I stay still, removing a mask, whether your own or someone else’s, would breach the contract thatNym-Phois built upon. Movement far behind her pulls my undivided attention to a shadow lurking, piercing me with a forbidding glare. Niki’s mahogany eyes grow large, a threatening glow from across the room, while her entire body tenses.
She’s changed from her two-piece leather ensemble that, for the first time, covered more than most outfits she’s worn, and now has a black lace corset, a ruffle skirt that just barely covers her pussy, complete with garter and black stockings. She stands tall in stiletto heels, a goddess statue killing me with her eyes alone.
She knows it’s me. Her eyes move slowly, tracing everywhere the redhead touches me.
“I do wish I could see your face.” Dominica clicks her tongue and then places her hand on my chest and bites her lower lip before retrieving her hand and dipping her fingers into her left breast. “Perhaps we can make it official and go some place a bit more private.”
She pulls out a blue metal card with a red heart shaped into a QR code and then hands it to me. Niki’s body trembles and her jaw goes rigid, but she flips her hair and moves slowly toward Carlton’s table.
“Perhaps,” I offer, and I put the card away in the inside pocket of my jacket.
The redhead smiles and takes a few backward steps before walking back to her table on the second floor. But I’m glued to Niki’s moves, seductive and languid. She approaches a metal pole directly in front of Carlton’s table and joins the naked woman already dancing against it. She’s incredible, and the men all watch her instead of the nude flesh before them.