Page 3 of A Taste Of Darkness

Well, and I had no phone, so how was I supposed to call anyone?

“I’m his fiancée, you know.” I gestured toward my outfit. It was all pink, which was just my luck because, for very odd reasons, it was the same shade as the LEDs. At least it looked like it. “Milo lights up the building in my favorite color every single night because it reminds him of me.”

“Unlikely,” he said.

I tsked. “Call him.”

The guy finally looked at me. His eyes said I was crazy, and perhaps I was… but at this point, my sister’s relationship to Milo Marucci might’ve been the only way I was going to get inside to find Arlo. “If I call him for something as stupid and silly as your little lie, we’ll both end up dead. Do you want that?”

Wow, he really thought I was that stupid. “Go ahead. He wouldn’t kill me.”

“Just get lost already, Pinkie Pie.”

I wanted to roll my eyes so badly. “Fine.” My arms crossed over my chest. “But if I were you, I’d say goodbye to your family. I can guarantee you’ll be dead as soon as Milo finds out that I really needed him to drive me to the hospital and you refused to let me inside just because I don’t have my keycard. I’m pregnant, you know? And thanks to the whole getting robbed thing, I was under a whole lot of stress, and I have this strange pinch in my?—"

He groaned, then pulled out his phone, though a bit hesitantly. “Fine. I’ll call.”

I wasn’t pregnant. In fact, I wasn’t even sexually active, so that was the worst lie I had ever told, but good enough for someone who didn’t know me at all.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Should’ve been your first question. I’m Sterlie Adams.”

His face paled, but I didn’t know why. “Of course.”

He never called. The guy just nodded at the other security guy, then unlocked the door for me.

2

SOOTHING MELODY

Milo Marucci

I just got to Tartarus an hour ago, and I was already ready to go back home. I loved this club like it was my own child, but handling the entertainment was aggravating.

Now that Flora—my best friend and most long-lasting performer—no longer worked here, I was screwed. Every day, I had to sit down and make a million calls and hire someone new to work here.

I got it. Tartarus was scary for everyone who seriously didn’t belong here. The only people present were criminals—and their plus ones, but even those were usually criminals. Most of them never even brought a plus one because it was frowned upon. It made sense. If those plus ones were elite enough, they would’ve gotten a membership offer a long time ago.

How Flora worked here for a whole year, I didn’t know. Though I guess it was mostly because of Kai. He’d been scaring off most of the people, even before he and Flora were engaged. I always wondered why because as far as I was concerned, he couldn’t stand her. Then suddenly they were engaged and got married.

Such a shame.

Sometimes I wished I opened a simple nightclub, but that would’ve been too unsafe for me.

The moment I ended the phone call with the band who’d agreed to perform tomorrow night, another call was incoming. At first, I thought it was one of the dancers who’d rejected me a call ago, but it was just my security from downstairs.

They couldn’t even handle stupid people who wanted to get inside the club.

Annoyed, I picked up the phone. “What?!”

“Sir, your, uh… fiancée is on her way up to you. I just thought I’d let you know.”

My what?

Whoever that guy just let inside, they had no business being here, clearly. If I truly had a fiancée, why in the ever-loving God wouldn’t she have a keycard to enter the building?

As much as I wanted to fire Cleve for his stupidity, I had no one else to take over for him tonight, so I’d wait until tomorrow.