Page 62 of Hide From Me

“What is wrong with them?”

Cas pulled me into his side.

“Rich little girls chasing the dark side. Their money spends just as good as anyone else’s.”

“Hey, I like this look a lot better,” said Zeid from my other side.

“Where did you come from?”

He shrugged.

“If you weren’t mooning over this fucker, you’d have seen me by the bookies over there.”

I followed his finger to where it pointed. There was a cage off to the side, not the one like in the center, but one that clearly said fuck off or die while they counted what looked like a lot of cash.

“How did we do?” Cas asked.

Zeiden held up fingers that might have been twenty dollars as he flashed two sets of ten, twice, or twenty thousand or million or whatever.

“Vipers and Ravens got their cuts already. Bookies are getting theirs now, cops will get theirs shortly. I got ours here.”

He lifted another smaller duffel. That looked like a lot more than just a few thousand.

“Good. Make sure you spread the wealth to our associates as well.”

I watched them share a look as we walked towards where a crew was washing down the ring. The smell of bleach burned my nostrils.

“Alright, catch you two later. X and I will tie up everything here. Get our little vixen out of here.”

My phone buzzed from the large pocket in the hoodie that I’d stashed it in. I hadn’t even paid any attention to the state of it, but I sighed in relief as I pulled it out. It was still working. A text came through.

Maddie: Let us know when your nothing is done. After party. I’ll drop you the location.

Me: Ha. Funny. Thanks.

Short and to the point because a second later, Cas grabbed my phone from my hand.

“No.”

I looked up at him.

“What do you mean, no?”

He shook his head and tucked my phone into the pocket of his sweats.

“You will not be going to that afterparty.”

Oh good, now I could remember why I was irritated.

I pulled out of his grip.

“Hey, Xander? Take me to the after party?”

I wasn’t sure where he was exactly at this point, but I didn’t care. He had been distracting some stupid groupies a second ago.

Cas reached out for me, but I sidestepped and nearly fell over from the damn heels.

Xander’s strong hands caught me.