Demigod Down (27 page)

Sitting out in the beat up white van doing a
piss poor job at surveillance, I chewed on my finger nail in the
passenger seat. A strip club was not a place I could go sit and
drink, although that sounded heavenly, while waiting for clues to
drop into my lap.

Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face, how
did I get in there, into the back and private rooms?

Like a freight train, it hit me, jolting me
upright and causing Darren to bump his head in the tight spot
between the listening devices and hidden cameras in the back.

“I’m getting a job,” I said proudly.

“Uh, I think you already have one,” Darren
commented, adjusting his seat.

“No, I am getting a job in there at that
nasty strip club.” I informed him, tapping the aging glass of the
passenger door.

With a raised eyebrow, Darren shrugged his
mind working over the merit of the idea. “We do need an inside
person.”

“We do,” I agreed.

“How do you plan on getting hired?” he asked,
turning back to the screens.

I smiled, “I need to go shopping.”

It didn’t take long to find what I needed,
although I hated to put the clothing on, I needed to portray myself
as a sex symbol and not the death omen I preferred and not to
mention the bad memories I’d prefer to keep burring in death.

Pulling my mind back to the present, I
strutted into the club, chomping on my gum and swaying my hips in
the ridiculous jean shorts I had found along with the gold glitter
tank top.

The waitress at the bar gave me a once over,
“You looking for trouble, kid?” she asked me cleaning a glass.

“Actually,” I answered leaning heavily
against the bar so my ample bosom pushed up “I was hoping for a
job.”

She gave me another once over with a knowing
smirk before jutting her chin in the direction of the office.

“Thanks,” I replied too perky. This job may
be the fucking death of me.

The man in charge was an idiot, an overgrown
and overpaid, small dick and compensating idiot. But I got the job.
Woohoo.

I started immediately.

I wasn’t a stranger to dancing on a pole,
half-dressed and pretending the praise of the drunken men throwing
dollar bills at me was welcome. It took the majority of my
considerable self-control not to kill them on sight. If I had
thought the Boss, who had requested I call him that, had any
additional information on where the missing human beings, vamps and
shifters were being taken I would have much preferred to cut the
truth out of his hide, but I doubted he had the intelligence to be
a major player in such a well-organized ring.

I finished my first shift and learned nothing
as I headed back to the hotel. I stood in the shower, letting the
miserable day wash away from my body.

That’s when I heard Logan and Darren
fighting.

“What I don’t understand is why you insist on
following me around, we are no longer children,” Logan yelled at
Darren in the room next to mine.

I stilled washing my hair and listened.

“Because you almost got yourself killed you
idiot!” Darren screamed back. “Do you actually think I enjoy
following you around having to monitor your ability to make
decisions?”

“I don’t need anyone to monitor me!” Logan
bellowed back. “You chose her over your own family!”

“Your poor judgment has caused lunatics to
have high ranking positions in our ranks, not to mention the
support of peaceful clans going to war!” Darren informed him. “The
only reason you haven’t been challenged is because of Olivia.”

I didn’t want to get brought into their
fight, leaning my head against the tile shower stall.

“You can thank Kass for that!” Darren
screamed at him, followed by the slamming door.

Lovely, now we both were involved. I heaved a
sigh. It was never my intent to prevent the natural order of the
shifters from taking place, but it appeared now I was involved and
it wasn’t a situation I was enjoying.

Whatever, not my monkeys not my circus,
actually I think they were mine now. Fuck.

I’m going to spare the details of the men who
harassed me, groped me, fondled me, and treated me like a piece of
meat solely put on the earth to give them pleasure.

My efforts were not in vain though, since I
was the best dancer the Boss had, I was invited to the private
party in his plush office and there ladies and gentleman was pay
dirt. It was a brief glimpse, but I found their information hub of
shiny digital recordings, camera data, and row after row of highly
protected files.

Now I just needed a way to get in there.

Hector has assigned us a new police officer,
Reynolds I think his name was, I wasn’t paying much attention.
Although he had snagged a blue print of the Last Lap that we were
now pouring over in Logan’s hotel room.

“The best way has to be the hidden door in
the private client room,” Reynolds stated, tapping the map in front
of us.

“Why can’t we just storm the place again?” I
asked, needing a release after bottling up so much anger and
self-resentment.

“Innocent bystanders, for one. For second,
Tommy found a failsafe that will delete the information we are
after with a touch of a button,” Darren reminded me.

I sighed, resting my chin in my hand,
“Right,” I muttered.

“The good news is we have an in,” Darren said
casting a look at Logan who shifted uncomfortably.

“Do tell,” I prompted.

“I got spotted outside the Last Lap,” Logan
began.

“Multiple times,” Darren said, trying not to
laugh.

“Right, well ‘the Boss’ thought I was after
something else,” he said, clearing his throat, “and asked for a
meet, which I agreed to,” He looked severely uncomfortable.

I laughed, “I never dreamed your crappy
engagement would have benefits.”

He had the decency not to say anything as he
blushed deeply.

The plan was simple, Boss would use me as a
distraction and a temptation for Logan. Reynolds would set up a
distraction to get Boss out of the room so that Logan and I could
get through the secret tunnel to the master computer room and find
out where the new super-secret location of the big bad evil guy and
his liar was.

“I hate this plan.,” I groaned. “I am so
fucking tired of pretending to be dumb and easy.”

Darren patted my back, “If this goes as
planned you won’t have to go back there.”

“Oh I am going back alright, to put a bullet
through the Boss’s head,” I said sarcastically.

Reynolds shifted uncertainly, watching
Darren’s shrug and Logan nonchalance. Humans.

“Maybe I should take him into custody,”
Reynolds stated.

“Sure, but you better keep him there,” I
answered, standing before heading to my room to change.

We reconvened later that night at the
obnoxious white van where yet again Logan and I debated the merit
of the plan, only for seriously different reasons.

“Really Logan all you have to do is pretend
to be interested, it should be perfectly natural for you to want to
push me off your lap,” I scolded, annoyed by his behavior and the
fact that I was working with him again.

“You just can’t let the -” Darren paused,
clearly not trying to insult me, but the only words Logan used
about me were insults.

With my eyes not leaving Logan’s, I finished
his sentence, “You cannot allow your real hatred and disgust to
show through at having to work with a demon.” As I darted out of
the undercover van, my heart fractured.

No matter how hard I tried, how many people I
saved, I was only just a suspected demon in a pool of
semi-believers.

Hiking my backpack up higher on my tense
shoulder I let my hips roll in my jean shorts wondering if Darren
thought the same of me. His pause had me wanting to believe he
didn’t, plus he was marrying Kass. Steeling myself, I remembered it
didn’t fucking matter what they thought of me as long as he was
good to Kass, Hannah, and the new baby.

Pressing those unneeded emotions down deep, I
flung open the faded blue door with paint chipping off on my hand
as a wave of musty air laced with sweat, perfume, the tang of
attraction, and bitter disappointment blasted me out of my funk
reminding me exactly why I was here.

“Hey Sassy,” Carmen greeted me, her sparkling
blue eye makeup laid on thick.

“Hi Carmen,” I said, setting my backpack in
my seat pulling out my makeup case. “How’s the crowd look?” I
asked, making small talk.

She sighed, shrugging, “The usual.”

I cringed. I hated the usual crowd of
leering, dirty men who the security ignored when they copped a
feel.

“Don’t worry though I think Boss has
something special lined up for you,” Carmen said, trying to infuse
it with cheer.

“Really?” I asked, attempting to mirror her
attempt at a good mood.

“Yep, some big guy he needs to impress,”
Carmen said, touching up her lipstick before checking her watch.
“I’m on. Good luck,” She wished me sincerely, squeezing my shoulder
as she walked by.

I sighed, my shoulders drooping as I surveyed
my unappealing reflection, self-loathing seeping out my pores.
Closing my eyes, I pulled a long breath reminding myself why I was
here, this was our best lead at finding the thing responsible for
the vampire, shifter, and human killings.

I really wished Blake here.

Tony the bouncer appeared behind me a stoic
figure for the lusty environment. “Boss needs you in twenty,” He
told me before walking away again.

Twenty minutes to prepare to seduce Logan,
wonderful.

Twenty-five minutes later I was encased in
thick cigar smoke from the Boss who was trying unsuccessfully to
impress Logan.

I had one job to do, just one.

Pressing back through the thick privacy
curtain I delivered Logan’s drink bending at the waist to give him
an easy look down my cheetah pushup bra. Here’s to hoping he took
the hint. Stifling an annoyed grimace, I smiled before taking up
residence on the private pole.

If I could just lose myself in the music I
would have a better chance of “pretending” to seduce the asshole.
What had I ever done to him to make him despise me so? I guess I
had forced his brother into quitting.

Flipping my hair behind me, as I swung on the
pole, I found Logan’s eyes riveted to me. Great. He was doing a
better job at acting than I was. I have to get my shit
together.

The rhythm of the latest club hit pounded in
my veins and I sent my entire focus there until I no longer worried
about Logan or the obnoxious, weasel called Boss.

My frustration ran high being forced back to
a profession I hated, the few and limited resources I had here,
along with not being able to beat my way to the heart of the
problem. This undercover assignment was literally was my last lead,
until the bastard struck again leaving a bloody and brutal trail of
torture and destruction in his wake. It turned my skin knowing he
or she was out there now beginning anew, again.

Logan’s fingers grazed my arm and I hadn’t
realized he was close as I blinked myself back into reality. The
call had come in and the Boss looked livid, turning to us.

“I have some important business I must attend
do, but please enjoy the dance and whatever else you desire,” he
said quickly heading for the exit and the look he leveled at me was
the unspoken command to keep Logan here, no matter what. Sick
bastard.

The heavy curtain was drawn tightly before I
stepped down to the floor, pulling Logan to the back wall. “This is
where the trap door was, can you hear anything?” I asked, pressing
my own ear against it.

Logan was stiff at my side, eyes running over
my outfit, checking my control that I wasn’t leaking anything more
than annoyance. “What?” I hissed at him, moving aside the thick
fabric.

“You look amazing,” he whispered close to my
ear.

“Get it together Logan, or I am going to hurt
you and tell Lorraine,” I threatened.

At the mere mention of his fiancé’s name,
Logan became the mask of professional detachment.

Good. I didn’t need that headache to deal
with.

Pressing himself closer to the wall, he
pressed lightly with the pads of his fingers until something made
him smile and he leaned back, pulling open a narrow door.

“Ladies first,” he insisted, smiling.

“Who are you? And why are you in a good
mood?” I asked, hustling in before him.

I felt his shrug trapped in the darkness as
he pulled the door closed. The space was tight although we didn’t
have to crouch which was nice.

Shit.

“Can you see anything?” I asked in a hushed
whisper.

His breath on my neck made me jump before he
whispered, “Yes, can you?”

“No,” I growled, “Go first,” I said sliding
my body against his in the tight hallway. Something hard brushed
against my naked thigh and I refused to think more on it.

Fisting my hand in his jacket, I followed
close behind him. I hoped Reynolds’ distraction would buy us enough
time.

The darkened hallway abruptly stopped as I
slammed into Logan’s back.

“Ouch,” I grumbled. “What’s the hold up?”

“Ladder,” he growled lowly before climbing
up.

I looked down at my stupidly high heels
before deciding to ditch them in favor of speed and stealth,
following Logan up, what felt like a metal ladder. He was faster
than me and able to see in the pitch black. Reaching for the next
rung, I ran into his pant leg instead.

“Wait,” he rumbled.

Hooking my arm through a rung I looked up
around his bulky frame to see the broken outline of a door. I’d let
Logan give the orders, for now, his hearing was better than my
own.

I huffed at that fact and the fact he had
fangs, so jealous.