The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1) (36 page)

“I’d hope not after all of those damned injections you forced on me,” I muttered. “That’s how society works. You’re an elite. I’m not. Sure, being a Bach student puts me a little higher up on the ladder than a regular fringe worker, but nothing’s secure until I get my degree and the elevation in rank to go with it. I have to play by their rules. You can skirt them, so long as you keep your nose mostly clean. If you annoy them, they’ll just target me because they can’t touch you.”

Rob clacked his teeth together. “Noted.”

He slowed down to the legal limit, and I relaxed in the seat to stare out the window at the night sky. Without any reason to pull him over, we made it to the outskirts of Baltimore before Rob had to detour to avoid the areas still under curfew, which included all of the fringe.

“Only the fringe is still under curfew?” I asked.

“Correct.”

“Same old shit, different day,” I informed him with false cheer. “Welcome to Earth.”

I stayed in the car while Rob and Colby haggled for the gear with one of Kenneth’s hounds. While I should have forced him to learn the ropes the hard way, I gave him one of the temporary pass phrases to cut through the bullshit, fearing I’d be waiting all night for him to figure out how to get the supplies we needed to scale down a skyscraper if we ran into trouble during the heist.

Getting into the building would be the easy part. Once we were in, we’d have a thirty minute window, the maximum allowed time before the security guards would check on delivery people who had entered the building.

Thirty minutes wasn’t a whole lot of time to tear apart an apartment, especially if it was still furnished. If the place had been claimed after Terry Moore’s death, I was screwed. I wondered how many empty apartments and homes there were, ripe for the picking, all because of the Dawn of Dae.

The real trick would be convincing the security guard we were legitimate. As long as Rob kept his mouth shut—and I hid Colby in one of the bags—we’d probably be okay. I could always have Rob pose as a lawyer.

He had the sleazy quality of one, and most of the security guards of the elite residences were middle caste; only a fool would challenge an elite lawyer. Satisfied with how to use Rob, I considered the next problem: finding the drugs without alerting the neighbors to our theft.

As long as the door didn’t use a retinal or print access system, I’d be able to short circuit the door easily enough; the all-access card Rob was acquiring for me would cost him a fortune, but I’d put it to good use before the security teams figured out Kenneth’s latest hacks to their systems.

The problem with the heist I was planning was the simple fact I couldn’t plan very much. With only one realistic way in and out, I had to hope the guise of a late-night delivery, complete with an obnoxious elite lawyer type, would buy me the full thirty minutes before security checked in and learned I wasn’t what I appeared to be.

If it didn’t, we’d have to make a run for the roof, rig the gear, and hope the electromagnetic system checked out. At least falling from the top of a skyscraper beat a three-story drop. I had no hope of survival and it wouldn’t take long to hit the ground.

I stretched out my legs and tried not to think too hard about the risks associated with the job. If I struck out on this hit, I’d have to start from scratch, wait at least a week or two before the fervor died down, and target the next address on Rob’s list.

When the driver’s side door opened, I glanced over. Rob glared at me, his face a deep red. “You sent me into a brothel,” he snarled.

I had completely forgotten the cache doubled as a brothel, and for a long moment, all I could do was blink at him. He had two large duffel bags, which he dropped at his feet.

Torn between the thought of a flustered Rob trying to dodge prostitutes and annoyance at myself for having forgotten the shop doubled as a brothel, I snorted and buckled my seatbelt. Determined to hide my flub, I replied, “And here I thought you’d have yourself a good time. A man as talented as yourself is a hit in there.”

“You set me up.”

I cocked my head to the side, wondering if I’d be able to spot any lipstick on him with his face so flushed. “Did you have a hard time getting the goods?”

At my innuendo, Rob’s mouth dropped open, and I laughed at the way he spluttered.

“Mommy,” Colby muttered, hopping into the car’s tiny backseat. Even my macaroni and cheese looked a bit crimson.

“You’re shy. You’re actually shy. It’s just a brothel, Rob.”

“Just a brothel?” he blurted.

I stared at him, not certain what to make of his behavior. Brothels were almost as common as grocers, and women from all castes worked at them—if they were pretty enough. It was one of the few jobs where caste didn’t matter. Elite men didn’t really care who they slept with, as long as she was pretty and showed them a good time. “You’re embarrassed?”

Pointing at the brick-faced building, he spluttered, “You sent me into a brothel.”

“If you’d like to see more of them, I’ll take you once we’re done with the real work. Really, Rob. It’s just a brothel. You could have taken your time if you really wanted.”

Rob’s eyes widened, and once again, he was rendered speechless for a long moment before choking out, “Miss Daegberht!”

“Did you get the gear?”

Rob moved his seat forward, glared at me, and loaded the bags into the back. “Yes.”

“All of it?”

“Yes.”

“Did Alli or Monica service you?” I somehow managed to keep my expression neutral.

Rob spluttered and shook his head, his face turning a deeper crimson.

“Monica,” I stated, allowing myself to scowl a little. “She’s the grand mistress of the quickie, or so the rumors say.”

Drawing a deep breath, Rob slid into the driver’s seat, closed the door, and said, “You could have warned me.”

“I didn’t know you needed to be warned,” I replied, lifting my chin and turning my head to stare out the window. “Surely you’re man enough to handle a brothel.”

“Not the entire brothel!”

Laughter bubbled out of me, and I doubled over in my effort to contain it. The first giggle emerged as a strangled squeak.

“I didn’t do anything with any of them,” he snapped.

With tears blurring my eyes, I shook my head, wondering what chaos I missed by waiting in the car. A good-looking, well-dressed man showing up at the brothel would have triggered a feeding frenzy among the women, especially Monica.

If I had walked in with him, the news would have reached Kenneth within an hour. My eyes widened, and I twisted around to stare at him. “Give me your jacket,” I demanded.

“What?”

“Your jacket. Don’t just sit there like you’re stupid. Give it to me.” I unbuckled, snapping my fingers at him. “Hurry up. I don’t have all night.”

He shrugged out of it and frowned at me. As soon as he was out of it, I shrugged out of my coat and holster, grabbed his jacket, and darted out of the car. “I’ll be right back.”

Revenge was a dish best served hot and sexy, and the instant Kenneth thought I was sleeping with Rob, there’d be a fight worth watching, and interesting things happened when elite duked it out.

I ran into the brothel in search of Monica and Alli wearing Rob’s jacket.

My plan backfired about twenty seconds after I stepped into the brothel. Monica caught sight of me, and she threw herself at me, catching me in a hug. I froze, and because I was so stunned she had jumped at me, I didn’t have time to stop her before she smeared kisses and lipstick all over my cheek.

It hurt like hell. Without my gloves on, I had to fend her off with my bare hands, which joined my face in itching and burning. “Christ, Monica. Off!”

Since when had Kenneth’s other bitch liked me enough to want to hug me, let alone kiss me?

“Alexa!” the entirely nude woman wailed, clinging to my arm. “We thought you were dead.”

She was as pretty as I remembered, and judging by the sheen of sweat and oil on her skin, she had just finished with a client. No wonder Rob had been flustered; Monica fresh off a man was enough to make most women question their sexuality, me included.

At the rate my face was throbbing, I probably would die if I didn’t get away from her. Determined not to shriek, scream, or otherwise humiliate myself, I stammered, “Sorry. I got roughed up.”

“How bad? You’ve been missing for
weeks
.”

“Bad enough,” I confessed. While my throat wasn’t swelling closed as it had when Arthur had touched me, I wheezed enough to worry me—and quell any thoughts of testing my luck with the woman. I peeled her off and stepped out of her reach. “I’m fine. Well, mostly.” Lifting my left hand, I showed her the bandage. “It’ll heal soon enough.”

Monica pursued me and ducked her head close to mine to whisper, “That jacket. It belongs to that hunk who was just in here. You’re the one who gave him the passphrase?”

“Sure did,” I replied, careful to keep my voice low.

“Damn, woman. He’s a fine one, and he’s loaded to boot. If you get tired of him, bring him around. Better yet, bring him and yourself around sometime. We’ll have fun—lots of fun.”

Fun was one way to put it; if Monica found out just how much fun I had enjoyed with Rob, she’d hunt him until her dying breath, determined to get a ride out of him herself. “I have to work, so give me the brief,” I hissed.

“Boss is madder than hell. First, you get yourself killed, only for us to find out you’ve been put under watch because of that mess at the college. Be careful; he’s convinced you’ll lead the uppers right to his operations.”

“Shit. I’ll be careful,” I promised. “I’m off to do the sniffing he wanted, so he’ll be hearing from me soon enough.”

“Take care of yourself,” Monica said, giving my ass a slap before she spun and headed through the lobby of the brothel to hunt for another client. “Come around with that hunk, you hear?”

I stared after Monica and had a very, very bad feeling. Spinning around, I headed back to the car, muttering curses. Rob had his arms crossed over his chest and glared at me as I folded the seat and grabbed for the duffel bags.

“Mommy!” Colby climbed on top of the bag and, with a wet squish, smacked into my face where Monica had kissed me.

“Gah, Colby!” I tried to fend off my macaroni and cheese. At the rate people—and dae—were kissing me, I was going to be a touch-needy nutcase by the end of the week.

Because of Monica’s enthusiasm, I couldn’t even tell if Colby had added to my misery. Shaking my head, I unzipped the bag. It contained a harness rig. I returned to the front seat, buckled in, and snapped, “Find a dark parking lot or something. I need to check the gear over.”

I thought Rob was going to argue, but he started the engine and pulled away from the brothel. He didn’t go very far before parking in a dark alley. He killed the engine and twisted around to glare at me, turning on the overhead light with a jab of his finger.

“What the hell is going—” Rob’s eyes widened as he got a good look at my face. “Fuck. What happened?”

Without answering him, I twisted around and grabbed for the harness, yanking it between the seats along with the electromagnet anchors. Setting the mess of cables, straps, and discs on my lap, I went to work checking over them for any signs of sabotage. I was tempted to dismantle the whole thing.

There was no way Monica or Alli had enough time to rig the system to fail, was there? Rob hadn’t been in there very long, and unless one of the girls had caught a glimpse of me in the dark car, there was no way they knew I was associated with Rob, was there?

In any case, Monica had acted weird; she had never seemed to like me
that
much. Was her behavior as much of a warning as her report on Kenneth’s mood?

The thought of Kenneth getting rid of me to save his ass terrified me; he’d do it without hesitation. I knew it, and if he had been muttering about it, Monica knew it, too. If Monica knew it,
all
of Kenneth’s hounds knew it.

All that waited for a rejected hound was death, and if the past was any indication, it’d be a messy, brutal one.

“Miss Daegberht?”

“Got kissed by a girl. Didn’t like it,” I reported, situating the rig on my lap so I could do a test run of the system. It took less than ten minutes, and when I couldn’t find any problems, I tossed it in the back and grabbed the second bag, repeating the process.