-1-
The next time I open my eyes I’m bleary eyed and completely hungover.
Alex is naked and curled into my chest. He’s awake and staring at me all wide-eyed. I can tell he’s been thinking.
We’re still in Rias’s office.
We're on the floor and the office is a mess. Everything is turned over and there are broken liquor bottle everywhere.
I sit up and try to recall last night but I can’t.
Water is running and I turn to see Minnow leaning into the mirror of the office's attached bathroom filling in her eyebrows. She looks as put together as usual in a new dark blue dress and matching heels.
I sit up and my bladder is on fucking fire. Alex is clearly sober and I’m about to ask him about last night when Minnow clicks out of the bathroom and starts rifling through her purse on the couch.
I bolt into the bathroom, Alex follows behind me and shuts the door behind us.
As soon as I’m done pissing I drop to my knees and puke—something I hadn’t done in years. I never got this wasted. When I’m done Alex pulls me into the shower with him. I let the warm water cascade over my head and it feels like a wake up call even though the scent of all of the expensive soap in the bathroom reminds me of Rayne.
“Did she fuck you ?,” I ask, stepping back so he can get under the water spray.
He shakes his head. “You didn’t even fuck me.”
“You're mad ?,”
“No, I’m scared,” he whispers. “Of what she’s going to do to you because of this.”
“Fuck. Why didn’t you stop me?”
“I thought you wanted it,” he says. “….you two had a drinking contest and cleaned out that cabinet. You…you told her everything about how we were looking for another suspect….I don’t know if she remembers--”
“Shit.”
We try to stay in the shower as long as possible hoping Minnow would leave but when I open the bathroom door she’s propped herself on the very edge of the desk. I finally get a good look at the room and I hope to hell they never put a blacklight on it.
“Minnow.You can’t tell anyone about this.”
She smirks, her dark pink lips making a devilish smile that had been all over my body last night.
“Yeah, because so many people want to hear about how I made out with your slutty boyfriend while your fingerbanged us poorly.”
I suddenly recall an image from last night and atleast take pride in the fact that she’s lying. Because nothing about it went poorly.
“Don’t call him slutty--”
“It’s not an insult.”
She swipes around on her syndicate. “Here’s what going to happen. You two are going to clean up this office. Then I’m going to message Rias and tell him he needs an office makeover and I’ll having have this place stripped to the bones; all the furniture replaced, the floors redone and the walls painted--”
“I don’t give a fuck about this office --”
“Hush. Now, I’m going to walk out of this side door,” Minnow continues. “Go to the loft’s front door and pretend like I spent last night downstairs babysitting Ivy’s fucking cats like I was supposed to be. And we never speak of this.”
So, she was ashamed too. I could work with that. She had more respect to lose than I did.
“I don’t know, Minnow,” I counter. “ You can’t tell us what we can and can’t talk about. What if I accidentally let it slip ? I have snapshots. What if my system randomly decides to broadcast a picture to all the bodyguards who hate you ?”
She purses her lips.
“Right,” she says. “Well…I guess I should have also mentioned I was just about to send an order to temporarily let Isla Haley out of the lockdown.”
“Really ?,” Alex says, showing too much enthusiasm for this negotiation.
“Is my slutty boyfriend that good at eating pussy ?”
“That’s not why I’m doing it. The inconsistencies you drunkingly slobbered to me about last night are…interesting. So I’ll give you some resources and you either bring me another suspect in two weeks or Isla goes back in.”
***
“I don’t know anything. I told Jean when he asked me,” Stasia Milton informs me, walking into my interrogation room looking unimpressed and unintimidated.
“Sit down,” I order and she does. But she looks pissed about it.
I’d heard the cartel had interrogation rooms across the city but this was my first time using one. It was a small, soundproof windowless room tucked away in the Inner Sprawl. Minnow had given me the address and key code for two weeks so I could interview everyone I thought could have information about Linz's murder.
Stasia Milton was one of the older escorts at Virtue, she was in her early 40’s and had a blond iciness about her that was a little disarming.
“Jean’s bodyguard said you were one of the last escorts to see Linz alive. Your room is right next to hers and your client that night ordered the steak--”
“Everyone orders the steak.” she shoots back. “You know Jean does drugs with his bodyguard sometimes ? You can’t trust him. Why aren’t you questioning the client who found her body?”
“I will,” I tell her. “But we both know Jean’s rules about escorts talking to clients they aren’t assigned to. You are the only one Linz would have voluntarily let in her room that night.”
Stasia scoffs. “No. She wouldn’t have.”
“Because of the fight you had with her ? What was it about ?”
“Ask Mr. Dory--"
“He doesn’t remember.”
Stasia shrugs.
“I honestly don’t even remember,” she says. “It could have been anything. It’s just—you know me. I’ve been with Mr. Dory since the beginning, you know ? He only wanted the best back then and he wasn’t helping anyone. I had to learn everything on my own and earn my client list and my space in the club. I get Mr. Dory wants younger blood but that Linz…I’m sorry she died, but the only reason she was even hired is because she is friends with Charlotte.”
“Did that piss you off ?”
“Not at first,” Stasia admits, her arms unfolding. “I mean nepotism happens but Linz she…she was scatterbrained. The girl was always flaking on clients. She used to send her clients over to me when she had to leave at the last minute and I hated that. She always had somewhere else to be.”
“Where was she going ? Who went with her?”
“I don’t know…,” she trails off and leans across the table. “Can I ask a question ?”
“What ?”
“Why do you think someone was even targeting her? I just assumed it was random violence,” she says. “I mean a few years ago Veronica was murdered by that Mjollner asshole as revenge…how do we know it wasn’t them again ?,”
“Because Mjollner leave a calling card. They painted a star and scythe on the wall with Veronica’s blood.”
Stasia closes her eyes like she was trying to unhear what I’d just said. Jean had left that part out when telling staff about the murder.
I let Stasia go and make visits to the last few people on the client list. Even though it was against the rule for clients to record Virtue sessions most of the clients did it anyway. Which gave everyone around Linz’s room that night an alibi—including the person who found her.
When I leave the last client’s office I still have a list of other enforcer jobs I’m behind on. I’m about to go deliver a warning to a croupier on the Strip who’d been caught shorting the drugs when Alan Gray calls me.
“What.”
“I think I have something on Linz,” Alan says. “Any luck on those eyes I asked for?”
“What the hell are you talking about ?”
“I said I’d look at Linz’s cause of death and you said you’d get me--”
“Right. Yeah, I’m on it.”
Looks like the croupier I was about to visit was going to have to get an eyepatch.
I didn’t have hide our investigation from Minnow anymore, but I was a man of my word. Even with Alan fucking Gray.
“Linz wasn’t poisoned,” Alan says.
“Okay ?”
“I thought maybe her drink has been spiked so I checked and nothing. I ran like a hundred tests.”
“So, you’re telling me what it wasn’t ? I swear, you are so fucking useless--”
“I’m not a medical examiner. Just trying to help remove variables--”
I hang up on him.
The croupier is keeping his eye this time.
***
-2-
Haley
“I like you a lot,” Gaige’s mystery client, the handsome man in his 70s, purrs. He kisses the back of Haley’s neck. “You can say it. What’s my name ? I know you know it.”
Haley didn’t.
This was his third time with the client Gaige had found for him but he’d never learned the man’s name. He couldn’t name any of his clients who weren’t his regulars.
Coming up with nothing Haley shakes his head at the client and the client laughs, clearly satisfied with himself as he zips himself back into his pants.
Haley turns his head to his right where Gaige was studying Maverick, his new apprentice, as he untied the knots Gaige used to bind Haley’s wrist above his head during the session. Maverick was young and too handsome for his own good, with a full head of perfectly styled thick dark blue hair that contrasted with his prominent cut black brows and pale skin.
“I’m up for another encore soon,” Gaige calls to the departing client amiably.
The client smirks back at him.
“Actually, I have a busy next few weeks. I’ll schedule a private visit with just Alex,” the client says and Haley freezes. “We’ll work out details later.”
As soon as the door closes behind the client Haley spins on Gaige, his wrists still bound. “Why does he know my first name ?”
“How the fuck should I know how he knows?” Gaige spits. “You’re the one going by your legal name.”
“My last name--”
“Still a real name.”
It had taken Haley a year to realize all of the escorts used fake names but no one had bothered to tell him that when he started. Thankfully, with his grandmother dead, there wasn’t anyone left who he would be ashamed of finding out what he did.
“I can’t get this fucking knot!” Maverick shouts jerking on Haley’s wrist in an attempt untie Gaige's intricate knot work. “He fucked it up--”
“No. You fucked it up.” Gaige snaps at his apprentice, pulling the ribbon off with the slight tug on the knot in the center.
Gaige boxes Haley into the wall and settles his nose on his cheek.
“That was a good idea,” Gaige whisper. “Banging against the wall. It was hot.”
Haley wasn’t used to compliments for anything other than his body and he wanted to take it in but he couldn’t. Not without admitting to Gaige the idea had come to him from what he’d seen happen between Minnow and Luce and how he’d replayed it in his head almost nightly—sometimes substituting himself for Minnow.
He hadn’t heard from Luce since that morning they’d woken up in Rias office. Luce was working the case harder than Haley would have expected. And as much as he believed Luce loved him, he knew Luce’s determination was because he wanted to prove that Minnow and Rias had made a mistake in accusing Isla.
“Who is that client ? How does he know me ?,” Haley repeats searching the room to find his clothes.
“Isn’t he that cult dude--” Maverick starts but stops when Gaige makes sharp eye contact with him.
Gaige backhands his apprentice before slamming his head into the wall. Haley flinches and Maverick falls to his knees with his head in his hands.
“Who gave you permission to fucking talk ?," Gaige snaps. "The only thing I want your tongue doing is licking my boot clean. You haven’t earned the right to speak, boy--”
“Cult,” Haley says quietly. “Is that client from the New Revolution Church--”
“Father David Winstead,” Gaige smirks “He was just some horny idiot when I met him but apparently, Desperate Davy is some big shot priest now…travels around to neo-luddites and poor communities giving sermons and taking money.”
The name clicks for Haley. Father Winstead was one of the supposed modern day prophets of the New Revolution his Gran followed. He was responsible for the school Haley had gone to—which explained how he’d learned his name.
It suddenly made sense to him why the man kept finding ways to use the saltire around his neck during the session. Haley mostly wore the necklace because it was the last thing he had that his Gram had given him and had been with him since he was sent into the RLA.
“ You should have told me who he was. I wouldn’t have agreed if I’d known he was a priest --”
“Spare me,” Gaige balks. “Everyone likes a good fuck and everyone has forbidden fantasy or two--”
“New Revolution priests are supposed to be celibate. They don’t tolerate their devout members having recreational sex. They force them do free labor or take their possessions for penance. He’s a hypocrite for being here.”
“Don’t you dare antagonize him,” Gaige says. “Mr. Dory’s collecting some blackmail footage of Father Winstead and when the time's right we’re probably going to be extorting millions from him. You should be glad I’m even cutting you in."
“I don’t want that cut. The money belongs to the people he stole it from,”
“Well, aren’t you a fucking angel. Guess the Sprawl hasn’t broken you yet,” Gaige teases.
Gaige looks down at where his apprentice is at his feet and kicks his foot out, the hard leather boot connecting with Maverick’s face.
“Move that chair into the corner of the lounge,” Gaige orders, pointing to the leather arm chair by his bed. “Quickly.”
Maverick bolts up to obey, dragging the heavy leather chair out of the room and into the Control lounge.
“Why are you so hard on them ?,” Haley asks once Maverick is out of sight.
Gaige was the only dom in Control willing to work with apprentices and so far he’d sent 6 packing.
“There are plenty of clubs in this city they can go to train. If they want to do what Mr. Dory lets me get away with here I’m going to make sure they know what it feels like. Not everyone can do what I do,” he shrugs.
“He might have a concussion--”
“He doesn’t,” Gaige retorts, his tone bored.
“How-"
“I know when I’ve gone too far--,”
“You’ve never made a mistake ?”
Gaige rolls his eyes but seems to think on it. “Who hasn’t caused a few unintended cuts and bruises ? What ? Do you think I accidentally killed someone ?”
It was exactly what Haley was thinking but he wasn’t expecting Gaige to just say it.
“No—I—I--”
"Me and a few of the others are about to have a little party in the lounge," Gaige switches the subject. “Coming ?”
Haley shakes his head. The cliques in Control were worse than the ones Luce told him about at Arkham Academy. “They don’t want me there--”
“Babe,” Gaige says roughly. “Have you looked around ? You’re not the new kid anymore. You haven’t been for a while. You’re one of us.”
“Luce is stopping by--”
“You and that ridiculous hired gun,” Gaige sighs. “Come on. You’re coming.”
Gaige walks Haley out of the room and into the lounge where Maverick had pushed Gaige’s leather armchair into a corner. Furniture from the other rooms was arranged in a semi circle around a large holoscreen.
Haley had seen this set up before. During the occasional birthday or movie night the escorts who’d been with Control since the opening would gather their furniture and create a space for themselves in the lounge. It was understood clients and new escorts were not invited to join.
Gaige is immediately pulled into a conversation with another dominant and Haley is about to sneak away from the gathering and wait for Luce at the bar when he sees Kenneth Maxwell’s face on the holoscreen.
Maxwell is in a well cut suit, moving through a stadium sized crowd with a soft smile, greeting and talking to people with his picture perfect husband trailing him.
“What are you watching ?,” Haley asks.
“Presidential debate,” someone says. “And a drinking game--”
“But you don’t have to drink.” Hana says, pulling up her own armchair. “Stay. Watch with us. That Maxwell’s kind of cute.”
Haley finds a place on the floor but his attention isn’t on the drinking game—it was on Maxwell. He would go months without thinking about Maxwell and then the minute he saw him he became enraptured and would watch hours of Maxwell’s speeches and interviews.
Maxwell had been behind the worst trauma he’d ever experienced but he’d also fallen for the man once upon a time. When he saw Maxwell civilized and charming on the stage all he could see was the man who had fascinated him, not the cruel monster who had worked him 12 hours a day, raped him every night and covered his body in obscene tattoos and brands
“He mentioned the RLA! Drink!,” one of the McQuill sisters shrieks loudly breaking into his thoughts.
The escorts gathered around the table scramble for the liquor bottles and take long drinks.
Most of the escorts knew he had been with the RLA but none of them knew he and Maxwell had a past. Haley sits self consciously, hoping none of them make the connection between his MK brands and Maxwell’s name. But they were all getting too drunk to notice anything
The presidential debate moves on to a question about cryptoeconomy regulations and Haley feels a hand grab his wrist and pull him upward.
He stumbles backward into Luce’s chest, he turns to face him and Luce looks angry. He can distantly hear Gaige making a whip noise and low whistles from the rest of the group.
Before Haley can say anything Luce is guiding him away from the crowd and back to his room.
“Why were you watching that shit ?,” Luce asks coldly when the door is closed.
“I didn’t want to. I just saw it out the corner of my eye and then--”
“Don’t fucking do that to yourself,” Luce says sitting on the bed. “That asshole is going to get what he deserves.”
Luce removes his right shoe and unlatches his prosthetic leg. It thunks on the bed.
“Why--”
“This stupid leg has been hurting me and its fucking with my software, I’m having Alan commission me a new one. Don’t make this into a thing.”
He watches Luce massage the spot where the wires connected the prosthetic to his system. Some of the wires were fried.
“They all like Maxwell. He was good,” Haley admits after a beat. “I think he might win.”
“Like hell,” Luce spits. “Kiss me.”
Haley approaches the bed and touches his lips to Luce’s, the touch is so familiar that he wants to ask for more but this wasn’t the time.
“What did you find out from Stasia ?,” Haley asks.
“Nothing. I interrogated all of her neighbors and their clients. It’s like nobody really knows anything about Linz.”
“Maybe we should talk to the people who know her best.”
“Who ?, Her clients ? Most of those mouthbreathers don’t even know how to spell her name--”
“No,” Haley interrupts. “Her family.”
***
-3-
Linz Sharpe’s childhood house reminded Haley starkly of the home he’d grown up in.
The rows of identical homes felt safe and familiar.
“We just stepped through a motion censor, they know we’re here.” Luce says as they step up to the front door of the Schofield’s household.
“I know. The house is just like the one I grew up in--”
Before he can get the words out the front door of the house opens and a woman who looks like an older version of Linz is at the door.
She was smiling expectantly at them.
“Can I help you gentlemen ?,” she asks.
“Mrs. Sharpe—er, Schofield ?,” Luce says
She nods.
Haley had agreed to do most of the talking since he was least likely to offend the family when they found out their daughter was killed in the city.
“My name is Alex,” Haley says. “This is Luce. We’re friends of Lindsay’s from the city and I’m sorry to tell you--,”
“So, you’re Luce!,” Mrs. Schofield beams up at Luce. “I can’t believe Lindsay didn’t tell me you were coming over. I know you’re private but she can’t help telling me about--”
“She talked to you about me ?,” Luce frowns.
“Nonstop. Oh, and I just loved that wine you sent us from The Magnolia Room, thank you so much,” she adds chipperly. “ Lindsay and I were just chatting this morning--”
“Oh,” Is all Haley can manage and Luce shoots him an equally confused look. “You…talked to Linz…recently ?”
“Yes…well, chats. You know how that silly girl hates calls.”
Haley nods numbly and Luce gives him a look that means keep her talking. A bright ring appears in one of Luce’s eyes as he piggybacks onto Mrs. Schofield’s syndicate, making copies of her information.
“Um,” Haley starts. “Well…we… are…planning a surprise party for Linz and we didn’t know if you had a, um, list of friends from home we should invite.”
“You…you came to my door to do that ?”
Haley just nods.
“Well, she didn’t have many friends here since she spent most of the time away at school--”
“What about enemies ?” Luce asks.
“Excuse me--”
“Oh, he means…people we shouldn’t invite to the party,” Haley quickly interjects. “…like exes or--”
“No exes. She got a good man the first time around,” Mrs. Schofield smiles touching Luce’s shoulder.
“We should go,” Luce says sharply, the ring of light disappearing from his eyes. “Don’t tell…Linz we stopped by.”
“Because the party is a surprise,” Haley adds quickly
Mrs. Schofield nods but looks confused. They walk back to Luce’s car in silence, trying to act normal.
“So,” Luce says once they are on the road. “Any guesses on how a dead girl is chatting with her mom ?”