“What’s up with that?”
She blinked at me, then glanced down at the local paper, The Conch. “Oh!” She looked back up at me. “Did you see the midnight news?”
I gave a slight shake of my head.
“Bel Hahn died during her fashion show. They think it was a heart attack.” Heidi’s face fell as she looked back down at the newspaper. “So sad.”
I mean… it was sad, but I couldn’t help shooting Heidi a slightly perplexed smile. Since when did she take a personal interest in the designer for the House of Hahn? My eyes drifted to the large leather bag on the desk beside her—a massive gold double H emblazoned on the side. Ah. There it was.
“Nice bag.” I lifted my chin toward it, and Heidi glanced over, then up at me.
“Thanks. Just got it.”
I nodded. “A House of Hahn, huh? It’ll be worth a fortune now that she’s dead.”
My friend, eyes still downcast and brow pinched in concern, murmured, “You think?”
I smirked. Oh, Heidi, so smart, yet so naïve. “I mean, it would be, if it weren’t a knockoff.”
She jerked her head up, eyes wide in surprise. “Knockoff?” She reached over and pulled the bag closer, turning it this way and that. “How can you tell?”
I chuckled. “Well, for one, you don’t have the pinched look of someone who’s mortgaged her house to buy a handbag.”
Heidi, eyes glued to the bag, shook her head. “I don’t even have a house to mortgage!”
Heidi still lived at home with her family. It was common in the Darkmoon District for kids to live with their parents all through their twenties—sometimes longer. Folks here just couldn’t afford to move out on their own.
She grinned up at me. “But I didn’t have to, anyway. I got a great deal on it. That guy down Anemone Alley had a trunk full of ’em.”
“I’m sure he did.” I lifted my brows.
Heidi’s face fell. “Oh. Right.” She looked forlornly at the bag. “Caught and cleaned.”
I felt like kind of a jerk. The Darkmoon phrase meant something along the lines of—man, I was an idiot. Caught and cleaned like a fish—I fell for it. I patted the counter. “But who cares, right? It looks great.”
Heidi rubbed her thumbs on the oiled leather. “Yeah.” She grinned at the bag. “It does—who cares?”
I gave her an encouraging smile, straightened, and strode a couple steps to the swinging door that led to the exam room in back. “What’s Will up to?” I pushed it open as Heidi whirled to face me.
She stretched an arm out. “Wait! I wouldn’t go back there—”
Too late. I froze as I took in the exam room. A wiry guy covered in tattoos sat on the metal exam table as my friend Will, who stood behind him, pulled stitches through a cut in his cheek. They froze, as did the beefy wall of a man who slumped in a chair to my left and the well-groomed guy who leaned against the wall to my right.
In a flash, they all three pulled their wands and leveled them at me, the tips glowing white.
LUDOLF'S GOONS
“Oh. Perfect timing, Jolene.” Will rolled his eyes and huffed. His hands still held a thread that was looped through the tattooed guy’s face.
Neo, the guy standing to my right, glared at me with dark eyes, then addressed Will. “What’s she doing here?”
I folded my arms and leaned into one hip, shooting Neo a flat look.
“That’s a great question.” Will hiked his bushy brows up and returned to stitching up Victor, the tattooed maniac perched on his exam table. “Why don’t you ask her?” He grumbled to himself as his hands moved quickly, expertly stitching up the cut. Knowing Will’s work, there wouldn’t even be a scar. Which, judging by Victor’s “I’ll shank you for a corndog” aesthetic, would probably be viewed as a negative. I gave a little shake of my head. My brilliant former surgeon friend’s talents were being wasted here.
I cocked a brow at Neo and felt a flush of satisfaction when his gaze momentarily flicked to my feet, then back up.
Despite being a captain in Ludolf Caterwaul’s secret Shifter Underground, I’d always managed to intimidate him, at least a little. We’d grown up in the orphanage together, and back then, him being a few years younger than me counted for a lot. It’d made me ages wiser and stronger than him (in kid terms), and the dynamic continued today. Who knew what I’d do if he actually called my bluff.
Heidi claimed he had a crush on me, but considering I was wearing a T-shirt that hadn’t been washed in weeks, a bra held together by a safety pin, and a ponytail so tangled I’d have to cut my hair tie out of it, I doubted my womanly charms had much to do with it.
The pale overhead exam lighting accentuated Neo’s sharp cheekbones. A muscle twitched in his jaw as we glared at each other. Finally, he jerked his head and shoved his wand back into the waistband of his black jeans. His two goons followed suit.
“Hey, Jolene.” Sacha, the bald brute of a man who sat to my left, inclined his head. His low voice rumbled from deep in his chest.
I crinkled my nose at his black eye and fat lip. “What happened to you guys?”
Neo sniffed and ran a ringed hand through his slicked back black hair, the sides shaved. “Got into it with some pirates.”
“Yah!” Victor, who clutched a bottle of glowing green liquor, sneered, revealing several gold teeth… and a few missing ones. “Ya should seen da odder guys!”
I stifled a smirk and caught Will’s sardonic eye for the briefest of moments. Right. I was so sure.
These three were in here every other week. Neo was captain of our
