Crazy Eights (Stacked Deck #8) - Emilia Finn Page 0,54
I huff. “Car’s still there?”
“Yeah, but her front door has just opened. Bet you’re glad that rain has stopped, huh?”
“Yeah, it was a bitch. Whose car is it, Soph?” I cross one last street before turning at the corner and bolting along Quinn’s. “Who is it?”
“Oh damn,” she murmurs. “It belongs to Independence Group. That’s a Zeus car.”
“What?”
I come to a screeching stop when, fifty feet up, Quinn comes into view in a beautiful, floor-length, backless gown.
I duck into the shadows and study the dark purple fabric shimmering under the streetlights, the glittering bangle on her left wrist, the gleaming necklace resting on her collarbone. Her hair is tied up, the ends dangling loosely against her back, and when she moves down her front steps, sparkling silver heels flash in the light coming from the streetlamp near the shiny black car parked at the curb.
“What the fuck, Sophia?” I growl, remaining in the shadows. “What the fuck is happening?”
“She’s got a date,” Soph singsongs. “Those are date shoes, fighter. That’s a date dress.”
“That’s a fucking prom dress,” I hiss out quietly. “Where the hell is she going?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers back, as though she needs to be quiet too. “But she’s going in Evan McGrady’s personal town car. That’s not just a car his company owns, but his actual car, the one he moves around in when in transit.”
My heart pounds – from adrenaline, from my run, from the anxiety that leeches into my blood when Quinn moves off the concrete steps and meets the driver at the passenger door.
They speak a couple words, none that I can hear, then the guy opens the door, and she slides in like she was born to wear diamonds and ride around in town cars.
“Sophia!”
“What?” she hisses. “What do you want me to do about it? I’m watching, just like you are.”
“She’s in a date dress,” I snarl, “in date shoes, and she’s riding around in Evan McFuckingGrady’s car. The guy with the suspiciously dead wife!”
“Not an ideal dinner companion,” she agrees on a groan. “Fuck.”
I plaster my back against the wall and shield myself in darkness when the car pulls away from the curb.
“Fix it, Sophia! Fix it right fucking now!”
Victoria
Nothing is Free
“Prima.” The moment the car slides up to the curb right outside Zeus’ club, the door swings open, and Evan pulls me out with a gentle tug. He holds my hand in his, brings it up to his lips, and buzzes gentle kisses along my knuckles while the driver closes my door and rolls away. “You look stunning.” He steps back to look me up and down. “Breathtaking, really.”
“Well, thank you for the dress.” When he releases my hand, I bring it down to smooth the fabric over my stomach. “It fits perfectly.”
“I was sure it would,” he purrs. “I have an eye for such things.” He takes my arm, and loops it with his. “Shall we?”
“We’re back at the club?” I glance up at the multi-story building, and nibble on my bottom lip in thought. “Not where I expected we’d go for dinner.”
“We are here, Prima. But we’re not eating in the club.”
He leads me past the man on the door without so much as a nod in hello, then into the darkness that I pass through every single day that I work, but instead of turning right and heading toward The Pit, he turns left and leads me into what I could have sworn was a coat room.
Turns out, it’s a private elevator powered by Evan’s fingerprints, as he presses them to a screen, and the door silently opens up.
Evan gestures me forward. “Ladies first, of course.”
“Of course.”
I obey, and turn once I’m in, only to scoot a little to the side when he follows and proves this elevator is only for personal use. Two people maximum, or one, single man if he’s as big as the bouncer outside.
With another pass of Evan’s fingers over a screen, the doors close, and up we go, so smooth that I can barely feel us moving at all.
“I’m glad the rain is gone.” I try to think of small talk, despite the phone call I had with my brother playing through my mind.
I’m busting to ask Evan if he’s made any progress on the things I asked him to search. I want to collate what Will said abut Nate’s last known days, and whatever Evan may have found, and I want to put an end to this disappearance that has