Heartless - Jade West Page 0,13

life into the thing, so private, and so out of bounds.

She was at three social events that week. One at Halcyon building – the Constantine’s main NYC business hub. One at Petra Constantine’s dumbass charity fundraiser gig on Thursday, and one listed as ‘Tristan, Blue Hawk show.’

I’d never heard of Tristan or Blue Hawk show, but given how casual her listing was, I imagined she knew them pretty well.

I put the search term into my browser and up came some pictures of a weird looking rocker guy with piercings right along his cheeks. He looked like a loser. Just the kind of prick a cokehead like her would be trying to hook up with, no doubt.

He’d be suicidal for going anywhere near a Constantine bitch without their approval, but even so, the thought of him trying gave me a bizarre territorial feeling right in my gut. I didn’t want him to go near that Constantine bitch. I didn’t want anyone to.

I wanted to be the asshole to tear her apart.

I carried on scrolling through the Blue Hawk shit until I came to his show listings for the coming weekend.

Saturday night. Blue Hawk, live at Cyrus Bar. Downtown.

The times tallied up nicely with Elaine’s calendar entry. Yeah, that must be the venue.

Alto wasn’t far out of Morelli Holdings when I called him back up on his cell. I could hear the traffic outside his car window, barely a block away.

“What?” he asked. “You after some more crazy shit today?”

My request didn’t sound all that crazy, not on the surface.

“Terence Kingsley,” I said. “I want his possessions. I want his ID, and his laptop, and the other shit we took from his apartment.”

“From London?” he asked. “The shit we packed up from London?”

I turned the business card in my hand. “Yeah, from London.”

“I’ll get it,” he told me. “Might take a few days, but I’ll get it.”

“I’ll need it for Saturday,” I said. “Non-negotiable. Bust down the place yourself if you have to.”

I could almost hear his frustration. My targets were always fucking tight, but not usually this tight. Still, I paid well for them.

“Saturday afternoon, then,” he said. “I’ll head over myself if I have to.”

I called up Elaine’s social listing again. “Get it to me by four.”

“I’ll get it to you by four,” he said, and I ended the call.

I summoned up my finest British accent before I put my cell on anonymous caller and dialed the number. It was a bored young dumbass who answered with a grunt of Cyrus Bar.

“I want to book for Blue Hawk,” I told him. “Saturday night.”

“It’s fully booked,” he replied, and I let out a laugh.

“Nothing’s ever fully booked for me,” I said, then remembered who I was pretending to be. “What’s your name, boy? I’m sure I can pay you sufficiently.”

“That’ll be an extra twenty bucks,” he told me. “VIP entry. I’ll make sure you’re on the list. Cash at the door.”

Twenty bucks was a joke. Just like he was.

“VIP entry. Perfect.”

I heard him click some keys. “What’s your name?”

I smiled at the business card still in my hand as I answered him.

“Terence Kingsley,” I said.

6

Elaine

The week had been a drag. I was sick when I woke up on Saturday morning, insides struggling against the drink and drugs from the social night before. I’d been on a party high, stretching out from Petra’s crappy charity gig on Thursday until I passed out late on Friday. One long round of intoxication that had slammed me into the weekend with vomit.

I looked a mess in the bathroom mirror. My eyes were sunken, even though they were still almost pastel in their blue. My skin was deathly sallow, crying out for a layer of concealer. My lips were dry and cracked, and I felt sick.

I stumbled through to the kitchen and made myself a coffee, but it hit my guts hard, making the nausea worse.

I’d missed a call from Tristan so I called him back as soon as I’d forced myself to kick back the caffeine, hoping I wouldn’t retch with him on the line.

His tone was fresh enough to hurt my ears when he answered.

“Hey, baby. You still on for tonight? Please say you’re still coming.”

If I had any sense I’d call it off and say I was busy with Constantine crap, but I didn’t want to. Our bond of friendship was way too deep, and I was way too curious. Curious to meet the weird piece of cock who had blatantly worked Tristan