Page 6 of City of Love

Less than a dozen other patrons milled about, mainly professorial types in khakis or business suits, with a smattering of the boho artist variety. Definitely not your trendy Philly club-goers. Of course, at just after seven o’clock, the extremely early hour could easily account for the low body count in the otherwise spacious room, but Margot’s early-bird call time only added to the mystery.

Above the quiet jazz playing in the background, the guests spoke in hushed tones, and there was a distinct air of anticipation filling the room. Most of the guests held briefcases, musical instruments, or portfolios. Lexi’s apprehension began to abate as her curiosity piqued.

“It’s definitely not about the chorizo tacos,” she mumbled, mostly to herself.

“For most people it is, actually,” said a male voice over her shoulder.

Startled, she spun to see an attractive man with gel-spiked blond hair, a diamond stud earring, and startling baby blue eyes. Dressed in an impeccable custom-fit pinstriped suit, he had a baby face that didn’t quite fit the rest of the picture.

“Most people don’t know we’re here,” he said, “and most of those who do aren’t allowed past the grease fryer. You probably didn’t notice, but the 250-pound cook you passed on your way in was actually Jimmy, our bouncer.” He offered his hand. “I’m Matthew McCabe. Call me Matt. You must be Lexi.”

She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Matt. But you have me at a disadvantage. This is all a surprise to me.”

He cocked his head, confusion on his face. “Oh, I’m sorry. Margot didn’t—”

“Didn’t what?” Margot said as she came up beside them, putting her arms around his neck and planting him with a kiss that clearly cut off his train of thought as he responded with not only pleasure, but apparent familiarity.

Margot always told Lexi about every man in her life, often in more detail than Lexi cared to know, but she was pretty darned sure the name Matthew had never come up, which bothered her more than it should have. Perhaps because it was one more thing throwing her off balance since the evening began.

“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Matt reached into an inner coat pocket and pulled out two clunky digital watches, strapping them quickly onto the wrists of both women. “We’re already late, and you know Gideon is over there tapping his foot wondering what the hold-up is.”

Lexi stared at the timer on her wrist—the one she’d seen several times in her premonitions—and blanched.

So here we go, she thought, the fight or flight instinct screaming in her brain, forcing adrenaline through her limbs, yet rendering her stuck to the spot.

She’d known the actualization of her recent visions would be imminent, they’d been coming so quickly and relentlessly, but it never crossed her mind that it would happen like this, on a night out with Margot.

Then again, she had no idea what she’d expected.

She reached for the timer with her other hand, her fingers fiddling with the buckle. If she yanked it off now and ran right back out of the club, would that be the end of it? Had she been given enough warning to be able to walk away from this destiny? Probably not. She knew better than that. She couldn’t remember ever having changed her fate once a vision had shown it to her. Delayed it maybe. And maybe with everything going on in her life right now, delaying wasn’t such a bad idea.

Then she thought of the man from her dreams, the image of his penetrating gaze, his sensual touch. Lexi dropped her hand from the buckle and let the timer stay.

She studied the object sitting heavily on her wrist. It was counting down from four hours.

“What is this?” Lexi pulled Margot to the side. “This timer… it was in my visions.”

Her friend’s easy smile pulled into a shit-eating grin. “I know.”

“What do you mean you know?” She glanced back and forth between the timer and Margot’s face. “You want to clue me in?”

Eyeing the exchange, Matthew interrupted them. “Christ, Margot. You should’ve filled her in long before she got here. I assumed you had when I vetted her.” He raked his hands through his hair, causing a few of the gelled spikes to skew out of place. “Crap.”

Lexi lifted her chin. “Vetted me?”

He eyed the other guests, mumbling something about this Gideon person again before returning his gaze to Margot. “I don’t need another visit from him bitching about some small misstep or another. The last time he crossed over to lecture me, he got so worked up all the damn liquor bottles exploded.” Matthew took a breath when he caught Lexi’s stare, reaching to fix his hair. “That shit’s expensive to replace.”

The bartender came out from behind the bar, holding out a small wicker basket full of cell phones. “Ladies, I need your cells before you go. And any other recording devices you may have on you. They’ll be waiting for you when you return.”

Whoa. Okay. Lexi had no idea what was going on, but now she was to hand over her phone? Yeah, no. Whoever Mr. Grey-Green Eyes was, he wasn’t worth all this weirdness. “Margot, I’m not comfortable with this. Whatever this even is.” She started to remove the timer, but Margot gently stopped her.

“Okay, wait. Let me get you a drink, baby doll, and explain. I guarantee not only is it going to be okay, but it’ll be the night of your life.” She turned her attention to Matt. “Can you give us a minute, babe?”

Matthew relented and waved them toward the bar. “You’ve got five minutes.”

As soon as they sat down Lexi’s questions flew with the speed of a machine gun. “What is this place, what are these things on our wrists, why did they take our cell phones, and who the heck is Matt-the-Charmer who you obviously have some kind of thing with but never mentioned to me?” She continued at lightning pace. “Who, for that matter, is this Gideon guy who explodes bottles when he’s upset?” She had to be turning blue because she hadn’t taken a breath since they sat. “And what, for the love of God, did Matt mean by crossed over?” She finally drew some air.

Margot smiled, completely unflustered by Lexi’s rant. “Okay, let me start by saying that it’s really all because of you that we’re here.”

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