Page 9 of Tell Me Why
June’s was something else.
June’s was like what you got when a store shut down for the night and just had the emergency exit light, off somewhere else, illuminating the place.
Before she worked at it, everyone was just a silhouette, and the place reeked of smoke - the air was thick with it - which just made matters worse.
It covered scent, like the darkness did, until she worked at it.
The music was loud. Electronic. And devastating to any attempt at conversation.
Dark.
“Rules here are different,” Hunter said, his mouth all the way against her ear so that he didn’t have to shout. “Mainly that there are no rules. If you can get away with it, it’s a legal play. And Tell and I don’t have a lot of friends here.”
“You telling me you have enemies?” Tina answered, twisting her face to find his ear in turn. She could see him laugh, but couldn’t hear it.
“June’s is too opportunistic for enemies,” he told her, putting his arm across her shoulders.
They followed Tell through to the far side of the main space, sitting down at a square booth against the wall where a man was hunched over a drink in a dark mug.
Tina could smell it from here that it was blood, but it had alcohol in it, too.
Strong alcohol.
Hunter indicated that she ought to sit next to Tell and he took the empty seat next to the stranger.
Italian Andrew.
“Tell,” the man said, his voice husky. Loud. But husky. “Been a long time.”
“Has been,” Tell answered. “Surprised to hear from Keon.”
“When you need the best,” Andrew said. “This her?”
“Can’t be a fountain,” Tell answered. “Her heart’s not beating.”
Andrew snorted, just a motion with his shoulders, then lifted his eyes without lifting his face, looking at Tina.
He was swarthy. She couldn’t be certain how much of it was the lighting and how much was the flat cap he wore, as opposed to the actual natural pallor of his skin, but he was definitely dark, a strong contrast at the whites of his eyes as he looked at her.
Tina wondered if she wasimportant, here, or just offensive.
Andrew turned his attention back to Tell.
“Keon says that she’s been missing for six weeks, now,” he said.
“He’s more patient than I remember, then,” Tell answered. “Though it does make it more likely something has actually happened.”
“They aren’t like they were,” Andrew said. “He would have never let her come here, back when you knew him.”
“You allowed to talk about your dog-caller like that?” Hunter asked, and Andrew cast a dark look at him.
“Old habits die hard,” he said. “You still following around your lethal redhead?”
Tell laughed.
“I suppose they do,” Hunter said.
“No one knows what name she might be using,” Andrew said. “Or why she came. But he wants to know she’s alive and to send her a message.”
