Helluva Luxe Read Free Page A

drawers and tucking it into her boot. “You gotta start with nutso and work your way up to criminally insane.”
    I assumed Naenia was the green queen on the back stage, so I nodded. But I’m no fool. The girl I needed to watch out for was the one right in front of me.
    “Thanks for the tip,” I said.
    “Pleasure’s mine.”
    “Can I use your bathroom?” I hoped she hadn’t noticed I was covered in Greyhound.
    “Of course,” she said. “You can use the staff showers.”
    I hadn’t meant a shower, but it sounded like a damn good idea. “Thanks, Rorke.”
    I got up and followed her to the door, stood quietly aside while she locked up number thirteen. I tried to seem as unobtrusive as possible, but something inside me was slowly thawing, and I wasn’t sure I was okay with it.
    “Bathroom’s down the hall and to the left,” she said. “There’s a sign on the door. Take your time.”
    David and Kim’s cover of “White Rabbit” echoed through the wall, pulsing faintly, as Rorke disappeared down the long hallway. I shivered through my leather and went in search of hot water, trying not to walk in time. Couldn’t seem to help myself. It was getting louder. Not the music, just the beat. Ash’s angled face tricked through my mind, tinged with red. I was marveling to myself that I just might be lost in the creepiest place on earth when the aforementioned door appeared.
    I never should have opened it.

Chapter 3
     
     
    The last thing I remember before my head cracked the tile was getting blasted by the steam of somebody else’s shower. The moist air smelled like firewood. Then everything went black. When I came to I found that snit of a door girl standing over me, scowling. She had a pencil tucked behind her ear and an icepack in her hand.
    “Don’t move.”
    “What the devil, dormouse?” I mumbled.
    “You tell me?” she barked, making her eyes even bigger.
    There was an unsavory substance drying down the front of my shirt that did not resemble my last meal at Denny’s, and every bit of my body was in some sort of pain.
    “I’m sorry, I—”
    “What did you swallow, pal? And how’d you get back here?”
    If my father taught me nothing else, I learned being called “pal” is rarely a good thing. She fussed after me with her cold pointy fingers like an elementary school nurse who wasn’t easily impressed. In fact, she was so ticked off her lips were gone.
    “I’m not on anything,” I said, but my tongue sounded like it was covered with hair.
    “Right,” she drawled and lifted my shoulder to tuck a rolled-up towel under my head. Then the lecture kicked on.
    “You could have choked, you know? If you don’t give a shit about yourself, that’s fine, but do you have any idea what negative publicity does to a place like this? We’re the biggest nightclub in town. Plenty of people would be happy to see that change. I could be out of a job. And a home. And I am not the only one who works here. Selfish little prick. You’re not River Phoenix,” she trailed off, still trying to make me comfortable on the cold tile.
    “The bartender let me back here. I’ll find her, and she’ll explain—”
    “Oh, hell no!” she said, pushing me back down. “Your dumb ass is not going anywhere near that bar. You’re a liability. You’re not leaving until I’m sure you won’t OD. Plus it’s pouring outside, and the roads are closed. You’d never get a taxi.” She stared at me with tremendous intensity, daring me to dispute her.
    “Fine,” I sighed. “But at least let me get up off the floor.”
    “Fine,” she said.
    She continued to reprimand me with her eyes while she removed her witch cloak and pulled my arm around her bare shoulder. Her skin was about as chilly as her disposition. And she was freakishly strong for such a stick of a chick. Under all that velveteen, she was wearing one of Victoria’s secrets as a dress. Her striped tights, efficiently torn, led my eye directly to her pilgrim