Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“The illusion will hold until I choose to remove it.”
He didn’t just look different. He sounded different. His movements were different, and yet even in this new body, he was still him. He felt like Augustine.
This was a problem. She didn’t need these kinds of problems.
“What about Lila?”
The brunette nodded at the back. A large jacket lay on the seat, casually discarded.
“It would be best if she waited for us in the car,” Augustine said.
“Won’t the illusion break if we leave?”
“She’s wearing a rune collar that acts as a short-term battery for my enchantment. We won’t be long. I will leave the AC running, and once we are inside, nobody will notice.”
She glanced at the overcast sky through the car window. The weather was seasonably warm for April, with highs in the mid-seventies, but today the temperature dropped to the high sixties, a luxurious cooldown. Lila would be fine with the AC.
A two-story building came into view on their right. It sat in the middle of a large parking lot, bordered by stretches of grass wide enough to be called fields. A line of trees ran behind the building. The nearest business up ahead was at least six hundred feet away or more.
Augustine slowed the Mercedes and guided it into the parking lot. She studied the structure. Two floors of sandy masonry walls with square lines and large windows. The footprint was rectangular, with the upper story slightly smaller, so it sat atop the first like the second tier of a cake. There must have been a balcony surrounding that second floor with a concrete wall acting as railing and a defensive barricade, because she could only see the top portion of the upper windows.
The first floor was large, likely around ten thousand square feet. The sign on the front spelled out “Gorwood and Associates.” It looked like a no-nonsense office built in the late nineties that had been given a fresh coat of cheerfully neutral paint.
“Is this the seedy underbelly?” she asked.
“One part of it.”
“I had expected something more sinister.”
The brunette Augustine gave her a one-shouldered shrug. Diana could’ve sworn her blouse was pure silk. The temptation to check the texture made her fingertips itch.
“What is this really?” she asked him.
“A front for the Hester family. They have two Significants and a single Prime, and they’re hoping to become a House.”
Becoming a House was hellishly expensive. “They’re trying to raise the money?” she guessed.
“By any means necessary. MII stays on the right side of the law. There are contracts that we simply won’t take. The Hesters take everything. Mostly their cases involve theft, some B&E, and getting dirt for blackmail, with an occasional assassination thrown in.”
“Lovely,” she murmured.
“Since there is no dial-a-blackmailer service, people like the Hesters conduct their business through a series of brokers. This is Quinn Hester’s secret office. He acts as the broker for the family, a seller’s agent. I’m posing as Helena Lopez, also a broker, a buyer’s agent.”
“Am I the buyer?”
“Yes. When we’re in there, please stay behind me at all times. Let me take the lead. If unusual things occur, I’ll need you to step to the closest wall and stay there no matter what you see. Don’t try to help me and, above all, don’t run.”
“Okay.”
“Do I have your promise?”
“Yes.”
Augustine opened the car door and stepped out. She did as well. They walked to the building side by side, Augustine’s red-soled Louboutin pumps making soft clicking noises on the pavement.
Diana felt naked without her dog. She’d gotten used to an animal companion. They were a welcome buffer between her and violence. They were an effective deterrent—the fear of being bitten was a deeply ingrained human instinct.
The doors whispered open at their approach. They stepped into a simple vestibule with the polished golden oak floor and walked to the counter, where a lone receptionist sat in front of a computer screen. The place was sparsely furnished. Generic chairs, upholstered in fake leather, waited in a row by the windows between depressingly plastic trees. It could’ve been a doctor’s office.
“How may I help you?”
“Helena Lopez,” Augustine said. “We are expected.”
The receptionist checked her screen. “Just a moment.”
They waited. Unusual things… How interesting.
A door on the right side swung open, and a man in a cheap suit nodded to them. Augustine headed for the door, and she followed him into a short hallway. The air stank of carpet cleaner fighting with the musty odor of an old rug. They went up a flight of stairs and were ushered into a large room with no windows, a desk of polished, shiny wood, and two chairs.
A man sat behind the desk. He was in his early forties, with good bone structure, wavy dark hair, a short beard, and light grey eyes, which were complemented by his dark blue suit.