Page 4 of A Deal in Darkness
Enzo’s gaze lingers, and I wonder if I’m not as crazy as I thought I might be until his eyes flick over my shoulder.
“Incoming.”
I turn around to see my mother marching towards us as if the car’s on fire or war is about to break out. I groan and sink in my seat, immediately regretting any decisions that led me here. Every. Single. One.
Enzo leans forward and winds the window down. “Afternoon, Abby. Adriana was out walking and I insisted on giving her a lift home. It looks like the weather’s about to turn.”
My mother stops, pulls herself upright, and darts her eyes between the two of us.
“I thought she could use the practice,” he says, cutting her off before she asks why I’m the one driving. “I get so bored with driving. Your daughter’s doing me a favor.”
My mother’s face immediately softens, and she gushes, almost swooning over the man sitting next to me. It’s bizarre to watch the cold, calculated woman my mother is becoming a giddy teenager—but it saves me from another one of her lectures.
I grin, embarrassed, as I get out of the car, waving goodbye awkwardly. Enzo gets out of the car, walks around and waits for us to get to the front door of the cottage.
“Thanks for the lift,” I yell over the wind.
“No problem, Adriana.” He’s shouting back. “I’ll be seeing you around.”
2
A GODDAMN IDIOT
ADRIANA
The rain soaks through my jeans as I trudge to work from the station. It's already dark and the streetlights make London's streets seem safer.
Not entirely safe, though.
Working behind a bar was the last job I wanted to do, but it was the only one I could get. It just about paid enough to keep a roof over my head. The only good thing about it was that I could use the days off to let me apply for other work.
For the job that I hoped to secure.
I've spent months trying almost every publishing house in London and most of the agencies. No one's hiring.
Well, they're not hiring me.
But that's a problem for tomorrow, because tonight's is another shift in the dark, dingy bar. The guys I work with are fine, but the men who frequent it are not. I spend most of the night being stared at by customers who sometimes take things too far.
At least the manager's a decent guy, who’s sent me home in a taxi work's paid for on more than one occasion.
I greet the bouncer as I slip into the bar and notice that it's surprisingly quiet. Usually, there'd be a long queue, but tonight the place looks dead.
It's a blessing and a curse. A shift without as much work but an evening that drags on. Although, it’ll give me a chance to make a start on some more job applications if there isn't too much to do.
I throw my coat onto its hook and leave my bag in the locker. There's little to do but get started, so I make my way back up the stairs, greeting everyone as I start my shift.
The three of us working tonight have become good friends and we laugh and joke, mostly about the misadventures of one of them. He's got a habit of chasing after the wrong girls and it invariably ends in disaster. This time, she had a boyfriend and if the story he's telling is true; he escaped over the garden fence.
“Adriana.”
My name cuts over the music and our laughter, as Matt calls me over. He seems young to be a manager, but at least that makes him reasonable. He's always been kind and now the hesitation in his voice sounds wrong. Something's off. Worryingly off.
“Do you know that guy sitting over there?”
I flick my eyes over Matt's shoulder and meet Enzo's ebony irises, staring back at me. He's amused, and he raises his brandy glass as his grin widens.
“He's a friend of my mother's.”
