Page 10 of Wild (Chicago Underground 4)
Goddamn, that skinny little body packed a punch.
By the time my vision had cleared, she was gone, with only her footsteps giving away her run down the hall. I grabbed my purse from the table where I’d dropped it and ran after her the best I could in my heels and slinky dress.
The men in the sitting room hadn’t noticed her passing by, but they sure saw me.
“Hey,” the handsome one called. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Change of plans,” I called out, but he’d already caught me by the elbow. I winced, unable to smother the reaction when the right side of my face ached, but he didn’t hit me. Instead, he towed me back to the group like a recalcitrant child, and I stammered just like one. “It’s…her. She has a little problem.”
The silver-ringed eyebrow of the other guy lifted. “What kind of problem?”
Think, damn it. I could have come up with some sort of “show” on the fly, maybe a little girl-on-girl action with Jenny. This wouldn’t have been a problem. But if I was the fairy godmother, then my Cinderella had just fled the ball. The only thing she would get up to with a torn, skimpy outfit and a bad attitude was trouble.
From the lap of a man old enough to be her father, Jenny stared at me uncomprehendingly. Her pose was relaxed, her eyes glassy. Flying high, probably.
“Drugs,” I said. “The girl, um…Ella—she’s having a bad reaction.”
A round of curses filled the air.
“We don’t have any drugs,” said Prince Charming, sounding disappointed.
“Right, well. Perk of the job, I guess.” I waved my hand, ergo… “But the last thing we need is her passing out in the hotel, cops asking questions. Then the reporters… They’re like vultures over sex stories. But hey, I can round her up. Take care of it for you. Fair enough?”
They agreed and thanked me profusely. By the time I was unceremoniously shoved out the door, they had already cranked the music back up. Briefly I felt regret for leaving Jenny behind. But I couldn’t save all of us. In fact, odds were high I couldn’t save any of us.
I leaned against the wall. What the hell had I done? There hadn’t been any ambiguity or wiggle room in Henri’s instructions. Work the party so I didn’t end up facedown in an alley. I had done this before, so how had this gone wrong so quickly?
Ella, I’d named her. Oh, fabulous. Because of course all she needed was a pet name and a muzzle for that right hook and I could bring her home with me. I allowed myself a small smile and started down the hallway.
Chapter Six
It was too much to hope that she’d caught a cab and been halfway across Chicago by now. Instead, the whispers between the front desk staff pointed me to the back offices, and then the ruckus in the back kitchens drew me like a homing beacon.
I found Ella in the back room, wrestling with a member of security. He was armed only with a walkie-talkie, it appeared, but he used it furiously, shouting into it as he gripped Ella’s arm with his other hand.
“There you are,” I accused.
She subsided in his grip, looking relieved. It was a sad state of affairs if I had to play knight in shining armor.
The guard looked me up and down with a faint curl to his lips, as if he couldn’t make up his mind whether to permit a sneer. Young woman in a sexy dress with a fresh shiner—I could have been a rich bitch housewife with an abusive sugar daddy. Sadly, no. My sugar daddy had cast me out, both for my betrayal and for my own good.
“Ella, I’ve been looking all over you,” I chided.
She raised her eyebrows at the made-up name. Well, I could hardly have called her Princess without him assuming we were strippers. And the other names I called her in my head were even less flattering.
“You know Daddy doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” I added.
On that note, the guy released her. Anyone named Daddy who had two girls like us answering to him was either scary or crazy, probably both.
“She dropped this,” he said, holding up a sleek leather wallet that she must have lifted from one of the men upstairs while grappling with them.
A little impressive, actually.
“I assumed it wasn’t hers,” he added, seeming less certain now.
I sighed. “Really, Ella? Wrecking the Mercedes wasn’t good enough? Now you have to steal something? Where’d you pick that up—the hotel restaurant?”
Ella crossed her arms, teenage angst at its finest. “Bet Daddy didn’t even notice I was gone.”
