“You need to stop this, Marcus. This isn’t right.”
Marcus chuckled loudly. “You should have thought about that before you allowed Blanche Halo to run her drugs in the Mitcham Metals trucks. You back out of your deal now, and Blanche will own Mitcham Metals after she gets done with you.”
“She can’t!” Nessa exclaimed.
“She can, and she will if you back out of the deal you have with her,” Marcus spat. “You wanted to play with the big dogs, and now there is no backing out.”
Marcus’s fast, pounding footsteps headed my way. I ducked under the reception desk and held my breath. I didn’t want him to see me. Whatever deal Nessa and Marcus had made with Blanche Halo, they didn’t want me to know about.
Marcus walked past me and into his office to the right.
I had to get out of here, but there was no way I was going to be able to take the elevator now. Not with Marcus in his office. He would see me.
I listened to make sure Nessa and Marcus were staying put and decided the stairs were going to be my best chance of getting out of here without either of them seeing me. I had to get somewhere I could think and figure out what I heard.
This was the time I regretted not going to the gym. Ever. There had been that one time two years ago when I had actually gotten a gym membership, but I had gone only once before I decided the gym life was just not the life for me.
I crawled the forty feet to the stairs in the opposite direction of Marcus’s office and thought maybe a home gym could be the life for me. At the least, a treadmill. Once I got to the door to the stairs, I stood and slipped into the stairwell.
My god. All I had wanted to do was pop up here to make sure everything was okay with Nessa, and instead, I stumble into a conversation I never thought I would hear come from Nessa.
You allowed Blanche Halo to run her drugs in the Mitcham Metals trucks.
What was Nessa doing? I had no idea who Blanche Halo was, but she had to be one bad woman if she dealt with drugs.
“Oh, Nessa,” I murmured. I jogged down the two flights of stairs, once again acknowledging the fact I needed to possibly start doing some cardio and opened the door to the second floor.
I didn’t know what she was doing, and now I had no idea what I was doing. I walked back into my office and picked up my phone. I called up to Nessa’s office and listened to the phone ring in my ear.
“Hello,” Nessa called.
I pasted a smile on my face as if she could see me and chirped, “Ness!”
“Hannah? What on earth are you doing here?” she asked. She sounded like she normally did. What an actress.
“I had a few things I needed to go over before the weekend. I saw your car in the parking lot and thought I would check on you before I left. See if you need help with anything?” Tell me what’s going on, Nessa. Tell me.
“I’m all good up here. I was just going over the final details for the party tonight, and Marcus was helping me with my speech.”
“Speech?” I twirled the cord to the phone on my finger and leaned against my desk. “I can come up and help you if you want,” I volunteered.
“That would be great, but I’m actually all done with it.”
Yeah, sure she was. “Well, if you’re all done, then why don’t you come with me to get your hair done for the party tonight. I’ve got an appointment in an hour. We could get lunch and then go to the salon.”
“Oh, no,” Nessa sighed. “You go on ahead without me. I have a couple more things I need to do, and then I’m going to head over to the venue to make sure everything is good for the party.”
“Why don’t I skip my hair appointment, and I can check on the venue with you.”
“No, Hannah,” she snapped. “I don’t need any of your help.”
I stood straight and blinked back the tears that stung my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“I just don’t need any help right now. Go get your hair done, and I’ll see you at the party.” She hung up without another word.
I had been reprimanded like a little child. Told to go get my hair done and leave her alone.
Something was really not right with Nessa.
She needed help, but I know she felt like she was too far gone for me to help her. She was wrong. I was her sister, and sisters never turned their backs on each other even when they were in trouble.
And I was going to find out just what kind of trouble that was.
First thing I was going to do was find out just who Blanche Halo was.
Somehow.
*
Chapter Four
Ice
“Stay.”
Samson plopped down on his butt and looked up at me with wide eyes.
“You need to stay. They aren’t going to let you in. We already tried, buddy.” I leaned down and ruffled the top of his head. “Just wait for everyone to get a little drunk, bud, and then I’ll bring you in.” Once the Ice Queen gave her speech, I figured things would loosen up.
I wasn’t worried about Samson sitting at the back door to the large ballroom. He knew who he belonged to, and he wouldn’t leave that spot until I told him he could.
I opened the back door to the ballroom and bumped into a waiter. “What are you doing back here?” he demanded.
I took a pack of cigarettes out of my pocket and held them up. “Need a smoke, man. Didn’t want to do it out front with all of the stiffs coming and going.”
The waiter looked me up and down, taking in my worn, leather cut. “Are you even a guest?”
I smiled wide. “I am on the list, brother.” I winked and stepped around him. “I’ll take a beer when you get a chance, too.” Fuck him for judging me by the clothes on my back.
I followed two waiters out the swinging doors into the glitzed-out ballroom.
Wealth and over-indulgence were splashed everywhere. A far feel from what Mitcham Metals actually was. Metal, sweat, and dirt. This was most definitely a party for the money and not the hard work that went into Mitcham Metals.
“Did you get a glance at the ice sculpture?” Cuddy sided up to me and whistled. “I guess the Ice Princess really took Mercury’s nickname for her to heart.”
I peek through the crowd at the large ice sculpture of a replica of the Mitcham Metals office building and the production buildings. “Pretty fucking fancy, yeah? I wonder if I can chip a bit off to keep my beer cold?”
Cuddy chuckled and nodded to the end of the ballroom. “And they do have an open bar.”
That they did, and the VII Knights were all gathered around getting their fair share.
While everyone was dressed in dresses and ties, the VII Knights wore their cuts and jeans. An MC cut was acceptable wherever if you asked any of us.
Cuddy and I waved our way over to the bar through the growing crowd.
“Can you believe how many people are here?” Cuddy asked. “I didn’t think it was going to be this big of a deal.”
“Mercury said it was employees and customers of Mitcham, so that would explain all the people.” We moved next to Riff and Raff, who each had two beers in their hands.
“You think we should grab a table?” Raff asked.
“Probably two,” I suggested. “Or at least add a couple of chairs to one of the tables.”