I glanced around the table. Helen had turned away to talk to another man at the table next to ours while Nate flirted with a woman sitting beside him. Thorin’s attention was focused on a man who had stepped up behind him to ask him a question. I closed my eyes and drifted on memories of better times and cheerier company. Memories of a party Mani and I had attended in high school. I didn’t go to many school functions, but on the night of our senior homecoming game, Mani had pitched a fit until I agreed to go with him to Tommy Shirley’s after-party. That was the night Mani had earned the title of Captain Keg Stand. He regretted it the next morning, but being a good and loving sister, I nursed his hangover with stiff coffee and greasy eggs and never once said “I told you so.”
Eventually, dinner was served, and the evening progressed. Percy Gruen, poker player extraordinaire, presented the proposed venue in Las Vegas and touted its investment potential. Thorin ignored me, and I tried hard not to fall asleep, face first, in my plate of chocolate lava cake. Thorin’s plate was empty, scraped clean, but damned if I ever saw him put a bite in his mouth.
At some point the lights flickered on and people rose to their feet. I blinked, trying to wake from my boredom-induced stupor. I slipped on my shoes, and Thorin pulled me to my feet. To my credit, I managed it without embarrassing myself, barely wobbling on my aching toes. Maybe I’m starting to get the hang of these heels. My side complained, my shoulder protested, and I wanted a pain pill and bed, but Thorin had something else in mind.
“Helen invited us to her room for drinks,” he said, leading me away from the dining room toward a bay of elevators.
I groaned. “God, if she’s the one trying to kill me, then let her do it. Fast. Anything but this slow torture.”
Thorin’s mouth quirked into a curious smile. “What’s the matter, Sunshine? You don’t enjoy being wined and dined?”
“Wined and dined? Is that what this is? I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
The elevator binged as the doors slid open. Thorin stepped in and tugged me in behind him. I lost my balance and fell against him. His hands slid around my hips, steadying me, but he didn’t let go after I regained my footing. My blood sizzled traitorously in response. His warm breath slinked across my cheek when he said, “Maybe you’re just out of your element.”
“I’m a simple girl, Thorin. So yes, I am a little out of my comfort zone. But I’d walk across a bed of nails, barefoot and naked, if it helped me find out the truth about my brother.”
Thorin released his grip on me and smiled. “It won’t be a bed of nails. But I don’t expect Helen will make it easy for us.”
“Nothing about this whole affair has been easy. Why should tonight be any different?”
Chapter Twenty
“She doesn’t like me,” I said as we stood outside Helen’s suite, waiting for her to let us in.
“Don’t worry,” Thorin said. “Helen doesn’t like anyone.”
“It looked as though she liked you very much.”
“She doesn’t like me, either—she just wants to get me into her bed.”
I cringed. “Don’t those two things usually go hand in hand?”
Thorin shook his head. “Not with Helen.”
Based on the little I knew about her so far, I thought Thorin was probably right. The door opened, and Nate ushered us into the room. Helen lounged on a loveseat, still elegant in her black crepe gown. She had worn her hair down throughout dinner but had since twisted the dark strands into a knot at the nape of her neck, revealing the elegant gold hoops in her ears. The earrings complemented a large gold nugget hanging from a chain around her neck. I hadn’t noticed the necklace earlier. The pendant’s shape reminded me of an arrowhead.
“Hello, again,” Helen said as she tucked bare feet beneath her. I was jealous of her unfettered toes. “Are you sure it isn’t past your curfew, Solina? Why don’t you go to bed and leave Alek here with me? I promise to take very good care of him.”
The time for holding my tongue had come to an end. “Are you offering a trade?”
“A trade for what?”
I raised a shoulder and let it drop, a nonchalant shrug. “You can have Thorin. He’s a pain in my neck anyway. I’ll be happy to take Nate in return.”
Helen froze for a moment, speechless. Laughter lit in her eyes before it pealed from her lips. “Oh, darling, this one has some spit in her after all. Would you like that, Nate? Would you like to keep company with Alek’s orchid?”
Nate, standing at the bar, drained a lowball of amber liquid while he painted an appraising and surprisingly hot look over me. Shed of his coat and tie, Nate McNary cut a striking figure. Although not as tall or as thick as Thorin, he still looked lethal; a long slim knife in contrast to Thorin’s broadsword.
“Youth and beauty are hard to resist,” Nate said.
Helen dragged her gaze up Thorin’s body and down again. “You can say that again.”
Helen rose to her feet and sashayed to the bar. “Have a seat, darlings. I’ll fix you a drink. Alek, Johnny Walker, if I remember correctly. Solina, I’m afraid we’re out of chocolate milk.”
“I’m fine,” I said. Helen could crack on my age all night if she wanted. Her sarcasm only made her sound bitter. Thorin and I took seats on the sofa adjacent to the loveseat on which Helen had been lounging when we arrived. My body sank into the cushions, extra heavy for want of sleep and fatigue from fending off the pending ache of my injuries.
Nate plopped into a wide chair perpendicular to the couch. He drained his whiskey and perched the emptied glass on his knee, never taking his eyes from me as he did. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Solina,” he said, “but you look exhausted.”
Helen returned from the bar, carrying a glass of scotch for Thorin and something pink in a martini glass for herself. “That’s the poorest pretext I’ve ever heard,” she said. Instead of returning to her loveseat, Helen perched next to Thorin on the sofa’s armrest. “Next you’ll ask her if she wants to use your bed to lie down, and would she like a massage as well?”
“Doesn’t sound like such a bad idea,” I said, only half in jest.
Thorin hacked like an angry cat, and his eyes smoldered darkly. “We did not come here to play games of innuendo,” he said.
Helen pouted and fingered a strand of Thorin’s pale hair, looping it around her finger. “But it’s so much fun. More fun than business.”
Thorin grabbed Helen’s hands and forced her to release his hair. “I’m not here about business either.”
In an imperceptible flash of movement, Thorin left the couch and yanked me to my feet. My tired brain couldn’t follow or form an objection when he brushed aside my hair and grasped the neckline of my dress. He eased the fabric aside in a way that exposed the joint of my neck and shoulder. The bandages didn’t cover everything. Several scratches extended up toward my ear, visible in close quarters.
Nate gasped and started to rise, but Thorin made a threatening gesture, stopping Nate in his place. I struggled against Thorin, but he held me so tightly that fighting was useless. He had the kind of strength that took great discipline to keep in check. He could probably snap my arm with a thought.
“I came here to find out what you know about this,” Thorin said.
Helen clucked her tongue a few times. “I’m no medical doctor, but it appears the poor girl has been mauled.”
“Did you order the hit, Helen?”
