Take the Heat

Take the Heat

Skye Warren

Pam Godwin

Sheri Savill

Cynthia Rayne

Shoshanna Evers

Candy Quinn

Tamsin Flowers

Elizabeth Coldwell

Audrey Lusk

Trent Evans

Giselle Renarde

Warning

This book contains explicit language, sex and violence. There are no rules here. Just dark and twisted characters coming out to play. Not intended for those under eighteen or those uncomfortable with the subject matter.

The Magnolia Hotel

Skye Warren

I could have loved the Magnolia Hotel.

With its vertical marquee sign and tarnished brass fixtures, the old building stood testament to a different time. I’d played in the chipped courtyard as a child, imagining swanky parties in the salon and glamorous couples in the rooms above.

But I had never imagined that my playmate would later buy the hotel. I never imagined my playmate would turn into a monster, either. That was the boon of childhood—its sweet, myopic vision.

I wasn’t a child anymore, and I could see the building clearly for what it was: a crumbling facade for a criminal enterprise. Two beefy men stood like sentinels at the double doors with their stained-glass-window inlays. One gave me a quick nod, allowing entrance.

A swirl of dust motes met me in the dim hallway. I paused, taking a deep breath of stale air. I thought I even smelled the soft perfume of magnolias, as if it had seeped into the wood paneling and patterned carpet. As if the goodness of the past could overcome the violence of the present.

But I knew better.

I found them in the salon. No swanky parties greeted me. Just my brother, sitting at one of the tables, flanked by two more sentinels.

His right eye looked puffy already, and I had no doubt it would ring with brown. His lip had a red slit down the side. A bruise was forming on his jaw. A sound escaped me, one of sympathy and horror and frustration.

Benny looked up, a hopeful expression twisting his swollen face. “Grace! I thought you weren’t coming.”

I went to him, ignoring the two men surrounding him. At least they didn’t try to stop me when I ran my hands over my older brother’s shoulders—lightly, checking him, assuring myself that he was alive.

“Of course I came,” I whispered urgently. “But you know I don’t have that much money.”

I had been working a twelve-hour shift, so I’d found the note when I got home. I’m in trouble, sis. Big trouble. I need to borrow $5K. Bring it to the magnolia. Five thousand dollars? He had gotten in deeper than I suspected. Five thousand dollars, thrown away on slot machines and ceramic chips.

Five thousand dollars that I definitely didn’t have. I had about half that saved up, which had all come from my art sales. Since I’d only made sales thanks to Benny—and since he was my brother—I had brought that money with me.

“Well, well. The cavalry has arrived.”