Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes)
Inside we are whisked past the entrance ticket queue by a small middle-eastern man. ‘This way, Mr. Eden,’ he says, and leads us through the doors.
He looks up to Shane. ‘How are your brothers doing?’
‘Good, thank you. How’s the family?’ Shane replies.
‘Very well, thank you.’
Hard rock music pulsates around us. Shane keeps a firm hand on the small of my back as we make our way through a sea of heaving, sweating bodies until we come to a VIP area. A group of people are sitting in a booth with low couches. There are brass lamps on the table.
My eyes are immediately drawn to a powerfully built man. He has shoulder length hair and eyes that are so light blue they look like chips of ice. He has a nasty scar that starts just under his eye and it zigzags down one side of his face. He is wearing a black vest that shows off an enormous tattoo of a fierce cobra with its hood and mouth open. It begins at the top of his muscular shoulder, its long body twisting around the length of his arm and hand, and its tail ending at the base of his wrist.
He looks menacing, very menacing.
He is leaning back on the low couches, but looking as relaxed as an animal about to strike. When he sees Shane, his mouth twists slightly. He makes a movement with his fingers and two half-naked girls entwined around him on either side stand and move away. His disregard for them as human beings is so blatantly callous it takes my breath away.
Shane pulls me forward and the man’s eyes flick over to me quickly.
His eyes are both stunning and scary. I find myself instinctively moving close to Shane. Shane looks down on me, and smiles reassuringly. The man sits forward, the movement so quick, that again I am reminded of a striking cobra. When he stands he is as tall as Shane, but he vibrates with a kind of dangerous energy. They bump fists, only it looks nothing like any fist bump I have seen. This one bristles with their combined energies. If Shane is white magic, this man is black magic. The difference is that stark.
‘Will you have a drink?’ he drawls. His voice is deep and his accent reminds me of Nikki, the nasty blonde I met in the ladies’ toilet at Eden.
‘Thanks, Zane, but I can’t stay,’ Shane says. ‘Just checking to see that everything is going forward as planned.’
‘Everything’s good to go.’
‘Good. Thanks, man. I owe you one.’
Zane smiles and nods slowly, and that slow nod makes me shiver. I can tell that the day will come when he will arrive to collect for whatever favor it is he is doing for Shane.
We walk away, my heart fluttering with tension.
As soon as we are out of earshot I tug Shane’s sleeve. ‘I don’t like that man.’
Shane stops abruptly, leans down and takes my face in his hands. ‘Listen to me, Snow. I trust Zane with my life, and so must you if anything happens to me. I brought you here so you could see him and he could see you. You will be financially well off and he will protect you from Lenny.’
My heart crashes with horror and I cannot stop the fear in my voice. ‘Are you expecting something to happen to you?’
‘No, this is a contingency plan.’
I frown. ‘What about Jake? Why am I not going to him?’
‘I don’t want Dom or Jake to get involved. But especially Jake. He has been taking care of us for his whole life and that’s enough. He has a family of his own now and it is time he put them first. No, Zane will sort it out. He is being well compensated for anything he does.’
‘You’re scaring me, Shane.’
‘Don’t be scared. I’m just writing my will. Not because I expect to die tomorrow, but because if I should, I want to go to my grave knowing that those I … care about are protected.’
‘Why did you choose Zane?’
‘Because he is more, far more dangerous than Lenny.’
‘And he’s a friend of yours?’
‘As friendly as you can get with the Russian mafia,’ he says dryly.
‘Shit, Shane. I thought you said you were not a gangster.’
‘I’m not. But like I said, I know people.’