Page 29

“Waiting for someone, Eric?”

I smile. “I was, but I think I just found him.”

Keller chuckles, his pupils growing impossibly larger. “So, tell me, what are you into?”

It’s undeniable that he’s attractive, but I’m out of practice and still not drunk enough for this. Maybe I need another drink. Still, I match his smirk, leaning in a little closer. “Depends on what you’re into.”

“Oh, I’m into a lot of things.” He looks back at his friends. There are three of them. “You want to join us for a little fun?”

I shrug, careful not to look too enthusiastic. “I’m always up for a little fun.”

He holds out a hand. It’s much larger than mine and it makes me feel smaller than I have in a while, yet there is nothing safe about this or him. I need to watch him and make sure him and his friends don’t slip something into my drink.

We weave through the sweaty crowd, strobe lights flashing in my eyes. We end up in a small section nestled in the corner, near the elevated DJ booth. From here, I can look up and see the black glass that I know Hayden Vasilyev watches us from.

The oldest Vasilyev is an enigma, both to the police and to me. I only ever met him once in passing, and he seemed uninterested in everything taking place around him. He’s ridiculously attractive and ridiculously aloof. Yet, since he’s been in charge of The Snake’s entertainment portfolio, there have been no incidents or run-ins with the police.

He might be uninterested, but he’s extremely good at whatever he does.

“You okay?” Keller asks, pulling me back.

I’m sitting on a leather couch surrounded by people greedily making out or dancing to the song coming from the speakers. None of them pay any attention to us.

I smile back at my companion. “You promised me fun,” I say. “Show me.”

Keller makes a tortured sound before reaching into his pocket. His hand emerges, holding a small plastic baggie. Inside are four, small red pills. I know what they are immediately.

He pops the small plastic ziplock open and slides one pill onto his tongue. Before I can think, he pulls my face in giving me an enthusiastic open-mouthed kissed. I feel the pill land in my mouth as his tongue continues its assault on my mouth. Thinking fast, I slide the pill under my tongue, trying very hard not to swallow.

It tastes sweet, like a vitamin C tablet, nothing like a drug.

Finally, he moves away from me. Eyes wide. “Shit, you’re a good kisser.”

Really?

I pretend to preen, keeping the pill under my tongue. I reach for a drink on the table and pretend to take a sip but spit the pill into what tastes like straight tequila instead.

“What did you give me?” I ask.

“Modafryline,” he says, taking a sip of his own drink.

“What?”

He chuckles lightly. “Some people call it Haze but during the day when I’m not looking this good, I work as a lab tech, so I always prefer the scientific name,” he says. “Heard of it?”

My mind clicks.Modafryline. Haze is clearly a street name. That might explain why I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet. It was created in a lab.

“Here and there,” I say easily.

Keller nods, a self-satisfied smirk on his lips. “It’s some good shit. New on the scene. Gets you so fucking high you almost forget your name.”

I look around the section. There are at least eight people and I’m willing to bet all of them are on Haze, but none of them are on the floor convulsing, which means it’s not necessarily dangerous and not everyone dies from it. That should be a relief,but it’s not. It might not be dirty, but it is still killing people at an alarming rate.

“Sounds amazing,” I say dreamily. “But I don’t know. My friend told me a friend of hers got really sick after taking it. Maybe it was a bad batch.”

It’s a risky thing to say, but Keller looks too high to care. He laughs, glancing at me. “Shit, live fast, die young, right? Who the fuck cares?”

“Right,” I laugh. “Where did you get it? I might want some later.”