Free Hades by Alexandra Adornetto Page B

of the room were white
    cubes that served as tables, as wel as low velvet couches
    that looked battered and wel used. The tables had glowing,
    cone-shaped lamps on them and the bar that wound around
    one side of the club had been crafted to simulate the
    appearance of molten lava. Around the bar loitered black-
    suited security guards stonily nursing their drinks. A
    striking-looking woman behind the bar juggled shot glasses
    and threw bottles with the dexterity of a circus performer.
    Her wool y ringlets, flecked with gold, surrounded her face
    like a mane and she wore a figurehugging red bandage
    dress with brass armbands. An asp tattoo wound its way up
    the burnished dark skin of her throat. She watched us
    distractedly and didn’t avert her gaze even when someone
    ordered a drink.
    As Jake and I inched our way through the press of
    bodies, the crowd parted to make way for us. They never
    stopped dancing, but their eyes fol owed our every move.
    When someone reached out a tentative hand to touch me,
    Jake made a low, hissing sound and threw a lethal look.
    The
    onlooker’s
    curiosity
    shriveled
    instantly.
    Jake
    acknowledged the barmaid with a formal nod that she
    doubtful y returned.
    “What can I get you to drink?” he asked. He had to shout
    over the music to be heard.
    “I don’t want a drink. I just want to know where I am.”
    “You’re not in Kansas anymore.” Jake chuckled at his
    own joke. I had a sudden urge to make him listen—to see
    how frightened I was.
    “Jake,” I insisted, grabbing his arm. “I don’t like it here. I
    want to leave. Please take me home.” Jake looked so
    taken aback by my touch he didn’t answer right away.
    “You must be very tired,” he said final y. “How insensitive
    of me not to notice. Of course I’l take you home.” He
    signaled to two bearlike men who were standing at the bar
    in black suits and sunglasses, which looked absurd given
    we were in a dimly lit club underground.
    “This young lady is my guest. Take her to Hotel
    Ambrosia,” Jake instructed. “Make sure she’s safely
    delivered to the executive wing on the top floor. They’re
    expecting her.”
    “Wait, where are you going?” I cal ed out.
    Jake directed his smoldering gaze at me and smirked,
    seeming to enjoy my dependence on him.
    “I have some business to attend to,” he said. “But don’t
    worry, they’l take care you.” He glanced at the bodyguards.
    “Their lives depend on it.”
    The guards’ vacant expressions didn’t alter, but they
    nodded almost imperceptibly. Then I found myself
    enveloped by rockhard muscle as they shepherded me out
    of the club, roughly shoving aside dancers that got in our
    way.
    Back in the underground lobby I peered past my escorts
    to see that Pride was only one of several clubs that wove
    their way underground like catacombs. From the murky
    depths of one stairwel I could hear muffled moans and
    soon two men in suits emerged dragging a disheveled-
    looking girl with a tear-stained face. She wore a lacy corset
    and a denim skirt that barely covered the tops of her thighs.
    Her struggle to free herself from their vise-like grip was
    futile. When her eyes met mine, I saw terror in her face.
    Instinctively I took a step forward, but my move was
    intercepted by one of the guards.
    I brushed them off and tried to sound casual, doing my
    best rendition of the way the girls at school spoke. “What’s
    up with her?” I figured the more alarmed I appeared, the
    less information I’d be given.
    “By the look of it she just ran out of luck,” replied one
    guard while the other punched numbers into his cel phone
    and muttered our location to the person on the receiving
    end.
    “Luck?” I parroted.
    “In the gaming room?” he replied as if the answer to my
    question was patently obvious.
    “Where are they taking her?” This time he merely shook
    his head in disbelief at my ignorance and walked me
    toward a long car with tinted windows that had pul ed