Free The Devil's Masquerade: The Remedy (The Devil's Eyes) by Jennifer Loren

from my hand, “For two hundred dollars, I will escort you personally. But you still owe me a new phone and none of those oriental knockoff. I don’t want no j-Phone again. I don’t care what that guy in the van said, J does not stand for Japanese iPhone. It stands for jacked up phone.” I nod, not understanding a word he is saying. I follow him up the street and to a depressing building where he has me follow him up several flights of stairs. “Sorry about the stairs, but the elevator broke. Maintenance has been working on it since it broke.”
    “When did it break?”
    “About ten years ago.”
    “I think you might want to hire some new maintenance,” I mumble.
    He leads me into a small apartment with average accommodations. “My Momma is in the other room watching her shows, which means she is taking her afternoon nap. So, you need to keep it down,” he says as a woman suddenly starts yelling from one of the back rooms. “Oh no, too late.”
    “Ro, what in the hell are you doing coming in here making all this ruckus during my shows? And who …” She looks me over and then puts on the glasses that were dangling from her neck. She looks me over once again with wide eyes. “Well hello. Who are you, tall dark and handsome?” she says with a blushing smile.
    I take her hand and kiss it, “Nicholas Savage, Ma’am.”
    “Oh my, oh, well what do I owe this magical visit to?” She giggles, smiling wildly.
    “He’s here to look after Kayla’s things. Now stop touching him. He is not yours,” Ro says, backing her away from me.
    “Oh the things I could do to him,” she growls towards me. “Do you need anything to eat Nicholas? Maybe somewhere nice to lie down and relax? I give amazing massages.” She laughs while I nervously look at Ro.
    “Momma! Nick and I have business to take care of.” He pushes her back to the room she came from before returning with a box of miscellaneous things. “Here is the stuff Kayla left here. It isn’t much and nothing I think she really cares about, but we saved it anyhow. Just in case.” I open the box and go through it, but I don’t find anything that helps me find her.
    “I need to know where she is. This doesn’t help me,” I say.
    “What do you want me to do? You broke my phone … from which I can … call her. It was the only connection I had. I don’t even remember her number. I am going to have to wait until she calls me now; well once I get a new phone.”
    “I will buy you a new phone. When do you think she will call you?” I ask him.
    “How should I know? She had talked about helping me get a job, but I told her I am doing well with the job I have,” he says.
    “You have a job? Doing what exactly?”
    “Yes, I am an entrepreneur. I gather new and old things and resell them for a higher value than what I errr… umm… secured them for.”
    “You mean you rob and steal from people and then sell their things. You’re a criminal,” I sigh.
    “I take offense to that. I don’t deny it, but I take offense to it,” he says.
    I roll my eyes, trying to decide what to do. I don’t want to follow this guy around while he steals until Kayla calls him again. “How about I give you a job? You can be my assistant; my Grandfather has been after me to find one of my own anyway. You can’t speak around him, and certainly don’t ever … EVER … mention Kayla to him.”
    “Exactly how much does this job pay?” he asks, sitting down next to me with wide eyes. I don’t want to take him with me, but then I think about Delin and his boring ass. At least Ro talks. He talks too much, but I could leave him in the car when I am tired of him. The advantage he can potentially give me with Kayla may make the trouble worth it.
    “It pays a few thousand a week plus room and board.”
    “You better take that job Roland!” his mother yells from her room.
    “Shut up, old woman! Ain’t no one talking to you!” Ro yells back. A loud banging begins before his mother