Free Medium Rare: (Intermix) by Meg Benjamin Page A

skirt ride up to midthigh on her bare legs. The deep V of her blue satin blouse dipped down to her sternum. Grandma Caroline’s smoky blue chalcedony pendant jostled against her cleavage. Smiling, she hooked the three-inch heel of one silvery sandal over the barstool frame. “Hi, Rudy,” she purred.
    Rudy glanced her way, eyes widening. “Hey, Rose. You sure look better than you did this afternoon.”
    “Thanks.” Rose grinned more widely. Just the kind of reaction she was looking for. She felt better already. “Is Augie here?”
    Rudy nodded. “In his office.”
    Rose gave him another smile. She’d take care of business with Augie and then see who there was to dance with. The DJ in the corner was just getting warmed up. “Thanks.”
    Augie’s office door was closed, probably because it was still early in the evening. Rose knocked and waited.
    A moment later, the door opened and Augie filled the space. His eyebrows arched as he looked at her. “Well, well, Rosie. Twice in one day!”
    If she hadn’t learned her listening skills from Skag, she might not have caught the faint strain in his voice. She peered up at his face and saw the slightly tightened skin around his eyes and the firm set of his jaw. She smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way. “This afternoon you said you might have a customer for Locators, Augie. I didn’t get the details.”
    Augie glanced behind her into the darkness of the Nightmare. “Delwin here with you?”
    Curiouser and curiouser.
“Nope. Just me. So what can you tell me about the job?”
    “Don’t have the details with me, Rosie.” Augie’s mouth moved into a stiff smile. “Can I call you in a couple of days?”
    Rose shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
    “Come on, have a glass of wine. On the house.” Augie put one immense paw on her shoulder, steering her back toward the bar as he closed the office door behind him. “Didn’t mean to make you come all the way down here for nothing.”
    Augie’s slight push was meant to be friendly, Rose knew, but somehow it felt a little more like he was propelling her away from the office. She found herself wondering just what Augie had in there he didn’t want her to see.
Or who.
    Rudy poured her a glass of Vampire merlot, the house wine, and she took a few decorous sips, watching the goth girls circulate around the dance floor. The DJ had the techno turned up to mild-hearing-loss level.
    “Have a good time tonight, Rosie,” Augie bellowed in her ear. “Call me if you need anything.”
    Rose watched him hurry back to his office.
Hmm.
Augie the man-mountain wasn’t normally the hurrying type. She craned her neck, but the office door closed too quickly for more than a quick glimpse of the darkened interior.
    Thirty minutes later, after a glass of merlot and a couple of dances, she felt depressingly ready to leave. A boy whose pimples were cruelly emphasized by the black light had made a weak pass. A middle-aged man in a vintage polyester shirt wanted to buy her a drink. She’d turned them both down politely, but nobody else in the club looked any more interesting. Even the goth girls had already drifted away to some other destination.
    For an evening of hell-raising, this one had been a complete bust.
    Sighing, Rose gathered her purse and slipped out the door, pulling her jacket over her blouse as she walked down the deserted sidewalk toward the side street where she’d parked. The presence of the bouncer at the door was supposed to discourage predators, but Rose gripped her keys just in case.
    In the distance she heard dogs barking—baying, actually. Like hounds on the hunt, only bigger. A sliver of unease crept across her shoulders, but she shrugged it off. Somebody’s yard dogs. A lot of the houses in this part of town kept a couple of pit bulls or German shepherd descendants for insurance against burglars.
    She unlocked the car door and slid into the front seat, relocking the door immediately. She wasn’t nervous, really,