“You must be Jesse,” she said, looking over my work attire, and I wondered what she was thinking. Clearly, I looked completely out of place in my button-down shirt and khakis, but I hadn’t had time to go home and get changed and then catch an Uber or taxi here. Not to mention I didn’t have the money. Plus, the last time I’d been at the den, I’d worn Brayden’s designer suit. I didn’t have anything like that in my own closet.
“Yes. That’s right. I was told to meet—”
“Wolfe. I know. He had to take care of a few things, so he sent me up here to collect you. I’m Trinity.”
Trinity? That was Tor’s right-hand woman, he’d said, so that made sense. I smiled at her, and when she didn’t return it, I wondered what she was thinking. Probably something like what did her boss see in me, but oh well. Tor saw something, and I wasn’t about to let her make me feel inadequate. He wanted me here. So here I was.
“It’s, uh, nice to meet you.”
A sly smile stretched across her glossy lips. “That’s something I don’t hear often,” she said, and then turned on one of those razor-sharp heels. “Come along, then, Jesse. Let me give you a tour of the Wolfe’s Den. I believe your last one was cut short.”
As she pushed open the doors to the main floor, I said, “Does everyone know I was thrown out of here?”
“Only those who matter. Which is Wolfe and me. Now, how far did you get the last time you were here?”
As I stepped through the doors, the space that greeted me was exactly as I remembered it. The massive chandelier that hung from the center of the room was aglow, and the bar, which ran down one side of the room, was jam-packed with men and women dressed in their finest. It was no different from the first night, but the way I felt as the doors shut behind me, locking me inside this den of iniquity, was completely different. Instead of feeling scared and out of my element, I suddenly felt alive.
This was Wolfe’s domain. This was where the man who’d hunted me through a forest and taken me on the ground in the rain played. This was his world, and he’d drawn me into it, made me a part of it, and tonight the air of expectation from everyone surrounding me bolstered my own sense of excitement.
Realizing I had yet to answer Trinity’s question, I stepped up beside her and said, “Level two. I got as far as level two and then—”
“Wolfe kicked you out.”
My mouth fell open, and she smirked.
“Not to worry; I doubt he’ll kick you out tonight. He’s rather looking forward to your visit, from what I can tell.”
I should’ve asked how she knew that, but I couldn’t seem to get the words out as she turned away from me and headed toward the dark staircase I knew led downstairs.
The second level was just as I remembered it. Scantily clad men and women hung from poles and others were engaged in a getting-to-know-you tangle of tongues.
“This is the Hunting Ground, which you’ve seen briefly,” Trinity said as we passed through and headed toward the next set of stairs without stopping. The same stairs I should’ve gone down with Brayden before I’d been manhandled out of the place.
The Hunting Ground. An appropriate name for what was happening on this floor. “What do you call the floor we just came from?”
“The Rendezvous Site.” As we came to the bottom of the third set of stairs, a security guard nodded and moved out of the way to let us pass.
Wow… The third level was lit up in shades of scarlet, and mirrors lined all the walls and even the ceiling. There were no couches down here, only king- and queen-size beds, and all but one were occupied. Over the pulsing beat, I could hear buzzing, and as my eyes landed on a foursome sprawled out across the white sheets, the lone woman in the group arched up off the bed in response to a toy one of the men was using on her.
Holy shit. They’re all out in the open for everyone here to see.
I didn’t have time to look at anything else, because Trinity was ushering me down the stairs again, and if my eyes had gone wide from what I’d seen above, then they were bugging out now.
Crawling around the room on his hands and knees was a guy a couple of decades older than me, at least, and around his neck was a spiked collar attached to a leash. He was being led across the room by a woman young enough to be his daughter, and when they passed another couple, I had to do a double take, because one of the guys had…a tail?