Two Can Play (Entangled Ignite) (11 page)

Thomas eyed the document. “Did they meet your price?”

“I didn’t really have a price. I barely put up a sign, but I know I have to cash out before I get Quarters, so…what do you think?”

“Without knowing the value of your property, I can’t say.” He looked at Gage as if he wondered about his IQ.

“It’s four acres with utilities on a dirt road. I’ve got an Airstream on it right now. Should I hold out for more?”

“You need to talk to a real estate agent, Mr. Stone. Get some comparable sales data.” He turned the document back toward Gage, trying to wrap this up.

“Maybe you could look online at the area and tell me what you think.” He wanted to get beside the guy to see his screen before asking his real questions.

“I’m not qualified to—”

“I need help. I don’t want to miss a day in Quarters.”

“All right,” Thomas said wearily. “Let’s take a quick look.” He clicked his mouse and Gage moved to crouch beside the man, who’d opened Zillow and was typing in the property address. Gage already knew what he’d find.

Thomas clicked the values on nearby properties. “The offer you got looks low. You should get an agent or at least an appraisal.”

“I hate to wait. I want to contribute as soon as I can. Should I get the check made out to NiGo?” He sounded like an imbecile, but he had to prey on the guy’s kindness.

“Have the buyer pay you, deposit the payment in your account, then you write us the check. The donations must come from you.”

“Where will my money go? Can I see what you use it for?”

“Contributions go into several funds. It’s complicated.” He reached for a stack of paper bound by a thick clip and waved it at Gage. “This is the report I generate monthly to account for our spending.”

“Wow. A friend of mine gave a lot of money when she came into the Life. She goes by L.E. Not sure of her last name. It was like thirty grand. Do you remember?”

“I don’t accept every check, Gage.”

“But isn’t that a lot of cash for a new Lifer?”

“I suppose so, yes.” His eyebrows dipped. He was beginning to be suspicious.

“See, that’s what I thought. So I made a bet with her that it was total BS. If you’d check for me I could call her bluff and earn some cash.”

The guy studied Gage, irritated, but stuck, it seemed. He sighed. “Her name is Ellie, you say?”

“L.E., I think—initials, but it could be
Ellie
. You could check for both.”

Thomas clicked past a few screens, then typed L.E., scanning the results. “Looks like she was telling you the truth. L.E. Pearl gave us thirty thousand dollars almost a year ago.”

“Bummer. I lost the bet.” At least he was on Beth’s trail and now he had her last name.
Pearl
. Her middle name. He tried to memorize the form on the screen to analyze the details later. “It says
pending
in the next column. What does that mean?”

“Most likely she’s promised another deposit.”

“Does it say where she is? What Lounge?”

Thomas didn’t answer right away. He closed the file and turned to Gage. He spoke slowly. “I’m getting the feeling there’s a problem here…”

He had to give the guy a viable explanation. “The truth is that half of that money was mine. We did some work together before she got into the Life, but she ended up with the check. I figure that if I got credit for half, I’d get Quarters sooner.”

Thomas considered his words before giving a quick smile. “You’ve misunderstood our system. You earn your residency through work points, not by paying for it.”

“Oh. Right.”

“So get the comps, set a good price and Quarters will be here when you’ve earned them.”

“Thanks for your help,” Gage said, standing, holding out a hand.

Thomas stood and shook it.

“Did she screw up?” Gage asked abruptly, wanting to catch Thomas off guard. “Cassie.”

Thomas looked wary.

“I don’t want to make the mistake she made,” he said, trying to look earnest.

“Follow the guidelines and you’ll be fine. That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway.” His tone told Gage that Cassie’s dismissal bothered Thomas. No way had the man turned Cassie in.

Gage knew a lot more than that. NiGo had Beth’s 30K and was drooling over her inheritance like jackals with a fresh carcass. His pulse kicked. He had to move fast. He had just six days until her birthday. Surely, he had a couple days’ leeway before she dropped the wad into NiGo’s coffers.

Now to figure out which Lounge she’d gone to. His PI could use “L.E. Pearl” on reference checks, but he might get stonewalled. If Gage could get at a manager’s computer, he could search a Lounge-wide directory and know instantly. The only computer he could get to was Rena’s and she was several levels down from management. Now what?

…

At five, Rena took out the key card a Watcher had given her, ready to head up to her new Quarters. She’d had trouble concentrating in the beta lab, preoccupied with her new job. Until the e-mail about her assignment went out, she couldn’t talk about it with anyone and it was killing her.

She paused at the elevator door, looking up at the indicator lights overhead. She was heading way up in the Life. She was a manager. What had Nigel called her?
A vanguard
. In
EverLife
, vanguards broke new Quests, earned big prizes. So amazing. The thrill of all that had happened made her dizzy, as if she’d just staggered off a Tilt-A-Whirl in some carnival, stuffed to the gills with cotton candy.

She wished she had someone to share this with.
Cassie
. Cassie would have whooped and bumped chests and danced on the sofa with her. Cassie would have made it real. But Cassie was lost…

Maya would see her soon and if Cassie would accept her help… Everything in Rena prayed that Cassie would be saved. She pushed away that worry. She would trust Maya and Nigel to know best.

For now Rena had new digs to explore.

Why so soon? Why so easy?
Something deep within her wasn’t sure she’d earned this. It was her old distrust souring her mind. Gage’s suspicious questions called her back to her scared and bitter Dead World self.

Another reason she wanted him gone.

“Rena?”

She turned.
Speak of the devil.
Gage was loping her way. But this was his day off. “Why are you here? You’re not on shift.”

“I wanted to help out. You heading upstairs? Want company?”

Not you
. But she did need to talk to him about his attitude. Now was as good a time as any. “Why not?” She pushed the up button.

Gage joined her in the elevator, bringing his scent with him—all-man cologne and his own clean musk. The charge she got annoyed her.
So you feel sexually stimulated by him?
Great, now she had Maya’s words in her head.

“How are you…after last night?” he asked softly.

“I’m fine.” He was too damned interested, like a guy shrink, and she hadn’t appreciated him ranting about how hard it had to have been to evict her friend.

She waved her new card over the security box and pressed eight, secretly delighted when the higher number went green for her. The elevator hummed upward.

“Eight?” Gage said. “I thought you were on Five.” Did he miss
anything
?

“I got jumped some Levels.”

His dark eyes dug at her. “Three at once? You said it takes longer the higher you get.”

“It usually does.” He was chipping at her own doubts, dammit.

“This is because of last night?”

There was no point lying. “Last night was a Threshold Quest from Nigel and Naomi, which is big, so yeah.”

“So kicking out your friend
was
a test of loyalty.”

She wanted to hit him. Instead she slammed her palm on the stop button. The car rocked to a halt with a creaky groan. She turned on him. “If I were you, I’d watch what I said about the Life from now on.”

“That sounds like a threat.”

“It’s a promise. If it were up to me, you’d be gone right now, but we need all the Lifers we can get at the moment. Maya says I should give you two weeks to shape up.”

“Shape up, huh?” He looked her over. “I didn’t realize my questions bothered you so much. I appreciate the warning.”

“Thank Maya, not me. You don’t act like you want to be here.”

“I do. Believe me.”

That gold light flashed in his eyes again, telling her he was sincere. She plain didn’t get him.

“I’m trying harder, Rena. I can prove it.” He shrugged his jacket open and lifted out a folded paper. “I put my land up for sale and got an offer. I brought it in to Leland Thomas to see if I should accept it or not.”

“You did?” That surprised her.

“Yeah. He says I should get more money for it, so I’m going to talk to a real estate agent and do that.”

“Oh. Well. That’s good then.” She smiled uncertainly, thinking she should say something kind. “Maya says there’s room for different kinds of Lifers.”

“Even arrogant assholes, right?” A lock of hair flopped over his forehead making him seem young and sweet.

She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The guy’s confidence loosened something in her. She liked that he could mock himself. She tended to get deadly serious. Maybe, as Maya said, if she stayed close, set a good example for him, he’d make a decent Lifer after all. “Don’t push it,” she said, one final warning. She started the elevator again.

“The true test will be giving up my motorcycle,” he said.

“You have a bike?” That made her ears perk up. She loved motorcycles.

“A Norton Commando.”

“A Commando? Wow.” They were old-school cycles from the ’50s—menacing, with a noisy beast of an engine—and her absolute favorite.

“You know it?”

“When I play
Lethal Wound
that’s what I ride. What size engine?”

“Eight-fifty.”

“Wow. Big. I’ve never driven a real one, just a Yamaha a friend had.”

“So drive mine. For as long as I still have her.”

Wow. She would love that. “Selling a Commando. I can see that would hurt.”

“A sacrifice for the greater good.” He tried to sound earnest, but she didn’t buy it.

“Try harder, but don’t bullshit.”

“Got it. I won’t let you down, Rena.” His voice was low and he held her gaze tight. He meant it and that warmed her in a place she’d forgotten needed heat.

“It’s the Family you’d be letting down, not me,” she said, uneasy about the guy. She’d gotten that feeling again—that Gage would have her back—when she had no evidence at all.

When the door opened on the eighth floor, he caught her staring at him. “What?”

“Just trying to figure you out.”

“I’m a simple guy, believe me.” Caramel flecks simmered in the dark soup of his eyes.

She didn’t. Not at all.

The elevator buzzed from being held open too long, startling her.

“After you.” He motioned for the hallway, a half smile on his face.

Heading for her new Quarters, Rena’s heart began to race. At the door, she slid the card into the slot, then out, her hands shaking a little. No green light. “Maybe it’s not coded yet.”
Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to jump so high so soon.

“This is your first time up here?”

She nodded. “The Watchers moved my gear for me.”

“Try jiggling the card.”

She did and it worked. She shot him a look of thanks, then opened the door to her new home.

Oh, my God.
It was so big, so airy, so beautiful. She sucked in a breath and took a slow three-sixty. There was a divider between the bedroom and the living area, and the kitchen was three times the size of her old one.

Gage went to one of the two windows where sunlight flooded in. She joined him. “You’ve got sky,” he said.

“I do.” Their shoulders bumped in a friendly way and she realized she was glad of his company. For the moment. She turned back to the room. The Watchers had arranged the furniture as it had been in her old place, but the pieces looked puny in all that space.

Gage crossed to her bedroom and bent to check beneath her bed. “Your stash is in place.”

She flushed, wondering what the Watchers thought about her hidden books. What she read seemed too personal to put out for anyone to see. At least Bunkin had been stowed in a drawer, so they hadn’t seen her only birth-mother souvenir, left with Rena in her basket in the hospital waiting room where she’d been abandoned.

“Your bed looks smaller in here.” Gage caught her gaze, heat in his eyes.

Her belly quivered and she couldn’t deny the shiver of want that passed through her. The sex with Gage had stayed with her, along with his scent. It was a hum in her head, a vibration on her skin. One more time? Bad idea. She was his Mentor, his guide. He should enjoy the other girls, score all the points he could. That was the fun of Lifer sex.

“I appreciate you letting me stay, even with your doubts.” He moved close, his words softer, his breath on her cheek, his smell filling her head.

“We need equipment techs and you’re decent in the Dome—”

“And good in bed?” He was coaxing her. “You saw God, remember?” He ran his hands down her arms, friendly, not pushy, pleasantly warm. “Come on. Admit it. You like me a little.”

She fought a smile. “Don’t push your luck, bucko.” She braced her palms against his chest. She hated the way her body responded to him. Her tattoo began to itch, as it did when she got agitated. She scratched it.

Gage watched her fingers move, as though it was something sexual. “So you get more ink now, right? Since you moved up?”

“Yeah.” She craned to look at her tat, a pale spiderweb nearly invisible in daylight. “I should hit Body Artist tonight if I can get a van. I want to be up to date for my new job.”

Three levels would be intense. Could she handle one sitting?

“You have a new job?”

“Yeah. I’ve been named Dome Commander.” She couldn’t help but smile. “And that’s a manager.”

“A manager, huh?” His eyes lit. “So that means more responsibility, right? More authority and access?”

“The big thing is I’m the first girl Dome Commander the Phoenix Lounge has ever had. And there are only three other girl managers here besides me.” She couldn’t help a surge of pride.