Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Bad weather? No problem. Nina’s staff would pull the doors ninety percent shut. Never was the club totally enclosed while in operation—because while her more rambunctious bear and wolf guests might occasionally earn Nina’s ire, she understood the needs of changelings.
It was all the more extraordinary because Nina wasn’t changeling. She was, as she’d once told Yakov, “a full-blooded and proud-of-it human.” Some might take that as an insult against the other races, but Yakov had understood the context of her comment—changelings weren’t like how the Psy had been for so long, looking down their noses at the rest of the world, but his race, too, had a way of underestimating humans simply because humans tended to be less physically strong.
Petite Nina’d had to fight for respect when she first took over as the manager of the then-ailing Club Moscow. The place had been all but on life support. Which was probably why the owner had sold it to her for a song when she’d made him an offer. At which point, Nina had shut the entire place down for a month before opening it with a “free beer and vodka night” that had turned into the party to end all parties and firmly established the club as the hottest destination in town.
Club Moscow reflected her in every facet—including the efficiency with which she sent out invoices to StoneWater for bear-related damage to the glossy black décor. The walls of the club were painted that shade inside and out, as were the noise-canceling fences that surrounded it.
Any impression of a warehouse, however, was obliterated the instant you walked inside—and into a space accented by lights that changed with the mood of the club. Early on in the evening, most of it emanated from fairy lights, a sweetly romantic setting for folks who came to slow dance and grab dinner at the excellent restaurant that took up one-quarter of the floor area inside the warehouse.
With him and Theo having stopped at a food cart to grab a bite, it was past ten by the time he parked and they began to walk the couple of blocks to the club. This time of night, the lights would be a dazzling array of blades, blue and purple and pink and red, and every other color you could imagine. The restaurant would’ve also closed its tables, the kitchen switching over to quick and tasty bar snacks.
He felt the vibration of the music under his feet the instant he pushed through the gate in the fence. It swung shut automatically behind them, containing the noise within once more. Nina had to have spent an enormous amount on the soundproofing—but now she didn’t have to pay fines to the city for breaching noise ordinances. Especially important in a city full of changelings with acute hearing.
Leaning in close to Theo as the two of them walked up to the door manned by two bouncers, both in slick black-on-black suits, he said, “Stasya figures Nina has to be in debt up to her neck with all the work she’s done to modernize the club. But damn she got results. Place is never empty. Even doubles as an event venue in the daytime.”
“Then any debt was a considered and smart risk.”
“Yeah, but none of us can figure out who would’ve given her the financing. Won’t have been the bank, not when all she had as collateral was a run-down club. I know she didn’t come to StoneWater, and I’ve never heard any hint of the wolves being involved. And she wasn’t born into money; nor does she have any shady connections.”
StoneWater had done a background check as a matter of course once Nina began to rise in the city’s entertainment district—a security measure to ensure she didn’t have any unsavory ties that could lead to criminal activity. “Pasha and Stasya even dug through her public business filings. No hint of her backer in any of those records.”
Theo gave him a look so affectionate that his bear was immediately her adoring slave. “It’s driving all you nosy bears nuts, isn’t it? The not knowing?”
Not even thinking about it, he nipped lightly at her ear, making her squeak. “It’s not nice to laugh at people.”
Eyes alight in the way they’d been in his dreams, she didn’t tell him off for assuming he could just nip at her. His bear took note.
And adored her even more when she said, “Won’t this be too loud for you?”
Lifting his hand to his ear, he removed one low-profile earplug to show her. “Created for changelings out of SnowDancer Labs. I put them in right after we got out of the car. Brings the sound below the pain threshold.” Still much louder than normal life, but that was the point of a club.
“If we forget our own,” he said after slipping it back in, “Nina’s people are delighted to sell us a disposable set at an exorbitant markup.”