Fool's Gold by Jaye Wells Page A

much to me on the way over. I tried to play it cool, but inside I was stoked. Even though I’d graduated with honors from assassin school five years earlier, most of my jobs thus far involved roughing up vampires who forgot to pay their tithes to the Dominae. This would be my first kill mission, which was why I’d been paired up with a more experienced assassin.
    Among Enforcers, Slade Corbin was a legend. The instructors at school spoke about his feats with reverence and had used some of his more daring missions as case studies. Rumor had it he was less than a century old, which was hard to believe. But looking at him, I believed it. The light auburn color gave him away. If he’d been an older vamp, the shade would be darker. For him to have accomplished so much at such a young age meant he was someone I’d be able to learn a few things from.
    He turned the car off and leaned toward me. “Okay, this is how it’s going to work. You’re going to shut up and stay out of my way. I ask the questions. I make the decisions. And when we find this asshole, we’re going to split the payment ninety-ten.”
    My mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”
    â€œWhich word didn’t you understand?”
    I cocked my head to the side. Slade might be a legend, but no one spoke to me that way. “Listen, buddy, I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but the Dominae asked us to team up on this. I’m not going to sit around and let you collect all the money.” Or the respect , I amended silently. I’d waited too long for a real chance to prove myself to the Dominae as an assassin for this guy to get all the glory.
    â€œNo, you listen, sweetheart. You make trouble and I will end you. I’ve got a lot riding on this payday for some rookie to fuck it up for me. So, you’ll march your ass in there and watch while I find our guy and get the job done. For your trouble, you’ll walk away with ten percent. And I’m being generous here. Ten large for doing nothing is a good deal.”
    I could tell this asshole wasn’t going to listen to reason. Fine, I decided. Let him believe I was just some inexperienced hack. “Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you do the talking in there if you agree to a seventy-thirty split.”
    He cursed under his breath, something about godsdamned stubborn females. “How about ninety-ten and I don’t kick you off the case altogether?”
    â€œYou can’t do that!”
    â€œWatch me.”
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    The bouncer at the door waved us in. Slade swaggered ahead of me, and I followed along, glaring daggers at his back.
    I’d been in this place before. Being an Enforcer for the Dominae meant I had to experience the seedier sides of the vampire underworld on a regular basis. Strip clubs especially seemed to attract tithe-avoiding repeat offenders, so I spent a lot of time staking them out. That allowed me to make contacts with the club owners and bouncers, who understood the benefits of cooperating with an Enforcer. For me, the relationships meant I had access to the who’s who in order to find out the what’s what .
    As far as clubs went, the Tit Crypt fell into the lower end of the spectrum. Instead of valet service and tight-assed chicks with glorious racks, it offered an all-you-can-eat buffet and hard-looking females who didn’t even try to conceal the boredom on their overly made-up faces.
    On the stage, a female with red hair twisted into Bo Derek braids swayed her hips in time to the disco tragedy of Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls.” I shook my head at the music. How a race that had invented disco managed to rule the world while vampires had to stay in the shadows escaped me.
    In contrast to the disco-inspired fashions favored by most of the strippers, I wore a “God Save the Queen” T-shirt studded with safety pins, torn jeans, and biker boots. I topped the entire ensemble off