Pocket Dungeon 3, page 24
“Our security has gotten much tighter in the last few months,” he continued speaking as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “And so it’s much more interesting to see a new face than it used to be. Especially at a party. It’s less interesting at one of our auctions, because that’s usually when the most new... recently wealthy tend to appear. They’ve only just been inducted into this world, and our auctions tend to be one of their first tastes of the sort of things they could really be doing.”
I just made a noncommittal humming sound and nodded. I was pretty sure he was trying to get me to give him any sort of personal information, or at the very least something that could be reasonably used against me, but I refused to bite. I was not going to let him trick me into saying something I shouldn’t, especially not when I had three other women relying on me and my discretion for their safety.
I had no idea what someone like Elaene sold for, or Yasha for that matter, and hell, even Iris might be able to be sold for the sheer novelty of having come from a different time, and I wasn’t about to present him with the idea.
Every move I made in this party had to be perfectly, carefully calculated to make sure no one was hurt except the one person who deserved it. And right now, that person was still staring at me with his beady little eyes, and I realized he had probably said something and I’d entirely ignored it.
“Excuse me for saying it,” I began. “But I don’t understand why this is relevant to you personally. I’m sure there are plenty of people here you haven’t seen before, and I don’t have to explain myself to you, no matter how many billboards I’ve seen your face on.”
I kept my tone light and jovial, like this was all one big joke and he was in on it too, as opposed to the truth, which was I wanted to string him up limb from limb and use his entrails as curtains.
The surprisingly dark thought sprang up out of nowhere, and I felt like I probably had to vigorously shake my head to knock it free, and considering there was no discreet way to do that, I let the thought lie and sit where it was.
Black seemed unamused, but I doubted he’d go so far as to say something about it. If there was one thing I’d been able to pick up about this guy, it was that he was definitely one for keeping up appearances. After all, I was almost positive he’d seen Elaene, and if he had, why hadn’t he said anything about it? Was it some sort of long con, or was he trying to get me to surrender that information all on my own?
This was definitely some fucked-up game of chess, and not even the normal kind. I was now positive it was the 4D kind that was impossible to understand.
“Let’s just say I take an interest in any new faces I might see,” he said, which was so incredibly vague it effectively said nothing.
“And why is that?” Fuck beating around the bush, I wanted to know exactly what Archibald Black meant, and more than that, I wanted to keep this conversation going for as long as I possibly could, because the more I did, the more information I’d be able to get out of him.
It was a fine line I was walking along, and I knew I had to be careful not to sway too far to one side or the other, like I was dancing across a tightrope two stories up in the air.
A smirk slid across Black’s face. “A bold question.”
“I feel like it probably has a bold answer, too.” I met his gaze, and in it there was a challenge I hoped he couldn’t let himself back down from.
A few seconds passed, though it could have only been the blink of an eye, before Archibald Black responded.
“We’re always looking for important people,” he said. “Because in this world, important people can get important things done. And important people need to be… watched.”
Well, didn’t that sound fantastic.
“I’m just here for my own business,” I said. “I don’t want to get involved in the hierarchy of things, and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”
It was true, in a sense, even though I definitely did want to step on some toes, and I was actively trying to get involved in the hierarchy of things. In fact, I hoped that my three women flitting about the party in my far line of sight were finding out the information I needed so I could do just that. Things would certainly be easier if they managed it, that was for sure.
“Of course,” Black said with the same flat tone as before. He might as well have had a bright, blinking neon sign over his head that read ‘I don’t believe you! And actually I think you’re a fucking liar! Oh, and I don’t trust you at all!’
It was a lot of words for a neon sign, but he was putting off those vibes very, very specifically.
I rocked back on my heels and tried to emulate the cool, casual stance of James Bond, or someone who just generally wasn’t sweaty and nervous in a tuxedo as I continued to stare Black down.
I’d definitely hoped it would get easier to look evil in the face after everything that had gone down with William Harper, but I was getting the feeling it was one of those things that would always eat at a part of my soul.
But I was more than willing to let that happen for the continued greater good, that was for sure.
“Is that all?” I tilted my head to the side and raised an eyebrow dubiously.
“Not quite,” Black admitted. “You claim not to be interested in the hierarchy of things, but you’re here, and as I said, this is not one of our auctions.”
I looked around and tried to make it seem like I was somehow surprised by this, like maybe I’d accidentally slipped and fallen straight into a tux, and somehow walked here in a sort of fugue state.
Black clearly didn’t buy it, and I doubted it was because I wasn’t selling it well enough.
“Fine,” I sighed and held up one of my hands while keeping the one with the Ring of Invisibility slipped onto a finger tucked inside my tuxedo pants’ pocket. “I haven’t been entirely forthcoming with you.”
Black’s dead eyes flashed, and for the first time since we’d begun talking, there was something akin to life in them. It didn’t make him look any better, however, and if anything, it made him look distinctly more terrifying, like he wanted to suck all the vitality straight out of me to keep up that feeling on his end.
No fucking thanks.
“I met someone in one of the dungeons,” I offered up a false explanation. “I didn’t realize at the time he was someone affiliated with this organization, but I saved his life.”
The lie rolled off my tongue easier and easier with each second, and Black’s eyes never left my face as I told him my story.
“After we were safe, he told me that he was part of a group he thought I might be interested in, especially once he learned I have a… proclivity for the sort of woman that’s hard to find.”
Now, a light seemed to flash in Black’s eyes, and for the first time since he’d stalked over to me, he seemed to regard me as a sort of kindred spirit.
It was gross and the last thing I ever wanted from a man like this, but it was also something I definitely needed to keep up.
I continued spinning the yarn, and all the while we spoke, I watched as the three women in my life circled us closer and closer as they spoke with the various balding fat cats, and more importantly, the women clinging to their sides.
It was a clever move. They were almost definitely more likely to get what they needed from the women than they were the men.
I wished I had some sort of way to silently communicate with them that I needed them to cause a distraction so I could get the ring from Black, but something like that was far easier said than actually done.
“That is an… interesting story,” Black said. “In fact, it falls in line with something I have recently been told, about one of our lower ranking men nearly succumbing to an injury in a dungeon against some sort of shadow creature.”
Alarm bells began ringing in my mind even louder than before. That was obviously the guy Yasha and I had saved, but did that mean he reported directly to Black, or was this something else passed along through the grapevine?
“I’m not the sort of person who can just leave someone in a dungeon to die,” I said, and if Black caught the caustic edge to my tone, or the way my eyes flickered to the three, gorgeous women conducting our plan just over his shoulder, he didn’t react to it.
“A very honorable trait,” Black said. “Though I don’t know how far ahead that will get you in a world like ours. Let me let you in on a secret.”
He took a step closer to me, and I fought every instinct in my body that told me to step away. I could feel the revulsion working its way through me like a sickness, and I hoped it didn’t radiate off of me, though that was probably far easier said than done.
“Go on,” I urged him and worked to keep my voice calm and steady.
“A member of our society has… recently passed,” Black said without so much as a hint of real sympathy in his tone. “And many people are now climbing to try and take his place in this world. It would be wise to choose your allies well, and to be careful just how honorable you are inside the walls of the dungeons. Not everyone will have your… outlook on life.”
Black smiled and showed off two rows of perfectly white, pearly teeth. I’d half-expected them to be rotting and falling out of his mouth, like the wretchedness inside him had to escape somehow, but of course, that wasn’t the case.
He was rich and smiled on billboards for a living while he ruined lives, both human and not. He would never have something so uncouth as bad teeth. How lower middle-class of him that would be.
“Thanks,” I said flatly. “But I think I’m more than fine doing things my way.”
Black studied me without speaking, and his gaze dragged over me in a way that was far too lecherous for my comfort. I didn’t care what way he swung, or if he swung both, because all I wanted was to swing a baseball bat at his skull.
But I still could have done without the unblinking, evil lizard stare thing he had going on at the moment.
“Of course,” he said, and he’d taken on the tone of someone with the knowledge they were right, and soon enough the person they were speaking with would know just how wrong they were.
It made my fucking skin crawl, and I wanted to scream, or at the very least, I wanted to hit him with my car.
I saw a flash of Elaene’s dark hair and pearlescent skin, and rage filled my chest all over again.
This man wasn’t just evil and manipulative on some vague, unknowable level. No. I had proof of just how terrible he was, and I had specific stories.
“If you don’t mind,” I said and worked very hard to keep my voice calm. “I would like to get back to the party.”
And with that, I moved to step past Black.
My shoulder brushed into his harder than strictly necessary, but it was entirely on purpose. I needed to see how he’d react to something like that, because I needed to gauge how aware he’d be of his body. More specifically, how aware he’d be of that arm in particular.
But Black didn’t let me step past him. Just as I thought I was in the clear, his arm shot out, and his hand curled around my bicep with an almost painfully tight grip.
“Was there something else?” I tried to keep my tone casual.
“There is,” Black said. He didn’t let go of my arm. “The woman you were with, the siren.”
It took me a moment to even realize what, or rather who he was talking about, because out of the three women who’d accompanied me to this party, not one of them was a siren. But Elaene certainly could pass for one.
“Excuse me?” I tried to laugh it off, like this was all some big misunderstanding.
“Elaene.” The way he said her name made bile rise up in my throat, and I wished I could rip the word out of his mouth. “Where did you find her?”
I thought fast. “Personal deal.”
“A… personal deal?” Black repeated me.
“Used to work through William Harper.” I was lying through my teeth, but so far it didn’t seem like I was raising any immediate alarm bells. “But now he’s freelance, trying to find his way back into a market scene, but he had some overstock.”
Even lying about Elaene like this made my skin crawl.
Black stared at me without so much as blinking for a few long, dragging seconds until finally, the pressure on my arm released, and he pulled his hand back.
“Of course,” Black said. He opened his mouth, like maybe there was something else he wanted to say, but he closed it just as quickly.
“If that’s all then, I’ll be going,” I repeated what I’d said before, and this time when I moved away from him, he didn’t try to stop me.
My eyes cut down to the ring on his finger for just a moment, but I knew there was no way I could just make a mad grab for it.
I wasn’t a pickpocket, but I’d lived in the city long enough to have observed a few tricks of the trade, not that I’d ever actually used any of them. But I couldn’t deny, there was something oddly fascinating about watching how people managed to steal seemingly unstealable things without anyone catching them.
Except me, apparently.
I’d once even stopped someone from taking my own wallet as they complimented my shirt, but I knew it would require something a little different than that to get the ring off Black’s finger.
It was practically superglued on there for fuck’s sake, and hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if it actually was. He seemed like the sort of guy who was simultaneously paranoid enough about someone stealing his property he’d literally glue it to himself, while also being a rich douchebag who loved to show off.
Guys like that were always their own downfall.
He flinched just a little as my shoulder hit his, but his arm didn’t move into any sort of protective stance over the ring.
Good. He clearly didn’t seem to think anyone would think it was anything important, and I could take advantage of something like that.
After all, why would I have known his ring was actually the key to get into his entire house? It seemed like a sort of crazy thing to have logically leaped to.
Black didn’t stop me as I walked away from him, but I didn’t need to turn around to know he was watching me. I could feel the heavy weight of his eyes boring into the back of my skull like he was trying to blow up my brain with his mind as I made my way over to where Iris was engaged in what looked to be an incredibly boring conversation with a man who looked so geriatric, I was honestly sort of worried he’d drop dead at any second.
Especially if he kept staring at her breasts like that.
Obviously, they were goddamned impressive breasts, and I found myself torn between annoyance that this fucker was staring at her like that, and amusement that Iris was clearly using it to her advantage.
A foot to the left, Elaene and Yasha were linked arm in arm and speaking with a woman with long, pink hair in hushed, vigorous tones about what I hoped was whoever was in charge of all this bullshit.
Iris’ eyes flashed over to me, and a look of relief washed over her face.
It was hard not to look amused, but I did my best to look annoyed instead as I turned my attention to the man covered with so many age spots, he looked like a perfectly browned tortilla.
“Can I help you?” I asked him in the douchiest tone I could manage.
I thought I was definitely getting the hang of the asshole rich guy persona, though Iris had to duck her head down and discreetly cover her mouth as she coughed out a laugh.
Okay, apparently I was not one hundred percent believable yet, but was that really such a bad thing when it came to the women in my life who I loved dearly? I didn’t think so.
Age Spots frowned so hard I was worried his dentures were going to pop out, and he took a very slight, shuffling step backward, like he’d been caught in the act of something far more scandalous than staring at my girlfriend’s breasts like they were about to start talking themselves.
“There you are,” Iris cooed in delight, and now I understood why she’d had such a hard time taking my act seriously. I wanted to laugh at her, too. This was the world’s least sexy roleplaying game. “I was just speaking with Milton here about a new business deal we’ve been working on.”
“Ah, right, the business deal.” I had no idea what she was talking about, but her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and her head tilted to the side. It was the universal look of ‘just fucking go with it.’
“Yes,” Milton, and god, he really did look like a Milton, croaked out. He reached up and smoothed the front of his tuxedo like he needed to collect himself. “It sounded quite fascinating from what your… lady has explained.”
“I’m sure it does,” I said.
“Though, I am not certain if I am the best person to speak to about something like that,” he loudly continued on like I hadn’t spoken at all. It only took a second glance for me to see the little hearing aid slotted into his ears.
No wonder he was practically screaming at us.
“Oh, you aren’t?” Iris somehow managed to look absolutely crestfallen at the premise of not having to talk to this walking corpse for much longer.
Needless to say, I was definitely impressed.
Milton shook his head, and I was worried he was going to knock off his own equilibrium and hit the deck. Considering I didn’t have my Life Alert handy, he’d probably have to stay there if he broke a hip.
“No,” he said and sounded just as disappointed as Iris made herself look. “I am a small fish in this big pond. Not to say I’m small--”
I cut him off by holding up my hand.
“And who should we talk to then?” I asked before he could offer any more vague allusions to the size of his penis, which was something I never wanted to think about in the first place, much less ever again.
“I don’t know.” Milton smiled at Iris more than he did me, and I got a lovely view of his very brown gums and the teeth that clearly weren’t his own. “But I am more than willing to keep speaking until we are able to figure it out. I’m sure it won’t take too long. Or maybe it will. I have plenty of time to spare tonight, and if you need me to accompany your lovely woman–”
