Read Redemption Song for Free Online

my way into Lauren’s little fiefdom, but I had a would-be Robin Hood who shared my agenda.
    “By ‘in there,’ you mean…” I dreaded the answer.
    “Inside the Carmichael-Sterling offices. All I need to do is get to a router closet and put a tap on their lines. Crack them open from the inside out. Easy-peasy.”
    “Not happening.”
    “I’m not new at this game,” Pixie said, frowning. “This better not be some protect-the-poor-innocent-girl shit, Faust. I’ve social-engineered my way into way scarier places than a real-estate development company.”
    I shook my head. “They’re bigger than you think. What are our other options? There’s got to be another way.”
    “Not if you want access. I can’t do this from the outside. And if I can’t, you won’t find anybody in the business who can.”
    My phone rang. Cait , the screen read. Probably calling to read me the riot act for letting her sleep. I fished out a couple of rumpled fifties from my pocket and pressed them into Pixie’s hand.
    “Here. For your work today. Give me tonight to think it over, and we’ll decide tomorrow.”
    “Your donation is appreciated,” she said, getting up and walking back to the soup line.
    I cupped my hand over my other ear to drown out the din of the crowded hall as I answered the phone. “Hey hon,” I started to say, “sorry about the—”
    “You need to get down here,” she said. “Now. Ten minutes ago. And wear something nice.”
    “Wait, what? What’s up?”
    Ronald Reagan once said the nine scariest words in the English language were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” In one fell swoop, Caitlin beat that with six of her own.
    “Prince Sitri wants to meet you.”
    • • •
    It wasn’t every day that I was summoned to an audience with a creature older than Rome, who could probably burn me to ashes just by thinking about it. I wore my nice jacket and a deep purple tie.
    Winter didn’t look much like a nightclub from the outside. It was nestled between tourist traps on the north end of the Strip with only a small brass sign and a slim blue neon arrow to point the way down a short flight of steps to the door. There was a line out front every night of the week, though, snaking down the block and around the corner. I’d never been there. I wasn’t much for nightclubs, and besides, I knew who owned this one.
    Caitlin met me at the sidewalk, dressed to kill in a black dress with one flared lace shoulder. She pulled me into an embrace that nearly lifted me off my feet.
    “Aren’t you excited?” she said, beaming.
    More like scared shitless, but I put on my best smile for her.
    “I’d feel better if I knew what this was about,” I said as she took my arm and led me past the line, up to a pair of bouncers in wraparound shades.
    “Isn’t it obvious? That whole business with the Etruscan Box. You stopped Lauren from opening it, you saved the day, and more importantly, you saved my prince. He wants to commend you. Perhaps even reward you.”
    I could do without getting any presents from a demon prince. There was no such thing as “no strings attached” in Sitri’s world. Still, I stayed close to Caitlin as the bouncers lifted the velvet rope for us without a word. Beyond the black doors, a whirlwind of light and teeth-rattling bass washed over us. Ice white and sapphire blue were the colors of the night, while fractals in emerald and gold exploded over wall-mounted LCD displays. Even without the crowd, churning and writhing under the hot lights, it would have been pure sensory overload.
    We walked down a broad, curving staircase. Below, a bar coated in onyx tiles curved around the packed dance floor. Caitlin said something I couldn’t hear, and I leaned closer.
    “—DJ just got back from a tour in Japan!” she shouted. “We poached him from the Regal!”
    I bobbed my head, my feet moving to the beat despite my curmudgeonly efforts to resist. Caitlin led me down a side corridor