The Fae Book 3: Butcher and Raine

Chapter 4 (Raine): I'm In Trouble

When I walked into the cement room I'd been in the day before, Butcher right behind me, I realized just how right I'd been that this wasn't going to be a lovely champagne brunch kind of time with friends. My eyes first went to Aidan, who was tied to the chair I'd been in the previous day and his face looked a little worked over, blood splattered down his white shirt, one eye rapidly swelling shut.

Tied to the other chair, to my surprise, was Delilah, Aidan's ex-wife and another instructor in my studio. While she led regular yoga classes, she was also my Bikram yoga instructor. It was something I'd added to the studio's offerings about eight months ago at her urging when I'd hired her, but for some reason, hot yoga had never really taken off. Delilah's classes were very small in size, no more than five or six people four times a week, and I'd been considering trying different classes to replace them when the year on the class trial period was up.

Then, most horrifyingly, there was a strange man standing on his toes, hands above his head and the rope tying his wrists together was connected to a hook in the ceiling. He didn't look as if he'd been touched, but he looked pissed.

Three other men from Butcher's MC stood against the walls at various positions throughout the room, seemingly relaxed but their eyes were alert. Four of them, four of us. I couldn't say it was good guys versus bad guys, because they seemed to think we were the bad guys and Butcher and his men definitely weren't good guys by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe bad versus badder? The only problem was that I'd been cast as bad and I couldn't prove that I wasn't part of it...whatever it was.

Butcher nodded to one of his men, and I recognized him from yesterday when I'd been in the hot seat. Then, Butcher had been the one asking questions and the men had watched.

"Welcome, everyone," the man from the MC said as he came forward, his voice cheerful. "I'd like to thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us today. We'll try to respect everyone's time and get through our agenda as quickly as possible so you can get back to work."

My eyes shot to Butcher's to see how he was taking the man's dark humor, but I should have known. No trace of anything on that cold face. He didn't look impatient or amused or annoyed.

The man walked up to Delilah. 

"Now, Samson's downfall, I have a few questions for you."

"I don't...don't even know a Samson," she stumbled over her words.

"Samson and Delilah? Really?" He asked incredulously, and she shook her head. "Not sure how you got to this age without someone informing you about the most famous Delilah ever, but OK. We'll keep going. You got hired at Raine's wellness and yoga studio about eight months ago. Did you ever see Raine doing anything odd?"

Her eyes shifted and her face suddenly closed up. "Yes."

"And what was that?"

"Well, she met with Aidan once a week and accepted an envelope from him."

"For you!" I protested, and then Butcher was behind me, clapping his hand over my mouth.

"What was in the envelopes?"

"I don't know. I never saw what was in them."

The man asking questions -- I was starting to refer to him as Q in my head -- looked at Butcher and then turned back to Delilah.

"What do you do in your hot yoga classes?"

"Teach yoga."

"So, you have no involvement with Aidan's little group?"