Settling the Score (The Summer Games #1)(27)

“No. No. This one won’t do,” she said, eyeing me over the rim of her glasses. Up close, she was even smaller than I’d expected. Before I could protest, she abandoned her station at the counter and disappeared into the crowd. I glanced back at Michelle, confused.

“Out of my way!” the woman shouted, though I couldn’t pinpoint where exactly she was located in the room. She was a sneaky little thing.

People behind us in line eyed me with annoyance, but I shrugged and turned around. It was a few minutes before the woman sidled back behind the counter with a content exhale.

“Here,” she said, dropping a new mask on the counter in front of me and reaching to grab the cash out of my hand. “Melhor. Better.” She was ringing me up before I’d even confirmed that I wanted the new mask, but I’d have been an idiot to turn it down. It was exquisite, the same red hue as my dress and made completely of brocade lace. It tied in the back with black silk ribbon and I didn’t even care to find out what it cost. I needed it. Maybe I’d even wear it for the first game. And the one after that too.

Michelle helped me tie it once we’d made it back out to the hallway. The lace was soft against my skin, seductive even. I met my gaze in a hazy mirror hanging on the wall and silently thanked the woman for taking the time to find it for me. With my red dress, red lace mask, and confident smirk, I was hardly recognizable, even to myself.

“All right, let’s go,” Michelle said once her mask was in place. “I need a drink.”

I’d assumed the inside of the club would be less crowded than the mask room, but there were people everywhere. Even with three levels full of private tables, booths, and dark alcoves, I couldn’t take more than two steps without brushing against a random person.

The masks had a heady effect on the entire experience. Even the bartenders wore them so that when I leaned in to shout my drink order to one of them, I couldn’t be sure he’d heard me. He whipped around to reach for a bottle of liquor and I glanced up, taking in the entire club. The space was shaped like a rectangle with three stories. The center of the room was open from floor to ceiling so that the people on the top floors could lean over the railing and watch the dancers. It was like surround sound for all of the senses.

Michelle tapped my shoulder and I turned to find my drink waiting for me on the bar. We paid and wound back through the crowd, trying in vain to find the group Nathan had promised would be there. We tried the dance floor, curling around the perimeter of jostling bodies without luck.

“Let’s try the second floor,” Michelle said, pointing to a set of stairs in the corner of the room.

That was where we ended up finding them; they were sitting at a long table, three drinks ahead of us and loud enough to prove it. I’d nearly passed by them without notice, but Nathan had shouted my name.

“Andie!”

I turned and watched him stand to greet me on uneven footing. He smelled like liquor when he pulled me into a hug, but I smiled and introduced him to Michelle. Her smile was wide and genuine—clearly she was interested—and in an instant I felt like a third wheel.

“Michelle quiero mucho dance,” I said, hoping my broken Spanish would be close enough to the Portuguese translation.

Nathan arched a brow and held out his hand.

“Should we?”

Michelle’s big brown eyes widened behind her mask. “Oh, but I just got my drink.”

I rolled my eyes, took it out of her hand, and took a long sip. “There. Problem solved. Now go.”

Nathan wrapped his hand around her waist and led her back to the stairs we’d just climbed. Without him there, I didn’t have a real connection to the group, and even if I had hopes for recognizing someone, with the masks on, it was nearly impossible. I found a seat at the end of the long table just as everyone held up small shot glasses. The girl closest to me slid Nathan’s over and nodded.

“Are you a friend of Nathan’s?” she asked, eyeing my dress.

I shrugged. “Sort of. I’m here for the games.”

She smiled. “Same here.”

Maybe I’d have recognized her, but she was wearing an emerald green mask that covered most of her face, save for a pair of red lips.

“Okay!” a guy down the table shouted, drawing our attention back to the task at hand: shots. He held his glass in the air, sloshing a bit of Fireball Whisky over the side. “Here’s to winning gold, and drinking it too!”

“Cheers!” everyone called back as they tipped back their shots. I sniffed the glass and wrinkled my nose. My limit for the night had been one drink, and I already had two in front of me. If I started in on shots, there was no way I’d be a functioning human in the morning.

The shot was a good icebreaker though, especially since they didn’t notice me slide mine down the table untouched. Mask Girl and I got to talking and she introduced me to a few other people in the group. Names were too hard to hear over the music, and even the ones I did hear didn’t stick to memory. With the masks on, it wasn’t like it mattered anyway; we could have been anyone.

The table prepared for another shot and I glanced around for Michelle. I’d assumed she and Nathan would dance to a few songs and then head back up, but they’d been gone long enough that I wondered if they were even still inside the club. I pulled my phone out of my purse, secretly hoping for a text from Freddie. Nothing.