The Muse (Interracial Mystery Romance) (Dark Art Mystery Series) (2 page)

“But you offered me a job.”

“Again, I offered you an opportunity for employment.” He wrapped his fingers around mine and guided me forward. “Now let’s see if you’ve earned the right to work for me.”

Earn the right to work for him? How dare he?

I stopped in my place and loosed my fingers from his. “What do you mean earn it? I’ve proven I can model through my portfolio. I came here for work and to be a part of creating art, not participate in a bunch of riddles and contests.”

“Then you’re trying to work for the wrong person.” The other man unbuttoned the lower half of his suit jacket. “My brother can only function with games. He knows no other method. By the way, I’m Alvarez.”

“Hello, Alvarez. Nice to meet you.” I stepped around him and glared at Hex. “This isn’t fair. I’ve flown across the country to get here.”

And let’s not forget that I have no money to fly back and no one to ask for help!

Hex shrugged. “This is my process. I don’t grab a model for her pretty face or slender frame. That’s not my painting style. I don’t try to depict her image. My goal is to illustrate her soul.”

Illustrate her soul? Really?

Tons of smart remarks and several curse words flooded my head.
This all has been a
massive waste of time.
I’d sold every item of jewelry I owned to get traveling money from California to Florida. I’d even dumped my credit cards so Michael couldn’t track my movements, cards that held huge limits. This was supposed to be a new start, an unknown path to a bold adventure. Instead, a blockade rose from the path in the form of Hex, and there was no way around him.

They exchanged glances and Hex stepped back. I must have scared them with my

shocked expression. My mouth was wide open. Disgust drenched my eyes. Both of my hands were balled into fists. Now I was really more interested in the body bag from earlier. Had Hex driven his prior model to suicide? Had his other models been as desperate as me? Because surely anyone with another option would have fled the property upon meeting him.

I leaned my weight on one foot. Hex quirked an eyebrow. I continued to glare. “What are the questions?”

“Okay. Hold on.” Alvarez got between us. “Before we begin this . . . interview, I need to know more about you.” He glanced at Hex over his shoulder. “And you have to tell me about this new project.” He returned his view to mine. “But first, what is your name and how did Hex find you?”

“I didn’t find her. She found me.” Hex held out his arms. “And I can’t believe you don’t recognize her. She’s Michael’s Archangel. You are looking at the only reason why Michael’s works were relative in the past ten years.”

Alvarez studied my face. My stomach twisted in nervousness. I figured Hex had realized who I was when I sent him my portfolio, but I didn’t think he would bring it up so soon or that it would’ve been a big factor in him hiring me.
How naïve. I should have never applied.
The last thing I wanted was to be a pawn in Hex’s and Michael’s game of wits and war.

Alvarez inched back. “Dear God, you
are
Michael’s Archangel.”

“I’m not his anything anymore. I’m no longer employed by him.”

“Do you have this in writing?” Alvarez’s gaze traveled from my head to my toes. “If you’re in contract with him and end up working for my brother this would cause major complications.”

“We didn’t have a contract,” I lied. As far as I was concerned Michael’s employment contract with me was null and void once he broke the agreement to my heart. We didn’t have an official pact of love, at least not one that was written in ink and preserved on paper. We promised each other forever, that our bodies, souls, hearts, and possessions belonged to the other for the rest of our lives. We swore to always forgive during the broken moments of our love. And after eight years, he corrupted our promises with lies, emotional abuse, and my shattered heart. Our heartfelt deal was now done and I couldn’t care less if Michael liked my posing for Hex or not.

I just need to get the chance to pose and not have Michael find out while I’m doing it. I
won’t let him mess this up for me.

Alvarez pointed at me. “I’m going to need to verify this with Michael. If you’re under contract with him, then it will keep any works produced by Hex with you in them from being revealed until we have Michael’s permission to use you.”

“I assure you I’m not working for him anymore.”

“Nevertheless, if you don’t have a contract, then I want Michael saying that in writing.

I’ll call him.”

“Why?” I forced myself not to bite my lip or show any of my nervous habits. “I have the official documents where he releases me from working with him. I just have to get my mother to send them. I don’t want Michael contacted.”

“Why not?”

“We didn’t end on good terms.”

And Michael would do everything in his power to stop me from working with Hex or
anyone else.

Hex clapped. “Good, that bastard Michael never deserved you anyway. He didn’t have

any idea how to truly display your beauty. We don’t need any official documents.”

“Yes. We do.” Alvarez formed his lips into a frown. “Until then, I don’t want you

working with her.”

“Her name’s Elle and I’ll do what I like.” Hex headed over to me and hooked his skinny arm under mine. “Now back to round two. What’s your biggest talent outside of modeling?”

“Excuse me?” I struggled to keep up with Hex’s fast pace. For a small guy, he had speed.

The lilies around us blurred into a palette of morphed spring colors. Alvarez speed-walked behind us and spouted out more legal terms before finally giving up and blurting out a few Spanish words. I recognized them as popular curse words used in many films.

“What’s something you’re good at?” Hex bumped my hip with his. Instead of dragging

me to the front double doors carved in mahogany, he guided me around the huge castle. I would’ve loved a slower pace, to take in the intricate details in gray stone or ask how they’d managed to build a castle in the southern part of Miami. But I couldn’t. Hex was too fast and I was too desperate to get this job.

What is my talent?

I burned ninety percent of the things I cooked, had many pets and plants die on me from my own neglect, and failed most of the classes I took years ago in high school, which is why I didn’t have my diploma. Once Michael’s first painting of me surged to national success while we were only in our senior year, we decided to drop out and use his royalties to live in California.

What the hell is my talent?
All of my art sucked. My paintings were abstract blobs of colors. My photographs held blurry images. I’d dreamed of sculpting, but never did it. My singing caused most to escape the room. My dancing triggered the same. The only thing I knew and loved was movies.

“I’m a movie buff.”

“That’s not a talent.” Hex snorted and increased his pace. If we went any faster, we would be jogging.

“Knowing movies is definitely a talent.”
Right?
“If you say a movie line from a reasonably popular movie, no matter how obscure the line is, I can tell you where it came from.”

That slowed Hex down. I caught my breath while I could, checked over my shoulder, and spotted Alvarez’s gaze planted directly on my behind. His face reddened when he looked back up at me, and the unguarded part of me heated, but I shook that sensation away. This position was about many things. Starting up something new with a man so soon after the breaking of my heart was not on my goals’ list.

“How obscure of a line can it be?” Hex stopped us right in front of a small structure done in the same stone as the castle, but barely the size of a two bedroom house. Huge glass windows flanked the front door. A brown sign hung on the center of the opening that read, “Only authorized personnel.”

“Well, the lines can’t be something so vague like ‘Hi.’ Almost every movie has that. The line should be more than seven words and actually be from a movie.”

He grinned. “And if I say a few lines, you can tell me the movie?”

“Most likely.”

“This is your talent?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Here’s the deal. I say five movie lines. You get at least three correct and I’ll pass you to the next round.”

This is so stupid, but what other choice do I have, but to play his childish games?

“Okay.” Hex rubbed his hands together. “Let’s begin. Alvarez, can you think of a movie line? Nothing’s coming to my head.”

“I’m not going to be a part of this silly interview process.” Alvarez crossed his big arms over his chest. The movement stretched the material of his shirt as his biceps bulged. “And as I said before, even if you do decide to hire her, we need—”

“We don’t need anything but my approval.” Hex lowered himself to the ground and

folded his legs into the Indian style sitting pose. “Oh! I’ve got one. ‘With your blood, I’ll paint a clown.’”

Alvarez shifted his weight from side to side. I wasn’t sure if he was nervous about the game or my possible violation of the contract. Either way, he fidgeted with his fingers and dabbed at a tiny bead of sweat forming on his forehead.

“Did I stump you already?” Hex asked me.

Not even close.

What made a movie buff different from others was the amount of freakish details they chose to fill their heads with. The typical movie-goer remembered the big lines, the ones that you could find on the film’s shirts and posters, just a bunch of tag-lines used for promotion. A true movie buff memorized the odd ones that said more about the story’s theme or characters as well as reading up on the history and interesting tidbits in creating the film. From that line alone, I realized that Hex didn’t go to the movies much. He’d picked a classic gore film that had inspired almost all horror directors of our generation. Scary movies now either redid similar blood splatter scenes or attempted to revisit those with new concepts.

“No. You didn’t stump me. The line is from the horror movie
The Bedtime Killer
. The murderer said it each time he killed a child.” I should’ve left it there, but once I started with movies, I couldn’t stop. “The main actor actually quit
The Bedtime Killer
in the middle of the movie because his wife was pregnant and he couldn’t deal with all of the gory scenes with kids.

Another actor finished the scenes in the last thirty minutes of the movie. In order to fix the fact that the actors playing the killer no longer looked the same, the director had the new actor wearing a ridiculous mask that’s supposed to be made out of his victims’ flesh, but really appeared like a bad kindergarten craft project.”

Alvarez raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

“You’re good.” Hex nodded his head. “That movie did so badly I didn’t think more than fifty people throughout the US saw it.”

“I love bad horror and action films.”

“Don’t we all?” He grinned and then gestured to Alvarez. “Well, except my brother. He hates horror movies and is scared of clowns, so he wouldn’t have remembered the line.”

“I remembered and I’m not afraid of clowns. I just don’t appreciate them around me.”

Alvarez ceased his fidgeting. “Get on with the rest of the questions.”

“Fine. You never like to have fun.” Hex brushed away a bug that landed on his leg.

“Since you love horror and action, I’ll say a movie in another genre. ‘Your love is like a tower—

’”

“‘Arching high above everyone around you and showering them in forgiveness.’ That’s Finley’s line in
After One Goodbye
. FYI, the actor who played Finley wrote and directed the film.” I exhausted all of my energy in maintaining a neutral expression. A mocking smile begged to burst from my face, but I remained calm. I still needed to get another quote correct. Now that he knew I was good with movies, he would make the lines more difficult.

Hex stared at the ground and tapped his finger on his knee the whole time. It must’ve been five minutes before he finally looked up with a wicked grin. “Okay. There’s no way you’re going to get this one. ‘I’m sorry, mister. We can’t get you no help.’”

Hundreds of titles raced through my head. I’d seen the movie and heard the line, but which one was it? The fact that the person said
mister
made me think that the character who said it was young. My speculation didn’t guarantee it, but it was worth a guess. The bad use of language with
can’t get no help
symbolized that a decent amount of dialect was used in the movie, most likely southern dialect.

I thought about all of the southern movies I’d watched and something hit me. “You’re not saying the line correctly.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I can’t think of the line, but it sounds like another one. Those aren’t the words.”

“Then you have the wrong movie.”

“Or you don’t know the actual quote.”

Hex huffed and glanced at Alvarez.

“Don’t look at me.” Alvarez shook his head. “You’re the one who wanted to do this.

Maybe you should stop playing so many games.”

“But do you know what line I’m talking about?” Hex asked.

“I have no idea.” Alvarez checked his watch. “Let’s make this quick. I have an

appointment in an hour about getting your works in the Metropolitan Art Museum.”

“Then go.” Hex waved him away.

“I’m not going to let you do any major business moves, like hiring, without my being around.”

“Maybe you should stop trying to be so controlling.”

“Just finish your game.” Alvarez directed his attention to me. “And additionally, if she can prove that you’ve said the movie quote wrong and say the film’s title, then you get rid of the next round and hire her.”

I formed my lips into a huge smile. “I love that idea.”

“But that’s boring. I have a whole obstacle course behind the gallery.” Hex rose from the ground. “What am I going to do with all of that stuff?”

“Let the kids from your art class this afternoon play on it.” Alvarez checked his watch again. “Come on. She proves you wrong, she’s hired. However, I still need those official documents.”