“What is this place?” she asked, feeling stupid, feeling like a tourist.  “I mean, what’s it called?  Your club… what’s the name of it?”

 

“My club has no name,” Conrad said as he swept her hair over her shoulder.  “Everybody in the group knows that when night falls, you come to Conrad’s.”  His dark eyebrows lowered into a dubious expression.  “But you’re not part of the group, so I wonder how you knew to come here.  It’s a carefully guarded secret.”

 

What was she supposed to say?  I heard about it from an alien squirrel?  But as she struggled to formulate a response, the music inside the club went from loud to louder and she jumped right off the ground.

 

Conrad’s dubious grin swelled into a full-blown smirk.  “You’re not from around here, are you?”

 

“Is it really that obvious?”

 

His eyes twinkled in a way that made her wonder if he enjoyed her discomfort.  “Come on, let me show you my office.  It’s considerably quieter in there.”

 

He took her by the arm with a grasp that told her she was going nowhere but with him.