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Gabriel adjusts his mask, thanking Marissa once again before turning and striding through the doors into the belly of the beast that is Club Venom.
Here, as they say, is where two roads divide.
One road leads me out the front door, into a cab, and back to home to my apartment with the three shiny new locks on the door.
The other leads me to dark places I shouldn’t go. To secret shadows I have no business actually exploring.
You know which one wins.
Marissa smiles at me as I step out from behind the velvet curtain, slipping my wig back on and handing her my bag again.
“Change of plans,” I mumble awkwardly, my face blooming. “I think I’ll need that mask again, please.”
“Of course, miss.”
She disappears and comes back a second later holding the mask I was wearing earlier along with the gold and white observer’s wristband.
“Actually…” My face throbs, and I sink my teeth into my bottom lip, avoiding her eyes as I push the wristband back across the sleek top of the concierge desk. “Could I have red?”
Marissa doesn’t bat an eye. “Of course, Ms. Yamaguchi. Will that be red with black, or red with gold?”
Black lines signify a Dom. Gold ones, a sub.
“Gold,” I mumble, not looking at her.
She nods professionally, her face devoid of judgement as she opens a case and pulls out a red band with gold lines and hands it to me.
“Will there be anything else, Ms. Yamaguchi?”
I shake my head quickly. “No,” I choke, my pulse roaring in my ears as I slip the band onto my wrist, adjust my mask, and turn back toward the doors that will lead me to sin.
“Enjoy your night.”
5
FUMI
The orgy has only escalated when I step back into the main lounge. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh and moans of pleasure fill the air as the participants in the middle of the room writhe and thrust.
What are you doing?
I should leave. The gutsy, devil-may-care attitude I just had out in the main lobby disappears completely once I’m fully immersed again in the dark eroticism of this place. Very quickly, a sense of outsider syndrome creeps into my psyche.
You don’t belong here.
A waiter drifts by with a tray of champagne. Flushed, I grab a flute and take a greedy sip to calm my nerves. My eyes swivel around the room, widening as I drink in the dark and sultry scene unfolding around me.
No. That’s not why I came back.
I’m on a reconnaissance mission. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours thinking nonstop about the NDA Christina showed us, and this insane “fake wife audition” Gabriel is apparently hosting tomorrow.
It’s not that I want to do it. But I’ve come to the sobering conclusion that I don’t have a choice.
There is no other way to pull five million dollars out of my ass in the next three and a half weeks before that psychopath with the sword starts hacking dad and I into pieces.
A small part of me did feel betrayed when I learned the truth about my dad and his background. But gradually, that betrayal has turned into a fierce love. Yes, I was lied to—about where I came from, and his past, even how my mom died. But I know he did it all to protect me. To give me a new life away from the violence he’d grown up in.
I could be angry that my dad stole a ton of money so many years ago, and now because of that, our lives are in danger. But how can I be angry that my dad gave up everything he had and risked it all to get that money and use it to allow us to escape from that world?
