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Monsters surround me.
Have I gotten myself into deeper waters, trying to tread out of danger?
I give the bed a wide berth, unsure if it’s where the crime took place. I open the closet door. The bright red gown grabs my eye at once, putting every other item hanging here to shame.
“My God.” I take the hanger off the rack, holding the gown high, careful not to let it brush against the floors I haven’t cleaned yet. The silk feels like cool water as it slips between my fingers. “It’s gorgeous.”
My stomach tightens. This isthedress. The one her brother touched her in, the one that led to his gruesome punishment.
And tonight, I’m going to wear this dress to walk my virgin self into a kink club, when I’ve never even been kissed, and deliver a package I’m pretty sure has something illegal in it, to our country’s Head of State.
The knot in my stomach twists, hard.
I have no other choice.
I need to get Antonio Accardi on my side so when the time comes, when the Meralos come to collect the one thing I can’t give them, I can ask for his protection.
I can’t let the Meralos win. The consequences would be devastating. I’d surely drown.
The antique full-length mirror that stands in the corner of Emilia’s room sends my reflection back to me. My face is a mask of determination. I hold the dress in one hand, still holding the package in the other.
My cloak and my weapon. I’m going to war.
As much as my heart hurts for whatever messed-up childhood these Accardis had, I’m feeling very certain I’ve chosen the wrong alliance.
Maybe I need to swim in a new direction.
4
Cannon
Grace,the curly-haired favorite of my Events Coordinators, looks to me. “Blue or black napkins for Extravagance?” She holds up two paper napkins, the club’s emblem stamped in the center of each in gold leaf.
“Black. Always.”
“That’s what I thought.” She smiles, tucking the samples back in her massive binder, colorful tags neatly lined up down the side. The girl is organized. Anally so. So much so I’ve had to bite my tongue to keep from jokingly suggesting she play in the plug room on one of our staff play evenings. But…
I don’t cross that line with my employees. Jokingly or otherwise.
“I’ll leave this with you.” She slips a photo from her binder, passing it over the bar top. She taps the polished wood with the tip of her glossy red nail. “I need to know by tomorrow whether you’re going with the decorative chains or whips for the event. It’s in two weeks, you know.”
I slide the picture back. I don’t need to see it. “Easy. Both.”
“Of course you would say that, sir.” She gives me a smile and a giggle, taking her photo back as she leaves.
I watch her walk away, curves hugged by a tight black pencil skirt. Shame I don’t play with employees. She’d love the feeling of a cold metal toy inside her. I’m sure of it.
A member of my undercover security team hovers in the corner of my eye, dressed in plainclothes: a black suit, the top three buttons of his collar undone, his dark hair gelled back in a ponytail. As soon as Grace is out of earshot, he leans down, his voice low in my ear. “We have an issue.”
I turn to him with a sigh. “You know how much I hate to hear you say that.” Of course there’re kinks when running a kink club, but I prefer my nights to run smoothly. “What do you have for me.”
“A girl.”
“A girl?” I glance around the room. We’re surrounded by dozens of beautiful women, their clothing ranging from none, to barely-there lingerie, to floor-length evening gowns. I don’t see anyone who could be described as a girl. “What girl?”
“About three minutes ago, a young girl dressed in street clothes came to the door with a black pearl guest passkey. We’d never seen her before and she wasn’t with a client so we knew to keep an eye on her. She went straight to the elevators and removed a package about the size and shape of a brick, wrapped in brown paper, from inside her sweatshirt. She stood there for a moment, then hid the package behind the pots of one of our Monstera plants.”
She better not have hurt my Monstera. Those things cost a fortune. I run a hand over my brow. “Did you retrieve the package?”
