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“Arrivederci, Kitty!”
Eden cut off her SIN again, hoping the Italians wouldn’t have been able to trace that short exchange between her and Loir. She knew the hacker was smart enough to blur it out of the radar for her...
When she finished her shower, smelling of a faint cedar and peppermint scent, she wondered if she should wear her gym clothes. It would have been a good option if Bullet hadn’t chewed them.
Eden sighed and grabbed the pup with a towel wrapped around her body, but just then, she realized someone had left a new outfit for her. She frowned and walked over to the entrance, checking what was inside the little basket they had left. It was actually decent and the right size too. There was some new underwear, a sexy black set from a brand she didn’t know, and a white lace top with a pair of black leather pants. Eden put it all on, surprised that they had gotten her size right. The only things she didn’t have were socks or shoes, but she didn’t need them inside that building; all of the floors she had seen so far were sparkling clean. Although her hair was still wet on her shoulders, she walked out as soon as she was ready, wondering what the Italian Tiger would want from her next.
There wasn’t anyone in sight. Eden had taken a long time in the shower, and when she came back to the gym room, everyone was gone, only their blood left on the mat.
She frowned and turned around, trying to think of her options. Could she possibly leave? It couldn’t be that easy. She doubted they would simply let her out like that. Moreover, she still hadn’t retrieved Beer. She didn’t want to escape at the cost of leaving one of her pups behind...
Hence, the young woman kept walking, checking the various corridors. All were made of this cold marble floor, sometimes white and sometimes black, and the walls were either a dark oak wood or one of those large screens displaying Chicago. It was already midday outside, and her stomach grumbled a little. Still, Eden felt worse, realizing Bullet and Beer were probably getting hungry too.
“Enjoyed the bathroom?”
She turned around, and the pup growled a bit before hiding behind her legs.
Dante De Luca was standing there with a tall white-haired man behind him. He stared at Eden from head to toe with a little satisfied smile.
“That will suffice,” he said mysteriously.
Eden frowned, but she didn’t want to ask, nor did she like how he had just stared at her as if she was already his property. Then he motioned to the tall man behind him with a little head movement. Eden would have noticed him even without that; the guy had the shape and size of a humongous wardrobe...
“Meet Rolf, my second.”
Rolf was the sternest man one could imagine. Everything about him looked square: his head, his body, and his nose, even the way he was constantly frowning as if his eyebrows were stuck downwards. The man nodded, but Eden did not return the courtesy and crossed her arms instead. She wasn’t sure why it was relevant for her to meet this guy, but she didn’t like it. She didn’t like being treated like some sort of guest or a new recruit. She wanted nothing to do with Dante De Luca or his people. She’d be out of here as soon as she had proven she was better than Ghost, and that was it.
However, that man suddenly stepped forward and revealed Beer, which he was holding by his nape. The little pup stayed very still, but his ears and tail perked up as soon as he recognized Eden. The tall guy dropped the pup in her arms as soon as she had opened them to receive the puppy. She checked him quickly, but Beer didn’t look traumatized, just a bit sleepy. She let him down to reunite with his brother, and the pups, probably thinking things were safe, began playing at her feet.
None of the human adults glanced at them.
“Now what?” Eden said. “Do you intend to keep me locked in here until Ghost shows up? I am of no use to you trapped here, so why don’t you just–”
“Oh, you’re about to make yourself useful, Eden,” retorted Dante, with that smile on his face. “We are going out.”
“Where?”
“I never eat at home, and since you’re here, I thought it would be a great occasion to take my new bodyguard for a little lunch outside.”
Eden was speechless, and she couldn’t help but stare at him as if he was crazy.
“Lunch together? Your bodyguard?”
“It was part of our deal, remember? I said I would hire you as both a bodyguard and a hacker. Well, if I was taking any other woman to dinner, she wouldn’t be dressed like that.”
Eden glanced down at her outfit, but it only made her even madder. She should be glad she wasn’t treated like any of his whores, is that what he meant? Still, when she glared back at him, the man didn’t even flinch. Actually, his smile grew even wider, making her think she should prepare for the worse...
“Plus, it would be a great occasion to discover the Chinese district, wouldn’t it? Old Man Long always said I ought to try their cuisine sometime. Aren’t you familiar enough with that place to show me around?”
Eden squinted her eyes.
She knew what he was doing. It wasn’t about trying a restaurant at all. It was another one of his stupid tests. Ghost always appeared through one of the Chinese servers of Chicago, making everyone think the starting point was in the Dragon’s district. It was a very vague clue, though. There were many reasons one could transit through a Chinese server, either because of their gear, their network use, or even their SIN’s DNA reading. That man was just fishing blindly for answers, and she was that worm hanging at the end of his hook. Eden took a big breath in.
“Fine, I will show you around. However, I want my dogs fed first. I also want you to reactivate my SIN. I need it if we are leaving this building.”
“They are both already fed,” replied Rolf right away.
Eden was a bit relieved to hear that. Now that she was thinking about it, those two would have been a lot whinier and louder if it wasn’t the case... Just as she was about to glance down at the pups, she caught Rolf’s gaze on them too. For a second, he realized she had caught him observing them too and looked ahead. ...Was he embarrassed to have been caught? As she kept staring at his second, Dante cleared his throat.
