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“I can’t, Banks. It’s for your own safety. The less you know, the better.”
“I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
Defeat washes over him with an exaggerated sigh. "Promise me you'll be careful?"
“I could ask the same of you.” I straighten, pulling the phone into my hand and saying my final goodbye. I toss the thing onto my cluttered desk and rummage through the paperwork to find the fucking folder I swear I was holding two minutes ago. Only now, it’s lost in the endless chaos that is my desk. One of these days I’ll come up with a better organizational system, but the last thing I want to do when I come up for air between long projects is organize my fucking desk. I’d rather go to the bar and drown my sorrows in cheap dirty martinis with Violet. Or, if I’m lucky, I’ll outgrow my fear of asking for help and actually delegate to the underpaid paralegal working in our office.
Fat fucking chance.
I’m ducking under my desk, digging through a stack of shit on the floor when my door creaks open. “Larry, I’m going to need another hour to get things together.”
“Is that a pet name?” His voice pierces through me, stopping me dead in my tracks.
Slowly, I collect myself and face him. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s nice to see you, too.” Savini strolls into my office. His presence is enough to suffocate me right here and now. He fingers the generic artwork lining the wall, and then my framed degree. “Did you really get a 4.0?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Don’t think I have it in me?”
He turns, slowly, and continues to approach. “What did I say about never being underestimated?” Savini stops in front of me, his stare locked onto mine. “I believe you owe me two hours. I’m here to collect.”
My eyes widen and I glance down at the shitstorm scattered across my desk. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."
“I figured.” He shuffles some of the paperwork mindlessly and then turns his attention back to me. “I’ll send a car for you. Say…five o’clock?”
“Today?” I motion to the overly business clothes I’m wearing. “I…” I stop myself when I realize this is perfectly appropriate attire for conducting a legal meeting. But not when I’m trying to seduce the man I want to kill.
“My driver will bring you a change of clothes.”
“You want to play dress up? Is that it? You think I’m some doll you get to play with because you were the highest bidder?” Each word comes out of my mouth sassier than the one before it. If we weren’t in such a conspicuous place, I wouldn’t be surprised by him snatching me by the hair and dragging me out of here kicking and screaming—taking what is rightfully his because he can.
But he doesn’t. He remains eerily calm and collected, somehow more terrifying than if he were to do the former.
"Is that what you'd like to do?" Savini doesn't wait for me to answer. "Five o'clock, fawn. If you aren't here, I will find you." He gives me one last penetrating stare before leaving me here, breathless and alone, his final words a threat that haunts me long after he's gone.
I mindlessly finish my work, despite wishing like hell I could distract myself with the tedious tasks I do daily. Instead, I find my gaze flickering to the clock on the wall every so often, seconds creeping by agonizingly slow and way too damn fast all at the same time. The hour hand clicks over onto the five, the sound so quiet yet it rumbles straight through me.
The front door to the office opens, and after a moment of muffled words with the receptionist, a man appears in my doorway.
He holds out a long black garment bag. “Compliments of sir Savini.” He hangs it on the hook on the back of my door. “I’ll be waiting for you outside, madame.”
“You can call me Banks,” I blurt out. “No need for such formalities here.”
"Thank you, Miss Banks." He nods. "I'm Henry. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Henry leaves my office and exits the same way he came.
A moment later, the receptionist, a sweet-faced young woman named Dani, comes in. "Hey, Banks, I'm cutting out for the day. Do you need anything?" She eyeballs the garment bag. "Oh, what's in there? Hot date?"
I huff and stand, going over to the thing and unzipping it. “No, meeting with that charity event winner.” A man I intend on killing.
“Wow. In that?” Dani skims her finger along the intricate lace lining the dark red dress.
Sitting at the bottom of the bag are a pair of Louboutin heels and a robin egg blue box. That familiar shade most women know and most guys hate. Overpriced jewelry was never my thing, but when I open it to find a rose gold bangle with diamonds, the little girl heart in me flutters at seeing something so damn pretty.
“Holy shit, you know that’s a twenty-two-thousand-dollar bracelet, right?”
I blink up at the gawking receptionist. “What?”
Her head bobs up and down. “Yep.” Dani fumbles inside the bag to pull out another pale blue box. She opens it and holds it out to me. “And this was nineteen last time I was on their website. Although…” She sighs and takes in its beauty. “It was sold out.”
