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“Hey, do you need any help with the…”
I jerk in surprise and drop the glass onto the tile at my feet. It shatters. Natalie pauses in the doorway beside me, her eyes wide as her mouth falls open.
“It was already open,” I explain, watching her face. “What is this?”
Her features begin to harden. “Did you really think people pay this much for drinks?” I can see the suspicion start to creep back in.
Alex ducks into the room with us and spies the glass on the floor. “What happened?”
“It was on the edge, and I knocked it,” I lie. Natalie holds my gaze for a moment, assessing me. Sizing me up. Then she turns on her heel and walks out. “I’m sorry,” I tell Alex, sidestepping him to chase Natalie out into the crowd.
I’m several steps from the bar when I remember I still have the pills in my hand. I grab a napkin off a table, wrapthe pills into a tiny package, and tuck it into the bra of my dress. Natalie reaches Evan before I do, and immediately gets his attention. By the time I arrive, they’re both staring at me, cautious and accusatory.
“We need to talk,” Evan says. “Come with me.”
“I don’t think so,” I assure him.
“She’s a liability,” Natalie tells him. “I told you she wouldn’t be okay with this.”
I shake my head. I can feel everything start to unravel. The jobs. Their trust. My only chance at prying any sort of truth from them about the night Paige disappeared. All because I stumbled onto their side gig.
“Listen,” I tell Natalie, focusing on her because I know she’s the hardest sell. “I’m walking out of here tonight with over a thousand dollars. I don’t care what I have to do for that kind of money.”
“Evan said you wouldn’t find out. I barely know you. How can I believe a word you say?” She questions, her eyes searching mine. My heart races in my chest, like I’m on the precipice about to leap.
They trust me now, completely, or not at all.
I shake my head. “Just stop talking.” I close the distance between us, threading my fingers into her hair and pulling her lips to mine. I silence her surprise with my mouth, dragging my tongue along her satin soft lips. She tastes like peaches and vodka, and the moment her tongue touches mine, I know I’ve won. She leans into it, her arms wrapping around me, her breasts pressed against mine.
I release her, and take a step back. Her lips, wet and swollen from mine, are parted in confusion.
“I don’t care. Whatever y’all have going on here, I’m all in.”
Her nod is slow, her argument forgotten and silenced. It worked.
I glance over at Evan. “Are we done here? I have drinks to run.”
He struggles to hide his amusement. “Yeah. We’re good. Carry on.”
I nod and stride off through the crowd toward the Galaxy. I slide my tray behind the bar and tell Alex I’ll be back. I need a minute, or a year, or another bottle of liquor to even begin to process everything that just happened.
I walk around the maze of the dance floor and across the Nova section toward the stairs. I need to find somewhere quiet, if such a place exists. Somewhere to think, without further distraction or complication.
The crowd parts, and my gaze immediately collides with Zaden’s. Through the shadows of the club and the flashing lights, I can feel his intensity. Something dark and dangerous that sends a shiver through me. I duck through the crowd and pause near a spiral staircase ascending the wall like a vine. I turn around to see if there are any witnesses to my retreat and find Zaden standing directly behind me, his ice-blue eyes locked on mine.
“You were right,” I tell him, licking my lips to see if they still taste like her. “About the silencing.”
“I know,” he replies as he reaches for me, his voice low and rough, barely above the roar of the crowd. “That’s the power of you. You can take things people didn’t know they could lose.” He places his hand on my hip and pushes me back against the wall, just out of view of Evan’s table. Colored lights dance onthe wall around us, my pulse pounding in tune with the vibration of the bass.
“I don’t want to take anything,” I admit.
“You don’t need to,” he replies, his gaze drifting down my body as he studies my sexy, strappy purple bondage dress. “It’s already yours.”
“Zaden,” I plead, glancing back toward Evan, wondering if he can see us. “I want to explain, I just can’t.”
“I don’t care,” he replies. “That’s the fucking crazy part. I don’t care. All I want is you.”
I shut my eyes and take a deep breath, shaking my head.
