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* * *
Imanage a solid forty-five minutes before I wake up to restless legs and a restless mind.
I can’t lie in bed for another minute, so I gently pull away from Eve and get up.
After rinsing my face in the sink and changing into a soft pair of pajama bottoms, I pace back and forth across the room, trying to figure out what I’m going to do next.
The plan has always been to win Eve in the auction, but what after that? We can’t just go home without our daughter. Not when her nursery is sitting there empty. Not when her swing is in the living room and her bottles are on the countertop.
Eve won’t be able to go home until we have a plan, and I won’t either.
Since I can’t call anyone on the outside or leave the inn, my options are to try and get someone on the inside to help. Which, right now, means Joel Foli. So, I wrack my brain trying to figure out how I can get him to help us.
Aside from paying his fee, I’m not sure what other way I could persuade him. Especially since we are in a silent feud over my wife.
Plus, I can’t even tell him Eve is my wife. Not while the auction is still going. Not while I’m weaponless and trapped inside the Cartel’s inn. He could use it to have me kicked out or killed, ensuring he wins Eve.
Somehow, I have to talk him into helping me without Eve being part of the bargain.
“Luka?”
Eve is sitting up in bed, her eyes squinting against the shaft of light coming from the bathroom.
“Sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t,” she says. “I had a nightmare.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and hold her hand in both of mine. “Are you okay?”
She nods. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.” Eve smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She repeats my words from earlier. “Tell me.”
I explain to her what I know about Joel Foli and what I’ve been thinking about how to get Milaya back.
“I noticed his limp in the bathroom earlier,” she says.
I frown. “The bathroom?”
Her cheeks flush and she tries to move past it, but I insist she tells me the story. So, she does.
“He cornered you?” I growl.
She squeezes my hand when I try to stand up, as though I’m going to dart out of the room and knock on every door until I find his. “I got out. It was fine.”
“It’s not fine. He shouldn’t have scared you like that.”
“In some sick way, I think he believes I want him,” Eve says. “He was trying to seduce me.”
I grit my teeth, biting down on my lower lip hard enough that I think I might draw blood.
“Maybe it isn’t all bad,” Eve says. “Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”
“What are you talking about?”
She runs her fingers nervously across the comforter. “Well, we need his help and clearly … we have something he wants.”
