I take a sip of the drink. It goes down my throat smoothly and lights a fire in my body. Whatever it is, it’s a high-quality cognac. It gives me the courage I need. “It’s not what you think.”


    “No? Are you going to say these are faked, too?”


    “It is me, but I’m not working with Sone. The other guy, Hugh, is my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.” Our rtionship ended the day I caught him with another woman in his bed. Turns out, I was the only one who was being serious about our rtionship and he was cheating on me with two other women.


    “I know about all of that. But I gotta say, I wasn’t aware of the ‘ex’ part.”


    “So, you understand that there’s nothing more going on?”


    “And I’m supposed to dismiss your meeting with Sone regrly?”


    “It was one time! That time. The one you captured! He wanted me to-” I stop at thest second, realizing how he would misconstrue the end of that sentence. When Hugh got me the meeting with Sone. Which I gotta say was a surprise. Hugh didn’t strike me as someone who connected to Sone. Even though he worked in hispany as a tech security expert, I assumed it was a low-level backroom job and not a high-level position. Hugh had told me Sone had a job offer for me and unfortunately, or should I say, fortunately, we never got to it and something came up for Sone. A few dayster, I found Hugh in bed with another woman and that severed my ties with that part of the world. Now that I think about it, the job offer was maybe to spy on Dante.


    “What did he want?”


    “Nothing.”


    It’s his turn to scoff and even though I did nothing wrong, I feel like I’ve been caught in a lie. I take another sip of the drink to calm myself down. “So why am I here if my crimes are so horrible? Not only am I a thief, I’m also a spy.”


    “You’re right. You should be dead by now, but there’s something special about you, Corina.”


    “And what is that?”


    I hear the door close behind me. We both turn in time to see the guy he called Tiny. A giant of a man carrying three suitcases in his hand that look like purses in proportion to his body. I spot a familiar Hello Kitty sticker on one of the suitcases. Is that my luggage?


    “Put them in the guest room,” Dante says to Tiny. Tiny nods and he marches out of the room.


    “What’s happening?”


    “You’ll be staying here from now on.”


    “I-Why?”


    “We can’t have you going about your usual business, now, can we?”


    “Until when?”


    “Till we can work out what to do with you.”


    “You can’t just keep me prisoner!”


    “Prison? Really? And here I was thinking my ce is one of the best in the city.”


    “I’m not staying here.”


    “Do you prefer a cold room in the casino’s basement? It can be arranged.”


    “What about my ce? Can’t you have your goons watch me if you think I’m such a risk?”


    “Nah. Someone like you would seduce them and bend them to your will. Isn’t that what you did with Sone’s guy? Work him so you could get to Sone.”


    “You have a wild imagination. And you think I can’t seduce you?”


    “I’m quite immune to your wiles, yes.”


    Why does he always have an answer for everything? “What about my people? My friends. My family? How am I to exin it to them?”


    “You have no family and as far as I can tell, you have one friend.”


    “How do you know all that?” His cheeks flush. Whether it’s from embarrassment at his stalker knowledge or alcohol, I can’t tell. How the fuck does he know this much about me? The only exnation would be he has been spying on me for months. Years, if those images are anything to go by. All because I dated that cheating fucker.


    “You’re my employee and, as it turns out, my enemy. I make it my business to know both.”


    “What am I supposed to tell my friend?”


    “Tell her you’ve quit your job and moved.”


    “And you think that’s a sufficient exnation?”


    “As far as I know, Jesse, your roommate and friend, is a working girl. She’ll understand.”


    “You make it sound so simple.”


    He shrugs. “Follow me,” he says and without waiting for a reply, he marches out of the room. I can’t help myself; I follow him even though I want to run away, beat him – anything. He leads me out of the living room, down the corridor, and opens a door. The bedroom we enter, I must admit, differs from the dominant ck and gray of the rest of the penthouse. This one is mostly white with ck ents. Like the rest of the ce, the room is vast. I’m sure my entire apartment can fit in here. In the middle is an enormous bed and on top of it is my luggage and my phone.


    “Your room,” he says and leaves. I truly do not understand the man. Left to my own devices, I take a turn about the room, taking it in. It’s less a bedroom and more a suite. There are at least two sections. The bedroom section, with the bed, and then a lounge section with a table two stools, and a settee. There arerge windows on one side and double French doors on the other that lead to a balcony. I try to open the doors. Locked. The windows are locked too. I make my way to the other door in the room. This one isn’t locked, and it leads to a spacious marble-tiled bathroom on one end. On the other is arge, empty walk-in closet. I doubt all my clothes will be enough to fill even a quarter.This text is ? N?velDrama/.Org.


    “Give me your hand.”


    I jump, surprised by the unexpected voice, and turn to see


    Dante holding a tinum bracelet-looking thing in his hand. He waves it in my face. “Your hand.”


    “Whatever for?” He ignores me grabs my right hand and clips the bracelet on. I can’t ignore the tendrils of electricity I feel when he touches me. His hands linger for a second and let’s go almost caressingly. However, he quickly shoves them in his pockets after he’s done, as if he’s burned. “What is it?” My voice sounds so hoarse I clear my throat.


    “A tracker. In case you get any ideas.”


    I turn the bracelet around in my hand. It looks like normal jewelry, and there’s even a ruby-looking stone in the middle. Beneath the stone, though, is a tiny flickering red light. “You seem prepared. Is this what you do to every woman you wrongly use? Or, wait a minute, is this a fetish for you? use women of stealing, spying, whatever. Get them under your roof, so you can fuck them? Is that it?”


    He res at me and for a moment I’m sure he’s going to do something bad, but he says, “You’re thest person I would want to fuck, Corina.”