“It’s all there.”

  I raised my head to look at him, forgetting he was there. “I’m sure it is.” I tucked it inside my purse.

  “Kyle is very eager to get started.”

  “Who’s Kyle?” I asked, still thinking about the money in my purse. It felt like blood money, money I shouldn’t keep.

  “Your next client. He’s in the bar, actually.”

  “Oh…”

  He ignored his laptop and paperwork and furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at me. “Everything alright, Elise? Has Grave done something?”

  “No, he hasn’t done anything,” I said immediately. “He’s been great…” I looked at the money again.

  “Well, you seem a bit off.”

  Yeah, I feel off. “I have a stomachache. Must have been whatever I ate for lunch.”

  That got him to back off. “Then I’ll see you next week.”

  “Yeah…next week.” I left the office and headed back to the bar. I booked it across the floor, trying to get out of there before Kyle noticed me. But I’d only made it halfway to the door when I heard someone say my name.

  “Elise.”

  I stopped and slowly turned around, doing my best to put on my poker face. But once I made eye contact with him, my stomach somersaulted. He was an ordinary guy with an ordinary appearance. No red flags. But it still felt wrong.

  “Kyle.” He was in a suit, like he was a criminal banker or someone who fudged the numbers for taxes. He was tall, an Omega watch on his wrist, his cologne smelling like money. He was just like every other client I had, but now, I was utterly disgusted. “I’m really looking forward to our time together. Been waiting eight months for this.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I literally froze on the spot.

  His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah…I just ate something bad for lunch.”

  His eyes studied me a bit longer, and that was when I realized he was more just a guy in a suit. He was intelligent, observant, seeing right through my excuse without calling me out on it. “Feel better.” That was all he said—and then he walked away.

  TWENTY-SIX

  GRAVE

  I left the car and walked through the open double doors into the three-story mansion positioned on the cliff. It was November now. Down south, it’d become foggy and cold, the yachts permanently docked until spring.

  Hugo let me inside then ushered me to the study.

  A roaring fire was in the hearth, and my brother sat behind his desk in a long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. His laptop was open in front of him, and he glanced up to see me enter the room.

  “Well, that was a fucking shitshow.” I dropped into the armchair facing his desk.

  He stared at me for a while before he shut his laptop.

  “Nice place.” I’d never seen much of it, just the outside. It would be pleasant to live near the ocean, but I preferred the city life. I’d been spending more time in my apartment than ever before, because Elise lived just a few miles away.

  He ignored the half-assed compliment. “We need to hit Roan soon. If we don’t, it’s gonna be your head on a spike.”

  I shrugged. “Not too worried about it.”

  “No one’s tailing you?”

  “Not that I can tell.”

  “Then you should get your guard up even higher.”

  “It can’t go any higher.”

  “What about Elise?”

  Just hearing her name out of his mouth made my body go rigid. “What about her?”

  “You don’t think she’s a mole?”

  Fucking insult. “No.”

  “Because the timing—”

  “She’s not a mole.”

  Cauldron relaxed back in his chair.

  “It may come as a surprise to you, but women want me.”

  “Aren’t you paying her?”

  My eyes narrowed.

  “Just saying…”

  “She’s not a mole.” That was the last time I’d say it.

  Cauldron let it go. “It’s nice to see you move on.”

  It was worded as a compliment, but it still felt like an insult. “I moved on the moment she made her decision. And I promise, she’ll come to regret that decision.”

  A slight smirk moved on to his lips. “You don’t have a lot of faith in me, do you?”

  “Men don’t change, Cauldron. Especially men like you.”

  When I got back to the car, I saw a missed call from Elise, along with a text.

  Can I come over tonight?

  She was the one working for me, but sometimes it felt otherwise. I’m out of town until tomorrow.

  Oh.

  I could feel so much disappointment in that single word.

  Where are you?

  I didn’t answer those kinds of questions, but I made an exception for her. Cap-Ferrat.

  Well, I’ll see you get back, I guess.

  What’s wrong, sweetheart? Living in the criminal underworld had made me more perceptive and intuitive than the average man. I read between the lines, because dead space was more indicative than actual words.

  Nothing. I’ll see you when you get back.

  I wasn’t buying it. I called her.

  She waited three rings before she picked up.

  Yep, she was definitely upset.

  “Hey,” she said in a quiet voice. “What’s in Cap-Ferrat?”

  “Cauldron.”

  “It’s good that you guys are spending more time together.”

  Despite the tension between us, it was nice to sit across from him in his home, to be an invited guest rather than an assailant. “What’s bothering you?”

  “What makes you think anything is bothering me?”

  “A hunch.”

  She was quiet.

  “Sweetheart.”

  There was a long pause. “We just don’t have that much time left…”

  Five days, to be exact. “I know.”

  “And now there will only be three when you get back.”

  “Four,” I corrected. “You can come over tomorrow.”

  She was quiet again.

  I knew her contracts expired all the time, and I doubted it was always this hard. I wasn’t excited about it either, but I’d known from the beginning that this wouldn’t last forever. She was a temporary solution to my wounded pride, and she did a phenomenal job of making me feel like me again. “I’ll let you know when I’m home.”

  “Alright.”

  “Bye, sweetheart.”

  “Bye, babe.”

  My butler took my suitcase, and I sent a car for Elise. I jumped in the shower in the meantime, washing off the private plane. By the time I returned to my bedroom, Elise was already there, making herself at home in my bed. Her naked shoulder peeked out from under the sheets, and I imagined how the rest of her body looked underneath.

  I was in nothing but a towel, and she glanced down at the material like she was anxious to see it drop. “I hope you don’t mind that I made myself at home…” She propped herself on her elbow, the sheet dropping a little farther. Her eyes shone like sunlight, and her long dark hair fell everywhere.

  I fisted the sheets then tugged them down, revealing her pure nakedness in my bed. Beautiful skin over endless curves and sexy tits. I leaned over her with my feet still on the floor, and after a long stare, I pressed a kiss to her soft mouth.

  Her eyes immediately closed, and she released a satisfied breath.

  Her heat transferred to me, journeyed down my spine, and made everything hot like a wildfire. I kissed her again, dominating her lips and taking her breath away. Every time I touched her, every time I went near her, she melted like a stick of butter. Maybe it was just an act that her premium included, but no woman could act that enthused and not mean it. I left her lips and traveled down her throat and collarbone. When I made it to her tits, I kissed those harder than her mouth.

  She was writhing at that point, pushing her tits into my face and fisting my hair.

  I moved down her stomach, and then lowered myself to my knees as I went farther south.

  She gave a loud breath this time, her excitement too great to be contained.

  I tugged her hips toward me and landed a kiss against that pretty pussy. It was just a single kiss, my lips to hers, and that was enough to elicit the sexiest moan from her mouth. She was the one being paid to get on her knees, but I didn’t mind eating pussy that tasted so good. I started off slow, letting her breathe with the movement of my tongue. Then I sealed my entire mouth over her body and kissed her over and over, swiping my tongue over the spot she craved most.

  Soon, she was tugging on my hair and pushing her body harder into my face.

  I scooped her ass and hips into my arms to stabilize her and kept going, kissing her, rubbing her, making her writhe on my bed, her moans echoing off the ceiling. I pushed my tongue harder when I felt her on the edge, her fingers gripping my hair even harder. Her body turned rigid as stone before it released, her hips grinding against me, her moans turning to shouts. “Grave…” She said my name like a prayer, full of overwhelming gratitude.

  I waited until the tears were on the bed and her nails released my scalp before I got to my feet with her ass still over the edge. My dick had been hard from the moment I’d kissed her, and it was so anxious for that wet pussy that it throbbed in my hand before it slid inside.

  She moaned like she’d forgotten how big it was.

  One arm pinned behind a knee, and I snatched her by the throat. My fingers gripped her so tight that she was locked in place, only able to breathe. Her hands flew to my wrists and held on as I fucked her mercilessly, her body shaking with my thrusts, her moans muffled by the tightness around her throat.

  I was so hard that it took less than a minute to finish. Her pussy was slick from my kisses and her arousal, but she was so tight from the climax I’d given her a minute ago. I fucked her to the finish line, fucked her until I hit the best high I’d ever felt.

  “Are you hungry?” She lay in my arms in front of the grand fireplace, the flames crackling and popping every few minutes. Heat slowly made its way over the bed, deepening the fog that masked the windows.

  “If you keep feeding me like this, you’re gonna make me fat.”

  “Bigger tits and ass…that doesn’t bother me.”

  She chuckled in my arms, holding me like I was a soft teddy bear rather than a mass of steel. “Are you hungry?”

  “I’m always hungry.”

  “No surprise there. When do you work out?”

  “In the mornings.”

  “You must be in there for hours.”

  “An hour of cardio. Then an hour of lifting.”

  “Every day?” she asked incredulously.

  “Six days a week.”

  “Are you trying to get on a calendar or something?”

  “You can’t always rely on a gun or a knife.”

  She must have felt the implications of my words, because she went silent.

  I reached for my phone on the nightstand and texted my butler. “Dinner should be here soon.”

  “That’s so nice. Room service in your own home.”

  We turned quiet, her body small when it was cocooned against mine.

  “How was Cauldron?” she asked.

  “Fine.”

  “That’s a long trip for a conversation.”

  “I have my own plane.”

  “Of course you do.”

  “I told you that we were talking about killing people at that dinner.”

  “Yes.”

  “We resumed that conversation.”

  “That sounds fun…”

  Minutes later, a knock sounded on the door.

  “That was fast.”

  I left the bed and opened the door buck naked.

  My butler gave no reaction as he handed over the tray and walked away.

  I kicked the door shut and carried our dinner to the dining table.

  “Guess he’s already seen you naked?” she teased.

  “More times than he wishes.” I set everything down and took a seat.

  This time, she helped herself to my drawer without asking, picking out a gray shirt I used to work out, and took the seat across from me. Her makeup was smeared from fucking and resting, but there was something sexy about it. Her lipstick had rubbed off on my dick, and her eye makeup had smeared across her cheeks from all the tears. I preferred her this way, thoroughly fucked.

  We ate in silence, our eyes sometimes on our food and sometimes on each other.

  Her mood suddenly dropped. I could see it on her face, see it in the way her body slouched. She hardly looked at me.

  “What is it?”

  Her eyes immediately lifted to my face, a bit alarmed, like she’d been lost in her thoughts.

  “Something’s bothering you.”

  “How do you do that…?”

  I shrugged. “Years of practice. Learning people’s tells is essential to staying alive.”

  “I thought you used to be married or something…”

  I drank from the wineglass.

  “Have you ever been married?” she asked when I didn’t respond.

  “No.”

  “Girlfriend or anything?”

  We'd broached a subject I wanted to ignore, but she shared her life with me and I should do the same. “I had a relationship for three years.”

  “Oh…” She set down her fork and looked at me, like she couldn’t believe that fact. “I didn’t realize that. Why did it end?”

  I didn’t want to talk about her. Didn’t want to think about her. “What’s bothering you?”

  She took a moment to digest the question before she allowed me to change the subject. “I’m sad this is going to end soon.”

  “Do you say that to all your clients?”

  She went rigid on the spot, her eyes hardening into savageness.

  I’d clearly said the wrong thing.

  “No,” she said. “I’ve never said that to anyone.”

  The days passed quickly.

  She had her nanny stay with the kids every night so she could be with me, and while we never addressed our upcoming end, it was the topic of every stretch of silence. Her mood sank deeper and deeper, and despite her best effort at keeping the conversation light, there was always doom in her eyes.

  I took her out to dinner the last night, a fancy place with reservations a year out, but I could walk in whenever the fuck I wanted because I owned the place. I didn’t tell her that, and she didn’t raise any eyebrows when we walked inside without even giving a name. She’d quickly become accustomed to my life, the ease of it all.

  We finished our dinner and enjoyed our wine, exchanging long looks across the table. “Why did it end?”

  It took me nearly a minute to deduce her meaning. Camille. “She left me.”

  Her eyebrows jumped up her face in utter astonishment. There were no follow-up questions.

  I hoped that was the end of it.

  “Wow, what a stupid girl.”

  Our relationship would end in the morning, so I didn’t bother sharing the story, sharing the parts of me I wasn’t proud of.

  “Looks like we have something in common.” She drank from her glass. “Did you refuse to marry her?”

  “No.”

  “Did you refuse to have kids with her?”

  “No.”

  “Then what the fuck did this girl want?”

  It was hard not to smile, to find the situation ironic. “Not me.”

  Her eyes started to fall, like she pitied me.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “What?”

  “Feel bad for me. I’m over it.”

  She continued to study me. “I know what it’s like to watch someone you love just walk away. It gets better…but the scar will always be there.”

  I turned my attention to the other people eating in the restaurant, wanting this conversation to die and never return from the dead.

  “Are you sad this is over?”

  My eyes shifted back to hers.

  Her eyes were glued to mine, desperate for the reaction she wanted.

  “I knew our time was limited.”

  “That didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’m not happy about it, but I’ve been prepared since the beginning.” I enjoyed our time together, but I never got attached. She was just on loan, a temporary solution to a much bigger problem. When I thought about her fucking a new client, it soured my mood, but I didn’t let it anger me. “It is what it is.”

  I ordered the car around to take her home, and I walked her out to the sidewalk to say goodbye. It was a cold evening, a cloudless night that let the chill deepen even more. My breath escaped as vapor, and I watched the same release from her nostrils.

  She stared at the car for a moment, as if the last thing she wanted to do was get inside and drive away. She turned back to me, sadness heavy in her eyes, her emotions visible on her sleeve.

  My arms circled her to protect her from the cold. “I’m always here if you need anything.”

  She swallowed before she gave a nod. “You’re a good man, Grave.”

  She didn’t know me at all. “Goodbye, sweetheart.”

  Her hands held on to my arms, and she looked at me like she didn’t want to go. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed me. It was brief and cold, all our passion long gone in our memories. Then she walked away without looking at me again. She didn’t say goodbye.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  ELISE

  I’d never wanted to do anything less in my life.

  But I had kids to feed. Private school to pay for. A nanny on my payroll. I didn’t have the luxury of quitting. I didn’t have the luxury of choosing my clients. I forced myself back to the Underground bar because I had no other choice.

  The second I walked inside, I felt his stare.

  White-hot and possessive. It came from all the way across the room, but the heat was unmistakable. When I turned to look, I found him sitting in the corner with a drink in hand, in a three-piece suit, a victorious smirk on his lips.

 

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