Page 81 of Inked Adonis

“Oh, sit your ass back down,” Hope commands. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“But… the smear campaign… the lawsuit…”

“She gave me twenty-four hours to comply. I wrote her a check yesterday that made my hand shake. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to make her crawl back to whatever luxury condo in hell she came from.”

“You paid her?” I gasp. “Hope! You can’t afford?—”

“I didn’t. Your boyfriend did.”

The words stop me cold. “Come again?”

“I don’t even know how he found out,” she says with a shrug. “But a few hours after Hurricane Katerina blew through, a very hot delivery guy named Myles showed up with a blank check made out in Katerina’s name. He said Samuil sent him. He also said I had beautiful eyes. If I wasn’t still shaking from Katerina’s emotional terrorism, I might’ve asked for his number.”

“Sam didn’t tell me any of this.” My knees give way, and I fall back into my chair.

“I gathered that from your slack jaw.” She shakes her head. “It says a lot about a man when he can pay off your best friend’s blacklisted debts and doesn’t even feel compelled to use it to impress you.”

“He should have told me. You should have told me! This entire mess exists because of me.”

“Actually, this exists because your boyfriend’s ex is psychotic. Lucky for you, though, Sam’s taste improved dramatically post-divorce.”

She’s trying to lighten the mood, because that’s what Hope does—she turns darkness into light like some kind of emotional alchemist.

But I can’t think about Katerina’s awful taste or Sam’s improved judgment. All I can think about is Hope’s business going up in flames.

“If Katerina goes nuclear, you have to fire me, Hope. You built this business from the ground. You can’t let it get taken down because of me. I won’t let you.”

“When—if—that bridge appears, we’ll torch it together.” Hope’s smile slips just enough to show the fear beneath. “Armed with flaming pitchforks and enough holy water to drown the demon queen. Because there’s no way in hell that frigid witch is splitting up this dynamic duo.”

She slides the pastry box toward me, but my appetite has vanished. Sam swooped in and handled this like he handles everything—with money and power. And while part of me is pathetically grateful, another part feels like he just confirmed every fear I had about what moving in with him would mean.

That I’m not his equal. I’m something he needs to protect and manage.

“What’s happening in that head of yours?” Hope asks softly.

“Sam fixed this because he could. Because it was easy for him.” I trace patterns in the condensation on my coffee cup. “But Katerina... this was personal for her. And I don’t think a blank check will make her forget that I’m sleeping in her ex-husband’s bed.”

“You think she’ll try something else?”

“I think...” I meet Hope’s eyes. “I think Sam paying her off just proved I’m exactly what she said I am—his latest acquisition. And I think she’s going to make sure everyone in Chicago knows it.”

Hope reaches across the desk and squeezes my hand. “Then we’ll handle it. Together. The way we always have.”

But as I head out for my first appointment, her words don’t bring their usual comfort. Because for the first time since we started this business, I’m not sure friendship and determination will be enough to protect us from what’s coming.

Sam’s world plays by different rules.

And I just dragged my best friend into the game.

28

SAMUIL

To think I left Nova forthisbullshit.

I’m reconsidering all my life decisions as I stare at Vasily Chernoff’s nostrils on my laptop screen. The old bastard has his camera angled so low, I could probably map his sinus passages.

But despise him or not—which I very much fucking do—he’s still a client of my business. An important one.

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