Page 123 of Dance of Ruin

Melissa

My chest constricts.

Those are from ten minutes ago. The next texts are the three that just came now.

Melissa

I love it! It’s the PERFECT gift!

Melissa

OMG you are the sweetest

Melissa

PS thank you for coming over earlier. You really know how to show a girl a good time.

My lungs seize up.

I stare at the screen, not breathing, not thinking, not evenfeeling—just frozen.

It all makes sense. The suit. The cologne. The vague non-answers. The secrecy.

Thank you for coming over earlier. You really know how to show a girl a good time.

I seeRED.

“Because you’re good. Too good for the darker parts of me.”

Apparently, little missMelissalacks any annoying “goodness”.

My fingers curl around the phone as a green, venomous beast snarls inside me.

The sound of footsteps has me jumping. And where the savage version of me would whirl and throw the phone at his head and demand answers, therealversion of me quickly sets it down on the vanity and spins to make it look like I’m pawing through my clothes on the rack.

“Thereit is.”

Nico darts past me and grabs his phone. His scent—clean, masculine, a bit of leather—swirls around me as he twists me in his arms and leans down to kiss me.

I turn my head to the side, letting his lips only brush my cheek.

“I’ll be home late,” he murmurs. “Order something good, remember.”

I just nod as he turns and strides out of the room, a truly terrible idea curling like smoke inside my chest.

* * *

The cab pulls awaybefore I can chicken out.

Alone at the top of the alley, I quickly scurry behind a dumpster, peering around it to see Nico disappearing through a nondescript steel door set into the concrete wall. No signage. No lights. Just a keypad.

Initially, I decide to wait a full thirty seconds before I move, but when I notice the door starting to swing shut, I change my mind and hustle.

I get to the door just in time, kicking an old coffee cup into the gap. It’s close, but the door doesn’t latch all the way as my pulse hammers in my chest.

Am I seriously doing this?

This is idiotic. It probablyisa mafia thing, which would make following him immeasurably stupid. Or it’s a dumb poker game, and I’m going to look like a fool when I come barging in.

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