Page 26 of Scarlett Thief (Criminal Underground 2)

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Hadrian

"How do you think she'll do?" I asked, walking with Wolf into the men's lounge.

Scar was clearly curious, but I was hesitant to see how she'd fare once in the club.

"It'll be an adjustment, that's for sure," Wolf said, "but I’m certain she’s a sub even if she doesn't realize it yet."

"I definitely agree with you on that front; never thought that’d happen,” I joked. “Now let's see if we can get her to admit it."

With a scoff, Wolf shook his head and we pushed open the door to the lounge. We lapsed into silence as we strode across the lavish room toward where our outfits for the evening were being kept. This wasn't my first time in a place such as this. I had visited before, almost every occasion being for business more so than pleasure. It was useful to keep a consistent running membership, knowing how a lot of information was passed under the protection of the club's confidentiality rules.

In the locker was a pair of leather pants and nothing else, just as I requested. Stripping out of my clothing, I tugged tonight’s attire from its current home and pulled it on. It fits perfectly. The soft supple leather against my skin had my mind wandering, not to the job or the information we were going to get, but to what Scarlett would look like in the outfit Wolf and I had selected.

"You thinking what I am?" I asked, glancing at Wolf as he adjusted his open leather vest.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say either about how this will go or how she'll look in her lingerie?"

"Both, but mainly the latter since I'm not too concerned about the men we're meeting," I answered, gaining a skeptical yet calculating look from Wolf.

"I'm going to assume you know who we're meeting with?" he questioned, securing his belongings in the locker.

I shrugged as we headed to the other side of the lounge where a bartender was finishing up another club member’s order.

“You could say that.” I smirked at him before turning to put in an order for a whiskey sour.

He huffed, likely irritated that I wouldn’t give him a straight answer.

“For you, sir?”

“Whiskey. Straight,” he ordered.

We were silent for a while, letting the bartender pour our glasses, but I could feel the waves of annoyance rolling off of him. After my first swallow, I broke the silence. “Yes, I know who we’re meeting, don’t need to get your knickers in a twist.”

“You’re a dick,” he muttered, taking a drink of his liquor.

“Yup,” I said simply, knowing he was right. Mirroring his movements and downing a large pull of my own alcohol, I shifted out of the way from in front of the bar to survey the area around me. After only a couple minutes, the men we were waiting for joined us in the lounge.

Ian Marshall, Jensen Travis, and Archer Petrov.

“Ian,” Wolf greeted, shaking his hand before echoing the same sentiment to the other two. “Good to see you three.”

“Psh, yeah right. Last time we had a run in, I do believe I tried to stab you in the side,” Jensen countered with a wry smile. “Good to see you, Diablo. Keeping the politicians on their toes?”

“Hadrian, please, and of course I am. Who would I be if I didn’t stir up a little hell now and then.” The three of them laughed at my statement, knowing well enough that ‘now and then’ was relative. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us.”

“Anything for allies. Besides, we owed a favor to this asshole,” Archer explained, waving at Wolf who was content to sip his drink. I cocked a brow, curious what Wolf had done to earn a favor from them.

A new mystery to solve, I thought as the three of them got drinks and directed us to the floor where we’d be meeting Mare and Scarlett. We took residence around a leather booth before getting down to business.

“Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples,” Jensen started, whistling low at the name. “You three picked quite a high profile target.”

“Something like that,” Wolf muttered in frustration under his breath. I could tell by the questioning gazes from the others that they heard his statement but chose to ignore it.

“You said you have information?” Ian took over. Nodding, I outlined what we’d been provided and what Scarlett and I had been able to find in the last couple weeks.

It was, unfortunately, was very little; it was here in Italy, would only be here for a short time, and when it wasn’t being worn it was kept in a safe wherever they were staying. Not exactly sufficient information to commit such a big heist with.

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