Page 334 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Reuben: Also need you to send a $300 gift card to a meal delivery service to the following address. You can use the business card for both.

Alice: Yes Sir.

I sat down at the little laptop he had for me in his office and took care of the things he asked for. While I was finishing, my phone buzzed and I got a call from him.

“You’ve reached your beloved and favorite assistant!”

“Alice, I need you to clear my schedule for tomorrow, reschedule that meeting with Jordan. See if he can meet in the morning before nine, otherwise it’ll need to move to next week.”

“I’m on it,” I said, dropping the silliness. There was something in his voice that made me think maybe he wasn’t in a great mood.

“Did you already pick up dinner supplies?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Can you check the best-by date on the meat?”

“Sure, hold on...” I hurried to the kitchen and looked. I made a point to always buy meat that had a few days, just in case our dinner plans changed, but today I’d been distracted by my ribbon idea, and I hadn’t done that. “Uh... it says best by today.”

He sighed heavily. “Well, can’t be helped.”

“I can return it,” I said.

“No need. Can you bring it by The Weston House or a local soup kitchen? I need to go to a meeting tonight for dinner, and it’s important.”

“Okay,” I said, grabbing my notebook from my room and scribbling down a note so I wouldn’t forget. “Do you want me there?”

“Iwantyou there, but it wouldn’t be appropriate. You may go out to eat tonight, or go by The Lounge if you like.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Talk later. Thank you, Alice.”

He hung up before I had a chance to say goodbye.

Something felt really, really off. I didn’t like it. I took a deep breath, poured myself some strawberry iced tea, and tried really hard not to cry.

Idid everything heasked as perfectly as I could.He needs me to be a good girl today,I told myself. I took care of the gift card and the flower arrangement, and then dropped the pork we were supposed to have tonight off at the treatment center. The chef was delighted and promised me it would be consumed.

The whole time, I kept the ribbon around my neck. It was lightweight, and I barely noticed it.

When I went to The Lounge for dinner, I removed the ribbon. Lindsay was there, chatting with Megan and Julia at the bar. Brett was beside her. I didn’t want to interrupt, but they all looked so excited and happy, I couldn’t resist going over to see them.

Julia’s eyes widened when she saw me. “Ooh, the cuffs look so good on you!” she clapped her hands.

“I love them,” I grinned. “And somehow the bastard has conditioned me to crave the frickin’ chastity belt. Not sure how he did that.”

Megan smiled and took another sip of her soup. “Sounds like him.”

Lindsay pulled an empty bar stool closer to the group, motioning that I should sit with them.

“He’s evil,” I said, climbing up onto the stool. “But I’m weird, so I like that about him.”

Noah emerged from the back of house, holding a plate of fries. He slid a menu to me and gave the fries to Julia. To Lindsay he said, “Ah, decided to come hang out with the cool kids today, huh?”

Lindsay rolled her eyes dramatically. “Michael is playing at The Underground, and I don’t like to be in his head while he’s playing his torture games.”

The other two girls looked uncomfortable.

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