Page 40 of Ambition

Lenox Mars. Ex-military, former MMA trainer, playboy by all accounts, and liable to shoot me on the spot. If Isadora had come again, she would likely be shared between Lenox and Theo; this is a practice they engage in often, Dad told me on the patio, as if convincing himself he was doing the right thing inadvertently handing Isa’s job to me, letting me know someone would allow me entrance to the fourth floor and they’d have Lenox’s room number.

I don’t let this fucker’s penchant for sharing get under my skin now like it did initially; Lenox’s whoring can work to my advantage. Many people probably come into his room at different times; they’re likely just there to fuck him instead of fuck him up.

I glance up and down the hallway and see no one.

I reach my hand out to the carved brass knob, a scriptedVlooped into the metal. My heart doesn’t race, and my breath doesn’t catch. I have let myself into rooms that don’t belong to me many times before. I have broken into buildings, bedrooms, and even bathrooms on a handful of occasions.

I twist the cool knob.

It’s locked.

Gritting my teeth, I weigh my options. It won’t be long before someone starts to look for me. Beating the shit out of Lenox and getting the information I need so Isadora doesn’t have to is only part of the plan. I still have to leave this place alive. Otherwise Isa will come to avenge me, and I will have thoroughly failed. Or maybe she won’t, but I like to believe she’d want to.

If I break in, there could be an alarm, and maybe Lenox won’t even beinthe room. On the other hand, if I go searching for him, I’ll likely be found first.

I curl my hand into a loose fist and take a risk.

I simply knock on the door.

Then I step neatly to the side, back flat to the wall. There was no peephole in the door I could see, but there is always the sliver beneath, or hidden cameras somewhere above my head. If Lenox is eyeing those, I’m fucked, but better to take precautions where I can.

A moment passes.

Another.

Beneath my feet, I feel the beat of music pulsing from the floor below, but otherwise, I hear and feel…nothing.

I’m thinking of walking away, searching for Lenox as long as I can until I’m apprehended and have to bargain my way out of here.

But just at the moment I straighten, my spine no longer flush to the wall, I hear the flick of a lock.

My body tenses and a smile curves my lips.

The door is pulled open, and I hear a lazy drawl say, “I’mofftonight, goddammit—”

Before he can finish his sentence, I pivot, darting inside the doorway and sucker punching Lenox as hard as I can in the temple.

The bald man’s head snaps back, his feet conceding a few steps inside his suite. I take the advantage and don’t stop the assault. I hit Lenox again, this time along the jaw, while my left hand lodges itself against his stomach. Predictably, he doubles over involuntarily, and I launch my right fist into his temple once more.

He sways.

The scent of weed is thick in the air, the lights are low, some sort of red glow illuminating a foyer, a small living room beyond it, and a corridor disappearing into the rest of the unit. There’s a coffee table in the living room scattered with rolling papers and baggies and a rather large lighter.

I see no one else in the room.

I kick the door closed at my back and as Lenox brings his hands up to his face, still swaying precariously in his gray sweats and white T-shirt, muscles of his biceps flexed and lined with tattoos, I grab his shoulders, digging my fingertips into his olive white skin.

I drive him backward up until the moment his calves are inches away from the sturdy coffee table.

I hit him again, my knuckles screaming and hand aching, wounds reopening from two days ago when I hit the bag without wrapping my fingers at Nox.All for Isadora.

Lenox staggers backward.

I think of him fucking Isa. He’s probably in his thirties and while much of his face is starting to swell, he has this look about him like he’s someone I would love to murder.

He can’t keep his balance anymore.

He careens into the coffee table, his ass landing on it with a thud.

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