Page 55 of Tempting Little Thief

Did they find a way to make it more to help cover the truth? Yes.

But the added zeros of net worth growth and the potential for more … stable relationships with other outside organizations became possible because of me.

Any man with half a brain and a gun can find himself a million or two if he plays his cards right, but what happens once he does? What’s he going to do with all that cash and no paper trail for where it came from? With all those marked bills?

He’s going to come to The Enterprise andplay cards, that’s what.

The professor dims the lights and goes into a PowerPoint about the many risks that come along with investments, so I allow my shoulders to slump the slightest bit.

I look at the clock.

Fifteen more minutes.

My phone vibrates on the table, so I flip it over, my pulse jumping slightly when I see the name on the screen.

Bastian: outside.

My brows snap together, and I glance around, catching the eye of my desk partner.

I force a smile and then face forward again.

Outside. As in, outside of Greyson Elite? There isno wayhe got inside the gates. None.

The guards are ex-military and act like they’re still at war.

Me: show me.

The three little dots appear at the bottom, and then an image comes through.

My lips quirk instantly.

So my little intruder couldn’t get in. He’s standing outside his car, parked in front of the emergency walking gate. It’s seventeen feet of stone-cold steel, a latch locked in place every two feet. He couldn’t open it with a shotgun. But how long has he been there? The guards round the grounds like clockwork; they work like a merry-go-round, every inch touched by sight every nine minutes.

Bastian: come to me, Rich Girl.

My insides donotturn to liquid mush.

I look at the clock.

Twelve minutes until class ends. Four minutes until the guards approach him, question him, and unbeknownst to him, scan his body with supersecret software that will then run him through a recognition program, where everything from a second-grade root canal will come up.

Before I know what I’m doing, I’m standing in the middle of class, my bag in hand.

All heads turn to me, eyes narrowing, widening, questioning.

Dom meets my gaze and tenses, preparing to rise, but I shake my head subtly and head for the door.

“Miss Revenaw?” the professor calls.

“Emergency.” My single-worded lie is all he gets and then I’m in the hall, rushing down it.

I burst through the garden doors and weave along the path, slowing as I reach the gate.

Bastian leans against his passenger door, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded over his chest. He spots me, cocking his head, and waits until I reach the gate to push off.

Hecomes to me.

His long, tattooed fingers wrap around the steel bars and he stares at me. “Rich Girl.”

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