Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
But I’m using him too.
This isn’t me. I keep telling myself that. I got good grades in school. I worked hard and got a scholarship for college. I didn’t go—because even with the financial help, I couldn’t afford it—but I was always the kind of girl who excelled.
Serena was the rebel. Beautiful and magnetic and smart, but a troublemaker. While I was getting straight As in my AP courses, she was getting detention after school for making out with her boyfriend in the halls. We were polar opposites growing up. Where I’d hide and run away from our dickhead uncle, she’d scream at him and stand up for both of us, sometimes to the point of throwing stuff to make him go away. I’m the older sister, but I looked up to her in so many ways.
We loved each other. I think we still do, or at least I still love her, and I’m not sure if she’s capable of loving anyone or anything except for opiates right now.
This isn’t supposed to be me. I should be in school getting a degree, not sweating in a cage while wearing glorified underwear. I could’ve moved from Chicago, started my life over. Except if I had done that, Serena would be gone forever, because there’s nobody else to pull her back to the real world.
Angelo gets up and comes over. I try to calm my hammering heart but it’s impossible. I can’t pretend like I don’t want him.
“You’re here,” I say, but he doesn’t respond.
All he does is reach out, slip a hand through the bars of the cage, and tuck something into my bra.
“What the hell?” I ask, pulling away.
He puts a finger to his lips and smiles. Then he turns and walks away, bypassing the bar, and disappears down the side hall.
I stare after him, not sure what to make of that, before pulling the paper out.
It’s a hundred-dollar bill.
The hell?
I unfold it—and find a phone number.
Plus some writing: Remember, he’s listening.
I bite my lip and shove it back into my bra. I guess this is how we’re going to communicate while in the club from here on out, and I’m not sure how to feel about that. The spy shit is exciting, and he manages to make it absurdly sexual on top of all the danger, but a part of me wishes I could just have a conversation with the guy.
I still don’t feel like I know him.
Even if I did come in his lap.
“Hey, you.” Serena’s voice grabs my attention. She leans against the other side of the cage, her eyes looking marginally clear. “Tommy wants to talk.”
My hand falls to my chest where the bill’s hiding. “What about?”
“No clue. He doesn’t tell me.” Serena tries to smother a smile. “Was that Angelo Bianco?”
“Uh—” I clear my throat and look back to where he was sitting. “Yeah, it was.”
“He likes you.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Trust me. I know men. That man likes you a lot.” Serena sighs wistfully and gives me a beaming smile. “Are you gonna do anything about it, or are you gonna overthink like you always do?”
“I do not overthink.”
“Please, Claudie, whenever a man shows a tiny bit of interest, you immediately have a thousand reasons why it’s not a good idea to get involved. Tell me that’s not true.”
I glare at her, not sure why I’m getting so defensive. This is the most interest she’s shown in me for weeks. “Just because I don’t throw myself at men like you do—”
And that was the wrong thing to say.
Her face shuts down. She moves away from the cage.
“Wait,” I say, trying to salvage this, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No, I know what you mean. We’ve had this fight a million times, right?” She turns away from me. “For the record, Tommy pursued me, and I said no at first. But yeah, I get it, you hate him. It’s not fun being judged all the time.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” I say, hating myself for letting my dumb snarky mouth. “I’m just embarrassed, okay? About the Angelo thing.”
Her expression softens slightly. “You don’t have to be. It feels good when someone wants you, right? Anyway, Tommy’s in his office. You should head over.”
I want her to stay. I have so much I want to say to her. This is the most sober she’s been in a while, and it’s so good having my sister back, even for a few seconds.
But she walks away, her flowy dress blowing around her slim body, and she disappears into the crowd.
Chapter 13
Claudia
I’m nervous when I knock at the door and practically shaking when I step inside. The last time I was in here, I took a bunch of files—which I realize haven’t been replaced yet, and what if he knows? What if he realized they’re gone and suspects me? What if there’s a camera in here, or maybe he saw me on the cameras in the hallway, or maybe—