“I’m fine.” She jerked her head out of his hands, challenging me. “I can take anything you got!”

“I’m sure! In both ends, I hear!”

She came for me again, but Kai pushed her back, turning to me. “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

“I don’t like her, and I don’t work for her, so I’ll do whatever I fucking want!” I gritted out.

“You’ll do what I want,” he whisper-yelled, getting in my face. “End of story.”

Looking around me, he spoke to the audience gathered. “Carry on, everyone. It’s over.” And to Rika, “Leave us alone, please.”

She didn’t move for a moment, still glaring at me and red from the exertion, and her ponytail hung on by a thread. But she finally walked past us, leaving the room.

I heard the voices slowly fade as everyone went about their business and left.

“What do you have against Rika?” Kai questioned. “You haven’t spoken to her once or barely spared her a glance. What is it?”

Taking my cuff, I wiped the blood off my mouth, not answering him.

“Are you jealous?”

I cast him a ‘fuck you’ look and went back to staring at the mirror behind him.

I could feel his eyes on me, eating away the small distance between us and wrapping around my body like a cage.

“What did you mean about ‘in both ends’?”

“You know what I meant.”

Their little threesome in the steam room. Kai took the front. Michael got the back. How many times had it happened after that?

“You heard about Rika and me?” His voice was low. “About the steam room?”

Who hadn’t heard? They were seen, it was all over the club, and it was no secret how he felt about her. It was there every time he looked at her.

“I—”

“No.” I cut him off. “I’ve had my fill of your stories, and I couldn’t care less—”

“Shh, shh, shh…” He pressed his finger to my lips, shaking his head at me. “Let’s not do this here, okay? We need to talk about it but somewhere we can really talk.”

And his gaze turned dark, telling me there was another meaning to his words.

Really talk? Where?

Dropping his hand, he walked around me, leaving the room.

“What do you mean?” I barked after him.

“You’ll find out,” he threw over his shoulder and then disappeared.

Banks

Present

An hour later, and I’m still on edge. I was tired before the fight at the dojo, but now I was wired, awake, and pissed at myself. My cards were on the table now.

She knew I hated her, so there was no getting close to her if I needed to, and Kai was probably relishing my disgusting display of jealousy. What had Damon told me, time and again? It’s always best to say as little as possible. The more of a mystery you are, the less leverage they have.

And I went and fucked it all up.

I walked down the quiet street, entering Halston Park, the shopping district of Meridian City. It was just after nine, and I looked up at the sky, finally able to see a few stars. The lights everywhere else in this town were too bright to see many anymore.

What did Alex want? She’d texted, saying that Kai wanted me to meet her at McGivern and Bourne. I’d never been there, but I knew it was an upscale department store.

Rounding a corner, I swept some hair out of my eye and tucked it back under my hat as I approached the building’s glass doors.

I raised my hand to knock but stopped, seeing that it was dark inside. There were a few emergency lights shining way in the back, lighting hallways, but this store was closed. Why did she tell me to come here?

Screw it. I dropped my hand and turned to leave.

“Oh, don’t you dare!” a woman’s voice shouted.

I spun around, seeing Alex coming out of the doors. She wore a billowing, sexy white blouse that hung off her shoulder with black leggings and brown leather boots up to her knees. It occurred to me I’d almost only ever seen her in workout clothes. Aside from Michael’s party.

She skipped over and grabbed my hand, pulling me along.

I dug my heels in. “What is this? Isn’t this place closed?”

“Not for us,” she sing-songed. “Come on.”

She swung the door back open, forcing me inside.

“What’s going on?” I whined.

“Kai’s orders,” Alex answered. “Shut up and follow me.”

A security guard in a dark gray uniform came over, locking the door behind us. “Have fun, ladies.”

“Thanks, Pip,” Alex chirped.

“Phillipe,” he corrected.

“Whatevs.”

I narrowed my eyes on her. “You know him?”

“Nah, we just met. He fell fast, though.”

I rolled my eyes. What was going on? Clearly, the store was closed. Except for us. Why?

My combat boots squeaked across the marble floors, and I glanced up again, momentarily forgetting to resist her as the air in my lungs expelled.

Whoa. At least five floors were stacked on top of us. We stood at the bottom of the atrium, and I turned my head around and back and forth, seeing how the flights above us circled the perimeter of the open space, all the way to the skylight at the top of the building. Every floor could look over the edge and see us down here.

A massive chandelier hung high, and everything sparkled white and gold as the scent of leather and perfumes wafted over me.

We passed display cases of jewelry, perfume counters, and purses, while pictures hung everywhere, displaying beautiful people on yachts and in luxury snow cabins brandishing their ten-thousand dollar watches or suede boots that you could easily pick up here and then you, too, would be magically transported to a yacht in the Mediterranean or a cabin in Aspen or a polo club in Scotland.

I used to dream that my mom and I would go shopping some place like this when I was little.

Someday, when we were rich and all the problems were gone, we’d have pretty things, I’d be popular, and my real life would have started.

It still seemed like part of me was dreaming of that. Always waiting. Biding my time.

“Have you ever been in here before?” Alex asked, leading me into an elevator.

“No.”

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” She pressed the button for the fourth floor and the elevator doors closed, immediately beginning to ascend. “Did you ever see that old movie from the 80s? Mannequin?”

I crossed my arms over my chest, shaking my head.

“Well, this window dresser works nights in a department store like this, and it always looked like so much fun to be him, you know? Having the whole place to yourself to try on clothes, explore, and play with everything.”

The elevator stopped, the doors opened, and she walked out, not waiting for me to follow her.

“Look, it’s after nine.” I trailed behind as she strolled through a maze of racks. “I still have a couple things to take care of tonight. What am I doing here?”

She delicately picked up a piece of silk something—lingerie?—and matching underwear. “Trying on clothes, exploring, and playing with everything,” she replied frankly, inspecting the garments.

She held the top up to me, and I reared back, seeing spaghetti straps, lace, buttons, and a shitload of missing fabric that should’ve been covering the stomach. Jesus. That wasn’t clothes. It was the scraps left over from the clothes.

She pursed her lips, appraising me. “Hmmm…dark brown hair. Olive skin. The slate gray, yes. That’ll do really nicely.”

“Do nicely for what?” I tensed. “I’m not wearing that.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She dropped her arms, sighing. “Would you please have a drink? Lots of drinks?”

I turned around to leave. This was the last thing I needed today.

But a body suddenly blocked my path, and I sucked in a breath, backing up again.

Will Grayson stared down at me, smiling.

“What are you doing here?” I burst out. He wasn’t staggering, and his eyes weren’t hooded as usual. “Sober for once?”

He laughed and walked around me, starting to sift through the panties on the table. He picked up a black G-string and threw it at Alex before turning back and looking for more he liked.