“Try to keep an even pace, but don’t look like you’re in a hurry,” I instruct her as we walk down the hallway toward the elevator to the garage.

“Why aren’t we running?” she asks in an equally low tone.

“Because those guys who were watching us might think I’m already delivering you to Jerry, if we’re lucky,” I say. “But that’s only going to last as long as someone watching us through the cameras doesn’t catch on.”

“How long do you think that’ll be?”

“Not long enough,” I growl as we step into the elevator. Once we’re inside, I hit the button to take us down to the garage, and just before the doors close behind us, I see the two other enforcers heading toward us. One of them raises his hand for me to hold the door.

When I don’t, I know there’s a very good chance our cover has just been blown.

“Right, so we might have guys headed down the stairs to cut us off,” I say, taking a deep breath and rolling my shoulders back before glancing up at the camera in the elevator. “Thankfully, the elevators are quick, and I’m not parked far from the doors. As soon as they’re open, we’re going to start walking, and walking fast. We’re headed for the black Aston Martin. Beeline.”

“You were just looking for an excuse to tell me you drive an Aston Martin, weren’t you?” she remarks casually. I crack a smile.

“Maybe a little.”

The doors open the next second, and I slip out after taking her hand before they can even finish opening. I don’t hear the sounds of shouts and gunfire, so I take advantage of that—pedal faster when you’re rolling downhill, so to speak. My car is in sight, and I click it unlocked as I hurry around to the driver’s side.

Seconds later, we’re seated, buckled, and I’m pulling out of the garage in the smoothest car in the garage.

“No cars full of goons chasing after us with machine guns hanging out the passenger windows,” she remarks as we pull out onto the Vegas streets. “Think they’re really onto you?”

“They could be,” I admit. “And that could mean they’re just not telling me yet. No way to know. This is how things go in our line of business. I might not find out until months from now that Jerry knew anything, and I’ll get gunned down when I finally let my guard down when I’m least expecting it.”

“Sounds like a real fun time,” she says.

“A hoot.”

But sure enough, about fifteen minutes in traffic pass as I try to weave around and lose any possible pursuers, and I don’t see a trace of anyone tailing us. I recognize most of the security staff and their cars, anyway, so I know what to look for.

Hadley is quiet at first, just staring out the window or glancing in the mirrors, watching for the same things I’m watching for.

“So, we’re out of the dragon’s den,” she says at last. “For better or worse. Where exactly are you taking me? I don’t think I’ve decided if you’re my savior or my kidnapper yet.” She’s smirking, but I know it’s only half a joke, given what she suspects about what I did to her boss. I still don’t know why it bothers her so much, but I’m not just going to walk all over her wishes. That would make me her kidnapper.

And that’s not me.

“I’ve got an apartment off the Strip that the mob doesn’t know about,” I say, almost reluctant. Nobody knows about the apartment I’m taking her to. I don’t even know why I’m taking her here, it would be just as easy to pay cash for a hotel room somewhere. But I need somewhere I’m absolutely positive is secure, and hotel security is easy enough to bribe for information.

I know that from experience.

But it’s important that Hadley trusts me if we’re going to keep moving together, whatever it is we’re moving toward. I hope I don’t come to regret that trust, but I’ll never know if I don’t try.

“Side-hideout, huh?” she says, arching an eyebrow at me and tilting her head to the side. She pauses for a moment as if thinking about what she’s about to insinuate before saying, “Sounds like things aren’t as secure in the mob as you let on.”

I give her a narrow glance, but my face doesn’t shift. Nothing gets past Hadley. She’s got an eye for this kind of thing that even most of my fellow enforcers don’t have.

“You’ve seen firsthand what things are like on the underbelly of Vegas,” I say. “It shouldn’t be a surprise, but yes, you’re right. I’m ex-military, I know how quickly those of us not yet made can wind up thrown under the bus, if we aren’t careful. I hedge my bets. It’s the only way to survive in a game like this.”

“Good to know I’ve been swept off my feet by someone who plays it safe,” she says with a teasing smile, perching her chin on her hand as she looks at me thoughtfully. “So, what’s your plan now, besides dancing closer to the fire?”

“Now would be a good time to level with each other about everything we know so far,” I say bluntly. “Because there are two assholes who’ve been playing us for chumps, and they’re going to keep doing that until we can outsmart them.”

“Alright then, since you’re leading, why don’t you tell me first?” she says. She’s trying to weasel me into giving her the advantage, but she’ll be disappointed if she thinks I have anything that’ll give her the reason to run off that she wants so badly.

“How about this: question for question,” I say, smirking over at her, and she seems to like that idea.

“Fine. Shoot.”

“Did you find Vanessa?”

That question seems to legitimately surprise her, and it makes her uneasy at the same time. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, struggling to find a safe reply.

“Yes,” she says at last, carefully. I wait for more, but she doesn’t give any.

“So, it’s gonna be like that, is it?” I say.

“My turn,” she says. “Why do you want to know if I found Vanessa?”

“You’re not very sportsmanlike at this game,” I chuckle, but I need to give her a little slack if I want more in return. “I asked because she’s in as much danger as you, and I want to make sure she’s safe. My turn. Is she safe?”

“Yes,” she says, seeming to relax just a touch. She thinks for another moment. “I made sure of that personally. She’s not as frail as she made herself look. Okay, so, why are you helping me?”

“I like you more than my boss,” I say. She seems a little taken aback by the simplicity of the statement, and I raise an eyebrow at her. “What? Money isn’t everything, you of all people should understand that.” Her face is still suspicious, but she seems amused by all this.

“So what, you just like the thrill of it?” she asks, and I hold up a finger with a smug smirk.

“Ah-ah-ah, question for question, remember? Do you know why I pulled you out of the casino?”

“Because your boss wants me,” she says. “As well as Vanessa, which is why Vanessa had to go into hiding, and presumably why you’re taking me into hiding. If you’d wanted to kill me or turn me over to your boss, you’d have done that already.”

“You learn fast,” I say, pleased.

“Learn fast or die young,” she says without missing a beat. “Did you kill Carl Owens?”

My eyes flit to her again, briefly.

“You asked me not to.”

“That doesn’t count as an answer!” she says, furrowing her brow.

“We’re here.”

I cut us off by pulling into my space at the modest apartment building I keep as my safehouse. The garage is secure, and I keep a tarp over my car when I come and go, so the chances someone will come checking around for my ride are as low as I can get them. She looks uneasy, understandably. She still isn’t sure if she can trust me. I get out of the car with her, pull the tarp over it, and make my way to the stairs to start climbing.

“I could run, you know,” she says, more interested to see how I respond to that than actually threatening to try it.

“And then you’d have the same problem I’d have,” I say mildly as I get to the door of my place, turning the key and glancing at her. “You’d have Jerry Laskin siccing his dogs on you for the rest of a very short, exciting life.”

We step inside to what I like to think is a modest place. It doesn’t have much personality to it, not enough for my liking at least, but it isn’t a minimalist eyesore either. It has the basic amenities of any other southwestern home, and most importantly, a comfortable bed and large bathroom. Those are two things I’ve come to treasure over the years.

“Make yourself comfortable,” I say, gesturing to everything in the house as she walks in and looks around curiously. I slip my suit jacket and toss it to the couch. “I keep canned food stocked, so it’s not five-star dining, but-”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she interrupts me, approaching me at the entrance of the hallway that leads back to the bedroom. She has a look in her eyes that tells me she won’t be distracted or put off any longer. She’s resolute.

“Didn’t I?” I say as I finish rolling my sleeves up to the forearm.

“Don’t play dumb,” she says, teasing tone gone from her voice. “I haven’t played dumb with you, so don’t you start with me. Did you kill him?”

I narrow my eyes, trying to read her, but she has a gaze like pure steel. Neither of our strong wills are able to budge, and I know there’s not going to be any slipping around her attention.

“Why do you care for his life?” I ask softly, taking a step toward her.

“I don’t,” she says, holding her ground. “But I didn’t get into this business for blood.”

“You sound like me when I first started out.”

She reaches up and grabs my tie, jaw set, glaring me in the eye.

“I’ll ask you one last time, and if you don’t give me a straight answer, I can’t stay here in good conscience. Did you kill him?”

We glare long and hard at each other for what feels like an eternity.

“No,” I finally say.

The tension between us lingers, and I can feel her grip on my tie not slacking as her eyes search me for lies. I can’t get over how impossibly beautiful she is, especially when she’s showing the real passion in that brilliant mind of hers.

Then, to my surprise, she pulls me towards her by my tie and kisses me on the lips.

Immediately, my body responds. I reach around her ass and pull her close to me, pinning her against the wall so she can feel the hardness she’s been stirring up between my legs. She groans into the kiss, and I feel her tongue pushing into my mouth.

I let it in, and our tongues touch each other as I reach up with one hand and grope her breast. I want to drag her back to the bedroom, but I don’t know if I can wait that long.

The energy between me and Hadley is intense and chaotic. She’s a cunning mind, the likes of which I’ve never seen. Her body is on fire, and the moment we’re together, we can’t stop moving and grinding. We’re so drawn to each other that even if I wanted to screw her over, even if all I cared about was money and all I wanted was to climb higher and higher in the ranks of the Vegas mafia...I don’t think I’d be able to resist Hadley. She’s far beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.

She reaches up and starts tugging my tie off, and I help her slip it over my head. But I leave it tied, and I grab her wrists, slipping them into it, then tugging the tie snug around her wrists. She looks up at me, bound, and the look in her eyes makes me unsure if she wants to fuck me or try to grab my knife from me.

I open the front of her pants and slip my fingers into her underwear while my other hand holds her bound wrists up above her head. My face looms over her, never breaking eye contact as she glares at me, full of anger and lust.

It feels like we both have words on the tips of our tongues, but we can’t decide if it’s a show of weakness to be the first one to speak. When neither of us can do so, we meet in a hot, fierce kiss again as my fingers find her wet folds. She’s hot and slick, and I can’t help but chuckle when I feel that.

“You,” she says when we break the kiss, “have no room to make fun of me. I can feel how hard you are. You want this just as much as I do.” She pushes her hips against mine to let my thick cock brush against her thigh, and it pulses, betraying me.

“Got me there,” I growl, taking my fingers out and slipping them into my mouth to lick clean before I pull her pants down. “I’ll have to show you just how hard I am.”

She kicks her pants off the rest of the way, along with her shoes, while I work my pants open and let my cock spring free. She gasps as soon as I press its underside to her groin and start grinding against her.

My whole body awakens at her touch. Her lips are so wet and desperate for me to fill them, and right now, I don’t want to hold anything back. We have too much tension, too much raw energy to work out on each other, and hardly any time to do it.

She jumps up and wraps her legs around my waist while I pin her against the wall, and I catch her ass, holding her up with ease as our foreheads touch. I’m still holding her hands tied above her head, and the blush in her face tells me she’s enjoying what’s happening to her.

I push her body up a little further and let the tip of my cock make contact with her pussy, and I listen to the almost musical sound of her gasp. I bring my face to hers, and as we kiss, I let her sink slowly onto me.

With every inch she slides down my shaft, I feel her whole body tense and her back arch as she sinks down onto me all the way to the hilt.

I start rocking back and forth, and within seconds, that turns into aggressive, energized rutting. I pin her tight against the wall, using one hand to remind her how much control I have over her arms while the other hand holds her up. Each time I buck into her, I feel my crown grind against every smooth inch of her inner depths, and my cock throbs inside her in desire. And each time, my arms work together in perfect sync to turn her body in such a way that she gets the most out of every thrust.

Her cheeks are flushed, and her breathing is quick and desperate. As my rhythm gets fiercer, I can see the tension and desire welling up in her face. She cracks her eyes open to look at me, and when she does, I can’t help but let go of her wrists and bring my hand down to grab her hair. I tug her back gently to expose her neck while I fuck her.

She lets out an excited gasp as my teeth graze her, and I feel her getting tighter around me. She desperately wants to bring her arms down and wrap them around me, but I remind her how much control I have over her by pulling her hair the other way and ravishing the other side of her neck.

My hand grips her ass tighter, and I feel the telltale signs that she’s close to the brink. I start letting myself go thrust by thrust, letting my pulsing cock free its inhibitions and start to release more and more tension and precum with each new piston.

Everything about her fills me with pure, raw desire. Her mind works faster than some of the finest criminals I’ve ever known to walk through my doors, and she’s absolutely more dangerous than any of them. Her body feels like it was made to meld with mine, and the fact that she gets such satisfaction out of me is even better.

I get faster and faster, losing my precision, and something about that raw, bestial vigor I fuck her with sends her spilling over. She lets her jaw fall open as an almost worried moan escapes her lips, which I silence with a kiss as we start coming together.

My seed empties into her as we let out desperate groans together, never breaking pace, never stopping our motions, never letting up for a moment. My knees almost go weak as the force of the orgasm wracks my body, and she tries to squirm this way and that, but I keep her pinned, taking every last drop of me.

When it’s finally over, I feel utterly spent inside her, and she looks at me with that flustered, glowing face that haunts my every spare thought anymore.

“Does that answer all your questions?” I growl.